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Jim (declaiming): Dag nab nab!
Uncle Ilya: Is that so?
Jim (assertive): Dag NAB nab.
Aunt Emmy: Oh, I see.
Jim (expansive): Dag nab nab nab.
Ilya: And what else?
Jim (inquisitively): Dag nab nab? DAG NAB NAB!
Me: You know, boy, this might not be the place for loud conversations.
Jim (displeased, with furrowed brow and lowered voice): MIM. MIM. MIM.
Me: Oh, well, carry on then.
Jim (cheerful): Dag nab nab nab nab nab!

(This all took place at the Waffle House, mind you, moments after Jim vomited cheerfully and abundantly all over the floor. That waitress got a VERY good tip.)

WW: Sailor in training.

Laundry day.

This is what happens when Noah helps me put away laundry. "Look! Is baby! Baby wears laundry!"

Fortunately, Jim didn't mind being buried under an avalanche of clean camo. In fact, he took the opportunity to practice his hiding skills. Noah tells me that he's practicing to be a sniper, but I prefer to think that he's just working on his hide-and-seek abilities so as to better defeat any future siblings.

Still, we probably ought to get him a ghillie hat just in case.

Two facts and a question.

FACT: A 10-lb pork shoulder makes more pulled pork than you'd think.

FACT: Eating pulled pork at every meal for a week is not as good as you'd expect.

QUESTION: Does anyone know how well cooked meat freezes?

Jim goes outside.

It's a lot harder to sit on a hill.
Apparently kids like being outside. I know, weird, right? But they do. Or at least Jim does. He gets all cantankerous if he's cooped up indoors all day, so lately I've been following my mom's advice and making sure he gets outside for half an hour or more each day, regardless of weather, just to get him some fresh air and keep him happy. Note: This whole yay-outside-in-November thing works much better in Georgia than it does in, say, Minnesota.


Jim surveys his domain.
The only real issue we've run into is that he's no longer a fan of staying in one position and in one place. He likes to roll over, pull up grass, cram leaves in his mouth, and go crawling off into the wild blue yonder. That last bit doesn't work out so well for him, though, not when it's approaching winter and the vegetation is all dead and prickly.


Jim's opinion of hands contacting pokey brown grass.
And yeah, I know, I'm very cruel for taking pictures of his suffering instead of saving him immediately. Builds character, y'know. Anyway, Jim's a brave lad. Once rescued from the merciless lawn, he's inevitably cheerful and ready to resume eating spiders and staring down the sun. (oh hey, eating! reminds me I need to post about that soon - stay tuned, comrades)


Mugging for the camera.

Yelling contest.

This is rather lengthy, sorry. The yelling contest starts around 2:40 (the first half is mostly Jim laughing at Noah making silly noises). I think my favorite thing in the world is how into it he gets while yelling. He stretches as tall as he can and bulges his little blue eyes out and just generally puts forth a damn fine effort.



I assure you that Noah is not, in fact, nekkid. He just has an unfortunate habit (which will probably be inherited by Jim, alas) of hanging around the house in his boxers.

WW: Literate Baby

Things about right now.

• Jim's hair is ridiculous. It's still sparse and fine, but it's long enough that the top sticks up and refuses to be smoothed down. Noah says he's out of regs and needs a haircut, but I think it's adorable and won't let him cut his hair until he's like fifteen.
  
• Noah and Jim like to play a Yelling Game. It starts when Jim makes some half-hearted yell and Noah mocks him, then they yell back and forth until one of them has out-yelled the other. This is, of course, extremely cute. I'll post a video sometime.
  
• Noah is working third shift and it sucks. Jim's just not as warm at night as Noah is (although he might have a slight edge in the Cuddly category). The weekends are nice, but we only see each other for about two hours on weekdays, and it makes me cranky. It also makes me cranky that our master bathroom hasn't been cleaned in ages because Noah's always sleeping in there (er, not the bathroom itself, although the tub IS very comfy) when I'm in the mood to clean stuff. How housewife-y is that?
  
• Speaking of the bathtub, we took Jim in for a shower a day or two ago. He was extremely brave and did not cry, even though he was extremely shocked by the whole thing. He even got enough control of himself toward the end to commandeer the loofah.
  
• I'm on a major baking kick. In the past two days, I've made bread, sticky buns (fifth batch of sticky buns I've made in the last month - FINALLY got them right), chocolate cupcakes, and am preparing to make bread pudding. No wonder the weight loss has stalled a bit.
  
• Jim nurses to sleep easily at 8 every night and gets up around 7 every morning. Sounds good on paper, but he's up 2-4 times in-between, and takes up to an hour to get back to sleep each time. We're probably going to end up using Ferber-style sleep training once he hits six months. I didn't want to do cry-it-out, but I'm SO TIRED, and so is Jim - he's all red-eyed and cranky every day, and I'm pretty sure it's because he doesn't sleep enough at night. I've tried other methods (No-Cry Sleep Solution failed utterly, and co-sleeping only helps so much), so it looks like that's what's going to happen unless Jim magically discovers sleeping in the next couple weeks.
  
• We've all started getting out WAY more. We take a family walk (very Waltons/Leave It To Beaver, yes?) most days, and Jim and I go to the park or shopping (groceries or thrifting, mostly) while Noah's sleeping. On the weekends, we try to eat out once. Jim is SO good when we're out. He's quiet and adorable and beloved by all, except horrible baby-hating meanies. He's quite a somber little dude. He rarely smiles at anyone except me and Noah and just sits quietly, lower lip thrust forward, observing everything.

That's all I've got for now. I leave you with this relatively recent dimly-lit picture of the three of us clad in warm clothing for our walk:

Like I said: serious baby.

WW: Jim's New Face

He likes to accompany this with sucking the air in really hard around his tongue to make a nice slurping sound. Go on, try it. Sounds just like that, only more slobbery.

Jim's belly crawl.

He doesn't move fast, but still, it beats staying still. He can cross a room quicker than you'd think if you're not keeping an eye on him (especially if there's something sharp on the other side of the room).

Jim's Excellent Adventure(s).

Yesterday was a big day for the little dude. First up: locomotion! He's been working on crawling for the past week or two, and has just recently (like within the past couple days) been able to get up on all fours and rock back and forth, but still no motion. Yesterday morning he had quite a breakthrough. We were all in the living room, with Noah in the couch playing games, me sitting on the floor doing the crossword, and Jim having some tummy time in the opposite corner of the room. I was just sitting there minding my own business and trying to find a four-letter word for 'enthusiastic' (AVID, folks) when my newspaper was rudely torn out of my hands by Jim, who had managed to drag himself the length of the floor to seize his beloved crinkly paper. Noah moved him back to his corner, and within two minutes he was back over by me, this time attempting to steal my pencil. So, I wouldn't say he's crawling exactly, but the little bugger can definitely move himself.


World's Most Responsible Parents (fear not, bottle was empty and removed as soon as picture was taken)

Next: dinner time! We've had a high chair, but it's a bit big for him still and not mobile, so we just got a cheap booster chair that we can take to restaurants with us in hopes that Jim will grow to be a relatively mannerly toddler. Last night we gave it a try in the comfort of our own home and lo, Jim likes it! He's generally a big fan of anything that makes him feel like he's participating in Real People Activities, so sitting at the table with us for dinner was quite a hit.


He really likes playing with apples. Don't know why.

Finally: solids! Unintentional solids, even. We've been letting Jim have occasional tastes of food for a while now (licks off of my popsicle, a finger dipped in tomato sauce, etc.), but he never really seemed interested, so we've mostly just been holding off until the doctor-recommended six months. And we're still planning on holding off until then, mostly, but he kind of took over last night and got himself some chicken. I was holding him on my lap at the table after we finished eating, and he reached over and took the remainder of Noah's chicken leg. This was, of course, so amusing that we had to take a picture, but by the time Noah got back with the camera, Jim had decided to shove the thing down his little gullet. I think he may have even managed to gum off and swallow a couple pieces. Noah, of course, is very proud of the little carnivore.


Tiny sharp chokey bones and big chunks o' gristle were already removed, so it was essentially just a super-tasty meat rattle.

TMI!

Want to know the best thing about breastfeeding? (Other than convenience, cost, bond, and health benefits, I mean.) No period for five months. A year would've been better, of course, but still, counting when I was pregnant, I haven't had my period in 14 months, and that is a beautiful beautiful thing. On the down side, I forgot how irritating it is. I need to get knocked up again.

JOKING.

Mostly.

WW: He's behind me, isn't he?