James Coyne: Toddler Soprano, Human Tuning Fork

First my deepest apologies for the delay in posting. We have purchased a new computer and we are still figuring it out. Ah.... technology!

So, without further ado, here is our son, the soprano, singing Baa Baa Black Sheep (in the highest note humanly possible) until he is distracted by, in fact, a white sheep. 

My favorite part is how it seems like he is actually warming up at the beginning. Perhaps looking for just the right pitch....

Turn up the volume, but do not play this near any windows.

The "Building" Zone

This is from a recent trip to the National Building Museum. They have a big room for little builders with all kinds of blocks and construction items. Giant foam blocks, small wooden blocks, big toddler size legos, etc. They even have a playhouse that shows the inner workings of house plumbing. James did not build one thing while we were there. 

He drove dump trucks from one side of the room to another narrowly missing adult ankles and small babies and then he found this. This is SUPPOSED to be the apex of a tower, the roof of a house, etc. For James, it was a truck and apparently "hard to carry."

Here's the translation:

"It's hard to carry." He says this about 6 times. He even tells himself that it's hard to carry when he sees himself in the mirror.

"OK, this is the perfect spot."

"I'm going to ride the truck."

Perhaps realizing that there are no wheels: "Is this a truck?"

Also at the building museum... a wedding. This was so funny to me that I had to take a picture. They were setting this up while we were there and I love the idea of this poor couple having to stop at the information booth on their way down the aisle.

Nice Sunday

Let me say at the very beginning of this post... it really was a nice Sunday. The weather was beautiful. After a walk down to Starbucks ; ) we put James in the car, fished a map of Virginia out of the glove box and hit the road. We decided to drive about an hour west to Front Royal, VA. I had heard that it was "mountain-y" and we are very excited for Fall to begin so that sounded great. 10 minutes into our drive, James fell asleep... FOR AN HOUR. See? It's sounding nice already! Very unusual nap time for him, but who are we to turn down a silent toddler?

As we cruise into Front Royal, we pass something called "The Apple House" which promises, "Breakfast, BBQ, Doughnuts, Crocs and Vera Bradley bags." Hmmm. There are also several signs for the "Skyline Caverns." What luck! James has never seen a cavern - what do we have to lose? It turns out.... we stand to lose the blood flow to our extremities. The caverns are kept at a cool 54 degrees and we are dressed in shorts, t-shirts, flip flops so this is a "no-go." Note to self: stock the car with clothes for every season for every member of the family.

Luckily, the Skyline Caverns also feature a miniature train! Are you kidding me? Purrrr-fect! No one loves a miniature train more than James. We were already strategizing buying several tickets in anticipation of "again? again?" cries from James. Alas, the train was "down for the day."

No problem - the Skyline Caverns also feature an "Enchanted Dragon Mirror Maze" where you walk around a room of funhouse mirrors looking for the dragon's egg. I assure you James has never seen a mirror maze and we knew he would love staring at himself in every one. He does it at home in our regular mirrors all the time so this would be quite a treat!  You guessed it - closed.

So we settled on this:

Here is sweet flexible James posing with a dinosaur that seems a bit out of place in between the entrance to the caverns and the broken down train. It's important to note that in our family, this dinosaur is called, "the-statue-dinosaur-and-it's-not-scary." All one word and in one breath please.

Do not despair. There is light at the end of the tunnel. The Apple House. On the way out of town, we stopped at this delightful place where they do, in fact, serve food AND sell Crocs, Vera Bradley bags and candles. My breakfast was 2 large buttermilk pancakes, 2 eggs, 4 strips of bacon, giant homefries, 2 slices toast, and 2 homemade - fried right before your eyes - doughnuts. Total cost= $6. Seriously. James ate next to nothing, Brian had a BBQ sandwich and my belly looked like I ate an Applehouse FOR breakfast. 

Happy happy lovely Sunday.

I Have Witnesses

There were witnesses in the room that will back me up on this. In the middle of playing with Uncle Kevin and building something with legos, James stopped and did this TWICE on the carpet. If you need a translation, he is saying, "I'm doing gymnastics!" 

We have serious Olympic fever around here and clearly James needs to work on his "level of difficulty" score.

The Proof is in the Pictures

First I would like to say "thanks" for all the kind words that have been pouring in.... "you hardly look pregnant!" "You don't look pg at all!" and my personal favorite from our new (and fabulous) babysitter, "You don't look pregnant at all. It just looks like you ate a big burrito for lunch." Seriously. She said that.

BUT, clearly you are all lying (except the babysitter). The proof is in the pictures. Here I am at 21 weeks pregnant with James:

And here I am at 17 weeks pregnant with what is obviously the biggest baby ever. Please note the use of the exact same pair of black pants for a true comparison:

All that being said, I am feeling great and I think the exhaustion is behind me. But please, no more comparisons to the size of my belly and what I might have eaten for lunch...

Already Uncooperative

Here he/she is and our future is looking ominous. This baby would not turn for the "camera" for 20 minutes! It's obviously a girl and I think her teen years might kill us. You are looking at the back of a head and a back.

James, of course, was turning and posing at 12 weeks in the womb and hasn't stopped since.

Happy Olympics to You!

Sorry for the lack of posting, but we are in full-blown 24/7 Olympic watch! Brian enjoys the Olympics but I L.O.V.E. them! I made fortune cookies for opening night and chinese food for dinner. Team Coyne has a dining strategy for the rest of the Olympics - we pick an event each night and whatever country wins... we eat their food the next night. Of course, we chose the men's 4 x 100 relay on Sunday so last night, we had an all-american meal, but stay tuned for my efforts in the kitchen with Korean, Lithuanian, Ethiopian, etc.

James is getting in on the act too. Given our recent Sanibel posts, you may think he could be a future swimmer, OR given the fact that he only seems able to RUN from location to location, perhaps a future in track & field... WRONG! Rhythmic Gymnastics, people.... Rhythmic Gymnastics. I can only hope that the Olympic Committee will accept motorcycle pajamas as the official uniform... (FYI, he is saying 'Perfect Ten! at the beginning of the video)

A Warped Sense of Reality

It is completely my fault that James thinks these things. He cannot help but make these observations based on our errand-running in between trips to museums, parks, and other kiddo activities.

Last week we saw a big fire truck. The mac-daddy of all fire trucks: two drivers.

James: Where is the fire truck going mommy?

Me: Maybe a fire. Do you think he's going to a fire?

James: No, he's going to Starbucks.

I signed up James for a tumbling/gym type thing (like Gymboree) and I talked about it for days. The morning of the first class:

Me: Guess where we're going today!

James: (arms raised up in celebration) TJ Maxx!

James helps us take out the trash on Sundays. We give him one item to carry to the curb. One evening it was a pizza box.

Me: Are you the pizza man?

James: No, I'm James.

After changing his diaper one morning.

James: Thanks Mommy, you're good helper.

Last Saturday as we left Starbucks:

James: Bye everybody! Bye Starbucks! See you tomorrow!

For the record, we do NOT go to Starbucks every day, but it is about two blocks from our house, they do know James by name, and he can identify Starbucks from the green sign.

Baby Weight

Well, you can stop feeling so guilty about reading this blog and thinking, "wow, Steph looks like she's put on a few..." because you're right. I have. 

It's baby weight. 

No, no, not the kind you try to lose, the kind you try to gain. 

That's right, in late January (or late February knowing how things go around here), James will be a big brother... to someone. Much to the dismay of several close friends and relatives - we're not finding out the sex of the baby.

In related news, the four-story townhouse is starting to feel like it might have been a bad idea...