Stickers=Gold!

Our little guy is OBSESSED with stickers at this age. Not just your average, "I wanna wear one on my shirt" kind of obsession. It's more of a, "Let me see what surface does not have any stickers so I can cover it" kind of obsession. Cute that he's into that "craft?" Yes. But this could get messy people (as seen below. Hey, I was able to cook dinner while he did this :-) As an example, I found a sticker on my jacket right before we walked into church the other morning!

With Brett working his crazy public-CPA-firm hours right now, and me getting bigger (i.e., less agile) by the day, Jameston has had some "terrible two" moments lately. I believe a lot of this has to do with the fact that my sweet, loving little boy is sensing there is about to be a change in our household, so he's being SUPER clingy as well lately (which has intensified his mood swings)!Daily battles include: getting dressed in the morning (since we have to wake him up to leave by 7:20, this makes for a ROUGH start to both of our days), eating what is on his plate, and sleeping all night in his new room/bed (this became a problem after the holidays---I realized I never posted about that...post to come). I wanted to incorporate his fondness of stickers into our daily routine. Thus, here are our "Good Behavior" charts for the next 8 weeks!

Monday was our first "go" at it, and I will say it has helped immensely. If he is acting out, I remind him of the stickers and say, "Wouldn't it be sad if we didn't get to put a sticker on the chart?" It tends to nip whatever fit he's throwing in the bud, AND he actually anticipates these "problem areas" with the hopes he gets a sticker out of the deal. Hopefully, as it becomes more of routine, the reminders will be less and less :-)

AND, since potty-training is on the horizon, I plan to add that to the daily "activities" very soon!

Outdoor fun!

We have had some mild temperatures over the last couple of weeks (hoping it stays that way). Needless to say, Jameston was excited about getting outside for some playground fun!

We went to one of the playgrounds in our neighborhood three consecutive days! I tell ya, the boy needs wide open spaces :-)

Love this one...

and this one...

Such a big boy!

One Saturday morning, for a change, we went out to the backyard to blow some bubbles. This is something he never seems to grow tired of either!

I am thankful that winters are pretty mild here in Texas, or else Jameston might want to move!

Jameston's Jargon

Goodness, I wish I had a pen and paper with me at all times to write this stuff down so I don't forget. Either that, or a photographic memory (which applies to being to memorize things you hear as well...something I did not know and had to google :-) That would make this blogging thing a little easier! Our boy is talking more and more like a big kid these days, with proper grammar and all. He even has some verb tenses down-pat, but he still says, "I ove you" when he trying to say his endearment really quickly (like at bedtime). Too cute to correct!

A couple of things Jameston has said lately are:

"I'm going to help Mommy first."

He said this to Brett on Sunday night when Brett asked him if he wanted to throw the football. I was folding laundry on the floor, and JW was ever-so kindly "helping" me. Let's just say, I love his wanting to contribute to daily chores, but I was glad when he joined his Daddy to toss the pigskin.

"I wanna read my Jungle pop-up book all myself."

He has been wanting to read by himself before his afternoon nap (when he's at home) for several weeks now. So, we will read a story or two, and then I will give him his favorite book for that day, usually, his Children's Bible or the pop-up book (pictured below) that he received from Brett's grandparents for Christmas. I go back in about 15-20 minutes later to find him like this...

I've noticed that our little fella is quite bossy. He does not say things in a mean way, just really more of direct statements. I noticed this last weekend when we were playing soccer in the backyard. He kept saying, "Stand by the tree, Mommy." Or "Kick it to me, Mommy!" The list could go on and on...

Oh, and he says "Mommy" after everything! I mean EVERYTHING. Questions, statements, etc. I could listen to this all day long, but anyone else who hears it notices the preponderance of the word "Mommy." One sweet example from the other day: we were brushing his crazy hair one morning, and he wanted to brush mine. Afterwards he said, "You're so pretty, Mommy." A compliment that made my day!

Lately, he'll say, "Mommy, I want to hear a story about... ." It has replaced the "sing a song about..." phase from a couple of months ago. Some nights, after a long day, I feel like my story-telling skills are really being put to the test by a 2-year-old! One thing is for sure, his imagination is definitely present in full force!

Lately I have noticed that he gives out unsolicited "thank you's" more and more. Music to my ears! He also says, "Excuse me, Mommy" a lot. For instance, he say this if he steps in front of me when we are playing on the floor in the play room. So polite!

Here's to less pregnancy brain and me retaining more and more of what our talkative toddler says at this age!

JW sings!

I hope he's not too embarrassed when he's older of my catching his every song these days. I've been meaning to record him singing for about a month now, but you know how that goes...He likes to sing songs really fast and loudly (for emphasis, I guess?) Other songs in his repertoire are, "Oh, Happy Day!" and "Hakuna Matata." Those are on the checklist next. Enjoy!

Christmas 2011 (a.k.a., longest post ever!)

On Christmas Eve Eve, we loaded up and headed to Love Field and flew to Midland (and then drove the two hours to Balmorhea). Jameston had to be up and at 'em earlier than usual, but he was in good spirits! And he wanted to "ride" the moving walkways. With our seven bags, we improvised!

He flew when he was 9-months-old for the first time, so this was a different experience---and more fun! He kept saying, "We going to fly in the sky?!"

For any toddler to remain still for over an hour, you must come prepared. I brought a portable DVD player from work, but, in all the hustle and bustle the day before, I forgot to charge it. So, we fell back on the iPad. He has an Elmo ABC game he plays on there. Phew!

Laura Bush was on our flight! We knew something was up when we saw all of the security as we were loading the plane. We thought that was pretty cool she flew Southwest even with her entourage :-)

Once in Midland we loaded up the rental and drove to the Davis Mountains. It was a perfect time (as planned) for Jameston to snooze. Another phew!

Glad he napped, because once we arrived, the family festivities began!

Lots of games with cousins (and aunts :-)

There was card playing,

(mainly Go Fish and Slap Jack)

(of course these two were a little young to understand the rules :-)

domino playing,

(big cousin, Riley, was a great teacher)

reading

(second cousin, Kaelen, was a hit with all the little ones!)

(and Lauren was a favorite, as well :-)

and even a potato peeling contest!

The Turnboughs can make even the most mundane of tasks a fun competition :-)

One thing is for sure, lots of great memories were made!

Here is a picture of Ruby and Jameston taking a piggy-back ride on Papa's back:

Movie ("quiet") time

One of the BEST parts about our stay was that it snowed on the night of the 23rd!

The kiddos had fun outside on Christmas Eve morning,and the views of the Davis Mountains were spectacular!

Of course, it didn't stay long, since it had been in the upper 50's earlier that week. But, hey, we had a (temporarily) White Christmas!

JW had fun (ahem, thanks to Brett) learning how to throw snowballs!Pure joy!King of the Hill (or bottom half of the snowman)!

Me and my little guy!

My two guys

The matriarch of the Turnbough family, GiGi. She will be 93-years-old in March, and has 43 direct descendants, with 2 more on the way in the Spring :-)

And then there are also the 17 people who have married into the family as well...our group at church on Sunday morning!

For this year's festivities, about 55 could make it. And Christmas Eve night was a fun (and loud) gathering. Santa Clause (a.k.a., Uncle Larry) even made a pit stop to see the kids!

Jameston was relieved to find out that Santa thought he was a good boy this year!

And he was sweet enough to go back and give Santa a hug after he received his present :-)

Riley got a new guitar!

The only thing J kept asking for this year...Simba!

Luckily, his Mommy found this back in November (so she was relieved!)

16 of the 19 great-grandkids (#19, Wyatt Winters, was born three days later in Oklahoma! And great-grandbabies #20 and #21, both boys, are due in February and April). These family gatherings are just going to get better and better (and bigger and bigger)!

More presents!

Jameston, who is following in his Daddy's footsteps, loves his tools!

He received a new drill, measuring tape and goggles

and made quick work of them!

Then on to the White Elephant shenanigans! It took probably an hour and a half with 55 people :-)

Action shot!

I think we know what to get JW next year (maybe not in pink :-) The boy is on a music kick as of late!

Christmas Day

Wide open spaces and a ride-along airplane. This boy was in heaven!

We celebrated with the Stewart side of the family on New Year's Day. This is the third year we have done this, and it works out nicely. As in, we are not driving all over creation within a 3-4 day span in order to get from family 1 to family 2, etc.

Dad and Glenda went all out for us this year...I guess we had all been pretty good :-)

Jameston modeling the "Santa's Helper" hat, since he helped pass out presents this year

Lynnlee and Aspen checking out their gifts

What can I say, the boy loves monkeys!

He received a duck caller in his stocking (along with many other fun gadgets). Fun!

Helping Mommy open her gifts (one of them being a Texas Tech necklace)

Playing pool with Pops (while we made sure he did not toss any off the table)!

Giving Aspen a goodbye hug. These two love each other!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season! Until next year's...