First Haircut

James had his first haircut on Thursday! He looks like such a little boy now! We took him to Ellie, who cuts my hair. He was in a pretty great mood when we got there, but he sure did not like having to sit there and be fussed with. Ellie was literally chasing him around the salon with the scissors cutting his hair. I must say, she is really good, because his haircut looks great. And, she didn't even charge us. He really is a big boy now.

After the haircut we walked downtown to the malt shop and got milkshakes. James loved it.

Ok, well we are still packing for vacation, and should be out the door today by 11AM. Catch you all in a few weeks. We are off to Glacier and Flathead lake for a week of nothingness.

Teething is our life

Ok, so I really strongly believe that our life totally focuses on James and his teething. I swear though, this time it is bad. Three teeth, including two molars, are working their way through right now. Ouch! James is drooling like he never has before. Talk about crabby. He does this thing where he flings his arms to his chest and clutches them together and screams "noooo" with this little inflection, with his lips pursed. If it wasn't so annoying, it would be cute. But, we know the poor little thing is really hurting, so we are just giving him extra time with the pacifier. One of the molars is pretty much all the way through, and one eye-tooth is just about there, so we are now just waiting on the last bottom molar. Phew. Should get easier from here on the teething front...right?

Otherwise James is getting really fun. It is becoming more and more evident everyday that he is less of a baby, and more and more a little boy. He is pretty good at verbally communicating his needs. He uses a few sign/gestures to let us know what he wants or needs. He is totally obsessed with the "itsy-bitsy spider". He does the hand movements and says "bi bi bi" for spider. And tonight, we were reading his current favorite book "Moo, Baa, La la la" and he was seriously reading it to himself- kind of. He knew what the pictures meant, and how we always do the sounds. Really cool to see him learn things, and remember them.

He has been really sweet though lately, through the crabby pain. So fun to see his full personality unfolding.

We are good. Super busy, but good. Sean sold the Tundra this past Friday, and bought a used GMC truck. That is what is new with us. We are REALLY looking forward to taking off this weekend for a week away. We are hitching up the camper and taking off in the direction of Glacier and Flathead Lake. I can't wait. It will be fun to have eight whole days of "camping". I love the camper!

Oh yeah, James got his first real shiner a week ago on Sunday. He fell onto a Matchbox car at Sawyer's house, which punctured a little hole in about an inch below his eye, and it almost instantly gave him a black eye. He looks pretty cool. It has reached the highlighter phase and is kind of yellow-green now. People keep commenting "what does the other kid look like. Funny.

These days

So these days James has been exercising his independence whole-heartedly. Earlier this week I was beginning to become dismayed, as he just would not let us do anything for him. No being held, no feeding him, nothing. But then on Thursday, the most wonderful thing happened which totally made up for it: He gave me his first real kiss! He leaned into me with his cute little lips pursed and made the mmmmm sound. I was in heaven! So, that made up for it. I was really excited.

He is pretty crabby today (and yesterday), and I think he has a little cold, or just a really bad case of teething. But we have been having fun anyway. Yesterday, we woke up very early and all went outside to the garden together to pick fresh raspberries for breakfast. James learned how to pick the ripe ones and eat them right off the bush. We had a great old time!