James at Two and a Half {Part 1}

It’s been months since I’ve blogged pictures from my phone so, I may have to post them in multiple blogs and in no particular order.  I think daily that I will one day forget all these amazing things James says and does everyday, and to be honest, that thought kinda breaks my heart.  So I constantly tell myself that I MUST document it.  Here is my attempt…

Aside from the twos sometimes being terrible, I am really loving this stage.  I mostly love our conversations.

You pretty much narrate your entire day.  For example, “I gonna go outside.  I outside.  I gonna go down da steps.  It’s weawy {really} cold.  Oh no, it’s not cold.  That’s siwwy {silly}!”  And so on and so forth.  You often throw your hands up and say, “I did it!” or “I made it!” for accomplishments big and small, even just walking down stairs.

“I puwwin’ da weeds!”

“I put da food in my bewy {belly}.”

To say you thrive off positive reinforcement is an understatement.

Your favorite thing to do right now is anything that adults do. Baking,

sweeping,

reading the paper,

and cooking… while wearing an oven mit… how do I say no when he’s doing it correctly?  {That’s not a rhetorical question.  I literally stood there and stammered, deciding not to reprimand, because he completely gets it.}

But you especially love taking care of your puppy.  {Or at least you think that you are.}  You help him eat {or put his food in your dump truck},

try to open doors for him, sneak him snacks when you think I’m not looking, take him to the groomers and vet with me, but most importantly, you give him gentle TLC… most of the time.

Lynyrd even sits around while you pet him.  {That sometimes means that you just press down hard on his back, or pet against his hair growth, but you’re trying.}

And you kiss Lynyrd every night before you go to bed.  It’s no secret that you can be a handful, but you truly have the sweetest, kindest, most sensitive heart.  You love to help.  Your most common question is “what happened?”  whether a page in your book is folded, a TV character shows emotion, or pretty much ANYTHING “happens.”  You even shared your Boo Boo Buddy ice pack with Papa, just cause you’re that kind of guy.

You absolutely LOVE bugs, which was fitting for your bug-themed birthday party.  You stop in your tracks for every bug you see.  I now plan for an extra few nature minutes to get to preschool.

Your favorites are snails and spittle bugs.  You adopted a pet spittle bug below.  I didn’t have the heart to clean him up right away… He was dead.  About every 15 – 30 minutes, you’d say “oh, I gonna go check on my spittle bug.”

We often find snails on our porch and driveway, always checking on them throughout the day.  I eventually toss the dead ones in the bushes when you’re not looking, knowing that you will repeatedly ask me “what happened?  What happened to my snail?”  I explain all day that snails move slowly, but they do move.  And maybe snail needed to find some lunch, and so on.  This is how close you get to bugs… saying things like “Hi snail.  Dat’s my snail.  Hi wittle snail.”

You saw a worm yesterday morning and said “It’s a dead worm.  Sssshhhhhh, he’s sweeping.”  I love that you can identify a dead bug, but still have the innocence of thinking it’s sleeping.

Here’s a good breaking point.  And one of my favorite pieces of James’ school work.

Couches

Justin’s Dad and Lisa are redecorating so, they offered us their couches and tables.  Ours are in horrible condition, but there’s no point in investing in new ones while we have a two year old.  So hand-me-downs and slip covers are a perfect plan!

Justin had to rearrange the furniture 5 times, because we disagreed 45 times.  And James bounced around 195 times, while I told him 100 times that the same rules apply.  However, he managed to only hurt himself twice.

We settled on an arrangement, and it wasn’t long before Justin, James and I were making ourselves comfortable… and why is it that boys always put their feet up?!

It was then that I noticed that one little puppy wasn’t feeling so comfortable.

Poor little Lynyrd lost his couches with no preparation or goodbyes.  He buried his head into Justin trying very hard not to touch the intruding furniture.

 

I put some blankets out to make our puppy feel at home.  But I don’t think it helped his anxiety.

I don’t like change, but my son and dog have taken it to a whole new level.  Luckily James thought this transition was fun.

We’ll just have to give Lynyrd some time to adjust.  Until then, he’s all mopes, gulps and sighs.

Spring has Sprung!

The time has come in which we’ll spend most afternoons playing in the water outside.  It’s James’ absolute favorite thing to do.

He’s been asking to “play with wa-wa” every minute of the day, including evenings and first thing in the morning.

We named him ‘Our Little Beach Bum’ when he first saw the light of day at three days old.

Outside is still his favorite place to be.

Yesterday, when I turned the pressure down, he turned it back up.  I also caught him spraying the house, windows and Lynyrd.  We might need to set a few ground rules.

He always takes care of his puppy: “Drink, Yeh-yed?  Yeh-yed es drinkin’!  Mommy, Yeh-yed es drinkin’!  Yeh-yed, that’s enough!  Yeh-yed, Sit.”

Poor Yeh-yed.

When James finally gets tired, he still asks to “play with wa-wa?”  He doesn’t realize this is only day two of five months.

Summer, we are ready for you!

Davis Visit

On the way to visit their Grandma, The Davis Family stopped by the Helfer Household last Friday night.  The Davis Family includes Leah, my Matron of Honor, her husband Mike, and their two kids, Jack and Lucy.  All the kids were very well behaved and went to bed at a decent hour.  We stayed up late, relishing our adult time.  It wasn’t until the morning when I snapped a couple of pics.

Daddy Mike and Jack.  Jack held onto this train {with a red light} all morning.  Hope the Easter Bunny is reading this blog…

Lucy: The most easy going baby I have ever met.  After a five hour car ride, she still did not cry one time during their visit.  Not once.  I didn’t know babies like this existed.

 

Leah is not pictured, as I was under strict orders to crop her out.  Morning pajama time just isn’t as cute for mommies as it is for kids. :)

James and Jack had a great time hanging out together.  Although they did what most toddlers do, and just played with different toys next to each other.

There was one thing they did together: tried to sneak up the stairs.  So we grabbed the camera and went up to play!

All in all, James did well sharing his toys.  Only minimal hovering.

This was our first time meeting sweet baby Lucy.

There’s one thing that James never likes to share.  And that’s me.  {He did not hit Lucy by the way, even though it looks it!}

We compromised.  Lucy didn’t seem to mind.

Leah, I’ve seen you grow from Leah-ba-deah, to The Davis Duo, to a family of three and now to Davis Party of four!  I love every bit of your precious family.  And Mike, it’s time to stop kidding yourself and get a small dog.  You can’t deny your love for Lynyrd, and as Justin says “Lynyrd is the perfect size!”

Getting Better All The Time

January?  Not our month.  Coming off the holidays, getting sick, and entering terrible twos gave us a run for our money.  February?  As John and Paul once said, “It’s getting better all the time.”

We started February with a virus.  And I thought, “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”

So last week, we stayed indoors

and let’s just say, James, Lynyrd and I had A LOT of quality time.  I don’t know who has been most excited for Daddy to come home.   Actually, it’s me.

Seeing as how we still have 11 months of 2012, I refuse to say that this is a bad year.  So, we turned our sickness into snuggles,

our sore throat into popsicle tongues,

and our doctor’s appointment into parenting advice.  Her advice – “Ignore, ignore, ignore.  James is not at a reasoning age.” – and some reading have taught Mommy and Daddy some lessons.

Yes, the culprit is my bookmark above.  Not crazy about all the advice in that book, but it helps to understand the mind of a two year old.  Justin and I are focusing on ignoring the outbursts,

letting the little things slide,

sticking to our guns on the big things,

and letting our baby grow into the little independent boy that he wants to be.

Apparently if Mommy and Daddy can do something, so can James.  So we’re all working on finding a balance between letting him do more {or think he’s doing more - the Cheerio box is closed…}

and enforcing our rules.  For example, you do not touch the grill.

And things have really been looking up.

Oh, and distraction is also huge.  Bonus points if our distraction can prevent the meltdown in the first place.

This week, morale has been much better.

We celebrated Moose’s birthday yesterday with BLTs, fruit and cupcakes.  And I can’t believe this is the one and only picture I took!

We had a GREAT time, and James has been talking about you ever since.  I love you, Moose.  Happy Birthday!

We’ve been getting out

and having lots of fun!

And even though all things aren’t fun, like haircuts, we try to find the positives, like lollipops!

It’s “Getting so much better all the time!”