James' choice

 This morning James came out of his room holding a pair of fire engine pajama pants (they had been in the pile of "too small" clothes waiting to be stored) and asked to put them on.

 Then a while later he picked up my cast off socks from last night and asked to put them on.

 So a dirty pajama top, too small fire engine pants and momma's too big socks became his outfit for the morning.

 I think the socks make him look a bit like an elf.

 And apparently the cool outfit he chose out all by himself (for the first time) gave him a lot of creativity to express via Duplo blocks.

 And James is very interested now in taking pictures and then seeing them on the viewing screen, so we had a couple of self-portraits this morning to indulge him.

Last year, this year

I tried last years' blue owl sweater on James and it still fit- barely!  I haven't yet tried on the new tan owl sweater for this year- but I know it won't look quite as cute because I reused yarn from a previous sweater and the yarn is all twisted and bumpy from that.

Last years' sweater and hat- said hat has since been lost or misplaced so I am working on a new one this week.

Favorite TV watching pose

Last night Christi went into labor so I headed over there to stay with Elsa while they went to the hospital.  This morning I was feeling like a lazy start was the way to go so James has been getting to watch way too much TV.  I captured one of his favorite TV watching positions- suspended as a bridge between couch and coffee table.  I figure he might be doing a passive activity- watching TV- but he is doing it in a less passive way- with exercise!

Crazy slide hair

 Not sure why I find this so amusing but I LOVE the way static from the slide makes James' hair stand on end.  Above, pre-slideing, normal hair.

 Post-slideing- crazy hair!

 A James' favorite park activity- finding anything and everything to poke into the holes of the equipment.

 More great hair!

And at the park today- Christi post due-date!

Bath diving

 It seems James is missing the pool.

 And very proud of his make-shift option.

First haircut

 As we haven't trimmed or cut James' hair yet it is getting quite long.

 And while I still don't want to do a true haircut his "bangs" are getting long enough that some strands keep ending up getting tangled in his lashes and poking him in the eye,  Over the past two weeks I have seen him rub his eyes countless times trying to get the annoyance out.

 Tried to capture those few stray hairs in a picture...

 So while he was captured in his highchair for afternoon snack I swept all of offending hairs into a bundle and snipped them off.  James wanted to see what I was doing with the scissors and so didn't sit very still in his attempts to look up.

 After he looked a bit dejected, like all that kerfuffle was for nothing.

Until I showed him the tuft of hair and then he said "more hair, please!" asking for more to be cut. But that will have to wait- I can't bear to cut off those curls in the back yet.

The zoo

The flamingos are the first animals you see when entering the zoo- and James did think they were neat, but already he was anticipating getting to see the elephants.  He is raising his "trunk" and making the elephant trumpeting noise to indicate what he wanted to see next.

After viewing the pandas for a bit the kids get to ink stamp their hands with the image of a panda- James wanted to stamp everything.

When Tim got home this evening James got to show and tell him how he saw a very young gorilla bump his chest with his fists.

James is really growing to LOVE the carousel.  I haven't truly let him pick out his own animal to ride yet- today he wanted to go on the rhino but it didn't go up and down and so I encouraged him to go on another because he might have liked that animal but would have been disappointed by the lack of movement.

He is so old now that he can pretty much just hang on by himself without me having to support him from falling off.  Today was the first time I let him go completely to take some pictures.

And of course he adores the train.

Waiting patiently for the train to start.

The zoo recently updated/upgraded the children's train- newly painted engine and rainbow lights in the longest tunnel.

After getting home from the zoo it was time for a much needed nap.  I took off James' diaper and tossed it out the door of his room into the hall so that I wouldn't leave it laying around in his room while he napped (the diaper pail is up at the farm so I have to throw his diapers away in other trash cans).  I then proceeded to close his curtains while I thought he was picking out a book to read before nap.  Much to my delight he actually had gone and picked up the diaper and then deposited it in the bathroom trash!  I've told him in the past (with poopy diapers) that I needed to leave his room and throw it away in the kitchen trash and wash my hands, but I don't think he's even ever seen me take just a wet diaper and put it in the bathroom bin.  I guess he just realized diapers don't belong on the floor.