news from chicago: 17 Months

17 Months is here; already. We're officially in fall; already. Sometimes I just can't believe how quickly time goes by these days. I have been working every minute I'm not with James. Some of these days I'm not sure what time I fall asleep or get up but I know I wake up and the sky looks the same as it did when I went to bed. Gotta get work time in anytime I can. However, I can actually now see a glimmer of light at the end of what has been a very long, very challenging, very frustrating, and very character-building journey down that tunnel. Well, enough about that, let's talk about our main guy James. Mr. Incredible. Mr. Fantastic. The King.

Here we go!

James got a special treat on his first full day of school - Mom AND Dad were both there with him! We're pretty sure he thought it was cool and felt really happy that we were both there. He was the only child with both parents there :) To celebrate, we had Volare and it was delicious! We decided to eat at home though because James misses his morning nap on Montessori days and for those of you with a little one around James' age out there, you know why we ate at home. Here are some photos from the first day!

James and Dad on the first day of school

James and Mom on the first day of school

Our little artist (lefty!)

Snack time

Playing with Dad

Mom and James have been enjoying Montessori a lot and it's becoming such a great routine and a fun way to spend together and also watching James. The parents sit and observe during class and then on the first Friday of each month, we meet with the teachers to discuss things. This Friday is our first meeting. There are also guinea pigs in the class - Squeaks and Mrs. Squeaks. Obviously :)

James has been becoming more ... I don't even know what the word is to use here. He's just braver walking around, he can catch himself if he trips (most of the time), he stands on his tippy toes trying to reach things that would give us heart attacks if he actually got to them, he tries to climb on everything, and he's just getting into everything. Not in a bad way at all actually. It's like he's trying to figure out what he can do, what his body can do, what everything around him does, how things work, what noises things make when they fall, or when you hit them on something.

I guess he's just growing up. Wow, writing that just made me tear up a little bit.

We've almost got all of his molars in - we're waiting on two on the bottom to push through. The other 6 have already caused their pain and are peaking through the gums now. Poor little guy. He's gushing drool and has his fingers in his mouth pushing on his gums a lot these days. He likes the teething biscuits but refuses to eat them in the mesh things anymore. I sit there ready to remove any huge bites of the biscuit from his mouth just in case he bites through it - which he has numerous times. I have mini-panic attacks the entire time he's got them in his mouth.

Remember how I was saying that James catches himself - most of the time - when he falls? Well, two big times he wasn't able to stop from falling and I couldn't stop it either. Here is the photographic evidence of the first big boo-boos. Yes, a huge forehead scrape and you got it, a ginormous shiner. Excellent. Everytime we're out in public I feel like people are just judging me. Then, one of our neighbors who's raised 6 boys (!!) told me they still look like that from time to time and they're grown - it's just boys. Awesome.

James has new words! "Hi" - he can say HI!!!!! It's so cute. James says hello to everyone. Numerous times. No one has yet to stop replying to each and every one little "hi" that comes out of his mouth. One of our doormen says "See you later" all the time and the other day James said back, "Later!" Hilarious. Everyone in the lobby was laughing. We have dis for this and dat for that. Everytime he sees a dog he makes the same sound - like he's trying to bark. Everytime he sees a cat he says an Mmmm sound. Not sure if he's associating the M sound because of meows or because the only cat he knows is Maggie; Auntie E and Uncle Serge's cat. Either way, it's Mmmmmmm when he sees a cat.

James will pull our hands to something if he wants it done - like our hands to the faucet to turn it on, pulls our hands if he wants us to get up or sit down or walk over to something. He knows that we are the means to his ends. What a smarty. James also has been 'reading' out loud to himself too. He likes "Sheep in a Jeep" which he calls "Uh-Oh" because there's a line that says, "Uh-oh the Jeep won't go" and also "Goodnight Moon", "One Fish, Two Fish", "Cat in the Hat", "Fox in Socks" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." These are his favorites to just read through all by himself. Sometimes we'll sit in the glider together - side by side. It's fun :) He just lets loose with a string of words and sounds that don't really make any sense but it's great to watch him and listen to him.

This weekend we'll be picking out some Pumpkins and getting the house ready for fall! Mom and Dad ordered James' Halloween costume too - he's going to be adorable :) We also just bought snow pants for the whole family in anticipation of sledding, snow, and more snow. Dad has mentioned sledding a lot and shows James and Mom the sledding hill in the park everytime we walk by it. Someone is very excited. Someone else made sure her snow pants had an extra layer of insulation for extended playtime in the snow.

As always, here are a few of our favorite photos!

James and his sorbet