J is for James

James' Mom has skillz!

 

Chef James

Lasagna was such a big hit last weekend that we are making more! And James wanted to help. I am sad that he's abandoned his dream of becoming a (cookie) chef but he was a great help in the kitchen. Dad ain't bad either (:

 

 

WJDN?

He likes it! He likes it! Finally a meal with multiple ingredients that James likes! My lasagna. I won't hold my breath that he'll like ANY lasagna but this one is plain enough and slightly sweet. That equals James friendly. He willingly had yesterday's leftovers for dinner and then asked for more!  And those tomatoes aren't to the side because he didn't like them, but because he LOVED them.  He stole mine and started hoarding :)

You might think I'm silly for carrying on like this but it was nice not forcing something down your child's throat, especially when you're not feeling even 80%.

Christmas Day at M-O-M's 2011

We left for Grandma and Grandpa's house after breakfast. We wanted to get there early to open presents first and then cook up a storm. The women of the familia were going to be cooking up a storm!

I brought cookies!

I appreciated that someone other than me (or Jim) had a talk with James about patience and generosity.  Other people will open presents and not all of the presents would be for James!  Thanks ChaCha!

Jim tries out the pool table in the new basement.

Whoa!  Are all those presents for James?!  No :)

Yule log on a big ass TV.

One of the first presents James opens is from Tia Kiki and Tio Berto in Japan.  They sent the Harry Potter Wii game!!!!!!!!!!  James was so excited!  So excited that as soon as we got home on Monday that was the FIRST thing he wanted to do- play the game!  He was pretty patient, waiting for the chance to get to the Wii so how could I say no?  It was fun :)

Grandma gets Tequila!  It was to go along with the bar blender that she asked for.  Margaritas for everyone!

Uncle Rich accessorizes.

Uncle Rich gives Jim an Ipad!  Uh... a fake one.

Wow!  A Lego Star Wars watch!  We opened this when we got to our house too.  James loves it.  He really loves the Darth Vader figure- he didn't have that one yet :)

I prepped James about receiving clothing.  He was polite and didn't throw them to the side.  Of course they don't generate the same level of excitement but he did well for a five year old!

Grandpa Larry gets a wooden Vikings head.  We bought this for him at the Renaissance festival in September.

A Harry Potter castle!!!  WOW!

Tia Kiki sent Larry a Japanese gong.  James loved it!  We decided the gong signals the start of happy hour :)

Wow!  A tooth fairy pillow from ChaCha!  And she made it.  Extra special!

James was all over Uncle Rich.  Those are his grubby little hands behind him as Rich tried to pose with his new Vikings head gear.

ChaCha, is that a real dog?  Yes.  It's my pup.

I tried on my new Wonder Woman apron for tamale making!  It's awesome!  Thanks Ana!

Three cucumber margaritas for the chicas.  It's a must when you're about to spend a goodly amount of time in the kitchen!

Corn husks are prepped.

Ana starts with the masa.

We had four fillings.  Rosie ties off the tamales after they've been filled.

In her spare time (ha!) M-O-M roasts peppers and chiles for salsa and guacamole.

Filled and ready to be steamed!  We ended up with about 6 dozen.

My Mom borrowed this tamale steamer from a friend.  It was so tall that Ana had to use a step stool to reach in!

Apps.  Salsas, guacamole, and crab tostadas.

So pretty!

While we were cooking the boys played pool and downstairs.  Well, Jim had to spend a good amount of time putting together this castle.

Ahhhhh.  Dinner!

I cut into the tamales so you can see the fillings- these are pork with red chile and chicken with tomatillo/cilantro sauce.  Yums.

After dinner James asked if we could have a campfire and roast marshmallows.  He is refused nothing around that house and actually the weather was great for it.  Too bad the only marshmallow in the house fell into the fire!  Haha.

At bedtime James escaped Grandma and ran around the house sans pants!  He moved so quickly and was so amused!

What a great day!

Traveling to San Diego

This time around the travel was much easier. We don't need to carry as much for James and he is able to carry his own backpack. (Well, we had that idea anyway. He didn't end up carrying much more than his Blankie most of the time. Thumbs down!)

The shuttle bus to the airport, what a fun ride!

Chillin' on the airplane with a Clifford video.

It was a pretty easy plane ride and then rental car experience. We drove about 40 minutes to our first destination- Farrell's for dinner! Jim and I both have Farrell's memories from our youth so we were excited to introduce James to the sirens, the drums, and the ice cream!

What's going on over there??

Ooooh Daddy got a chocolate malt!

It was someone's birthday so we did get to hear the sirens, the drums, and the singing. It wasn't exactly how I remembered it, but maybe when I was a little kid it seemed louder and more exciting?

Balloon animal- a snake!

We ate too much for our meal. After we were stuffed I thought that maybe we should have shared a meal and then split an incredible ice cream creation. I settled for a hot fudge sundae, sharing with James. BUT James didn't want anything to do with the hot fudge, the whipped cream, the nuts. And actually the ice cream didn't pass his inspection either because it was "yellow", not white vanilla. Little stinker...

We arrived at our SD hotel a bit later and it was just as we remembered from our last visit. This time James got his own pull-out bed. He was quite happy with it. He is watching one of his shows before bedtime, with his stuffed Clifford.

Mom/Son Date again

This was the extremely hot day and I knew I didn't want to cook dinner. Jim was out of town, so James and I had another date.

I picked James up from daycare and he was clutching his Ironman. He brought Ironman to school for Show & Share. He said all the kids wanted to play with it.

We headed to Perkins for pancakes. This was a big mistake, because like my friend Kim said, my pancakes are waaaaay better. We both felt a little sick afterwards but we bounced back quickly.

Isn't he cute?

Mom/Son Date

One Saturday James and I had a date. He's really into ice cream right now so he was very happy to head to DQ. Afterwards I told him "Thank you for my ice cream date." He gave me the biggest, most beautiful smile and said back, "Thank you for my ice cream." He LOVES his ice cream. Chocolate or vanilla, you never know which will be his favorite on a particular day, but he switches between them.

Cheers!

Where did March go?

I'm behind on blogging again. So rather than do many little posts I'm going to just put all of my favorite pictures from the middle of March to the end below. I'll try and comment on each picture so there's some background, but they are just general cuteness.

James "helped" me make a dessert of pudding, crumbled chocolate chip cookies, and assorted toppings (whipped cream, sprinkles).

He was very serious about his sprinkles.

His Daddy enjoyed a pudding too!


I know James is my child when he shows such enthusiasm for good food. Red grapes are the best!

We're back to enjoying bath time. What a relief!


Waiting for his two stories at bedtime.


Just playin'.

"My Mommy is the best cook!" I made James a mini homemade pizza. He took a few bites, but wasn't too impressed.

We love that James is starting to do chores and understand that he has to help around the house. Here Jim is showing James how to fold towels. He loved it!

"I did it all by myself!"

James left a Batman at Grandma Rose's house so one day we received a package with this note. I love that these are the same squiggly faces that I grew up with. My Mom is famous for her little squiggly faces! "You make my heart happy!" is a James saying. Grandma Rose loved hearing that from her little man!

Playing around the house.

One day James started to pick the flowers from my hibiscus tree. In this picture he was very proud to present me with a flower. I loved it too!

Relaxing.

Before bathtime.

I don't remember why but James is crying for his Daddy in this picture. Jim was out of town, and James was asking for him.

Jersey and hat day at daycare. It occurred to me later that it was probably Twins gear but we weren't the only rebels that day. Lots of kids were in Vikings and Wild gear, not just the Twins (that fit the baseball theme of Open House Night.)

Bounce houses are fun!

James is playing "dead" with Ethan and Russell. I dislike that word coming out of his mouth!

Cute!

James told us he was going to "work" in Daddy's office. We found that he folded all of the washcloths. Yay! Huge praise that day :)

One winter day, James and I went to the playground in our snowpants.

I hate snowpants but it was worth it to see this smile!

And this one.

And his pride in climbing to the top of the climbing wall.

And then we met the other James. Another family was at the playground and we found out that the other James was also four years old!

In the car, going back home, James told me, "Mommy, that boy was James too. He was four years old too. And he's a heartbreaker." Haha. I think James has heard others calling HIM a heartbreaker so many times (because of his beautiful eyes), that maybe he just thinks all James' should be heartbreakers!

Funny- on the potty with goggles!

I took a picture of the day's journal entry. Each day the kids practice their letter or number of the day, and their names.

Meow! Cute artwork that I've promised to Tia Kiki.

There is no such thing as taking too many pictures of my adorable son! I hope this blog entry wasn't too overwhelming.