Tractors!

We were so lucky to get to go to Utah for a month...but a month wasn't long enough I still had lots of family to spend MORE time with and lots of friends that I didn't get to see.  I apologize if you are reading this and you are one of them.  Never never enough time.

Anyway so Rocky had a rotation at the University of Utah for a month and he let James and I drive him there. We were happy to do it.  It's not often that we get extended time with Rocky.

One weekend we went up to Logan for a quick visit with James Great Grandparents....who are pretty much the coolest.  James is really into Tractors these days and well what do you know??? Both sets of great grandparents had a tractor for him to ride.  He was in tractor heaven and pretty serious about it too.  Driving a tractor isn't all fun and games you know.

 Well driving a tractor is funner for Grandpa but he has a few more years of experience so he can smile.

James showing dad how to put his hands on the wheel.

Grandma made a friend for life when she gave James he very own ice cream cone.  Grandma also managed to avoid the camera most of the time.  Don't worry Grandma...I'll get you my pretty.  

James and Grandpa S became two peas in a pod.  Here is Grandpa explaining the in's and out's (who's in and out ... haha) of his Will.  

The tractor across the street.  Pretty cool and HUGE for a little guy.

Buddies!

James running to Grandpa.

Probably talking about Tractors...

Riding the Tractor that keeps the green stuff down.

James was thrilled (and so were the chickens) when Grandpa C gave him a cup of candy (wheat) to feed the chickens.  

James was even more thrilled when he saw the HUGE patch of tomatoes in the garden...just his size.

Here he is trying to keep up with Grandma...she is a quick one.

James checking Grandpa's work.  

Floating boats with grandma.

We had such a good time with all the family in Logan.....Aunt Sue and Joann's family also evaded the camera.  We wished we could have spent more time.  Thanks for the wonderful memories!

RED ROCK RELAY

A SPECIAL MOMENT FOR ME

When my sisters asked to me to run a relay with them I thought it would be way fun and so of course I said yes.  Then as it got closer and my training wasn't going well I starting thinking that it wasn't going to be fun - it would be hard.  Then it got really hot here in Ohio - and we didn't even have to drink water anymore because we just got it when we breathed the humid air.  And well, I didn't have any plans to drown (you know from breathing too hard in such humid weather) so of course I couldn't train in those conditions.....so the race REALLY didn't seem like it would be worth it.  And then I was going to have to leave James overnight without me.  How would he ever survive with his loving grandparents and aunties that would probably spoil him to death......ok ok, I wondered how I would ever survive.

Jamie charging up her MAJOR hill

Yes, I'm pathetic.  (Please see the last post when I cried because I was told that I could leave nursery).

So anyway there were way tooooooo many hard things going on here.

Most of my training consisted of thinking about how I should be training and then thinking of excuses as to why I couldn't.

Sara after finishing her 8 miles run (it was 8 right?)

I was pretty sure that the elevation difference was going to kill me.  Ohio and Utah - they really different.

I could barely stand the thought of leaving James.

Janice's unfortunate injuring run ( she became our driver after this run)

When I did actually train I would get to about 2.9 miles and then need to use the bathroom would hit me so hard that I'm still embarrassed thinking about how I'm sure I looked as I walked/danced/pranced/ran/walked/pinched/ran/danced/pranced/pinched home.   And it happened multiple times.  So when I saw that all of my legs of the race were over 3 miles I figured there was no way I would be helping out my team at all.

Alice

Overall I was scared - scared of the unknown.  scared of what my body might or might not do.

Alice and Juicy

My van consisted of all girls, all related, except for when Neil (a cousin) couldn't stand how much fun were having and begged to join us for a little while.  Then he couldn't handle the pure awesomeness of us girls and so his head exploded and we gave him back to the other van.

Me yelling as I got toward the end of my long run.  I was loving it.

But then it came time to race and so race is what I did.

Neil before his head exploded from girl awesomeness

Cute Shaunee who would rarely look at the camera

Janice intoxicated by the smell of my shoes.  Whoooweee

A normal picture of Juicy and Sara

Our Light Saber - feel the power

Group shot

The girls!

The Sisters

 I'm happy to say that I finished.  I ran most of all three of my legs.  I had the best time with my van mates and our team 2 van.  I loved the experience but would probably think twice about doing it again.

18 MONTHS

Seriously time is going by way too fast and in just a week James will be a month older so I better get the 18 month report in here.

One thing is that he is very much on the move and discovering.  He is much harder to photograph.

James seemed to make some major changes from 17 to 18 months.
He weighs 22 lbs and is ?? inches.  I'm so bad - don't remember.  I hope hope hope that I can find my printout with numbers.

So he lost weigh but grew in height.

He doesn't like to eat much, it just gets in the way of play.  The Dr. told me to not worry too much - he won't let himself starve.  Sounds encouraging right?

When we can get him to eat something he usually prefers tomatos, grapes, any fruit really, or anything that dad is eating.

He loves to play with trains - he calls them Tractors.  In fact if it has wheels it falls into the tractor category.

He has named his binky.  He call's it "bunny."

He loves grandpas and great grandpas and uncles and almost uncles.  Girls are ok....but boys are awesome.  I think I'm (mom) still tops though and I am all right with that.

He is saying more words then we can count and is getting pretty good at copying us.

You know that your prayer is too long if James says "amen" before you do.  He likes them short and to the point.

He loves watching shows.


He loves to play outside and loves Rocks and throwing rocks and eating rocks.

He sleeps really well but wakes up crying.

He has a super funny fake laugh....which may be a real laugh but sounds fake.

He is super good at spotting planes in the sky and finding animals.

He LOVES animals, especially Shasta, my parents cat.  And especially small animals that he can hold.

He is very sweet and gives lots of hugs and kisses....and he is totally a toddler and hits when he doesn't get what he wants.

He has started to go to nursery, I cried when he was doing well and they told me I could leave.  Wasn't I just counting down the days at the 17 month mark????  

Where the HECK is Easy Street!?!

My mom and I laughed when we saw the sign - "where the heck is easy street."  I'm pretty sure that some people I know have found it but they refuse to tell us where it is at.......WELL today I found it.  IT was at the D.I. 

I got myself a brand new pair of Toms shoes...in my size.  They are listed on the TOMS website for $54 and I got them for $4.  The only thing that was missing was the box. I'm not really interested in paying $50 for a box. 

EASY STREET!!!

Healthy Food

This is for all of you who have a mom who was sneaky about putting "healthies" in the food.

Road Trip Photos

Ok so these aren't all the pictures that I wanted to post but I was putting pressure on myself to post some vacation photos...and Jason (brother in law) said it was painful to read the huge long vacation posts without pictures.  I agree.  So here are some.  You might think that because James is the only one in most of the pictures that he was the only one who went on vacation.  He let us tag along...

About 2 hours and 2 minutes into the vacation before "the fall" 

Nothing like headphones and a pretzel to make you feel better 

Showing off some Harry Potter like wand action.

Sitting on the HUGE tree at the Breakers

Taking care of a little hotel business.

James LOVED touching EVERYTHING that was at his height

How naps looked on the trip....he pulled his hat down himself.

A Canolli from Mike's Pastry

Another thing James' size.  

We are those kind of parents that put their children on a leash.  And I make an appearance in the photos....well my arm does anyway.

Showing off his battle scars

A partial view of downtown Boston. (Thanks Liz!)

Don't you just want to pinch those little cheeks???

REFUSING to touch the sand.

Reading every last word...I mean touching every last word on the Hill Cumorah monument.

A big thanks to all those who read our vacation posts without pictures.  

17 months

We are one month away from nursery and sooo excited.

James is finally starting to really get some teeth. He has one molar, three bottom teeth and one top tooth....in the front. We may start calling him snaggle tooth if the other one doesn't come in soon.
James is loving his "baseballs".... which really means basketball....it just comes out baseball.
He loves to chat on all his play phones and says "hello" constantly but it sounds more like "yellow?"
He is such a picky eater.  But fruit is still a pretty good go to.
He loves to wrestle with his Dad.  They are on pretty good terms now..... since dad started sharing cereal with him.
He is down to one nap.  :(
He loves sticks and rocks.

He is such a fun little guy and is aways making me laugh.

Road Trip (part two)

We left Boston and headed back into New York.  This was a quick 6 hour drive...Rocky did most of the driving so the time went by fairly quickly for me and James.  We slept.  There were TONS of toll roads on this trip.  Our biggest toll was 12.00 dollars.  Shoot - that's some big bucks for a toll we thought.  But once we got to the non toll road it made sense.  The Toll road was WAY nicer and their rest stops were the best.

Our first stop was Palmyra.  We actually stayed in about 20 minutes away so we could be in a hotel that had our new MUST haves - a kitchen, living room, and bedroom.  We spoiled ourselves.  It was either that or go home because there was NO way we were sharing a room with James.  He just doesn't like us and cries and cries when we sleep in the same room as him.

It rained the day we planned to go visit the church sites....so we went anyway.  We drove by the temple and waited in the parking lot by the Smith homes hoping that the rain would stop.  James was sleeping so it wasn't bad at all....and the rain stopped.  But when you stepped out of the car it was SOOOO humid that it might as well of been raining.  This made my walk into the Sacred Grove pretty much a look at the trees in the opening and then get in the car.  I probably would have ventured in more but my boys had all ready been in there and weren't too excited about going back.  The claimed to have lost too much blood to the bugs.

Rocky and I took turns with the tours at the different places, James decided not to participate in any of the tours....at least the tour guide/missionary version.  He did his own.  His version was so fast, back and forth and all over the place that I didn't quite understand but tried my best.

We drove up the Hill Cumorah.  Yes, we are just about as lazy as it gets.  But seriously - when it feels like you are swimming in the air - a car ride up the hill really is best.  It was super windy at the top.  James loved the statue.  We were there for just a short time and were hoping that we could watch the new Joseph Smith movie in the visitors center but the little man would have non of that.  So we went home.

The next day we packed up and headed for Niagara Falls - Canada side.  The falls were beautiful.  We rode the Maid of the Mist.  James wasn't a fan of the mist but he did find some tools on the boat that he REALLY liked.  The area around the falls reminded us of the Smokey Mountains.  I'm not talking about the falls themselves.  I'm talking about the crazy touristy stuff.  Wow.  Haunted houses, believe it or not, wax museums, mazes, and all sorts of things.  We didn't stay too long because we needed to head home. It was another 6 hour drive and we got home around 10.

I was soooo happy I had done a lot of cleaning before we left.  It made it so nice to come home to a mostly clean house.  I'll have to try that more often.

Road Trip (part one)

Ever since we took the plunge and got a minivan we have been anxious to take a serious road trip.  This past week we finally did it.  It was awesome and it was hard with a 16 month old.

First of all I apologize for the lack of photos on this post....iphoto has decided to not allow me to access them yet.  I'm sure if I reboot it at least 5 more times and whisper the magic word - nicely -  it would grant me access. I'm not in the mood.  Thinking about storing photos somewhere else but that is for another post.

Our first leg was to Rhode Island.  13 hours in the car.  We were most worried about this - because of James.  But he was a CHAMP!  He was a better traveler then I.  I had to stop at least every two hours to empty my tank (potty break).  I think it drove Rocky nuts.  But we still made it in 13 hours....so there!
James fell and got come MAJOR road rash on his cute little face at our first rest area stop.  It was pretty sad.  We had...
Lots of movies
Lots of music
Lots of laughs
Lots of stops
and 13 hours later we were in R.I.

This is when things got really interesting with the 16 month old.  So interesting that we considered turning around and heading home the next day.
He was up once every hour through the night crying unconsolably.
He refused to eat
He had to touch EVERYTHING
He HAD to have the phone, the remote, the laptop, the door open, the door closed, the lights on, the lights off.  My oh my.  And of course we didn't want our neighbors in the room next to us think that we beat our son so of course we gave him what he wanted.
The next morning he fell into a tub of ice (no worries, not enough to hurt him - just enough to make him cry...again)
He squeezed cheese all over his tummy.
He fell off the bed.
He cried and cried.
He wanted up
He wanted down
He wanted mom
He wanted Dad
He wanted a show
He wanted the door open
He wanted the door closed.....and so on

We were so happy when we got him in his car seat and he fell asleep by the time we had him buckled in.    (not quite that fast really, but it was close)

We drove around for two hours while he slept.  He NEEDED it.
When he woke up we parked the car and got up close and personal with the HUGE mansions and strolled along the cliff walk.  So beautiful.

Then it was off to Boston.
This was a quick drive.  Just over an hour (I think).  We got to our hotel and were soooo happy that we went with a suite.  We had a separate space for James and a little kitchen and we were all soooooo happy.

Boston was wonderful.  I would love to visit again.
We went to the children's museum - James threw his first MAJOR temper tantrum in public (on the floor - thrashing, kicking, screaming, crying, rolling around).  Rocky was totally embarrassed.  I thought it was funny.  It was all over a broom the cleaning lady had left in the bathroom, I wouldn't let James keep it.

We went to church, walked along the pier, walked the Freedom trail, stopped by Mike's pastries, went to the science museum, went to a red sox game, road the train (lots), walked around Harvard and MIT (thanks to Liz), we walked and walked and loved it.

Maine - burrrrrrrr - we hit up the beach.
Well the temperature was soooo nice but when you put your little toes in the ocean they would freeze off.  I mean it felt like they were going to freeze off.  I still have no idea why (or how) so many people played in the ocean in just their teeny, tiny, thin swimsuits.  I would have gotten in if I were wearing 10 wet suits.  James HATED the feel of sand on his feet and cried.  We got smart and put on his shoes and he was happy again.  We had some very yummy lobster and walked along the coast.  Maine was so beautiful.

16 months

Wow - I am getting way behind on the blog.  We just got back from a very fun vacation so I'll post more about that later....but I've got to get caught up on James.  I know you are all dying to know what has changed since last month.  Unfortunately it's not much but we do have a few things to report.

James 4th of July model shot.

This little guy has pooped in the potty.
Finally has one front tooth and it looks like maybe the other one will make an appearance sometime this year.  (we are slow teeth growers)
He is saying all kinds of words.
He is back on the binky - rats!  We will begin weening again.
He walks backwards.
He LOVES mom (me) - Like MAJOR LOVE.  I get hugs and kisses and lately I'm the only one he wants.  Luckily I'm usually the only one around.  It works out well for him.  It's becoming exhausting for me.
We now have to do some Curious George weening.
He LOVES LOVES hats.  We lost his favorite hat on the vacation....picked up a new one and James likes that one too (whew).
He loves giving hugs and kisses to kids his size or smaller.
He is SOOOO independent and wants to do his own thing - his way.  This has resulted in lots of tears.

 See - anything can be a hat!

 Doing his own thing.

15 months

My little man is getting busier and busier.  I remember when a friend at church said, "only 6 more months and he will be in nursery."  I felt sad.  I loved being with my little guy and wasn't anxious for him to go to nursery at all.  Well my attitude has CERTAINLY changed and now both Rocky and I are anxiously awaiting his 18 month mark.

James has also become quite attached to me.  If he can't see mom then something isn't right and he needs to cry about it.  We are the bestest of buddies now, whether we like it or not.

He is 22 lbs 2 oz  - 17.24%
30.25 inches - 23.87%
Still just a little guy.

He is walking very well now
He tries to jump
He talks all the time and is saying lots of words
He loves to throw balls
He loves to shoot balls into his bball hoop
He loves to be naked
He is very sensitive - if mom makes a sad face then James does too and usually starts to cry - but it is usually followed up my a sweet little hug.
He would love to just eat grapes all day everyday
He LOVES curious George - even more then before
He loves to be outside
He doesn't have his bottle and it almost off his binkie
He loves to sit/jump/stand on the couch
He loves to wear hats.

No Good Deed goes UNPUNISHED

A while ago a friend of mine asked me to give her a ride to church.  I was happy to pick her up.  We were having stake conference and because we now have a very very active 1 yr old we decided that Rocky should go early to save us a padded seat where we could BLOCK the boy in.  So James and I dropped Rocky off at the church and went home to get a few things and then off to pick up my friend.

When I got to her house she didn't come out like she normally does so I jumped out of the car not realizing that I had pushed the lock every so slightly enough to lock the door but to also look unlocked.  With the car running I ran up to the door and knocked.  Finally my friend came to the door and said that she wasn't going to be able to make it.  Bummer.  So I ran back to the car to find my door locked.  No worries - I thought I'll just try another door.  After trying all the doors I started to worry.  They were all locked.  My baby was inside and he started to cry.  Luckily I wasn't too far from home (.4 miles according to google, an 2 min drive or 8 min walk) so I ran - unluckily my shoe choice didn't help with the run.  Luckily I was going on pure adrenaline  so it wasn't too bad when my shoes kept flying off my feet.

I got home and grabbed the second set of keys and luckily Rocky's car was home so I sped back over.  I got up to the car and started pressing the unlock button and nothing happened.  At this point both James and I are freaking out.  Luckily the car was running so I knew that he wouldn't get too hot.  So I went in the house to call a locksmith.  Luckily my friend's dad was home and said -"let me see your keys for a minute."  He walked outside and opened my door.

I was so used to unlocking my door with the key pad that I hadn't even thought of trying the key to the door.  Oh man was I so grateful.  And LUCKILY we made it to church right before the meeting started.