Growing up - part 1

This post and the next one are specifically for those of you back home who are particularly interested in how James and David are changing, and who will enjoy hearing about mundane details in their little lives. So probably about three of you ;-) If your not interested, feel free to skip this one. It will probably include lots of shameless bragging, because I so proud of my little guys, it's kind of hard to contain it at times!

This post is dedicated to James, I promise to come back and talk about David in the next day or so. James is now 3 years and 10 months old. I can't believe how much he's changed in the last few months.  Some of his most recent accomplishments include:

Brushing his own teeth- A dentist came and visited James school about a month ago, and ever since he's been a total teeth brushing pro. He carefully scrubs every tooth, and even spits out the toothpaste and rinses afterwards!

Doing his own baths/showers- I still keep and eye on him in the bath, but he know how to run the water himself, wash himself, and get out and dry himself. It's so cute!

Sitting through 30+ minutes of a chapter book without pictures- not only can he do this, but he enjoys it. It's so fun to read to him!

Responding appropriately to strangers in public- A few months ago James would totally clam up anytime a stranger looked at or spoke to him, but he's really maturing. I was so impressed today, we were riding on the train together, and he dropped his water bottle. A gentleman sitting next to him picked it up for him. I expected him to take it shyly without thanking the man, but instead he took and said very clearly "Danke!" he didn't only realize that he needed to thank the man, but also that since we weren't at home he needed to speak German. This was unexpected for me because he rarely speaks any German to me at all.

Putting himself to bed- This one we're still working on, but yesterday I told him he's growing up now and needs to go lay in his bed by himself for a little while (usually Dylan or I lay with him until he falls asleep, which can be counterproductive), and he went ahead and did and went to sleep without any whining or getting up over and over, such a change from when we tried that 6 months ago.

Changing his clothes- He's fully capable of picking out his own clothes, and undressing and redressing himself.

Entertaining himself- He will seriously entertain himself (and David) for hours and hours coming up with little games to play, adventures to have, etc. It's really awesome. Yesterday they fought bears in the kitchen, and the day before that they went on a camping trip in the living room.

Getting up and getting his own breakfast- Nothing fancy, but on the weekends if Dylan, David and I are sleeping in, he'll go to the kitchen and get himself a bowl of cereal with milk, or a yogurt and banana, and then he'll entertain himself and let us keep sleeping. (this is a new development, I used to always have to wake him up, but for whatever reason he's shifted his schedule a little earlier in the last few weeks)

He's started to be so aware of things- 6 months ago he would tell me people were speaking english to him, that most definitely were not, but now he seems to have a real handle on what it means to be speaking english or german, or spanish (his best friend in Kindergarten is from Mexico). Today we were on the train, and a few seats away were some American women having a conversation. James leaned over to me and whispered, "Mommy, those ladies are speaking ENGLISH."

This list is by no means exhaustive, I'm sure I'll think of a million more things as soon as I post it, but that's probably enough for now. He's really just maturing so much, it's hard to even describe it in a blog post. He never ceases to amaze me!

I'll try to add more photos tomorrow, this one is him "cutting his own hair."