translation please?

With James' ever-increasing vocabulary, it is interesting to note how similar some of his frequently-used words are. Take these for example:

gock

gocks

gock

guck

gake
geck
gark

gooky or giki

gooky or giki
gookies or gookis

gucka, cucka, guckuck or bu-cucu

gook
gook

gunk

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun Fourth of July hanging out with my family - we had a yummy barbeque and had lots of fun playing outside and playing the Wii. James had a wonderful time and especially enjoyed laying on the deck with Grandpa and looking up at the trees and chatting about life.

Abby's new piano!

Today some neighbors were having a garage sale. While we were all hanging out at my parents' house, my Dad and James were outside and Dad heard some piano music. He came in and told us that he thought there was a piano at their garage sale, and since we are all piano fans (and you can never have too many pianos), my siblings and Jonathan and I ran around the block to check it out. Sure enough, there was a piano - a cute little spinet that was pretty nice and sounded pretty good, and it was a really good price! Someone else had shown interest in it but they had not heard back from them, and Abby decided that she really wanted a piano! She offered them the money and wrote out a check, and was so excited to have her very own piano!

It was quite the exciting time getting the piano home, carrying/wheeling it around the block (I always wanted to play a piano outside! Our lucky neighbors heard piano music going past their houses as about six or seven of us carried it home).

Good thing my parents found somewhere to put it - now they have four pianos at their house! Abby is so excited to have her very own piano, and we're so excited for her!

James even tried it out!

Abby and her new piano

A True Toddler

Well, James is now a true toddler - he can say and frequently uses the words "No" and "Mine!" He has his grumpy, tantrum moments and has quite the piercing scream on occasion. Terrible Twos - here we come!

Seriously though, could he be more cute?? Despite all his little moments, we love this kid more than anything! He is growing up so fast - just in the past few days he has been talking up a storm! New words include "again," "bed," "mine," "drive," "five" (as well as "counting" and saying other numbers with us), and many more. He loves to mimic things we say and LOVES to "drive" the car - he insists on sitting in the drivers seat (while the car is parked, of course) and "driving."

Here he is wearing his Daddy's hat - he found it last night and put it on all by himself.

our adorable little man

chicken nuggets

I just had to share these adorable pictures of my little buddy. Here he is eating one of his FAVORITE foods - chicken nuggets! This boy is so used to having his picture taken that lately he'll ask me to take his picture (he was saying a strange word and I finally realized he was saying "picture!"), and he is getting so good at smiling for the camera. Admit it, these are precious!! I love the 4th one, it totally reminds me of an old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where Calvin's parents are trying to get a picture taken of Calvin, and his hair is all slicked down and he has the GOOFIEST smile.