Most play time is now spent on our feet. James usually has something in his hand and a current favourite is this treehouse toy with its coloured balls. They also bounce really well on the hard kitchen and hall floors!
James prepares to propel another of his favourite stacking toys into the constant mess that is our living room. If the toys are ever tidied away, there's a sure fire guarantee that they'll all be scattered in various places in and around the living room within 5 minutes of James entering the room!
After walking a few little paces, James sometimes feels a bit unsteady and will lower himself carefully down to a more secure "bottom on the floor" position. The padding in the nappy certainly helps in this manoeuvre!
Auntie Jo gave James a couple of new pressies for his birthday. This one is a huggable globe that plays different songs when you press different parts. James loves it and bounces around to the songs but we hope he doesn't pick up the American accent of the songs. Mummy and Daddy are singing them already!
As James walks he sticks his arms out for balance. It certainly provides some comedy as he toddles along but he's doing so well at his walking now.
Sometimes, James realises that he's not holding on and free standing and will wave both his hands in the air. Quite what it means, we have no idea but he definitely seems to enjoy it!
We went along to Bute park for an afternoon walk alongside the Taff to enjoy the lovely summer weather. We all wore hats, Chris and Em wore them to let James know that it's important to keep the sun off your head as James really doesn't like keeping his hat on. Do you get the impression he's just tolerating the hat here?
James works the casual look as we walk past Sophia Gardens!
Finally, James' patience with the hat fails and he decides that enough is enough, the hat is coming off with a flourish!
With the hat plonked firmly back on James' head we carry on our walk. He almost looks content with it on here but you know he's thinking of the next way to take it off without Mummy or Daddy noticing!
With the heat and after having had a good crawl and walk around when we bumped into Auntie Shelley, it all gets too much and we settle down for a snooze. Actually this hat does have its good points as it's nice and dark under there!
James always manages to find things that we didn't mean him to! Daddy had left a yoghurt pot and spoon on a side table which James immediately found and started playing with!
Complete with spoon we manage to complete a good walk down the living room. The current record is around 8 feet before reaching Mummy or Daddy. He'll be doing the length of the room soon!
You can see the mischief in his eyes here! The spoon was such a great hit that we had to whack the spoon on everything we found, including the TV and the windows!
Ever inquisitive, James manages to find the chocolate Daddy had brought into the room earlier!
Complete with his great spoon, James embarks on another stroll towards his Daddy.
This time we take our "stickle brick head" for a walk round the living room. It's amazing what becomes the favourite toy!
The good old stickle brick head gets a thorough examination after the latest walkabout comes to an end.
This may not be the best technical picture Chris has ever taken but James expression here is just great. His hair is pretty funky too!
James hair is definitely getting lighter as the weeks fly past and being caught in the late afternoon sun certainly shows this to be the case.
Still with his "stickle brick head" James manages another last grin for the camera before heading off on another adventure.
Ever inquisitive, or is that nosy, James always checks out any noises or unusual sights that he comes across.
Not content with just being able to walk, we want to run as well. As you can see here, sometimes not even the camera is quick enough to stop him!
Why throw one ball when you can chuck two at the same time?
With our new found mobility, it's hard to play with all our toys in one session. Our average time spent on this rocker probably doesn't exceed 20 seconds and he even manages to get himself on and off it on his own now!
When either Mummy or Daddy get back from work, the noise of the key in the lock always gets James' attention. This is the moment that the door shuts and James wonders who it is...
...and when Mummy wanders in she gets a lovely smile!
And now we have both Mummy and Daddy here, it's time to start doing some serious playing. Who's for the throw the ball game?
We've had a few cuddles and some play time and now we get the up in the air game! Life's good fun even if the thumb stays in most of the time!
After a diary malfunction from Grandma and Big Rog, we all had the pleasure of their company before James' bedtime. After showing off our walking skills James wanted a story read to him so Grandma volunteered!
We headed down to the South Coast for a weekend staying with Granny and Grandad. James of course was more than pleased to show off all his new skills and just loved walking around in all the space in their house. Here he stops for a brief pause while having a bit of a burble!
With all sorts of different things to play with, James was a happy little chappy. Here he comes to see what Granny is up to and to see if she wants to play with the doggy.
James is definitely developing a taste for chocolate cake and instinctively knows when it's being served, even if it's not intended for him! All of a sudden, Daddy is James' best friend in the whole world!
After staying an extra day, we headed back home on Monday afternoon. James needed his dinner en route so we stopped off at Membury services for some food and afterwards had a bit of a play in the sun.
After being couped up for so long in the back of the car, it was great fun to have a stretch of those little Thomas legs!
James loves the freedom that walking has brought him and will walk and attempt to run at any given opportunity.
If you think this photo looks slightly wonky, then you're not wrong! James was in the process of keeling over to the left as the shutter was pressed! No harm done of course, straight back up again and on to Mummy!
I seem to have discovered this orange hat on my head. Anyone know whose it is?
The one more go factor is very strong with James and he always wants that one more walk, go, play, story etc. before it's time to move on!
Ever inquisitive, James is getting into to all sorts of places and things that we'd rather he didn't. This is a new one he's discovered over the past few days...
After Grandpa's exciting visit on the Saturday and the trauma of just avoiding getting our first pair of shoes, we had a nice walk on Sunday over at Goldcliff on the Gwent Levels. It was jolly windy though!
We introduced James to his first herd of cows. He was quite excited by them and was much braver than his Mummy is wanting to go and meet them. The cows look even more scared than Mummy did!
After realising that the cows are good to look and shout at, we give them all a nice round of applause!
James and Mummy give a nice smile to the camera and a few cows get in on the act behind too!
James really loves the independence that his walking has brought. Even though the grass was quite long underfoot and he kept on falling over, he was determined to walk and explore by himself, learning all the while.
There's one proud Mummy in this photograph. James' walking and spirit is just amazing. It's hard to believe this time last year, we were just experiencing our first smile. So much has happened and hasn't it flown by!
We both love this picture! I can't put my finger on exactly why but it just works for us!
James is rightly very proud of himself with his walking skills. Every now and again he checks that Mummy and Daddy are watching just so that they know how well he's doing!
I'm sure we can all remember walking through grass as a child when it seemed like it was over your head. Here's proof for James that he experienced it first hand!
After you've been walking for two weeks, why be content with going at just one pace? Given an open space and a free reign, James goes into overdrive and stretches those little legs out into a sprint! What a busy month!!
