ahhh

so, my oh my. what has been going on with us? well, jake finished his academic part in instruments this week. so another part down in the flight school. james is testing my patience as usual. and i am still growing. ha!
this is an adorable pic of jake and james. they watch helicopter videos together on youtube all the time. its almost soothing for james. but he does get excited when he sees black hawks. i dont know if you can see the actual helicopter on the screen or not.

we went to a birthday party for some friends of ours at the fun factory in enterprise. its an interesting place where children roam free. this is an area where james likes to play because its for toddlers, so no big kids are really ever in there. as you can see, he loves to scream.

and this area is where you can shoot foam balls at people. this lil contraption that james likes is a ball shooter. you push the top button to turn it on and you put balls in the bottom hole. it sucks it up and shoots out the top. nothing too fancy, but he sure does like it.

he had a great time at the fun factory with his friends. but mostly, he just wore us out. jake had to literally run after him a few times and that made him tired, too. oh well.. besides the random friend hang outs, nothing too exciting is happening over here just yet.

oh my...

oh my goodness.. the joys of being a mom. i look at this pic and i just melt. but then i think about what it took to get there and i wanna pull my hair out. these are my thoughts for today. if you dont care to read it all, i wont be offended. lol



this week, jake and i decided to try and get james OFF the bottle. he never used a pacifier too much and he never sucked his thumbs. he did suck his fingers when he would teeth, but that passed a long time ago. james is doing pretty good with using his sippy cup for juice. i just leave it out and he drinks it whenever he wants. but there are times when he wants his bottle. he usually gets one in the morning, one before nap, one after nap, maybe one in between that and bed, then one at bed. ya, it doesnt seem like a lot, but it IS. i tried today to get him to go without it, didnt work. i know its only noon, but i caved for naptime. really? what is the big deal if my kid likes to drink a bottle before bed? fill that lil tummy and get him off to dreamland, man!!! some people stop their bottles at like 15 months! thats nuts! bless your heart, moms. but i just cant seem to do it. i dont know what else to do. my theory right now is to slow the number of bottles and then eventually get rid of them. like stop the ones AFTER he wakes up and ONLY give it to him when he GOES to bed? that doesnt seem TOO bad. what do you think?

my other mind conversation with myself is the topic of his speech. james doesnt talk as much as the other kids his age. but the only ones i can "compare" him to are GIRLS. he doesnt really hang with any BOYS. so, of COURSE they are going to be ahead because we all know that GIRLS talk a lot and are quick learners. :-) he can say about 20 words, sign about 10, understands about 8, and knows about 8 body parts. that aint bad.... so i thought. i looked at the babycenter website and he is suppose to know 50-70 words! AND be able to put two words together!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?! my kid is just learning to say THANK YOU. that is the only TWO WORDS he has ever put together. it just makes me feel like i am a bad mommy sometimes when he is not up to these "standards" and when i take him to the dr, they are just like "whatever" which doesnt make me feel ANY better because then i think THEY just dont care about MY kid! arg... being a mom is stressful. he is such a happy kid, plays ALL day, is eating ok (that needs work, i know), and i just love him so much. i figure i can do more, but its so hard to get his attention when he is so wrapped up in his play. they only times he is still is when he is sleeping or watching Mickey Mouse. sigh. i just like to think what my mom tells me - "he wont go to kindergarten with a bottle and he will talk just fine". is it true?

craft

you HAVE to check out my latest craft. its adorable. go to the blog!

30.2 wks!

ok, so you all know how hard it is to take pics of yourself. ESPECIALLY if you are trying to get a certain area. well, i tried to take some pics of my belly and this is what i came up with.

this is a straight on shot. you can see that a person really cant tell too much that i am pregnant if seen from this angle.

this one i tried to get a side shot from the mirror instead of having the camera so close to me.

and alas, this is the pic that i usually take. its horrible and you cant really see the contrast between my belly and the rest of me.

love the oldies

as i wrote just before this, i have been taking a lot of pics with my phone. i found that i didnt download them to the computer, so that is why these pics are about 2 months old and i am just now putting them up...

this is the typical look of james when he wakes up. he has to be wrapped in his blanket and then carried around. he also has to have his hands wrapped as he drinks his bottle so it doesnt get his hands too cold, i am assuming.

this is his FAVORITE garbage. he takes out the liner, then drags the garbage tin everywhere and putting anything in it. if we take it away, he gets SOO mad. but this time, i put it over his head and he thought it was HILARIOUS!

yup, gotta have BOTH fingers in the nose. i dont know why kids do it. he just figures out every now and again that he can get him fingers in there and does it. nothing ever comes OUT of his nose with the fingers, just sticks them in and laughs.

ya, when he wakes up, and after he drinks his bottle, i try to get him to eat SOMETHING. so i put him in his highchair and try to get him some food. sometimes, he has to have that blanket around him, so i decided to put it around his head. it was pretty cute. he was playing with one of the cabinet locks this day. but as long as he has that blanket, nothing else matters.