"nigh, nigh"

Well, we have had a bit of a crazy week. Crazy cuz it has been cold and so I haven't been as keen to go freeze my hiney off at the park for hours on end. James on the other hand, would love to do just that. At least, until he realizes that he is freezing and then he starts to cry. He also decided that he can't just crawl normally like most babies. He decided that he likes to combine 3 different styles. He still occasionally uses his "army" crawl that he favored for so long, he also uses the "normal" crawl that we all know and love and he also does a hands and feet crawl that is pretty funny to watch. Check it out in the video below.

I have been torturing James all week with trying to get him to talk more. I know it is too early to really get on his case but I can try. So, every time he came up to me this week and clearly wanted to be picked up, I would say, "Uh uh uppp", very clearly. He said it a few times, usually in the morning when he was in the mood to humor me. Occasionaly, he would start to whine when I tried to get him to say something, usually in the afternoon when he was not in the mood to humor me. The only thing that he says really consistently is "da da". He says that all day, every day. He also does a lot of nonsense babbling and it has increased a lot lately which is why I started the torturing in the first place. So, tonight when I picked James up and told him that it was time for nigh, nigh (our word for bedtime) he happily stuck his fingers in his mouth and put his head on my sholder. This is totally normal for him. Next we proceeded to his bedroom for his last 5 min. feeding and when I went to put him in bed he pulled his fingers out of his mouth started waving at me and said, "nigh, nigh". It was the cutest thing I have ever seen! I just wish I could have caught it on video for everyone (mostly Brian) to see. Unfortunately, I don't usually (well never) video bedtime. That would be way to distracting. It is not part of our "routine". Anyway, I just wanted to share that James is starting to talk a bit and I will be posting as he says new things. So far the words that I can understand that he has said are (in order of frequency) da da, ma ma, up and nigh nigh. He also does a whole bunch of babbling and tries to mimic sounds that we make but I don't really count those.
New subject. So while we have been chillin indoors mostly this week we have had to become creative in our choices of entertainment. These are a few of the things we have done to keep busy. We got out the twix it clips and made them into toys. Can you see how entertaining they were? We also ran naked through the house. That was tons of fun as you can see. James thought he was super cool for getting up onto the tv stand all by himself. He is so my kid, he totally loves to frolick naked whenever I allow him to. Usually it happens after baths for a few minutes. James also enjoyed taking all his toys apart and randomly depositing them throughout the house. He loves pulling all his books of the shelf and "reading" them. Anyone have any other ideas about fun, inside activites that we could try during the cold days?
On another subject entirely, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! James and I were invited to an excellent Halloween party this week. James got all dressed up as a cowboy and had a blast watching the other kids.He kept stealing a binky from another little boy there and "tasting" it. Funny that he won't use a binky if I give it to him. They made the most fun, spooky lunch and it was great to get out of the house for a few hours. We are going to go to another Halloweek party tomorrow the the English ward is putting on at the church. No, we are not in that ward but yes, we were invited by their bishop so we are going. Hopefully James will cooperate and let me take more pictures of him as I was only able to get 2 the other day cuz my memory card was full after that. Hope y'all have a great Halloween!