What James Has Been Up To

James is now 14 months old.  Jeez, that went fast.  I really feel that he has grown a lot not just physically but developmentally even since he turned one.  Sorry this will be long.  I have started writing the things he does down so I can remember them and since we use this blog as our journal, I am writing those things here as well.

His vocabulary has tripled.  He went from just pretty much knowing "ma ma" to now he says, "E-I-E-I-O (to Old McDonald...I guess that's not really a word, but it's something he says that we can understand what he means), "no no no no" (I guess we tell him "no" too much haha), and sometimes says "da da" (a lot of times he calls Carson "ma ma"...we are working on this :) ).

I have thought of teaching him a little sign language but have just been debating if I really think it's worth it.  About a month ago we were at the gardens at Thanksgiving Point with my family and my sister taught him how to sign "more" and he got it right away!  What a smart boy!  He has continued to do this so he knows one sign.  I may teach him more signs, we'll see.

He mimics us A TON!  It is so cute! The other day my dad was over and was talking to me about sprinklers.  He was talking about the kind that rotate and make a ch ch ch sound.  He made that sound while using his finger to describe the type he was talking about and James right away puts up his finger like it's a sprinkler and goes "ch ch ch".  Haha it was too cute!  He has also learned by watching us, to blow on his food to cool it down, hilarious.

It's crazy how much he understands.  He has learned to hold phones up to his ear, brush his hair, and while driving his little toy cars around, he makes a "vroom" noise.  He is also starting to make animal sounds.  He can say "Oo, oo" like a monkey and "ba ba" like a lamb only after mimicking us.  But it's funny, whenever he sees a duck he has a certain noise for it, it's almost like a growl and a quack all in one.  He does this without prompting.  And he does it very loudly in church sometimes when he sees the ducks in his book :)

The dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point

When we say, "Where is your foot?"  he'll point to his foot.  When we ask, "Where is your belly button?" he can find his belly button or if we ask where ours is, he will ours for us too.  But those are the only two body parts he knows right now.

He loves Oreos!...two seconds after this pic, he put his hands all over his face

He is not quite walking on his own yet though a couple of weeks ago he took three steps on his own because he was walking to his favorite cousin, Addie!  Here and there we will let go of him and he'll stand on his own for a minute but he soon realizes no one is holding onto him and he slowly lowers himself down to crawling...the little stinker.  He got a little car that he can ride/walk with for his birthday and he LOVES it!  He has gotten really good at maneuvering that thing around the house.  He'll use it to get where he wants and then will scale the walls.  He's definitely all over the place.

Hiking the Y - James' first hike

He has gotten really good at eating.  He'll eat just about anything we are eating, even meat (as long as it's not too tough of course).  He loves to share sub sandwiches with us.  He has an interesting palate.  He likes things that I would think most babies wouldn't such as pickles, olives, and avocados.  He absolutely LOVES bananas (definitely didn't get that from Dad).  He also drinks out of a straw.  I think he learned this one so early because we have camel back water bottles with the straw and he's always trying to copy us and drink from them.  Well, one day he just figured it out after accidentally getting some and choking on it :)  He now has the straw mastered as he can also drink from our fountain drinks.  One bad thing about that though is that he doesn't quite get the whole sippy cup thing.  He doesn't understand that he can drink from his sippy while standing or sitting, he just needs to tip his head back a little.  The only way he can really get a good drink from them is lying down.

Giving his cousin, Will a hug

Along with kisses, he has started giving hugs.  This is so sweet.  Sometimes they are big bear hugs...love it!  He is so snuggly.  He loves to sit on our lap in the rocking chair and rock while we sing to him.  He also loves sitting on our lap having us read to him.

Right now he has seven teeth, three on the bottom and four on the top.  Not sure if any more are making their appearance soon, can't see any.

He has such a fun personality.  He loves to dance.  He loves to clap.  Anytime people on TV or anywhere in public are clapping, James joins in.  He is so silly and will often pull funny faces.  He is obsessed with flushing the toilet right now and likes to watch it swirl.  Most of the time he is napping while I get ready for the day, but the times he is not is such a hassle.  He insists that he hangs out where I am so I have started getting ready out in the living room if he's awake so that I'm not fighting to keep him away from the toilet.  He loves to help around the house by vacuuming (really he likes to push the vacuum around) and watering the flowers (he likes to play in the water).

Look at that silly face

He is such a joy!  We are loving being parents!