This Boy is No Fool

We had a lovely family evening at home today. The family cuddled up on the couch and watched the documentary Babies, which follows the birth and early months of four children from across the world. The film is without narration or speech, with the exception of some baby-babble. James loved the film and didn't even want to take a break to eat dinner. Of course, when we offered him dumplings he changed his tune a bit. We talked a lot about babies and how to treat babies and what babies do and don't do. Hopefully this will make a difference when he has a new baby sister, which could be any minute now.

After the movie, James was being his usual goofy self, climbing on the couch to point to the turtle drawings we have framed on the wall. He very endearingly tried to pronounce Glyptemys insculpta, the scientific name of the wood turtle. Then, much to our surprise, correctly answered my question "What's Colaptes auratus?" by responding, "A birdie!"

Unfortunately, James tripped and crashed faced-first into the telephone next to the couch, prompting some crying and sobbing. Becky was holding him, rocking him, soothing him. After a short while, he was able to muster the strength through his tears to declare in a shaky voice, "I want chocolate!" As he was upset, Becky indulged. The panacea worked! Within seconds, he was back to his usual goofy self. I'm sure that his great-grandma will be proud to read this!

Bath Time, Sweet Boy, Not-so Sweet Boy, Mommy's Glasses

James and I took a bath together tonight, as we do a few times each week. Today, he was very involved with dumping water on various parts of my body and "combing" my hair with a little toy. Each time, he would pause, admire his work, and say, "So pretty." A few times, he even tried to get enough of my hair (from my head) and tie it in a bow. He had no luck with this, as you can imagine, but still declared, "So pretty." I was thinking what a sweet boy he was, until we started to rinse off to get out.

As I was dumping water on myself to rinse off the soap, James was standing behind me. I felt a trickle of warm water on my back that was not coming from the same source as the rest of the water. I turned around and he laughingly said, "I pee on daddy!" It was a little gross, but at least we were already in the bathtub.

As we were drying off, he grabbed Becky's glasses and put them on, running around the house. He looks like a very scholarly boy with these on his face!

A Feeling to Inhabit

James fell asleep just as the song "Are We Family" came on the car stereo, the first line of which is "It's only human to want to inhabit every feeling you've got." The sun shone brilliantly on the right side of his face and body, illuminating tiny hairs and casting toddler-sized shadows. With my window cracked, I could hear the soft splash of each puddle we traversed as the snow banks became slush, then water. He looked older today, more articulate in his speech and deliberate in his actions, but as gentle as ever in this slumber. I thought of afternoon naps in the golden sun, of snow melting, of the uncharted dreams of children. Are we family, or what?

Quote from tonight...

James: Daddy, lay down.

Eric: Why?

James: I want to give you butt face.

An Action-Packed Christmas

We've finally uploaded some photos from our lovely Christmas in Charleston!

Christmas In Charleston

As you can see, it was an action-packed Christmas with Jamie's cousins Caleb and Cecilia. He enjoyed playing soccer, swinging, splish-splashing in the bathtub, driving electric cars, playing in golf course sandtraps, and generally running around like a madman. Our first morning back in Denver, James woke up and the first words out of his mouth were, "Where's Caleb and Cici?" He sure misses his cousins!

Stock Show!

On Saturday morning, we took James to the National Western Stock Show, an annual event held here in Denver that is a combination of a state fair, a rodeo, and a farmer's auction. We met some of our good friends and two of Jamie's best buddies: Iris and Adelaide. They had a great time, though their main interests were a pile of gravel used to create traction on snowy pavement and the plywood ramp that led up to one of the official doors. We probably could've saved the ticket price and just hung out by the dumpsters of a Home Depot for the morning, but somehow that doesn't seem like good parenting.

Our friend Ann, Iris's mom, took some great photos of the outing:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=ann.scharf&target=ALBUM&id=5560014512469053441&authkey=Gv1sRgCI64p72zzf3tbw&invite=CLzQ9NoJ&feat=email

Fun in the Snow! Well, kind of...

Last Sunday James & I set out to ring in the new year with a bit of sledding. He was very excited to play in the snow and was bundled up nicely in his new winter coat, courtesy of his cousin Caleb:

In the snow!

We hopped in the wagon and walked down the street to the levee at our favorite wetlands spot (where we look for snakes in summer). We mounted the hill and, thinking that there wasn't all that much snow and that our sled wasn't all that good, I was skeptical that we would move at all. James eagerly climbed in my lap and I pushed off...and quickly realized that we were wrong. We zoomed down the hill at an out-of-control speed, caught an edge, wiped out, and rolled at least three times. It was scary for both of us -- I cradled James and protected him from injury, but didn't guard my head well enough to avoid getting a nasty bump. James got a face full of snow and was terrified, but was otherwise OK. We returned home after this one run, James eager for the comfort of mommy's arms, some warm milk, and snuggling with his blanky while watching "Cars" for the 1,523rd time. And I felt like a dunce, thankful that James was unharmed but fearing that he'll never want to go sledding with daddy again.