green room

Well, this summer I tried to be ambitious in painting my house.  I got three rooms done by the grace of God and by the last one my fat little pregnant body was ready to give up.  Still I love painting and I love the feeling of accomplishment you get after it is all done and looks so clean and pretty (it really is a good way to just make you house feel clean).  I started with Jimmy's room because he was very excited to help paint his room green (his favorite color) and he even helped pick out the exact shade which had a very cool name, "Dragon's Hide Green."  

Here is the room on the day we moved in:

Here it is once I got it decorated and while these pictures make it seem rather lovely compared to above (the lighting was good that day), the bland paint color and lack of contrast was driving me crazy:

Here it is all painted:

He loves it and still shows it off to any new visitor, so it was worth the effort.

(PS: Thanks Angela and Lucia for your help)

shumana pumana botkin

This is phrase that Jimmy made up.  He says it means, "It's good."
When he says it very slow it is "shuman de puman de botkin" (and he will correct your pronunciation if you are wrong).  Zach and I have taken to saying it as well although we are not always sure of its correct usage.

Sometime this summer Jimmy just started making up words and names for everything.  A lot of them seemed to begin with the letter P and many were more noises than actual words, such as "Psssht." Most things were refered to as "Pintz."  This would be a name for his stuffed animals or an ingredient in imaginary food he was making.  Aunt Angie will surely never forget the "Cheerios Car" that shot Pintz Cupcakes out the back when it drove.  Delicious!

Also for the sake of recording precious memories, Jimmy's best mispronunciations that have stuck despite the progression in the rest of his vocabulary:
pachine=machine
panocerous=rhinocerous
capano=piano
camote=remote

buzz and chip

So one day quite awhile back, Finn called Jimmy "Chip" out of nowhere.  He thought he was quite funny and kept telling everyone, "I called Jimmy, Chip!"  It stuck for a little while mostly because his mom thought it was cute and encouraged him.  Emily and I decided we should come up with a funny nickname for Jimmy to call Finn.  We thought "Buzz" was appropriate since Finn's hair is often buzzed short by his dad and since both boys are fans of Buzz Lightyear (however, both prefer Woody) and it seemed fun for them to both be named after Disney Characters.  Unbeknownst to the boys, the names actually came from the two cute boys in the movie "Shag" which my sisters and I have loved since childhood.  "Buzz" didn't stick much as Finn's nickname and then eventually "Chip" faded out too.  Emily and I have tried to bring them back, but to no avail so far.  We won't give up and even if they don't call each other by these names we may continue to do so.  Mostly, we are just happy that they are finally getting along better.  

I found them hiding in Emily's shower one night playing some kind of game with a wiffle ball.

Reading With Baabaa.

Reading Wtith Mimi.

Here they are smiling and getting along..

Until shortly after I believe they started fighting about whether to knock the Lincoln Logs down or leave them set up.  At least they looked cute and happy in the picture.

I used to fight with my best friend all the time, but we made it through so there is still hope for these two.

splash pads

Why didn't they have these at parks when I was a kid?  It seems like "Splash Pads" are all over Phoenix now at parks and shopping centers.  They are a great way for the kids to cool down outdoors in the summertime. There is a great one at Tempe Beach Park that has a slide and waterfall, which we went to twice this summer, but I have never remembered my camera when we have gone.   These first pictures are for one at Altadena Park that we have gone to with some of my Mom's Group friends.  I have had them for so long that I figured I better just throw them into a post before summer ended. I guess it will officially end Sept 22 which is a few days away, but most people seem to think it ends after Labor Day or whenever school starts.  Here is Phoenix it seems to drag on forever sometimes. 

Jimmy is all about getting sprayed in the face:

Leah, however, doesn't actually like getting wet at the splash pad:

There are two splash pads at the Phoenix Zoo, one of which has caves, waterfalls, and slides and would have made the Zoo so much more appealing when I was a child. I think it is pretty impressive:

Going into the caves!

And coming out!

He loves it!

Here are some more zoo pictures because I don't want to do a different post for them:

Maddie kept kissing the baboon through the window which was cracking me up.

He was just sitting in the window for the longest time staring at the kids so they all got to pose with him.

He is actually supposed to be one of the most ferocious animals in the zoo, but the kids thought he was cool.

Lucia loved the monkeys and I can never resist taking pictures of them.

Lunch Time.

What a Grumpface my kid is sometimes.

We love our Mom's Group!

jimmy wisdom

My sister Emily has inspired me to be better about writing down all the funny things Jimmy says and tells me.  My goal is just to do quick posts whenever they happen so that I don't forget.  I have already forgotten so many.  There was one just yesterday, that I already forget. I will be better! Here is a start:

"Mommy, pee is for peas and peepee and poo is for Winnie-the-Pooh and poopoo." 

He sure is smart.

Also after hearing my tummy rumble one night at dinner and looking confused, I asked him, "What was that noise?"  

He said, "It sounded like the coffee maker."-- knowing that at dinner time that was simply ridiculous.  

Then I said, "I think it came from my belly."  

He then told me with a big goofy smile, "I think Fred just pootered."  

(Fred is what we refer to the Fetus in my belly as.  Pooter is passing gas.)

I, of course, laughed too and he was so proud of how funny he was.  

I have not been a responsible mother when it comes to not laughing about bodily functions. 

Oh, well.

enjoy a coke and a smile

I have had this post waiting for so long because it was supposed to be a really cute video of Jimmy actually drinking a coke, but alas Blogger doesn't like to let me upload videos longer than 30 seconds and I am not ready to bother with YouTube.  So here are some regular old pictures of Jimmy drinking a coke in the grass at Pizzeria Bianco.  He was so very excited to have it "all to himself" right from the bottle, but he was very generous to pour some in a glass for me which was also pretty fun.  He also thought it was funny how much it made him burp... and well I did too because my sense of humor is similar to that of a small child at times.

HAPPY END OF SUMMER!

a very hungry caterpillar

We found this huge caterpillar living on our tomato plant.  

The one lonely tomato that was giving us hope of this plant still living was completely gone.  I guess that is how he got so fat.  This may not look that large to people in other states, but I have never seen a caterpillar like this in Phoenix in my life.  Zach looked it up online and found out the only way to get rid of it was of course to squash it.  Jimmy, however, was quite fond of it so we couldn't bring ourselves to do that. We just went the more humane way and let him live in an old orange juice bottle until he suffocated and dried out into a disgusting black stick.  Sorry caterpillar.

letters

Just a little bragging, but Jimmy has gotten so good at practicing writing his letters.   He loves these Dry Erase Cards and they have really helped him learn so much.  I had to take pictures of them since I can't exactly preserve them in his baby book.  

Now we are practicing on paper, too.  He did, however, think that he could erase letters in crayon so there has been a little bit of transitioning to the real thing.  I am so glad he has finally taken to this sort of thing because not only am I happy to see him learning, it helps keep him entertained inside for such a longer time than it ever did before. More on his amazing drawing skills later.

swim lessons

Back in June, Jimmy had his first swim lessons.  We did them for two weeks through Phoenix Parks and Rec which turned out to be great and so very inexpensive.  We did them with our good friends Carmen and Leah which made it all the more fun.  It was good for the kids to have some familiar faces to be excited to see each day. It was one teacher with about 10-12 kids with their parents so it wasn't all that hands on with the teacher, but it was really all about getting them in the water everyday and making them excited to try new things.  Jimmy actually started wanting to go under the water thanks to the kids pool where he was comfortable doing everything by himself.  It all started when we would try to splash him and then he would "hide" under the water so he wouldn't get splashed and he thought he was so funny.  Then the transition to doing everything in the big pool was really easy.  He was so proud to show off his new skills.  Over the course of just a few days he was doing all kinds of things by himself and I was ever so proud too.  His teacher also thought he was really funny and said he was doing so well that he could be ready to move up to the next level.  Isn't he just so talented?  I obviously wasn't able to get many pictures because I was always in the water with him, but here are just the few we did take.

Here is Jimmy with his little buddy Leah.

This is about the time they would both look exhausted and tell us they wanted to go home.  I don't know if either of them ever made it back home without passing out.

So, we have been trying to keep swimming as much as possible, but we have slacked a bit.  

Jimmy still loves it, but I need to keep it going so that he can keep getting better.  

I guess we will be back at Roadrunner Park again next year.