Months 18 and 19 flew by!

James turned 18 months then 19 months, and today he just turned 20 months! So this is a longer blog so that I can catch up a bit. These past few months have been the hardest, but the most fun! I am learning to be more and more patient, loving, and stern. At my mom's group, we each had to say what has surprised us the most about being a mom. I said that I just couldn't believe how much joy came from watching James. My favorite time of day is when Justin is home from work. We eat dinner together as a family, then since James gets done eating before we do, we let him get down and play. Justin and I just laugh and laugh at all the funny things he does. Then I clean up the kitchen while Justin and James have play time together, and sometimes I just stop what I am doing and watch them and laugh some more. Oh what a wonderful gift to have such a precious family.

Here are some pictures of James over the past few months:

We went to Shelby Farms and gave James some much needed freedom to roam.

Me and my sweet boy

My not so sweet boy

(this is what he looks like when he doesn't get his way!)

To get James to smile big, we did our "AMEN!"

(that's why we have our arms up in the air..haha)

Loving that piggy back ride with Daddy

I love Shelby Farms.

Wish we lived a little closer :)

James LOVES basketball. He loves cheering at the ECS games.

We usually have a hard time keeping him off the court!

Finally at half time he gets some playing time :)

(James is in the blue sweatshirt. He met another little boy out there)

Crazy static hair

More crazy hair!

James has been my big helper recently. He helps me in the kitchen, cooking and unloading the dishwasher. He helps me feed Kramer. He helps me pick up his dirty clothes and do laundry. I can't wait until the day we can give him a list of chores!!!

This is one of James' favorite places to sit. He likes to sit on the bottom step of the fridge and drink his milk. Our house stays nice and air conditioned! Sorry Justin :(

We recently went to a little friend's birthday at a place called Pump It Up. It is a place filled with huge inflatables with slides and obstacle courses. And parents can do everything the kids do! James had the time of his life!

Lots of climbing

Justin and I gave James this basketball goal for Christmas. One evening we put James to bed, sat down on the couch to watch some TV, and Justin looked up at the goal and said, "What's that!?" We took out a t shirt. Justin said, "Did you put that in there?" Umm..NO! Why would I do that. I told him James' must have thrown it in there. Then it dawned on me that before bed, I showed James his T shirt that had a basketball on it. He pointed to it, said "it's a ball", and then grabbed it and ran out of his room with it. We didn't know where he took it, but I didn't follow.

Now we understood! He put the "basketball" in his new basketball goal!!!

He is so smart. Or....I think he's smart. Maybe we need to work on that.

Some videos for you to watch:

Below are three videos from Pump It Up

(excuse my cackling in this one!)

Below is a video of James playing with his basketball goal:

Below is a video of James playing before bed. He is just having a good ole time spinning around and around and then falling down :)

And lastly, here is a video of Justin and James at bed time saying their prayers.

I love this so much that I stand outside the door and listen to them just about every night.

You may want to turn up your volume a bit...it's kind of quiet.