Archive for August, 2006

James has been acting a little strange today, so I took his temperature tonight and he has a 102 degree fever. He hasn't really acted like he felt bad but has been kind of lethargic and, the definite indicator of illness, very sweet and loving. For some reason, when James gets sick, his manners are perfect and he likes to snuggle. At lunch today, he kept crawling up into Jay's lap and hugging him. Tonight, I left him on the couch watching a Blue's Clues movie for a few minutes. When we walked in the room later, the movie had gone off and James was just lying on the couch staring at the DVD menu on the television:

• JAY: How do you feel, James? Are you okay?

• JAMES: [not moving] I feel a little bit sad.

• JAY: Aw… what's wrong?

• JAMES: [still lying in the same place on the couch] I wanted to watch some more T.V., but I didn't have the remote.

• JAY: Oh, okay. Do you want me to start this one again?

• LAUREN: Or do you want me to start a different one?

• JAMES: [sits up and beams at Mama] Oh, I think that would be a great idea! Thank you!

Our 6th(!) anniversary was last Saturday, so we dropped the kids off at my family's house and took off for our first night without the kids since before Eliza was born. It was great to get to spend time alone together! We went out to dinner, then drove to Hot Springs and spent the night at the historic Arlington Hotel. Jay got a package deal that included a buffet breakfast and tickets to the Magic Springs/Crystal Falls theme park. We had a wonderful time riding rides and playing at the water park, even if most of our time was spent waiting in line! It was good to get away.

Eliza no longer crawls anymore—she is a true toddler! She is so busy that I spend most of my day just following her around. She is learning new words, but she also loves to blabber long "sentences". She is quite a character with a strong personality, and she's not afraid to tell you what she thinks!

James is doing well, and is learning to associate sounds with letters. He loves rhyming words and finding words that start with the same letter. I think we have finally won the battle over potty training. He is in "big boy" underwear now and hasn't had an accident in a while. We are working on not yelling, "I need to go pee-pee!" at the top of his lungs every time he has to go. He is still protective of Eliza. I had to take her to get blood drawn the other day for the shot study we are in, and I took James with me. I warned him that they had to hold her and she was going to cry, because I didn't want him to get hysterical. He was calm during the procedure, but he did try to talk to the nurses as they held a screaming Eliza on the table: "Excuse me, excuse me! She doesn't like that."