A First

This was on the refrigerator when I got home this evening from my harp job. Joel made this with (very little) help from Daddy. He wanted the girl to have green eyes. My eyes are green! He drew her face all by himself.

Just Because

Today we put in a family effort to clean the house in preparation for PawPaw and Grandmommy's upcoming visit. It's so nice to have help cleaning the house! Joel worked very hard for a 3-year-old amount of time. He cleaned up all his toys, hauled all the dirty towels in the whole house out to the washing machine in the garage, and put everybody's shoes away. That is quite a good job, I think.

Although it was quite cold outside, I decided we needed to have a picnic for lunch. Get the boys outside - which they were clamoring for since their eyelids opened - have some good family together time. Well, just as soon as we got settled outside Joel snuggled up to me and said, "Mama, the picnic makes me so happy." Now Joel has been giving "just because" hugs for a little while now. That is a big deal for him, because he has never been a snuggler. But all through lunch he would come up to Jason or me and just hug on us. It was very unexpected and sweet.

It's Official

James is officially walking. He is finally interested in doing it, wanting to do it, and really is doing it! He is still pretty wobbly and falls down but he is making great progress and will be a pro in no time.

A few other things he has gotten into are:

He opened the bottom drawer of my night table and crawled into it and sat down.
He's gotten up on the dining room table twice.
He regularly crawls on top of the small table in the play room at church.

A few more words he says are:

Hallelujah
wow
owwww
Joyce
Claire
Hannah
Jesus
I did! (at least, that's what it sounds like)

More to come!

in Anticipation

Next Sunday is the Handel's Messiah sing along. It's hard to believe that it's been a year already since the last time we were getting ready to go! Yes, it's been a whole year that we've been singing the Hallelujah Chorus while flossing and brushing Joel's teeth (not the whole Chorus, of course). The only difference now, a year later, is that I don't have to sing it for him. He sings it all by himself and is quite creative and determined with it. It can even be a deterrent to getting the job done. His singing can definitely get in the way of the job at hand. For instance, this is how it goes sometimes. "For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth" - SPIT - "Halleulujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" - SPIT - "For the Lord God Omnipotent" - SPIT - "reigneth" ....

Poems, Pirates & Pfootball

Football season is now in full swing. To celebrate, family and friends of ours shared a special CD with us featuring the legendary voice of John Facenda and the music of Sam Spence. It celebrates the Americanism of football and Footballism in America. It's a great tribute to the sport. Joel has been quite taken with a track on that CD and runs for his plastic sword whenever we turn the CD on. He says, "can we listen to The Poem?" Here's the poem:

The Autumn wind is a pirate
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
Swaggering boisterously.

His face is weatherbeaten
He wears a hooded sash
With a silver hat about his head
And a bristling black mustache

He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold.

The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.

Now, in my investigation into the history of The Poem I have not found out for certain who it was written by. It appears that a certain Mary Jane Carr wrote The Poem in slightly more light hearted language, and it was later adapted into the Hymn of the Raider Nation (for the Oakland Raiders) by Steve Sabol. I personally am not a Raiders fan. However, growing up with a love for this poem - especially listening to John Facenda reading it - could make a Raiders fan out of Joel.

Dreamy

This is Joel's first dream bachelor pad. He didn't say those exact words, but here's how he described it. "It's a garage. And this is where the cars go. And they stop here. And this is a jumping board for the swimming pool" (the red lego on the top left). Dreamy cars, too.

Behold, he climbeth

James is climbing onto everything, and I mean everything. He climbs into the dishwasher. He climbs into the toy crates. He climbs onto the couch. He climbs on top of the coffee table. He climbs into chairs of any sort and size - rocking or no. He climbs into our bed. He climbs onto anything he can get ahold of. He attempted to climb onto the rocking horse yesterday, but the horse's back just wasn't quite large enough of a landing area for him. He went down head-first on the other side. There is no discouraging him from doing these things; he is quite determined. He pulled Joel's booster seat off of Joel's chair the other day just so that he could try to stand up on it. He did for about 2 seconds, then fell and split his lip. This I am not allowing him to do anymore, but he tries to do it when I'm not looking.

I've come up with a short list of the words he is saying:
yes
no
more
please
thank you
all finished
cat
dog
grrrrr
vvrrrooooommmm-vvrrrooooooommmmmm
woof
quack
eat
hot
hi
mama
dada
Joel
James
Oma
Opa

He says more, but it is unintelligible still.

Little Chiropractor

This is the spine that Joel built with his legos all by himself. He built it last week and when I asked him what it was, he said, "it's a spine!"

Little Things

Little boys are so funny. Hugging and giving butterfly kisses at naptime and bedtime is, I think, one of the best things I get to see each day. James putting his hand flat across his ear (imitating putting a telephone to the ear) and saying, "Hi? Hi!" Joel saying almost every morning, "can we listen to Dan's CD?" and singing so many of the words to all the wonderful, old hymns on it. (His particular favorite is "Soar Away"). James' one-legged dance (to bluegrass music, of course) with his diapered bootie bouncing up and down while his foot slaps the floor. Joel saying that eating a particular thing or other makes him "jiggle". James' imitating everything is adorable, particularly his pretending to do things ("drinking" out of a "cup", then saying a guttural, "AAAAHHHHHHH"; rubbing "lotion" onto his hands; licking his lips, with an extra pouty-looking lower lip; "talking" on the phone).

Joel has an ever-growing instrument wish list. Yes, instrument wish list. Heaven help us. His first instrument was his guitar from Grandmommy and PawPaw. Then he asked Grandmommy for a banjo, which she provided. He has already asked her now for a violin, and his latest request has been for a trumpet.

I actually got to witness James taking three steps yesterday. He took about 5 consecutive steps today. Yeah!!!! James wasn't too proud of himself, as he was quite distressed and drew his motivation to move those legs from his frustration/anger, but Joel was quite impressed and asked me just to make certain, "did James walk???"

James likes to pester Joel. He'll crawl up to Joel and say, "NAH" very loudly, and Joel will say - can you guess? - "don't say no to me, James". It can become quite upsetting to Joel when James tells him no over and over. But then there are times when they turn it into a game. It seems to happen a lot in the car. They will just be (practically) yelling the opposite of whatever the other one is saying, yes or no, back and forth. As long as it doesn't irritate me to death I'll let them irritate each other until they work it out themselves.

A State of Mind

Joel was introduced to Billy Joel music a few weeks ago in the song, "New York State of Mind". Now, the whole idea of this was quite a lot of information for him to take in. First of all, the CD case had Aunt Joyce & Uncle Eric's picture on it (the CD was a favor from their wedding rehersal dinner). Then the man's name who was singing the song was Billy JOEL. I mean, can you imagine that??? To top it all off, the song is about New York, where Aunt Jeana lives. So what in the world could this man be singing about? What? "Is this song about enemies?" Joel asked me. I'm not sure if he was referring to the Twin Towers (yes, he knows about them) or if he was misunderstanding the word "evergreens" in the song. I didn't even tell him what the name of the song was, I just told him Billy Joel's name. Then he said, "can we listen to 'New York State of Mind' again?" It was adorable.

Vocabulary

For those of you who don't see James on a regular basis, this is what he would do if he saw you. He would lean forward as far as he possibly could, stick his arms straight out in front of him and slightly upwards with all of his fingers sticking straight out. He would incessantly say, "hi!" until you got right up next to him, then he would cock his head over and look at you with a huge slightly-upside-down-toothy-grin. Then he would spend the rest of your time together showing off his strength and his fearlessness. He would say yummy, nuh-nuh-nuh!, yah, tat (cat), and dase (James).

If Joel were greeting you, he would say "HEY" in his biggest, deepest big-boy voice. Then he would ask you if you if you would like to come see or do whatever it is that he's been planning to do with you for the past days, months, years since he's seen you. Joel's is a land of make-believe of food and drink, and punching and fighting. He's as likely to ask you if you want some coconut water (Miss Rumphius reference) or a peppermint candy (Ox-Cart Man reference) as he is to ask you if you like Bob the Builder or would like to wrestle with him.

But whichever of the children are talking to you, you are in for quite a bit of expression in the eyebrows and handmotions to go with the conversation.

Transportation

Although James is not walking yet, he has taken two steps. But neither Daddy nor Mama saw them. He took two steps to Opa right after his first birthday. He was not thinking about what he was doing, as we tried and tried to get him to do it again and he would just plop down. In fact he has no desire to walk; he's much faster when he crawls. So why walk?

Joel likes to play cowboy, especially when Daddy gets down on his hands and knees and crawls around like a horse. Then Joel really feels authentic. In fact, he rode his "horse" back to his bedroom when it was bedtime the other night. He crawled off, climbed into bed and told Daddy, his horse, "you can stay there until I wake up in the morning, okay?"

The Story of Julio & Jaime (not Jamie)

James received "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf for his birthday. As with all things, Joel has adopted "Ferdinand" until such time as James is old enough to enjoy said thing(s) for himself. And so we have imaginary Spain, bulls, and "picadories" (picadores) throughout the house. The first time he began playing out the story his tent was set up in his room, and his tent was "Spain". He got his plastic sword to "poke da bulls", and his wooden ABC blocks were "da bulls". He and James crawled into the tent and had quite a lot of fun playing "picadories". Bursts of laughter echoed out of Joel's room which was really the best part for me. Currently the tent is put away; but ever creative, Joel will pick some special nook to be Spain and he will go get his blocks and "fight" Ferdinand.

Growing Pains

James is up to 5 teeth now. He cut his second top tooth (left middle) about a week after he cut his first top tooth. Then he cut the third top tooth (right middle) late last month. The last of the top front four teeth should be coming in any day now. It is visible, but just hasn't cut through the gums yet.

James is also trying to say more words. He tries to say "all finished" and "uh-oh". The other night at dinner, Joel exclaimed, "oh no!" James immediately exclaimed, "doh doh!" He has started mimicking a duck quacking, "dah-dah-dah-dah...." I know it sounds like a stretch, but his little vocabulary of da's sure can sound like a lot of different words! I am sure he can say "Joel"; it just sounds like "dah".

Restore unto me the joy of my ... bath

James has begun to enjoy his baths again, oh joy! I believe the experience of the cool wading pool a few times taught him to be thankful for the warm water of the bath. He again shrieks with delight to get into the bath and splashes up a storm. Of course, he still tries to stand up and do other various no-nos, such as trying to steal whichever toy Joel has. But we are thankful for our little steps toward temperance.

Joel's dexterity continues to improve. He has started drawing real pictures! Real pictures, I should say, that you can tell what it is that he intended to draw. He started drawing stick people with his sidewalk chalk, and with his magnadoodle he drew a snowman. The snowman was adorable! It was a large circle at the top with eyes, then some stick legs underneath, with large triangles at the ends of them: boots.

Momentous Amongus

James cut his third tooth while out at Harmony Hill. At least, that is when I discovered it. I had not been looking for a tooth where this one came in. It is his top left next-to-the-middle-tooth tooth. Poor thing had kind of a hard time at HH. First he cut a tooth, then he and JL came down with a bug that either was or turned into Rosiola. He probably thought that HH was hell, poor thing.

Joel, on the other hand, enjoyed as much of HH as possible. He was constantly in a state of exhaustion like every other child there, but he had a huge sand box to play in and friends from church that he was familiar with. He was quite introverted most of the time. Then there would be outbursts of the true Mr. JSW that he was keeping hidden. Such as when we would go to the "potty store" - the bath house - to get ready for bed. He liked talking to particular ladies about his puppy dog towel and tooth brush that lights up. He also had quite a conversation with Elder Shafer about horses. There was a little misunderstanding about the type of horses that Elder Shafer owned - not 5 rocking horses, 5 real horses. It was a priceless conversation. Then Joel decided to befriend a little girl who wore pink crocs. He put his arm around her shoulder, and she reached up and held that hand. Then after class he took her hand in both of his and lead her to the play ground, saying the whole way, "come with me; it's okay; look, your mama's coming too" all the way. Later on she asked her mamma, "where's my Joel?"

I'm still not sure that I like this....

This is Daddy. I haven't written anything here yet, but this is primarily for Mamma to tell her special stories. Still, I must agree that the trip to the Hill was momentous. The experience of spending a week like that was priceless for Mamma and for the boys. Joel learned some interaction skills as mentioned above, and James had to deal with being away from the comforts of home. Schedules are out the window, and everything is unfamiliar. It was good for them. It's easy to get comfortable and lose the art of dealing with tough situations. I am very proud of the way Jamie handled it. Her sister helped her a great deal as well, and I'm very thankful to her for that.
It was precious to see my son up there with the rest of the class. He forgot what he was supposed to do while he was up there, but that made it all the more precious. I'm glad this will be apart of his life as he grows up.

Hercules

We have on our hands quite a strong little 11-month-old. For some time now we have known that he has great strength in his legs. His favorite thing to do is push things around, especially chairs, his mail cart, and anything else that will move. Also, he doesn't get too frustrated when he comes to a roadblock. He just pushes through or moves around it; it's quite entertaining to watch. A few more feats have been accomplished recently giving him a new nickname, "Super James" and "Hercules". He pushed the tray of the high chair at Oma's and Opa's completely off while he was sitting in it. So I placed the chair in front of the table to sort of "prop" the tray onto the chair. Nope, didn't work. He pushed the tray off again, and the chair away from the table. Then he pushed a chair which Joel was standing on; pushed it about 6 feet. He did it quite easily, and Joel is almost twice James' weight. He's something else!

Semantics & Self-control

Joel began using another what I call "e-r" words. They are words that are plain, ordinary words that he puts a cute "er" on the end of; such as plugger instead of plug. Joel was telling me a story that including the dinosaur towel hook in JL's bathroom, but instead of it being a plain, ordinary hook, he called it a hooker.

Joel is quite witty with words and tries to be precise as well. He will tell anyone who says differently that he is not writing, he is penciling. He is not coloring, he is markering. You color with colors. The other day he was digging in some dirt with a pair of plyers. I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he was not digging, he was plyering.

James graduated from the baby bath tub to the big tub a little over a month ago. He liked it at first, but it became quite clear early on that the ideas he had for having free reign in the bath tub were not going to be realized. For example, standing up or pulling the stopper for the shower are not allowed. Since then he has lost his love for the bath. He does enjoy it for a few minutes initially but when he has to begin excercising self-control, the enjoyment is definitely not as great. However, I believe his love for the bath will return in the near future. He is quite a good splasher, and has been from a very young age. This, I am sure, is some sort of advantage in life and must be used in his defense against his elders.

Catechising

Joel and James are benefitting quite a bit from our family Bible study. It is always amazing to see what children absorb; I don't know why, but we never ceased to be amazed. I decided to begin to teach Joel Psalm 1, and Jason decided to teach him his own first memory verse, Titus 1:2. He is doing so well, and seems to have great satisfaction in knowing the verses by heart. Jason also at times picks certain Bible stories to read to Joel, and they also have influenced Joel's life even at such a young age. The other day while playing with his legos, Joel told me that he was building an ark for Noah. And indeed, there was a very large structure built when he finished. I also heard him saying while "building the ark", "and the Jebusites, and the Perrizites, and the Moabites...."

James is trying to walk. He will walk behind Joel's little mail cart. He does much better on the carpet, of course, as the wood floor is rather slick against the wheels of the cart. He is so proud of himself when he does this. I am looking forward to him walking. He is cruising so well, I don't really think that he will get into anything worse than he can already get himself into. James is needing training to learn about heights, and getting down. He will climb onto anything he possibly can, but doesn't know how to safely get down. This results in many bumps and bruises. I feel so bad for him sometimes, but he really is a go-getter and is not easily discouraged. I know that can be a very good trait and hope that the Lord will help us channel that trait in a godly direction. He is an extremely cheerful and jolly little boy; Jason and I never stop talking about how wonderful he is.

Gardening

Jason and I planted our first vegetable garden together earlier this spring. It has been quite an exciting undertaking for us as well as Joel. He loved planting the seeds and seeing the little plants come up. Now the garden is a huge jungle. Joel has been fascinated by the little (now larger) green tomatoes forming, the blooms of the green beans and squash, and seeing how the cucumber plants wrap themselves around the trellis all by themselves. Just before our trip to Austin for Memorial Day, we discovered our first baby yellow squash. In trying to convince a few people to come back home with us, he asked Oma, "don't you want to come see my baby squash?" Well, a few days ago the baby squash finished growing up and we got to pick it and another squash. Joel carried those squashes around the back yard the entire time I worked in the garden. I was hoping that perhaps he would enjoy eating the squash since they came for our garden, but not so. He still can't stand that texture in his mouth. Next time we'll try what he told me, "Mama, I like it a little bit crunchy."

the latest

James is most happy when standing up these days. He has a death grip, and he's fast with it, too. He will grab onto anything solid, but not necessarily sturdy; pants, chairs, laundry baskets, doors, the washing machine, Joel. I have been instructing Joel in how to call for help when James gets him. James is simply too heavy and unsteady for Joel to handle.

Wrestling has officially began. Joel and James like to wrestle already. I will only let them do it on a soft surface, such as a bed. James loves it! He is definitely not the cautious type, as Joel is, and is quite open to rough-housing and living a little on the edge (whatever that is when you're 8 months old).

Correction: James does not have 3 teeth. He still only has 2. I'm not sure what happened; perhaps the tooth went back down or it actually never did cut through. It did look like it had for a couple days, but apparently my eyes were fooled. James is doing quite well with the teeth he has, though. He has bit Daddy twice. Once on the toe, and once on the ear. Score!

James is a very clappy boy. He is enjoying his new skill more and more. All I have to do is start singing the little "clap your hands" song I sang to him when I used to clap his hands for him, and he'll grin at me and start clapping.

Mama

I knew James loved me; he said "mama" on his 8 month birthday. He also began clapping his hands yesterday.

Note: Joel calls razors shavers; and cords, mainly phone chargers, pluggers.

Accomplishments

James, James, James. He has had a very busy two weeks. He said his first word, "Dada", and repeats it very often. Then he got another tooth. Then he started crawling on all fours. Then he pulled up on his crib railing. Then he pulled up on our bed, and everything the right height in sight. Then he sat himself up! He has been doing so many new things! He is also a jumper. He loves, loves, loves, to jump. He goes nuts in the Johnny Jump-up. He will jump on your lap, jump on your belly, whatever you put his feet onto. One cute thing he does is point his left index finger and bangs his highchair tray with it. He now has Daddy completely wrapped around his finger with the thumb-sucking issue. Jason thinks he's the cutest thing in the world when he sucks his thumb. I quite agree.

Joel had his 3 year portraits taken. He did very well; he loved it. He made up his first song today, entitled "Daddy's Starbucks". He sang it for about 10 minutes straight, then ended with a soulfull "I'll Fly Away" with clapping and all. Joel knows very well who he is and who he isn't. If you ask him, "are you a cowboy?" he says, "no, I'm Joel". With the exeption of Aunt Jeana almost convincing him that his name was "Bug" Wilkinson one time (because she thought it was hilarious that that is my nickname for him), he will not be anything or anyone but Joel. Although, now, thanks to Opa, he'll say, "I'm Joel of the Jungle". Or, "I'm a Joel Man"!!!!!! - to the tune of Soul Man

Milestones

Two weeks ago James cut his second tooth. He now has his bottom middle two and is close to cutting a third on bottom. The show very nicely now. The other night Joel finally noticed them, and said excitedly, "James has teeth!" He had no idea what to expect, I suppose, since when James cut his first tooth you couldn't really see it.

James is also crawling on all fours almost exclusively now. He definitely prefers it to his little flop crawl, and can really get himself going! It's so fun to see him plopping his hands out in front of him.

James has a very pleasant belly laugh that I can usually get out of him. Tickling his belly particularly makes him laugh. Also making amusuing noises makes him laugh. Joel's laughing makes James laugh.

Joel's birthday party was great fun. I think Joel truly enjoyed it. He likes looking at the pictures, and completely racked up on the presents. The biggest "hit", I believe, was the baseball tee and launcher that Miss Amy gave him. It was extremely exciting, as were all of the presents. Another favorite present were his Crocs. He climbs out of bed in the morning and after his nap and immediately puts them on.

Joel has become more involved in prayers. He likes to remind whoever is praying of those we need to pray for. The other night he was particularly distraught from being overtired. After I finished praying he moaned, "and please bless Joel to feel better".

Oscar winner

While at an Oscar party Sunday night, James began crawling! He does a little flop forward crawl, not really an army crawl. But he is able to do it even on the smooth wood floors we now have in the living room. He doesn't move around by crawling much yet, but I know that will happen soon enough.

Jason and I usually DVR the tv shows we like to watch, then watch them once the boys are in bed. However, Dancing With the Stars is one that Joel watched with us some; he loved it. This season Jerry Rice was one of the stars, and Joel fell in love with his name. He would repeat it over and over again, "Jerry Rice, Jerry Rice". One morning after playing in his room for some time he came to me and said, "I sang happy birthday to Uncle Eric and Jerry Rice."

He also knows very well who Jack Bauer is from 24. When counting in the 20s, 24 to him is not a number, but a tv show with Jack Bauer in it.

Dutiful sons

James cut his first tooth today, bottom left. Just like the wonderful child he is, he gave me no reason to suspect that a tooth was coming. It was just there this morning.

Among Joel's jobs around the house are taking the recyclables to the recycle bin, putting shoes away, and laundry. He is getting very good at sorting laundry, and I can't wait until he can turn everything right side out and check pockets for mystery items. Last night he was telling Daddy how he helped Mama put the laundry into piles, "whites, darks, neutrals...." We happened to be eating pizza at the time, and his actions earlier in the day inspired Joel to "sort" his pizza. He called our attention to his "green clothes", bell peppers, and his "white clothes", onions, each in their own very neat and tidy pile.

ordinary days

Joel has been saying that when James gets big, he can wear a crown. ?

James has started eating solid foods. I tried avacado first, but he gave us the same face that Joel gave us when I first gave him avacado. Not so much! I then tried bananas, and although he would eat them he didn't seem to be a big fan. Yesterday I tried pears. Score! He ate several tablespoons of it, and was opening his mouth at the mere sight of the spoon. Today he ate all that I gave him.

Today I had a pile of clean diapers on the couch waiting to be folded. I looked up this afternoon and Joel was sitting on the couch pulling out all the wipes, folding them, and putting them in a very neat pile. What joy!

Favorite Songs

Originally, Joel's favorite hymn was "I'll Fly Away". Now he likes most hymns we sing at church, and sings then frequently - "We're Marching to Zion", "The Solid Rock", "Amazing Grace", "God Has Been My Refuge Daily", and "Man of Sorrows". His favorites, however, are "When the World My Heart is Rending" and "Sing the Wondrous Love of Jesus". It's so sweet to hear him singing, "I love Jesus, hallelujah, I love Jesus, hallelujah, yes, I do love Jesus." This, of course, is not the exact way the words go in the song, but he loves singing them. It is usually very easy to tell what he's singing - if the melody and words aren't exact, then his rhythm is good and vice versa. You'll hear this mish-mash of grunts and "huhs" and then comes his little high pitched, "when we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be".

Another favorite of Joel's is the Hallelujah Chorus. We went to a sing along Messiah this year in Fort Worth, and he was mesmerized. He imitated the conductor quite well, and really liked the "big guy" - either the tenor or bass, I'm not sure which - and the girl in red - the soprano. He also got to go see a real life double bass. He was quite intimidated by its size, and didn't even want to touch it when offered the opportunity. Anyway, the Hallelujah Chorus is not at the end of the Messiah, it's right in the middle of it. However, at sing alongs they usually change it up a bit and switch to the Chorus right after "Worthy is the Lamb" before the Amens start. To top it all off, we sang the Chorus twice at this sing along. Quite fun. Now we sing the Hallelujah Chorus at least once a day, in addition to it being our flossing teeth song. You see, all the "ahs" in it aid in reminding Joel to keep his mouth open while I'm flossing his teeth. Joel climbs up on the closed toilet, stands up and says, "sing hallelujah". So I do. "Fahr thah Lahrd Gahd Ahmnipotent Reignath...."

Oh, brother!

James is not going to rest until he is crawling. He is working so hard! When you pick him up, he digs his toes into your stomach and buries his head in your shoulder, as if to crawl up whoever is holding him. Right now he is actually crawling backwards; he hasn't figured out how his arms and upper body pull him forward. So when he is not nose-diving because his arms aren't pulling him forward, he is rolling across the floor exploring new and exciting places.

Just for reference, Joel began crawling (army style) at almost 7 months, and on all fours at 8 months. James is not yet 6 months old, and has quite a lot of motivation to crawl, namely, Joel.

Big brother Joel is learning very well how to be communicative and interactive with James. I have really tried to encourage him to talk to James, and not to worry about something specific to say to him. Now Joel tells him everything, such as, "I'm wearing flip flops" and "it's okay, Mama broke her phone". True to his sweet nature, he really tries to comfort James when James is upset. He always assures him that "it's okay" and does different antics to get James to laugh. Usually he plays a musical toy and dances. Sometimes he says funny words or just "I LOVE you!!" over and over again (sounds like "I wuv you"). Joel can almost always get James' attention and distract him from whatever is ailing him.

Joel's one-liners

The other night, I called to Joel's attention that it was dark outside. I asked him if he knew what that meant, expecting him to say that it was time for bed. He leaned down towards me a little and whispered, "spankings?"

Joel has recently learned to drink out of a real glass, and not a sippy cup. This, of course, is at times frustrating because of spills. One night was particularly memorable because Joel was drinking a smoothie. A blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry smoothie. I was not a witness to the actual gulp, but I arrived on the scene moments after and looked on with amused horror. I told Joel, "show Daddy your mouth". He turned to Jason, pointed to his lips and said, "it's right here".

After one of Aunt Jeana's visits, Joel told me that she was Jeana Wilkinson.

The last time we visited Opa & Oma's before Grandpa's death, Grandpa had moved to a nursing home. When Grandma came out of her room just after we arrived, Joel asked if Grandpa was still taking a nap. Oma told him no, and tried to explain that he was living somewhere that nurses could take care of him. Joel asked, very concernedly, "is he sad there?" He enjoyed going and making sure that Grandpa was being well taken care of in his new home, and that was the last time we saw him.

Our Little Longhorn

During the first week of this year, days following the UT Longhorns victory over USC, we had our friend Derek over who is an Aggie (need I comment on the passion of this breed?). While I was bathing the boys, I thought up the perfect prank for Joel to pull. Right then and there, I began Joel's college education. "Hook 'em horns" I said to Joel, and he and I hailed it over and over again. After awhile I called Jason and Derek to the bathroom, as Joel had something he wanted to tell Derek. They came quickly, and I said to Joel, "what would you like to tell Uncle Derek?" He said, "I want to tell you hook 'em horns!" Derek's reaction was priceless; exactly what I had hoped for. He nearly left the premises! Since then Joel has learned the Texas Longhorns sign, as well as "gig 'em aggies" and its sign , but without so much gusto.

Mr. Rolls

James rolled from his back to his belly today, countless times! I knew he was capable of doing it, but was hindered by his rather bulky cloth diaper (not to mention his thighs). I knew that one day he would triumph, and today he did . . . and he did and he did. Now it's as if he wants you to lay him on his back just so he can roll over onto his belly; he enjoys the action. He doesn't always particularly enjoy being on his belly, but getting there is what's enjoyable! We are so proud of him!

in the beginning...

Today is James' 5 month birthday. Joel's third birthday is just a few months away. So many things happen in their lives each day; things they say and do that I don't want to forget, and that I want to share. So here begins my journal about our children. There are many anecdotes to be added, but I will start with today and work backwards as time allows.

Highlights of today: James seems to be teething - no "tell-tale" signs except for the insatiable desire to have something in his mouth. He is so sweet though, and smiles through it all. He enjoys having Joel play on the floor next to him. Joel has learned many ways to make James smile and laugh; James always enjoys having Joel nearby.

Joel took a nap today. He is all about being in control - what kid isn't? When he's awake he doesn't want to go to sleep; when he's asleep he doesn't want to wake up. Today at lunch he was eating penne pasta. He likes to try to suck the hollow noodles into his mouth. It's not quite like slurping spaghetti, but he likes that too.