A visit from Nana & Pop

We had a quick visit from the AR Pierces last weekend!  It's a rare treat to see Stuart's family due to Stuart's work schedule and the distance between all of us.  We were so, so happy to have a visit from Nana and Pop!

There is always a project when Pop is around, and Stuart had been wanting to replace the old, damaged, splintered floor boards of our deck.  So, the men jumped right in and almost finished it in one afternoon!  Now we're just trying to figure out how to get rid of the old boards with all those rusty nails...  Thank you, Pop, for all of your hard work!

We went on a picnic to celebrate Mother's Day!  We had intended to go to Duke Gardens, which is a Mother's Day tradition in my family, so we thought it would be fun to do it for Nana.  Also, this is the most beautiful time of year to visit the gardens!  However, it turned out to be graduation weekend around here as well (UNC, Duke, NC State), so we thought it would be better all around (parking availability and crowds) to find a park close to home.  We discovered Piney Wood Park right around the corner from our neighborhood, which has a great little playground that James enjoyed while we snacked on sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit and oatmeal cookies.













Thank you for coming to visit, Nana and Pop!  We love you and miss you lots!

James: 17 months

Happy 17 months to little James!

Rough daily routine

(still in flux, due to dropping a nap, a cold, new teeth, and some weekends out of the norm for travel/visitors):

7am wake (the last few weeks this has been closer to 6:15 or so, but we leave him in his room until 7... and this morning he didn't wake until 7:20!)

• snuggle in bed for a few minutes
• head downstairs for milk on the couch and a diaper change
• favorite morning activity: snuggle on the couch and read books!  Sometimes we also go out and check on the garden and water all the veggies

8am-8:30ish breakfast (timing of this mostly depends on if we have to leave the house for an appointment or Bible study at a particular time, or if we have a more flexible morning... if I try to feed him breakfast too early, he will.not.eat.anything!)

• refrigerator oats with milk and banana
• whole wheat bagel with cream cheese
• whole wheat toast with almond butter
• O's and fruit (especially if we have to leave before he is ready to eat breakfast - usually for a midwife appointment)

9am until...? brush teeth, wash face, change clothes, another diaper change and leave the house - could be as simple as going for a stroller walk around our neighborhood trails with a pitstop at the playground, or Bible study, story time, a midwife appointment, meeting friends or running errands.  Sometimes we stop at a park midway through the morning to burn off some pent-up James energy

12pm-ish diaper change and lunch - sometimes we are out and we'll eat at Whole Foods (awesome organic hot/cold bar that James will eat a lot of fresh fruit and even some veggies from) or Foster's Market (always a cheddar grilled cheese and fruit salad).  If we're home, I try to vary what he eats, but always a whole grain, veggie and fruit (sometimes protein is offered in the form of beans - currently boycotting - or cheese - currently loves).

1pm nap! (very new, like in the last two days - he was taking his one-nap-a-day at 11am, then closer to noon, and yesterday he didn't go down until after 12:30.  Today, 1pm!)  Sleeps anywhere from 1-3 hours (more often close to 2 hours).

Sometime in the afternoon: wakes from nap (has depended on when he goes down and how long he stays down, of course).  Hopefully this will get a little more predictable so we can use afternoons for appointments and such as we need.  After-nap routine looks similar to morning:

• diaper change
• milk and snuggles on the couch, followed by some sort of snack (current favorite is banana with almond butter or a greens/strawberry/yogurt smoothie)
• usually read a book or two

After his nap we spend our time either running errands (especially if we just went for a walk or story time in the morning) or playing outside.  It's been warmer lately, so many late afternoons/early evenings have been spent in his tiny plastic backyard pool!



5:30pm-6ish dinner time - food choices are similar to lunch

• We try to offer what we are eating, if it is ready early enough (rare.. but happens sometimes!), though he is usually not interested.
• Whole grains (pasta, bread, crackers)
• Veggies (broccoli/spinach smoothies, avocado, sweet potato, broccoli pieces)
• Fruits (any and every kind)
• Cheese or yogurt
• Meat or beans (he absolutely will not consume no matter how delicious it may taste)

6:30pm bath and bedtime routine - I can tell him to go upstairs for a bath, and he will wait at the gate at the bottom of the stairs :) then, I tell him to put all his bath toys in the tub, so he gets them out and throws them in, then in he goes with them!

• lotion (and hydrocortisone lately - heat is eczema's worst enemy)
• night diaper
• PJs
• white noise
• reading a book or 2
• lights out - rock and sing a song or two

7pm bedtime!  He falls asleep easily on his own, with his teddy bear to snuggle with in his crib



Favorite activities

• Play outside! - wander around and pick dandelions, play with his shovel and bucket, explore the recycling bin in the garage :p, swing, play in his mini pool, bubbles, check out the garden
• Look out the windows to see what's happening outside
• Ask to go outside
• (Pretty much anything having to do with outside)
• Reading books - he still loves to do this, and has recently asked to read the same book over and over (the book changes each time, but whatever he picks, he wants it read 5 times in a row)
• Playing with blocks - both stacking and the giant legos
• Pointing out babies (he LOVES babies right now)
• Playing in his "box house" - he will just sit in there with toys or a book :)
• Tickling - he says "ticka-ticka-ticka"
• Walking on the trail in our neighborhood and collecting pine cones - he is still very happy to ride in the stroller, but also loves to walk
• Going down the slide at the playground

New words (I feel like there are more, but I can only remember these):

• outside (ow-siiii)
• Memaw (my mom - sounds like "mama" and he does this click sound with his tongue after it to denote that he means her, not me!)
• Pop (from Stuart's parents visiting this weekend!  More like "pa")
• Up (to be carried)
• Down (when he's done being carried)
• phrases: bye bye dada, mama hat, dada hat

Mobility

He walks all the time now, and only crawls if he can't stoop low enough to get under something (usually our legs up on the coffee table while we sit on the couch).

He does this waddle/trot when he wants to go fast.  It's not quite a run, and he usually falls down when he attempts it, but it is super cute.

Climbs the stairs with ease, and sometimes will put his foot on the next step instead of crawling up on his knees.

Is not climbing anything else yet (not complaining!).

Sometimes attempts to go down stairs backwards, but cannot do this very well.

Easily hops backwards off the couch and other things by himself.  When he does this off our bed, he always falls back, but it doesn't seem to bother him!



Things he hates

• Diaper changes
• Washing his hands with a washcloth after meals (though he loves to wash them in the sink)
• Not being picked up immediately when he says "up"
• Washing his hair in the sink after a particularly messy meal
• Not being outside :)

I am so thankful for the little boy that made me a mama!  We are so proud as we continue to watch him grow into the sweetest little James there ever was.

Aunt kk visits

Last October, my one and only beloved sister moved to Seattle.  Everyone cried for days, because she's just so great.  Seattle is super far away, so visits are rare and difficult for her.  But she's home this week!  Let's start with a not-so-flattering photo of her, with Meredith and Matthew and my sweet mama's profile:

(Sorry Katie!)  Sunday evening we had lots of folks over to the Pierce Durham homestead for pizza and ice cream.  We sat around and talked and ate food.  Favorite activities of the Acree family.

Stuart with my mama and baby Canaan (Matt & Mere's wee one)



Little James (I suppose I shouldn't call him baby James anymore :( ) enjoying the taste of his mama's gardening shoes.



James continues to enjoy the shoe, while PPaw enjoys ice cream :)



Katie's boyfriend, Stephen, enjoying our newest furniture purchase (which we love!) and my 2nd smallest cousin, Gabe, enjoying James' box house.  Turns out, boys are never too old to play with boxes!



kk with Aunt Val!



Uncle Mark, my Mema Acree and my dad (PPaw) chatting and enjoying ice cream.



It is getting harder to get a photo of James just whenever I want - he is quite opinionated on whether he would prefer to sit still for a photo or get down and play (and continue tasting gardening shoes...)



Katie stayed the night at our place, and we went out for a walk the next morning before the week of thunderstorms started.  James has started walking a little part of the trail with me instead of riding in the stroller the whole way (he naps better if he gets to do this!).



Getting ready to slide down the swirly slide!





So brave, not scared at all!





Storytime with kk before she has to leave.  He chose a difficult Spanish book for her! :)  We miss you kk!

Photo bomb

Addendum: James at 16 months

I forgot some things when I wrote up James' 16 month post! I realized this morning when he was being super cute and doing all of his tricks.

James requests the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song by putting his fingers together. If you sing it, he does all of the motions all the way through and claps at the end!  Sometimes he does all the motions really fast and just sits, sucking his thumb and waiting for you to catch up and finish the song :).

James has been picking out books to read for months, but since he's been able to walk, he will pull his chosen book from the giant basket and carry it around, following you until you sit to read it to him.  Way cuter than him sitting at the basket fussing until you go over and pick up the book he wants.

He can point out his nose, ear, mouth and teeth, and claps in between each one for himself.  I was surprised when we tried it and he could do these four without any practice!  I think he's learned from reading books and meal times.  If we ask where his eye is, he always chooses his ear. So, now we're working on that one.

He totally comprehends hot/cold.  Whether we're outside and the weather is cold, or his food is hot or cold, or he sees my coffee cup and knows that it's hot... he verbalizes it and wants everyone to know!  For hot, he says "ha" then blows.  For cold, he says "brrrrrrr."

And here's a photo after his most recent hair trim (on his 16 month birthday) - done in the bathtub with both Stuart and I holding him still.  James doesn't love it, but he looks so handsome afterward :).

James: 16 months

Happy 16 months to my sweetest, most opinionated little buddy!  Expressing his opinions has definitely been the theme this past month (well, that and new tricks like WALKING)!

The biggest news, of course, is that James is now a full-fledged walker.  Just in the last week has he started to walk almost all of the time.  Though, when he's tired, sometimes he still drops to his knees and crawls.  My favorite thing about him walking is that it is SO much easier to just go outside and play!  Before walking, he mostly would sit in the stroller while I worked in the garden, but now he piddles around and picks dandelions and it is so fun.  We have spent up to 3 hours outside!



He has the sweetest personality, and it just keeps getting better!  He loves to give kisses and hugs and sign "I love you" (all of which he usually will do on command).  However, separation anxiety has really ramped up this past month.  He has started crying every time he goes down to the nursery in church... a few weeks ago, he cried the entire time (I know it's true, because I was right next door teaching the toddler Sunday school class).  It makes things like going to church and my Side by Side group (where we have childcare for a few hours of adult time of eating and chatting and Bible-studying) really pretty stressful.  I know that it is a developmental phase and an important time for James to learn independence and that he can trust me to always return to him, but I feel badly for those who have to take care of him while he just screams!  It's gotten so bad lately that even when Stuart comes home, James comes running to me because he is afraid I'm going to leave him.  I'm very much looking forward to moving past this phase.



His little opinions have become stronger - it mostly comes out at meal time when he would prefer to just eat fruit (any fruit) at every meal, every day.  But he also makes it clear which toy he wants to play with, when he wants to go outside, which book he wants to read, when he wants to wear a hat, and sometimes even when he is tired and wants to nap!  He even picked out his clothes the other day for my mom while I was at work - she had some pants laid out to put on him, but he went to his closet and started getting excited over his denim overalls.  He was quite proud when she pulled them down and dressed him in those instead!



He hasn't had a lot of new verbal words this month:
Baby (both sign and verbal)
Grapes (verbal)
Bless you (pronounced "shoo" - he did this twice after I sneezed the other day... hasn't done it since, but I am counting it!)

I think that puts his verbal word count up to 15ish.  He's also started making a clicking sound for duck... not quite a quack, but he definitely intends it to go with "duck!"



He is definitely in the middle of trying to drop from two naps to one... This has been the hardest nap transition yet!  When he dropped from three to two (around 7-8 months), he was really struggling for a few weeks, and then I just dropped one cold turkey for him, and he slept like an angel from then on.  This time around, it's much more complicated!  Some days he still wants two naps and acts like he is so tired at 9am (usually when he goes down for his first nap) and he will either not sleep at all, or he'll sleep up to 3 hours in a row!  Then it's just hit or miss whether he will want to nap again later in the day.  And some days he falls asleep in his carseat and/or is cranky at the end of the day and is acting so tired.  Other days he is content all day after just one long morning nap.  I have tried to extend the morning and put him down toward the middle of the day, in hopes that he will just take one long nap, but later in the day, and that has yet to work well.  It's so hit or miss, and it is very challenging to try and schedule anything from doctor's appointments to lunch dates or walking with a friend.  Hoping he figures it out soon...

Though, I should mention that he continues to sleep like a rockstar at night (7pm strict bedtime until 7-7:30am almost every morning), so I better not complain!



We have started to have to discipline James pretty regularly...  We are mostly going by the advice offered in Paul Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart.  We do not expect James to understand the concepts of obedience, honor and forgiveness, but we do want the vocabulary to be familiar to him and for his understanding to grow someday, and we recognize that ultimately the goal of discipline is not to change or shape behavior, but to reorient the heart.

The most challenging aspect for us right now is to decide what he is and is not allowed to do, and to be consistent to communicate those things clearly to James.  We do still want him to explore and be curious, so I don't tell him "no" just for making a mess (even if we just cleaned up) or playing in the dirt or anything else that is inconvenient for me.  We do tell him "no" and enforce anything that could be dangerous (playing with outlets/power cords, especially under Stuart's desk, and playing in the fireplace).  The other big thing is discipline during meal times.  This falls more under "honor" and teaching James in some subtle ways that the world does not revolve around him - he is expected to sign "please" and "thank you" - even when he's grumpy - and if he complains about what is offered, then he has to be polite in order to move on to the next course.  Since he grew out of that developmental stage where he learned about gravity, we've enforced a hard and fast rule of no throwing food - he gets disciplined for this, so as to teach him to honor others and how to behave appropriately (someday hopefully his heart for serving others by acting appropriately will follow), and told that he must obey this seemingly arbitrary rule that we have developed, so as to teach him that we were placed over him as his parents, and he is to respect our authority, even if he does not understand (of course I think this gets a little grey once he is an adult, but that's lightyears away, right??).

There seems to be lots of nuances and details to discipline, especially if you're trying to do it right and train your child's heart, not just change his behavior Pavlov-style.  I'm sure we will learn a lot in the next few decades about discipline (of course, this all being a shadow of how God disciplines His children, about which we have a lot to learn!).



We love our little guy and enjoy so much watching him grow!