My precious little boy

Just now as Jamie is napping, a few happy tears welled up in my eyes as I think about how innocent and unaffected little children are. Obviously I don't mean innocent in the sense of never doing wrong. LOL, you know I don't mean that. I mean rather, unaware of social 'rules' and speaking freely their minds with no inhibitions, etc. and such concrete and simple thinkers. Oh how I wish our children remained this way for longer! I am so glad he's still fully in this stage.

Earlier today Jamie met my cousin (so his first cousin once removed) Craig. He's never met him before as we don't get to see each other often. Jamie was anticipating meeting him from the night before when I told him Craig would be coming over for breakfast the next day and Jamie was starting to get excited before his arrival this morning.

Jamie tends to get just a little normal amount of shyness or bashfulness when meeting someone new so when Craig actually came in and went over and said hi to Jamie, Jamie said a quick hi and then felt a need to look away for just a brief moment and Jamie moved over to his train table next to us. He immediately found his favorite train Harvey and, under the wonderfully innocent mindset of 2-3 year olds who assume you know everything already about their toys and toy names/characters came racing over to Craig and cut into the conversation to say, " Dis is my Harvey!! My other Harvey not work on dis track. It work different track." (Of course I'm translating for Craig b/c most people can't tell what Jamie is saying w/o me translating.) Then he enthusiastically handed it to Craig while he ran over to grab his newest train addition. He ran back over to Craig and said, " Dis my new choo choo. Dis name.....mommy. What dis name again?" I said, " Spencer." Jamie giggled, " Oh yeah. Dis choo choo named Spencer!" then Craig and Jamie played w/ trains for a few minutes together. Nevermind that Craig has never heard of Spencer or Harvey and all. I just love this young mindset and age that is so enthusiastic and isn't bothered or encumbered with having to explain what he's talking about. He just says it.

Recently a neighbor came over for a few minutes to talk and Jamie comes up to her, without the adult type of thing like saying hi or nice to see you and just starts excitedly telling her (again w/ me having to translate every word): " Pea fall in lake when big house fall off tree! Pea swam!" and he cackled with laughter. The neighbor lady is smiling and then looking at me like, " Whaaa?" I said, " Earlier, Jamie and I were watching a tv show [VeggieTales] and thought it was so funny when a house in a tree tipped over and the pea who was living inside fell out." Ha, that probably needed even more explanation b/c she's probably wondering--what? A talking pea?

I just love how he never thinks about the fact that another adult or child hasn't had the same experience as him and he just starts telling them stuff that he loves.

Jamie often tells me that Harvey is his favorite train (it's from the Thomas the Train series). We have the wooden railway series. These things are sooooo expensive, it's nuts! That company sure rakes in the bucks. As Jamie mentioned, there are not one but I think now 3 or possibly 4 different versions of Harvey and other trains now depending on which tracks you use. They are not interchangeable. Nice way to rack up the bucks considering one train alone is 13-25 bucks!!! 8-O

I am very grateful for the 40% off coupons from the craft store b/c they carry the series of wooden railway friends trains that he has.

I want to say, that despite my son being a very passionate and headstrong personality that can be a challenge to parent at times, I love love love him!!! And for the first time ever, two times this week he told me that he'd miss me when I was away somewhere!! He's been saying that for months to David and I was so hoping I'd get to hear those words, uncoaxed. Yay!! Jamie is still working on attaching but it's vastly better now than before. We still need to work on it though.

I'll add some pictures in a newer post in a day or two.

Pictures from past several months

Here are a few more Jamie pics from the past several months since it's been forever since I posted any! I'd post more but 5 seems to be the limit per post or else I just don't know what I'm doing.

In the Mr Potato head picture, you see two things: One, Jamie is clearly creative and thinks outside the box (at one point Mr P had three sets of eyes and his feet were sprouting out of the side of his head) and I love his kind of zany humor. Two, do you notice that Jamie wearing big boy underwear??! Yes, he's usually wearing undies when at home now during playtimes! We're potty training here! ;)

I included the guitar picture b/c he's my little rock star and he loves music and musical instruments. He *still* regularly pretends to be a conductor and asks us to play marching band instruments (pretending.)

In the bike helmet pic I included that to say that a friendly neighbor gave Jamie his old bike (yes a two wheeler but of course training wheels are on it.) He has enjoyed it several times now.

Finally, the picture of him eating ice cream is from back in March. There is a yearly event open to kids to visit a local farm and they provide homemade ice cream. Jamie enjoyed it and he was so cute I had to share that precious picture of him.

Jamie's 3rd birthday!

Jamie recently turned three! I can't believe it! Sorry I didn't post sooner. We finally found our camera cord connector so I can upload some pictures here!

There have been so many Jamie 'funnies' I kept meaning to write down that unfortunately with my memory as crummy as it is, I forget. So often he'll say something really funny and I think, " I've got to write that down!"

Pop Pop taught Jamie something I was hoping would be reserved for when he was a lot older (thanks a lot, Pop Pop!)~~the phrase, " Well, duh!!!" Well to my surprise (and consternation) Jamie knows the appropriate context for when to use the phrase apparently. The other day Jamie was experimenting with banging his head on some object; not a genius thing to do and not something he usually does. He said, " Owww! Well.....duuuuh!" I laughed b/c he said it at the right time for sure.

Jamie greatly enjoyed his third birthday party at his cousin Ava's house. Ava has a wonderful pool and a nice pool house at her house so it is ideal for birthday parties! Jamie and one other boy were the only boys at the party w/ 6 girls! (The boy and his two sisters are good friends of ours.) All of the other girls are Jamie's cousins. They all had a great time swimming! They enjoyed kid friendly dinner and cake and then when it was time to open presents you should have seen Jamie's face when he opened the Cranky the crane from the Thomas the train series. He has been longing with a deep longing for that toy for a long time now. He was jumping up and down and squealing and doing the dance of joy when he opened it. On the way home that night, in his car seat w/ cranky on his lap, he said, " Is Cranky for my very own?" I said, " Yes, Jamie, Cranky is your very own. Aunt Cathy gave it to you. It's your birthday present and you get to keep it." " For my very own?" he questioned. " I no have to give back?" he said quietly. " No Jamie, you get to keep it forever as your very own." A sudden shriek of delight filled the car and he said, " Yay! Cranky my very own!!! Yay!" He was so cute!

Here are some recent pictures (I'll do one from birthday and then other stuff.)

By the way, the one of him eating ice cream w/ his friend~~that is Will, his friend who was also at the same orphanage at about the same time as Jamie. We are so lucky and blessed to have been able to get to know Will and his family. He is a delightful little boy and we just love their whole family. Thanks to them we also discovered a nice beach to take Jamie to sometimes! We are glad we got to see them this spring as we don't live in the same area. I'll make a separate post sometime soon w/ more pictures since it's been so long! The picture of Jamie in his PJ's with his hand up in the air is from his birthday morning, fresh out of the crib (note the crib hair, lol.) He was delighted that it was his birthday! By the way, big news--he is working on potty training and doing a wonderful job at home. We're hoping we might ditch the diapers before too long when we're out and about as well!

Asian boy Shirley Temple

I have the cutest boy known to man. This boy is seriously an Asian boy Shirley Temple. He's got the curls and the cute factor and he has a boy version of her absolutely adorable voice and giggle. Jamie, forgive me if you're reading this later when you're a teen or a man, and you are all boy in manner and actions, but somehow, you constantly make me think you're like Shirley Temple! Everyone else, forgive me for indulging in gushing about how adorable and cute my son is, lol. I hope I haven't already written about this as I have a sieve for memory, but lately Jamie is eating more vegetables and fruits. YeeeeHAWWWWWW!! Been a long time coming. He still isn't open to a ton of variety, but I'll take what we have! Part of what got him into it was this whole role play thing we do as good knights vs bad knights trying to steal the castle. Jamie always is the good knight of course. I make a galloping sound and pretend to be a bad knight and say, " I am here to take the castle good knight!" And he says, " No!" and puts his arms up and trembles in an 'I am so strong' kind of way. Then I say, " Uh oh. You look strong. Are you strong?" He answers that he is strong and I'll say, " Oh no. You haven't been eating your vegetables and fruits, have you? Green beans (or whatever veg is on his plate) make you super strong!" He says, " Yes, me eat green bean!" then I shout, " Run away! I shall run away. You are too strong! I will not take your castle!" Then Jamie has started saying lately, " It's okay bad knight. Me nice knight. Come for dinner." then I thank him and pretend we're eating dinner together at the castle. This single role playing act has worked now for over two months nearly every single night! He goes from saying no after one green bean to then wanting to be the one to eat the most! (He is very competative by nature.) He has eaten full servings of veg or of fruit nearly every night! If your toddlers don't like veg and are imaginative maybe this game will work for you. I don't know how long it'll last but at least he's getting used to flavors and textures. I cannot wait to put up pictures or videos. We will try to buy a new camera cord if we can't locate it. We cannot find it anywhere!

33 months going on 5 today...

Maybe I'm wrong, but what Jamie did a couple of times tonight sounded to me more like something 5 year olds come up with. He lied on what seemed like a 5 year old level. (Heh heh, not something I"m bragging about obviously, but I did have to leave the room b/c I started laughing.)

Last night, Jamie got in trouble for deliberately throwing a flashlight when he was angry at me for telling him to do something. Oh man, I was so not happy about that. Besides getting a time out for it I told him that he may not play with the flashlight today or tomorrow and for a few more days after that b/c he didn't take good care of it so I can't trust him with it. I was very clear and made sure he understood. Flash foward to today. A few minutes ago Jamie asked to have all of the lights turned off and asked for the flashlight. I reminded him about last night, "Remember Jamie, what did you do with the flashlight last night?" " Me threw flashlight." " Yes, that's right, Jamie. We don't throw flashlights. That wasn't good. Remember I told you that you would not be allowed to play with the flashlight yesterday or today because of that?" Jamie replied with, " Mommy, me no hear good. Me no hear you." I'm thinking, wow. That sounds like the 5 year olds I used to teach! I had to walk out of the room b/c I was starting to laugh.

Then a few minutes later we sat down for dinner. He had his favorite, shrimp and fish sticks as part of his dinner. We were telling him he needed to eat some orange if he wanted dessert or he couldn't have any. He ate two little pieces and asked for dessert. I told him he'd need to eat a lot more orange before he would be allowed to have dessert after dinner. He replied, " Mommy, too much orange, me choke. Me no eat too much orange. Me choke." He was trying to get me to buy into the idea that he could only handle eating one or two pieces total of orange. ;-) And believe me, he knew I didn't mean all at once b/c I am *always* telling him not to put too much in at once or he could choke.

I'd like to add some pictures but we can't find our camera cable again. Ugh!! We do have some recent pics to add that are cute!

Jamie just told me he wants to say hi to his Pop Pop on here.

Jamie says to Pop Pop, " Pop Pop. Bobadah. Me pet ownah (owner.)"

Jamie is now playing Duck Duck Goose with daddy and his stuffed bear. By the way, we brought him to a bounce house w/ a friend the other day and he LOVES jumping!! He's a regular jumping bean! I told him that and he said, " Mommy, what dat? Jumping bean?" After I explained about the worm inside the bean he later told daddy about the worm in the jumping bean. I asked Jamie if he was the worm in the bean. He said, " Yep!!"

Good luck, mommy!

Jamie is on a ' good luck' kick lately. He wished our city good luck on a drive the other day with his Mimi (D's mom) and yesterday he had David and I in stitches b/c as David was getting ready to take Jamie to a playground and leave the house, I said, " Goodbye and have fun. Mommy is going to stay here and clean the house." Jamie replied, " Bye bye, mommy. Good luck!" If you knew how messy we tend to be you'd be laughing at Jamie wishing me luck on the cleaning. I had a good laugh.

Last week was the beginning of Chinese New Year, as Jamie calls it, " Bunny!" the year of the rabbit. We went out for Chinese dinner with my parents and had Jamie dressed in some beautiful clothing that Mimi picked up in Hong Kong last year (nice silk outfit w/ gold dragons.) My parents came along for the dinner and David and Pop Pop were playing games with Jamie while we ate. David was starting to the play the 'got your nose' game and then Pop Pop said to Jamie, " Got your ear!" and pretended to take his ear. Jamie said, " No, Pot Pot (pop pop), too hard ear." Then he demonstrated trying to pull his ear off/tugging. He said again, " Too hard! No work!" He was so cute tugging on his ear saying it doesn't work and it's too hard. ;-)

On Chinese New Year, family members give children red envelopes with money inside. We all gave some dollar bills to Jamie this one, one per envelope. I asked him what he wanted to buy with his new year money and he said, " White choc choc momahley (money.) Buy white choc choc momahley." So today I took him to buy his own bag of Lindt white chocolate balls. He chose the variety then handed the cashier his three dollars. He seemed to enjoy doing it all himself.
I don't have any pictures to add yet b/c we've had some technical difficulties w/ taking pictures (haven't since Christmas basically) but we'll get it up and going soon again.