More about James

James gets a lot of love at our house.  He has two parents who are no longer stressed out about anything a small child does, and he has three older siblings who adore him limitlessly.

Yep, James is really in a good spot in this family.  He loves giving hugs to everyone and has to make the rounds before each nap or night-time tuck-in (or when anyone leaves the house).  Hugs and kisses for all.  "Huggie!"  He will say with his arms wide open.  Everyone is thrilled to nestle right into those little arms and James glows under the attention.  

He loves to pretend to be various animals with Ashley, he loves to race cars with William (complete with many sound effects), and he loves to build with Everett.

He also loves to say, "Mommy hold you?" to me especially when I am making dinner (or sometimes, "Mommy help you?").  Once in a while I ask him to set the table, and he really does a pretty good job at putting everything where it needs to go.

 James is always the most excited of all the kids when Joel comes home from work.  

He loves to laugh, but he doesn't laugh for just anyone.  Sometimes he even asks to be tickled.

James also loves to wrestle.  He doesn't seem to notice that he is the smallest and least coordinated on our floor; he jumps right in with just as much enthusiasm.

He also still sucks his thumb and carries his moose around everywhere.  He has started calling it "Moosie."  Usually I refuse to let my children bring stuffed animals to the grocery store, especially large ones, but I have softened up on this to keep him happy.  James hates riding in the cart.  He would much rather help me push and gather ingredients.  He is pretty obedient and really does a good job but he is clumsy and slow and the sad truth is I usually am too harried to indulge him.  So into the cart he goes, moose in hand.

James loves to count and listen to stories.  He is also the most interested in music of any of my kids.  None of the rest of them liked to sing, but James does.  I often catch him plinking around on the piano, singing nonsense songs.  He loves listening to music.  He is always really relaxed during special musical numbers at church.

His favorite songs are Popcorn Popping and Once There Was A Snowman.  He sings them to himself throughout the day, sometimes.

One of James's other favorite things is to wear other people's clothes.  Here he is in Everett's shorts.

. . .And Everett's pants.

He got the whole ensemble on only to be overcome with frustration because the pants kept falling down.  "Mommy fix it!" he'd demand, but there was nothing I could do.  (I have a lot of pictures of him smiling on this post, but we do see these kinds of faces a lot as well.)  Mostly at times like this, he is immediately happier if we validate him by telling him how he is feeling and why, and then giving him a hug.

He also likes to wear William's underwear and anything else he can find.

(Like Ashley's sunglasses.)

His very favorite thing to wear is shoes.  Any time we have a guest, James makes a beeline to the front door to try on some new shoes.  In this picture he is wearing some church shoes of Ashley's.

(You may also notice James is not wearing pants.  He does love to strip his pants off at random times.)

These are the sparkly shoes of a visiting friend.  

Everett's slippers are not safe, either.

James is pretty good at walking in shoes that are too big for him, even Joel's work shoes or my high heels.  In fact, James loves my high heels.  He loves to clomp around in them, delightedly enjoying the major cacophony the heels make on our wood floor.

James also loves cereal.  He is always much happier when we walk Everett and Ashley to school if he can bring a bowl of cereal along.

James's favorite toys and shows are anything having to do with Thomas the Tank Engine or the Cars characters.  He also loves Kipper.  I often hear him giggle while he watches that show.  It has a soothing, hypnotic effect that I utilize regularly.

James was sick one day and was happy to camp out on the couch with Mater's Tall Tales (and his moose, of course).  He is big enough to work some games on the ipad alone, which is also nice.

He is talking more now.  I have been waiting for him to talk well enough to express what he wants.  He is such a determined little guy that he doesn't let go of what he wants even if no one can understand what he is trying to ask for.  

So now that he is two, he is talking well enough that we almost always understand what he wants.  For instance, he always wants milk in a specific cup with a lid, warmed in the microwave for a set amount of time.

He also loves to say No, like most two-year-olds.  In fact, he loves to say it so much that we've all started to banter back with him.  "Yes!" we'll say in reply.  "NO!"  James will yell back.  His No's get progressively growlier until he is yelling in a roar-growl, as deep a pitch as his little vocal chords can go.

I often hear him speak to William in this way when William just doesn't get what James wants to do during playtime.  James is so forceful with it that our sensitive William sometimes erupts into tears.

Even though James is talking well, he has some of the funny speech impediments that most kids his age have, such as fronting his sounds.  This means that School bus is "Boo Bus," which the other kids think is hilarious.  

We love to tease him by asking him about "Bomas" (Thomas the Tank Engine.)  Even though James pronounces it that way, he knows how it is supposed to sound and it frustrates him to no end when we say it incorrectly.  And then he begins with the growly No's, and our smiles split into fits of laughter.

One day he is going to complain that no one in this house ever takes him seriously, and I'll probably be forced to agree.  

We recently started James in a toddler bed.  He shares a room with Ashley.  It didn't take him long before he figured out that he could sneak into bed with her.  She was delighted the next morning when I told her what James had done.  

I also put James in time-out for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  He was in there for a very, very short amount of time.  When I opened the door I found James standing in the corner, glaring at me.

"It's time to come out," I told him.  

"No!  I not want to!"  He said back.  

"OK," I said, "You can come out when you are ready."  And I left him there with the door wide open.  I waited a short time and when James still didn't come out, I went in to get him myself, reasoning that he just didn't get how the whole time-out thing works yet.  Turns out, James did know what he wanted.  He protested forcefully when I carried him out, thrashing and flailing mightily.  "No!  Go back in!  I go back in!"  He shouted over and over.

I'm still not sure whether our first foray into time-out was a success or a failure.  Any disciplinary measures are tricky with this child.  Even if we were to, say, remove his favorite thing in the whole world (his moose) for a time until he said "sorry" for hitting, he would not budge.  There would be nothing we could do to get him to say sorry until he was good and ready, no matter how we tried to convince him.  And the more we tried to get him to say it, the less willing he would be.

Fortunately, he has been so little that this hasn't been a problem so far.  But I am interested to see how this will all go as he gets older.

James has learned a joke that he loves to tell (over, and over, and over).

"Knock, knock!"

"Who's there?"

"Stop crying little baby!"

Well, it's a good start to a joke anyway, right?

We love our spunky guy.  He is a lot of fun and a lot of sweetness all wrapped up into one clever little boy.