Note from Adam...

Dear Friends & Family,

Thank you so much for remembering my Mama's birthday today! She was so thankful for all the phone calls, cards (you know how much Mama loves cards!) and e-mails. We both loved Jake, Evan and Zach's "cha cha cha b-day song" as well as Emma, Graham and Charlie's birthday song edition. :) Mama apologizes for not responding to everyone... I kept her pretty busy today!

Special thanks to Dada for buying Mama the balloons that *I* just LOVE and to Uncle Steven & Aunt Elizabeth for the gorgeous flowers. And, of course, to Grandma for spending the day with us & taking Mama out to dinner. It made both us of us so happy.

Love,

ADAM
xoxox
P.S. Sorry, Mama, Dada & Grandma, for causing such a scene at the nice Italian Restaurant when you wouldn't give me your glasses of water since I already had my own sippy cup. I know you were doing it for my own good. :)
p.s. Here is a picture of me with one of my block towers. I just love these Mega Blocks... it keeps me entertained for a long time. Mama loves them, too, for that reason alone. I wonder why?!?

Our Little (& Amazing) Motormouth

Adam is continuing to talk up a storm which we love, love, love. He is babbling less and using real words more. He definitely can communicate his needs now and he can tell us what he wants(his favorite words are definitely "mama", "dada", "water", "up", "baba", "bus", "Barney", "doggy", "uh oh", and "bubbles"). I put stars by the words we hear ate least once a day:

* button (loves to push the garage door button, doorbells, elevator buttons, etc.)
* funny! (when people are laughing, he says it. It's a riot!)
- booger (yes, as in boogers in his nose. Kinda gross)
- down
- cup
* blocks
* Barney (As in the purple dinosaur on TV. He's obsessed. Seriously.)
* shoes
* yucky or yuck (implies to things on the ground that he shouldn't pick up. But still does. Ugh.)
* hot
- apple
- hat
* tree
* outside
- house (in "Goodnight Moon")
* burp
- frog
- grass
- all done
- books
- cheese
- Mickey (as in Mouse)
- bee
- banana (sounds like "bana")
- balloon
* stuck (if something is stuck)
* open it (probably his favorite thing to say. BTW, he gets VERY frustrated when things don't open!)
- moon
* pen
- floss (yes, as in dental floss... he sees it on the nightstand and loves the box)
* clock (sounds like "ock")
- bib
- sticks (for music sticks)
- much (as in "I love you SO "much")
- bunny
- kick
* cream (diaper cream)
-- Ada (for Adam -- when he saw a more recent photo of self and mirror). However, he stills calls himself "baby" most of the time.

Adam also loves to sing and can "fill in (some of) the words" to some songs:
-- Baa Baa Black Sheep (says "master" and "ba ba"
-- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (says "up above", "diamond (so cute)" and "twinkle, twinkle")
-- ABC song (sings some letters, his favorite being "x" as well as "Next Time" and "me")
-- Pop Goes the Weasel (sings "Pop Goes the Weasel". Literally.)
-- 5 Little Monkeys (sings "No more monkeys" and "three")
-- You are my Sunshine (sings "sunshine" or some version of the word!)

Adam also says a few phrases, such as "mama, up" and "bye, doggie" and, of course, "Open It!"

A rare quiet moment:

100th Post (well, almost)!

I apologize for being a blog slacker the past week. Our computer crashed earlier in the week. Fortunately, the computer guy was able to save all my photos. Unfortunately, it cost almost $300 to fix! Ugh. Then, after our computer was finally back up and running, I spilled water on the laptop and broke the mouse. Except we didn't know that the mouse was broken and we thought the computer broke down again. Fortunately, we figured it out and only had to spend 15 bucks for a new mouse.

Anyway.... this is almost my 100th post! Incredible! It's funny... a lot of people (mainly people who do not have children) wonder how I can create a whole blog about a one year old. As you can see, it's not that difficult to do. Especially when your child is so entertaining (this coming from a neutral source, of course). :)

Yesterday, LL turned 16 months old! He celebrated it by learning some more words: "yucky!" (mainly used when he sees bird doodoo), "bye doggy" (a new phrase), button (as in, let me push the button!), "funny!" (says it when we're laughing) and "you're welcome". It is the cutest thing, hearing him talk. However, unless you're mama or dada, you probably won't actually hear him talking... he's relatively quiet unless he's with us.

Adam finally had his 15 month appt on Friday, almost one month late. This is due to the fact that our amazing doctor, Dr. F, is so unbelievably popular. Anyway, we were assured that it was fine waiting to go in for the appt a few weeks late. Dr. F was really happy with his measurements... weight: 22 lbs (about 12%ile -- better than the 6%ile during his 12 month appt), height: 31.25 inches (almost 50th %ile, up from the 30th %ile a few months ago) and head circumference was 18.5 inches, I believe (almost the 50th percentile - up from his usual 25th %ile). Dr. F was very impressed with Adam's vocabulary... said his vocab. mirrors a 2 year old!

Can you tell he's grown taller?

Lots more to write about but too tired to do so... will try to update more tomorrow. For now, I'll leave you with these pics of Adam trying on his new shades... which, by the way, didn't last for more than 30 seconds on his face. Sorry for the quality of the photos... also had some camera issues this week!

Crashed computer!

Our computer has crashed... again. I'm using a friend's laptop now. Will update ASAP... hopefully by tomorrow night! Lots of Adam updates then!

hot, hot, hot

Today when Steven took Adam outside on the deck to play, Adam took one step out and declared "HOT" and walked right back into the house (Side note: LL is the funniest person I've ever met and he's only 1). Anyway, he was right... it felt like it was 100 degrees out today... way too hot!

Since it has been so hot out, we've been enjoying lots of water activities. We've gone swimming several times as Adam loves the "baby pool"... especially dumping water from a bucket. LL also enjoys sprinklers and loves to run through the neighbor's sprinkler across the lawn. He gets very excited whenever he sees "wata" whether the water is in a cup, a fountain, or a pool. Definitely a water baby.


Adam is continuing to talk up a storm... he knows about 30 - 40 words now. Adam's "words of the week" are hot and wata (water). He says these words all the time. Whenever it is hot outside or when he's eating a food that is not cold, he'll say "hot hot hot". Other current favorite words are Barney (as in the purple dinosaur), Bubbles (he is infatuated with bubbles), apple (his new favorite fruit), tree, truck, shoes and, of course, doggu (for doggie), baba (bottle), dada & mama. These are the words we hear on a daily basis. He is also beginning to say some two word phrases -- such as "Mama, up" (as in "Mama, pick me up before I scream") or "Mama, baba" (as in "Hand me my bottle, woman"). I love it.

Here are some photos from our fun swim playdate/family BBQ at Tomas's house... including the photo of Adam pouring water over Benjamin's head (sorry, Ben!):





Thanks, Tomas, for being such a great host!!! (Yes, that is Tomas in the photo below, not Adam... Isn't he a cutie?)

Sleeping Beauties

It's been a tough week over here for Dada Steven. He had kidney stone removal surgery yesterday and is still in quite a bit of pain and discomfort. My mom has been a lifesaver, as always, the past few days. Not only did she watch Adam while we were at the hospital, but she cleaned the entire house when he was napping. Grandma and Adam have such a special bond. The other day I came home to see this:

Adam napping on Grandma (can you see the drool?!?) Actually, they were BOTH napping (you can only see Gma's shirt in the picture though)! Just like the old days! So sweet!

What's in a Name?

To quote our favorite new Sesame Street character, Azeebo, from "Panwapa" (google it if you're interested!), "what's in a name"?

You may have noticed, detail-oriented readers, that the blog title has changed from "Adventures in Adam Land" to the new & improved name "All About Adam". It's shorter and gets right to the point. Like it? By the way, the blog address is THE SAME so no worries on finding the blog.

Hmm. Could it be more obvious that we are first-time parents who are absolutely infatuated with their child?!? In our defense, he really IS cute. And funny. Not that we're biased. I bet even Adam's grandparents would agree. :o)

As always, thanks for reading about the adventures of our Little Love...

Photo taken last month at "Ruth Chris Steakhouse" (yum!) in Destin, FL

Wordless Wednesday: Introducing.... VERY BIG Doggy!!!

Little Love (in photos)

Since I've started this blog, I've taken my camera *everywhere*. I'm always striving for the perfect "blog picture" and maybe 1/20 photos makes the cut. I really can't imagine a pre-digital camera world anymore. I don't know how I would've managed before only taking 24 shots (one roll) at a time as opposed to 24 shots in five minutes. :) Anyway, here are some funny shots taken of Adam in the past month.


"Shoulder's Back, Head Up"


"I think I'll take the black ones"


"What store is THIS? Those models don't look like my mom!" (Yes, Adam really did wander into Victoria's Secret himself without any prompting from Dad!)


"Nothing like a cold drink after my morning run"


"Hmm... if I keep giving Mama this "I'm too cute" face, do you think she'll buy me this candy that I'm holding?"


"Catching some ZZZs with my 3 doggies. It's a lot of work being 15 months!"

** A few people have asked me how to leave a comment on the blog. It's really easy... right next to where the date & time is listed, it mentions how many comments are left (O Comments, 1 Comment, etc.). You just click on that comment link to leave a comment. You can leave a comment under "anonymous" if you don't have a blogger account (I didn't have one until I started the blog). Always feel free to leave a comment... just think, one day Adam might read them and see who all his fans were back in the day! :) **

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Hope everyone is enjoying (enjoyed) the day. Unfortunately it is raining now but we went to the pool earlier, which Adam loved.

We actually celebrated the 4th of July on July 3rd this year. For some reason, our neighborhood association has a big celebration on 7/3 instead (we're still trying to figure out why). Anyway, we went over to Molly & Danny's house to watch the fireworks with Riley last night. They had an *amazing* view of the fireworks and Adam just LOVED them (see photo above). He was beaming for a good five minutes... then he just watched, mesmerized. It was quite a difference from last year when we were at Grandma's house... we just took him in his stroller up the street to watch the fireworks from the distance. He seemed to like them last year, I guess (didn't really cry, just kinda watched) but definitely enjoyed them this year.

Oh, we had a special surprise tonight... when we were reading Adam his bedtime stories, we started hearing some firecracker noises. We looked outside his window and saw... fireworks! A little firework explosion (the kind you buy at "one of those shacks" as Steven would say) coming from the street, right outside our house! Adam watched them from his window, beaming with joy the whole time. Of course the display only lasted a few minutes and he cried when it was over, wanting more. Not surprising, since he is definitely a little firecracker... ha ha...

Happy Independence Day to all (see some more photos below)!

New Words of the Day (new blog feature!):
-baby (says it when looking at photos of babies in books... & when he sees photos of himself!)
-pig/piggy
-bah (for sheep -- been saying this for a while, but more consistently now)
-"ock" (for clock -- he loves playing with my mini clock)

Adam can also sing some of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on cue... such as "Up Above" and "Twinkle, Twinkle". He knows about 1/4 of the ABC song now, too and most of "Baa Baa Black Sheep". All those months of singing to him have payed off! Thanks, Grandma! :)

Word Explosion... Etc.

Can't believe it's already July! Wow! Ever since Adam has started walking (he's now running!), time has flown by even faster than usual. Our baby is definitely becoming a toddler which brings much happiness... and a wave of nostalgia, too.

As noted in a recent post, Adam has recently had a "word explosion". He seems to be learning a new word or two every day. It's so cool. I absolutely *love* to hear him talk!

Some new words:

- truck (well, not new, but now he says it *every time* he sees a truck on the road)
- hot (usually says it when I wash his hands... even if the water is cold!)
-spoon
-hat
-water (today he actually pointed to the cup and said "water")
-light (except it sounds like "ite")
-phone (maybe???)

He also says "duck" and "mom" but he is not referring to the animal or me (he definitely knows those words in their correct context). So we're not sure what he's trying to say when he does that.

He's also trying to say a few other things in true make-up babble talk which I don't understand. It's cute, though... if he babbles something and then I tell him what the object actually is, he smiles (it looks like a lightbulb going off, seriously) and repeats the word.

Another breakthrough... Adam used his fork by himself at dinner tonight when eating mac & cheese. He actually pierced a noodle and put it in his mouth! Yay, Adam! He tried doing it about 10 times and was only successful about 3 times but it's a start.

LL is also into throwing *everything*. He finds throwing to be great fun. Steven and I were a little concerned if this was "normal" behavior and it seems to be. However, the article we looked at states that toddlers usually don't start throwing until 18 months old, at the earliest. Adam has been throwing since 10 months. The article said not to discourage throwing since it truly is joyful for toddlers, especially curious ones, like Adam (they like to see where the thrown object lands)and to buy soft balls that are good for throwing. This is good to know.

Unfortunately, the article did not address what to do when a toddler (not mentioning any names here) likes to throw objects over the deck onto the neighbor's lawn, causing Mama or Dada to run down 2 flights of stairs to get it. :)

Here's Adam in one of his "quieter" moments... playing peek-a-boo whic is still his absolute favorite game... especially when he gets to hide behind the curtains. He still giggles hysterically whenever you say "Where's Adam"? Too bad his name isn't "Waldo" (am I showing my age here?!?)! :)