James' big boy bed

So we bought a big boy toddler bed for James this weekend. We got it at IKEA, which if you haven't been to an IKEA, deserves its own post. James won't sleep in his bed for a while because we have to rearrange a lot of furniture up and down the stairs to get his room situated. With my growing belly, I can't really help Jim with that. In a few weeks when some family comes to town we might start trying to let James sleep in his bed.

James loves to help with any project lately, especially projects his dad is working on. So of course, he had to help his dad put his bed together today. They had a great time. I'll keep you posted on how James likes sleeping in it.

(And yes, that's Darby sleeping on the bed in the back. The bed project was way to much excitement for her!)

What's wrong with the Gazelle?

One of James' favorite toys lately is the wooden magnetic animals he got for Christmas. It is a Melissa & Doug toy. Don't they make the best toys?? Anyway, there is a magnetic board with different scenes you can change out: an ocean, a safari and a farm. The animals stick to the board and different animals go with different scenes. From the get go James was not interested in making sure the animals were in the proper scene. So for example, the rhino goes right along side the dolphin in the ocean scene. No big deal. Lately though, four of the "animals" get excluded for some reason. James will separate the barn, the farmer, and the pumpkin patch, say "no, no" to each of them and put them aside. Sometimes they get shoved under the couch pillow and out of sight. This sort of made sense for a while, because these aren't really animals. These are the only non-animals pieces in the set. But then he started separating out the gazelle as well, for no apparent reason. The gazelle also gets a "no-no," but he doesn't join the barn and the farmer in hiding under the couch pillow. Usually the gazelle is placed even farther away from the magenetic board.

So... What is wrong with the gazelle? Did I miss that Sesame Street where the evils of gazelles are explained? Did James get attacked by a gazelle in a dream? Did Anna Lauren tell him this past weekend that they killed Bambi's mom? Perhaps we'll never know. Ah, the mind of an almost two year old.

Jim's laugh

Before we had James, we attended a birthing class at the hospital. To introduce ourselves to the group we had tell everyone one characteristic of ourselves that we hoped our baby would have. I told the group that I hoped our baby would have Jim's laugh. For some time I have been thrilled to hear Jim's laugh loud and clear through my son. Today I managed to capture it on video. Hear it for yourself.

A bit of background first. Our entire family was hit last week with a nasty stomach bug. James got it Monday night and it passed to dad and then me. James was only at school one day last week. Even as late as this weekend, we were waiting for James' system to get back to "normal." Well tonight James gave me a bit ole fat diaper of "normal" that was very stinky. I started telling him it was "shoo-ee" stinky and he thought that was hilarious. I managed to catch him laughing at me saying "shoo-ee" while he was in the bath. Why in the bath you might be wondering? I knew he would be still in there.

So there you have it. Our exciting evening - loving my son's laugh amidst a very stinky diaper.