FYI Alert

Since James recently turned one, Natasha decided that it was time to take some family pictures. She found a great photographer who has posted some of the pictures on her blog. The Lubbock wind added a certain flair to Natasha's beautiful hair, and James, as always, is lookin' good. If you are interested you can check them out here. (It's the May 19, 2009 post entitled "Mr. James.")

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday!

Our Sweet Baby James is 1! He turned 1 on March 24th (this post is a teensy bit belated). He really enjoyed wearing the crown I made for him at each meal of the day. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the crown has pictures of the last year of his life all the way around it. I'm going to make that a birthday tradition. It will of course be displayed post birthday in a scrapbook (what is left of it anyway). James quite enjoyed playing with his crown. I managed to keep it in pretty good condition. In the future I might make two--one for playing and one for saving.

Lovin' the crown at breakfast.

King James sampling some Little Ceaser's pizza for the first time. He loved the pizza! He also enjoyed the Little Ceaser graham cookies they gave him (his first taste of cookie).

James and Daddy after James finished his yummy chili dinner which he loved.

Mmmm...Texas Sheet Cake! It says "Happy B-day James" in pecans. He woke up from his afternoon nap before I started decorating, so it's not much, but it sure tasted good. James is tipping his crown to the cake. Quite the compliment if I do say so myself.

I wanted some pictures of James with his birthday sign. I was feeling a little frustrated that I couldn't get a closer picture since the sign was so high on the wall. It eventually dawned on me that I could move the sign...What a bright idea!

James again admiring his crown. He was more interested in playing with his crown than partaking of the cake. I think he was quite stuffed from his dinner.

James quickly discovered that the cake was fun to squish between his fingers.

He also quickly discovered that the cake was sitting upon a plate. He never eats off plates since they end up on the floor, so he took advantage of the opportunity to play with his plate (or bowl lid as the case may be).

Here Jordan is trying to persuade James to eat some of his birthday cake, since thus far he had only squished it and played with the plate. He doesn't look too excited in this picture...the boy must have been quite stuffed! (He now loves to partake of sweets when they are presented).

This picture reminds me of Green Eggs and Ham. Page after page the main character refuses green eggs and ham and then when he finally tastes them, he realizes that they are quite good and that he likes them. James finally discovered that cake is good thanks to Dad's help.

Do you see the cake remnant below his lip? He finally took his first bite!

The plate and crown were still fun to play with in between bites.

Eventually, James began to shovel the cake into his mouth.

What sheer cake squishing glee!
(Notice the pointed toes...his whole body was involved in the squishing.)

After eating and squishing, he was left with mountains of crumbs.

DANCE...Boogie Wonderland...yeah, yeah, yeah...
I thought it would be fun to get James a card with music. So I got him this card with a hologram of the Happy Feet Penguins on the front and the chorus (shown above) to Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind, and Fire. It was pretty jammin'. He got a kick out of it for days, even weeks. It was his companion on the changing table. Opening and closing it to start and stop the music kept him quite entertained until it of course broke after all the opening and closing. I, however, don't think I will be getting a card like that again. There was no price on it. I figured it would be $3 to $5. Oh no...it was $8! I should have just bought him a book. I wish I would have told the cashier that I no longer wanted it. But, it was fun while it lasted.

Opening his present from Mom and Dad.
(Jordan wrapped it...do you like the Santa Claus themed paper?)

Mega Bloks!!! I think Jordan may have been even more excited than James.

He sure loved that crown!

James did not want to pause for photo-ops after opening his present. Jordan was teasing me that it looked like I was using James as a prop. I'd grab him and turn to the camera and smile before he'd squirm loose to go play. I just really wanted to have a picture with him on his first birthday. This is the best not-so-propish shot that we got.

Jordan's creation...he used all 80 pieces!

Spoons Are Fun

James loves to play with spoons. At the end of every meal, he asks for the spoons used during the meal (in his one-year old babble and point language). On this particular day, he was trying to get all four spoons in one hand. He succeeded over and over again, but when I got the camera out to take a video, he upped the entertainment factor.

(Pardon the image and sound in in this video. The file had to be edited to upload it here and the quality suffered in doing so. I edited the video using Windows Movie Maker. Does anyone know of any other free programs or websites where you can edit video files that might have higher quality results?)

Baby Steps

Our Sweet Baby James is a walker. He took his first step (other than falling forward to objects nearby) the day before his 1st birthday. But during the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference, he took his first series of steps (i.e. more than two in a row). He has been walking on and off ever since, but in the last week or two he's really gotten the hang of it and walks everywhere. He can walk from the living room to his room (the furthest distance in our apartment) and back without falling. He can also reach down and pick objects up and keep on walking. He still crawls when it's useful...like when Mommy or Daddy is chasing him and he needs to move quite quickly. He also wants to crawl when we go on walks outside, because there are just so many interesting things on the ground to examine--truly no use in being upright. Without further ado, I give you Baby James, Walker Extraordinaire:

Smile For The Camera

Occasionally, after running to get the camera to snap a shot of some cute or funny James moment, I don't get what I was hoping for. Instead of a cute or funny James moment shot, I get an "I want the camera" breakdown shot. James really likes the camera. He loves to look at the pictures or videos we've taken on it. And he always lunges for it at least once to see if we'll let him hold it and play with it maybe this time, this time, this time, this time (see Bee Movie). So here are a few "I want the camera" shots.

In this instance, his desire for the camera completely exhausted him. He had to take a rest.

This is another common picture I take. It is the "I want the camera" lunge shot. Sometimes it is preceded or followed by an "I want the camera" breakdown shot, but other times it is followed by...

a handsome, closeup, smile shot of our Sweet Baby James.

If Ye Are Prepared...(who knew I'd need to use this title for another post so soon?)

Well...he went into church in his Sunday best. However, after wetting straight through a diaper and onto Mommy's hip, he had to leave church sans clothes. I haven't had to use spare clothes in months, so when I cleaned out my diaper bag a week or two ago, I took out the extra outfit since it was now too small and never replaced it. Big oops! I won't be making that mistake again (I hope).

James did, however, get a couple compliments on his new attire (or lack of) on the way out of church. I'm just glad it happened in the last 5 minutes!

Playin' at the Playa: Our Wild Goose Chase

As a small child I was taught that birds fly south for the winter. At the approach of winter, we sadly said, "Bye bye birds." I never thought that I would be on the receiving end of migrating birds. While many of the birds that we see here in Lubbock vacationed elsewhere during the Lubbock winter, hoards of Canadian Geese found the Lubbock climate well-suited to their needs. It was fun to watch them and...play with them.

James couldn't take his eyes off of the flock.

A close-up (relatively close at least).

As they took to the sky, James followed faithfully.

It really was amazing to see this mass of large birds flying right over us.

Like father, like son. James and Dad do a great open-mouthed stare.

It was neat to see them fly up in a muddled mass and then separate into their V-formations.

You may be wondering why they decided to clear the playa?

It looks like such a peaceful place...

Well...Jordan said it. I had some fun with the geese. I was very respectful. I just wanted to get closer to them. They, however, were wild Canadian Geese and did not want me to get closer to them. It was honestly amazing, exhilarating, incredible to have that many geese take to the sky right over our heads. Some flew right toward us probably about 6 feet above us. It was so exhilarating that I had to do it again...and again...and again until the entire playa was cleared out. Below is a video of James and I on our wild goose chase.