One Year Old Stats

Mister J went to the Doc today.

31" tall = 90th percentile
25.2 lbs = 80th percentile

Three shots, fewer than three seconds of crying.

He was pronounced happy and healthy. And brilliant. And compassionate. And handsome. And loving. And interesting. And interested. And willing. And able.

On the standard checklist, we could check off MOST boxes. He can stand assisted (he can stand unassisted, in fact). He can pull himself up to standing. He can say three meaningful words and/or phrases. (I don't know how meaningful "uh-oh" is when it's not used in context, but I'm counting it.) He can pincher grab with his thumb and finger. The only box we could NOT check off was pointing at people and/or objects, but I don't think we've ever asked him to do that. It's not polite, you know. It's not Southern. What if we teach him to say y'all and ma'am and to wave when people let him cut in traffic -- can we substitute those skills?

Dr. Geoff asked how the breastfeeding was going. Sigh. I gave him the "HOA don't allow no chickin in ma yard" line and explained that we had already transitioned to milk. It's (self-imposed) high pressure to be an Austin Mama sometimes. We shop at the farmer's market and expose our children to live music and cook with a heck of a lotta cilantro. We're a long way from gathering or own eggs (damn HOA), drinking goat's milk, and breastfeeding until kindergarten, but I think the kids are going to turn out just fine. Look at his percentiles, people -- already an A/B student. :)

And Then He Was One

June 14, 2009
Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby Jameson.


Happy Baptism Day.

And, yes, Happy Flag Day, too.

When we realized that Jameson's first birthday was going to fall on a Sunday, we thought it would be a perfect day for another kind of birthday -- his baptism. I had warned the Suganahoes and the Stephenses that I was going to pull them up on stage with us as his Austin family -- the Methodist version of godparents -- and that they would all be touching him during the baptism. Then Pastor Lynn Barton called up the ENTIRE congregation to surround Jameson, and it ended up being this gigantic mob of hands and laughter and Jameson grinning and splashing. Wonderful. Frank and Brent sang "Listen to Our Hearts" -- one of the songs we had during our wedding. Another wonderful moment.

Then we headed home and filled up the balloons, filled up the table with goodies (candy apple licorice, chocolate-covered cherry sour balls, and okra chips were the favorites), filled up the new kiddie pool, and filled up a pitcher with boxed wine and orangina (tinto de verano -- beach sangria) for our party guests. The house was all abuzz for a few hours, then it was just us Websters, all tuckered out.

Check out the PHOTO PAGE of JAMESON'S DOUBLE DIP BIRTHDAY.

The Many Faces of Jameson

My beautiful, blue-eyed boy:

Adventurous: Jameson has been motoring around by holding on to walls and coffee tables. Here he is playing with some "big kids" on a playscape bridge.

Anxious: yee-ikes...I'm up pretty high, you guys.

Elated: Woo-hoo! I'm the king of the world!

Coy: No, thank you, miss. I think I'll skip the nap and keep on playing right here.

Mayfest

Slide, slide, slippity slide...

Summer, Here We Come!

The end of the school year was super hectic, as always, so I'm behind on my posting. Sophie had a grand end-of-year celebration at her Montessori school. Her class song was Bob Marley's "Don't Worry About a Thing" and she ended up singing it to my sixty tenth graders when she came as a guest lecturer to Austin High. (Did I mention? Her school ended the week before our school ended? Arrrggghh!)
Here she is with some Primavera pals:

Sophie, Rhea, Arden, and Berkeley

She ran calling Wiiiiilllldddfire!


Gypsy Girl (Rhea's birthday party makeover)


Last Day of School -- with Emilia (from Guacamala)

Taking pictures with her own disposable camera (lots of shoes and grass):

Sophie's Guides: Marianne and Rachel

Annie Get Your Wig

Annie update: Sophie loved the play. There was a real dog on stage. And Molly was the cutest (as always). I thought Sophie would be disappointed that Annie had flat, red hair instead of the traditional curls, but then it occurred to me that Sophie had zero expectations. In the final act, though, Annie came out on stage wearing a curly wig (she was "gussied up" for the adoption party). Sophie asked me if she was wearing a hat. I told her it was curly hair -- Annie was fancy! Sophie whispered in my ear that she was gonna go tell Annie to take that curly hair off, and got down off my lap. I grabbed her in time. She's been singing "Tomorrow" in the bathtub, and every single time it reminds me of the time my Gram took us all to see the Annie movie.

All the World's a Stage

We're about to go see Annie -- Sophie might be a little young for this, but I'm going to give it a try. I was just explaining what a musical is like.

Sophie: Will I be singing and dancing?
Me: Well, no. We'll be in the audience watching. It's like going to a movie but the people up front are real.
Sophie: Is I a real person?
Me: Yes. You're real.
Sophie: Then I'm going to sing, too.

And she probably will. She has actually been to a play before (a high school musical version of High School Musical), and every time a character on stage screamed, Sophie screamed back. She also went to a high school version of the jungle book, and some of my students took her on stage to dance at the end of the play. She has high expectations of being involved.

I'll let you know if she takes the stage by storm.

Ditchdirt Beachtrip 2009

More fun photos: http://www.frankandstacy.net/photos/ditchbeach2009/

Fumbelina

Sophie was talking to me about her fumb today. She has a boo-boo.
"Oh, no...does your thumb hurt?"
"No, my fumb."
"Go like this...thhhh" (and I make my tongue do the th thing).
"Thfumb. Thfumb. Thfumb."
"Good, but don't put your teeth on your lip, just put your tongue between your teeth. Th. th. th."
"Thfumb. Thfumb. You say it your way and I'll say it my way."
"That's cool...I was just trying to show you the th sound so you can say things like Thumper and Thunder and Thumbelina and Thistle!"
"And whistle?"
"Sure."
"And pine tree. And piss."

I have no comeback for that one.

My Little Garden Gnome

Look what I found in our front yard...

Happy Mother's Day

Sophie created a Mother's Day book for me at school. Here's what she dictated to her teachers:

My mom always plays with me on the playground.
My mom looks pretty when she wears lipstick.
When it's nighttime, my mom goes to the bookstore.
My mom goes to H.E.B. and buys enchiladas.
My mom works with her kids in her class at Austin High.

Sweetest book I've ever seen. And I spend every night at the bookstore, you know. (?!?)

Happy Mother's Day!

Things She Says

She's babbling in Spanish lately. It goes something like this: Comomos eestos sunsuelos? Mimos buenos? Sometimes she answers you this way when you have just asked her a question. It can be pretty cute or pretty annoying, given the other circumstances of the day. The other day a flustered Frank told her, "Sophie, you're not even saying anything in Spanish!" She put her hands on her hips, glared at him, and hissed, "seis."

Her English vocabulary is flourishing, and it's fun to listen to her progression with grammar. We hear a lot of double presentations with past tense these days: "He waveded at me!" When we try to casually "correct" with a question, "Oh yeah? Spongebob waved at you?" she looks at us like we're senile: "Yes! I just told you that he waveded at me!"

She brings homes little expressions from school, of course. Like, she says "for real life?" instead of "really?" Now that I think about it, for the OTHER use of "really" she typically says "very." We might hear: "I very like ketchup. For real life!" Other things she MUST have picked up from school: "I need my space," "na na na na boo boo," and "doo doo." I really hate the word "doo doo." I prefer poop. As a word, anyway.

She still says "actually" all the time. Ackshly, ackshly, ackshly. Got that one from me.

And what does HE say? Jameson delivers amazing monologues in gobbledygook. We have been able to discern the words, "Light," "mamamamamama," and one very clear "uh oh" right after a crashing noise in the kitchen.

Hard-boiled, plastic, and snake

Torrential downpour on Easter morning subsided, and the blazing sun came out in time for our easter egg hunt last weekend. Jameson looked so collegiate in his little sweater vest...I could hardly keep from biting him every time I saw him:

When the "bunny" hid the eggs, he found an Eassssster vissssitor:

I would have screamed my fool head off if a snake wriggled out of the monkey grass right in front of me, but my husband picked him up and gave him a tickle:

Speaking of eggs, here are a couple o' good ones:

Classy Easter shot. Some Websters wrangle snakes; others wrangle babies:

Triple Fiesta Saturday

Two birthday parties and an egg dying party. No naps (for Thing 1, anyway...Thing 2 still naps whenever the car is running so he dozed between events.)

Jameson was super excited to try the slide at Party #1:

Hurry up, Sis! I need a co-pilot!

On to Party #2: bouncy castle and a girl jumping out of a cake. Okay, a Barbie jumping out of a cake.

His hair is fading to blonde, but it does look a little on the RED side, here:

Mother and Child:

On to Party #3: Coloring Easter Eggs at Pie's house. Has Sophie selected the perfect color for a hard-boiled or the perfect shade for the Stephenses' dining room?


This one is called, "Little Girls and Eggs...Big Girls and Beets."

Eggcelent!

Ugh

Quick note for the record. I'm going on a four night field trip starting tomorrow. I know that Sophie is old enough that she does not always need me around (especially if she's got her dad around). And I know that Jameson is too young to remember that I abandoned him for three days and four nights. But I am experiencing an involuntary irrational physiological reaction. Cannot breathe.