Life (via the iPhone)

Once again, time has gotten away from me.  

The month of November came and went and am I very behind on posts.  I still cannot find my camera cord to my snap & shoot camera - so a lot of great photos from football games have not been uploaded.  I also have not had time to sort thought the numerous other photos on my computer from our family trip to Seattle and our annual trip to the pumpkin farm among others.

Here is a little recap of the month of November via the iPhone:

 

 

 

  

From Top to Bottom, Left to Right:

1 & 2: Playing in a diaper and t-shirt, while still insisting he wear his sweatshirt up over his head

3. Asleep on the camera monitor (notice the stuffed frog right next to him)

4. Having fun with bubbles in the bath

5. Mashed potatoes at James' school Thanksgiving lunch for families (with his friend Drew in the background)

6. Showing off his Thanksgiving Turkey hat he made

 7. Mashed potatoes in the hair.  Enough said.

8. Asleep on the way home from picking out a Christmas Tree

A Letter to James (November 2011)

Dear James –

You are at such a fun age right now.  You are a happy boy, who loves to talk and is curious about everything.  You continue to amaze me… and test my patience on a daily basis.

I love you more than I ever could have imagined and I can barely remember what life was like before you.  I wanted to write down some of things you have been doing lately so that I will not forget them.

YOU love to be naked.  When it is bath time, we will take off your clothes and you will just run around naked, laughing and smiling.  Or when we try and change your diaper on the living room floor – you will get up before we are done and with a devilish grin, take off running in the opposite direction.  You definitely put up a fight when we try to put clothes back on you!

YOU love trains, cars, buses, trucks and airplanes.  Basically – anything that moves.  Every time you see a bus when we are driving or walking, you get SO excited.  Sometimes when you are walking to school with daddy, the neighborhood bus driver will wave to you and that makes you happy.  You also love it when the commuter train crosses the railroad tracks by our house on the way to or from school.  Usually, the first words out of our mouth these days when I pick you up are “choo choo?”.  You can also spot an airplane a mile awhile - even if you can just hear the airplane, you will yell out “air-plan” while you point at the sky.

YOU have started to sleep with stuffed animals now.  Some days it’s your Elmo, or your Wocket (from Wocket In My Pocket) or last night it was your frog.  At daycare the teachers tell us you sleep with a baby-doll, as all the girls in your class do and you do not want to be left out!

YOU like to ask for “butt-paste” when we change your diaper.  I am not sure how it started or when you learned what butt-paste is… but I find it pretty funny how you will ask for it over and over till we put some on your booty.   You are a silly little boy sometimes!

YOU are starting to get interested in the potty.  You love to “help” when we have to go to the bathroom.  You will follow us into the bathroom and ask “Mommy pee pee? Daddy pee pee?”  It is pretty cute.  You also like to help me get the toilet paper off the roll.  Then you ask us “hands?” and wait while we wash our hands.  You get mad if we do not wash your hands as well.  I am hoping this interest in the bathroom will encourage you to potty train earlier than normal!

YOU like to stare out the window in the master bedroom.  We lift the blinds and pull back the curtains and you will just stand there and stare.  You will point at something ask me or daddy to come “see.”  “Daddy see?  Mommy see?”  We have no clue what you are looking at, but we like to make you think it is the greatest thing ever that you are pointing at. 

YOU have started to tolerate things on your head again.  A few weeks ago, you let me put on your Notre Dame baseball cap.  And now when you wear your hooded sweatshirt – you like to walk around with it up over your head.  Even at home when you do not even have pants on (like you did last night) – you still want the hood on your head!

YOU are learning some Spanish at daycare.  You can say “adios” and “agua” and they have been working on counting to 5.  We like to practice at home and you get very excited repeating “uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco” after us.  I need to videotape it one of these days.  Pretty soon you will know more Spanish than I do!

Last but not least…

YOU are the most wonderful, sweetest, cutest, love-able and intelligent little boy I know.  I love you and I am so blessed to be your mommy.

Love,

Mom

Happy Fall Y'all!

(I got suckered into buying school photos again.  But seriously - how could I resist this adorable face??)

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our little Elmo!

Trick-or-treating did not really go as planned.  At first, James was very cranky and did NOT want to hold his goldfish bag.  We thought we could give him some candy to practice trick-or-treating, but all James wanted was to eat the candy.

Then we tried to take pictures of a certain someone and he did NOT want to cooperate.  This was the best family picture we could get (notice how happy James looks!):

Some more attempts at photos:

 

And here is one of me chasing after James when he did not want to get his picture taken. 

After finishing up pictures, we did a practice run at trick-or-treating at the neighbors before we went around the block.  We have spent the last few weeks teaching James to say "trick-treat" and he did a great job at each house.  In total, James made it about 6 houses before he was "all-done"!  Here he is checking out his loot on the way home:

 We hope you all had a wonderful and safe Halloween with lots of great candy to eat!

Say CHEESE

After picking out an adorable outfit for James this morning, I had to get a picture of him.

My good camera was in the other room, so I took out my phone (apologies for the blurry and not-too-good-quality photos) and when I asked him to smile - he stopped, looked right at me and said "cheese!"  

It was the most adorable thing!

 Doesn't he look like such a big boy now??  Where has the time gone...

Catching Up - The Austin Zoo

Once again, time has gotten away from me and I have yet to post about our trip to The Austin Zoo.  

A few weekends ago (the 2nd to be exact), Brian had the day off and we decided to take James to the local zoo in town.  He loves animals and we found a great deal on admission, so it was a nice way to spend the morning.

We packed up the car with the stroller, some snacks and drinks and headed out for the 40-minute drive.  I was not sure what to expect being that the only zoos I have ever been to before were the LA and San Diego ones.  I honestly did not expect much, but ended up being pleasantly surprised.

James LOVED it at the zoo.  He did not want anything to do with the stroller and was just having a blast running around and looking at everything.  He really liked the turtles, monkeys and the tigers.

And did I mention that the zoo has a train?  James loves "choo-choos" - so we of course had to go for a ride.  Here is our family photo right before the train took off.  I do not think I have seen James sit so still before, like he did on the whole ride!  He had so much to look at and take in.

After leaving the zoo and giving James his bottle of milk, it took him not even five minutes to pass out in the car.  And in typical McDermott fashion - he fell asleep with the bottle in his hand!

Chef James

Mini Photo Shoot

As I mentioned in my post the other day, my friend Shannon came to town last weekend and it just so happens she is a professional photographer and offered to take some shots of the little guy.

She sent me over all the photos and they turned out SO good.  Here are a few of my favorites: 

18 & 19 Months Old

James, you are 19 months old!  

(OK, almost 20 months old... but whose counting??)

I say this practically every month, but I still cannot get over how fast you are growing up!  It sometimes feels like just yesterday that we just brought you home from the hospital.

I am guessing you weigh around 29 pounds now, as you were 28 pounds exactly at your 18-month check-up.  You have started getting tall (finally!) and are now at 33 inches, which puts you in the 70%.  Your head is still huge and in the 90%!  You wear all sorts of sized clothes - from 18 months all the way up to 2T.  Your big head makes it hard to get some shirts on your head, so we always end up buying a larger size.  You also have a long torso with short legs (kinda like how Daddy is).  Your pants tend to get way too tight around the belly, while the length is too long.  I just can't win with your clothes!

In the last few weeks, your being a boy has really started to come through.  All you want to do is play with you cars, run them all over the furniture, crash them into each-other and watch them fall from the furniture.  You absolutely LOVE anything that moves... airplanes, buses, trucks and of course, cars!  You get so excited when we are out driving and you see a bus or an airplane, or "mare-plane" as you call it.

You also LOVE your tunnel.  We have to put it in the closet now when it is not in use, because if you see it, you will cry and cry for your "tun-L, tun-L."

You still LOVE Elmo.  You like to watch him on the iPad, your favorite videos of him are Elmo's Ducks or Elmo's "Hot N Cold" with Katy Perry.  You also watch some Yo Gabba Gabba videos and videos of other babies.  

I have said this before, but you are definitely stubborn.  You want what you want when you want it.  You do not like to cooperate (as you can see from the below outtakes of your monthly shots) and you make life a challenge sometimes - but I know (hope) that this is just a phase.

You are also still a very loving boy.  You still give great hugs and you still give us kisses.  You know how to say 'I Love You' now, although most times you forget to say the "you" and just say "I love."  You like having both mommy and daddy around - you tend to cry when one of us leaves the rooms.

At daycare you are now in the big boy classroom and while we had a very rough first couple weeks when we had to drop you off in the AM, you now have no problems.  You walk into school and practically run down the hallway and then once in your classroom, you usually gravitate towards the blocks or cars.  Sometimes you do whimper a little when we leave, but your teachers reassure me that you only do this for a minute or two.

I love when I get to pick you up from school every day.  You get SO excited when you see me and it always melts my heart.  You then grab my hand and we walk to the car, all while you wave at everyone on the way out.

Your vocabulary is growing by the day.  I have stopped jotting down words you know because I have lost track of them all.  Practically every day you will say something new and I always wonder how you know that word.  For example, it almost rained the other day and as soon as we got outside daycare you started yelling "rain, rain" - although it has been so dry here I can barely remember the last day it rained!

You bring so much joy to our lives little man and I cannot imagine what life would be like without you!  We are so very blessed to be your parents.

*And since I never did your 18 month update, the photos are below.