You crack me up, James!

These days James' language skills are growing by leaps and bounds.  His vocabulary is huge- several hundred words (though of course I have to be his interpreter for others) and he speaks 4-5 word sentences routinely.

This made our 6.5hour road trip to the farm yesterday quite enjoyable.  James is now able to chat with us, initiate 'conversations', and make jokes.

A couple of examples from yesterday:

- when he woke up from his nap in the backseat I turned around to say hi and he saw that I had glasses on (which I rarely wear) and he was disturbed by his momma looking different.  He said "momma, glasses off." I told him I was wearing them to help me see so I would be leaving them on a few more minutes.  He repeated "glasses off!", then I repeated 'not right now' and then as he was becoming more insistent and as I was willing to pick that fight when we are all locked in a truck cabin for a few more hours I gave in and took them off...then I heard from me behind me "thank you!"

-As we were coming around a bend on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the dark and fog Tim put on the brakes a bit harder than normal and I said "oooooo, curve!" and then James from behind said "crash! boom! BANG!"  Thankfully we didn't crash, boom, bang.

- Also on the Blue Ridge when James was getting antsy I tried to direct his attention to looking for bear and deer instead of repeatedly asking for more books even though it was pitch dark.  He looked for those animals for a while and then said "let's look for ladybugs and wasps" (two critters he has found in our front yard the day before).

All in all he is becoming more and more fun to chat with and see the world through his eyes.