So Big!

Time is flying by. I took this picture yesterday and all I could think was, "James is so big!" Almost a year and a half, he is loving climbing on everything. Chairs are his new favorite thing. I guess he got tired of his little child-sized chair and now he's moving up!

We were struggling with having him sit in his highchair for meals. He wouldn't want to be in it and would just want to be on my lap. Thankfully our chair converts so we took out the booster seat and now he can sit up to the table with us. This has made all the difference!

Another genius invention, the little kitchen helper, has changed our lives. It is a little box with an adjustable bottom so James can be up by the counter (safely enclosed, thankfully) and help in the kitchen. We use this multiple times a day and it sure beats me holding him and trying to cook with one hand!

A few more things we will always remember about this stage: lights. James is fascinated with lights. He loves to see them turn on and he helps us go around the house turning on the lights. He loves candles. Several times a day he asks to light the candles in the living room and gets such a pleased expression when he sees the flame.

And water. It seems like his water bottle is almost as much of a comfort to him as his snuggly. Maybe it's because Tyler and I always have water with us, but Mr. James sure likes to hydrate. He is still taking two naps a day, usually short naps, but we'll take what we can get.

Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Last week Tyler had a day retreat at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, AL. We had been wanting to visit this shrine for some time so James and I decided to join him.

It was a three hour drive to Hanceville and after we dropped Tyler off at the shrine, James and I went exploring. Tyler had a few talks in the morning so our plan was to meet him for Mass at noon back at the shrine. There wasn't much to do in Hanceville so we found a Chick-fil-A in the next town over.

Just enjoying our snack at Chick-fil-A!

After a snack James explored the play area and was getting adventurous on climbing up the slide!

We then picked up lunch to go and met Tyler for Mass. This was the highlight of the day because the chapel was so beautiful, Mass was beautiful as always, AND James slept the whole time. Thanks to Tyler for holding him, I got to enjoy a quiet, James-free Mass. What a blessing! Then we ate lunch with Tyler and while he went to his afternoon talks James and I explored the grounds of the shrine.

It was really cold and windy but James didn't seem to mind. He loved running around and pushing the stroller. There was a beautiful life-sized nativity scene in a stable-like room that was very warm, so we went to visit that multiple times!

James is fascinated by lights so he loved seeing all the candles. Then we met up with Tyler, went into the bookshop for a quick browse, and then started our drive home. Overall it was a really fun mini-pilgrimage and we look forward to going back another time!

Two New Firsts

We experienced two new firsts with James while we were in Lincoln for Christmas! Playing in the snow and a hair cut! It was cold in Lincoln and thanks to hand-me-downs from cousins, James was all set for the snow! Complete with snow pants, boots, gloves, a hat, and a coat. It took about as much time to get dressed as it did to play outside! But then we're not used to this coming from Florida and Alabama!

James seemed to enjoy playing in the snow. He slept great that night, haha!

He wasn't crazy about his first hair cut. Even with pretzels and a sucker to distract him!

What a handsome little guy!