Monday, October 31, 2011

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!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

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...

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

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!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Sunday, October 2, 2011

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: 







Friday, September 30, 2011

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. 



Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A Weekend with my Boys

Normally, weekends consist of James and I hanging out at home, watching some football, reading some books and playing with cars while Brian works.

This weekend - Brian had it off and I was able to spend some quality time with my boys.  We went to the park by our house for a little bit in the AM on Saturday and boy was it a gorgeous day (see below photos for proof)!



We then watched some football games (go Notre Dame!) and then headed down to South Congress with a friend who was visiting from Colorado.  We found a cute little venue that had a band (and some yummy margaritas for me) and James really enjoyed the music and loved being able to run around and dance.

(photos above from Shannon Gray Photography) 

We also discovered that James loves Thai food!  We ate dinner at a food truck and as I was eating my pad thai, a certain little boy decided he wanted to try the noodles and then he proceeded to eat the rest of my food! 

On Sunday, we took it easy and then hit up the Children's Museum for Austin Museum Day.  James had a blast.  He LOVES slides.  That is all he wanted to do.  Walk up and down the ramp to the slide and occasionally actually go down the slide!  And he wanted to play with the trains - he loves his "choo choo's!

It was a great weekend and I am already looking forward to the next one, as we have some more fun stuff planned!