James' First Soccer Game

Taking James to this game was a real labor of love. Anthony had lovingly shared his stomach bug germs with me the night before, starting at around 2am when I woke up with fever and chills. I was miserable the entire day with body aches, stomach cramps, a headache, and fatigue. Anthony was feeling a little bit better than me Friday morning, so he tried to help me out with James and Rett, but it was the wounded helping the wounded. On top of that, he planned on going in to work still so he had to save his energy. Not cool. Anthony went off to work and then I was left alone for the rest of the night. As miserable as I was, I just couldn't stand the idea of skipping James' first soccer game! I barely ate anything all day, hoping to keep some of the worst stomach symptoms at bay and powered through it. I'm so glad I did, this kid had a blast!

Getting suited up in his uniform:

He was upset at first at being number 7. He kept saying, "But I three!"

 Doing warm ups:

 He wanted me to take a picture of his green shirt:

Rett spent a few minutes in the stroller. He was really fussy and tired, so I was hoping he would just fall asleep. Nope. I ended up having to hold him and jiggle him the entire time.

Here is his team scoring their first goal:

Some more play time. James is the one that stays near the back by his coach almost the whole time, with white stripes on his shorts :)

They split up the game into 4, 6 minute quarters and alternated who got to play each quarter. James ended up getting to play almost the entire time! When it wasn't his turn, he didn't want to sit down. He wanted to stand up and watch, so if someone on his team lost interest or left the field, his coach would see James and call him in.

This is his "Score!" pose:

Getting some juice and fruit snacks after the game:

Go Giants!

Conversations with James

*While we were driving down the Interstate, James started to reach over with his toy pirate hook and lift the door latch up to open the door. Thank goodness we have the child safety locks on that make it so you can't open the door from the inside! The resulting conversation went like this:

Anthony: "Buddy, don't pull at the door like that, you could open the door and then you would fall out and get hurt and might die!"
James: "But I won't get hurt, 'acause I have my seat belt on, so I won't fall out!!"
Anthony: "Uhh......well, just don't do it."

*We were driving to Wal-mart and as I was waiting at the light to turn onto the right street, I kept hearing this from the backseat:

James: "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! You suppose to use the bliiinkers! Turn the bliiinkers on!"
Me: "James, I do have the blinkers on."
James: "Noooo, the one with the red arrow!" (he meant the red triangle that is on the button for the hazard lights. Why he knows arrow and not triangle is beyond me. I blame PBS)
Me: "Ohh, well that button is for the flashing lights for when we need help. The blinkers are different"
James: "Hmm. When we need help?"
Me: "Yes"
James: "The policeman come help us?"
Me: "Yeah, he would help us"
James: "cause he a good guy?"
Me: "Yes"
Repeat entire conversation from beginning, only this time James told me everything I just told him and waits for me to confirm everything.

We have had a lot of conversations about blinkers. This kid loves blinkers! He is also a very opinionated backseat driver. He is absolutely sure that he knows the right way to drive and that you are doing it wrong. One day I turned to go somewhere and I heard from the backseat,  "Yay!!!!! You use the blinker, good job Mommy!".

*James had an ear infection a few weeks ago and has been off of antibiotics for awhile, but he woke up with more congestion than usual. (The pollen has been crazy here, we think it is allergy related)Right before bed Anthony decided to look in James' ears (which James loves to have done) to see if they looked inflamed again. Since they looked pretty red, Anthony started feeling his neck and found quite a few swollen lymph nodes.

Anthony: "Awww man. He's got a few swollen lymph nodes"
James: "Lemme feel" (Anthony shows him) "Ohhhhh"
James: (jumps up and runs to the kitchen where we keep his chewable vitamins) "I need my bitamin to make the emff node go away!"

*Whenever James does something cute or funny, we say:
One of us: "James, you're so funny!!"
James: "No I not!!"
One of us: "What are you then?"
James: "I James!"

*I went out to get the mail one morning and James came up right behind me. He said, "I come wif you Mommy!! Member? You my best friend!"

*One day we drove past Anthony's work and James said, "Daddy at work!". I asked him what daddy does at work and he said "Daddy wash his hands at work". Could've been worse. 

*One afternoon I left Rett with Anthony and took James to run some errands. I heard this from the backseat:

James: "mommy, I neeeed my screwdriver!!"
Me: "what do you need your screwdriver for?"
James: "for my screws!!"

Apparently I ask stupid questions.

Bathtime and Birthdays

Here are some pictures of my boys in the bathtub. Rett has always loved getting a bath, and James loves to have a little buddy in there with him. Rett will try to grab toys as they float by him and sometimes James will help him get them. So sweet!

After our first night of spring soccer where we met James' coach, James got to eat a late dinner and watch TV while I got Rett ready for bed. He doesn't usually get the bathtub all to himself, so it was fun to watch him splash and kick by himself. Ahhh, the little luxuries of a second child: a bathtub and a mommy all to yourself :)

For my birthday this year, we had a plan of a few fun things that we wanted to do and none of them panned out! It was actually kind of disappointing :( I had been looking forward to visiting a local alpaca farm. The website says that they have chickens with eggs you can buy, farm tours, and a gift shop with things made from alpaca products. We drove up to the farm and even though it was open, no one was there! The farm looks like a bunch of land to the side of a big house, so I felt like we were trespassing the entire time. So weird. We did get out and take a few pictures:

After the farm was a bust, we decided to go drive around some neighborhoods we have been looking at since we have been considering building a house in a few years. We drove to two different neighborhoods and both model homes at each one were closed for some reason! So frustrating. After that we went home and Anthony went to work until late at night. My mom and James baked me some cookies, so I at least got to blow out some candles with them :) 

Everett at 6 months

One half of an entire year, can you believe that?

Look at those big feet!

 I tried to get a smile, but he wasn't in the mood :)

I tried for photo shoot #2, hoping for a smile. Nope.

This month he officially moved out of his bassinet to the crib and has been sleeping in his crib for a few weeks now. His sleep was going great, until the past week when he started waking up almost every hour throughout the night! We would put his pacifier back in and he would go right back to sleep, but it was still exhausting to get out of bed and go do that all night. He also started eating once in the middle of the night again, so we figure it was a growth spurt/sleep regression. The past couple of nights have been much better and even his daytime naps have been significantly longer so hopefully we are past it (at least until the next thing!). He has gotten much better about putting himself to sleep when we first lay him down for a nap or for nighttime. He doesn't usually cry anymore, and just falls asleep. However, when he wakes up anytime after that he has a hard time going back to sleep on his own. Hopefully that will start to get better soon. Baby steps, right?

Last week we started introducing solid foods and he loves it! So far he has had oatmeal, peas, and carrots. I've been feeding him about twice a day and most of the time he eats way more than I expect him to! I will have a little bowl ready, thinking that he will eat about half of it and then when it is all gone, he starts banging his hands on the high chair as if to demand more! He is my cute little piggy :)



James at 3 years

3 year old check up stats:
Weight: 30 lbs (35th percentile)
Height: 39 inches (85th percentile!!!) *last year he was in 13th percentile*

So in a little over a year this kid gained 5 pounds and grew 6.5 inches!! We noticed that his clothes were getting small on him all of a sudden, so we officially moved him up to size 3T clothes. I think that this is the first time that he has been in a size of clothing that actually matches his age. He has always been in a size or two behind.

As for his personality, he is a ball of energy and sass these days, with a little dash of sweetness mixed in :) He is fiercely opinionated and independent. He wants to be around us to play with him, but he wants to do everything for himself (except for the things he decides are our job to do for him). He always wants to know exactly how everything works and a lot of the time if he is having a tantrum over something being broken or not working, if we can show him exactly the mechanics of why it isn't working, he calms down right away and feels better. A simple, "it just is" does not suffice. This child wants to know "why????"

Going for a walk in the new double stroller:

 He absolutely loves his big boy bed and with the new found freedom of being able to get out of his bed has come some very interesting and hair-pulling naptimes and bedtimes. We have come up with a new rule in the house that there is no TV unless he has lain in his bed and taken a nap first. Then it is up to him to choose whether he would rather play in his room during naptime and have no TV when he wakes up or take a nap and watch TV when he wakes up. I was tired of constantly fighting with him about going to sleep and so far this rule has been good for both of us. No more power struggles at naptime! (Well, at least less :)

He has just started to realize that we actually stay awake after he goes to bed and do fun things without him, so he has taken to bringing his pillow and blankets out of his bed and camping out by the door to his room at night so that he can peek under the door and listen. This is what we see on the video monitor in his room almost every night now (it is a little hard to see but you can barely make out his legs on the floor):

 One night I thought, "he must not be comfortable!" and I tried to go in there and put him back in his bed. I couldn't get the door open! I opened it a crack and tried to push him out of the way with the door but he was dead asleep and wouldn't wake up even though I was shoving him with the door. After that I decided to just let him be. He definitely wakes up much earlier in the morning this way because he hears Rett get up around 6:30am, but he just plays in his room until about 8am. Then he starts hitting at his door and demanding to be let out.

James has the coolest older cousins who pass down the best toys to him! When we got together for my birthday last weekend they brought him this horse that you can actually ride! It is so funny to see the looks we get when he rides this down the road:

 

 Monday was our very first soccer practice! He is in a team of about 13 other kids and it gets pretty wild. Getting them all to listen at the same time to instructions can definitely be a challenge, but they seem to have fun and that is the important part. Watching him yesterday, I think we both realized that he will probably never get the ball this season. He is so easily distracted by everything around him, that he loses focus on trying to get the ball and will slow down while the bigger kids jump in. Oh well, he doesn't seem to mind.

James with Anthony and his coach:

 Sitting down, waiting for the next drill. It was a beautiful day!

 The had us split up with our kids and practice dribbling the ball up and down the field. James just wanted to play "Get my tushie game" which is basically his version of tag, but you tickle someone's bum instead of tagging them. Yeah, we should probably tell him that is a game just for at home...

 Bringing the ball back after a big kick:

 Sitting with his team:

 To keep the kids entertained and focused while waiting their turn for things, their coach would play "coach says" (like simon says) and James loved it. It was so funny to me because he usually doesn't follow along to those kinds of things. He normally just watches, but this time he jumped right in!

 At the end of practice, their coach told them to all try to get the ball from him and the entire group chased him around the field. I wish I could have gotten a close up picture of the joy on James' face. He was having such a blast!

Our little boy definitely keeps us on our toes, but we love watching him grow up! :)