Shiny and New

James had a haircut yesterday and he looks like a different boy. It's quite short but that's nice for summer. He panicked when we said we were going but then cheered up when his Daddy mentioned getting a "chocolate sucker". James thinks the brown, rootbeer flavored dum dum suckers are chocolate flavored. Hey, whatever works! So he sat very nicely through his haircut and was rewarded with the chocolate sucker.

My pictures aren't transferring from my iphone well, so here's just one picture of our new boy. He enjoyed his bathtime and I washed away all the little, itchy hairs from his head and body.


We had a burst of brilliance. We thought that since he likes the suckers so well, well we should find them and offer them up for poop/potty training. Target only sells the packages of 300 or whatever, and when I looked through the bag there were only like 3 rootbeer flavored ones in there. Luckily I hit the liquor store after that (sangria ingredients) and they had a bowl of suckers on the counter. I asked if I could take one for my son and explained why- she was nice and told me to pick out as many as I could find. I only find four in that huge bowl but I appreciate them! So today, when we were at the Mall of America, and this cute little boy told me that his poop was coming we RAN to the bathroom. I literally grabbed him up in my arms and ran. It was a crowded afternoon at the MOA, so the bathroom was crowded too. James was telling me "It's coming! It's coming!" yet we still had to stand in line. Finally we got to the toilet and James pushed out a very decent sized log of poop (TMI)! And I had a chocolate sucker in my purse! He was thrilled :) We were more thrilled that James pooped in the toilet, and not in his undies, but also out in public!

Stuck

I've been running around like a crazy lady this week. Lots of wonderful school stuff happening that keeps me busy, but also James is keeping his Mama and Dada up at night! He's had his off days where he gets up several times in the middle of the night. I'm thinking night terrors. Poor James!

We had a fun weekend. On Saturday we went to breakfast early. Here James is eating his oatmeal and playing with his sugar packets. (Who knew they could keep him busy for so long?)


It was funny because when we arrived at Carole's that morning, in the parking lot, James said, "ChaCha!...Donkey!" like he was expecting his Tia and Tio to join us. He must have remembered the last weekend and associated a restaurant with his Tia and Tio. I thought at that moment that he'd happy with the afternoon plans then :)

After breakfast we went back to the Eagle's Nest park in New Brighton for some good play time.




Dada stands guard.








James played peek a boo with another boy.


He LOVES the ball pit!

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We took James to the big boy area of the park, following him through the tunnels and obstacles. It was hard work keeping up with him! It was also hard on our "old" knees.


Here's Dada in the tunnel.






Looking down at Dada below.


Snacktime!


James was very nice to the other kids. He let them enter the ball area. Nice!


"Who you pointing at?"


James' thick hair doesn't stand up on end like this.


We went home for naptime and soon after James woke up, Tia ChaCha and Tio Rich (Donkey) came over for play and dinner. Tia ChaCha played basketball with James. James is actually very good at making baskets! He stands a little distance away from the net and throws.

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Sunday: Hurricane James comes through the living room. Luckily, James likes to clean up when we sing the "Clean Up!" song. (The song consists of these lyrics: "Clean up!" "Clean up!" Haha.)


WARNING: Possibly gross POOP story below
Okay, so now about the funniest toddler moment thus far. I was reading books with James on Tuesday night when suddenly James stood up and got a pained look on his face and said, "Mama..! Poop!"

So we looked down his diaper to see if he had pooped. Nope.
A few seconds later, "Mama! Poop... stuck. Stuck!" (We didn't even know James knew that word.)

So we looked down his diaper again and saw a poop rearing its little head out of his small butt.
I guess James was having a hard time with his poop. He started to do squats and these cute little pelvic thrusts, probably to work the poop out.

When he looked done, I asked, "James, did you poop? Do you want to change your diaper?"

He enthusiastically said "Yeah!" and helped to get a diaper from the basket and then laid on the ground to be changed.

So... yeah, we're ready to think about potty training. He's become very aware of poop, wanting to be clean, and holding his pee for longer periods of time (I guess another sign of being ready). We're off to find a potty seat for James this weekend! I think we've been thinking about getting one for a while now, but now its official.

POOP STORY DONE

I'm sure there are other good James moments to share, but I'm forgetting them at this moment. Come back soon for updates!

Celebrating! Obamanos!

And Yes James Can! James can one day be our first Mexican president. It is possible!



Its going to be an exciting day at school/work today. My students are CRAZY with excitement. I just cannot wait to tell the first student that he can be president too. How wonderful that they have Obama to look up to, someone that looks like them. I am weepy with so much happiness and hope today! I'm already printing out last night's speech to read with my Multicultural student group next week.

In James news: our little man got a haircut! He is a different boy.




Another celebration: 100 words!!!!
Well, here's the overwhelming list of words that James knows. I compiled all of them into one big list. I am a proud Mama today just seeing how many words he really does know! I am sure I am forgetting some! He understands so many more, but these are just the words we've actually heard him use.

1. Ahhh choo!
2. All gone!
3. apple
4. Awesome
5. Baby
6. ball
7. balloon
8. banana
9. basketball
10. bat
11. bath
12. beep!
13. black
14. blankie
15. book
16. bus
17. Blues Clues
18. buckle
19. bug
20. butterfly
21. bye bye
22. cake
23. cheese
24. Chips
25. Choo-choo
26. clock
27. Cookie
28. cracker
29. Crayon
30. Cup
31. Dada
32. door
33. down
34. duck
35. eat
36. elmo
37. eyes
38. football
39. fork
40. fries
41. Golf
42. Grandma (pronounced "Buck-a")
43. Grandpa (Bucko)
44. help
45. hey you!
46. Home Run!
47. isabelle
48. Jump
49. Mail
50. mama
51. milk
52. MMM Num Num!
53. Moon
54. moose
55. more
56. Morning
57. mouth
58. Night night
59. nose
60. no
61. obama
62. octagon! ("o-gon", in his shapes book)
63. off
64. oh man
65. on
66. one
67. outside
68. Pablo
69. plane
70. poop
71. pumpkin
72. purple
73. rhea
74. R2 (as in R2D2)
75. Sandra
76. Shapes
77. shoes
78. soap
79. socks
80. Sorry
81. spoon
82. star
83. strawberry (“bud-dee”)
84. Sun
85. three
86. Tia (cha-cha)
87. Tickle tickle
88. Toast
89. toes
90. touchdown
91. Tree
92. Truck
93. TV (tee-eee)
94. Two
95. Uh oh!
96. up
97. walk
98. wow
99. yes
100. Yo Yo (yogurt)

So happy today!!

We have a date with Grandma!

Grandma Rosie is coming to town not this weekend, but the next! We hopefully will go to Great Grandpa (sorta) Dick's 80th birthday party in Chanhassen and see that part of the (sorta) step-fam.

Below is a short video of James and his fork. He loves to spear food and is getting better!

Since his haircut he looks and acts like a little boy! Sandra said she has noticed a difference too. He has been playing well with the other kids, and she said she saw him be "assertive" for the first time when another kid grabbed a toy from him. He took it back! I wish I could have seen that :) Of course I will teach him to play nicely but it would have been interesting to see.

And wow has he been active and talkative! Its still mostly babble but they are words to him. He makes the same sounds over and over, and I feel like a bad mama when I don't understand but I will eventually. And active... he's been all over the place. There is not a door that he doesn't love, there is not an item on the floor or on countertops that he won't try to touch, etc. We say, "James, you don't miss a beat!" He is on top of everything!

His favorite toys lately: his tee ball and bat, his puzzles, legos (dumping them), his piggy bank (actually just the coins). He's shown less interest lately in his cars and books. Its kind of a relief not to read the same book five times in a row, but we'll need to make a concentrated effort to include books back in his day.

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