Happy James Day! (alternatively, Happy Valentine's Day!)

Top- James at two weeks wearing an Elizabeth Zimmerman "baby surprise sweater" I knit...
Above- James still wearing that sweater at 15 months (I did spend all that time knitting it!)

Showing off his new talent of exposing the batteries in the remotes.

Wearing the hat I knit for Tim...which was a bit too small for him- which I then tried to make bigger by blocking it which only made it shrink...so now it is James' hat.

"Hiding" in the ONE spot he knows he is not supposed to be.   He loves to flip the switch on the power bar that all the computer equipment is plugged into...a great maneuver on his part when he is feeling ignored by his momma while she is updating his blog.  Even more clever is his decision to straighten out his legs under the bar of the desk as it is almost impossible for said momma to remove the child from under the desk without bruising his adorably chubby legs.

James had his 15-month shot visit today at the doctors, receiving his 3rd polio vaccine.  His well-visit will be at 18-months but they humored my request to have him weighed today- he came in at a whopping 28lbs.  I am starting to wonder if I should cut back on the cheese?
James also had another milestone this week- last night was his first night with a sippy cup of milk instead of formula.  He is now officially a toddler in every respect- diet, skills, and personality. 
This is a really fun stage.  He is so easy to enjoy (despite the tantrums displayed in the last post).
And today we celebrated his two-year conception day...two years ago today he was but two cells but already he was my James.

For Micaela

 Last March when James and I went with my mom to Hawaii he was given his first sporty clothes from his first cousin once-removed, Micaela.

 They are size 18 months and now fit him perfectly- which is great since he is now actually practicing his walking and, therefore, someday will run in his track pants.

 In the meantime, he is faster getting to the camera with one hand steadying himself.

 

and for good measure, a video of James throwing a tantrum because I am asking him not to get into Tim's nightstand drawer- one of the very few places off limits to James' curiosity as it has coins, paperclips and other choking hazards in it.   

(I must praise Tim for his skill as he designed and built our nightstands.)

Finally, finally, FINALLY!

James FINALLY did many things for the first time yesterday:

• had his teeth brushed (of course we should have been doing this since that first tooth appeared many months ago, but I was lazy about it until his first set of molars started erupting about a week and half ago and then I just forgot to do it until last night)
• had his before bed formula in a sippy cup-  no more baby, no more bottles (and as soon as this can of formula is used up he'll be strictly on whole milk)
• stood up on his own and was completely stable
• AND walked his first confident, stable steps

We had just come in from doing some weeding in the front yard (though James is actually the anti-weeder as he thought his job was to take a weed from out of the pile I was collecting to put in the yard waste and put the weed back into the lawn- I think he thought it was some kind of neat outdoor puzzle).  When James wasn't "helping" me weed he was busy climbing into our raized garden bed and figuring out how to stand up on his own- not my ideal location for his to try to hone this skill as it is a bed raised about 16 inches above the lawn with the retaining wall made of cement blocks, so he was basically standing up and falling repeatedly above cement...sigh).  In that garden bed we have woodchip mulch and James brought some into the house with him as his new-found treasure- and apparently his afternoon snack.

Happy accident

As I was trying to capture James showing off his new skill of taking a 2 or 3 semi-controlled steps from standing alone into my arms- he decided to try his hand at a new skill he hasn't yet mastered- standing up without holding onto anything.

 James is wearing a hat I knit for myself, but it turned out a bit small for me and as he is at the age where he will instantly remove a hat that is not tied on I thought it might work very well for him.

 Look at that belly losing it's baby bulge and turning into a flat toddler tummy- sigh.  I am starting to miss his plumpness as it is fast burning off with his boundless energy.

Things loved

As any child gets older they are more able to express themselves clearly- both their likes and dislikes.  Lately James has been showing his affinity and love for several specific things:

• izsh!izsh!izsh! (all things fish related- this is one of the reasons I haven't been blogging much as every time I sit at the computer James will sprintcrawl over asking to see fish)
• dede (his daddy who is being greeting with ever increasing enthusiasm)
• babababa (he is now down to one bottle of formula before bed- he started out with 4 at 11 months when he stopped nursing, we dropped the morning one when he dropped his morning nap at 12.5 months, the second we dropped before his afternoon nap in early January, the third we dropped from first thing in the morning this week, and the evening bottle will soon also be switched out for a sippy cup of milk just as the others were)
• eyes (he will point out the eyes of anything and everything- a great thing for distracting him when he is getting fussy)
• putting anything new in his mouth (I thought this oral fixation would end earlier as I know other kids his age who do not put EVERYTHING in their mouths- but I did the same thing so I guess it is genetic (on a side note and I might have said this before I am actually a proponent of kids putting everything into theirs mouths for the benefit of a strong immune system- I even ate the dirt out of the sidewalk cracks when I was little and I basically never got sick and still rarely do)
• wrestling/tickle attacks on our bed (a great way for James to get some of his energy out these past weeks while the weather outside was too cold to really go play at a park)
• and, of course, me (James has learned that I love snuggling and he will put his head on my shoulder or chest knowing I like it and he is also practicing his kissing skills which I will need to get a video of because it is cute but disgusting as he is at that open mouth kissing stage where his tongue leads the way and because his main example is Tim and I kissing each other on the mouth James thinks that kissing is for the lips- so even if you present him with your cheek - which is a slimy enough experience- he will take his hand and turn your face directly to his and kiss you on the lips)

To knit or to blog while the weather outside is frightful...

I finally decided that my blogging about James was way behind due to my desire to knit this past month.  The cold weather just lured me onto the couch with a ball of yarn and pair of needles.
While I didn't get much blogging done I did make: a cowl scarf for my sister, Krista (Happy Birthday!), 4 hats, and continued working on Tim's cardigan, my cardigan, and started two new cardigans for myself.

Meanwhile James learned some new words: cheese (eez), butterfly (can't even type this phonetically- but you know it when you hear it), blueberry (bubu-ee), lion (eye-on), fish (ish!ish!ish! ALWAYS said with enthusiasm- more on this later as it deserves it's own post), moo (for cow), ooooo (for owl), bokbokbok (for chicken), deded (for daddy), mama (sometimes for me- but in general when he just wants something).

He also surprised me by knowing what all the animals were on his farm puzzle- when I asked him to point to the cow, chicken, duck, farmer, horse, sheep, pig he got them all right-  the only one he wasn't sure about was the goat.

He "played" in the "snow" we had here a couple of weeks back.  You'll notice in the video the snow was pretty much a sheet of ice by the time I got him out into it.  He didn't seem to mind as he was thrilled just to be outside after being cooped up in the house while it was really cold.

 Wearing his new (birthday) owl sweater- I also made him one last year in tan.  This year's sweater has the buttons that were supposed to go on last year's but I never got around to it...I claim sleep deprivation the culprit!

I tried to capture the icicle hanging outside our back door- it was literally over 2 feet long.

Poor Timber

I didn't capture this very well because Timber was fed up by the time I thought to get out the camera. 
What had been happening is James had decided to hang out with Timber at her window (being the social little boy he is) but Timber wanted a window all to herself (being the aloof German Shepherd she is).  James tried his best to hang out with her, but each time Timber would go to the other window.  This happened at least 10 times in a row...Timber at left window, James at right, James crawls to join Timber at left, Timber goes to right, James crawls to join Timber at right, Timber goes to the left, and on and on.
In the video Timber backs away from the windows before switching, but previously she was going straight from one to the other with James trailing not far behind. 
It was like one of those "I love Lucy" episodes where she can't keep up with the chocolates.  Poor James just couldn't keep up and convince Timber to let him share her window.