James Update

Most of the action this month revolved around James. He turned 2 on November 8th and we had his birthday party the following weekend. It seems like James is interested in anything that “go-go-goes”... cars, trucks, helicopters, planes, boats, buses, you name it. Ever since visiting his cousin Anders a year ago, James has been especially crazy about choo-choo trains. So, he had a Thomas-themed birthday party, complete with a cool cake made by his very creative papa. We invited over 4 families (6 kids) that we really like and everyone had a great time.


If you haven’t noticed by now, James’ nickname has evolved from “Buster” to “Goose”. Em still calls him James and Buster (on occasion), but Jay has been calling him “Goose” or “Goosie” since he was a few months old. (He says it’s because James said “ah-goo” a lot.) Anyway, James has picked up on his father’s silly nickname for him and (for a few months now) has referred to himself as Goose. Fortunately, it seems that he recognizes/responds to his given name as well.



Goose is talking up a storm these days. He often speaks in sentences, but some of his words are still unclear. We never thought we would have trouble distinguishing between “airplane”, “McQueen”, “ice cream”, and “elephant”. It’s a good thing that James can sign these words as well, so at least we know what he’s talking about. “Better”, “butter”, and “brother” also sound similar… we find it difficult not to laugh when Goose announces he is “All butter!” The other day, he started saying “Awww, man!” Our best guess is that he must have heard this exclamation from one of his parents. It’s funny what kids pick up on, isn’t it? Goosie has taken to calling Emily “mommy-kah”… Who knows where that came from? (Could it possibly be related to the fact that his best friend’s mother’s name is Rebecca?)

In addition to learning lots of other things, James has been trying to figure out exactly what is fuzzy (Thomas pajamas, papa’s head) and what is not (mama’s silky pajamas). He is also learning to determine who is a man and who is a lady. This discussion arose from his 2-year-old check-up after which Goose told Jay that he was “afraid of the man”. His pediatrician is a woman. Oops!