10 and a half months

Two Sundays ago James walked a few steps. Since then it's been a real pain to encourage him to walk. He'll stand there forever and then sit down. So I tricked him. He has a little bike meant for toddlers that Kristin gave us, an old looking radio flyer, and James loves it--he uses it as a walker, by holding onto the front of side and walking it around everywhere, and he screams when he runs into a small obstacle that he can't get the bike over. He found that chasing Pepper down with it is really fun, he laughs so hard.
Anyways, knowing he can walk and just lacks the confidence to do it by himself, we had him in the toy isle at Fred Meyer, and you know those push toys for toddlers with wheels and they pop when you push them on the ground, or the ones with bells in them? Well they have no support of their own you have to hold them up. I showed James what it did when it was pushed across the ground and set him down with it. He walked a few feet before Jason had to dive because James put too much confidence in the toy and tried to lean forward on it. Probably would have ended up with a broken nose if Jason hadn't caught him.
James really likes animals, he wants to touch them all, I can't wait to get him around a horse to see how he reacts.
He's eating more solid foods, it's a fight to get him to eat baby food. He really likes meat. Chicken and beef, not so much pork. He loves mac and cheese, especially kid cuisine mac and cheese. He drinks whole milk now, doesn't seem to bother him at all, except he gets more thirsty. Drinks from his sippy cup, we had to get a soft tip and spill proof so he'll actually swallow all the water he puts in his mouth.
The past two days he's been trying to climb over the barrier of boxes in the kitchen, and he's found one box that he can climb in and try to get around it, but ends up just sitting in the box and screaming cause he can't climb out. LOL!
Sleeping ritual is now this; try to put to bed, but he runs around the bed, so he goes in his playpen for a few minutes, take him out and he has the idea it's actually bed time and nurse him for about ten minutes so he can sleep.
He can do patty cake all by himself. He tries to get Pepper's toys that roll under the couch, but he has a big head and stubby little arms and it's really funny to watch him try until he gets mad and screams.
He gets spankins or a slap on the hand when he touches things he can't. He likes to watch me or Jason while tying to reach the keyboard and mouse or sockets, or the lamps. It takes a few tries and he gets so mad at being punished. He doesn't like being told what he can't do. He also gets spanked when he's trying to get away while I'm changing his diaper. That stops him after the spank.
He loves strumming the guitar, we've taught him not to grab the strings, so he's figured out that it makes better sound with the strumming. He's not too bad at it.

8 and a half months

James is drinking goats milk, has been for awhile. He eats like a pig, and loves saltine crackers. He's started enjoying bites of my dinners as well. His first check up was a few days ago, where he measure an 18 inch head, 28 inches long, 19 pounds. He was only army-crawling then, but right after that he started crawling on all fours a bit.
He is pulling himself up on stuff and walking around it all by himself, which leads to falling on his head.
He's taken some dives off the couch, the last time he did face plant on a key-board cord, and got a black eye.
I think the only time he sits still in when he's eating or sleeping.
He sleeps mostly in his own bed, at the moment in the living room cause his room gets too hot during the day and doesn't cool off till really late.
He drinks water from a water bottle, loves drinking from cups, and enjoys swimming on hot days. Somewhat. He makes swimming motions when I put him in the water and gasp for breath cause the water is cold, and I take him out and he starts laughing. He loves trying to grab the water.

We moved James out of the room last night. He was not a happy baby about this. He fell asleep for a couple of hours at a time, but we didn't give in when he would wake up crying. I felt bad when he was crying normal, but as with all children, I no longer pity them when they start to scream. I didn't think it would happen with James, but it did. I did not feel sorry for him because he became a demanding brat. I am relieved by this fact. I will not spoil brats.
Of course, I was awake a lot of last night, too. Even when he would fall to sleep, I was worried that maybe he had put his face into the bed and was smothering himself, or his sleeper was wrapping around his neck and choking him. I resisted every temptation to check on him except one, at 3, after he had fallen back to sleep. He was sleeping on his belly and I resisted the urge to turn him over. But he was fine.
Finally he woke up at 5:30, crying a little,and i went and got him to feed him. He has never gone all night without nursing. I put him to bed with us and fed him, and you could hear the emptiness filling up. He seemed so happy to be in bed with us, he just stared at me. I asked Jason to change his diaper while I nursed him, and he couldn't get enough of watching dad. When dad left the room, he would strain to watch the door over me. He finally fell asleep at about 6, and stopped nursing on his own then.
He just now woke up, it's 9. So ep. That was poor Jamesy's all alone night.

No?!

James told me no today. Twice. Just so I didn't think I heard something that wasn't there. I was trying to stuff him full of oatmeal and he started getting disinterested. When I tried to put the sppon in his mouth again he looked at me and said "no." like a little moan. I waited a moment and tried again and he did the same exact thing.
And the other day I told him "I love you" and hugged him and he said it back! Okay, not so notable words, but the rise and fall of his mumblings were the exact copy of my "I love you." I tried not to think anything of it, but Jason was sitting a few feet away and turned around with the biggest open-mouthed smile I have ever seen him make. LOL! So I am not making things up that aren't there, I didn't say anything for a few minutes and decided to ask Jason if that's what it really sounded like.
He's been giving a lot of hugs lately, it's really cute.
He says dadada and Mamama. And if he wants something he opens and closes his hand really fast at the person or object. I would say he was waving, but I've seen him do it to objects he is scooting for.
He still hasn't been sleeping good. He's fall asleep for a solid hour or two, and then start nursing all night. I've been trying to keep him in his bed at night, but he doesn't want to stay there at all, and I want to sleep.
He's also been having tantrums. When he gets mad cause I'm putting him down, he throws himself backwards and screams. I've give him a little slap on the leg and tell him no, then ignore him until his crying gets into normal crying and not screaming. He didn't get hurt, but it surprises him and he get's the point that I'm not playing. It probably has to do with that slap and yelp I gave the other day when he bit me really hard. He hasn't bit so hard since, and he doesn't do it often.
He gets really cranky until we leave the house, so I think the house is really starting to bore him. He loves being around people unless he's tired. He likes his grandma's and his grandpa, and his aunts and uncles and cousins. I think Sarah left a pretty big impact on him, cause when he sees her he starts moving toward her and wanting to face her and play with her.
It's funny to watch a baby try and go to play with big kids who can run around. He loves being around other kids. He's a really social baby.
Iwonder what this next baby is going to be like. I didn't think a personality would show up so vividly already. When he was first born I couldn't see one really, cause he just liked to sleep, of course. He never liked being alone, I guess. That's a hint.

EW!

Okay, so I left James on his blankets (about 8 feet wide worth of blankets) in the living room, to go make him a bottle. I came back to see no James on the blankets. He ended up being in the doorway of my room, and facing away from me, quite content. I picked him up, lo and behold! A rawhide beef chew bone, much used by dog, being enjoyed by baby James! EW!
Right now, my baby is trying to make his way over to me and getting frustrated with everything in the way (climbing over pillows, and the diaper bag). Poor baby. I'm trying to get him to crawl, but now I'm not so sure. With this scooting/army crawling he's already getting his mouth on some nasty chew bones. Man, time to start regulating the dog toys.
It was so sad, earlier. I felt really bad. He was nursing and gave me a nasty bite, the hardest he's ever bitten me, and I reacted by slapping his little face without thinking. It wasn't hard, but it startled him. He stopped crying when I hugged him. Of course, I had yelled at the same time, and usually when I yell at him for biting, he just laughs at me. But the next time he bit me, I didn't react except by yelling and frowning at him. He stared at me like he wasn't sure if that was a good thing like he used to think. I feel bad, but I hope that little slap got him thinking that my yelling doesn't mean play time.

Went to the beach and a new discovery yesterday

We went to the beach with family this last weekend. James didn't like the beach. He would try to grab the sand and i think he would get frustrated cause he wanted to put it in his mouth but the sand would fall out of his fingers before he could.
He absolutely adored Danica, his 3 year old cousin. I waned to get a picture of them together, but I didn't. It's almost weird how similar they look. I think it's the brown eyes, long eye lashes, and nose. Danica is way darker than James.
It's funny how both these kids have brown eyes. Danica's mom has blue eyes, Daniel has hazel. I have blue/gray/green eyes and Jason has hazel.
And then yesterday, i had James naked for about 45 minutes to take a break from the diaper gook, and I looked down at one point and James has discovered a very interesting piece of body. His poor peepee must hurt cause he looked like he was trying to tear his stuff off! LOL! It was funny to watch him figure out that it was attached to him.

Some more pictures.

Okay from top to bottom: Pepper trying to push James out of the boppy pillow so she can sleep in it behind him. # 2 Pic is James trying to get his mirror, so he was using a swimmer's stroke to get there. #3 Uncle Tommy and James hanging out, having a drink. #4 I don't know how I got this picture, cause I thought when I took it both his eyes were wide open. #5 is James enjoying his diaper.
PS, to all who don't know, that red spot is not a bruise or a bite or something bad. It's his birthmark. A weird, kind of unattractive birth mark that should go away as he get's older (after it gets bigger).