Words I forgot to mention...

Here are a few words that James knows how to sign that I forgot to mention... Airplane, bus, and wash hands. That makes the total word count 27 for signing. He also says "Ga" for "Go" and "Caw caw" for bird, so maybe that would bring it up to 29?

Anyway, he is getting a lot more vocal and I think one of these days he'll talk. When he's ready. :-)

James is 20 months old!!

Yeah, ok, I'm a few days late on this one. We've been busy around here!

Our little guy is getting so big... he understands so much of what we say and he's picking up new words every day (but by sign language, not by saying them yet). Here is a list of all the words he signs:

Car, banana, kitty, doggie, bird, frog, horse, fish, potty, ball, more, thank you, please, eat, milk, cookie, bath, cracker, cheese, juice, book, time (for Signing Time), shoes, water (sort of, we're working on that one), boat, and I'm sure a few others I can't remember.

He also says "whoo whoo" for owl, "woof woof" for doggie, a pig noise for piggy, "caw caw" for bird, and a quasi-quack sound for duck. I am working on teaching him some more signs... the more signs he knows the happier he seems to be because he can finally "talk" to me. Sometimes we sit at the table and he just signs everything he knows because he can! It's cute. :-)

I've been taking James out to play a the mall a lot, they have these great play areas that are all padded and enclosed and he can run around squealing while I sit and watch. It's still been a bit cold to play outside, but as the weather warms up I hope to get him out in the yard more. Maybe we should get some more outside toys...

Anyway, despite having a new camera I haven't taken many pics lately. I think I need to just stick my smaller old camera in the diaper bag so I have it when we go out... I've felt like I'm "cheating" on my new camera when I do that, but really I can't carry the bigger one around all the time while chasing James. It's more an indoor/special occasion camera than a short trip out camera.

So here are a few pics I did manage to take:
James playing with bubbles in the bath

A valentine from Great-Grandma and Great-Pappy

I turned on signing time and went to the kitchen for a minute, and when I came back James had climbed up into the chair all by himself!

Playing with the drum


And here's a video of James signing "car" in his own way...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We celebrated by going out to a late brunch at Elmers as per tradition and eating a hearty meal. James had something called Mt. Waffle, which was waffle sticks with whip cream and strawberries, and I had potato pancakes and Eliot had some sort of mega breakfast dish. James did very well eating out... well, as good as a toddler can do. He actually played with the crayons a bit, then I ran around with him in the lobby while we waited for our food, and he was hungry so he pretty much ate the whole time we did! It was great!

Eliot got me some flowers, chocolate covered strawberries, bread and cheese. I made him a little froggy card, got him a CD he wanted (the new Kevin Crawford), and baked him a 2-layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, raspberry filling, and fondant.

We topped off the evening by watching Breakfast at Tiffanys (we are going through some classics right now). All in all, not a bad valentine's day! Here are some pics of the highlights:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New pics are up!

I apologize that I haven't posted pics in awhile. I got a new camera for my birthday and have been trying to figure it out. So some of my pics are great, some of them not so hot because things aren't on the right setting. Oh well...

There are lots and lots more pics in the James's 20th Month folder to the right. This is just a small sampling of some of my favorites. The one with him in the swing is him hearing an airplane and thus making the sign for "Airplane."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's new...

James is making more efforts to communicate these days. Tonight at dinner, he was doing the sign for "banana" out of the blue simply because he wanted a banana! Usually he has some prompting with signs, but lately he's been doing them independently more and more. We spent the afternoon in the backyard the other day and he did the sign for Airplane when he heard an airplane overheard, and then right after did the sign for dog since he heard a dog barking. So, I guess he is talking in his own way.

Today Eliot was reading a book to him and when Eliot made the sound "Baa" for a sheep, James said "Ba"! He also makes sounds for a monkey and will kind of make a "wheee!" sound for anything that goes down a slide.

James also knows most of his major body parts, numbers 1-10 (mostly), and some colors and shapes. When reading the book "Bear wants more," he always finishes my sentences by signing the word "more." I also ask him to find the Hare in the book, saying, "Where's the hare?" and he always pulls on his HAIR! :-D He's a fun little guy.

James is pretty cranky these days, however... his canines are coming in and he just goes into hysterics when he can't have his way since he is in pain. We do what we can, but there is only so much we can do. Coming in from playing outside is the WORST, he just loves it out there so much. But it's cold out still and he can't be out there for long hours at a time... this he hasn't figured out yet. He loves to shuffle his feet on the deck and hear the hollow sound his shoes make. He also likes stepping up and down the stairs, always putting out a hand for me to help him. :-)

Other than that, he's growing like a weed though his tastes in food have gotten pickier. He knows what he likes and he's upset when he doesn't see something familiar or a favorite in front of him. Oh well...

We love him so much and he's added so much joy to our lives we can survive the tough days and get through it with moments cuddling on the couch, reading favorite books, splashing in the tub, and chasing each other around the house. <3