Well, that didn't take any time at all! Christmas morning, Jimmy surprised us with an unprompted, "7,8,9,10." At my dad's house that day, when asked to count, he did 1-10 for Grannie, with no assistance. Now, we're having some trouble with 6, but it's because he thinks he's finished after 5. Still, pretty amazing!

Jimmy Counts to 5

Just in case Jimmy (a.k.a. the performing monkey) will not perform for everyone at Christmas, I finally caught him counting to 5 on video! NO, the numbers aren't pronounced precisely correctly, but these sounds are listed as sounds kids should make by age 4 - so we're OK! He was just repeating the 5 numbers, but it's starting to be actual counting. He recognizes when there's 2 of something. He told Daddy "Two airplanes" the other day and he showed me balloons in a book and when I asked how many there were, he pointed at each and then said "Two," so the concepts are getting there too. It's not just a performed tricked! Can't wait to see everyone at Christmas. Sorry, no Christmas cards again this year. Maybe I'll get the timing down for next year!

Jimmy helps Daddy

Jimmy doesn't just help Mommy; he helps Daddy, too. Here he is helping Daddy change our front door knob and deadbolt on Dec. 3rd. Look at how filthy his hands are! He was working hard!

Cool New Trick

How cool is my kid??? Don't you wish you had one just like him? He just unloaded an entire load of laundry from the dryer and into the basket. Granted, it was a small load, but the only help I gave him was when I pushed the last few items from the back of the dryer to the front. He used to love picking up a sock if you dropped it, or loading things from the washer to the dryer, (that slowed things down a bit - pull it out of the washer, hand it to him, tell him to put it in the dryer, wait for him to do it, next piece . . . ), but now he's actually doing some work! We may keep him after all! Now, if I could get him to quit undecorating the tree as quickly as I decorate it, life would be a dream!

Here are some pictures of the "Help" I'm receiving with the Christmas tree.

Stairs

Well, I've gotten some complaints that I haven't updated the blog lately. It's not that there's not much to report, just nothing to "show." I have lots of friends that just type and type about what's going on - maybe I'm just too lazy to type, or afraid your too lazy to read it all. Either way, there's lots going on around here. The week before Thanksgiving, Jimmy got 3 new molars. Then, the week of Thanksgiving, Jimmy's bottom side teeth finally showed up! In 2 weeks, we went from 6 teeth to 11. He's been a real trooper! We wouldn't have even known except I keep an eagle's eye on them so I can record the date that each tooth came in. I'm so afraid I'm going to miss one (silly).

Jimmy's gotten great at the stairs. He goes up and down on his own. It takes a while, though, because he likes to stop and hang out, sit and talk to you, pick up Mollie hair, etc. Today, he was jabberring his way down the stairs, so I grabbed the video camera. Of course, that shut him up totally.

Speaking of jabberring, while we were home, his language went on to another new level. He woke up Thanksgiving morning repeating every word we said. The next day we took him to the car show and he told us all about every car. He used to say, "Carrrr, Tru-uck" when we were driving. At the car show, it turned into "Cool Car", "Kit Car" and Truck" - very articulated, not just sing-songy. We realized that most of what he said, only James and I understood, but at the car show, my dad was carrying him and he was pointing and repeating "Fr trk" over and over. We looked and Dad said, "Oh, Firetruck, yep, that is a firetruck" and he stopped. On the next aisle, there was an antique firetruck. It's crazy what all the kid sees, knows, notices, and now communicates to us!!!

At the top of the stairs, (and slides - which is where this started), he says, "Ready" and then on each step he says, "Wee." It's his own little indoor slide. Which is nice, because it's flippin' cold here! I'm not playing outside at the park with him - which has caused quite a few tears here, "Outdide, outdide!!!" His little tantrums are kind of cute. We were worried, the week before Thanksgiving, he had started having a couple of regular meltdowns a day. Luckily, they were only about 10-15 minutes, but he was really beside himself. We decided he was entering his "Terrible Twos," but now I think it may have just been all those teeth!

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. Jimmy and I went to a costume playdate on the 30th. He was one of the few kiddos that wore his whole costume for the entire party, (I was proud). He absolutely refused to ribbitt for anyone, though. (One of the Grandmothers at the party said he did it for her, but I didn't hear it.)

On Halloween night, we put Jimmy in the wagon and walked down to the neighborhood park, where a local church was hosting a "Trunk or Treat." We immediately walked back home - it was a bunch of carnival games and a couple of bounce houses. He'll enjoy that in a couple of years. It was fun to see neighbors and enjoy the great weather. Then, we sat in the yard and ate some fast food while we passed out candy. Jimmy took it all in from his wagon. He was a little nervous when some of the kids' costumes were scary. Jimmy held a piece of candy in each hand for most of the time. Every once in a while, he'd "kiss" it and trade it for another piece from the bowl. At one point, he bit a MaryJane - through the paper. He likes Bit'O Honeys and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Didn't see that coming! Now I have to share every piece of leftover candy I eat with him!

Halloween

What you see here, is the cutest frog imitation ever. What you don't see here, are the previous 4 takes - 20 minutes worth of me saying, "Jimmy, what's a frog say?", "Jimmy, how does a frog go?", "Jimmy, what's a frog say?"; all with absolutely no response from the boy in the green suit!!! Obstinate little booger! We did finally catch his imitation, just as Daddy was taking the camera away from me to end his boy's harrassment.

Jimmy's Silly Game

Our new deck

Jimmy loves our new deck and backyard. It took him a couple of weeks before he figured out he could climb down into the grass (man, were those weeks nice!) Now he negotiates up and down, whenever he wants, in his own special way! October 14th, 2008.

Jimmy with his balloon

Jimmy still LOVES balloons. He's got this crazy radar - every where we go, he spots the balloons. I never noticed how many balloons are around. It's awesome, when your kid is this cute, you can get a free balloon just about anywhere! Here he is on October 11th with his balloon from Celebrate Roanoke.

Little Gym

Well, Jimmy and I had our 1st taste of Little Gym. It was easier to make fun of my friends for spending so much money to play, before we went! Jimmy LOVED it!!! We went with the Roanoke Mommy and Me group. They let our group have a 40 minute class and 20 minute free time in the gym for $5 each. Their curriculum is incredible. "The Birds" class is for 12 mo. to 24 mo. and we were working on left, right, and center. I had totally forgotten, but the part of your brain that you use to walk sideways is the same part you use in tracking for reading, (which is why THIS is their skill of the month this month). We also played with hoola-hoops. (Walking while carrying them - 2 skills at once, tracking them when Mommy rolls them, "In" and "Out" vocabulary). We did some walking in a circle, running, spinning, and forward rolling. It was great! I worried - when we got there, Jimmy came and sat in my lap - like we do at story time, but I noticed most of the boys did not. Their mommies came and sat, but they went and played on equipment by themselves. I knew they were younger than Jimmy, but they were doing stuff I never dreamed he could do. The instructor explained that at Little Gym, they can come and go as they like. If they see Mommy staying engaged in circle time, the hope is, they will eventually come back and join us, too. Jimmy stayed and lightly participated. He's such a watcher! The instructor kept saying - it's perfectly normal for some kids to just watch what's going on and soak it in. That's just what Jimmy does at the library and did here as well. But, he warmed up pretty quickly. By free time - he took off and played on all the equipment. I was shocked at what he could do! The instructor kept interrupting with ideas and advice, ("Here are the ball, can you kick them?" "Mommies, see if you can help them walk sideways on this balance beam." "Bubbles!!!" *which, by the way, are sold exclusively at Gymboree, had silicone in them and did not pop - awesome!) Then she says, "Let's practice our skill of the month on the uneven parallel bars!" WHAT??? Was she kidding? She had us put their feet on the bottom bar, hands on the top and support their tummies while trying to get them to scootch across. I watched a few kids try - I didn't realize, one or two steps was a huge success. I thought she expected them to scootch all the way across. Jimmy actually did it better than most kids! He even started to move his hands and feet himself some. It was REALLY fun! I hope we can do this a couple of times a month!

Little Gym

Here are a few more pictures. (It would only let me do 5 at a time.)

Pumpkin Patch

Here's Jimmy playing at the park near our new house. It's a really great park - very toddler friendly. (Although, Aunt Peggy says we really don't have a toddler anymore - ooops, I must have blinked again - I have to quit that, he grows so quickly!)