It was a Motorcycle Birthday

Happy 4th, Joel!

Manipulation or Manufacture?

Joel and James have developed quite a good relationship. It is fun to see them together; I know that any day could bring a division between them and that nurturing their relationship is one of the most important things that I can do. While sometimes I have absolutely no idea what to do and am frustrated beyond words, there are also great and grand times of rejoicing in watching them wrestle or just shriek at each other, giggling all the while.

One thing that Joel has always done with James is to ask him questions to find out what he's wanting or thinking. He'll ask him, "are you hungry? are you thirsty? do you want to get down? do you want your toy?", etc. Just this week he made the realization that James was not simply answering the questions, he was just always saying, "uh-huh" to whatever Joel made sound exciting or tempting. Now he has begun asking random questions for his own enjoyment. "James, do you want me to throw this at the ceiling fan?" "James, do you to look in the refrigerator?" "James, do you want me to climb on the containers in the closet?" This is not as simple as it used to be....

when the cows come home

Tonight James went around with his toy cell phone, encouraging Mama and Daddy in pretend telephone conversations. We were saying things such as, "hello, yes, yes, okay, bye-bye", etc. He then turned to Joel, and holding up the phone to his ear Joel said, "Hi, how are you? Have you fetched any corn for the cows??" Joel is definitely more interesting than we are.

Spoons

Around the end of December James became fascinated, perhaps obsessed, with spoons. It began one day while at Opa & Oma's house when I gave him a small, red baby spoon to play with. I knew he liked to take utensils and use them to pretend to eat out of bowls. This spoon occupied him for quite some time, and I believe he didn't let go of it all day. He took it outside to play in the dirt and the rocks and sticks. He took it with him to the bath. And he was quite miffed that I didn't let him take it to bed with him. The next day I thought I would try to keep him away from the spoon; best not to form an attachment and be taking this silly spoon everywhere. But no, the next morning James went looking for the spoon. He took it to church and played with it throughout the whole church service.... Anyhow, during an exploration through Oma's cabinets he found a small box of plastic spoons. A gold mine!!! We allowed him one spoon, and every morning, and after every nap, he went to that cabinet and got himself out a spoon to play with. He was quite inseparable from the spoons. That next Sunday when he, again, took a spoon to church and played with it throughout the whole service, people started asking me about this infatuation he had with spoons. It has been quite entertaining to watch, and although the infatuation is not quite so strong it is still there.

walking backwards and singing

James learned how to walk backwards about a month or so ago. He was quite proud of himself, giving the, "are you watching, huh? huh? huh?" look. For awhile he used it to mock and act out a sort of high-faluting behavior; you just knew he was thinking of how wonderfully hot he was with his new trick.

Another thing James loves is singing. He started singing in church at about 10 months old, and now can sing bits of songs (do, re, mis; pop goes the weasel; oompah-doompah song from Willie Wonka). His favorite thing is to wave his arms around to lead or conduct the song or music. Thankfully he has pretty good rhythm and enjoys leading the classical radio station as well as the song service at church. The funny thing is how Joel gets such a kick out of James' leading. He'll just laugh and say, "Mama, look at James! He's leading!"

And in other news...

James has two new teeth and is working on a third. His fourth tooth on bottom(left) and his first molar (bottom left) came through and were discovered on the 21st. Now he's working on the tooth next to his new molar.

News Break

James moved into Joel's room. They are now sharing a bedroom and it's very cute. Everything is always very cute at first. It has made me wish that we had them sharing a room from the first, but what is done is done. James is learning to stay in his bed (we took the front off the crib to turn it into a toddler bed). He is doing quite well, but usually tries at least once to get out of bed each time we lay him down. Joel informed me today that he wants to be by himself again. I told him that was too bad, that we have to learn to share our rooms, too. I think that he doesn't like having to be quiet, so as to not disturb James. But who knows - we all like to have our own things to ourselves sometimes. So now James has entered the world of bedtime stories and night-night prayers. He thinks it is all a game and giggles through it all.

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.