James turned 3!

James showing me how old he is.  He has to use 2 hands to make the number 3

My sweet boy

James blowing out the candles on his birthday cake

James got a woody doll

Playing with his fishing game

James wanted a fishing cake and mint ice cream

"putting fire" on the cake

can't believe this kid is 3!

Nate grilled us some fabulous food

Grandma Lynda and Grandpa Art were able to be there to celebrate

Grandma Joann and I (don't mind my hair, it was pouring rain)

Jame enjoying his birthday lunch

Well James, I can't believe you are 3 years old.  Here is what you've been up to lately:

• You are very observant and want to know what is happening at all times.  You soak up everything around you.  You are so smart, and I'm constantly amazed by you.  
• You can count to 20, say you ABCs, name colors and shapes, and recognize some letters.  We aren't doing preschool, but you get a lot of "school" stuff at daycare and at home with you mom and dad.  I know you will definitely be ready for kindergarten in 2 years.  (oh boy, I'm in denial that you will be in SCHOOL in 2 years!)
• You LOVE your brother.  You will come up to him daily and ask to give him hugs and kisses.  You love to go wake him up in the morning and help feed him his food.  You love to let him know how very cute he is.
• You sometimes take a nap, just depending on the day.  You usually wake up around 9 and go to bed around 9:30 at night.
• You are an incredibly picky eater.  Your favorite foods are mac and cheese with cold hot dogs, pancakes, waffles, and cheese of any  kind.  You also have quite the sweet tooth, and ask me if we can go get ice cream just about every day.
• You like to "take a Sippy" from mom's diet coke or dad's sprite
• You love your dad like crazy and ask me all day long where he is if he is not home.  You love to wrestle and play with him.  
• You love to swim. We go to the YMCA and go swimming for hours.  We just put a life jacket on you, and you go to town. You're a natural athlete and love to run, and throw balls, and any other sport like things.  You also enjoy watching basketball and football on TV with your mom and dad.  
• You are a little social butterfly.  You tell me all the time that you "love people."  You talk to anyone you see and love to play with kids (you don't care if you know them or not).  One day the delivery guy came to the door and you were furious with me that I didn't let you talk to him before he left.
• You are a very vocal and verbal kid.  You talk, and talk, and talk.  Every night before you fall asleep you talk in your room for a good 30-45 minutes.  Mainly just re-hashing the day and talking about what you're going to do tomorrow.
• You are OBSESSED with Curious George.  You will "watch monkey" every day while I'm putting Sam down for naps/bed.  You have a stuffed monkey that you sleep with (along with your small woody and buzz)
• You also still really like toy story, but haven't been as obsessed with watching the movies
• You love dogs.  
• You love to go to the zoo with your dad and Sam when I'm at work.  You love to feed the animals in the petting zoo.
• NO MORE PACIFIER!  Yeah!  One night I just didn't give it to you, and you didn't ask for it and we haven't looked back since.  
• We are close to being potty trained.  SO VERY CLOSE.
• I am so proud of what a sweet and well-behaved boy you are.  You usually listen very well and are very well mannered.  You will usually say please and thank-you.  You have become increasingly winy as you have reached the age of 3, but it is only really bad when you're tired. 
• I haven't weighed or measured you in a while, but you are around 36lbs.  You were size 3T or 4T tops and 2T or 3T bottoms.  You have a very long torso and LARGE head :)
• Your hair is crazy curly and is desperately needs to be cut. 

7 Months

Samuel Steven.  I can't believe you are already seven months old!  (OK so it was a few weeks ago you turned seven months, and I'm a little late in posting this, but alas such is the life of the second born)

You are doing so many new and exciting things

• You eat.  A lot!  You love food and can't get it into your mouth fast enough. Tonight I was literally shoveling the food into your mouth with the bowl underneath your chin to catch the fall out, and when I would move the bowl/spoon away you screamed. You will eat just about anything we feed you.  Nate has even made some homemade baby foods for you
• You still nurse when I'm home and do bottles of pumped milk when I'm working (still no formula yet, yeah!) however, my milk stash is dwindling (see previous bulletpoint)  
• You are on the move.  You're not quite crawling yet, but you are an expert roller.  You love to roll yourself under stuff including the couch, end tables, beds...etc. I'm thinking you'll be crawling soon though.  I can really see the determination in your eyes to keep up with your brother. 
• We are trying to be diligent about having you wear you hearing aids during all waking hours.  It's getting harder as you like to pull them out and use them as a chew toy.  Nicole and Kristy come weekly to check on your developmental progress (so far everything in on track) 
• You have begun to babble, a lot.  You mainly just say da da da da da.  You look at me and start to babble and then wait for me to respond, like we are having a conversation, and I should know what you are saying
• You love to watch baby Einsteins, specifically baby Beethoven (could be because it's the only one your brother hasn't scratched by "helping" clean the dvd) We put you in your jumper in front of the tv and you go to town laughing and smiling through the whole movie.  It's a great 20 minutes mom can have to do laundry / study / made supper / attend to your brother.  
• You are pretty good sleeper.  You sleep through the night 75% of the time.  If you don't it's usually due to growth spurts / teething / feeling sick.  You take 2 naps that are usually 1-2 hours long (depending on how loud your brother is at the time) You are a surprisingly light sleeper and will wake at any disturbance (lights turning on, door shutting...etc) but you don't wake up to our alarm clocks in the morning (could be you can't hear that pitch?) You can sometimes put yourself back to sleep if you wake up. 
• We still swaddle you up for bedtime and nap time.  You don't usually take a paci for me unless you are upset.  This is much different than your brother who HAD to have a paci to fall asleep.  
• You love your brother
• Your eyes are getting darker, but no definite color yet.  Your hair is surprisingly light (dark blond color which reddish hues)  I'm not sure what color it will end up being, but I'm pretty sure it will be stick straight like your dads.  It kind of just grows straight up and out of your head.  
• You wear some 9 month and some 12 month size clothes.  You wear size 3 diapers (but I'm desperately trying to use up some size 2s that I have so I've been putting you into those during the day) I haven't weighed you or measured you in a while, but I'm sure you've grown since that last time we did
•  You are sweet and loving and super ticklish. I just love to hear you laugh and giggle.  You seem to enjoy playing more now.  We can even set you on the floor with toys and you will play with them for 10 minutes!  
• I love you Samuel Steven.  You just need to stay my baby forever.  

6 Months Old!!

Samuel Steven Norby

6 Months old

18lbs

26 3/4 inches long

• Samuel, you are the sweetest baby.  You are sometimes stingy with your smiles, but when you do smile it lights up the room.
• You have the sweetest laugh, and sometimes you will just start laughing at us for no apparent reason
• You still have little to no hair.  It is starting to kind of come in, and it looks like it may be more like your dad's hair.  It is still kinda fuzzy and it stick straight up out of your head.
• You love your big brother. We like to go for walks in the double stroller, and you are content just sitting next to him.  If you hear his voice in the room, nobody else matters
• You wear your hearing aids pretty well.  You have only recently started taking them out and chewing on them.  You seem to jabber a little more when they are in, but otherwise you are a pretty quiet baby and only talk when you want something
• You have two bottom teeth and you like to chomp on anything that comes near your mouth
• You are still nursing.  You usually eat when you wake up, 3 hours later before nap, when you wake up from your nap, a couple hour later when you nap again, when you wake up from your second nap, and before bed (same schedule for bottle)
• You have starting doing solids at meal times.  We have tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas,  and peas.  You have only seemed to dislike the peas so far :)
• You were sleeping through the night (9pm-7am) but then you got sick and got your teeth in.  Lately you have been getting up around 3am to eat
• You have started enjoying watching baby Einstein's and baby babble with your brother
• You love to jump in your jumper and play on the floor on your activity mat
• You roll like a pro and flail your arms and legs like crazy when you are on the ground in attempt to move around.  

You love to swing

My little hunk

Talking with your brother

Birthdays and the Lake

My sweet almost 3 year old having fun on mommy's birthday.  James Loves birthday parties! He kept asking Nate to "put fire on the cake!"  He loved helping me blow out the candles.   

Nate is a little challenged when it comes to taking pictures, but he tries. 

My babysitter while we were at the lake

looking mischievous

Dipping their toes in the water. When I asked if he wanted to go swimming, James kept saying "no mom, it too cold to swim, I want to go fishing"

James and his fishin' pole.  

Emma took James on a little boat ride.  He was kind of indifferent about it.  I took James on a ride on the jet ski, and he had fun for a minute and then decided that it was too loud and "too scary"  

Samuel

James helping Sam put his hat on

Emma and Sam

Sam wasn't too sure about this lake thing.  He did, however, enjoy seeing his grandparents, uncle mike, and cousins :)