You hit the 32 month mark the day I went back to work, so I am a little behind on this post! But, in between being back at work and crying that I am not at home with my babies anymore, I managed to get it done (and I am just being dramatic...I only cry a few times a day :) ). Oh, but we have had so much fun these past few months with me being home. We went to zoos, we went to the library, we had a date morning at the mall (it was your choice!) and so much more. I LOVED being home with you every day and I miss you terribly when I am at work. But, I know you had a great first week back with Gma Debbie and Ray and Gma Kim. Thank goodness for my Wednesdays because it gave me some respite mid week! You transitioned extremely well - didn't seem to really care that I went back, which I am honestly extremely happy about. It would have made it a million times harder had you been upset about it. And, I love that you get the time with your grandparents....and you love it too!
OK, onto the updates!
- You for sure had a growth spurt. Your Dad and I thought we were nuts because one week your PJs fit just fine and the next week, they were way too short!
- You like to dress and undress yourself, so getting ready in the morning has become a bit longer of a process. But, it's great that you are becoming so independent with that!
- You are fascinated with shadows. Sometimes at night, we have to explain that they aren't scary, but for the most part, you love pointing out various shadows.
- You give hugs and kisses when people are sad!
- I can't believe I have forgotten to post this because it's basically been like this since you started drinking milk, but we cannot leave the house without a cup of milk. You are such a good milk drinker and God forbid we go anywhere without it!
- Before it got too cold and before Halloween, you loved to go on walks and find Halloween decorations. Now, we just have to wait until people put up Christmas decorations!
- I have been doing baths with you a lot more. It's kind of fun since Daddy was always the go-to guy for baths. We have a lot of fun! We typically take Dora, Boots, Swiper and Isa figurines or the Monsters U ones and have lots of adventures with them. It's so fun to watch you use your imagination.
- We now use Sunday mornings as our grocery shopping time as a family. I always carry Gwendolyn in the Moby wrap and you and Daddy go on "missions" to find me stuff from my list. It's so cute when you yell in excitement at me from across the store when you've completed a mission!!
- You will also go on missions around the house a lot. If Daddy needs to change a light bulb or get some batteries from the basement, you will always go on the mission with him and help him complete it!
- At the Worldwide Day of Play, you karate chopped a board and broke a piece of it off. We kept it for a souvenir and one night, Daddy picked it up and you hit it again. It was awesome because you broke it right in half and we were all so proud!
- You are so good at playing on your own. Your imagination is just so vivid and you will play with your animals or characters and it's so fun to watch. This first video is hard to see because it was dark, but you are having conversations with Ming Ming and your animals and it was so entertaining. I love seeing your imagination at work!
- I am very impressed with how much you have grown when it comes to Kindermusik. You have always been good at remembering the songs, but now you actually sing out loud and participate so much. I just love seeing you grow. You also will sing me the songs you learn at school and it's so adorable!
- Sometimes during nap time or bed time, you will wake up and start talking...we can never tell if you are awake or still asleep. It's almost as if you are talking to someone. Most of the time it's so funny...sometimes it's a little weird!
- We watched Cinderella one night and you and Gwendolyn were so cute...just laid next to each other and enjoyed the movie.
- You are very animated and it's quite funny. You are also very dramatic and may have a career in acting. Or music if we can get you in the right lessons early on :).
- You got your Darth Vader costume and light saber and it was like the best thing to ever happen to you :). You wear your costume often and the light saber is a huge hit!
- I would love it if I could just record you and your sister all of the time. You just love being near her and she just loves to watch you! You are so cute and have started calling her Gwendolynie! As you Dad commented, he has never known someone to take an already long name and make it longer...but, it has caught on and we all call her that sometimes!
- You played with Nora, who lives down the street, one evening outside her house and now every time we drive by, you always squeal, "Nora lives there!". You two had a fun time together!
- You also visit with Lynne a lot and one night you came home from her house and told me you wanted to make cookies for her. So, that weekend we baked and iced some Halloween cookies and took them down to her. You love visiting with her!!
- Mommy got a new car and I was a little nervous how you would handle getting rid of the Caddy. But, you love the new car and we all have so much more room. Sometimes, you will tell me that you miss my old car and want to go back and get it. But, you usually get over that quickly!
- As I have said before, your manners toward others are very good. You're so polite that you even told the merry go round at the mall, "you're welcome" after it said thank you!
- You are very observant when it comes to people's hair and nails! I finally got to go get a pedicure and you instantly noticed when I picked you up from school! You said, "those are pretty toes mommy! Oooooh, they're black!". And, same for when I get a manicure. You also think it's silly when my hair air dries and is therefore curly. You told me last week that it looked like your hair when you were little....aww!
- I will say that it has been a challenging few weeks with you. I don't know if it's because we have all been together all day, every day for 12 weeks or what, but your listening has gotten pretty selective! It's tough because sometimes you oblige so easily and are so well behaved and then other times, it's like you deliberately ignore or misbehave. You also change your mind about things at the drop of a hat and then get upset when we don't do it how you want it. For instance, you will tell us you want to help us let Hoyt out and then say you don't want to. We start to do it without you and you freak. It would be nice if we could read minds, but we can't, so it's very challenging! But, I guess that's part of being 2.5. It just makes Daddy and me go bonkers sometimes!! This is when a Parent Handbook would be handy! But, as I always say, I will take the bad because the good is amazingly good. You tend to have the power to wash away the bad moments rather quickly...a simple smile or giggle from you reminds us that it is all worth it!
Jameson vocab funnies!
- "Gwenalen" - Your Dad and I weren't sure how to phonetically write this, but sometimes you rush Gwendolyn's name and it comes out Gwenalen/Gwennelen. It makes us giggle every time because it's so cute. Almost sounds like your slurring your words a little!
- "Ohhhhh" - I cannot believe I don't have this on video with as much as you say it! It's probably my favorite of the month (besides the Gwendolynie and Gwennelen). It is your response to most everything and it's so exaggerated. It just cracks me up!
- "Ugggghhhh" - you have picked up on my exasperated groan and do it quite often now. Pretty hilarious!
- You love to make animal noises - or pretend you are an animal and make the noises. And, it's usually like leopards or dinosaurs or lions. Not like the typical cow, horse or pig choices :).
- "I don't think I can" - this was an example from last month's post, but I got video of it!
- And, now you actually say, "I think I can" when we ask you if you can do something. "Jameson, can you go pick up that toy over there?" - "Um, I think I can, Mommy". Funny stuff.
- "Can you find him, it's really important!" - you always seem to lose objects amongst the boatload of toys in our living room, so we have to hunt for stuff on a daily basis. Apparently, everything falls into the very important category because we hear this a lot.
- "Thank you for finding it!" - we also hear this a lot after finding said object!
- Ray: "Hey J, how about I take your new car home and you have my red car?"
Jameson: "No Ray, that would be difficult." Lol!
- "Holy cow" - this was a big saying from you this month! Still cracks me up every single time you say it!
- "I love to look at you!" - awww! You have said this to me a few times and it melts my heart!
- "Ooh, look at all that junk up there!" - Mommy got a little carried away ordering stuff for Gwendolyn after she was born, so we had a lot of boxes on the dining room table. Cracked me up when you said this!
- "You're a good driver" - you tell me this sometimes. Thanks, buddy...make sure you tell your Dad you think I am :).
- "It smells good out here, Mommy" - you apparently love the smell of Fall because you would tell me this every once in awhile when we would go outside. I love it too!
- "I'm just looking at the pretty trees, wow!" - you love the Fall colors too. You have such a keen eye for things!
- Speaking of keen eyes...I think I wrote about the dirty mailbox MONTHS ago...it was a rusty mailbox on Oakland. Well, the other day we were at the stoplight right by this mailbox and you said very excitedly, "look Mommy, someone washed the dirt off that mailbox!!" I was thoroughly impressed that you noticed that it looked different!
- "Look at this!! This is amazing!!!" - when looking through Christmas toy catalogs, this was heard quite often :).
- "This is frustrating" - this just surprised me because you sound so old when you talk like that!
- "She's quite little" - referring to Gwendolyn. Another one of those phrases that caught me off guard because you sounded so proper and grown up!
- "It's really cool, Mommy" - you use "cool" a lot now. It is adorable.
- "Ray, you're a silly man" - LOL! Yes, yes, he is. And, that's why we love him so much.
- "Mommy (or whoever), I really love you!" - you are such a little lover. You will randomly tell me (or your Dad/grandparents/etc.) this out of nowhere and it never gets old! And, you will also tell me, "Mommy, I really love you to the moon and back". You are too sweet.
- "I'll keep the puppies safe and sound" as you covered them with your blankets. You take great care of your animals :).
- "Daddy, you're a real working guy" - This cracked us up! One Friday, Daddy had to work all day and then even into that night. When he got home and came upstairs during bath time, this is what you said to him. Too cute and quite accurate!!
- "The Sun's mommy is reading him a story so he can go night night" - you say this when we see the moon out at night. Sooo adorable!
- Mommy: "ugh, this song is stuck in my head"
Jameson: "don't worry, I can get it, Mommy" as he fake pulls it out of my head :).
- "Are you a little nervous, Mommy?" - He asked me while driving one time! Not sure where he got that!
- "Mommy, I saw that owl, but he wasn't whoooing" - when driving by Hooters!
- You talk in a funny voice sometimes. Don't really know how to explain it. But, for instance when you are telling us that a dinosaur is coming after us, you will say, "and it's going to be scary" and when you say, "scary" you stretch your mouth out and make your eyes real big. I know we do the same thing when we are playing around, so I guess that's where you got it, but it cracks me up!
- "Mommy, I'm so proud of you" - you told me this after I made it through my first full day of work. Um, how cute are you?!
More videos. Just Jameson being Jameson :):
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| Just watching some Bubble Guppies before books and bed! |
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| Relaxing with Daddy! |
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| Visiting with Great Gma Taylor, but taking a minute to love on baby sister! |
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| Oh, just another day in paradise with a mild meltdown :). |
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| He sure loves Baby Madison! |
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| Best buddies! |
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| Sometimes you just have to sit back and relax! |
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He is so good at Zoo Train now! I used to have to help him
move the letters to the right spot...he can do it all by himself now. |
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| Headbands are fun. |
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| Selfie! |
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| Taking a walk to go see the Halloween decorations in the neighborhood! |
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| We found a bright green caterpillar! |
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Took a field trip to the Peoria Zoo....and he was way more excited about all the Halloween decor! Should have
just gone to Party City :). |
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It was "green" day at school, so I made some green eggs and we read the story at breakfast! They look yucky,
but he devoured them! |
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| Halloween decoration time...again. |
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| Hanging with Bennett at Gma Kim's! |
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| They are going to fight over the veggies :). |
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| Melt. |
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| He was SOOO excited about this costume. |
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| Fun at Rader Farms! |
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| This was so funny to watch! |
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| Playing in the corn pit! |
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| My babies!! |
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| Jameson and Mommy date...at the mall! |
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| Pre nap snuggles! |
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| Holy cuteness, Batman!! |
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| Goodbye Caddy....hello Tahoe! Jameson had to give hugs. And, even Batman approves of the new car! |
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| Love. |
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| Playing cars with Gma Kim! |
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| Showing Ray the new vehicle! |
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| Having fun at the Walk to Remember. |
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| Night time snuggles. |
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Taking the cookies to Lynne...he was so
excited to take them to her! |
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| Love these two...we are lucky to have such a great neighbor! |
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| Oh how I love these two!! |
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| My whole world wrapped up in two adorable little packages!! |
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| My Target buddy! |
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| May the Force be with you, young Jedi Sister. |
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| Lounging with Gma! |
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| Lounging with Mommy! |
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| Finally made it out to see Grandpa Dan farm...on the very last day! |
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| Love these pictures! |
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| Need some lunch after farming! |
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We skipped U of I Homecoming...instead we stayed home and watched Cinderella
and snuggled and it was perfect! |
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| He completed a mission at the grocery store and was very happy! |
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| Taking advantage of the last few warmer days. |
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| My little monkey! |
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| I think he made her blow this up a million times! |
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| Having a blast at the library! His expression is priceless! |
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| Haircut time! He is an old pro now, just lounging while Kyle cuts! And, he loves to help her sweep! |
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| Looking so handsome after the haircut! |
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| And, we of course had to stop and get a DQ treat after the haircut! |
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Love the after bath, pre book bedtime snuggles while Daddy
and Gwendolyn snuggle. |
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| We get lots of nights like this now and I love it! |
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| My sweet babies! |
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| Watching some Baby Einstein! |
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| Loving on Baby G! |
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| This was my last night before going back to work...had to get in every snuggle possible! |
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| That face cracks me up!! |
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| He was saying something in his funny voice...that facial expression cracks me up! |
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Tools - check. Eye patch - check. Shield - check. Ball- check.
What more do you need?! |
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| He was pretending to be a knight. Haha!! |
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| Had to Meme this picture! |
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This is a tough age. Really tough. But, man is it amazing too. I just love him
with every ounce of my being. Because it's moments like this that make the tough ones
worth it. |
