Sledding!

We had a really surprising sledding experience the week before Christmas. On one of the warmest days that week (I think it actually got above freezing), I got the kids dressed up to go sledding. Snow pants, hats, gloves, coats, everything. Took them out to put them and in the car and realized I didn't have a clue where the sleds were. It turned out they were in the attic, with absolutely no way for me to reach them. So back in the house and undressed the kids went-no sledding to be had that day. A few days later, it occurred to me that maybe I could pile up a bunch of snow and have the tiniest of sledding hills for Anne. It worked out and she had a fun time sliding down it on her sled. We tried with Jamie but the hill wasn't sturdy enough for his bulky baby sled so he did a lot of walking around while Anne slid down.



The interesting part comes in that while Anne was sledding down, I thought to myself how great it would be if John came home early and saw us sledding on the hill and then we actually went sledding for real. This seemed impossible since it was only 4 pm and John had another hour before he was even off work. I forgot that it was the day before Christmas Eve and since everyone had Christmas Eve off (due to Christmas being on a Saturday), John actually was getting off early that day. Not joking, two minutes after I thought how neat it would be for him to come home, he pulled up! He was quite surprised to see us out in the snow since I've never hidden the fact that playing out with the kids in the snow-especially by myself-is not my cup of tea. About 10 seconds after he got out, I said "Let's go sledding!" John and I are no where near fly by the seat of your pants people. Normally to go sledding we'd have to plan for it at least a day in advance. Not to mention at that point, we'd have at best 20 minutes of day light left. Still, it seemed fun and doable so with just a little prodding (and I mean not much at all) John loaded the kids up (who were ideally already dressed and ready to go), I threw the sleds in the trunk and off we went! It was fairly warm when we left to go but even 15 minutes later, with a setting sun, had a big difference in the temperature. By the time we got to the hill it was a good 10 degrees colder (I thought). We only had about 20 minutes left of daylight but still, we took advantage of it. Jamie has a baby sled, where he can be strapped in and it has some sort of piece on the back that makes it anti-tip so he was able to go down by himself. John and I took turns going down with Anne. She did great and was such a trooper. I'm excited to go back when there's more daylight and it isn't quite so fridged.

Daddy and Jamie going down-John holding the ropes to keep some sort of control on Jamie's sled.

Santa!

Anne and Jamie got to see Santa this year and of course we got pictures!

Getting bigger and bigger!

Anne started sitting in a booster seat at the table right around when she was 12 months old.
Here's a picture of her at 18 months in her booster-I couldn't find one from earlier. We tried Jamie at 12 months but like the crazy boy he is, there was no way. He was all over the place, smearing, knocking over, pulling things off. So back into the high chair it was. The other day I tried the booster again and it worked like a charm! My little guy is getting so big! The goal is to put the high chair away this week-after all, he's so big he doesn't need it any more!

My growing boy!

Jamie turned 21 months a few weeks ago. That means he only has 3 months before he's 2. That seems impossible to me but time marches on. Look how much he's grown since he was just 12 months.

12 months

15 months

18 months

21 months

He is really losing the baby face and starting to turn into a boy. But he is still quite baby to me, especially those little sausage toes and chubby kissable cheeks.

No, No Buddy! That's naughty!

It's time to admit the truth. My Bud-bud, buddy boy, peek-a-boo buddy, handsome man is...gulp, I can't believe I'm actually going to admit it, a horribly naughty, boys boy, annoying little brother. Sigh. The past month or so Anne and Jamie have been fighting like cats and dogs. Ok, like puppies and kittens. The play wrestling that starts out fun but ends in a bite mark and licking of the wounds. Every time I leave them alone for more than 5 minutes, at exactly the 5 minute and one second mark I hear screaming and crying. Almost always on Anne's part because Jamie hit her, pulled her hair, broke something, sat on her or tackled her. I tell Jamie "No, no!" and hug Anne and explain to her that her brother is still a baby and doesn't know what he's doing. I remind her in a year or so he'll be big enough to have some self control and awareness of others thoughts and feelings. It's been a tiring month of hugging kids, wiping tears, separating kids, chastising. Almost all of the down time is spent in time increments of 5 minutes and 1 second going back and forth breaking up the fights.

Well, today I came face to face with the truth. Buddy is not, in fact, "still a baby and doesn't know what he's doing" but is in reality a smart guy who's had us all fooled. Today in Target as they rode together in the back of the cart, I broke up fights at lightening speed: approximately the rate of once every 27 seconds. Then I caught it. I caught Jamie before he pulled her hair. He saw me, looked me in the eye, smiled and moved slowly and deliberately and pulled Anne's hair! So I suppose that now tough mama needs to make an apparence. If Jamie is old enough to know that he can deliberately hurt and annoy his sister he's old enough to learn that sitting in time out 39x a day for one minute each is no way to live life.

Double Take

John's family has been saying for a while that Jamie looks identical to him when he was little. Obviously, not knowing John when he was 2 years old, I didn't have a point of reference. Then I saw a picture. Then I compared pictures of the two of them, similar ages, similar facial expressions, even similar body language. You see what you think...did you do a double take?

Ps. Click them to enlarge and you can really get the full effect!

Buddy...Talking!

Jamie has been slow in the language. As I've said before, he was honestly mute until he was 8 months old. He didn't make a peep other than to cry. Then suddenly at 8 months he started cooing and babbling like he'd done it all along. Until 18 months he was basically wordless. He could say a few words-3 or 4 if I was being generous, but that was it. Then, again, at 18 months he quickly started putting words to things and now at 20 months he easily has 30+ words in his vocabulary. Even more amazing is the self control and ability this little guy has to put words to his needs and thoughts. He can seriously be in the midst of a meltdown temper tantrum and I can ask him what he wants; he will stop crying and tell me (in single words) "Eat" or "Wa-wa" or point to what he needed. He has "conversations" with us all the time. I'll be doing a chore and he walks up and points to something, says the word for it. I'll repeat it back to him or ask him a question about it and he'll tell me something else about it (Buddy: "Car." Me: "Is that a car Bud?" Buddy: "Rrrrr..." Me: "Yep, the car goes 'rrrr.'") Seriously amazing to me. But tonight he had another exciting first in the language department. I was holding him on my lap at the dinner table and Winnie, outside, barked. Jamie looked outside, pointed and said "Wimmie woof." He put 2 words together! Wow! This is the starting of sentences! And how cool that I was able to be there and recognize this exciting and fun first! Go Buddy, go! You'll be talking in no time!

Jamie's Halloween-Through the Years

Jamie 8 months old-as "Tortoise" from Toroise and the Hare

Jamie-20 months old as "The Big Bad Wolf"

He's got my heart....

Jamie has been beyond adorable lately. I am amazed to see him growing so quickly-and doing things so much sooner than Anne ever did. Anne didn't start imaginary play until she was probably almost 4 years old but Jamie is already copying doing it now. The other day at the park Anne and I were pretending to climb up and down mountains (the slides) and we pretended to fall down one. We both lay motionless on the ground, in presumed unconsciousness, when I peeked my head up to find not only Anne had fallen down the mountain, but there was Buddy, laying on his back motionless too! So adorable. Today at the park he was picking up rocks and pine cones, throwing them down and as they hit going "Boom!". The rocks and pine cones were, of course, bombs. He got on the swings today on his tummy, arms outstretched, and when he got off he flapped them and tweeted like a bird. Adorable. What a smart guy.

Today after lunch I was annoyed with him (and Anne). Neither had eaten much of their lunch, which of course took me 20 minutes to make, and what they did eat they ate at a snails pace. As I told Jamie to stand up so I could wipe him off, he did but leaned in for a hug. Literally every bit of frustration I had for him melt off me and dripped on to the floor.

And on the ride home from dropping Anne at preschool, he was holding on to her baby doll. I heard him laughing to see that he had taken off the baby doll's diaper, held it up and said "Poo poo!". The baby had gone poo and needed a bit of wiping.

Boy oh boy does this boy of mine have my heart. All of it, every little piece of it, forever.

Sweet boy

Jamie is such a sweet boy-although admittedly I am completely biased. He started "feeding" baby dolls a few months ago and I got it on tape today. I don't know how he knows that babies eat bottles since we don't hang out with a ton of babies and he hasn't had a bottle since he was at least 4 months old. But he knows. He's great at giving hugs and kisses to the baby too. My sweet little boy.

Happy 18 Months Buddy!

Jamie turned 18 months old the other day. He is now officially closer to 2 years old than to 1 year old. How did this happen? The past 18 months have literally flown by. I am in shock that he is a walking, talking, throwing tantrums, charming, hugging, kissing, biting, loving little boy. I can hardly remember the months before when he was an adorable, drooling, spitting up-ing, nursing, smiling, cooing baby. How I love this little guy. How his life has blessed mine. I am truly grateful. And in very true April fashion, here is his 18 month picture (at the end) along with his 12 month and 15 month picture. Can you believe what a little boy he has turned into? And he hasn't even come close to stopping yet!

12 month old baby

15 month old toddler

18 month old turning into a little boy