James

As I haven't journaled hardly at all recently, I thought I ought to do some catch up. I started by writing down some things about James:

At 2 years and 7 months, James is an energetic boy. He loves tractors, fire engines, ambulances, police cars, and trucks and will usually be the first one to notice them while driving. He especially likes to see them when they have their lights on or when they are working. When playing with cars/vehicles/etc. he loves to make noises that go along with them. He also loves to dig in the dirt and use his dump truck to carry the dirt elsewhere.

James is very active. He loves to jump or “bounce” especially on the bed or couch. He likes to jump from high places and likes people to watch him as he accomplishes this task (as well as many other tasks). He likes to run fast as well as do somersaults and other climbing/tumbling. On the bed he enjoys doing “bums” and “divebombs” as have been named by his dad. He loves to freeze dance and has a “freeze position” that he gets into after the music has stopped. He likes to play the letter game (identifying letters on the boggle game), play memory (which mainly consists of finding matches vs. turning them over and remembering), build forts (which means mom or dad build it and James destroys it after playing in it for a few minutes), and wrestle (especially with dad). He usually likes to be tickled and wants to do it “aden” and “aden” (again).

Some FHE games we have played recently which he wants to do all the time are “Go and get the plates” where we hide the ‘plates’ (a piece of candy) and he has to go and get them. We also play “Let your light so shine”. It is hide and seek with a flashlight and the finders tell the hiders to let their light shine when they need help finding them.

He can identify numbers 1-9 but confuses 10, 11, and 12. He can count to 10 but lately has been skipping from 2 to 7 and drops 3-6. If you make him go slowly, he can do it correctly. He can also identify most of his uppercase letters. He has started singing more and his typical repertoire include ABC’s, Eensy Weensy Spider, I am a Child of God, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Book of Mormon Stories, Snowman (as well as the baby song), and Give Said the Little Stream.

He likes to snuggle and will even give hugs and kisses without being asked. He loves cereal and would eat it all day if you would let him. He loves to work outside along side his dad and wants to do what he is doing as well as use the tool he is using.
We love James’ facial expressions. One of our favorites, besides his outright smile is his “trying not to smile” face. He is a little bit of a weirdo but he doesn’t have much choice in that matter when he’s got us for parents! He likes to be covered with blankets before he goes to bed and loves to chew on the corners of his 2 favorite blankets.

He is showing a little more independence but still lets us do things for him. When he gets in trouble or isn’t happy and we make him go to his room, he soon stops crying and says “I’m happy now”. He loves to please and likes to tell us “I did it mom/dad!”

He has been good and bad moments with sharing these days. Sometimes he is great and will share lots of things with Ember Florie (a girl I watch) and Maren. Then other times, I can’t get him to share a thing. Now that Maren is getting older and getting into things, she will frequently grab toys that James wants to be playing with and James will grab them away from her. We are working on trading as well as finding other toys that Maren would like to play with.

Some fun stories:
The past week he has been waking up about 5am and coming into bed with me (phil has already left for the hospital). I have let him come to bed with me as long as he doesn’t make much noise and lies still (even though this rarely happens). When he comes in and I don’t move, he will come up on the bed, lay is head on top of mine and say “Hi mom”. Sometimes while lying “still” he will break out in a whispered song. One morning when he came in, I asked him “What are you doing up so early?” He answered very excitedly, “Eat cereal!” (we had not had cereal for a few days and I had bought some the day before and told him he had to wait until the morning).
Maren has started taking a few steps which gets Phil and I excited. We keep trying to get her to take more and are really encouraging to her. James has wanted to “take steps” too so he will stand a few feet away from us and pretend to be struggling to take steps and then makes it to us and we follow it with praises. He loves it.

Loving his sister (November 2011)
Riding Grandma and Grandpa's motorcycle with Dad (November 2011)