But would he eat this?

With the arrival of James' molars came a love of meat- pretty much anything we've offered him from cased meats (hot dogs, sausages, etc), roasted birds (including duck), pig, cow and fish.

But would he go for squirrel?

At the farm I got to try my hand with Tim's 17HMR.  He set up the above target at 100 yards and gave me a go suggesting I aim at the left squirrel first.  I aimed at the squirrel (not realizing that I was specifically supposed to be aiming at the target within the squirrel which I couldn't really see since I wasn't wearing my glasses) and thought I hadn't even hit the paper.  However, I actually got the squirrel!  And the second time on the right target I knew to aim for the circles and did even better! (on a bragging point- the squirrels are only about 4 and 5 inches big so not all that easy to hit at 100 yards).

So perhaps I was born to be a mountain woman and James will get to see if he likes squirrel! (Which he actually learned to say while visiting his nana and grandad.)

First non-shot related band-aid

At the farm we don't have a shower caddy in the master shower which means all the soap, shampoo, etc are on the floor of the stall.  I left the door open one morning to let it air out to prevent mildew.

James decided to explore while I was online trying to figure out where to get some supplies...he was a bit too quiet.

I found him in the shower holding my razor, rubbing his thumb over the blades.  Amazingly he wasn't crying even though there was blood on his thumb and spotted on various items on the floor.
He did great lettings us clean up his thumb, putting on the band-aid and then wrapping dressing tape around the base to keep it on.  As you can see from above- he thought it was cool.

18 months!

Amazing how fast time goes by.  Nothing has made this more clear than watching my baby James become a full blown little boy in the blink of an eye.

 Both men hard at work at their respective jobs, Tim tilling, James exploring.

 It was a bit of a blustery day!

 At the farm James really discovered dandelions (which when I told him the yellow flowers were called dandelions he roared like a lion :)

Very proud of his find.

 Gotta taste it.

At his check-up he weighed 29lbs 5oz (90%) is now 35 inches tall (97%) [now we say tall and not long...just more proof he is no longer my little baby bean] and his head is 19.75 inches around (97%).  So he is still a BIG boy.
He has all his teeth except his two-year old molars (though I think the bottom two are starting to make there way) and he is on track with all his developmental markers.
The doctor asked me how many words he has and I guessed at 20-30 because I hadn't really thought about it, but now that I've been reflecting- I think it is many more. 
Since this is a sort of baby book for him I'll try to list them (the real word, not how he actually says it phonetically as that takes way too much brain power on my part): eyes, nose, neck, back, mouth, teeth, hair, blueberries, cheese, milk, bread, hotdogs, pig, strawberries, yogurt, yes, no, momma, mommy, daddy, nana, fish, moo, bok bok (for chicken), neigh, roar, oo-oo ah-ah (for monkey), dog, bird, airplane, stroller, meow, bath, bubbles, spoon, bowl, block, baby, pooh (for Winnie the Pooh), book, bee, O (can identify the letter), ice, more, please, all done, right back, Timber, Elsa, up, down, duck, flower, frog, ball, diaper,potty, hi, bye, hug, brush, butterfly, bug, purple, circle, red, hot and more that aren't coming to mind at the moment.
His personality continues to charm- he is very happy, smiley, and full of giggles (the other day he was smiling to wide and laughing so hard he was snorting), he is ready to keep trying things even if he just fell, got pinched or bumped into something the first time (not always the best in the case of falling in the koi pond and it not fazing him in the least).  He is very affectionate with his snuggles, hugs and kisses.  In general he doesn't disobey too much other than throwing his food on the floor so we haven't had to really delve into discipline too much yet.  He continues to be very curious about anything outside and would prefer to stay out all day long.  And he has learned to make his desires clear by saying "mommy, daddy, nana or whoever...then pointing to where he wants you to sit to read to him, to keep him company while he eats, to feed him or whatever has popped into his mind.
For a while he was consistently letting us know when he had a dirty diaper- on once occasion letting me know before he did it.  So perhaps he is ready for potty training, but I am not so we aren't going to tackle that yet.
He really is just perfect for us.

Easter, etc

James had his first Easter egg hunt, which really was just Easter egg eating in the end.  I should have known as you don't get such a robust child without him focusing on food all the time.

As it is Spring- the season of ardor- the toads have been hanging out a lot by the pond looking for and finding mates.  James is thrilled because 80% of the time he goes to the pond (which is a 100% of the time he scrambles out the door) the toad is there.  Yesterday a female joined our resident toad and today there are stings of eggs floating in the pond.  I can only imagine how awesome James will think it is to see dozens of baby toads!

Swimming with the "ishes"

The farm has a koi pond with three largish goldfish in it.  The pond is about 18 square feet with a ledge running around the inside about 8 inches below the water and then a deeper middle section that I believe is at least 18 to 24 inches deep.  As we haven't been to the farm in many months the water is quite gross with lots of debris and algae in it.  I was purposefully NOT telling James that there are fish in it since I knew he would be obsessed with seeing them.  However I did not make it a point to tell Tim that I was purposefully NOT pointing out the fish to James.
So I was up in the Christmas trees pruning which takes about an hour a row and takes you far enough away and over a hill that you can't really see the house.  When I crested the hill on a return row of trees I saw Tim outside splitting wood and James laying on his belly at the side of the pond with his hands in the water.  As Tim was just outside of view of the pond and James but was glancing around the corner every 20 seconds or so to make sure James was fine I finished the row of trees (though was highly distracted looking at James from the 200 yards away in the trees every 2 seconds).  As I finished and was walking down the hill to the house I saw James do it.  He got up on his knees on the edge of the pond and leeeaaannneeeddd over the pond until....splash.  He went in head first going completely under.  Tim heard the splash and my yell at the same time and sprinted around the corner and scooped James out from underneath.  I amazed myself by walking calmly down the rest of the way (guess that just shows that I trust Tim as a dad) and when I got there James was sitting soaking wet in James lap and was fine until he saw me and then wanted me to pick him up.  Though as soon as I did he wanted to get down and walked RIGHT BACK toward the pond.  He stopped at the edge and picked up his stick.  As far and Tim and I can guess he had been playing with a stick in the water and it had floated out of reach and that is what he was leaning in to retrieve and it looks like he actually had gotten it as he fell in and had just dropped it on the ground when Tim scooped him up. 
The great thing about James- not scared of water in his face, so showers, rinsing hair, etc are all very easy.  The bad thing- not scared of water, so we are now looking into fencing options to put around the pond, especially necessary with that ledge in the pond as I think it would be very easy for his head and arms to go into the deeper middle part and his legs to get stuck up on the ledge and he'd have no way of righting himself.  We need to get it up fast because EVERY time we go outside he immediately wants to go see the "ish".
If it hadn't been sort of chilly that day I would have taken the time to get a picture of him soaking wet after his swim.   He was soaked to the bone and truly content.

James the toddler

I missed doing a 16-month update, but it was rather momentous.  One day before turning 16-months James began really walking.  At first he was walking till he fell and then crawling to his destinations, then he progressed to getting back up when he fell and trying to walk the rest of the way, and now he pretty much doesn't fall.  He can even walk very fast when you are chasing him.  And the last time I saw him crawl was last week in the uneven declining backyard.  I think if I took him out there right now he would walk on it.
Since he is walking we decided the time of the exersaucer is behind us.  We had been using it to contain while we showered so we'd know where he was and to keep him safe.  Now I just close him in the bedroom with me and put everything unsafe or breakable onto the middle of the bed where he can't get to it.  James helped me cleaned the saucer and then in the last video escaped out of his wet clothes.

James, the neighing cows and the "og"

 I thought James knew the difference in appearance between cows and horses and could also correctly match their sounds of moo and neigh until today when he kept neighing whenever he saw the cows.  I'm keeping my hopes up that he was actually remembering seeing the donkeys that were with the cows yesterday that he thought were horses.  In the above picture he is staring down a cow while I am telling him that they say "moo" not neigh...he looks a bit confused.

This one was taken after they had moved a ways off, before they had been at the fence line.
The "og" James was beyond thrilled to see was discovered on Sunday night when we first arrived at the farm around 8:30pm (way past bedtime).  I was carrying James into the house when I almost stepped on a big hoppy toad crossing the sidewalk onto the grass (this would have been very traumatic for me as it would have caused a flashback to when my family moved to NC when I was 15 and the first night we got to our new house when I was just out of the car and headed up the sidewalk into the house- barefoot- I stepped on a small frog squashing off his leg and somehow rolled a bit onto him with my foot causing his innards to pop out of the leg hole...it was AWFUL).  Thankfully this time I managed to sidestep around the amphibian and pointed him out to James.  It was just light enough for James to see him and he was so excited, scrambling out of my arms to see it closer.  Tim came over with his headlamp and shone it on the toad which James just kept excitedly calling an "og" (just as he doesn't really know yet the difference between horses and donkeys he doesn't know toads are different than frogs).  We let James crawl after the "og" for a couple of minutes and he came pretty close to catching it, but alas it was time for him to get in bed.
He collapsed asleep around 9pm in his peapod, but by 11:30 just as Tim and I were finally getting into our bed he woke up crying out for me distraught and as I climbed up the stairs to scoop him up and snuggle him I distinctly heard him saying "og, og".  Not sure if he had dreamed of the amazing frog before waking up or if he had just remembered it either way the next day as we crossed the same place he kept looking for the og.
He is really loving exploring here.  He has already gotten to explore a freshly mown and raked pile of grass, coming out of it with green hands and feet; he has seen a real live working tractor come up the driveway; he has been picking yellow dandelions and a purple pansy (which he tried eating) and has begged for more and more access to the creeks.  He is learning to go safely up and down a flight of hardwood stairs and has progressed from going down backwards feet first to sitting on his bottom and scooting down while holding someone's hand.  He remembered from the last time we were here that the fireplace and potbellied stove are hot and we don't go near them (this is amazing to me as he wasn't even 14 months the last time).  And the thing I think he (and I) are most enjoying is having Tim around all day.