Muddy Little Bimmy

Can you guess what I did today while the weather wasn't too frigid or rainy? That's right! I played at the park. On the ground. In the mud. I ate grass, mud, wood chips, rocks and had some water to wash it all down. It was super fun! I love the park!

Happy Bloggerversary to us!

It has officially been 1 year since we started this blog in honor of James impending arrival. I can't believe how fast it has gone and yet I am excited to see what the next year brings as well. So, 1 year and 74 posts ago (including this one) this whole thing started. Hope it hasn't been too boring for y'all.

Random things that have happened in the last year (not in any particular order).

1. James was born. This was totally the most important event.

2. We moved to Switzerland.

3. Brian was promoted to manager at work.

4. Becky turned 30!

5. James more than doubled in size. (Good thing it wasn't me).

6. James got 7 teeth.

7. Becky had her first hospital stay and surgery (when James was born) of her life.

8. Brian has tried tomatoes more than once in Switzerland. (This is pretty much unheard of as tomatoes are the "forbidden fruit" according to him).

9. Brian has also eaten "raw" meat here. (This is a major step for him as well).

10. Becky speaks less than Brian at church. (That is cuz I can't speak French well yet. I will be making up for lost time soon).

11. We actually had home teachers show up at our house once. (Kinda weird. What are you supposed to do with them? I haven't really had home teachers come since living with my parents in Bountiful).

12. Becky has learned how to function without a car using public transportation. Not happily but she is dealing.

13. Becky went back to college to finish her degree.

14. We had our first visitor here in Geneva! Thanks, Geoff, for visiting! This is a hint for the rest of you.

15. We got our first "care package" from home. Thanks, Mom, we loved everything you sent. This is also a hint for the rest of you!

16. We inspired lots of family and friends to start blogs of their own so we can keep in touch with them better and see what's happening in their lives. Including Brian's entire family (even Tra la la la la) and one of Becky's sisters.

That is all. We can't wait to see what happens in the next year...

"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!

Photo Tag

Thanks to Shannon, I have been "tagged". This is how it works. I was supposed to go to my pictures and click on the 6th folder and then the 6th picture and post it on my blog and then share what it is about. Well, I only have 2 folders. "James" and "everything else". I chose James and then I went to Month 9 and to the 6th folder there and then to the 6th photo. This is what I came up with. It is James, of course, in the swing at the park by the hotel we stayed at when we first moved to Geneva. This photo was taken on September 10, 2008 so James was almost 10 months old here. As you can see he was having fun in the swing. We went to this park pretty close to every day that we stayed in the hotel. Usually we would start with a nice long swing and then we would stroll around the park watching all the interesting people and animals. James loved watching the older kids play soccer and basketball. He also loved watching the dogs stroll by and seeing the pigeons eat day old bread that people would throw to them.
Now I get to tag a few people. I tag Crystal, Jill and both Emilys. Can't wait to see what your search turns up.

11 Months

James is 11 months today. I don't have any official stats this month either because I still have yet to find a pediatrician. It is on my list of things to do this month. James is doing great. He is happy as ever and is learning new things every day. He has finally perfected the crawl and he is officially better at real crawling than army crawling. He is on the verge of standing by himself but he still doesn't quite trust himself. He still climbs everything and he still tries to eat everything. He now knows when he is being naughty and he gets plenty of joy while being naughty. He really likes it when we say, "uh oh" cuz that means he can grin mischeviously while doing the "uh oh". I have to keep most of the doors shut in the house so that he won't get into too much trouble but he seems to find it anyway no matter what I try to do to keep him out of it. Here are a few pictures of him from the last month. Enjoy.
Here he is enjoying the snow in Murren. He tried to lean over at one point to taste it but he was so overdressed that he couldn't bend at the middle enough to get there. He really liked the snow.

James gets really excited when he is going to eat. I have to give him his own spoon so that he won't try to steal mine. He gets so excited and just starts waving his arms and bouncing up and down in the highchair and laughing. It is funny.Here he is trying to figure out how he is going to get that rice into his mouth.And here he has figured it out. There is a park across really close to our house and James just loves to go there and play. He especially loves it when Brian can come and help him down the slide. He thinks it is super fun.The following are just a couple of examples why I can't leave him unattended for more than about 3 seconds. It makes it difficult to go to the bathroom when he is awake. Here he got himself stuck in the basket of his stroller cuz he was trying to go after the bag of bread that I had left in there. (This happened while Brian was home watching him and I was out.) All of a sudden Brian heard some whining and came in to find this. James was stuck and couldn't figure out how to get back out. I was in the other room for a minute doing dishes and I guess I didn't get the door closed all the way. When I found him and I said, "Oh no". He looked at me and quickly tried to get as much fun in as he could and started trying to touch everything all at once. Good thing I had just cleaned the toilet but he still got a bath anyway. JIC (just in case).