A Day in my Diaper

Being 1 is pretty fun. I run around all day, play with toys, eat snacks, drink from my sippy cups, take the dog's toys and taunt him until he chases me. I love to laugh. A lot. I also speak my own language. Aunt Becki & Uncle Chris say it is Ewok language and if you really listen, I am definitely speaking my mind. Mom and dad are pretty well versed to my jabbering and can figure out what I need. I point very deliberately at what I want too, so that helps them out. I understand lots of words too. Go ahead, ask me if I want to take a ride in my wagon or have a yogurt. I can even point out the mouse hidden on the pages of some of my favorite books. When I'm asked, I can tell mom when I am hungry, thirsty and sometimes tired (though I hate to give in and take a nap). I can now say a few words of my own besides momma and dadda like dog, cat, baby, wheel and up. Of course, these are still my versions of the words but I'm pretty consistant so mom says we'll count them as words. Oh and I love to read my favorite books, over and over and over again.

Today was a big teething day, again. Can't wait to get my molars in...Dr said the bottom ones are on their way. They hurt A LOT and I have not been sleeping too much because of them. (sorry mom and dad) So because of the drool that seems to come with these teeth, mom stripped me down to my diaper this morning after breakfast. I'm so speedy these days, so putting on dry clothes was a challenging task and I was able to thwart mom's continuous mission to restrain me. Once she realized her attempts were futile, she gave in and snapped a few pictures of me in my glory. Oh and note the curls...would you expect anything else? Mom can't wait until my hair finally grows!

The belated landscaping project post

So since coming back from vacation, the camera has been resting, as has the camera woman. So...here's the posting we never put on the blog with the finished landscaping project. When we bought the house, it was a blue green with a strange door and arbor in between the garage and the front door. There was a huge evergreen on the corner of the house that was perpetually eaten by our deer friends. Last July, we made some adjustments to the exterior of the house - new paint and getting rid of the door. THIS year in May, we redid the landscaping in the front. The menfolk did a superior job on the plantings & we are very happy with the outcome. We think that the new pine on the corner will be a great place for yearly pictures of James and Brodie and mom is looking forward to decorating it with lights for Christmas.

Oh and yes, the rainbow over the house is real!

James' First Birthday, part 2

Celebrating his first birthday on the Outer Banks was pretty special for James. It will be tough to top that next year! Here's a few shots of James and his cake. Keep in mind, the poor guy is cutting 2 more teeth (9 and 10) and is really having quite a time. He did perk up for the candles and couldn't understand why he couldn't touch the flame. He liked the cake and especially liked squishing it through his fingers. Now with the first birthday behind us, it's full steam ahead into toddlerhood :-)

James Turns 1

Today was the big day: James' first birthday! We were so happy to spend the day as a family on the beach looking back on the past year and marveling over how far we've all come. We are grateful and proud of the little boy we've been so blessed with. He's the happiest little guy we've ever met and he reminds us every day what fun life can be. If ever there was a time to be thankful for the gift we have in James, and the love that we share, this is it.

This is actually birthday part 1, the second part of the birthday festivities to come another day :-)

Summer Vacation: Part 2.1

We wanted to give a quick snap shot of vacation part 2. Now on the Outer Banks in NC, we're having a blast. A few highlights - James' first ocean experience! He absolutely LOVED the waves and running around on the hard sand at low tide. Dad even took him into the deep water and dodged some waves. "No-fear" Hartigan Jr thought it was the best thing ever. Mom on the other hand was a bit nervous watching the event!


We went on a family trip to the ocean when we woke up one morning, that's 6:30am for clarification. It was a great time for James because there were literally zero people on the beach and it was nice and cool on the sand. We had breakfast on the beach and enjoyed watching the sun rise!

Here's James again enjoying the sand...this time we took a trip up the coast to where the road ends...and the sand driving begins! We drove about 4 miles up the beach through sand that was similar to driving in snow, a lot of it, and unplowed. Dad was a bit white knuckled at times, particularly when another truck was coming straight for us while we jockeyed to stay in the tracks we were following. Very intense driving conditions. Good thing for 4 wheel drive!

Here's proof on how close you can get to the ocean...Jim stopped right where the waves were creeping up to high tide.

Stay tuned for more as the vacation continues!

Summer Vacation: Part 1

Here's the first glimpse of our summer vacation - We made it to Charlotte, NC on Wednesday afternoon to see Aunt Ali. James did very well on the 11 or so hour drive. We stopped in Hagerstown MD for a (very) quick overnight on Tuesday. James thought the hotel was great, tons of mirrors and long hallways to run down. Sorry to the other guests who may have been sleeping at 630am that morning...
What fun we are having here! On the first day, Aunt Ali took us shopping, out to lunch on the lake and then...the best part of all...to her pool! So far, we've been to the pool every day. Good thing we brought our wagon as James likes to travel in style. Aunt Ali's house is beautiful and there is so much to do here. Although James enjoys playing with his aunt's excercise ball the best. Of course, it's almost as big as he is so the spotter has quite a job making sure James doesn't loose his footing and take (another) header into a wall.
Today we took a trip site seeing around the city & did a little more shopping and wandering around. A great BBQ dinner rounded out the holiday. It's standard eary to bed for us, so no fireworks, only the ones we catch from the neighbors back yards as we sit on the patio relaxing.
Happy Fourth of July to everyone!