Happy Birthday, dear James, Happy Birthday to you…

Following quickly after the trip to Dallas World Aquarium for the actual birthday, it was time for James’ birthday party with the family.  Mom had discovered a website called Pinterest and according to their website the average user spends close to 90 minutes a day surfing it.  I suspect that number was much lower prior to Heather discovering it, because half the articles on Pinterest made their way into James’ birthday decorations.  Mom made a shark watermelon, Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes, green eggs and ham, chocolate covered pretzels with the Dr. Seuess colors, and more. I put some meat on the smoker before I went to bed.  James played.

Mom: 1  Boys:  0

The party itself was fun, and James got to show off his new walking skills.  He tore the cake apart, and was just about to start flinging cake all over the kitchen when the destruction stopped due to James tossing icing into his right eye.  He enjoyed all the gifts, and our living room is now even more cluttered with toys than it was before as we have to step around plastic monkeys, monster trucks, plastic trucks and Bilibos.

The next day the kids had fun outside playing in the water.  Poor Mr. Stripey the tomato plant did not enjoy the experience and we are now one plant short.

Thanks everyone for making it a special first birthday for James.  We can’t wait to celebrate Baby Ben’s first birthday!

James turns 1!

A year ago James came into the world and gave us another year of sleepless nights and diaper changes.  He also gave our house more laughter and made our family whole.  So when his 1st birthday came around, we took vacation and spent the day celebrating.

The morning started with James opening his presents with the help of his big sister.  James did pretty good, although he liked watching Ashlyn more than he liked tearing wrapping paper.

Once the presents were opened, we got to play with his first set of dinosaurs (rawr!) and various things that made noise when he banged on them.

After a quick nap, we had a quick lunch and we were off to the Dallas World Aquarium.  The kids had a great time, and rather than tell a story I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

On the way back home James fell asleep with his shark in one hand, and a half eaten graham cracker in the other.

But when we got home, he was rested and ready to play.  This is what the rest of the afternoon looked like.  Not a bad 1st birthday.  Happy birthday James!

A stand, a step, and 2 days to a year…

"The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days."
-Voltaire

As James nears his first birthday, he decided to check off two major milestones.  First, he stood up on his own.  Then, he took his first steps.  Most babies learn to stand first, then learn to take a step, but James decided to knock them both out at the same time.  Since then, we’ve been able to get him to take up to 4 stuttering steps before he drops back down.  Sorry Ashlyn, your days of being able to hide by moving faster than James are soon coming to an end.

Uncle Dean and Aunt Cheryl came in town this past week and we were able to meet up with the Wolfe family for dinner.  James did his best to charm everyone, while Ashlyn was very thankful for her “tiger hat with hands” thing.  Okay, so the picture didn’t show off her excitement, but we know how much Ashlyn loves getting her picture taken.  The last picture in the series is proof that she was still wearing it at home.

James is lucky to have an older sibling to learn from, and in almost all things he tries to do what she does.  Whether its arts and crafts, playing with water beans, playing with iPods or brushing daddy’s hair, James tries to do the things that Ashlyn does.  So it was ironic this weekend when James got Ashlyn to do something that we’ve been trying to talk her into for over a year.  Ashlyn has been afraid of the electric toothbrush, and no manner of bribes has been able to convince her to use it.  James gave it a try, and all of a sudden Ashlyn thought it was ok.  Funny how that works, isn’t it?

James also wants to be like his daddy.  Okay, so not really, he just wanted wanted to pull the cord out and we liked the pictures.

In other areas of development, James is getting better with the spoon.  We won’t pretend that he’s perfect, but he’s at least holding it so that the spoon goes in his mouth correctly and at least 30% of the food actually makes it into his mouth along with the spoon.

And here he is, taking steps 5 through 9.  Go James go.