Maybe I will be able to teach James to knit!

Getting closer to being a Traveling Man

The newest skill of James' is to get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. Sometimes he really gets those knees up under his belly and pushes off-landing on his chest and face a few inches forward. Mostly though he ends up going backwards- and can really travel this way but so far with no intention. Soon he is going to be my traveling man and I will need to actually make my house baby friendly.

Fun in the Square

This afternoon we met friends in Decatur Square to enjoy the live music there each Wednesday during the month of May.
James enjoyed lots of practice sitting up on his own- while indulging in his latest joy of chewing on straps.
I was hoping that if James saw his friend, Jude, crawling he might get inspired, but it didn't happen. However, he did thoroughly enjoy himself with the friends, food and music.
James can pretty much sit up on his own now- not necessarily for a long time- but I think I can officially say he is sitting.

Uncle Matt

What is that on your face?
Really, what is it?

Ah, my Uncle Matt...I remember him from Christmas!

I will impress him with my feat of strength and balance! (and drool!)

3 generations of Cordell men.

I decided that I like my Uncle Matt despite the strange hair he has on his face.

Sigh...Good thing I bought a spare.

Another one bites the dust.
Good thing I bought two to replace the first one Timber mauled. Unfortunately I don't think I can replace the elephant since it was given to James by his Aunt Tonya who bought it in Africa. However, I do think I can patch his trunk back together enough to make him safe to play with again (for James to play with that is, not Timber).
And I was just thinking to myself the other day "Wow, we've had James for 6 months now...Timber seems to have adjusted very well!"

James' Bookcase- phase 1

A few weekends ago we headed north of Atlanta to PeachState Lumber to get some cypress for a bookcase that Tim has designed for James. Our little guy has so many books that a basket just doesn't cut it. When James starts really getting around on his own I'd like him to be able to go and grab favorite books himself rather than waiting on me. And since I have a difficult time getting to the books at the bottom of the basket I can only imagine that it will be impossible for James too. So Tim is putting together a bookcase that is low to ground that will house all the treasured works.
Today we cut everything roughly to size and even as I type this - while sitting in the shed/workshop since James is ACTUALLY taking a LONG nap - Tim is busy handplaning the first pieces.

(soon to be) Traveling Man

If you get annoyed by repetitive baby talk I'd highly suggest muting these videos as I say the same words of encouragement to James OVER AND OVER.
Each clip seems at times to be of nothing other than cute baby James, but there is at least a nano-second on each of actual agility on James' part. I assume that what he does in the last video at the very end is the next step towards crawling.
I've included all 6 videos for the enjoyment of aunts and grandmas.


Some of the clips have poor James' head cut off since I had the camera on the floor trying to capture his belly NOT touching the floor. Though if you have to only see a baby's body- there is nothing cuter than one enclosed in a romper!