There will always be something special about your first born child. James has truly been delightful since day 1. He’s the most loving, kind, thoughtful, smart, funny, creative boy you’ll meet. And now I can add that he’s the best big brother a little sister could ask for. I started this blog when he was just a couple months old and love having this journal of his early years to look back on. I cherish these early posts for that reason.
Hi friends! I hope you’re doing amazing! We’re starting to get ready for back-to-school as the kids start next week. The biggest hurdle is going to be waking up early consistently since we’re currently all over the place with that. Some days we’re up pretty early, and other days like yesterday, we slept until 8:00 a.m. We only woke up because Grandma arrived! I like to wake up early, about 5:30 a.m., so I’m actually looking forward to it!
This year, I have one child going into Kindergarten and one going into 6th grade. We have several years until my oldest goes to collage,
Hi friends! How’s your week going? We are still waiting to see if/when school will start in the Fall, but our fingers are crossed for a safe return. The other day, I asked my 10 year-old son James if he wanted me to homeschool him this year and his eyes about fell out of his head. I guess he would rather go to regular school!
Jordan LOVED getting to see her friends and teacher everyday when she was in preschool and not being able to play with her friends or go to the playground has been the hardest part of these last few months for her.
Thank you to Macy’s and ShopStyle for sponsoring today’s post.
How’s your summer going friends? I can’t believe we’re already to the end of June! It feels like summer is going so fast! I am sleeping in about an hour later than usual, but I still have a little morning time to myself before the house wakes up. James has been in camp for the last three weeks, but we’ve already managed to pack so much fun into this summer.
For some of us, it can be hard to find things for the kids to do all day without resorting to mind-numbing video games,
On Sunday night while I was finishing up yesterday’s fitness post (log your exercise HERE), my 8 year-old son James said he wanted to come work with me on Monday morning and learn how to be a blogger. I said, “of course!”, but thought he might lose interest by the morning.
Turns out, he was quite serious and showed up to work bright and early, eager to get started! I was happy to teach him the basics and he’s really a quick learner. After showing him some simple aspects of how to write a blog post,
My son started Pre-K4 yesterday and when I picked him up, he said he had a great day! In the days leading up to school starting, I asked him how he felt about going back to school. He said, “I will miss you.” Awww . . . melts mama’s heart. I’ll miss you too, buddy. He was so excited to see all of his friends again and pretty hyper on the back-to-school/meet-the-teacher night. When I dropped him off today, he just waved bye and said, “Have a great day!” No tears, no “don’t go!” or “I don’t want to go to school”.
For the first two years of my son’s life, I did a monthly blog recap as sort of an online scrapbook where I recorded personal mementos, milestones, and pictures of my cutie as he grew. He’s four now and has grown into the sweetest, friendliest, and all-around fun little boy. I haven’t done one of those monthly features in a long time, but had to share some of the shots from this weekend as he was super excited to start T-ball. My son is one of the smallest kids in his class, and on the team, but is quick to correct me when he hears me refer to him as a “little guy.”
Recently, I’ve started teaching my just-turned-4-year old that unpacking his backpack after school is his “job.” It is kind of a big job too because it means carrying the bulky bag in from the car, there is a snack bag and a lunch bag to unpack, with freezer bags to put into the freezer, plastic containers that go into the sink and sometimes trash to throw away. Then, there is the folder that needs to be emptied. Everything goes back into the backpack for the next day. He often complains that he’s, “too busy” to unpack his backpack, but I tell him it’s his job and when he’s finished,
Up until age 2, I did a monthly post about my son. Now, I’m updating periodically, and saving precious memories that are making up his childhood. I want to remember that at this age (2 1/2), my son was obsessed with guitars.
Even Friday afternoon, when we went to the bookstore and I told him I wanted to get a magazine before we headed to the kids section to play with Thomas the Train, he ran right to this and said, “You wanna get a guitar magazine Mama?”
This time last year I couldn’t get the guy to wear a hat for more than two seconds, let alone shades.
Look at him now!
(The hat is from Old Navy and the sunglasses are from Target). He wants to wear the hat all.the.time!
We were headed to a block party in our neighborhood. I had no idea how many young couples and little kids lived in our neighborhood. We really had a good time meeting everyone, a great group of people. Now, we just need to stay in touch!
To capture a bit about what my young son is like as he turns 2, I used Picasa to add text to this photo.
After uploading the photo, you click on “Text”
Then you can chose your font (whatever fonts you have on your computer), move them around, make them bigger or smaller, and choose what color you want to use. Then just hit “Apply” and save the picture.
Update: I no longer use Picasa to edit photos, but I find PicMonkey (free photo editing website) really easy to use and it gives you lots of creative freedom.
Our little guy is officially two years old! It’s amazing to see him grow and change and interact and talk with us. He learned to answer, “How old are you?” with a proud “Twoooooo!” He had an Elmo/Sesame Street party since those are some of his favorite pals right now. We hosted the party at home and had lots of family and friends and little kids over.
The morning of the party, Daddy took James for his first “big boy” haircut. Up to now, I’ve done every haircut, but I’m not that good at it. He came home looking so grown up with his new haircut all styled like Daddy’s.
Our sweet baby James turned two recently and we celebrated with a party at our house over the weekend. On Saturday, we partied. On Sunday, we attempted to put the house back together. I’m pooped! I will share the party details this week. Here’s a glimpse of our little guy right before we all sang “Happy Birthday!”
These last two months have heard James talking and talking and talking. His sweet little baby voice is my favorite. We have actual conversations and he absolutely delights me. I accidentally bumped him the other day and he said, “Careful mama.” Then I was trying to put nose drops in his nose while he squirmed away and said sternly, “Don’t like it!”
He’s like a parrot repeating everything you say. Now I know when I hang up the phone I usually say, “okay, bye” because James has been mimicking me saying the same thing. And he carries around my old Blackberry talking on the phone all the time.
Is our little baby actually turning into a toddler/little boy?? Ahhhh, where does the time go? It’s so fun to see what he’s interested in and the best part is how much he’s talking and how he understands what we say to him.
He’s singing the ABC’s, counting to 10, singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and talking in general. Too many words to list in a blog post. Is it weird that he says “Starbuck’s”?! 🙂 And he’s learned “no” – as in, “Ready for bedtime, James?” To which he sometimes replies, “No, no, no.” Or if we try to give him a bite of food he doesn’t want,
It seems like the months are going faster and faster and our little guy is growing awfully fast. He’s still a happy guy but will definitely voice his frustration if he doesn’t get his way or can’t figure something out.
James’ vocabulary is growing rapidly and being able to communicate together is just awesome. We have actual conversations now. In the morning they go something like this:
A year and a half old! Wow! It just keeps getting better and better.
Now James is really starting to talk to us and we actually understand what he’s saying! Mostly he says “Gabba Gabba” because he wants to watch Yo Gabba Gabba. Is it any wonder I’m hearing this in my dreams?!?!
James really loves music now and will dance anytime he hears it, doing the famous baby dance, bouncing up and down. The cutest thing he’s doing lately is trying to snap his fingers- I couldn’t figure out what he was doing when I first saw it,
There have been so many discernible changes in James these last few months, I feel like I cannot possibly chronicle them all or accurately describe the subtleties of everything. But I love it! First of all, he’s really physical- loves to run, climb, and wrestle with daddy.
He understands so much now that it blows my mind. I can ask him to throw the wet diaper away, and he’ll walk over to trash can, open the lid, and throw the diaper away (sometimes I don’t even have to ask). Or, we were in my room and I found a “paci”
I’ve shown you our photographer’s (Kristi Zontini of Bella Babies Portrait Studio in Houston) work before here, but hadn’t shared the images from the two most recent photo shoots. We bought 4 sittings for James’ first year and did them at 2 weeks old, 5 months, 9 months, and one year. Kristi and her assistant Jordan are the best! They make the shoot fun and get such great results. It’s been really hard for me to narrow down the best photos from each shoot because they get so many wonderful shots.
