James: 22 months

Two months away from becoming a two-year-old!  James is the smartest little dude.  He's said so many new words that I stopped keeping track.  He still mostly babbles, but intersperses lots of real words into his babbling these days.  He often asks about his friends many days after he's seen them (his current favorites are Jill, Maja, Nolan and Ethan - the latter three actually being toddler friends of his, and Jill being one of my dearest friends and possibly James' favorite adult friend), as well as family members like Nana & Pop, Uncle Matt and P\paw.  Every morning he asks me about daddy and brother and overall is just very concerned about all of his people and where they are and what they're doing and why they're not there with him!  He loves to snuggle on his little brother and shush him when he cries.  He loves to be outside collecting things like leaves and pinecones and rocks, digging in dirt and picking flowers or grass or anything else he can find.  And he loves to help cook in the kitchen!



I haven't written about James' daily routines in several months, so here's what a typical day looks like for him (since Samuel has been born, not much has changed except that we have to time outings around Samuel's feedings).

Wakes sometime between 7-8am (though, still has the rare morning before 7am)

Either drinks a cup of milk or has breakfast right away (has lost some interest in drinking milk since I took away his straw cup last month - he was chewing through the straw and the cups were leaking everywhere, so they went away for good and we moved on to a spouted cup like in the photo below)

Breakfast is some combination of the following: organic O's with yogurt, bagel with cream cheese, oatmeal with almond butter, toast with almond butter or cream cheese, smoothies, fruit, plain full fat yogurt

Get ready and go for an outing after breakfast: brush teeth, change clothes, shoes on and out the door - walk around the neighborhood trails in the stroller with a stop at the playground by our clubhouse, a trip to Piney Wood park around the corner from our neighborhood (LOVE it - has a great playground and a dog park for dog-watching), mama's Side by Side Bible study, story time at the library, play dates with friends, Stay and Play Cafe or running errands to the grocery/Target/the mall

Eat lunch out (Foster's Market or Whole Foods are the preferred places for all the options available for James to eat, but Chick-fil-a will do in a pinch as long as we can get the chargrilled chicken for him and avoid the peanut oil) or make it home by 11:30/noon for lunch at home

Home lunch is some combination of the following: whole wheat pasta, sweet potatoes, organic red kidney or black beans, organic cheese, green smoothies with organic spinach, raw carrots, steamed broccoli (one can hope... he almost never eats it), avocado, organic plain full fat yogurt, organic blue corn chips, almond butter sandwich on whole wheat, leftovers from mama and dad's dinner (favorites include grilled chicken, pork tenderloin), fruit of all kinds (clementines, organic grapes, organic apples, bananas, watermelon/cantaloupe when in season, organic berries, etc.)

Nap time is anywhere from 12:30-1:30pm, depending on what time he woke up in the morning.  On a good day, he sleeps 2-3 hours.  Lately, some naps have only been 1 or 1.5 hours, and he is a terror for the rest of the day and doesn't sleep well that night.

After nap, James has a little snack, often times yogurt to make sure he gets his calcium for the day, but also apples and graham crackers are popular choices.

Between nap and dinner time, we often will just play with toys at home - building block towers (giant lego-type blocks) and reading books are his choices 80% of the time these days - or play outside at home.  If he is acting super grumpy, took a bad nap, or is having a hard time controlling his emotions (having one continual tantrum... sometimes this happens on very bad days), then we leave the house.  I'll make up an errand, or we'll just go walk around Target or the mall, or sometimes we just drive in the car for a bit and go back home.  Those are my survival techniques for this season of our life and usually help to reset James for the evening.

James usually eats dinner about 6pm.  If Stuart is home and we can get dinner ready, we all eat together and James gets some of what we are eating along with some of his usual foods (same as the lunch list).  If mama and dad's dinner is not ready, or if Stuart is not home yet, James just gets a plate full of his usual foods.  I try to make sure he gets a fruit/veg of each color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue/purple) every day - that helps keep the variety in his diet and makes sure he gets 5 every day.  Then I try to make sure he's had some healthy fat (avocado, nuts, salmon) and enough fat overall (dairy mostly) and whole grains, as well as enough foods with iron, calcium and protein.  I choose organic foods for him based on the Dirty Dozen list, as well as foods with high GMO risks (like corn) and all dairy products to ensure he doesn't get excess exposure to antibiotics typically used in conventional dairy farming (as well as things like additives, fillers and hormones).  Once our budget can allow for it, he will also get organic meat (though right now it is lowest risk for him because he doesn't eat very much meat at all).

After dinner he gets a bath most nights, which is one of his very favorite activities, or we'll just read books and build more block towers.  He also likes coloring and playing with stickers after dinner (or sometimes after his nap).  Then, it's lotion, PJs and brushing teeth.  We read a story or two in his room, say prayers, sing a song and lay down to go to sleep at 7:30pm.  He always goes down without a fight, though sometimes we still hear him chatting to himself at 8pm.  We're not currently willing to give up our adult time in the evenings, even though James maybe could go to bed a little later.  He is happy to hang out until he falls asleep, and sleeps great through the night and wakes up happy at a reasonable hour, so why fix something that's not broken :)?

This little guy has definitely developed strong opinions and desires, and makes it clear when things aren't going his way.  Still a sweetheart, but definitely acting more and more toddler-like everyday ;)  These days, our days are sprinkled with temper tantrums and screaming fits.  We've added time out to our discipline regimen for times when James ignores his hand getting spanked, or for times when he is hitting and being aggressive - we are afraid it's confusing that his consequence for hitting is getting his hand spanked (even though we never do it in anger or with excessive force).  Time out is only sometimes effective - he definitely does not like being ignored, but it does not often change his behavior the way spanking does.  We'll continue to figure out what works for him and be prayerful in our discipline!



In spite of his tantrums and challenging meltdowns, and as much as he and I can butt heads with our tempers at times, I'm so in love with my first baby these days, and it has really warmed my heart to see him grow as a little boy and as a big brother!