My kid is a toddler.

Today James woke up from his (THREE-hour) nap, crying and grumpy as usual (why is that?? he is always so cheerful in the mornings), saying "Go! Go! Go!" He always wakes up in the afternoon wanting to go to Grandpa's and Jukie's (Grandma's) house. It is so wonderful living so close to my parents, and so fun that we get to see them so much, but it is getting to the point where James can't play in our yard without wanting to walk down to their house. Don't get me wrong, I love going to their house - but sometimes I just wish my kid would want to play in our own yard! Silly boy. Well I have been trying to "wean" him off of wanting to go to his grandparents' house so bad that he freaks out until we go. It is definitely a challenge! Today he fussed and cried for about an HOUR, until we finally walked down to my parents' (which I was planning on anyway, they tended him for me while I went to Enrichment). Then he was just as happy as a clam. After my meeting I visited with the fam for a little while, then I told James we had to go soon. Apparently he wasn't very happy about this suggestion, because he walked up to me (I honestly thought he was going to hug me, he gives great hugs!) and started hitting me on the head! Great day.

I am quickly learning that toddlers are like roller-coasters - one minute they are hugging and kissing you and cuddling in your lap, and the next minute they are going crazy and screaming "no! no!" Gotta love 'em :)

At the end of the day though, I just love my boy so much and all he has to do is look at me like this...


and I have totally forgiven him for acting like a little monster!

Mama?

Today at lunch I had this conversation with James (who loves apple juice and absolutely refuses to drink milk):

James: (sweetly) "Mama?"
Me: "What?"
James: "Mama?"
Me: "What?"
James: "Mama?"
Me: "What?"
James: "Mama?"
Me: "Do you need something?"
James: "Yeah"
Me: "Do you need some milk?"
James: "Yeah!"

And he even drank some!

Gracie

On Saturday my Mom and sisters and I gave a baby shower for my cute cousin Michelle who is finally, after years of trying, having a baby, due next month. They are going to name her Grace. We are just so excited for her and Alex, and we had such fun celebrating with all the Gibbons girls!

Opening gifts...



My cute aunts Suzi and Ruth - Suzi and the Burton ladies all drove down from Boise just for the shower - it was so fun to see them all!


My cousin Emily's baby, Helen Bay ("Ella") Richards, named after my Grandma, Helen Bay Gibbons. What a cute baby!


My cute Mama


Aunt Suzi and sweet Grandma Gibbons


Cousins Lisa and Brookie


Aunt Ruth


Cousin Molly Bay


Molly's adorable little guy, Graham, with Abby


My cousin Emily's cute daughter Addie


Lori's daughter Lizzie


Lori's daughter Emma


James had tons of fun being with all the ladies, but really enjoyed playing with Uncle Josh outside on the deck. Thanks Josh!


Grandma Gibbons


Baby Ella



James is very interested in his 2nd cousin Luke...


Lisa's cute little guy, Luke


My cute cousins Heidi, Lisa (with Luke) and Michelle


My sisters and Mom and I


Michelle with Luke


A whole lot of Gibbons girls! (plus a few little boys...)

Reminiscing

I was just chatting with a cute friend who was one of my Beehives when I was a Young Women leader in Provo (and now she's a junior in high school!), and I got thinking about all the awesome girls I got to know and hang out with in the Freedom First Ward. We still miss that ward and are so grateful for all the wonderful friends we met there. Despite the somewhat scary atmosphere of our beloved Stubbs Avenue (as described at length here), we have such wonderful memories of our first apartment and our first ward together as a married couple. Isn't it just fun to reminisce every once in awhile?

Me with a few of my cute young women - I blend right in, don't ya think? :)


Fun photo shoot at the Provo Temple-


Jonathan came to mutual once and taught all the girls how to change a flat tire; it was great fun. Here are my buddies Sam and Suiha working on their tire.


And I can't think about the Freedom First Ward without thinking of our amazing bishop, Bishop Ngatikaura. I will never forget him and his kindness, or his ukulele-playing at church while the whole ward sang "Aloha 'Oe" to us before we moved. What sweet people. I am so grateful for wonderful people in our lives from whom we learn so much.

Here are Bishop Ngatikaura and Jonathan having a little jam session at a going-away party that was held for us and some other couples moving away from the ward. What a fun night that was!

fun with a toddler

James is getting so darn busy that sometimes it is a challenge to come up with fun things to do. Today we had lots of fun. I got out the sidewalk chalk and he loved scribbling on the driveway! It even kept him busy for quite awhile before he started trying to run down to my parents' house :) I took this cute picture with my phone - I love his squinty eyes!


After that we chased birds. This is one of James' favorite pastimes. He seriously loves it. Here he is being excited and looking at some birds on the neighbors' roof. It kind of looks like he is conducting an orchestra.


Here he is pointing to either a bird or a dog. He just loves animals. Yesterday his Daddy taught him how to make a monkey noise. I'll have to capture it on video and share, it is so cute. He also knows what a bee says, among others.



We also did many other fun activities today, such as play with pipe cleaners. Man he got a kick out of that. I even made some AWESOME bright orange glasses out of pipe cleaners. He took them off before I could get a picture, but man it was great.

By the way, the previous pictures were all pre-haircut pictures - because tonight I gave James a much-needed haircut. His cowlick was totally sticking out all over the place and it was getting crazy. Here are some post-haircut pictures of my clean-cut little man. This was when he was rebelling against his bedtime, and instead desperately wanted to play with his cars (aka line them up!) Look at that concentration.


Oh my goodness I am still in awe of how darn cute my baby is!!



Trying to pick up ALL his cars at once, and getting frustrated. Poor kid.


After crying like CRAZY for over half an hour, I gave in and went and got him. He was bouncing off the walls and was totally WIRED. Here he is hanging from the kitchen counter. Love this kid.


And...how cool is my camera that I can get close-ups like this!


Have a good night!

Playing Outside

Just some pictures I took of our sweet boy while playing outside today. He loves to go outside and sit on the grass and watch for cars. But it's just a matter of time until he decides he wants to walk to his grandparents' house. Lately he just takes off running down toward their house. He knows how to get there and could probably get there all by himself if we let him.



Making his getaway!




Mama caught him and took him back inside...poor kid!

Animal Sounds

Tent, Cars & Cookie

Yesterday we were cleaning out our basement and found our tent, so we decided to set it up for James to play in. He just loves it! He has been playing and reading books in there. What fun!


James LOVES cars lately. Great-Grandma Gibbons gave James some little cars, and Uncle Josh got out a big basket of his old Hot Wheels cars, and James has been in car heaven! That is his favorite thing to play with - and his favorite thing to do with them is to line them up. He discovered a quite ingenious place to line up all of his cars...



Last night while Daddy was at work, James and I visited my family. I don't think I ever mentioned that James FINALLY says Grandma's name - except he won't call her Grandma. We decided that maybe he was confused, since we live with his Great-Grandma and I call her "Grandma" all the time, and we were calling my mom "Grandma" when talking to him - too many Grandma's! So we referred to my mom as "Jukie" one day (that is a long-time nickname of hers that we all call her) - and it stuck! He now knows her as Jukie and even says "Jukie" quite often! My mama is happy. Last night he was calling her from the other room, and he yelled "COOKIE!" It was pretty funny. We are wondering if it's going to stick....and my parents will be known as Ba-Pa and Cookie. Pretty original, right?

Here is James and his "Cookie," after he soiled his clothes and had a bath - we had no clean clothes for him so he wore a t-shirt of Josh's home. Pretty cute.

"Awww, Mom...just put me to bed! I'm sleepy!"