Enjoying the Simple Things

Doesn't take much to entertain these two.

"Moms and Dads can't cross this line.  Only kids."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

As you slide down the banister of life,
May the splinters never point in the wrong direction!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Sometimes...

Sometimes it stinks when you have to clean the melted blue crayon out of the dryer

AND

clean up the following mess made by your 2-year-old before you can go to bed:

1 package of wipes pulled out all over the floor,

1/2 tube of toothpaste in bathroom sink,

roll of toilet paper in toilet,

clogged toilet caused by roll of toilet paper,

water all over bathroom floor from overflowed toilet,

wet wads of toilet paper taken from toilet and stuck to bathroom wall and floor.

I do think he had a good time.

And it's a good thing he is so cute.

I think I'll wait until tomorrow to tackle the clothes with melted crayon on them.

But I was only gone for 10 minutes...

I walked outside this morning after being upstairs for about 10-15 minutes and found this.

This is such a Natalie expression.

And if you were wondering, Natalie does have a diaper on.  She wears one at night.  We just moved her from a crib to a bed and haven't taken the nighttime training step.  One of these days.

Natalie has been catching ants (the most recent one named Princess Aurora) lately (and an unfortunate spider "he's my best friend mom" that didn't last long in the sugar/water concoction in the jar) and decided she needed some ant food.  

Obviously I had forgotten to lock the pantry when I went upstairs.  I hope the ants enjoyed the powdered sugar, nilla wafers, tortilla chips and salt.  James sure did.

Warning...James does need his nose wiped really badly.  Picture may be too graphic for some. 

This is James' "cheese" face

James b-day celebration

Sometimes things are a little more lax for the third child. Our third child turned a year old on October 2nd. But John was pretty crazy with both school and work, so we put off celebrating the big day...until October 19th.

Per tradition, we invited all of John's family over basically to watch James eat cake. And he put on a GREAT show. At first, he wasn't sure what to do with the cake in front of him. Natalie tried to show him. Sidney tried to show him.



Finally he got it.


And then he devoured it.



We call him Captain James, so here was his special cake.

Big steps for little James

Three big things happened at our house tonight.

1st: James walked!

2nd: Natalie's pacifier broke.


We have a paci-stays-in-the-bed rule that was constantly broken by this girl. The broken paci means the end of pacis for her. She was oh-so-sad as was expected, but actually adapted to sleeping without the paci fairly quickly. Phew.


3rd: We actually caught some first steps on camera!!


You can hear Natalie in the background crying about the broken pacifier.

Magic

To a boy who just turned a year old, bubbles are MAGIC.

Ouch!

There are not many things worse than watching your one-year-old fall off a table face-first onto a tile floor. I know because it happened yesterday morning.

Luckily, the only injury was a very, very, very fat lip. And that was almost gone by the time he woke up from a nap.

He definitely seemed over his injury that night while he was eating a popsicle brought by Grandma and Grandpa Garner.

Happy Birthday Jamsie!

And so ends the fastest year of my life. I cannot believe that one year ago today this little baby blessed our home. He has been a sweet, calm, happy influence from day one.

Some things I love about James:

He is silly. One way he manifests that is by turning circles. He will be sitting on the ground and then suddenly he will put one hand behind him, the other one over across his body and will continue to turn circles, laughing and knowing he is getting a response.

He loves to play games. One of his newest games is "throwing things down the stairs". He goes to the edge, kneels, throws something down, laughs, claps, and goes in search of something else.

One of his older games is "crawling up the stairs". When he gets to the top, he just sits there and waits for me to find him. I peek up the stairs, and there is his little smiling head looking down at me. I love this game. Now, he is adding, "play in the bathroom/toilet at the top of the stairs" to the basic "crawling up the stairs" game. I don't like that game so much.

He has started putting his hands over his eyes for peek a boo. If you say pat-a-cake, he smiles and claps.

He says a few words: bye, hi, peek a boo, ma ma, more. He said hi and bye on the phone today when his cousins called.

He is such a mimic. I will sing two notes, one higher than the other, and he will sing them back right on pitch.

He snuggles. This is a big deal because none of my kids are much into snuggling. I get an occasional snuggle here and there, but everyone is too interested in what is going on to settle down in my arms. He still doesn't want to miss anything--and would rather be up and looking around to catch it all. But he will snuggle occasionally.

We play an Aaaah game. I say Aaaah and snuggle him then he says Aaaaah and nuzzles his head into my neck and keeps it there for a while. Then he pulls it up, says Aaaah, and snuggles again. I LOVE this game. I also sometimes find him lying down, snuggling with Natalie on a blanket.

He is willing to try just about anything. Not much phases him.

He is tough. See picture below. However, he does have the saddest cry ever, with big tears rolling down his cheeks when he does get bonked a little too hard.

He is friendly. He will go to anyone. And after seeing a hand shake, he now has his own version. He holds his little arm straight out and up, reaching for the person he is "meeting".

He loves to dance. He dances to the little potty song "Toilet Paper", he dances to piano music, and my favorite...he dances every time our phone rings a rousing rendition of "When the Saints Come Marching In."

He is one happy boy. There is not much to say about it. He is just happy. Almost all the time. He entertains himself and he joins in on any fun going on around him. Every time I pick him up from the gym, they hand him over to me and comment on how happy he always is.

And I LOVE that smile with two teeth showing!

He wants to be big.

But I want him to stay small...for just a while longer. He is the perfect size and plumpness for great kisses and snuggling. And he is so soft. And I just love those dimpled hands and feet! I honestly cannot get enough of this sweet James.

You know you are the third child when...

1. Your mom rarely blogs about you

2. You climb up the stairs and your mom thinks it is cute and funny and sometimes doesn't even get you right away

3. You are still riding in your newborn car seat that you grew out of months ago

4. Most of the pictures of you are taken while you are in a stroller or in your car seat

5. There may or may not be video taken of your first crawl, your first roll over, your cute words, your adorable laugh

6. What nap schedule?

7. Your grandparents don't have any pictures of you

8. You have a large cheering section with commentary for everything you accomplish ("James is kneeling up mom! Good job James!")

9. Two teeth come in without your mom noticing

10. You get a fat lip from falling off a table while having your picture taken at your brother's preschool (fat lip picture will be taken as soon as poor third child wakes up from his nap)

In spite of all the "hardships" of being a third child, this little James is happy, silly, content, and a constant joy every day.

**Maybe this post should really be titled, "You know you are not a perfect mom when your child..."

The sound of silence

James enjoying the sound of silence...and a piece of grass.

I have been feeling lately that my life is full of lots and lots of noise. Music in the car (or talk radio when I can sneak it in without an uprising from the back of the car), white noise in my kids' rooms when they sleep, fans, the tv at times, music while I run (ok, for the past two days that I have ran), the phone ringing, the dishwasher running (soooo loud at our house).

And then there are the noises from the kids: the crying, yelling for fun, yelling for anger, whining, laughing, singing, persistent and constant chatter.

It's not that these are bad noises. In fact, I love the sound of singing and laughing and even the persistent and constant chatter. Even if it is very loud and right when the phone rings and I'm trying to hear what someone on the other end is saying.

Apology in advance for the 15 times I ask you to repeat something during our phone conversation.

But as I lay my baby down to sleep tonight and turned on the white noise maker so he wouldn't wake up to all the little noises, I looked at him and wondered if he has experienced many moments of silence. After all, he is the third of three little kids. And little kids make a lot of noise.

And for some reason, I think silence is a good thing. I know that if I am surrounded by constant noise, I miss opportunities for thought and meditation that I really need right now!

Tonight I was wondering if too much noise would cause James to miss out on his own important baby-thoughts. Obviously most of the noise isn't going to disappear. I'm not going to tape my kids' mouths shut, we really do enjoy singing along in the car, and one of my favorite things is hearing my kids enjoying each other...loudly.

And I realized one of the best places for some silence is the out of doors. Even if my kids are loud outside, the volume gets lost in the trees, grass, flowers, and blue skies. Instead, we can hear the leaves rustle in the breeze, and honestly, we hear the sound of silence. I love it.

So, tonight I resolved to get James outside more often. So that he can learn to hear the sound of silence and enjoy it.

James through their eyes

We were driving in the car and James sneezed three times. I said bless you and after the third sneeze Andrew exclaimed with a big smile, “James bwess youd his pacifier out of his mouf!.” And now when Natalie sneezes she says, "I just had a bwess you!"

Natalie saw James in this:
and said, "James is a cow boy!"