18 month check-up

As usual, James had a great check-up yesterday. He is right on track with all the developmental milestones, and his doctor loves that he is such an enthusiastic artist. In fact he insisted on drawing the entire time we were in her office. He also insisted on throwing a very large fit when we tried to weigh him. I understand, I wouldn't want to be in the middle of the hallway naked on a scale either. Not much would sooth him, but he stopped wiggling for about 2 seconds and the well seasoned nurse was able to get his weight. He was much better once his doctor arrived, James has always liked her.

Her first comment was "James must really love food". This surprised me because as most of you know I have a hard time getting James to eat. I guess my determination is paying off. as he is no longer a "75%" baby for weight, but closer to 90%. The doctor brings lots of toys with her, so James happily played while she assured me that his eating habits are normal, and to just keep trying to introduce new foods. James cannot live on cheese puffs alone...but based on how well he is growing maybe he can.

Here are James' 18 month stats:

Weight: 28 pounds, 8 ounces (75-90%)

Height: 34 3/4 inches (97%)

Head: 19 1/2 inches (90%)

And finally, the latest installment of my twin dressers. John's coworker gave us these adorable twin outfits. Cute, cute, cute!!!

A Sunday full of firsts

This past Sunday marked some firsts for both Luke and James. The first amazing event of the day was that the entire Turner family made it to church Sunday morning. Dressing and feeding two little guys was quite a feat, but we were able to all arrive to the church well fed and dressed in clean clothes. Both boys slept through the service. James slept the entire hour at Sunday school which is the first time he has ever done that. Luke slept peacefully throughout the service, which was a real treat. James always made some sort of loud gassing noise or cried during a church service when he was a baby. That was always slightly embarrassing.

After church we went out to celebrate at the Silver Diner. James LOVES to come here, mostly because he gets to draw with crayons at the table and play with the music box at the table. He even ate his grilled cheese, something that we have learned he will only do at restaurants. I am not sure what they do differently, but it must be something major because he will never eat a grilled cheese at home. Funny boy!

Luke slept through his first time dinning out. He seems to sleep through a lot of his firsts.

When we got home John decided James needed to play in the glorious fall weather. So Daddy and James went out to play in the colorful leaves. James had a great time and loved being thrown into the pile. Personally I have never understood the appeal of playing in dead leaves, but they had fun and that is all that matters.

Twins

Grammy got the boys "twin" outfits and they look so cute dressed alike. I may need to dress them alike more often.

Some random twin stories:

*I have always tried to get John to "match" with me. So far all he will commit to is getting matching windbreakers after he has retired. What a party pooper!

*As a child I always asked for a twin sister for Christmas...never got one. So I dressed up my poor brother as my sister "Morgana" more times then he would like to remember.

*People used to confuse my brother and I as twins, and not just when he was dressed up like my sister. (Note we are 20 months apart.) Mother used to think to herself "Sure they are twins, one of them eats the other ones food".

Our favorite activities

James climbed into a box full of toys today. Grandma and I found this stinkin' hilarious, and took lots of pictures. There is even a video just for fun, although I warn you it is long.

Luke continues to be an excellent sleeper, at least during the day. He can sleep through all of James' hoots and hollers just fine...it's once the house settles down and is quiet that he starts to wake up.

Why I don't get any sleep

First, a little video of James dancing. I am not sure where he learned his moves, but he is smokin'!

And now a story about voting, the elecctions and those darned political phone calls that keep waking me up. We have been bombarded with no less then then 3 political phone calls an hour over this past week. They start as early as 9 AM and go through about 7:30 PM. Lovely. At least they will stop tonight when the polls close, I hope. We did get one funny phone call that went something like this:

John: Hello
Guy: James Turner please.
John: Oh hey...(thinking it must be a friend) I'm sorry, may I ask whose calling?
Guy: I'm calling from McCain/Palin and wanted to talk to James Turner.
John: Well, James Turner is 17 months old and won't be voting, but I can assure you, if he was voting he would be voting for McCain/Palin. Please update your records.
Guy: Thank you sir, we will be sure to update our records.

James did come with me to vote today. Luckily the line for M-Z was really short. Although a nice man handing out the "Sample ballots" offered to get them to bump me to the front of the line if I was A-L. So nice. James, as usual, was a big hit to those around us. He even talked up a storm while I was filling out my ballot. Then he got an "I voted" sticker and thought he was very cool.

October 10th and 11th

I just got my hands on some really cute pictures from the night before Luke was born. We were having our usual Saturday night dinner at Dan and Christine's. Yum! Also included are pictures of Dan and Christine taking care of James on the 11th, and a really cute one of Christine and baby Leah snuggling.

Also, as promised here is a video of James eating popcorn chicken. I need to have Auntie Christine feed James all his meals, he will eat almost anything she gives him.

Slides and candy

Today was our first family outing to the park. James loved showing off on the slides to Grandma and Mommy. We go to the "big boy" playground to use the big slides...those baby slides are for the birds. The best is when James wears fleece pants, then he can really get some speed and usually catches air at the end of the slide. Luke slept the entire time in his sling. Two happy boys and a beautiful day at the park...priceless!

Tonight I was the trick-or-treat scrooge and picked all the good candy out of the candy bowl. We sat outside on our steps to hand out candy with James, and he had a melt down when people started taking the candy. This was totally unexpected - he doesn't even like candy. So we came in early for a bath. Luke, again slept through all the excitement. After bath time was over, James and I sat on the couch and read his favorite book. Daddy is handing out the candy and James and I are inside singing along with his favorite book - the twelve days of Christmas. Oh what a night!

2 week visit

Luke had his "2 week" visit today. He got a great review and is a healthy and happy little guy. Check out his "angel kisses" on his eye-lids. They look a little like he is wearing eye-shadow. Lucky for Luke these birthmarks will fade before he goes to kindergarten.

Here are his stats:

Head circ: 14 3/8 inches (25 %)

Height: 22 1/2 inches (90%)

Weight: 8 pounds 14 ounces (50%)

Mommy

This morning Grandma asked James to draw a picture of mommy. As you can see in the final product below, he perfectly captured my crazy hair. What a budding artist!

And Mommy needs to start checking the sizes of outfits for Luke a little better. Did I mention that the boy has long legs? Also note that we let his legs hang out of the swaddle because he really likes to stretch them out.

Here they look more like shorts... guess this outfit is going into the "too small" box. Poor Luke, guess we get to change outfits to keep those little legs warm!

Big Brother

James has been such a trouper these last couple weeks, and we are so pleased at how quickly he is adjusting to being a big brother. Thankfully Luke's nighttime wakings do not disturb James, he still sleeps like a rock. This past weekend James really enjoyed some extra attention and loved having the whole family downstairs in the playroom.

More giraffe tea please. James has also started to initiate prayer time at dinner. Once he sees that everyone is sitting he will hold out his hands for daddy and I to hold. It is so cute!

Here is James snuggling up with his best bud Christine. He loves it when Dan and Christine come to visit, and is always showing off. Dan and Christine can get James to eat almost anything....so far the most astounding foods he has tried are lime flavored tortilla chips, salt and vinegar chips, taquitos, and the most recent is popcorn chicken! They even have a video to prove it, and if I can get my hands on the video I will be sure to post it. I didn't believe them at first, but he really did eat it!

James loves to touch forheads recently. Here he is playing with daddy.

And in the latest Luke news, my little man is Houdini. This morning at his 6:30 AM feeding I looked down and realized that somehow he had wiggled his entire arm out of the sleeve and through the neck hole of his sleeper outfit. Ha! I wish I had the camera next to me so I could have captured this cute moment on film...maybe next time. He is so long and lean, that we are forced to put on 0-3 month or even 3-6 month sleepers on him so his legs will fit. The only problem is that his body is almost lost in all the fabric. So until we can get him to beef up, he may be sporting an "off the shoulder" look on some of his outfits.