17 months

Two months in a row - am I good, or what?

This is his catalog pose.

This month, Jameson has been all about books. He loves them. He likes to flip through each page pretty quickly, then go back to review random pages near the middle.

The other day, I was up getting ready for the day and he was being really quiet. Usually, when I go upstairs, he follows me eventually and tries to get under the sink so he can sprinkle Comet in his hair and eat pomade. But today, he didn't. I looked down the stairs, and he was crouched on the kitchen floor (like Mr. Peepers) thumbing through Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

He also has a special book that he reads at church, that is also a puzzle, which is cool, and a few he likes to read in the car.

I love his obsession with books and I hope he'll soon allow me to actually read to him!

He also loves apples as much as Mr. Peepers does.

Jameson has also discovered the joy of dipping french fries (and his fingers) in ketchup.

He also eats yogurt with a spoon and is obsessed with outside. Here he sits watching Mark mow the lawn:

This little bug is getting so big, but I still can't believe he is going to be the big brother so soon. I entered the third trimester today, and it's also 90 degrees outside. We are so excited to meet baby Blake.

Breckenridge

We just got back from a fun trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. The locals call this "mud season;" the resorts are closed but it isn't quite warm enough for summer sports.

We didn't care. We practically had the city to ourselves, and the weather was actually really nice.

On Sunday, one of Mark's friends from law school came up with his family to stay with us at our condo. It was nice to walk around, visit and try to keep the kids entertained. We walked the river in town, which is so pretty.

We also found a slide:

On Monday, we went in to Denver to visit my friend Melissa and her family, but not without stopping by Mile-High Stadium for Mark to commune with the sports gods and for Jameson to fall on his face on the sidewalk. We met up with Melissa and her kids at the Colorado Children's Museum, which Jameson loved. He could have moved right in. I don't have a lot of good pictures at the museum, because Jameson wouldn't even take a break from playing long enough to even look at me.

On Tuesday, we spent time hiking and shopping. The hiking was (mostly) successful, with Jameson doing quite a bit of his own walking.

Main street in Breckenridge is so adorable. It's lined with colorful, historic homes, and I was geeking out about every one.

We loved our little getaway and will definitely be going back!

Playgrounds are serious.

Today we took Jameson to the park with the swings. Our neighborhood, which we love for many reasons, has two awesome playgrounds. One is for kids 3 and under, but has no swings. One is for kids 5-12, but has swings, including baby swings. So you can see my dilemma when it comes to deciding which park to visit. We wanted to go to on the swings today, so we went to the big kid park. After a while on the swings, we tried the big slides, and Jameson was in heaven. I think we have some cute pictures of it on Mark's phone, so I will have to get some of those.

I love the look on his face in this picture. It says to me, "I know this park is for big kids, but I'm here, I'm fairly coordinated, and I can't look like a fool in front of all these people. I'm walking across the drawbridge, dangit, if it's the last thing I do."

Jimmy Jam is 16 Months Old

Without the monthly baby book updates keeping me honest about tracking Jameson's growth, I find myself slacking. This week, I have become so aware of how much he has grown and changed recently. Even though physically, babies don't grow as fast after their first birthdays, it's amazing how quickly they start learning new skills.

At Jameson's 15-month doctor's appointment, he was still in the 95th percentile for height, 90th percentile for head circumference and 50th percentile for weight. I think he is going to be built like Mark, but with a bigger head. He has 13 teeth.

At that appointment, he also had four words: hi, more, uh-oh, and no.

This month, he's added night-night, bye-bye, ball, block, apple, water, nose, tickle, daddy (not mommy),and all done.

If you ask him, he will show you his head, nose, toes, socks and shoes. He claps his hands when he does something good, he dances when he hears music and he spins around in circles.

 He is also somehow remembering signs for words I taught him months ago (well, tried to teach him for a couple of days before I gave up), as he learns the word. Suddenly when he learned to say "more," he was also doing the sign. Likewise with "all done." It's kind of funny, because signs are supposed to be used when the baby can't communicate. Either way, I get a kick out of it.

This kid loves a sandwich. I believe this is the first time I ever said "smile!" and  he complied.

Today I told Jameson we were going to go to the store. He excitedly went to the shoe basket and brought back one of his shoes for me to put on him, then walked right over to the door to the garage and tried to open the door. I loved it, because I could tell he knew the drill for leaving. I also loved that he only felt the need to put on one shoe.

Easter weekend, pictured with my dad and my Opa. Apparently it is too much to ask for anyone to look at the camera.

Over Easter weekend, my parents were in town, and my mom attempted teaching Jameson to blow kisses when they were saying goodbye. I thought it was so cute that I've been working with him on it. Today, I was prompting Jameson to say bye-bye to the checker at Lowe's, who was talking to Jameson. Lately he'll tell people bye-bye, in addition to saying hi to them six or seven times. Today, he just blew the guy a kiss! It was his first perfect blown kiss, and he chose to use it on the checker at Lowe's.

This poor pale kid has only had a handful of opportunities to play outside. He is a little cautious.

This made me think.

I just read this post from C. Jane Kendrick. I will occasionally drop by her blog and find a lot of the things she writes to be very thoughtful. This post just reminded me so much of myself as a teenager. I think we all have angst as teenagers (or was it just me?), and letting go of it is an important rite of passage. From the post: 

I use anger constantly to feel validated and smart. If I'm lonely or bored or hungry I need a hit. It's mostly mental, the way it pools up in my head and I start to think about issues or people who anger me, and with that anger pumping in my veins, I can accomplish almost anything I need to accomplish. I don't yell or scream, I don't hit or punch, I just think.

It's worth a read, especially if you ever feel your angsty teenage self come a creepin.

And now, mysteries of the human condition.

I really wonder where the derogatory name "pansy" came from. Of course it means someone who's weak or wimpy like a tiny little flower.

But I tell you what. We have had a super snowy, super cold winter here in Utah. Coldest in 40 years or something (and you know how it can snow here - 40 year record cold is pretty significant).

I also this year decided to be lazy do an experiment where I didn't rip out any of my flowers in the fall. I thought I'll just let them die there and see what happens come spring.

Recent sunshine has just uncovered a flower bed in my yard that has been covered with a foot of snow and ice for the past month, and wouldn't you like to know what I just found...green leaves and stems on several of my snapdragons and at least five green and kicking pansy plants, one with a BLOOMING FLOWER.

Time for the bullies of America to re-examine the name "pansy," because that is one tough little blossom.

How to tell if your kid is wiggly.

I have a wiggly kid. I realized this the other day when I was looking through the pictures on my phone and noticed that basically all of them are J in his high chair, like so:

When the kid's this cute, I'm OK with wiggly. He will even cuddle with me for 3 seconds at a time! So sweet!