James' not so gentle with his great great Grandma

Just this past week the Phillips family headed to Anderson, SC for a time of vacation and visiting with family. It was Heather and my 7^th wedding anniversary. Normally we would have dropped off the kids and went had a more private weekend, but Heather’s mom had recently fell and broke her foot and shoulder. We decided to take our vacation time to give her mom a bit of support. It was also Joshua’s 2^nd birthday so we had a second reason to visit.

One day we left Anderson and headed to Fairplay, SC. Fairplay is where Heather’s 96 year old Great Grandmother lives and it is nice to spend a bit of time with her. We sat around and talked with her and she handed James and Nolan candy and stuffed animals to play with. Before we left we wanted to take some pictures. Everyone piled on the couch. James had a huge fake cheesy grin. Nolan acted like a hoodlum, and I had to bribe him with candy so he would sit still and stop crying. But it was nice to have a picture with 1 month old Levi and his Great Great Grandma together. After the picture James was talking to his Great Great Grandma. Heather told him he had to be gentle with her. When I ask James to be gentle with Levi he gentle caresses Levi stomach or hand, so James held her wrinkled hand softly. After a second he started staring at her hand and seemed mesmerized by it. He studied her hand for a few minutes, and then he looking at her. Great Great Grandma I can feel your bones you need to eat something.

A real heart felt apology to Nolan

There was a great conversation between James (4yrs old) and Nolan (2 yrs old) this week. James and Nolan were fighting over matchbox cars and James pushed Nolan down. I told James to hug Nolan and say sorry.

One thing you need to know, If you say “sorry” to Nolan he will always respond with “sorry”

James: Sorry
Nolan: Sorry
James: No I’m sorry
Nolan: Sorry
James: (a bit angrier) I’m sorry
Nolan: Sorry
James: Nolan, you’re not sorry I’m sorry
Nolan: Sorry
James: Stop it Nolan!!!
Nolan: Sorry

Then James pushed Nolan down.

James: I’m Sorry
Nolan: Sorry

James sends Levi to bite his mother

Levi is home now, and the Phillips family is getting used to having baby number 3 around.

James seems to be adjusting fine. He is gentle and keeps asking the pay with Levi. He is unable to grasp that Levi cant get up and walk around yet.

Nolan is having a little tougher time with the new baby. Nolan has been the soft, quiet, timid brother 9at eat compared to James). Nolan is used to spending most of his day on heather's lap. He has gotten a bit jealous since Levi has stolen the best seat in the house. Nolan has avoided Heather some and only tries to sit with her when Levi is already on her lap. I am having more father/son time with my first two. I am sure things will be back to normal soon (Of course normal for my household is insanity).

Yesterday Levi (4 days old) was crying while we were eating dinner. Heather only had a couple of bites of dinner left but I had to almost tie her down to the table to get here to finish before taking care of Levi. I had finished eating so I put Levi in my lap and tried to sooth him until Heather was done. James found Levi loud and aggravating and had had enough of his crying. James walked up to me and pulled his shirt up and pointed to his chest. "Dad, if you want him to stop crying let him bite momma right here."

Welcome Levi Jackson Phillips

July 11th 10:25 am
6 Lbs 15 oz
19 3/4 inches long

He is doing great
Heather is doing great

I will post a bunch of pics later

Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa Baa, What!

We were having lunch at Loco's a week ago with about 20 students. My son Nolan was sitting beside me. He did something with accidental but perfect timing. He was staring forward just blabbering on and making noises. Baa, Baa, Baa, Baa, Baa. I began looking at Nolan with a look on my face that simply said, "What is wrong with you". Nolan kept blabbing on, "Baa Baa Baa Baa", and then looked up and noticed I was looking at him. With perfect timing and without missing a beat he immediately stop blabbing and said, "what".

James' milk was stolen

Heather has been pregnant for a while. Once James realized Heather had a live being in her belly, he began telling us he also had a living being inside him, actually two: a panda and a dog. James favorite two toys are a stuffed animal panda and a stuffed animal dog.

During Heather's pregnancy there are times when the baby does something. Heather will announce things out loud like: "Levi just kicked me, Levi is doing flips, or Levi is hungry". James will at times mention that his Panda and Dog are kicking him.

This past week Heather ate dinner and then just a few minutes later was snacking again. I asked her didn't you eat just a bit ago. She simply stated, "I think Levi ate all my food and now this snack is for me".

Later that evening we were getting James ready for bed and James asked if he could have a glass of milk. I told him, "sorry you already had some milk earlier". James responded, "yes, but the dog and panda drank my milk, but this next glass is more me".

Tony Sporano + Pinata = Fear

Yesterday was James' 4th Birthday, and Nolan 2nd is in a week. On Saturday we did a joint Birthday party for the boys. James once again proved he was all boy in the ways he handled his pinata.










I love having boys. My time at home is spent managing the flow of testostorone that flows through my house. Any time of day, you can hear a consistent rumble of car noises, train horns, wrestling, dog tackling, body noises, gun shots, dinosaur growls, and giggling. I'm sure if I had girls I would spend my evenings having tea parties and playing dress up with dolls. Maybe one day I'll get the opportunity to be daddy to a little girl, but for now I live in the land of boys where anything can be quickly turned in a gun or a sword, the dog is never safe, and burps are rated 1-10. So James knocked the pinata of it's stand, without hesitation channeled the spirit of Tony Soprano, and beat that thing to death. Dad was proud.

Number 3 will be here in July. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

James meets a cow tongue

The Family headed to Sam's Club for our routine Saturday of shopping and snacks. In the meat section I saw something that I needed to show James; a cow tongue. James looked confused so I told him to stick out his tongue. This is the tongue of a cow. He held it in his hands (inside a package of course). He still had a confused look on his face. "James people cook the tongue and eat it", I told him. He responded with a quiet confused look. "James do you want to eat the cow tongue", I asked. "No", he quietly answered. We walked around in the store for about 5 minutes without talking. I was beginning to worry that I had given information to a 3 year old that was too much to handle. James finally ended to long silence.

"Dad"?

"Yes James".

"Somebody broke that Cow apart".

James' interesting sleepng habits

I put James in his bed and Nolan in his at 8:00pm. at 10:00pm I heard Nolan laughing and talking. I went to check on then and not only found Nolan wide awake but I also found James sleeping in an interesting way.

OK, I'm not sure I can give this justice by explaining it, so look at the pictures and just know I put James to bed in a normal way; head on his pillow, panda stuffed animal under his arm, and covers over him. How I found him was totally his doing.














The next day I asked James, "where did you sleep last night".

"In my sleeping bag"

For the record. It is his laundry bag. Tomâto/Tomăto I guess.

Heather bowing to the porcelain God

One of my favorite moments when Heather was pregnant with Nolan. She was in the bathroom throwing up violently and loudly. 2 year old James stood outside the door and mimicked her making very loud throw up noises while she was on her knees in front of the toilet, laughing very hard at James in between her puking.

James' consept of the baby in momma's stomach

Heather is pregnant again. We just found out it is a healthy baby boy. That is three boys. Heather has threatened to paint the entire house pink to off set the amount of testosterone in the home. Heather claims this has been a much easier pregnancy. She has thrown up only once, but she is worn out all the time.

The other day she felt like she was going to throw up. James told her, "No momma, you can't throw up or the baby will fall out of your mouth".

Front talking

The Phillip's clan was heading back from dinner, and James as tired and a bit argumentative. James finished drinking his milk and asked for more milk. We of course don't have a place to store cold Milk in our minivan so we tried to explain to James that he would have to wait until he got home. James then got frustrated and threw his cup on the ground. Heather turned around in her seat and told James with a stern voice, "James you pick up that cup". James began to argue to which Heather responded, " don't you back talk me". James answered, "I'm not back talking. I'm front talking."

James' top Ten phrases

The Top Ten words or Phrases James says regularly because he heard them from me, Heather, or some of the youth.

1. Ma-holla
2. Oh Snap
3. What up
4. Son
5. turn around and give that booty a smack (Katie Kavanaugh is not allowed to see him anymore)
6. That's sick
7. How's your good day today (That's his way of asking how your day is)
8. dude
9. Your cute (he says this to everyone)
10. Let's go to church and see my friends

Nolan's top ten words

The Top Ten Words Nolan (my 21 month old) uses regularly and I can understand

1. "NO" (Used very regularly and with gusto)

2. "Thank you" (He says this after I give him something or while he hands me something)

3. "Please" (usually has a connection with wanting milk

4. "Chicken" (a word that means any meat during dinner)

5. "James" (It makes me smile when he calls his brothers name to play)

6. "Daddy & Momma" (Easy word, but they make me melt)

7. "Josh" (this word is screamed at the top of his lungs when he sees Josh)

8. "Milk" (he usually uses this word at 3:00am)

9. "Hi" (You don't have to have just shown up for him to use it. he yells it out when ever he sees you)

10. "Bacon" (that’s our dogs name)

hide and go seek with james

Nolan (my 21 month old) did not get a good nap, so he headed to bed at 6:00pm. James had other ideas. He was wide awake and raring to go. He and I decided to play hide-and-go-seek. I have no idea where he learned to play, but he had all the details down. He counted to ten, yelled ready or not here I come, and even hide pretty good.

The funny part about playing with my son is that I am a big dude (280 lbs) and there is no real place to hide in the small apartment. So basically I found different places around the house to sit with a blanket over my head. James would finish counting to ten and head to the small living room where I was sitting Indian style, behind a chair, with a green blanket covering me. James would look for me for near 30 seconds before he would see me and then he would scream and run out of the room. He would come back in and does the same thing… see me, scream and run out. Each time he ran in the room he would get a bit braver and a bit closer to me. Finally he would be close enough to reach out and touch me, but instead of just tagging me he would run up and yell, “I want to hide there too daddy”. We would sit in the hiding place for a few minutes giggling until I got bored hiding with no one to find me and just started hugging, kissing , and tickling by son. It was game with an odd mixture of anxiety, fear, screaming, laughter, hugging, kissing, and tickling.

Then James hid. This was even sillier because I would count to ten, walk in the room, and he would start laughing. I would pretend to not know where he was and yell, “James where are you”. He would quickly answer, “Right here Daddy”, start laughing, and run out in front of me. Then he would tell me what a good job I did finding him.

james' version of John the Baptist

My wife goes to Community Bible Study (CBS) every Thursday morning. My two sons Nolan and James also go and are a part of their own Bible study time. Last Thursday when I arrived home from work Heather told me to ask my 3-year old, James, what he learned today at CBS. (Keep in mind he learn about Jesus' baptism.)

Me: "James, who did you learn about today at school?"

James: "Jesus."

Me: "What did you learn about Jesus?"

James: "He threw him in the water, and then he pulled him out. Then he threw him in the water, and then he pulled him out. Then he threw him in the water, and then Jesus went swimming."

Me: "Who threw Jesus in the water?"

James: "John"

Me: "John who?"

James: John the Bathtub"

Being a dad rocks!