James is 2 & 1/2

Wow, my sweet boy is already 2 and 1/2! Well, he is not sweet all the time...ha! But we love him so much and are just trying to savor every minute of our first born :)

He and Kramer are still best buds.

He loves playing with his best friends, Taylor and Law!

Justin took him to see his first movie!

"Happy Feet 2"

He sat through the entire movie! Well, there may have been some getting up and down ;)

Boy, he loves Reese. He talks to her all the time, shares his toys, and loves getting in the bed with her when she wakes up.

Justin put together another set of shelves for me, and James definitely wanted to help his daddy out. He is using a screw driver to put in a screw.

Reading with Daddy and Reese

Not sure WHAT James is doing here. He wanted to be under Reese in the exersaucer...funny ;)

For some reason he likes to eat his special snacks (cookies) in this little cubby hole in the piece in our dining room.

More loving on that sister!

Taking that paci out for a smooch!

Speaking of paci... James is officially paci free!

He had just bitten them to pieces (seriously a choking hazard). He also started wanting them more often just around the house, not just for sleeping. So Justin and I (more Justin THAN I...haha) decided to nip this paci thing in the bud! We got him a sound machine that has a projector on it for a little distraction to help fall asleep. And we just took his paci away and said, "Pacis are for babies, like Reese. You are a big boy now. No more pacis."

The first night was awful. LOTS of crying. Maybe only 30 solid minutes. But still, that's tough for me. He has had a paci for sleeping every night for 2 and a half years! I felt bad. But I didn't feel bad for long. He fell asleep, and woke up the next morning, and we gave him a big icing topped cookie for breakfast! He loved it and knew he was getting the treat for sleeping without his paci. The next couple of nights were a little tough, but not bad.

And sure enough, now he never asks for his paci! It is a thing of the past! (Thanks for your encouragement, Justin. I couldn't have done this without you by my side!).

I think I might look back at this one day when James is older and say, "Really, Mandy? This was your biggest worry?" Haha