13 months

James has been a busy one-year-old this past month. He is constantly in to one thing or another and isn't content to sit still for long, unless he finds a book or some blocks. Just this past weekend, he discovered how to stack blocks on top of each other rather than just destroy an already constructed tower of blocks (he mastered that skill a long time ago!).

No surface or object is safe from his little fingers, and the most benign objects turn into toys. I caught him taking kleenex out of a box, one by one. What great fun for a little boy!

For Thanksgiving, we spend the day with friends before heading up to Aaron's family's cabin on Friday for a second Thanksgiving. This second meal was more casual, a bring-your-own-protein affair with steaks and pork chops rather than turkey. With all the traveling and visiting, James wasn't quite on his normal sleep schedule. No wonder we had a tired little boy on our hands at only 10 am (tired mom, too!).

We had a good time up north, relaxing, visiting, eating, and playing in the snow. Of course, that wasn't enough to keep James occupied so he and Dad read plenty of books as well.

James is definitely understanding more and more words each day, and even starting to say a few in his own way. Showing him a banana will result in "nanananana" and mom and dad are greeted with "M" or "D" sounds. And Amelie the kitty is "tat".

He has started to show interest in feeding himself lately with a spoon. We've only done this with yogurt -- we will offer him the spoon, he will grab it, and more often than not, it will end up in his mouth. He'll only do this with his left and, and we've observed a few other skills where he shows a preference for his left hand. Clearly this means we have a future tennis star in the making!

snow day!

Somehow, it's the middle of November already. Today was our first big snowfall of the season and we were all happy for a snow day. The day started with pancakes and then Aaron and James left to find a James-sized sled:

Success!
It was a heavy snow with thick, sticky flakes but James didn't seem to mind.

He had fun being pulled around the yard in his new sled.

The neighbor kids had built a snow fort. James enjoyed that as well.

Soon it was time to come in for hot soup and freshly-baked banana bread.

Both of his snowsuits from last winter, which were huge on him then are now almost too small. And he needs some snowboots as well. A brief shopping trip was unsuccessful, but since it seems that winter is here to stay, we will need to find something soon -- especially if he keeps enjoying the snow as much as he did today.