Animation Snob

James appears to be an animation snob. He will only watch Pixar movies! He can really tell the difference and will stop watching any other movie or show. His favorites are Tangled and Toy Story 3. We watch a lot of these two movies so I'm at glad that Pixar makes their movies entertaining for the parents too!

When he watches he usually stands and leans against one of the couches. But he'll change his position a few times during the movie---I guess his legs get tired. I just get such a kick out of these pictures. What a hoot this boy is!

Look at that posture!

 I love his little smirk in this picture.

Here he is with my favorite pink hospital bin. Currently used for storing toys, but they are very versatile!

I love his BYU Cougar sweats! Too cute! 

Even though we love Tanlged and Toy Story 3, we may need to find a few other Pixar movies for Brian's and my sanity. (Is that correct grammar?) But I do love the song Mother Knows Best and I figure I can use that on James as he gets older! 

DIY - Christina the Carpenter

Now that we have a house I have become more invested in decorating and the furniture we get and so on. I saw this bookshelf on HGTV that you can make!

I convinced Brian that we should do it and make it a fun project that we do together. I've been wanting to learn how to use a sander and a drill and becoming more handy around the house, so this seemed like a perfect way to teach me the basics.

So far we've pre-drilled the holes in the wood, sanded the edges, and tested the color stain we are considering.

Next we will stain and protect the wood and then screw it all together. We are adapting the plans a little because the bookshelf above uses really cool, refurbished wood which doesn't really exist in Vegas because there are no trees so we just bought wood from Home Depot. I hope ours ends up looking at least a little bit like the professional one, but if not we had a fun time and I learned how to use some tools. I'll post the end result, but only if it looks decent! Wish us luck!

So grown up

Lately James has been acting so grown up! He clearly wants to be very independent and do things all on his own. For instance he insists on going down the stairs facing them straight on, but fortunately for James' safety, I am much more insistent (just ask Brian!) and I make him face them backwards and crawl down. He is also getting better at letting me know what he wants. Just like a mentioned in my last posting about the fridge and how he lets me know he wants something from it, lately he also panics if we are driving and he sees a park. He will make a lot of noise and whine to let me know that he wants to go play at the park. I think we need to work on his communication and learn some words instead of just whining. But I figure that will come in time. It is just so much fun to see this little guy grow up. Here are a few pictures from last week when I did respond to his "request" to go to the park. (Also note that he's wearing shoes! I think he realizes he gets more freedom - like walking when we are in public - if he wears them.)

My son's (public) tantrum and other subsequent ones

As I said in my last post I love shoes. But my son hates them. He refuses to wears shoes. And I mean REFUSES! It all started when he was a fat baby. No shoes fit his chubby feet. Baby clothe makers do not keep in mind fat babies. Because of this James has grown so accustom to being barefoot. But now he's old enough that he needs to wear shoes when we are outside or running errands. 

So the incident happened when we were at Wal-Mart. I figured that we should get a pair of shoes for James since they were so cheap. We turned down the aisle and James was panicking and the meltdown tantrum began at just the mere sight of the shoes. (As I said, he hates shoes). I picked up a pair and headed toward him with the shoes ignoring his first outburst, but the screaming and kicking continued. I was mortified. I didn't want to raise my voice at him because I can't stand those moms that are like yelling at their kids and the entire store can hear them. But I also couldn't let him scream and be such a brat. We quickly picked a pair and got out of Dodge. What do you do when your kid tantrums in public? And especially when they are too young to reason with (or bribe)?

Also, recently he has figured out that food comes from the fridge. So when he wants something he goes over to the fridge and starts whining and trying to open it. It's kind of funny. But I'm not sure how to react because I don't want to encourage whining, but he could be hungry... Any suggestions!? But despite his few quirks and tantrums he is a nice and fun boy!