Adam is 1 1/2 years old!!!!

LITTLE LOVE IS A YEAR AND A HALF TODAY!!!! 18 MONTHS OLD!!!!

Where has my little baby gone?!? He's now a (somewhat) big toddler!!!

So bittersweet. And yet I'm so incredibly thankful that we've gotten to this point.

Adam is such a delight. Every day with him is sincerely special. Especially since Mama is *everything* to him right now! Remind me of this when he's a teenager!!! Seriously, every time I walk in the room, his face lights up and he runs to me with the biggest smile, yelling "Mama". What could be better than that?!?

Little Love's vocabulary is 100+ words. He can say just about anything these days. He says a few mini sentences such as "Bye Bye Mama (Doggy, Dada, Bear... anything)", "It was good", "He's sleeping" and "That book". He can clearly communicate his needs to us and will now say "water" if he's thirsty or "walk" if he wants to go for a walk. He has even started to say "sleep" when I'm singing to him at night if he wants to go right to bed (is it my voice?!?). What a change from a year ago... Adam loves to go to sleep now. As long as his doggies are in the crib, of course. :o)

Let's see, what else... of course, Adam runs everywhere and is *very* curious. He will eat just about anything but not too much of it. He usually eats a decent breakfast, good lunch and not too much dinner. However, he will *always* eat fruit... definitely his favorite food. Melon and strawberries are his favorite but any kind will do.

Our days are very busy... he has school on M, W, Fr... playgroup on Tuesday AMs and some Tuesday PMs, play time with Grandma on Wed. afternoons, library/music class on Thursday and soccer class on Friday. He loves to read, play with his stacking cups, blocks and his popper inside. Outside, he loves to kick his ball, push around his bus and... throw things off the deck. Never a dull moment with our little love.

Here are some pictures of Adam at 0 months (birth day), 6 months, 12 months (1st birthday) and today (18 months). Needless to say, Adam Thomas has brought such incredible happiness, joy, beauty and love into our lives. My love for him truly takes my breath away... as my mom says, he is *INCREDIBLE*. Thank you, G-d!!!!!
Just a few minutes old

Six months

First birthday (12 months)!

18 MONTHS TODAY!!!

Autumn is Here!

Today marks the first day of one of my favorite seasons... fall! I love winter, too. It would be hard for me to live outside of the DC area b/c I just adore all four of the seasons. Anyway, to celebrate the arrival of fall, we took Adam to a Fall Festival yesterday. He loved it... especially playing with the pumpkins. He kept trying to pick the big ones up! He also enjoyed going down all the big slides with Dada and the hayride. Unfortunately, I caught a case of hayfever (no pun intended!) so I felt a little bit crummy. Besides that, it was a wonderful afternoon...
Picking the perfect pumpkin

Soccer Mama

It's official: I'm a Soccer Mom!

Adam had his second soccer class today and loved it. The class takes place in an indoor stadium with fake grass, goal posts, the works. The class is structured so the kids can kick around the balls, build cones, blow bubbles and play with the parachute. Adam loves all of it especially the bubbles and parachute. Riley is in the class with him and he runs up to her saying "Riley Riley Riley"... so cute. :)

Things at Montessori are continuing to go well, Thank G-d. Adam no longer cries when we drop him off... yay! :) It took him exactly 2 weeks to "get adjusted", I guess. Adam has really bonded with his teachers. Miss Annie even said "I love you" to Adam before he left today. It's so nice to see that he really is loved and cared for. Miss Annie also said that Adam was playing hide and seek with Jackie and was even calling Jackie's name. I wish I could've seen it! The only problem we're having is that Adam will not nap for more than 30 minutes at Montessori. And he's only sleeping about 10 hours a night. We put him down at 7:30 last night and he woke up at 5:30 -- wide awake! -- this morning and STILL only slept for 30 minutes at school. It's not surprising that he took a FOUR HOUR NAP yesterday when he was at home, with me. I hate the fact that he's somewhat sleep-deprived on Montessori days but I don't know what to do about it. Any suggestions out there?!?

Besides that, all is good. LL is continuing to sing, sing, sing. He was a little fussy (overtired) on the way back from soccer today and was getting sick of his usual favorite songs. So I popped in my Billy Joel CD and put on "Good Night, My Angel". For the first year of Adam's life, I sang that song to him every single night, as I was rocking him to sleep. This was the first time I actually played the song for him. He was mesmerized by it. When the song was over, he said "sleep sleep"... he wanted to hear "the sleep song" again. Then we sang the song together and he knew the end of almost every single line (e.g. Good night, my angel, now it's time to... SLEEP"). It was amazing. HE is amazing. Just goes to show you that even when they can't talk, they are listening. I'm glad I took Mom's advice and sang and talked to him every day.... even when I felt ridiculous doing so (it's kinda strange having a conversation with a 1 month old!)! :) Anyway, LL will be 1.5 years old in less than 10 days. Unbelievable...

Have a good weekend, everyone...

Fans of Adam...

For all of you Adam fans, you can now add your name on the sidebar (enter your name -- or be anonymous - under "Adam's Fans") to be an "offical fan" (reader) of Adam's blog! :)

In other news, Adam seems to be really enjoying Montessori. We are SOOOO relieved about this. He still cries every morning when Steven drops him off but when Steven peeks in a minute later, he seems happy. I always peek in before I pick him up and it's obvious that he is indeed happy (Thank G-d)!!! His teachers (Miss Annie and Miss Nas) also comment on his little sheet everyday that he's "happy, curious, busy, talkative and friendly". Sounds like LL. They also say that Adam is in a little clique with 3 other kids... Jackson, Olivia and another little girl (can't remember her name). Jackson (or "Jackie", as Adam calls him) is his favorite new friend.

I'm enjoying the new job and slowly getting used to the new lifestyle of being a (part-time) working mama. I have also started taking a graduate class on students with disabilities. Even though I already have a Master's degree, I need to take an additional course to get relicensed to work in the schools. So far the class has been interesting. On Tuesdays and Thursdays (days off) Adam and I are busy with playgroups, playdates & a library music class. We also started Lil Kickers SOCCER class with Riley! So fun! I'll try to remember to bring my camera to the class on Friday afternoon so I can post pics here.

Our Little Fireman

Cute, huh? Look at LL's expression in the first photo! That is Adam's "all knowing" smug look. I love it!

Adam & I had a visit to the local fire station today to get his car seat turned so he is front facing. The new recommendation is to wait until 18 months or 30 lbs. before changing kids to front racing, from rear facing... IF (a big IF) your kids can wait (12 months/20 lbs. is still fine, though). Adam clearly couldn't wait any longer... every time I put him down (before I strapped him in), he would turn around to face the front... and have a fit when he would have to turn back around. He'll be 18 months on 9/28 so we're at least close to the recommended time, right? Anyhoo... Adam loved being at the fire station (it was his first time... Steven always went in without him on the weekends before). He walked around from fire truck to fire truck, playing with the shiny metal and the big wheels. When a fireman gave him a HAT (one of his new favorite things!), he was THRILLED. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me at the Fire Station.... too bad, he really did look adorable marching around the place like he owned it. :) Here is a picture of Adam in his car seat, facing FORWARD (which made him quite happy, by the way!):


P.S. Anyone notice the (subtle) blog format changes? Prize is going to the reader who guesses all 4 changes! :o)

Adam's New Toothbrush

The kid LOVES to brush his teeth. He has a FIT when we take away the toothbrush. What can I say... my kid is all for good hygiene. :)

3rd day of Montessori also went well. Adam got upset when Steven dropped him off but apparently was happy a few minutes later and throughout the day. His daycare reports him as being: happy, friendly, curious, chatty. Hmm.... I wonder who he inherited the chattiness from?!?

Day 2 (smile)

Adam had a much better 2nd day of school, Thank G-d! I'm so relieved! When we dropped him off this morning, he was a little apprehensive but did not cry and went into the teacher's aide's arms (good sign). I was a little nervous since he threw up his entire bottle right before we left (lovely). However, he wasn't acting at all sick... I think it's just his reflux acting up.

I felt really sad (and kinda sick to my stomach) today, especially in the morning. Most of my friends are not working and are at home with their kiddos. I'm really fortunate to only be working 3x a week but I still feel guilty for leaving him. Very guilty. I'm also sad that I'm missing out on this time with him. I love our mornings together. Believe me, new moms, the cliche is so true... time does indeed fly by. All morning I was really feeling down and even a bit quesy about the whole going back to work/Adam going to Montessori (aka daycare!) thing.

Needless to say, I was SO RELIEVED when I picked him up today. I peeked in his room and he was crawling through a tunnel and looked very happy. When he saw me, his face lit up into a huge grin and he came running towards me. Of course, this was the highlight of my day. Miss Annie (who Adam seems to love... when you ask him who his teacher is, he'll say "Annie" & "kiss" since she's always chasing him for a kiss!) said that he had a really good day and was only fussy during nap time. He also ate well today but didn't drink his bottle (maybe this is a sign that he's ready to be out of bottles? Let's hope so!). He was also his little talkative & curious self today. He pointed out the "babies" to me in the room (seriously) and seemed very happy. YAY!!! SUCH A RELIEF!!! So, let's hope that he continues to do well at school. As for work, it's going well. SO much less stress (and paperwork!!!) than my old job... at least so far. I'll be starting my classroom lessons next week, which I'm looking forward to.

In other news, Adam is now officially using a booster seat (instead of a highchair) at home... see photos. See that big roll? His favorite bread, from Wegmans. He also had broccoli for the first time last night and loved it. As the photos show, we need to work on Adam's table manners (see leg on table). :o) You may also notice the Redskins pajamas that Adam was wearing last night. Unfortunately, it did not bring our beloved Skins any luck. Oh well, they were playing the Super Bowl Champions. I have confidence that they will be AWESOME this season. I can't wait to teach Adam the "Hail to the Redkins" song!



Happy weekend, everyone!

Adam's 1st Day of School (sigh)

First day of school picture. Can you tell he's not used to getting up at 6:30? Poor Little Love!
Adam started Montessori today. It was REALLY HARD for me... and I think for LL, too. I was in somewhat denial over how difficult it would actually be to "drop him off" for the day. I almost think it would have been easier if he was a year younger since he seemed so confused & AWARE of what was going on. Just as I had predicted, he went straight to the toys when we got there. We then had a little discussion about how Mama has to go to "work" (he knows to say "work"!) and that I'll be back soon (I had read that it's better to let your toddler know that you are leaving then to actually sneak off). He seemed to be okay with that... until I actually started to leave. He ran over yelling "Mama Mama Mama" and started to cry, clinging to me. It was heartbreaking. Fortunately, Steven was with me and held Adam while I left. I then got to work (10 minutes late...stressful) and tried to concentrate but it was hard. I always am thinking about LL but usually I get really wrapped up in my work. Not today. He was on the forefront of my mind the entire day. 3 pm could not come soon enough. I could not wait to see him. When I got to the Montessori, the director took me back to his classroom and I waved at LL, who was walking around with doggie in his hand. He immediately BURST INTO TEARS and ran to me, crying, "Mama". It was SO SAD. Then his teacher told me that he was happy for the most part but cried for me at times (okay.... hearing that was like a knife through my heart. Not to be dramatic but it really was). The teacher also told me that he was pretty quiet which is not at all like LL.

Overall, however, it seemed that he was fine. He barely ate (I wasn't too surprised to hear that) and he did sleep for over an hour on the Big Boy Cot (which I was surprised to hear). They said that he was very good and seemd to genuinely enjoy having him. Adam even waved goodbye to his teacher, saying, "Bye Bye Miss Annie" about a gazillion times. He also blew her a kiss... something he apparently learned today?!? I like his teacher & the assistant and the place is well run with 3 directors. The school itself is also brand new and really nice. The classroom is huge with tons of mats/apparatus to climb on, brand new toys, etc. And the ratio, at this time, is 1:3. We went to the Open House this past weekend and were really pleased. That being said, we're (mainly me, Steven's not that concerned) hoping that the Montessori works out. To be honest, I don't think I can handle many more days like this, seeing Adam so upset and unlike himself (he RARELY cries unless he's hurt himself). I'm going to give it some time, of course. Steven is also going to drop him off from now on since the school is in our neighborhood and Steven leaves an hour later than me. I'm sure that will help, too... I hope so...

On a lighter note.... Adam can now count to 10 with a little prompting! Maybe something else he learned at school?!? ALSO, I updated the last post with before/after haircut photos. Check it out!

First Haircut -- *UPDATED WITH PHOTOS*

Pre-haircut shots:






Post-Haircut Shots:






So... we did it. What do you think? We took Adam to "Cartoon Cuts" for his first (and loooong overdue) haircut. It went well. He was fascinated at first and then started to cry a little. The hairstylist then gave him a spiderman toy and all was good. He also loved playing with the tin can of barrettes... which, truth be told, would have looked cute in his hair... if he was a girl and all.

Anyway, Little Love looks VERY CUTE with his VERY SHORT hair! No more curls, though! :o( I'm sure they'll grow back, though, and he'll have lots of curls like his Mama. The "after" pictures above don't really do him justice since he was standing *this close* to the camera, trying to grab it. However, is it just me or does he look a month older with his new short 'do?

In other news, Cousin Claire came to visit yesterday. The kids had so much fun playing and going to the pool. They play so nicely together and we always enjoy our visits so much! :O)
p.s. Can you believe it's SEPTEMBER?!?