Fall Fun

We enjoyed a night at Lubbock's 1st pumpkin trail. Over 500 jack-o-lanterns were donated to light the trail. James has been absolutely in love with pumpkins, so this activity was right up his alley. The only problem was that hundreds of people, candle-lit pumpkins, and a toddler who loves pumpkins and wants to run around and pick them all up was not the best combination. We had some tear-filled moments at the beginning while James learned his boundaries. We ended up carrying him the whole way. This seemed to be easiest for him, so as not to tempt him with pumpkins within his grasp. He really enjoyed looking at all of the pumpkins.

And what would a little boy who loves pumpkins be for Halloween? That's right. A pumpkin.
Here is our little pumpkin on the way to the ward Trunk-or Treat.
(Thank you to the Nelsons and especially Sophie for letting us borrow the costume!)

Here is the Cullimore Pumpkin Patch.
The extra look of elation on Jordan's face is probably due to having just won "Best Overall Chili" for the ward chili cook-off.

James absolutely loved running free throughout the gym. He did not want to stop to pose for pictures. He, in fact, thought of a fun game to make of it. I would take out the camera and ask him to smile. He would then pause as if in complete obedience to my request and then take off as soon as I pushed the button. Do you see the clever look on his face? This is my best shot. Most of the pictures are of his back or side. I finally wised up and started pushing the button just before I asked him to smile.

James's first taste of Trunk-or-Treat spoils.
We don't ever have much candy around our house, but somehow this boy knows candy. He discovered a love of chocolate while helping to make chocolate chip cookies one day...so, maybe, it was the chocolate. He could smell it. And he wanted it.
Yes, he bit straight through the wrapper. He also promptly clenched his jaws as tight as possible when I tried to retrieve the wrapper pieces. The result was chocolate all over both of us and only a small piece of wrapper. After a trip to the bathroom to wash up, we continued our trek.

Here we are after James's first trick-or-treating experience.

The spoils.

Here is James on Halloween.
His pumpkin costume was sitting forgotten in the laundry basket.
So, he donned Daddy's "costume."
We didn't go trick-or treating, since we'd had the trunk-or-treat, but we were visited by friends.

Mommy's Little Helper

James cleaning up a "mess" (spilled water) on the kitchen floor.
He immediately informs me when he sees a "mess" and often follows his "mess" declaration with "clean it!"

James loves cooking and "miking" (mixing).
He always wants to be a "helpoh" (helper) when I'm cooking.

He also enjoys sharing his personal creations (imaginary, of course).

At least weekly, James asks to "dus" (dust).

He LOVES to "dus."

Maybe we should have been working on cleaning up
when your done playing instead of dusting that day.

James absolutely loves the "ba-coon" (vacuum).
He must have a turn vacuuming on his own when I'm vacuuming.
And the vacuum must actually be on.

I'm so grateful for my little helper.

Our Future Missionary

Jordan decided to dress James in an outfit worn by James's teddy bear. The "shorts" are actually teddy bear pants and the belly shirt is a teddy bear long-sleeved white dress shirt. He sure looks cute in his ill-fitting attire though.

"And they pitched their tents..." (Mosiah 2:6)

We watched Sunday morning General Conference Nephite style. Or at least we tried to. We thought James would love it, but after going under a couple of times, he was more interested in tearing it down than sitting under it. Maybe some other time...

Pregnancy Progression: Week 16

So, I thought I was showing more this time around...then I saw this picture. I sure feel like my belly is bigger than it appears on camera.

So I decided we should take another picture and I would smooth out my shirt so we could really document the pregnancy progress. As you can see, that really did nothing.

So I decided I would take a picture from my perspective, so you can see that I'm not crazy for feeling like my tummy is getting large. This is what I see when I look down. Can you now understand my disbelief when I saw the first picture?

We are moving into week 17 and all is well. I had some morning sickness in the beginning, but that has seemed to have disappeared as of about 2 weeks ago, but has been replaced by consistent but relatively minor headaches. It's true that pregnancies are often a different experience each time. With James I had some strong food aversions, but wasn't very sick and didn't get headaches. This time I don't really have any food aversions, but was fairly sick at the beginning and have headaches. It will be interesting to see how it progresses. Anyway, I am feeling great.

We will have our ultrasound near the end of November and, as of now, we are determined to find out the gender. We will be excited for either a boy or a girl. If it's a girl, she may not be as excited about her hand-me-down wardrobe. Bows and headbands can change any outfit, right?

Lessons for Mom by James

This morning Jordan set our computer up on the desk in our room and turned on the broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing before General Conference began. James excitedly ran into the room and sat himself on the chair in front of the computer to watch and listen to the "mumic" (music). He would not budge from the chair...not even to get dressed.

At one point, as he was listening, he said "Jesus." He has also said this as he's looked at a picture of the temple. I wonder what he feels at those moments. He seems to already have the capacity to recognize when the Holy Ghost is present and to know that the Holy Ghost testifies of Christ. I am grateful to have these opportunities to see how Heavenly Father cares for and teaches His children from the very beginning of our mortal lives. He loves us and, as our hearts are open, He will teach and guide us.

Last week I printed the pictures of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to help James become familiar with them before General Conference. James and I have been reviewing them since then. From the first time I showed it to him, he has been so very excited about the "apostles" (he can actually say that word quite well) and "Monun" (President Monson) the "protet" (prophet) and "Eyring" (President Eyring) and "Oops" (President Uchtdorf).

As we watched General Conference today, James would excitedly say "apostles...see" or in other words "lift me up to get a better look at the apostles" (our computer was sitting up out of his reach lest he become overzealous and knock it down). Elder Bednar was speaking when it was time for James to go down for a nap. As Jordan picked him up and took him out of the room, James began to cry and say "Benar, Benar" (Elder Bednar) while reaching out his hands. He seems to innately understand that these men are special and that we should be excited about seeing them and should listen to them. I can see why our Savior said, "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:4).

A Boy and His Potty

James enjoying a good book on his potty in February 2009.

We have had quite a journey since January. It all started when Jordan told me about a post from our friends' blog. Our friend was beginning to potty train their son at 9 months. She was guided in this pursuit by the book Diaper Free Before 3: The Healthier Way to Toilet Train and Help Your Child Out of Diapers Sooner by Jill M. Lekovic, M.D. I was instantly intrigued because James has a tendency to get really bad diaper rashes even if his diaper is changed immediately. This and only this could have prompted me to pursue potty training so soon...it was not something that I was looking forward to in the least. So, there began our journey. Jordan gave me the book as a Christmas gift. When we returned home from Utah in January we put the methods to the test. James was 9 months old.

The basic methods are thus:

1. Familiarize child with the potty by building potty trips into the routine. Example: When child wakes up, take a trip to the potty. Just before child goes down for a nap, head to the potty. After a meal, go to the potty. Before leaving home on a trip, go to the potty. At first, there may be only one trip per day depending on child's willingness to sit on the potty. It took James about a week or two before we were going before/after naps, after meals, and before/returning from trips. We wouldn't sit long at first, just a minute or two. But soon James grew to love his potty trips. He began to want to sit and read and potty all day long. :) We sometimes have to get really creative in our efforts to persuade him to get off the potty whether he's gone or not after 20 or 30 minutes (when it has become apparent that he just wants to sit on his James-sized chair and read).

2. Child begins to use potty. James caught on pretty quick. I praised him when he happened to use it at first, which led him to realize that he was supposed to potty on the potty. He began regularly using it within two weeks of starting training.

3. Child wears cotton training pants for increasing amounts of time. So far, I have just been happy that James doesn't have diaper rashes anymore, so I haven't moved into this stage yet. But, I will be venturing there soon. James has begun to tell me when he needs to go potty, so I think I'm getting brave enough to work him into cotton underwear. The author says that the the more you use cotton underwear, the faster the child will potty train, since they don't like the feel of wetting themselves without it being whisked away by diapers. I can see this being true. When James when through a potty boycott for a week, I decided to put him in cotton training pants and it cured him of his boycott. But, once he was using the potty again, I ditched the training pants, because I wasn't ready yet.


All in all, our journey has been enjoyable. James has gone through various stages when he has wanted to use it, but then for a week didn't, but he's always come back. His desire to use it now seems to be stronger than ever, so maybe this is a good time to start him in cotton underwear. It has been a time commitment, but it's been positive since we've spent much more time reading than we probably would have otherwise. As with everything else in parenting so far, I've learned that consistency is the key to success. I hope that this will continue to be true as we move into the next stage of potty training.