Hallo-wee ones

We went to a Halloween party today, for an international moms' club at the university. Turns out, James was the only kid dressed up the whole time...Lily wore a birdie coat but took it off as soon as she arrived, and everyone else was too hot to wear their big bulky outfits.


We go to the moms' club meetings every Wednesday, and every week, James and Olivia like to get into the toy box and run around the room. Sometimes they get in with each other. Sometimes not.

Today they had the...help of their friends Brian and Lily.


And then James actually played with the TOYS instead of the toy box...amazing! And I love his choice of toy:


He says, Hey everyone, I know you think I'm a girl and call me a girl and ask if I'm a girl and insinuate that I'm a girl. And you know what? I'm okay with that, because you can't touch my masculinity with a ten-foot pole! Would you like some cream and sugar with your tea?

Or maybe he just knows he's beautiful and isn't into gender roles just yet...

Happy Halloween.

I just thought you should know.

I love the internet. Without it, who knows if I would ever have discovered this Very Important Fact:

"The combination “ough” can be pronounced in nine different
ways.The following sentence contains them all “A rough-coated,
dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough;
after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

Taken from this website, which I found linked on Dooce.

Pretty sure I never posted this one before...

...And since the Sooners are playing again and Ben can actually watch the game on TV here...this is exactly what the boys happen to be wearing today, even though this picture is actually from the same day as our park adventure, which was, what, six weeks ago? Geez. Someday I will start posting recent photos. Someday.

Anyway, BOOMER SOONER!

(I really had to post this picture because Megan posted this picture over at Ana's Mama (now Ana's and Emery's Mama!) and we just couldn't let that pass without a response. But we forgive them because we know they're not actually becoming Longhorn fans, even though they are moving to Texas. Ben says he can handle having friends from Lubbock, just not Austin!)

Signing Times

There is a long list of words that the J-man can now sign...that's right, sign, not say. I was on the phone with a friend the other day and mentioned that he was making a sign and my friend said, "Um...is there something you're not telling me?" When I explained how we use lots of signs to help James communicate and therefore avoid as much frustration as possible, he said, "Oh, I thought he had gone deaf and no one told me or something."

No, he has not gone deaf. But he does sign: potty/poop, airplane/flying, food, drink, more, help, baby, all done, milk , good night, ouch/hurts, Daddy, brush teeth, dog, cat, bus, where, I hear it, phone, music, ball, bird....Those are just what I can come up with right now. He is also working on "bath" and "friend" but doesn't use them consistently yet. Here he is making a sign as we stand outside watching an airplane fly by. I won't insult your intelligence by telling you which sign this is.

Also....James DOES have a few words that he actually vocalizes. Mama? Dada? Nope. He says bus, dog, uh-oh, and shoes. He also likes to bark. Sometimes he even gets confused about exactly which animals make that sound. Although he is working on how to make a noise like a monkey, he has no sign or noise for a ram...yet.

I can't believe he's already 15 months old. He is growing so much every day, learning so much and teaching us so much too. We are so blessed and happy to have him lead the way.


(Edit: Ben says to remind me that, in fact, I forgot one of James' most important signs: Touchdown! He makes the touchdown signal whenever Ben is watching or listening to any kind of ball game, and even did it the other day when the neighbor kids were playing football in the yard. =) He also says "hi, hi, hi" a lot now when he sees people.)