Pet Sounds

I Like to Ride My Bicycle

But I do not like to wear my helmet...

 

Matthew got me a bike trailer for Mother's Day, and this past weekend, we took James for his first ride.  We had been wheeling him around in the trailer at home a bit, and he loved it, so I assumed that he would love the bike ride, too.  What I didn't consider was how much he would dislike wearing his helmet :(

Boy this thing is heavy.  But let's go.

 James showing off his sign language skills at the turn-around point and giving us the sign for "all done" (usually reserved for when he's done eating)

"All Done"

 He was not a happy camper on the return trip.  He managed to take off his helmet not once...

Ok, now I'm ready to go.

 But twice.

Sneaky little boy...

We'll have to try it again soon, with a tighter helmet (and possibly a rear view mirror for me so I can see when he takes it off!).  We'll make a biker out of him yet!

Here are a few other snippets from our weekend:

Dada made James a pancake with a "J" on it.  Can you tell that he liked it?

Nature walk w/Dada

 

Visit to the park

Checking out the backyard wildlife

(the dark thing between the trees is a wild turkey)

 

And last but not least, the little man reduced his time to sit in his bumbo from over 2 minutes to 26 seconds!  Not too shabby :)

A little boy and his bumbo

I can't believe that our sweet baby

 is turning into a little boy!

Matthew said the other day that he seems more like a little kid than a baby these days.  He's been drinking out of a big boy cup on his own (to date he's only thrown it once!), doing things to purposefully make us laugh, starting to throw temper tantrums (yikes!), and trying to figure things out on his own (like how to sit in the Bumbo chair)

Although we're a little sad that our baby is growing up, we are having so much fun with him right now that I don't think I'd go back if I could.  A co-worker of mine told me that when I was pregnant that he loved every single age that his kids were, and I couldn't agree more!

Sorry there haven't been many updates lately - we've been a bit busy.  In case you haven't heard, Matthew has accepted a job in Cincinnati and we're moving there the last week of June.  We're also prepping our Seattle house for sale (James and I are taking a trip out there next week), so blogging has moved to the back burner for a little while.  Hopefully I can do one more post before we move - I have a lot of great pictures from our trips to the park to share :)

Happy Friday!

And now for a little Fats Domino

Happy  Mother's Day!

Playtime in Indiana

Ok, this is the last post from our trip back to the Hoosier state. As usual, we had a great time seeing family and friends, and I couldn't resist sharing a few pictures and videos of James playing.

Playing in the dirt at Pa's.

Playing on the floor at Pa's house (& munching on some Cheerios)

Playing with his soccer ball.

Post-playtime curly hair.

Playing with Jacob at Bass Pro.

Playing basketball with Pa.

Playing at the park. (Cutest. Tushie.  Ever.)

Playing on the slide with Scarlett (aka his future bride).

Yes, Beth (Scarlett's mom) & I have already started planning the wedding.

Despite all the fun playing we did in Indiana, we missed Dada :(

When we got back to Madison, James hugged three things upon our return (which I took to mean the three things he missed most):

1. Dada

2. The cats (Boo was a little more receptive to the hug than Wrigley, but they both accepted the hugs)

3. Our laptop

That's my boy!

Easter Egg Hunt!!

We had a very nice Easter this year.  As we mentioned previously, we spent some time right before Easter in Indiana, and James got to spend Good Friday coloring Easter eggs with Grandma and Grandpa Nett and Aunt Jill.  I wasn't there to take any pictures of the process, but they did share some of the eggs with us:

 (the pink one with our names on it was made for James by his step-cousin Maycy).

I heard that Aunt Jill tried to take a picture of James holding an IU egg, which he promptly threw on the ground :)

I did, however, get a lot of pictures and a couple of short videos of the annual Stengel Easter Egg Hunt.  This has been a tradition in our family probably since my brother was born, and this was the first year since I was born that he was not competitive about it.  I'm not joking - when it comes to Christmas presents and Easter Egg Hunts, he turns into a little kid.  Anyway, Uncle Matt and James teamed up together (with some help from Aunt Steph) and they found 48 of the 50 eggs that the Easter Bunny hid this year. 

 

 

After he collected his eggs, James new exactly what to do: check them for money!

 He knew what to do after he checked them for money, too: throw them on the ground!

{Happy Easter to the ground!}

We hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Cake!

When we went back to Indiana for Easter, James got not only a second birthday cake...

...but a third one as well! 

I am one lucky boy.

I am so excited to eat my cakes.

So when do we get to eat?

Did I tell you that I'm really, really excited??

Grandma, you did a fantastic job!  When do we get to eat?

No more pictures.  I want cake NOW!!!

Mom, Dad, you're embarrassing me!

Please, can I eat my cake??

Sooo good.

The wait was worth it.

Thank you, Grandma for the beautiful cakes!!