James decides to get a new perspective on the world from an unusual angle by his play pen.
The crawling is as speedy as ever and only the camera can freeze him!
After a nice dinner and a whizz round the kitchen, James decides that he wants to play with his new best toy. At vast expense, he's managed to get himself a yoghurt pot from the recycling pile. Life's good you know!
So now we've got our great new toy, it's time to show it the locality. James takes his new friend for a lap round the kitchen table.
After finally catching up with James, Mummy manages a quick cuddle with him (and the yoghurt pot) before bed!
Having created carnage in the bedroom by pulling just about everything off the surfaces, James decided that the best thing to play with was this pen. Nice and chewy too! Check out his vest - how cute is that for our Babi Cymraeg?!!
We hooked up the activity centre to the walker to give it a bit more ballast and let James have a go at walking with it. It worked like a dream and soon James was doing lengths of the living room, walking quicker than he crawls!
When Daddy goes up the ladder, the creaking noise alerts James to come and see what Daddy is up to in the loft. He now tries to climb up as you can see from his lifted foot! We're going to be in trouble very soon!
James really loves his walker and he uses it at any opportunity. He was dressed in his special Thomas T-shirt today!
Having left the door to the garden open for 5 seconds, James was out like a flash to explore the outside world. This is still a common view of our son as he crawls off to investigate what might be round the next corner!
Once Chris was back from work, we packed up and drove to Mid Wales to see Grandma and Big Rog for the weekend. We arrived in time for tea and after James had finished eating he started to brush up on his conducting skills.
The weather over the weekend was beautiful and really warm so we "tried" to keep a hat on James' head. Chris was very quick with the camera for once and managed to take this snap in the half second that it remained on James' head!
While we had lunch, James and Big Rog decided to play Peekaboo. As you can see they both had great fun!
With the weather as it was, it was certainly a taster of summer and Mummy tried to relax a little while James played with his toys by the side of the stream.
Daddy and James talk a nice walk together alongside the stream. James loved walking down the garden and walked around 50 yards at a time!
Mummy followed her lads as they went walking and called back to get their attention. Notice James taking his favourite red stacking ring for a walk too!
Mummy and James had a little rest down by the pond and Mummy shows James his first daisy. He certainly seems interested in it but fortunately didn't decide to eat it......this time!
No one was spared the walking partner duties! Grandma gets in on the act as they go for another stroll through the garden.
After finding a bit of shade to get out of the hot sun for a while Mummy gives James a piggy back which he seems to be enjoying here!
Grandma worked very hard in the kitchen and made James his very first birthday cake. We haven't worked on his politeness skills too much yet and as such he doesn't look too impressed with all the time and effort Grandma put in. He does appreciate it really! Thank you Grandma!!!
After rigging up the camera timer, we finally managed to get a shot of the five of us with James and his cake. As usual James is much more interested in the lights than having his photo taken!
So what does one do on their first birthday? James told us that he wanted to go swimming as usual so we had to oblige. He gets used to the water nice and quickly by splashing everything in sight!
James did all his favourite swimming routines, including the ever present James, Ready, Go!
James takes a trip into the air with some assistance from Mummy. Doesn't he look so cute in his little wetsuit?!
One of James' favourites at swimming is doing "Monkey Monkey" along the side of the pool which involves him (and Mummy) holding on to the pool wall and moving along sideways, with his little hands moving down the side of the pool. Very cute!
There were only 3 in the class so it was quite easy for them all to sit on the big float in the pool...
...before jumping off back into the water, sometimes a little bit to enthusiastically and submerging a bit too far!
To encourage James to swim, Em throws a ball in front of James and he reaches out to get it as they move through the water. Very ingenious and James certainly looks like he's keen to get a move on in the water!
James is recognising certain words really well now and reacts to the ones he knows. Blink is one of them, and he often responds with a big blink of his own!
As we finish our lunch, the phone goes at it's Granny and Grandad calling to wish us a Happy Birthday! Thank you both and thanks for the card and pressie, now where's my cake?!!!
We lit the candle and sang happy birthday to James before getting a Thomas family portrait celebrating our first year as a family!
James seems fascinated by the candle and probably the cake too, knowing how tasty it is too!
With a little help from Mummy, we blow the candle out and are confronted with our first experience with smoke! We're not too sure about it!
All this birthday fun can be a bit tiring so James settled down for a nice quick cuddle with his Dad. Notice Chris' specs have been pulled off by a certain someone!
We stood all of James' cards up for him to see and he decided to do what he does best. Walk through them at a rate of knots!
Having knocked down all the standing cards, James heads off into the sunset looking for more birthday fun!
Any excuse for a walk and we'll use it! The footstool in the kitchen will do but it's not as fast as the one with wheels on!
Auntie Cath and Uncle Andy came to stay for a few days and brought James his birthday presents too! We're quite fascinated by the great wrapping paper!
It's a xylophone! It makes noises and I can whack it without Mummy or Daddy telling me not to! This is great!!!
Thank you very much Auntie Cath and Uncle Andy. This is a really great present!!!
Before our Bank Holiday nap, Auntie Cath reads James a lovely story.
One nap completed, now it's time to make up for lost playing time. We step on to our newly assembled rocker and get rocking! Note the lovely Bank Holiday weather in the background.
On our way upstairs to get ready for bed, James shows off his new skill of climbing. The ever present pair of hands were not required for this trick and James did manage to carry the set of keys all the way upstairs too!
We head over to Griff's house for his first birthday party, and where there's a birthday party, there's going to be cake! James scoffs his as fast as he can, and makes quite a mess in the process!
A group shot of our NCT mums with all the babies now a whole year old. What a year!
