New Year's in Floral Park 2012 --> 2013

Last year was our first New Years Eve as parents and we were still determined to party like rockstars. That was all fine and well, the problem came when our New Years Eve party disbanded during the dreaded 2.5 hour gap in the Long Island Railroad schedule. This meant we had to sit at Penn Station for 2.5 hours on possibly the worst night of the year to do so. The entire place was one long drunken bathroom line. We got home around 4 a.m. just about an hour before James usually woke up for the day. He woke up early that morning.

So this year, when I suggested doing it all over again (what?) Kevin suggested an alternate plan. His plan was this: nothing. Let's do nothing! We took James to the park in the afternoon, had an extravagant sushi takeout dinner which resulted in me being too full to even drink a little champagne, we watched old episodes of Homeland (los blancos amor Homeland-- y los Latinos tambien). So we had a nice little New Years Eve, but I'm gearing up to party like a rockstar again next year.

Trying to lure James in to my timer picture

Picture attack!

Back to the business of the playground

Happy New Year! May your year be full of good health, good cheer, and lots of hugs!

James is 20-Month-Old Chatterbox 2012

James is 20 months old! We're getting so close to his second birthday!

Building a pillow fort, December 4

His vocabulary has exploded in the last month. He understands a ton of stuff in both English and Spanish. He says over 40 words now, mostly English. I'm going to lose track pretty soon, but here's a run down of the things he says regularly:

Things he loves:
1. light 2. a Mama 3. a Dada 4. tete (Spanish for pacifier)  5. a ball 6. a book

Food he loves:
7. milk (he also says this when he's hungry so this is helpful, rarely he says leche) 8. juice / jugo (He says both the English and the Spanish) 9. a coo (a cookie) 10. yogur (Spanish for yogurt)  11. apple 12. nana (banana) 13. agua (Spanish for water) 14. a cah (a cracker)

Animals:
15. a cat (also makes the cat noise meow) 16. a dog (also makes the dog noise woof) 17. a whale (there's one on his nursery wall) 18. a cow 19. sheep (also makes the sheep noise bah) 20. duck 21. chick 22. a mon (monkey) 23. pig (and pig noise oink/uck?) 

Other:
24. go! (when he wants us to play tag) 25. up (to pick him up) 26. "ow" (when he wants me to kiss his booboo)  27. hi!  28. bye!  29. eye/ojo (Spanish for eye) 30. nariz (Spanish for nose) 31. pelo (Spanish for hair) 32. choo-choo/ train 33. a door 34. a wall 35. a shoe 36. a car 37. a tree (Christmas tree) 38. a star (on Christmas tree) 39. baby  40. a T (Tigger from Winnie the Poo) 41. Oh tools! (from Mickey Mouse Club) 42. cache[te] (Spanish for cheek) 43. Santa 44. please (but he think this is the word he says to obtain yogurt bites) 45. touch (from us constantly yelling, "NO TOUCH."

James is the strangest kid. He hates car rides. He loves vegetables and routinely eats all of them at dinner before touching anything else. He also loves brushing his teeth. He'll ask for his toothbrush and refuse to relinquish it for hours sometimes. I think it's fair to say he takes after my dad in these things. Right?

Christmas jammies and Christmas tree, December 7

He seems to have gotten a little bigger because he's more comfortable in 2T pajamas now than the 18 month ones, but when I measure him I still get 34 inches. James loves the Mickey Mouse Club, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Blues Clues. He loves to nab things he's not supposed to touch. Kevin takes him to the park most days and he wanders around picking up leaves and sticks.

Bouncing on the bridge at the park

How he goes down the slide

To celebrate his 20-month birthday we took James to meet Santa for the first time. James sat there saying, "Santa. Santa. Santa." No one is surprised that Santa said he would be getting coal in his stocking.

James and Santa