Aquarium

 

When James was on the lower level of the beluga tank (he is on the balcony in the video) he pressed himself up against the tank glass with hands on the glass on either side of his head- fingers spread wide- and said "wow!...wow!" over and over (and after he had licked the glass).  All the adults around turned and smiled at him- this toddler impressed by the white whale.

Working on the farm

 While Tim and I worked and created sawdust...

 James made sawdust stew....

 Played with worms....

 helped push the wheelbarrow...

 and told us "more sawdust!"

Then he got stripped down of his wet, sandy, sawdusty, muddy clothes....

And had some dinner sitting in his big boy chair.

Waddle, waddle

 James has been wearing a sleepsack his entire life (almost for two years now!).  And ever since he has been walking he has waddled around in it.  He looks like a cross between a monk and Obi Wan Kenobi (especially when it is partially unzipped and his legs are sticking out of it.  I've been meaning to take some pictures of him like this and although what I captured this past weekend doesn't show it to well at least I got it on camera finally.

James' favorite online video

Sharon heard a segment on NPR and thought James would like the video- not only does he like it, but he LOVES it. 
Make sure to watch it full-size at it is truly AMAZING.

Swimming all summer long

 All summer long we have been going to the pool- usually once a week but sometimes even twice.

 James loves the pool- as he did last year.  So the upside of our house not selling yet is that we got to indulge in pruned toes over and over.

 Last year when he was in all his chubby glory I never got a picture of him at our local pool, so this year as the season is drawing to a close I finally remembered my camera.

 Here he is not so patiently waiting for me to take a picture of him before letting him get in.

 Our pool as adult swim for the last ten minutes of every hour.  To bribe James out of the water I have always called it snack time.

 He basically eats his morning snack/lunch over the course of several "snack times".  Which is wonderful as it allows me to put him right down for a nap when we get home and not have to feed him lunch then.

 Sunscreen makes for some wild hairdos. 

 After we are done with the water and before we pop back into the stroller to walk home I always change James into a regular diaper and clothes so that he can immediately nap once home.  It is always a bit of a struggle to get him to lay on his back and get that clean diaper on.  Today he decided while diaperless to eat some more grapes out of the container without using his hands and just dove in face first.  Gave everyone quite the show of a nice snowy white plump toddler bum. (and you can barely see his Mongolian spot anymore).

James also is pretty game for going under the water and was actually the one who requested it today.  Alison also came to the pool today with Jude so I asked her if she wouldn't mind capturing it on video.

A true southern boy

 

Today we went to one our favorite bar-b-que spots for lunch (We have two local favorites- the one we went to today is full fat, everything fried, yummy greasiness and the other is local, fresh veggies and sides- so we always have to decide 'do we go healthy or not' when choosing our bar-b-que.  Today we chose the the everything fried option.)

James had his first deep fried dill pickle chips.  He LOVED them.

(Next time we'll go with the healthy option and he'll get his much beloved pickled beets.)

James helping with laundry

 When we put the house on the market we moved all the clutter up to the farm- and that included our laundry hampers.  Since we don't have a place to hold dirty clothes until laundry day anymore we have adapted by just putting the things in need of washing directly into the washer- and when it is full we wash!  (the added benefit of this plan is I don't have to sort clothes any more)

 James has been watching me gather the clothes in the morning (cast off clothes from the night before, wet pajamas [James still drinks an entire sippy cup of milk before bed] and other bits scattered about) for 4 months now and he has decided to take over.  For several mornings now he has found and gathered everything and taken into the kitchen to the washer.  He is pretty thrilled to be helping.