Celebratory face-making.

Jim is ONE YEAR OLD today! Please excuse me while I go pass out in disbelief. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures (these many, many, many pictures...) of Jim making a variety of Jim-like faces.


Being charged.


Doing some charging.


Looking sly.


Looks sad, but actually perplexed.


Exaggerating his displeasure.


Impressed with himself.


Dunno what the hell he's doing, but it's pretty funny.


Caught in the middle of making his escape.


Showing off his chompers.


Diabolical.


Uncertainty reigns.


Hahaha, gross.


Yeah, I'm eating cheese. What of it?

Whew. Okay. That pretty much brings us up to date with Jim pictures. Expect to see his 1-year update soon, accompanied by lots and lots of pictures (but probably not as many as in this post).

Jim goes went to the zoo!

Let it be known that I don't see the point in taking pictures of animals that countless wildlife photographers have already taken better pictures of, but there are a couple.


Monkey-thing that Jim liked.


Jim liking monkey-thing.


My favorite animal.

Noah and Jim were actually not nearly as interested in the animals as I was. Ostensibly the trip was for Jim (zoos are for kids, yes?), but mostly it was me oohing and aahing and the gentlemen humoring me. Jim was interested in a few animals, though. It was always unexpected ones, like some ordinary-looking bird. Sparrow eating breadcrumbs by vendor? COOL! Ostrich? Meh. Stupid ostrich. Let's find more sparrows.


Noah and Jim ignoring cool birds.


Cool birds being ignored.


Some kind of terrifyingly invisible viper.


Jim looking hilarious while getting a drink in the reptile house.

Said reptile house was, by the way, HORRIBLE. The reptiles themselves were awesome and interesting, but the place was hot and claustrophobic and PACKED with shrieking shoving rude children. Is it normal to hate other peoples' kids? Because I totally do.

So we left the reptile house and went over to the botanical gardens, and they were WAY nicer. Apparently all the kids wanted to stay and howl at the animals, so the plant-only side was quiet and lovely. Jim liked it too.


Peace and honeysuckle.


Looks nice, yes?


Random and empty cotton mill museum. We let Jim charge around on the floor since there was absolutely nobody there except us.

In which Jim goes to the park.

You know a baby is getting big when he gets to go on the swings like a Real Live Kid. We took Jim to try the swingsets for the first time about a month ago, and the whole thing was quite a hit.


Turns out Jim loves swings, but you'd never know it by the only clear picture we got that day.


This one is actually a much more accurate depiction of Jim's feelings, but alas, he looks like a out-of-focus demonspawn.

Jim would've been happy to stay on the swings for ages. Unfortunately, the day was a bit chilly, and Jim was only wearing a onesie, so we had to leave early before we felt all judged by the other parent-y types in attendance. Noah did insist on stopping for a proper manly picture before we left, though.


Jim is clearly humiliated by wearing a hoodie and no pants.

Easter!

So, Easter totally happened. We weren't actually planning on doing anything, but at the last minute we decided to color a couple eggs and see if Jim wanted to smoosh them or something. Observe!


Our bounty.


Our Easter 'chicks,' right in the middle of the ugly stage.


Jim has no idea what to make of this unnatural orb.


The hunt is on!


SIEG!*


Posing with Remington Hat of Triumph (also, +2 Dandelion of Finding).


Hands full, what to do?


Eat the wrong side, of course. Bonus points for creepy eyes.


Death from above! If I were a brightly-colored boiled egg, I'd be terrified.


And this one is just because his face is funny.

*Victory.

11 months!

The ONLY picture we got where he was more or less sitting by the bear.


Average picture.

I know he'll be a year old in a couple days (cue hyperventilation and gnashing of teeth), but I really ought to post his 11 month update just for posterity. There were lots of little changes, of course, but ultimately he had two major breakthroughs in his eleventh month. First up, walking!
 
By the bear? Really? For serious?


But this is WAY cuter than sitting by bear, yes?

So, walking. The boy walks. Well, somewhat. Around 10.5 months he started taking steps, just 2-3 at a time, and that's what he stuck with for the next month. His thought process was almost visible. Stand up --> take a couple steps --> fall down --> "Screw this, I'll just crawl to the $#&% kitty." Very logical if you're a fast crawler, no? He is walking full-time now (rather drunkenly with much staggering, but walking nonetheless), but as of 11 months, he was in the 2-3 step bracket.

 
Break for play-time.

Other major development? Communication! Jim had (and has - no real change in this yet) 1.5 words and one sign. His main word is 'da-da,' and it is terribly versatile. It mostly means daddy, but it's also a general term of approval. He says it when he sees the kitty ("DADA!" = "Hurrah, I see a wondrous beast!"), or when you correctly guess what he wants ("Dada." = "Hell yes I want milk."), or when Noah isn't paying attention to him ("Da-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" = "HEY LOOK AT ME I'M COOL") or when he's concentrating really hard ("dada dada dada dada" = "Ommmmmm. Ommmmm. Ommmmm."). He's working on 'ma-ma' but he doesn't quite have it down yet. Sometimes it comes out ba-ba and sometimes wa-wa and it frustrates him when he can't say it correctly. When he does say it, though, it's terribly plaintive and indicates general distress and wanting his mama. We've been working on sign language a bit with him (mostly 'milk' and 'all done' and 'kitty-cat'), and he has one sign. It involves flapping his right hand at the wrist (I'll post a video sometime), and it means everything. Whenever he's feeling communicative, he'll stagger up to whoever is around and do his sign and you have to guess what he means. I'm pretty sure it usually means "Hey, I'm a people! Behold, here is my word! Are you not impressed?"

 
Resume photo attempts.

Of course there are many other smaller things and games that Jim likes to play. Hiding under the covers when I'm making the bed is funny. Me joining him under the covers is HILARIOUS. Hide-and-seek is pretty good, but he's pretty bad at it. Babies don't really pay attention to where you hide - they just look in the last place they found you. This means that even if Jim WATCHES me hide under the blanket, he will still look under the bed first. It's so freaking cute. His favorite game is putting things into other things (EVERYTHING goes into my rain boots - I've stepped on apple cores and pens many many times), and he's figured out how to play with the cats by tossing string at them. His mullet is getting a little out of hand, but I still won't let Noah shave his head. He's a BABY, dammit, and he's not getting a buzz cut for a good long time yet.

 
Final escape!

Random family pictures.

Jim and I being astounded in the kitchen.

Jim and Noah being manly together.

Coming soon: Jim discovers Easter, only a month and a half late! Jim goes to the zoo! Jim turns 11 months old, only days before his first birthday! And other wondrous tales of babyhood.

As an apology for my extended absence...

I present to you a slightly creepy picture of Jim and my promises of more posts to come. Leftover chili really brings out his eyes, don't you think?