22 Months (just a little late).

Brian was talking to him on speaker phone : )

I vowed to take a "sign" picture every month until JJ turned 2 and have been good at remembering to do it, this month it was just a little late : ) He doesn't look very different every month now, so it's a little hard to keep up these last few months.

JJ just keeps talking more and more. He's been putting together more "sentences" lately, so it's been fun. Yesterday we were sitting playing with Play-Doh and I sneezed and JJ just nonchalantly said "bless you mommy." It was the first time he'd said it and it made me smile : )

JJ's new obsession is stickers. The funny thing is that he hardly never puts them on the paper. The majority of the time he puts them on me and sometimes himself. He does get a little crazy with them and doesn't want to stop, but I eventually have to stop it.

Disneyland, Day Two!

The second day of Disneyland was also lots of fun. We got there right about 8 am right after the gates had opened, so we were able to go on some great rides really early before there were huge lines (Finding Nemo Submarine, Buzz Lightyear, Dumbo, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Winnie the Pooh). During the Submarine ride, there is a really dark and scary part which JJ did not enjoy. He kept saying "I want home, I want home." It was sad, but luckily that part didn't last very long.

I think JJ's favorite ride of the weekend was Dumbo. He probably would have rode it over and over, but by the time we got quickly through the line, the line was really long so we only went on it once. The funniest thing was that Brian was in the elephant in front of JJ and I and whenever he would "fly" down when we were up, JJ would scream, "no daddy, no daddy, I want daddy!" It was pretty funny!

After the rides we got to meet a few characters including Minnie Mouse who JJ was enthralled with. I think he has a crush on her : )

After all the morning fun, we were walking through the park with JJ in his new "mouse hat" (as JJ calls it) and the next thing we noticed was that the hat was slouching a little in the stroller and sure enough, JJ was sound asleep! Apparently he decided that 2 days of Disneyland was enough!

Brian and I walked around for awhile until JJ woke up and some of our friends came to meet us for lunch in Downtown Disney before heading home. JJ was a little crazy at lunch, at one point he shoved his milk glass at Brian and it spilled all over (Brian kind of deserved it though because he was teasing him!). It was very evident that he'd had a fun filled and slightly overwhelming weekend and he was ready to go home. We had a great weekend and JJ did better than I had expected. Don't tell JJ, but we have 3 day passes, so we will be able to go one more day before December!

Disneyland, Day One!

Waiting in line patiently for his first ride : )

Afternoon nap!

Picking his car. . .

Picking his rims. . .

"Helping" Brian put the car together. . .

The finished product!

We went to Disneyland this past weekend and had a great time! We stayed in a hotel Saturday night so that we didn't have to be super rushed and get everything done in one day.

The first day we did a few rides at Disneyland first. JJ seemed to enjoy the rides and was mainly looking around and observing everything. We had been telling him we would meet Mickey Mouse, but weren't really sure if we were going to. Normally there is a huge line and we did not want to wait in line, but we ended up being amazingly lucky! We went to ToonTown in the afternoon and when we walked into Mickey's house, there weren't very many people in there, although the wait said it was 60 minutes to see Mickey. I came to the conclusion that he must be taking his lunch break, which I was right about. So as we walked through the house, we knew that we wouldn't see him, but JJ still had fun walking around. When we were about to leave though, all of a sudden we ended up in a very short line right at the end of the house and as it turned out. . . Mickey had just come back from his lunch break! We ended up only having to wait about 5 minutes, which was perfect! When we met him, JJ just kept pointing at him and then looking at us and saying "mouse, mouse, I see mouse." It was really cute.

After walking around crowded and hot Disneyland for a few hours, we headed over to California Adventure which is never as crowded. We got to take a picture with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater there, which caused one of the few fits that JJ threw during the day. He wanted to stay and play with the cars, not just take a picture and then keep walking. I kind of felt bad because he was sooo excited to see them, then we had to just get out of the way for the next family, which JJ didn't understand. We did a few rides there and eventually JJ fell asleep in his stroller, which gave me the opportunity to go on one of my favorite rides ever, Soaring Over California : ) Thanks to Brian for watching sleeping JJ while I went on the ride : )

When JJ woke up from his nap, Brian and I were enjoying nice cold "adult drinks" at a restaurant in Downtown Disney. We didn't notice that the restaurant was located directly in front of JJ's dream store, a "build it yourself" car store! It was just like Build-A-Bear, but with cars! JJ chose Sally (from Cars) and gave her some nice stock tires and fancy rims. He did not choose the $25 upgrade to make it a remote control car, well, we didn't choose that!

After the parks, we went back to our hotel and went in the pool and hot tub for a little while before dinner and bed. JJ loves being in the water now and had a great time playing around in the hot tub, even though the whole time he was in there he kept saying "too hot, too hot, too hot" (the temperature was about that of a nice warm bath). When we would ask him if he wanted to get out though, he would say no.

After a great and long day, we had dinner and went to sleep. More about day two to follow. . .

JJ and Avery.

Going in for the kiss : )

JJ and I went over to his girlfriend Avery's house on Wednesday when Brian was on duty and had a very nice time. The kids play together pretty well and JJ was actually showing off his sharing skills pretty well since it was Avery's toys that he wanted to share. Avery and her family are moving next month, which we're really sad about, so we're trying to see them as much as possible before they go. The cutest thing they did while we were there was when they were playing on the couch and JJ's foot accidentally made contact with Avery's cheek (it really was a complete accident), but JJ said "sorry" and gave her a kiss! Soooo cute!

Just JJ being JJ.

This was only the second time that he'd seen Ice Road Truckers, but he remembered the name of the show!

JJ talks more and more all the time. Tonight, we were playing and he threw a book at my head. I said, "JJ, we don't throw books. You hurt Mommy." JJ responded with, "I funny, I funny, hahahahaha!!!" I do not think that that's funny!!!

Warning - semi-inappropriate story to follow -

In case you've ever had a baby/toddler, you know that it's "standard practice" to ask a toddler, "did you poop?" and then check his pants, and we are no different. We'll say, "JJ, did you poop?" and most of the time he'll answer honestly! He has been pretty inappropriately funny lately though. The other day, Brian farted and JJ laughed and said, "Daddy pooped!" Then yesterday, JJ was stinky and we asked him if he pooped, he said "no, Mommy pooped" and then ran up behind me and pulled my pants down to "check"!!!! He definitely is comprehending and remembering what we do!

Brian's on duty tonight and I HATE it! I know that he was gone for more than 6 months, so one night shouldn't be bad, but it's really annoying! Every 5 or 6 days has been torture for me. JJ asked like 10 times today where Daddy was and then when he heard the neighbor come home he got excited and yelled "Daddy." Then tonight, he would not go to sleep. By 8:31 pm, I'd already had to go back upstairs 5 times when normally I never have to go back up. He just cries and wants out of his crib and cries, "I see Daddy." Which really breaks my heart because I have to say, no, he's at work and then he just cries and cries even more : ( I really can't wait until December when Brian is off the ship and these stupid duty days are over. Sorry for the random venting.

Nothing New.

Not much has been going on in the San Diego Harris Household. We went up to LA this past weekend, which is always fun with the boys playing and yelling and crying. JJ is talking sooo much these days and Krista says he's at that point where Brian and I can now understand almost everything he says, but most other people can't! He doesn't "finish" most of his words, which seems to be most of the problem, but this past week he has started with a couple. . . "bus" is now a very distinctive "bussss" and "ouch" is now a very distinctive "ouccchhhhh." It's funny the words that he thinks are important!

He's also started to put more words together in "almost" sentences. Yesterday when we were driving home, the moon was out and I said, "look JJ, there's the moon." He then said, "moon, mooonnn, moonn, see moon, see moonnn, I see moonnn." The language skills are definitely developing : )

We've let him pick out his own books to read before bed now and it's really funny to watch him decide what he wants. One of these nights I'll have to tape it. He goes up to his bookshelf and will pull out a book, look at it, then shake his head and say no and shove the book back in. He'll do this until he finds the "perfect" book, which sometimes takes awhile! It's always funny what he chooses; most nights he'll choose Pat the Bunny and some random animal books like That's Not My Penguin, but hardly ever an actual bedtime specific book. Apparently reading the same bedtime books for the past 22 months has really been getting to him : )

Happy 4th of July!

I first just want to say thank you to my amazing husband for sacrificing time with his family to help keep this nation independent and free. I'm so proud of him, he is the best husband, father, and sailor : ) Brian, thanks for everything you do for our country.

So, now on to JJ : ) We went to a "family baby shower" yesterday which actually turned out to be pretty fun. There was BBQ, drinks, and a bounce house for the kids! JJ's friends were there, so he had a great time. We didn't have to play any games or really even talk about the baby at all!

Today was relaxing, we just hung out at home and JJ's girlfriend Avery and her parents came over for dinner. It's always fun to have them here even though the kids can get a little crazy. They were fine playing together for awhile but then JJ got into a serious "mine" phase. At one point Avery was playing with his new backhoe and JJ stole it away from her which made her upset. Luckily I saw the upcoming "consequence" and was able to intervene right as his arm was raising and he was about to hit her in the head with the truck! He then cried and hit me and she cried. Very dramatic : ) After awhile, they both calmed down and then played great together for the next few hours, running up and down the hall, sitting and "talking" in JJ's chairs, and harassing the poor cats.

JJ has been sleeping HORRIBLY again which is no fun for any of us. Yesterday after Brian put him down for a nap, he wasn't sleeping and Brian asked if I'd seen the cat, which I hadn't. Sure enough, about 1 minute later we heard JJ yelling, "out, out, out meow, out, meow out, out." Brian went up to his room and JJ was standing in his crib point and yelling at the cat to get out! JJ then cried and complained for about 20 minutes before finally taking a nap. Lately at night he just doesn't want to go to sleep and once he finally does he keeps waking up crying over and over again. Possible culprits include a new "2-year" molar, his really bad eczema on his legs, growth spurt, being a toddler, being JJ, torturing his parents. We may never know why he has sleep problems, but we keep praying that one day he'll figure out how to sleep.