Update on the shoe saga

For the past week I have tried every day to put John-Mark in his new shoes to which I was met with the same result as my previous post - utter melt downs! I had kind of just given up for now, thinking he'd come around eventually. Then yesterday as we were getting ready to leave the house James went over to the shoe bin and got out John-Mark's shoes and took them over to him to put them on. I watched as John-Mark sat down with a big grin on his face from getting so much of brother's attention and let him try to put his shoes on him! Too sweet! I let them work together for a minute and then came in to help - hoping I didn't mess up the "happy shoe vibe" James had started :) He let us put them on him then James showed him how he had blue shoes on too and that made him grin even bigger - he really thought he was a big boy now. But the true test was would he walk in them - and walk he did! So now I know my secret weapon to get John-Mark on board - James!!

"Here John-Mark, let me help"Checking out the shoes - not so upset this time

And there's my happy walker again!!Yesterday I went to my first consignment sale of the season and picked up another red chair for John-Mark. They were beginning to fight over the one. Ofcourse, they still want to be in whatever chair the other is in so having two doesn't solve everything but how cute are they!

Walking, Shoes, and Chores :)

Over the past week or so John-Mark has really started to prefer walking to crawling. He's finally standing himself up without pulling up on anything and just taking off, and falling, and standing up and taking off again instead of staying down and crawling. Sometimes he gets so excited trying to catch up with his brother that he'll actually try to run - which is pretty funny since he's barely coordinated enough to walk - image how drunk he looks trying to run - never ends very well :(

So, today I decided it was time to get him his first pair of soft soled shoes. I'm one of those moms that doesn't put their kids in shoes until they start walking. It's not that I don't like baby shoes - they are just kind of a hassle for me and not really necessary since their little soles never touch the ground so we go shoe free for at least the first year. I tell you this to set up the following pictures:Here's my happy walker with no restrictions on his feet :)

And here we are with shoes on our feet for the first time - I had to make him hold on to this toy to stand up because he was so mad! (I promise they aren't too tight and fit him perfectly)

"Get these things off of me ASAP!!"

"Seriously, I will chew them off of my feet if I have to!"

I have several friends who are about to add another baby to their family in a similar fashion as we did - very close in age :) I just wanted to add some more pics of my boys playing together - they are only 1 and 2 and already sweet play mates! Look at all you have to look forward to!

Riding around the house together!Watching a little Sesame Street together. John-Mark loves James' chair and always wants to sit "with" him - this was a pretty sweet momentBut when John-Mark tried to get a little closer James "gently" pushed him out of his lap :)

James starting to earn his keep around the Allen household!
So, I just realized that James actually has a couple chores that he is expected to do on a regular basis. I never actually planned on giving him chores but it just kind of happened that he has started helping around the house here and there. I was reading an article about the importance of giving your kids responsibilities that are age appropriate at an early age and realized - "hey, I do that!" So now they are "officially" his chores for the week.
What he is responsible for:
-Picking up all his toys after playing with them (colors, books, blocks, etc.) I am just now starting to implement a nightly pick up of toys that are left out. Up until now I do this each night but I think James is ready to take on this task as well.
- Putting his dirty clothes in the hamper in his closet.
- Helping put the dishes away - primarily handing them to me or setting them on the counter (he uses his stool for this one) and putting all the silverware in the correct spot in the silverware drawer.
- Helping mommy put the laundry in the dryer
- We have a bin by the door where we keep our outside play shoes and he is responsible for making sure all the shoes are in the bin and none have "jumped" out.

I know none of this is rocket science but I think it's important that he feels like he has real jobs to do around the house. He LOVES doing all of these things so as of right now there is no drama when I ask him to do any of them. We will see what happens when he decides he doesn't want to help anymore :) I don't have any pics of him in action doing his chores (I'll work on that) but here are a couple cute ones:
My big boy washing his hands - he LOVES to wash his hands after everything! I could leave him in the bathroom for 30 minutes and he would be totally content just to run his hands under the water and never make a peep!

James wearing daddy's shoes - I don't know why I love these kinds of pictures so - I've probably posted 10 pics just like this over the last year - they just crack me up! Look how long and lanky he has gotten! Where did his little pudgy legs go like John-Mark's? Ugh, before I know it he will really be able to wear daddy's shoes (sniff sniff)
Yesterday we took the boys to the zoo and James was just walking around with us like such a big boy - I actually got emotional (which I always am but don't forget I'm 7 months pregnant!) I told Jeremy I just can't believe how big he is and how fast it's all going by. His response was "well, get used to it - he's just going to keep growing; don't worry, we can just keep having more babies!" HA! I told him I don't care how many babies we have - James will always be my baby and I think I will always be emotional as I think about him getting bigger. I mean, I know it's a part of life and thank goodness he is a healthy growing boy - sometimes it just hurts your heart a little bit - you moms know what I mean:)

Happy 1st Birthday John-Mark!

Oh, my big boy John-Mark - how has a whole year already flown by?!?
I didn't know it was possible to have sooo much love for another baby but when you arrived one year ago at 3:22 a.m. and we saw you for the first time your daddy and I couldn't believe how much bigger our hearts grew!! Another perfect baby boy - how blessed are we! It has been so amazing to watch you and your brother grow over this last year and really see how God created us all so uniquely. Every day we see more and more of your personality and every night your daddy and I just laugh as we tell stories about you. Once again, what would our little family be like without your big smile every morning! While you will never get to experience what it's like to be the "only" baby in the house you are so lucky to have such a fun big brother to lead the way for you. What a special relationship you boys have that I pray you will both always cherish! We thank God for you daily and can't wait to see what all He has in store for you!! You are such a sweet treasure and we're so lucky to have you!!
Happy Birthday my Sweet Bug!!

Finger Painting

Yesterday we got out our new finger paints for the first time. Several weeks ago James got to finger paint for the first time at his friend Ellie's house and had the best time. Mrs. Jennifer showed him how to paint his hand with a brush and then press his hand down for his hand print - well, he obviously remembered because the first thing he wanted to do when we got the paint out was paint his hand! He really would rather paint with a brush than his hands - which is hard to tell from the pics where his hands are covered in paint but what he does is paint his hands then uses the brush to paint the paper. I have to get in there and get my hands in the paint to get him to really "finger" paint.

Here he is saying "thank you mom-mom" for all the fun paints and crafts!!

On a side note - you'll notice you don't see John-Mark around - we have to save our craft time for John-Mark's morning nap time, otherwise he wants to get in the paint as well and tries to eat all of the crayons :)

The Birthday Party!

This past Saturday we officially celebrated the boys birthdays. We decided to do a small family party this year. I know neither of them will remember this particular birthday when they are older but I think they had a great time so it was a success!! Their older cousin Mallory got to come and they both LOVE her and had a great time running around with her. I think James was most excited about getting to eat cake. Since my birthday was just a few weeks ago he now fully associates the word "birthday" with cake. Even today as everyone calls to tell him "Happy Birthday" his first response is "cake?"
John-Mark wasn't so sure about all the attention when we sang happy birthday. James was right at home and clapped right along with us. We sang the song twice - once for each of them - it's bad enough they'll have to share a birthday party for the rest of their lives, the least we could do is sing a special birthday song for each of them:)
The whole present thing was overwhelming for James. John-Mark really had no clue what was going on. James would open one present and just want to play with it and I'd have to convince him to open another one - then he would just want to play with that one.
Here are some pics - hope you enjoy!

One of many, many attempts to get a family pic - as you will see John-Mark had a very serious face on most of the party - not sure what to think about everyone being there all at onceThe boys got a wooden rocking car - as you can see it was a hit!Love this pic! My mom made the boys matching birthday outfits. There was much discussion that they were a bit too girly - I think it was the light yellow fabric I chose - it was super cute for 1 year old John-Mark but I agree it was a bit young for James. About half way through the party James found his Florida gators hat and wore that the rest of the day so that helped him look more like a little boy than a baby :)John-Mark and cousin MallorySweet cousins! Mallory is such a little mamma - she is going to have her own little brother in the next week - she will be such a great big sister! The boys love her!

John-Mark with my dadThe cakes - they ended up splitting the smash cake which was plenty for each of them!Happy Birthday to you!! As you can see James is loving the singing - John-Mark not really sure what is going on

Taking it slow at first

At this point John-Mark picked up the whole plate to smash in to his face - when several people gasped he stopped and looked up as if to ask "am I not supposed to do that?"

John-Mark loving the cake between his fingers - James being the big boy shoveling it in with a fork :)We're all in now!Clean up time!John-Mark loving his new car push toy - he LOVES anything with a steering wheel! He kept this bow on his head for quite a while - too cute!James enjoying his new art supplies. He got this easel along with lots of big paper, colors, finger paints, chalk and more. We're going to have lots of fun craft times!!John-Mark showing us his new walking skills by pushing brother around in his new toy!James put on cousin Mallory's flip flops and thought it was sooo funny!

We're walking!Look at that belly - he loves to stand up and be pushed around - such a silly boy!

All the grandparents!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Baby James!!

Today two years ago our lives changed beyond anything we could have imagined when we welcomed our first baby boy into our lives. What did we do before we had this little man in our lives! James, you are my sweet prince and I love you more than I ever even knew possible!! We're so thankful that God chose us to be your parents and love getting to experience life through your eyes!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The word on the street is SHARING!!

For those of you that are not daily Sesame Street watchers - each day they start the show telling you what the word on the street is, what it means, and then they focus on that word throughout the rest of the show. Well, the word on the street at our house pretty much every day is "Sharing!" James is pretty good about sharing with his little brother though he has to be constantly reminded to do so, but once gently reminded he usually obliges :)
However, this past week there were several instances that I "caught" him sharing with John-Mark without any guidance from me - warms my heart! I snagged some pics because it was sooo sweet!

James turn to play the drum

Now John-Mark's turn

Now we'll play together - SHARING!

This is soo much fun!James sharing his water with his little brother - totally on his own!

Also, I was one proud mommy this week when, finally, after we have been playing color games for ever it seems like, James finally picked up different colored balls and named them for me! Since we don't do any sort of mother's day out or anything I sometimes feel a lot of pressure to make sure James is "learning" everything he needs to. I know that everything we do is a learning experience at this age and I am constantly looking for fun new ways to introduce colors, numbers, shapes, etc. with him - sometimes he likes my "games", sometimes he "adjusts" them - which is fine - I know he's learning as long as we're having fun together even if he isn't like one of those kids on tv that knows all the states and capitals by 2 - I'm just thrilled we got some colors down! We are working on numbers and the alphabet as well which are slow going. He hums the alphabet song with me but doesn't say any letters yet and on the numbers front we still love the number 2 and will add 5, 6, 9, and 10 in the mix sometimes.
Oh - and another proud moment - a silly one but James has learned how to blow his nose! I know that is silly but when they don't know how to do it it is awful! Oh, the things that make my day right now :)