James is Thirteen Months Old

This has been a month of celebrations for our family and they continue into tomorrow with a birthday party for Sophia and more parties again next weekend.  We love celebrating birthdays in our family and February is certainly a big month for that!

Jimmy's shirt says, "Little Bro" and he is the epitome of a little brother.  Everyone loves him (and fights over who gets to sit by him, get him out of crib, feed him, etc.) and I have a feeling that he is going to have his older siblings wrapped completely around each and every one of his little fingers by the time he is able to talk.

His big, blue eyes are the first thing that anyone (especially strangers!) comment on.  They are certainly beautiful. -- and those lashes, wow.

Unfortunately, this little boy, as cute as he is, is now getting into mischief.  He found my baking cupboard one morning and began stuffing his mouth with chunks of chocolate.  Not good.

In fact, we avoided putting plastic cupboard locks on the kitchen cupboards all together with Jack and Sophia, but I told Steve that I needed them on two cupboards in particular since my sanity was hanging by a thread these days.  Yes, there were two cupboards that Jimmy frequented often and something needed to be done about it.  Mission accomplished.

I am working with Jimmy on saying the word, "ball."  He received this ball for his birthday from Aunt Deb and knows that it is his.  He loves to chase it and have you roll it to him. 

And he especially loves it when his big brother plays with him.  (I can't say enough just how special the relationship is that these two boys have together).

At James' 12-month check-up the doctor questioned the fact that he wasn't regularly pulling himself up on objects.  I simply wasn't concerned, as I explained that we don't really encourage it.  The other kids didn't walk very early or stand early, and that he will do it in his own time.  Less than a week later, sure enough, he began pulling himself up on anything he could.  One such object is the window sill ...

For now, he continues to avoid the stairs; he doesn't know that he can climb on them ... yet.  That is one day that I hope stays away for a while because childproofing those stairs is a challenge.  I don't mind that he plays with his blocks there though.

My little boy is growing up so fast ...