Milestone

James is still having a great transition to his new daycare. He has a hard time in the mornings, a bit of separation anxiety, maybe, but we are dealing with it. He cries when we leave him :( I've watched in the video monitors and he is fine soon after we leave the room. He is easily distractable and he really is having lots of fun at his "school".

Each day we get his update sheet and I'm excited to read about what he has done that day. There is also a large white board hanging in the classroom, that has more detail, so I read that and the day's menu to see what they attempt to feed my baby. (Today was tacos! I wonder how he did on Meatloaf Thursday?)

This update sheet is from Monday. They had a guest speaker- a baker! Mike the Baker showed the kids how to make cookies. And of course they got to eat them! I was told that James loved the baker presentation and ate two cookies. I'm not surprised! :)






I found this cute t-shirt at Target and knew I had to get it for James. Grandma Laura loves the Snoopy characters, and while I'm trying to give James some room to figure out which characters HE will love, I knew I had to get this t-shirt. Grandma Rosie had the same idea because she gave me a duplicate shirt! So funny.




Skipping ahead to today. Jim and I went to the State Fair! James still went to daycare, he was paid up for today and we thought it would be easier to navigate the crowds without him. I felt bad about not taking him, but I knew Jim and I needed to have our fun!

Jim tries Macaroni and Cheese on a stick. Our verdict: just okay.


My corndog was GREAT. Expensive, but great. There was a much larger corndog, if you can believe that!


Jim was too excited. Sweet Martha cookies at last!


Jim tried to win me a stuffed animal but this game was too hard, despite his pool skillz.


James had a great day at daycare. Before we leave we make a stop at the potty. James is excited to sit on the potty now! He must have a lot of encouragement at daycare and I'm trying to continue that at home. I don't force him to stay on the potty long, but I'm just trying to get into the routine of having him visit the potty. I only manage a few seconds of sitting before he says, "I'm done on potty!"

This is a smaller toilet. Just his size!






I have great news! James used the potty for the first time! He earned a sticker on the door chart!!! I am very excited. They told me that they whooped it up and congratulated him. I hope I'll have the same chance to do this at home!!!


James has a locker! We store his change of clothes, a blanket, and his beloved Blankie in the locker.


So he did have a great day and week!


After dinner we have James sit on the potty again. I forget what he was saying to me in this picture, but he's just too damn cute!


Playing outside tonight-






We got him to golf! He shot a couple balls and then got distracted with chalk art, his bike, but then went back to golf. I do like that he's so well rounded!






Dada shows James how its done!


I love this picture. My boys are so cute!

What did you do today, James?

"I eat ice cream!"

I love the part of the day where I ask James what he did that day. Today he was able to tell me that he ate chocolate ice cream, played with Grandma (Rosie), and saw a rabbit sleeping.

Oh, and he's asked to do it all again tomorrow!

My Golden Boy

Basking in the morning sun.

What's James doing NOW?

Inhaling pudding!

We just heard from Tia ChaCha and Tio Donkey- they are at the Vikings game!




(Last year's picture)

New Daycare Days #1 & 2

Day #1 was a big success. We both dropped off James yesterday morning for his first day. We had some paperwork to take care of too, but we both wanted to see how James would do on his first day and whether he would have a hard time. Nope! He did cling to me in the first few minutes but once he found some interesting toys, we said goodbye to him as he was playing independently and that was that. I called later in the morning to check on him and they said they still hadn't gotten him to play with others, but he was doing well.

This also was his first day in Pull-up diapers. They were going to start him on the potty immediately. I know this will work eventually because he'll see the other kids using the potty and he'll want to too.

At the end of the day I went to pick him up but I watched him through the monitor first. It was story time and James (and all the kids) were sitting in one area, on the floor, listening to the teacher. Some of the kids were making the hand motions, following the teacher, but James was sitting still and listening. I watched while a little girl tried to interact with James, first by putting her hand on top of his head. He tried hard to shake it off and then laughed. But then they played tug-o-war with some object and it looked not so friendly. The daycare director was just telling me that he hadn't interacted much of the kids all day, and so I pointed out the struggle with a laugh.

James gave me the most wonderful greeting as I walked in the door. "Mama!!!" with a smile and running towards me. He told me too, "I fun with friends!" So I knew he had a good day. I checked his folder and found these papers to take home.







At home, he was still happy about his day. He told us many times that he had fun and about his new friends. He mentioned his teacher Jamie a few times.

This morning he did NOT want to go to "school". I think the real issue was that I didn't let him watch TV and we left right away, soon after waking up. He cried a little in the car, and was again clingy when we arrived at the daycare. I stayed for a few minutes in the preschool room and helped him to get crayons and paper to color. While he got busy with that, I left the room to put his stuff in his cute little locker. I watched him from the window and the daycare teachers encouraged me to just leave without saying goodbye. I feel bad about that but I know he is doing fine.

Chef James and other fun

James was in a weird mood one morning and I found him "swimming" in his toys. He looked to be enjoying this- what a mess!


Yup, I made this mess.


Mama got skillz.


I found James' winter coat while shopping and was so happy that it matches his penguin hat from Tia ChaCha!


This is too cute! James was saying this while hugging Blankie, "Blankie so beautiful!"


I like how Blankie has become a "him" recently. James will look for Blankie and when he finds it, he says, "I found him!" Blankie also has an appetite. The other day James told me, "Blankie wants pudding, Mama."

Help me, Mama!




He's got a mischievous look in his eye. Know what he's doing? With my encouragement, he's giving Jim "spider fingers"- making his fingers crawl to look like a spider. Jim is scared of spiders :)


"I cook." (James makes GREAT hamburgers!)


Do you want cheese with that?


He really does understand the concept of cooking. He tells me often, "Go cook macaroni cheese." Ummmm, can you say please?

Recent artwork:

Remember this?

I'm going through old pictures and videos.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Goodbye Sandra!

James had his last day of daycare at Sandra's yesterday. I feel bad that I didn't do anything special for Sandra because she was very good to us over the last two years. I think I can still do something though. A gift? A cake? I am hoping to invite her to James' birthday party, and I know I'll keep in touch with her. She did ask to get an update on James' transition to New Horizon, though she told me "he'll do great, he's such a mellow fellow". I also think he'll do well. I plan on watching him through the video monitors for a bit when we drop him off in the morning.

Its a gloomy, rainy day. I had hoped to take James to a playground or something, but I think we'll hold off on that one. We are both still in our pajamas. James is happy with his episode of Blue's Clues (the same darn Soccer episode that he enjoys watching over and over and over...) and he's cutting his hamburger. I love that toy :) (Thanks ChaCha!)

So James has daycare on Thursday and Friday, while I have my own plans. I have a night out planned for Thursday with one of my BFF's Erin, and then I'm going a movie with Anna on Friday. I can't wait for the movie! And then the best day is Saturday when Grandma Rosie is coming over to spend the day with James! I know she's very excited. Jim and I don't know what we'll do with the unexpected day to ourselves, but we'll figure it out :)

Here's an old video that I found, a collection of pictures from daycare December 2007-November 2008.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What's James doing NOW?

Painting!


"Apple picking". James said this was an "apple", and then "I pick it." So figured he was thinking about apple picking. He has a book from his Tio Donkey about apple picking.


Its one of those days. We're still in our pajamas and like it!

Those Quirk-y kids!

(I bet they've never heard that before!)
James and I had a playdate with my friend Kim and her great kids Josh and Lucy. The Quirk kids. We finally had success getting together! Two other times this summer we postponed or canceled plans for whatever reasons and we've given each other great grief through Facebook and texts that we're just destined to be FB BFF's. Well, now our kids have met and we'll claim Josh and Lucy as friends! Real life friends for James :)

Josh was so helpful getting James to play and explore. He is very outgoing and really loved having James on his turf, I think. Kim told me that Josh isn't always so "hyper" but I would guess that any kid seeing another kid playing with their toys and in their space would feel the same way. Josh is FOUR and so it was great to see what is ahead of us. He talks and talks, and can be independent and helpful. I'll explain that below.

The boys play at making a "tent".


And then at lunch Josh helps to talk up his Mom's cooking. He told us that Kim's pizza rolls are his favorite food and we will love them. James isn't good at trying new foods so I was anxious and excited to see what he would do. I thought with Josh's help, James would try them! Kim was busy in the kitchen so I don't know if she knows how helpful and sweet Josh was, but he was!


You can see little Lucy and Kim in the background of this picture. Josh is still explaining to James that lunch will be soooo good!


James did eat the pizza rolls and they were good :)

James is still talking about playing in the sand, playing with instruments, Josh, Lucy, and climbing on the table. Heh.

C'est magnifique!

Pass the spray butter...

Yup, James is our child. He has discovered corn on the cob and loves it.






And the spray butter? I wish! Even before this corn, James has been obsessed with the spray butter. We can't even have it on the table anymore because he becomes so focused on playing with the butter bottle and then forgets to eat. I now hide the spray butter. Sorry SYTINB.

Good times!

I'll be missing something very soon. My camera! I don't know how I'll make it! It needs to be sent in for a repair and so until I figure out a new system of taking pictures and then uploading them, these posts might just be text. We'll see.

I'm avoiding washing dishes. I just made a huge mess in the kitchen. I made Cinnamon ice cream and Martha brownies for treats tomorrow. We're going to Grandma Rosie's for lunch! James will be excited to see his familia and maybe catch some golf on TV. I also made pesto cuz my sister said I hoard it and so I'll be showing up with my hands full. Ha!

We got "cozy" on the couch, watching golf. Good times. I think we squished Dada.



James has been very artsy lately. His favorite things to do in the last few days have been to draw on his chalk mat or paint. The first one was the only picture that he named. The others are just works of art!







Last night I had a jewelry party that I went to and I left the boys at home with McDonald's for dinner, football on TV, and popcorn to be popped. Good times!

This morning we went to the Noble Garden Center because they had an event called "Art in the Garden". Local artists were there with tables/booths set up in the garden center, and crafty things for kids to do. Oh, and the farmers market was up and running. And a big bouncy thing that James enjoyed jumping in! For just a local little garden center, it was a good event. I bought some fresh sweet corn, basil, and a cinnamon roll for Jim. (I'm still in amazement that I can buy a HUGE bunch of basil for $1!) Grandma Laura, its open tomorrow- you should go check it out!

Oooh! James is awake from his nap. I hear him knocking on his bedroom door to be let out! Funny!

IC

It was too hot to bake so I made ice cream!

Chocolate Peanut Butter from the Perfect Scoop

It is very good! The peanut butter flavor was stronger than I thought it would be and I used dark chocolate cocoa instead of regular cocoa, and one other minor substitution, but yum.

Splash!

Its hot. We filled up the pool this morning hoping that the morning sun would warm it up for a late morning swim. It was still freezing cold when James wanted to go in (at 9ish) so we poured hot water in there to warm it up. It worked. James was still reluctant to get in the pool so I jumped in with him. I only took these pictures before we got wet, but you can see how cute James is with his little swim trunks.

He didn't want to walk down the hill but we made it fun by running!


Toddler model. Strike a pose.


"I think not." (We hear that a lot.) James didn't want to go in the pool.