Duke Gardens

Jamie's first visit to Duke Gardens this past Saturday. They have a wonderful botanical garden at Duke University. It was late afternoon/early evening when we were there and it happened to be prom night for many of the local highschool seniors. We were in one area of the grounds near the popular azalea bushes when one group of teens from the school of math and science were having their pictures taken. The girls were smitten with Jamie ( I think one of them said she is from China too) so they asked for him to be in their picture so I posted it here.

Jamie enjoyed throwing sticks into the pond, watching some ducks, frisbee throwers, etc. and he greatly enjoyed throwing a football back and forth (in the manner that a young toddler throws a ball back and forth) with a man and his friendly son. He also thought watching a caterpillar was wonderful. He was very excited to watch all of the dozens and dozens of teens getting their pictures taken. We finished the night off with dinner at Whole Foods and he enjoyed sitting out on the patio at the store watching people come and go in their cars while we ate.

Easter pictures!

Jamie enjoyed his first Easter with us. He loved his basket and especially enjoyed hunting for plastic eggs over at his Mimi's house (David's mom and his step dad's.) Jamie's cousin Ava ( the one also from China 1 year older than Jamie) was there for some competition. We had to direct him to other spots for egg hunting b/c she was quite adept, having one year up on him. Here are a few pictures. ;-)

He is growing like a weed!

We hit a first the other day. It was when I took Jamie to Farm Days, a wonderful annual event put on by a local university specifically for preschoolers up to 1st grade to enjoy livestock (petting chicks, baby goats, sheep, etc.) I took Jamie and he really enjoyed it and loved petting the animals. The 'first' is that Jamie posed for a picture for the first time w/ one of those slightly cheesy fake smiles that all of us grown ups tend to do whenever someone wants to take our picture. You know: the kind where you keep holding the smile while you're waiting for them to snap it and then you stop smiling once they take it? Well it cracked me up when Jamie did it. He wouldn't have posed at all for a picture if he hadn't wanted it taken but I asked him if he wanted me to take his picture with the sheep. He nodded yes so I told him to turn around and then I told him to smile (assuming he wouldn't smile b/c unless you catch him in the act of smiling he doesn't usually do it for the camera on purpose) and lo and behold, he put on a smile for the picture. I really love how it doesn't look like his other smiles; it is so obviously put on for the camera, it just tickles me!

I still can't believe this boy has grown probably close to 3 inches since we've had him. That is a lot of growth! And he looks so much older and even taller when he wears overalls. Have a look at these pictures! Farm Day was on his 22nd month day by the way.

Today my parents arrive for a week-long visit. Jamie is going to enjoy it and so will I! It will be especially nice not being the only adult all day long during the work week. ;-)

The picture of Jamie standing in front of sheep in an enclosure is the one with the posed smile that I love.

In the picture of Jamie in our living room wearing overalls and a hawaiian shirt (which I posted to show you just how big he is getting) you will note there are many cheerios on the floor and he is holding a shovel. This was right *after* David had just vacuumed which figures. ;-) Jamie decided trying to shovel his cheerios out of a small bowl and onto the floor and then back onto the shovel and into his mouth was an effort worth pursuing. We discovered him doing this after we noticed he was awfully quiet for a couple of minutes while we were in the kitchen. lol.

You can see how much Jamie's hair has grown especially in that side shot where he's sucking his favorite two fingers. I don't know why b/c all of Jamie's teeth are in except his 2 year molars, but he has gotten *really* oral. Way more than before. Now he wants to chew on his blanket all...day....long. And if he doesn't have his blanket to chew he has his fingers all around inside his mouth and is even trying out chewing on a sucking on other fingers besides these two!

A blessing for Jamie

I am very glad that Jamie gets to see David's grandparents Papa and Gramma and they absolutely adore him. It is wonderful to have them here in his life and they pray for him every day. David's Papa is in his mid 90's and still works every weekday!! Can you believe it? These pictures are from David & Jamie's recent visit there a couple of weeks ago. They live in a retirement community and love to proudly tell everyone around, " This is our grandson!" while they beam with pride. It makes my heart so happy for them and for him that he's home finally. ;-)

Tonight out at dinner he thought an older man was Papa at the restaurant and kept pointing at him and saying Pa Pa over and over again. He didn't seem to get that it wasn't really Papa no matter how many times we told him it wasn't him.

Wow, 2 inches in 3 months!!

Jamie has grown 2 inches in 3 months!! He was measured 6 weeks apart two times and each time he gained an inch. Wow. He went from the 10th percentile for height to the 40th! Yay! I'm thinking all of that egg and other protein is making him shoot up. He lost 2 lbs from the last weigh in and currently weighs 28 lbs so 60th percentile for weight (instead of previous 75th.) I think it's probably that he's been gluten free a couple of weeks and dairy free for one and the rice milk is low fat. Who knows. All I know is I'm amazed that he has grown so much b/c typically between the age of 1 and 2 they only grow 2 inches and he's already done 2 in 3 months!

We went out to eat recently and Jamie was tilting his head back for me to put some food in his mouth. I told him he looked like a baby bird and he tucked his hands inward towards his chest so his elbows were out and started pretending to flap his wings and say bok bok. ;-) He learned to do the chicken dance from Sesame Street. Elmo, also known as Mo Mo to Jamie, is Jamie's favorite obsession and he insists on seeing Elmo on tv every day. We really need to buy some more Elmo videos b/c we're getting tired of the same ones. I DVR Sesame Street often so we have those episodes to watch as well.

Jamie has been very upset lately about daddy not being there during the day for him so each morning and every day after he wakes from nap the first thing he says is, " Dada?" and then when I tell him he's at work he gets angry and starts crying and yelling, " Bye bye" at me and pointing to the door, telling me to leave. It's getting tiring. He's also hitting me more. I think it's a combo of him processing and understanding things more (like daddy not being there during the day when he wants) coupled with heading towards the more independant 2's. Weeee. I try to be consistent with him but it's hard! Anyway, he's still cute as ever, regardless of what his mood is like at any given moment. ;-) Here are some pictures! In one of them you see he is wearing his baby bear in our Ergo Sport carrier (hmm, a bit big on him.) Thanks for that teddy bear Grandma!

Jamie continues to really improve on his basketball throw and David and I are truly impressed now. He shoots up and forward w/ force and is netting the ball now from a couple feet away sometimes!

Bobaday

Also known to most English-speaking folks as basketball. Yep, that is our son's latest word. Bobaday. First he used it specifically for when he saw our neighbors playing basketball and for the hoop. Now that he is so focused on that word, big bird from Sesame street has become bobaday, trucks on the road have become bobaday and I know a few other things were called that but can't remember what they were. As soon as he gets up in the morning he wants to look out the window so he can see the basketball hoops at the neighbors houses. On our street, virtually every other house has one , in one case 3 houses in a row across the street. He likes to point every hoop out that he sees now and like in the past with his ability to spot squirrels from far away, he now can spot basketball hoops in the distance. We'll be driving and I'll hear bobaday!! It is either a truck or he just spotted a basketball hoop.

By the way, Jamie can't say squirrel any longer. It is interesting how he loses some words as he is trying out new ones. We talk about the squirrels just about every day but he says da da now when he tries to say squirrel.

It's been ages since we updated. By the way, with his latest basketball obsession we got him an indoor toddler basketball hoop and ball and he loves it. He can't do it w/o help yet but his throw is actually getting impressive. He really aims and can shoot w/ some force now. I took him downtown to an indoor playspace last week where they have some small plastic balls and some cut outs in wood you can throw them through and he was actually getting many of them in. David bought him a soccer ball and Jamie said sah caw when we asked him to say soccer but he still calls the soccer ball a bobaday. Now every ball is called that. ;-) I'm surprised he isn't calling the cat a bobaday. In fact, he doesn't seem to remember how to say cat anymore which is weird. He is saying da da!

I'll attach a few new pictures. ;-) By the way, we are not trying to potty train Jamie at all yet. He was just interested in us using it so I figured why not put it in there for him to get used to the idea that he'll have one. Well he loves going and sitting on it fully clothed and I caught him sitting on it w/ reading material! We didn't even teach him that one, lol. How funny is that. Jamie had his first trip to Krispy Kreme and it was his first doughnut (so far as we know). We have him on a gluten free diet right now to see what is up w/ his digestive issues so it may be one of his last for a long time to come! You see the picture of him in a canvas tote box and a plastic toy tray box. I came in from doing some things in the kitchen to find him happily playing in these boxes. ;-)

Yet more pictures to add...

Above pic: Jamie loved having us wrap the scarf around his neck like daddy was doing, even though Jamie only wore it around the house, lol.

Jamie wanted us to take a picture of him so he posed in his antique rocker

Happy boy!! (Notice how he squishes his kitty in front and doggie behind in the car to take his pets around with him as he 'go go goes' as he says. )