Dada. Mama. Dada. Mama.

Adam has been saying "da da da da da" (the sound) since he's been 5.5 months old and first said it in context around 10 months of age (however, he probably said it only 3 times though, in context, before his first birthday).

By 10 months, Adam was saying almost all the consonants/sounds... except for "ma ma ma ma". And then, miraculously, he started saying it. He never said it as a sound, he has always said it in context, directed at me. However, that context was only when he was annoyed with me.

For example:

Mama: "Little Love, you need to stay in your highchair".

Adam: "Ma ma ma ma ma" (in a really upset tone of voice, while trying to get out of the highchair).

I even asked the pediatrician at his 1 yr. appt. if saying "ma ma ma ma ma" (never just "mama") when annoyed "counted" as saying "mama" (for the record, he said it did, since he was saying it to me). However, this was not exactly the sweet little "mama" fantasy that I was having. People told me to be patient... once he started to "really" say "mama", he would (hopefully!) never stop.

Well, that glorious day has come. For the past few weeks, Adam has been "officially" saying "Mama" and "Dada". All. The. Time. And we LOVE it!!!

I remember when Adam first started giving his signature broad smiles, around 2 months of age (see photos in sidebar). Seriously, for six months (at least) I got excited every single time the kid smiled. And he smiled... a lot. I remember Steven getting somewhat annoyed with my exclamations of "Look at Adam smiling" and him saying "He's been smiling for months, Beth". It didn't matter. Heck, to this day I still get excited when I see him smiling. Fortunately, he smiles and laughs all the time with us but not so much with people he doesn't know. If you get a smile out of him (and you're not part of the fam), it's a pretty big deal. Speaking of which, Adam was giving his cousins Jake, Evan, and Zach the BIGGEST smiles at the beach. They really love each other; it's precious.

Anyway..... back to the original subject, which is Adam saying "mama" and "dada". He nows says the words all day long. When he wakes up he'll cry "mama". Whenever he passes our bedroom (and Steven is at work) he'll say "dada" (and get very upset when he sees that Dada is not in the room). When Steven gets home from work, he runs around the room yelling "Dada. Dada. Dada." Tonight, I ran some errands and when I came home, the first thing I heard (when I opened the door from the garage) was "Mama". When I came up, he ran to me and yelled "Mama, Mama, Mama" while hugging me. It truly is the sweetest sound and so worth the wait.

One more cute story... today Adam was sitting with me at the computer and saw the screensaver of his photo, a recent pic. He pointed to the screensaver/photo of himself and said "baby". :)

Photo notes: The photos above were taken last month. Steven especially loves Adam's "I'm a little (Auburn Univ)tiger" T-shirt. Thanks, Zayde!

This photo was taken at the beach with J, Z, and E. Good, good times. :)

Happy Birthday, Dada!

Happy 36th Birthday, Dada!!!

I woke up early this morning to wish Dada a very happy birthday. I surprised him with breakfast in bed and balloons! Mama & Dada are headed to the Kennedy Center tonight for a special dinner, overlooking the Potomac River, and to the Broadway production (at the Kennedy Center, not NYC!) of "The Lion King" tonight. I'm happy that Grandma will be babysitting! :)

I love you, Dada! You're the best!

ADAM

P.S. Thanks, Dada, for taking such good care of me, always with a smile on your face. Even at 3 AM, when I was just a little guy...

Fifteen Months Ago...

Adam was born 15 months ago -- today. It's so cliche, but time has really flown by...

I remember the first three months of his life going by soooo slowly... probably since I was up 22 out of 24 hours each day!!! He also didn't do much then, of course, except eat (when his reflux wasn't acting up), spitting/throwing up (that fun reflux!)or sleep. He started smiling around six weeks (at the animals hanging on his pack & play -- see photo on side -- "Adam at 6 weeks") and rolled over from his tummy to his back at 10 weeks. Ironically enough,he hated tummy time then (enough so that he rolled over at 10 weeks!) until he could completely lift his head up/do a "mini push-up" at 3 months and has not been on his back for more than a few minutes since then!

LL's real personality started to emerge at three months. He started smiling and laughing non-stop (see photo on side -- Adam at 3 months) and loved playing on his floor mat, swatting at his toys. Around four months, he learned to roll over from his stomach to his back and, seriously, he has not stopped moving since then. He started off with some log rolling and by five months, he was "scooting" (stomach crawling) all over the place. At eight months he was crawling and pulling up to stand by 8.5 months. He was an "expert crawler" by 9 months and started cruising at 10 months. He started taking steps at 11 months and began to walk right around his first birthday. He has just begun to climb on furniture and began "baby running" last month. Since I didn't start this blog until he was 10 months old, I thought I'd catch you guys up a bit. :) Can you tell I'm a little nostalgic today?

Anyway, back to the present. Adam is a true delight... he is hilarious, sweet, affectionate, opinionated (seriously) and very curious. And so incredibly cute (not that I'm biased, of course). He is happy 99% of the time and when he's not happy, believe me, you know it! He is very active but he also enjoys "quiet time" playing with his toys, reading his books, or talking to his doggies (speaking of doggies, he got a new one today (a tiny little "Spunky" rattle) in honor of his 15th month birthday).

LL is very talkative and really impresses us with his expanding vocabulary. On a daily/hourly basis he says mama, dada, baba (bottle) and up. He also says these words fairly regularly: doggy (of course), ducky, bye (in a really loud voice... sometimes with a wave), airplane (that's a new one, he'll actually point to planes and say it), keys, bus (he loves his toy bus) and monkey (the boy loves animals!).

He has also said balloon, bucket, blocks, ball (he likes "b"s!), truck, grass, popper (as in his corn popper -- a new favorite toy) and repeats at least 50% of what you say. He knows about eight animal noises and he loves to sing! He knows most of the letters/words to the alphabet song and to "Baa Baa Black Sheep". His favorite number (okay, the only number he knows) is three and if you ask him how many of something he has, the answer is always "three"! We *love* hearing him talk... he has such an adorable little voice and speaks so clearly.

I apologize for discussing (err...bragging) about Adam so much but this will be his "baby book" and I so wish I had started this blog when he was born. Anyway, as you can see, we are truly enjoying our little guy. Don't get me wrong, he can definitely be a *handful* at times but then he'll give you his amazing smile (full of teeth -- 12 at last count!) and Steven and I just melt. One last thing, when you ask Adam "Who does Mama love?" he says "Ada" (for Adam) or "Dada". Yes, we've trained him well. :) We thank our lucky stars every day for being blessed with such an amazing little love fifteen months ago.

Adam's singing & dancing DUCKY!

When we arrived at the beach a few weeks ago (seems like a lifetime ago), Bobbe & Zayde surprised Adam with a special duck that sings "If you're happy and you know it" and dances! The duck is adorable and Adam is absolutely fascinated with him, as seen below in these photos, taken at our beautiful beach condo (which we truly miss... we're counting the days -- too many! -- until our next beach trip).

Note on last pic: the ducky "danced" too close to Adam and he swatted the ducky to the ground! He's learning self-defense at an early age!!! Also, how friggin' cute is that 3rd photo?!?

At the Zoo

On Friday, we visited a local petting zoo with Molly & Riley. It is a great little zoo with lots of exotic animals. We got complimentary food to feed the animals with but Molly and I were too scared to do so -- we thought we'd get our hands chopped off or something!!!

Adam loved the animals... he also loved picking up the stones and gravel. He also managed to sit in goat poop -- that's my boy! He recognized some of the animals... said "duck" and "quack quack" when looking at the ducks and "nay nay" when looking at the horses. All in all, it was a very fun afternoon... definitely an adventure!

Here are some shots from the zoo. The first shot, of Adam standing in the grass, is one of my favorite pics of him...

My Little Music Man

The libraries in our county are fantastic. Most of the libraries are new and have a great selection of books (for kids and adults). They also do not charge late fees! Even better, they have amazing free programs for babies and kids each week. Recently, Adam just finished a session of "Rhythm and Rhyme" where we sang songs (accompanied by musical instruments) each week. The class was for babies/kids ages birth - 4. Adam was one of the youngest kids enrolled. However, he was always one of the first kids to go up to get his musical instrument (or scarf, depending on the song) each time. It was so funny to see Little Love surrounded by all these big kids, holding his own. =)

Here are some photos... Adam is in the blue top and brown shorts:












Here's Adam in his VA T-shirt that our friend Travis created for him... so cute!

Back from the Beach

We had an AMAZING time at the beach in Destin, Florida. We stayed in a gorgeous condo, overlooking the pool and ocean -- here's a pic, taken from our balcony:



It was so wonderful being with family for an extended period of time. Adam loves his Bobbe, Zayde, Aunt Samantha and Uncle Jeff. He also absolutely adores his cousins... Jake, Evan, and Zach. Whenever they would walk in the room, Adam would give them the biggest smile. It was so sweet to watch them all together!









Adam loved the surf and sand. It took him a few minutes to get used to the sand but he was eating it (of course) after a few minutes. He also loved swimming in the pool, especially in his cool car float.

It was such a wonderful and relaxing week. We all had the BEST time. LL is definitely a water baby!

Father's Day Greetings

Dear Dada and Zayde,

Happy Father's Day!!!

I had SO MUCH FUN swimming and playing on the beach with you both this week.

Thank you for being THE BEST Dada and Zayde. I'm so glad to be the next generation of the "H" Men!!! :)

Love,

ADAM

xoxox





I love you, Dada!


I love you, Zayde!

Even on the day I was born, I was so happy to a part of the "H" Men! :o)

Florida, Here We Come...

The time has finally arrived for our beach trip! Yahoo! We will be on a plane 12 hours from now. Now, all I need to do is pack. Just Kidding (um, sorta). Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll have internet access so you might not hear from me until next Sunday. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!


"Enough of this grass, mom... I'm ready for some SURF & SAND!!!"

Caught red-handed with the credit cards!

As you can see, Adam takes after Mom and loves to shop!!! :)

This photo was taken last week, I haven't taken any new photos yet this week. I'll try to take a few before we leave for OUR BEACH WEEK IN DESTIN, FLORIDA (yahoo!) with Bobbe, Zayde, Aunt Samantha, Uncle Jeff, Jake, Evan, and Zach on Saturday. Can you tell we're quite excited about the trip?!?

Not too much new here. We had a terrible storm this afternoon that Adam was absolutely fascinated with. He couldn't stop watching the rain fall from his bedroom window... he was probably the only person in the DC area who loved the storm!

We had a lovely visit from Rosemary and Allan (Uncle Jeff's parents) tonight, who were in town for a conference. Steven has known them since he's been in college and I have known them for at least 7 years. They are absolutely wonderful and I'm so glad we had the chance to have dinner with them at Clyde's tonight. I think Adam impressed them with his new "trick"... when we say "one, two..." Adam will yell "three"! He has no idea what these numbers mean but he gets so excited, nonetheless. It was a real treat seeing them... the last time I saw them was 2 weeks before Adam was born. What a difference 14.5 months make, huh?

I'll do my best to post again before we leave on Saturday... counting the hours over here...!!!

Happy 5 Years!

Steven and I celebrated our 5th anniversary today. We spent the weekend in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, to celebrate. They are famous for their medicinal cool springs as well as for being a funky little art town. We stayed at a lovely inn that was built in 1815. We splurged and stayed in the King suite, complete with a sitting room. It was so peaceful with the yellow floral wallpaper and old-fashioned paintings. Steven couldn't stop talking about the carpeted bathroom, which he had never seen before. :) Here is an outside view of The Country Inn, where we stayed:

We celebrated our anniversary dinner (one night before) at a fabulous art gallery/restaurant and afterwards we toasted five years at a very chic wine bar. It was so nice to snuggle on the couches, sip wine, and just relax. This morning, after a visit to the spa, we ate brunch at a restaurant overlooking this mountain view... simply breathtaking. You can see the Potomac River as well as 3 states (WV, MD, and PA) from the view:


In the afternoon, we just walked to all the little stores and, of course, "took in the waters", as the locals say, in the original Roman Baths... the baths that George Washington bathed in! Seriously! As you can see from these photos, it wasn't too glamourous... but definitely an interesting experience! Also, the last photo shows the bath after it was drained... obviously it was filled with water when we went in. You have your own private Roman bath and the water is hot... 102 F!






We were only in Berkeley Springs for 24 hours but it seemed like 3 days! We missed Adam (a lot!) but he was in great hands, of course, with Grandma. He was sooo excited when we returned... running around the room and shrieking with joy. Priceless. It was a wonderful anniversary weekend reminiscent of the little trips that we took when we were dating and first married. As much as we enjoyed ourselves this weekend, we were just as happy to return home and see LL and Mom/Grandma. We are so very blessed.