Week by Week 16

(October 11-17) My second week without my mom is well documented. Lots of stuff happened. We started the week off with lots of nakedness. Some days it IS too hard to get the kids dressed. Not really, but James does love to run naked through the house. He says "nay tid."In addition to chillin' naked, James colored while John-Luke watched.
John-Luke's looking at me like, "Seriously? Do I really have to watch this?" I think he secretly questions my sanity sometimes. He does raise his eyebrows at me often.
But isn't he cute anyway?
I think as the winter continues to arrive here that there will be many pictures of Johnny in this exact setting. He will probably grow up and wonder if he ever got to do anything fun.
We also went to the park and played even though it isn't exactly Summer anymore.
Even Johnny-Lu got out to play for a minute.
James was so proud of this ginormous mushroom he found growing at the park. There he was happily running down the hill toward the slide with me strolling behind him and then he stopped and examined the ground for a minute. When he stood up he yelled triumphantly, "MUSHROOM!!" Can you tell how proud he is of it?
He carried it all around the park for about 5 minutes. Then he discovered he could slowly start picking at it. James loves to pick at things.
Picking the mushroom apart was good for about 10 minutes of lovely discovery. Yes, I was watching closely to be sure he didn't eat any of the mushroom as James loves to taste things too.
Also, this week we did some tickling of John. He is very ticklish on his ribs.
James did get into a bit of mischief this week. Here he is with a whole cup of butter that I had softened to make cookies. He found it and was eating--yes, eating!!--it. And he was also rubbing it all over his naked legs (he was in underwear and a shirt only). I was totally grossed out. I came in the room and he looked up and said, "Butter!!" When I gasped, he quickly started licking his fingers (he knew I was going to clean him up).
Luckily, after the butter incident we met some friends at Espace Junior. It is a huge bouncy-house-and-other-outside-toys place. It rocks and James loves it. He was able to burn a few of those calories for the next 3.5 hours.
Burning off the butter!
Looking cute and being very good in the stroller.
More calorie burning.
And more.
And more.
Some sleeping or non-calorie-burning.
We also did a bit of tummy time this week.
And a few self-portraits. James loves to see himself in pictures and we take them all the time.
This week we also discovered the joy of running through the leaves.
James has also become a big "helper." I used quotations because sometimes he is more hinder than helper but he is so cute as he tries to help.
Another raised eyebrow look. Not sure what crazy thing I was doing here but I'm sure it was crazy. Perhaps dancing and singing around the room.
This week I also broke into my stash of silly toys that I brought back from Utah. James got some goggles. He really loved them until he took them apart. They lasted a few weeks. What a silly boy!
More playing at the park. James was insistent that I take a picture of him and John-Luke on the slide together. James thought it was great fun and John-Luke did not.
This week we also made some recipes together. This is one of James' favorite past-times. He is always asking me to make recipes, especially chocolate recipes. Yep, he is licking the beater!
More Espace Junior to burn off those chocolate recipes. This time we took Brian with us. Fortunately, James was free until he turned 2.
Probably James' very favorite thing is jumping. He loves it. He jumps all the time.
John-Luke was happy in his stroller. I think he was just glad that the non-crazy parent was there to keep an eye on things.
A little break. James just layed down for a minute to suck on his fingers and catch his breath.
And we're off again!
Chillin' with daddy and watching James burn enough calories for all of us.
Brian and Bubba on the go-carts. James is good for about 3 turns around the track before he is done. The token usually gets you 4 or 5 turns around the track so he is usually saying, "done" before it is really over. Too much jumping to do at this place!
Brian decided it would be a good idea to let Bimmy go up the "6 years and older" toy. Duh! I was thinking that he was going to fall and break his neck. He didn't. Luckily. Of course, there was still the slide at the top. I thought we might have to go up after him.
Nope. He just turned around and was going to go down on his belly. Unfortunately, he was "helped" by a little girl. This, he did not enjoy. He didn't cry but he hasn't tried to go back up that one again!
Overall, it was a busy and crazy week. I think my capacity to handle 2 kids alone was greatly increased this week. Thank heaven for that! And I think that this week more than makes up for the lack of pics from last week. Hope the "grand ma mas" enjoy!