The World According to James

James loves to help when things need fixing. All he needs is a screwdriver and he is ready to help Uncle Morgan fix the toaster. Mind you, he knows the difference between his toy screwdriver and the real deal. No imitations for this guy.

This is the face I get when he doesn't want to eat something. It's got the markings a little independence and a little bit of mischief. Silly boy! Also we have discovered that ALL food tastes better at Costco. Just the other day he tried samples of smoothie, chocolate chip granola bar, sharp cheddar cheese and hot peperoni. He snarfed them all down and wanted more...who is this kid?

He is starting to get into more and more mischief...check out this structure he built. I have no idea how he climbed into it without toppling it over.

And he is learning all about his kitchen...I mean every inch. Sometimes I find it completely rotated or in the middle of the floor. And those pans may need to be stored away...the constant throwing of metal pans is starting to drive me insane. We needs some good ol' plastic pans! Also please note the champagne glasses on top of his kitchen...it appears James is already becoming a party animal.

Christmas Memories

Here are some of our favorite Christmas memories from 2008:

5 adults, 2 dogs, 1 toddler and 1 new born = a full house of family to help us celebrate this wonderful holiday! Here is the best family portrait that we took...

...and here is our favorite outtake:

Our neighbor made sure to put a bunny in their nativity scene just for James. He loves bunnies and whenever he sees our neighbors he makes sure to point out their decorative bunny in their front yard.

Crazy Uncle Morgan teaching James how to play on the playground. Uncle Morgan also tried to teach James all about wasabi at our traditional Christmas eve sushi dinner, but James was smart and didn't bite.

Auntie Julia's Christmas letter mad-lib.. we laughed so hard and got pretty creative with our choices of nouns and adjectives.


James and his new kitchen, he has been so busy organizing and playing. His eyes were so big when he walked into the kitchen Christmas morning and found his present.

Enjoying presents and time in our pjs Christmas morning. Luke was such a sweet little cuddler. I also bought the boys matching jammies and they looked so cute!

Evening walks to enjoy the Christmas lights in our neighborhood.

Merry Christmas!

Grammy and the boys

Grammy loves to read, and last night James only wanted Grammy to read him "Over the River". Yes, we are well aware we have our seasonal books all mixed up...at Halloween we were reading about the 12 days of Christmas, and at Christmas we are reading about Thanksgiving....oh well!

James is part of Elmo's army in this hat, or at least that is what we tell him. We are so glad he finally has liked to wear hats with this cold weather we are having!

Little Luke, or should I say BIG Luke is getting more alert and happy. He has also almost outgrown his 6 month clothing. What?!? He is only 2 1/2 months old. I think this must break some sort of record...

First Christmas Present

James got to open one of his Christmas presents early last night when our good friends Dan and Christine came over. They not only graciously brought us dinner, but also brought presents for all of us. Dan and Christine you guys spoil us and we LOVE it!

Christine helped James rip the wrapping paper and he got really into it. So much so that he almost didn't realize there was something inside the pretty paper. These Crayola paint pens for toddlers are fantastic and best of all James was busy painting and giggling for a long time. His favorite color was "Big boy blue" which I found very appropriate. Thanks Dan and Christine, you guys are the best!

Today we haven't gotten out the paint pens, but I promised James that we would after his nap. He has been asking to paint all day, what a perfect present for my little artist!

A boy and his dog

James and Zion have always been the best of buds. Even when James was just a newborn, Zion would lick his toes and make him giggle. These two nap together, play together and share each others snacks. Why is it that dog food tastes so much better then what Mommy prepares? Probably because Zion is eating it, and Zion is the coolest.

Right now James wakes up the happiest if Zion is the first to greet him in the morning. If Mommy or Daddy go in to say "Good morning" first, he just isn't quite as chipper. Beware the beginng of the below video is very dark. I was hoping to catch their morning greeting to each other. James "talks" to Zion using a very high squeaking noise, similar to a Zion whine. Thankfully he doesn't use this squeak for anything else, as that would be really annoying.

Hooray for Zion!

What's up?

I love that James will do anything to get close to his baby brother. Quite a creative pose if you ask me. When's the last time you stood on your head to make someone notice you?

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

We weren't sure if Christmas decorations were possible with a toddler...so far nothing has broken. We have our real trees and wreath above the buffet in the dinning room. These are all perfectly out of James' reach, so they have real ornaments. The fake tree in the living room only has non-breakables and homemade ornaments. I used old pictures and some of James' artwork to create these beauties. James really isn't that interested with touching the trees, although that might be because our first fake tree of the season (that has since been disposed of) fell on him. Actually it fell twice, once on James and once on Zion. Don't worry, no one was hurt...except the tree. It had seen us through 5 Christmas', and with it's demise I finally had an excuse to buy a pre-lit tree. Neither Zion or James gets too close to the new tree.

So, to recap how Christmas decorations are possible with a toddler:
1. Place all breakables out of reach
2. Only put non-breakables in reach.
3. Be sure the tree falls on your child, thus scarring them from investigating the tree to closely.

Beanpole

Luke's 2 month check-up was today, and he continues to be a very tall and skinny guy. He was so well behaved at the doctors, and she was very happy with his progress. Luke even cooed and smiled for her, and of course that made me a proud mama!

Here are his stats:

Head Circ: 19 inches (25%)
Height: 25 inches (97%)
Weight: 11 pounds, 9 ounces (50%)

I love Trader Joe's

This morning we all got out of the house to run a few errands. I feel so much more "normal" when we can get out and be productive in the mornings. Both boys were on their best behavior for most of our outing, James got a little dicey towards the end.

Our favorite stop by far was a trip to Trader Joe's. I love this place! They have all their Christmas goodies out on display and it took all the self control I have to only get one splurge item. It was a box of cordial cherries, and they are fantastic. I already ate 2. The main reason for the trip was to buy the fruit and cream yogurt...it's the only yogurt James will eat. It comes in 4 flavors and he eats one everyday for breakfast. This morning we didn't have any yogurt for breakfast, and James was a sad little pumpkin without his yogurt. We bought 2 six packs, so that should hold us over for exactly 12 days. We also bought some Dynamo juice and James has added that to his food repatoir.

I remember back to when James was just starting baby-food and I had such a long list of things he would eat. Here is our current list:

*hot dogs
*Trader Joe's Burried Treasure cheese puffs
*whole wheat waffle with blueberries
*rice
*Trader Joe's fruit and cream yogurt
*applesauce
*bananas
*juice with mango or orange in it
*graham crackers

Not such a long list for a boy with so many teeth. Oh well, we just keep trying.

James also flirted with a little 2 1/2 year old girl at Trader Joe's. It was really cute and they both danced in the aisle together. James really didn't want to leave her, but we had to keep moving before Luke woke up. Hooray for TJ's!

Trouble

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This is what Uncle Morgan taught James last week. Uncle Morgan you are in BIG trouble...you can expect some coal in your stocking this year.

Hugs and Sleep

Luke is our on again off again sleeper. He will only wake up once during the night for a few days, and then he will be back to his every 3 hour shenanigans for a few days. But really, we can't complain. If I remember correctly, James woke up every 2 hours for the first 2 months. So far Luke is a sleeping champion compared to James. =)

James has been hugging a lot lately. I LOVE IT! He hugs me all day long and really snuggles into the hug. He also tries to hug Zion, some hugs are more successful then others with Zion. James even tries to give Luke a hug. These hugs are a nice changes from the previous temper tantrum James. I will take hugs over tantrums any day.

Our first outing

Today was my first time running errands with both of my boys, and I am so excited to say it was a great success. After breakfast we loaded up the minivan (we finally got over our hatred of minivans....we LOVE our new one) and headed out to Target. Luke was asleep when we arrived, so I left him in the car seat. With both boys in the cart we were able to fit a new artificial tree, wrapping paper, and other Christmas miscellaneous into our cart. James walked the last half of the shopping excursion and was really well behaved and walked right next to me.

We were feeling so good after Target that we headed to Costco on the way home. Both boys were well behaved there too. They both voiced a little discontent on the way home...but all in all a successful outing.

I didn't get any pictures of this momentous occasion...I had two kids to hang onto...so below is a funny picture I took the other day. It looks like Luke is giving James a stink-eye...haha!

Happy Thanksgiving

Scenes from our Thanksgiving....

Auntie Julia was the head chef and made an AMAZING feast. I wish I could share the smells and tastes from our kitchen...yum yum! Happy Thanksgiving!

Auntie Julia

James and Luke love their Auntie Julia! James and Auntie Julia have been enjoying painting, playing and especially reading. Every morning James gets so excited when Julia comes upstairs to play with him. If he had a choice, he would choose Auntie Julia over Mommy and Daddy. She is that fun!

A few days ago James was having an uncharacteristically hard time going down for his nap. He had woken up at 8:00 and was a little sick, so at first we were cutting him some slack. Daddy tried twice then is was Mommy's turn. Mommy made him "cry it out", but he was still not going down for his nap. Then Auntie Julia stepped in and suddenly his cries stopped. Then when Auntie Julia came downstairs without him, we were amazed. We asked her what her secret was...she said she read him the same book three times while he was standing in his crib. Each time she would lower the book closer to the mattress and speak softer. After three reads he was happily laying down and ready for sleep. What a genius idea! We are certainly going to add that to our arsenal for nap time.

We have also been taking some really cute videos of the boys, so if you are a true Turner family fan, check them out by clicking here.

The many faces of Luke

Here is sweet baby Luke. He is starting to coo and smile, and is being such an agreeable little guy! The last few nights he has only had one nighttime waking, which has made for a rested Mommy and Daddy. We'll see if he continues, or if he is just giving us a quick break to catch up on our sleep. Only time will tell.

Turkey

James loves his new turkey that Kathy sent in the mail recently. He carries it with him all over the house. Turkey sometimes joins us for nap time, he also likes to help in the kitchen. Best of all, he likes James to feed him coffee. Yum!

Notice how James gently carries him around the house by his neck. Hopefully he won't try this with his baby brother.

And the best part is that the turkey will gobble....

Finger paint

James got to try finger paints for the first time today. It was a little slow going at first, but I think he was getting the hang of it by the end. And of course the masterpiece is now hanging proudly in the dinning room. What a great little artist!

Here is a picture that highlights all our noses. I still can't figure out how James has such a different nose...what do you think?

And here is Luke, happily swinging and sleeping. Alto, a picture of him in his bear outfit that he wears when we brave the winter weather. He is such a sweet and snugly baby!

Naughty Turkey

Here is James being very naughty.

He physically pulled the stereo out of the cabinet, something he knows he isn't supposed to do. Then he proceeded to load the CD player with multiple CDs. He was so busy and so happy, but still so very naughty. It's a good thing Auntie Julia is now in town to keep James under control.


And, we got some great Thanksgiving decorations in the mail. (Thank you Kathy!) Don't John and James look smashing in our new turkey headbands? We have so much to be thankful for this year!

Cousins!

Last weekend James and Luke were visited by some of their cousins and their Uncle Robert. We had such a fun time. This is what Luke did during most of the visit...

If only he would do this more at night. All our excitement over our 7 hour stretches was short lived. We are back to every 3 hours like clockwork.

Here are all the Turner men during our family get together. James had so much fun playing with Wil and Charlie!

He and Maggie also had a grand time playing with Mr. Froggie.

What great fun to have cousins!

Roar!

Check out James' newest animal noise...so far this is my favorite one that he has learned.

Nana and Papa

Nana and Papa are here in Virginia for a visit. James loves Papa and want to read books and play with puzzles and watch Baby Einstein with him. Nana brought some fun foam blocks that James is also enjoying very much.

Luke is being his usual charming self, and was so worn out by all the festivities that he slept two seven hour stretches last night. I am not sure if we are up for a repeat tonight, but Daddy and I wouldn't mind if he made this a nighttime routine. =)