Christmas!

What a wonderful holiday we had! James had a wonderful time. What a blast we all had. James even stayed in bed with us (as a foursome - so nice!) until 7:30. He had a hard time controlling himself when it came to opening presents. According to him, all the presents were his for the opening. He sure had fun opening gifts for himself and Arlo. The highlight for him was "opening my Buzz Lightyear" from Santa. He was so excited for everything though. No meltdowns either. It was great. Then, after a great day and a viewing of Cars 2 courtesy of mom and dad, Jen and Kelsey and Jayne came over for dinner. I made prime rib and yorkshire pudding and it was AWESOME! James fell asleep with Buzz Lightyear tucked safely under his arm. Adorable. He saw the basketball hoop that Sean got him and said "I've been waiting for this my whole life!" It was the best.

Arlo's first smile caught on camera!

What a great gift!

Arlo and our first seven weeks as a foursome!

Life has been pretty good here in Bozeman the past seven weeks! James is shaping up to be an awesome big brother. He absolutely loves Arlo and kisses him constantly. We only have to remind him to be gentle periodically now. At first he needed a little coaching on how to handle the baby, but he mostly has it down now. He has taken the transition with ease. We had a little bump earlier this month with a little sadness due to lack of undivided attention, but he never took it out on Arlo, so that is good.

Arlo is growing like crazy! He is putting on at least ten ounces per week and has grown about an inch and a half in length. He actually is a little chubby now! It's crazy given how tiny and scrawny he was when he was born. Sean and I can't believe it is the same little guy that we brought home. He is smiling periodically and has pretty cute cooing noises. He is definitely our little snuggler! James hated to be held - not this one! He hates to be out of our arms and cries when he is on his own. Yesterday he did much better with that though. Sunday night he also slept awesome and we got seven hours of sleep - thank goodness! I felt like a whole new person! He also is our barfy kid. James never threw up (ok, maybe three times). Arlo has a little reflux, which our Dr. says should work itself out in a few months. In the meantime we just have lots of burpcloths around and are sure to do lots of burping and holding him up when he is done nursing.

We have been busy decorating the house for Christmas (our house was built to look good this time of year, in my opinion), and doing lots of holiday activities. Last weekend we did the annual Christmas Stroll downtown (see picture) and had a ball. Sunday night we went to Learning Circle (James Montessori school) Holiday party where all the kids sang holiday songs. James was hilarious. He was mostly stone-faced the whole time and didn't really sing, but occasionally chimed in. He mostly was more interested in turning around to listen and watch the kids behind him singing. Sean and I were totally cracking up. He and his buddies had a blast though. We left early (a whole nother story) which really upset James, but we had a great time anyway hanging with James's friends and their parents. He makes friends very easily and has a number of great friends. At Learning Circle he has a group that also went to Little Tree, so they have been a foursome since they were just babies. They are Oscar, Michael, and Rio. They are great boys with terrific parents too. They are just thick as thieves and have to be separated often so that they can actually do their learning lessons. We love it. At preschool, James has Tyson, who is a wonderful little guy. He is still best friends with Sawyer though, most of all.

Speaking of learning...wow! James can identify all numbers and most of the letters in the alphabet and say the sound they make and give example of words beginning with that letter. We are so impressed with how much he has learned since going to Learning Circle. He really is thriving in that environment. He is exhausted when he comes home from learning so much and playing so hard with his "homies". It is totally worth the steep price-tag. Yeah Montessori!

All in all we are adjusting to our new gig as a foursome. I know that more sleep will come and we are all happy to be together. I am looking forward to finishing up my class this semester at the end of this week, and will go back to work from home a few hours a week next week.

New School Year and a Broken Arm!

New school year pictures! James is now a big-boy and is going to two preschools! He left our wonderful little infant/toddler school, Little Tree, where he's been since he was three months old. It was pretty hard on me, but he was ready to move on. Now he spends Mondays and Fridays at Willson Preschool, right next to our house. This is where Maggie is the director and teacher (but not James teacher this year). The big change is that he is now at a regular Montessori preschool called Learning Circle. It is right next to the MSU campus, which is great to have him so close. He is loving it. His best buddy Oscar goes to school there two and they are like two little peas in a pod. James came home on Thursday SUPER dirty from the two of them playing in the sandbox together. Sand and dirt was everywhere. It was great. He goes there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It is a great schedule for him. Learning Circle is great - he is in a new challenging environment where they stress independence, individuality, and a love of learning. Perfect fit for our family.

However; the independence thing has been a little bit of a challenge since we are experiencing our first broken bone! James broke his arm (humerous - a fracture/chip right at the elbow). He is healing great and didn't even have to get a hard cast. Just a hard splint for two weeks, and an extra week in a sling. He's taking it like a champ, as is his personality. It has gotten him down a couple of times, but he is really great about the whole thing and once it is explained to him, he really understands the process of healing and what it is going to take. What more could we expect from our little rule-follower. We have started calling him out little hall monitor - he loves observing safety rules and telling others how to follow them!

Birthday Month!

Here are some pictures from April- Birthday month!

Finally

OK, so I know it has been way too long since I posted something. So here are a few new photos. Including James first day skiing! We are so proud that he LOVED his first skiing experience. Sean and I are totally excited that he got on skis before he turned two, and totally loved it. He did great. We let him play with his skis before he got on them, and he was really excited to try them out. When we put them on him, he was actually really into it, which we were pretty excited about, because he can be tentative in these types of situations. He LOVED riding the little "magic carpet" (basically a conveyor belt for taking kids up slope) and at first this was the highlight of his experience. Then he realized what fun it was to ski (slide) down the hill. He was giggling and laughing and kept saying "do it again"! Too cool. I am going to take him again this weekend. We have a skier!!! Woohoo! I see years of fun ahead of us. He was a natural.

James is WAY verbal, and is speaking in full, six or seven word sentences, can count to ten, and can sing the whole Ba Ba black sheep song. His favorite song is "Baby Beluga", by Raffi, which he sings regularly, and he loves to read stories about cowboys, horses, and trains. He is also super into airplanes at the moment. Nothing beats a garbage truck (semi's are also garbage trucks), or a school bus. When he sees a school bus, he always waves and says "hello children" with great enthusiasm. Cracks us up. He also has amazing manners and says please and thanks or thank you, and whenever you sneeze or cough, you receive a "bless you, mommy". We are so pleased with how good he is. How did we get such a great little boy. He is also much more snugly and affectionate now, and loves to give kisses. He has a little baby doll that Grandma U got him, that he carries with him everywhere and sleeps with him. He says "baby sad", then gives it a hug and kiss and says "baby is happy, now". Kills us.

He loves his tricycle, wooden puzzles, and playing outside when the weather is good. He is really into his stroller. He loves meat bones (see below). Tonight we were at dinner with Bill and Maggie (he is obsessed with Bill) and started into this pile of fatty rib bones that Bill discarded. He was doing it with purpose. We were all cracking up. He pumps his fist in the air saying "steak bone"!

His favorite toys are these little Swiss postal cars (2 of them) that Bill and Maggie brought back from Switzerland, and tractors (2) and these two (what do you know) little trucks that he calls busses. He has a thing for twos. They have to travel with us in matched sets, and he has to have at least two of the sets with us at all times while away from home, along with all four of his little blankie, animals which we call friends.

We sure do love our little Sweet Pea, and don't know how we got so lucky. He sure is a good one.