Random anecdote from about half an hour ago.

Jim has taken to banging his head on the wall. Not hard, mind you, but very deliberately. He'll crouch on all fours in front of the wall, and carefully lean forward and bump his head against the wall. Then he looks around and grins at whomever is around to make sure they saw it. Repeat.

Tonight we were all lounging around in bed before his bedtime, and he started to do this on the wall above the pillows. Being the concerned father that he is, Noah demanded some intervention, so, being the accommodating type that I am, I stuck one of the pillows between Jim and the wall just to give the poor bloke some cushioning. Alas, Jim was not to be deprived of his head-banging glory. He sat back on his haunches and carefully removed the pillow (and the one next to it, too, just to be safe). Then he got into game position, took a deep breath, and.... *BOMP* Big grin.

What a weirdo.

A boy of many talents.

This isn't really related to anything, but aren't his little toofers cute?

So, Jim probably has his Official First Word now. Is it Mama? No. Dada? No. Woof (Noah's first word)? Closer, but no. His Official First Word is *drumroll* KITTYCAT. Well, to be perfectly honest it's more like "keh-keh," but still, it's a valiant effort so we're giving him the point.

In other news, Noah has been blowing raspberries on Jim's belly for some time now, and Jim has apparently inherited his father's penchant for crude noise-making. He now does this any time anyone has bare skin around him. Sometimes he just blows ineffectually, but frequently he actually gets a good *ppbbbbbbttt* for his efforts. Yesterday Jim and I went out for a walk, and he spent the last mile or so doing this on my chest and laughing hysterically at his own antics. It was ridiculously cute - he didn't even raise his head to laugh. All I could hear emerging from that fluffy blonde head was a lengthy series of *ppbbbttt* *giggle* *pfffffff* *belly-laugh* *PBBBBTTTTTT!!* He's a funny guy, is ol' Jim.

Picture dump.

The face Jim makes when he surfaces from dipping his face in bath water.


Things on head = hilarious.


Standing by himself!


No longer standing by himself!


Attempting to engage the cat with a string of beads.

That's all, thanks.

Mistletoe State Park

Last week Noah got some unexpected time off (seriously, we found out last Friday that he didn't have to be back in class until the NEXT Monday - nice surprise!), so we had the opportunity to go do a bunch of fun stuff. First thing on the list? A hike! Turns out there are a lot of nice places within a 30-60 minute drive, so we hit the closest one on Monday: Mistletoe State Park. Nice place, as it happens. I know none of you people are in Georgia, but if you feel like some exercise when you visit, that's a great place for it. Pretty, clean, nice trails, etc. We're planning on going back camping sometime when Jim's a little older. Enough rambling (hiking, rambling - see what I did there?), though. On to the pictures!


The scenery! Looks just like home.


This is why I love breastfeeding. Jim got hungry just as we started, so... Instant snack! No mess, no hassle.


Jim tries to get Daddy to come over and look at his very impressive pine cone.


Pine cone is indeed very impressive.


Ergo = most awesome carrier ever. Also, breastfeeding and baby-wearing in one post = super crunchy.


Noah and Jim in a very nice ravine. If you look closely, you can see that Jim is happily a-snooze.


Best we could manage for a family picture. Jim still snoozing.


Jim was happy the entire time, as long as we stopped every so often so he could get a drink and stretch his legs.


Jim makes this face every time he tries to give us something. "You take piece o' wood? :D"


Me helping Jim to not fall in the water.


Being a wee bit more adventurous with Daddy.


Wet toes (NOT in the bathtub, no less) are hilarious.


Weird tree must be photographed, no matter how precarious the positioning might be.

Answer key.

For the longest time, Jim couldn't crawl through that. First he couldn't get his head low enough, then he got inside but got stuck and couldn't get out. He kept trying to sit up inside and got upset when he bumped his head. Finally he figured it out, but either it was very scary or the previous attempts had left him with some bad memories, because he cried the whole way through. Then he turned around, went back in, and cried the whole way to the other side. Now he's up to racing through it cheerfully many times a day.

Find the baby!

Coop!

Not yet a chicken coop.

As it turns out, getting chicks is by far the cheapest and easiest part of having chickens. Turns out you also need food, bedding, water, and, best of all, a COOP. It also turns out that pre-made chicken coops are really freaking expensive. So, naturally, we decided to build one. It ended up only taking us about 18 hours of work total (although that was split over 3 weekends, due to rain and family visits and stuff).


Jim inspects the safety gear to make sure everything is in order.


Jim helps Noah measure wood.


Noah unsuccessfully attempts to show Jim how the hammer works.


Just proving that I WAS there.

I was totally there, so you know. And I was even helpful, contrary to Noah's expectations. The division of labor was roughly as follows.

• Noah - In charge of lifting heavy objects, cutting things with terrifying saws, and hammering the hard parts.
  
• Leah - In charge of reading the directions and hammering the short nails.
  
• Jim - In charge of bug consumption.

First day's work complete!

And here's where we skip to the final product, since I neglected to get any more midpoint pictures.


Note that we are all looking the same direction AND smiling - a first!

We did a good job, no? It looks very chicken-coop-y. We just moved the chickens out this past weekend (and I gave myself several kinds of cancer using bleach to clean out the bathroom they were in), and they appear to be very satisfied tenants. It's amazingly satisfying to build a thing with your own hands and see it being used for its intended purpose.

Ten months and counting.

So, Jim turned ten months old. That's double digits. That's almost a year. Holy shit.



Anyway, he's big and strong and boyish and funny. He can do SO MANY THINGS this past month. I'm not even going to try to organize them, so here's a list.


One week, five months, ten months. Doesn't look like a huge difference in the past five months, does it?

• Stand up completely on his own with nothing to hold, and remain standing indefinitely.
  
• Walk really well with someone holding his hands, and take 1-2 steps on his own.
  
• Wave hello when he feels like it (but it's up and down, not side to side). This, of course, only really applies to me and Noah. He won't do it for strangers or the camera.
  
• Give you things if you hold out your hand. This one is actually useful. He can now pick up pens and stuff and give them to me. He also likes to feed things to me and Noah.
  
• May or may not be able to sign 'milk.' I'm really not sure if he knows what it means or if he's just mimicking me for fun.
  
• Eat all his food and not drop any on the floor. Well, unless he's finished, in which case he'll methodically pluck one piece after another and carefully drop it, checking each time to make sure it actually hit the floor. Also he has realized that if he drops food sometimes the cats will come over. But mostly he just eats all of his food like a people.

Most pictures came out like this, because Jim is terribly interested in the camera this month.

• Makes jokes. Well, makes joke, anyway, in the singular. He thinks putting things on heads is HILARIOUS, whether it's his own head or someone else's. He also thinks it's pretty funny when I wear one of Noah's hats, although the hats are not amusing at all if they're on Noah's head.
  
• Tan lines and bleached-blond hair. He's been in the sun a lot.
  
• Recognizes the cats and the word 'kitty cat.' Thinks the sign for 'cat' is hilarious, but doesn't try to mimic it.
  
• Looks for things behind and/or under obstacles. His favorite game is being chased around the bed and then looking under the bed at whomever is on the other side.

Sitting still = BORING.

• Turns pages. This makes story time a bit tricky, but he has a great deal of fun
  
• Uses the Xbox controller. He knows which button turns it on, and he knows that pushing buttons makes things happen on the screen. He also knows that it doesn't work if you take the batteries out and will abandon it immediately if that happens. If you give him back the battery pack, he knows where to put it on the controller, but can't quite get it in.
  
• Better at making wants known. If he's sitting in his high chair, he will shout until the food arrives. If someone else is eating or drinking, he will be RIGHT THERE until he's given a share.

Busy month for Jim, no?


Jim exults in his progress.