Adam’s Birthday Party

We had a party for Adam on his birthday and unfortunately, because of a bad snowstorm, Nat’s family wasn’t able to make it.  But, we still had fun and Adam loved his special day!

Some favorite presents included his very first Xbox game from Daddy!  He loves to “play” the racing games so Nat found a “Cars” game just for him.
I put together a dress up box and filled it with lots of stuff to wear and pretend in
I slaved over this superhero cape!
It would’ve been much easier had I paid more attention to the directions and done things in the right order!
Handy Manny construction set from Nana and Papa

Yummy chocolate cake mashed into the back of a dump truck.  Easiest cake EVER!

This birthday was a really fun one.  It’s the first time he’s really known what a birthday party is and he talked about it every day for a week leading up to it.  We’re a little worried about how he’ll handle his sister’s birthday in a couple of months!

Happy 3rd Birthday Adam!

My sweet boy turned three today!  Adam is such a happy, social little guy.  He is learning so fast and watching his funny personality grow has been so much fun!  We love you Adam Paul!

Newborn

One

Two

Three

I’m a Little Sad Tonight

I’m a little sad tonight because tomorrow my baby b0y will be 3 years old.  Tonight is the last night that I rocked and sang to my 2 year old.  Why does that make me so weepy?  I’ve thought of Adam as 3 years old for many months now, but the finality of him leaving his toddlerhood behind is really sad!  I love watching my babies grow and I’m excited for what this next year of his life will bring, but I just wish time would slow down a little bit.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that my actual baby will be 1 in just 2 1/2 months!

Stack & Sort Board for Sale

update:

SOLD!
I linked this post on Facebook and a friend in my ward requested it within 30 minutes! Nice!

I bought this Melissa & Doug Stack & Sort Board from Amazon for Abby and somehow ended up ordering 2 so now I have an extra one that I don’t need. It cost me $8.71 so if anyone local is interested, I’ll sell it to you for $8.00. It says for ages 2 and up, but I think a baby as young as 1 could learn how to put the shapes on the pegs. You could then use it to teach colors, shapes, counting, and sorting.

So….anyone looking for a Christmas/birthday gift just let me know!

Success!

We have been potty training Adam for the past 2 weeks and it’s going great this time!  When I tried a couple months ago he had accident after accident.  This time, I started him off with being naked from the waist down and that did the trick.  He was accident free the first day!  We slowly worked up to wearing undies during the day (except for nap) and for the most part, he stays dry.  There have been a few little accidents but nothing too bad….other than the one poopy accident a couple of days ago.  Not fun for me. 

This picture is him saying “Yay!” for pooping in the potty for the first time yesterday.  I thought potty training would be so much better than changing diaper, but really, you still have to wipe their bums and clean up accidents.  I’ll just keep reminding myself about the cost savings of only having one kid in diapers.

His 3rd birthday is only 9 days away…my baby boy is growing up!

Little Miss Abby at 9 Months Old

Abby turned 9 months old on Tuesday!  She is growing into a busy, crazy little girl!  I swear she is more active than Adam was.  She is constantly trying to climb on everything!  She pulls herself up on whatever she can (and frequently has bruises on her forehead from falling head first onto the furniture) and is crawling over the place.  This new stage has thrown Adam for a loop because now his baby sister can come after his toys.  We’re working on sharing.  Or at least not grabbing the toy away and yelling, “Seriously Abs!”

Here are her stats from her check-up yesterday:

Weight: 16 lbs. 14 oz. (20th percentile)
Height: 27 in. (50th percentile)

Just like Adam she is slowing down in the weight department.  But, she is SO active so the doctor says she’s just burning lots of calories every day.  Still no teeth though!

With learning to stand comes this….I spend lots of time having to go lay her back down when she’s supposed to be napping.  She hasn’t quite learned how to sit back down and then lay down from there.

Her new trick, “Soooo big!”

Bruised legs already!Adam didn’t start bruising his legs until he was walking.  It’s funny how they are opposites.  Adam is a social butterfly but timid when it comes to physical things.  Abby is more weary of people but has NO fear physically.

I love this picture of them! 

Abby’s 2nd Haircut
I already had to trim her hair again because it was growing so long and scraggly in some places.

Before

After

Now hopefully the rest of her hair will catch up!

We sure love our Abby-Girl!

Family Christmas Gift Show

This is where I will be this weekend!

South Towne Expo Center
9575 S. State Street
Friday and Saturday 10 am – 9 pm
Sunday 10 am – 5 pm

Tickets are $7.50 (14 and under are free)
($1 off coupon on www.familychristmasgiftshow.com)

My Mom and I are selling our (ok, mostly her) fused glass jewelry, plates, night lights, etc. in the “Artists in Action” section of the show.  Back before I had Adam, I went to a few classes with her and learned how to cut and fuse glass into all sorts of things.  Since having babies, I don’t have the time to do it, but she has continued on and has gotten really good!

So, if you are in the Sandy area this weekend and want to go to the show for lots of great Christmas shopping….stop by and see me!  I believe the “Artists in Action” section is behind Santa Claus in the back of the room.  Wish us luck!

I Love Baby Sign Language!

We starting teaching sign language to Adam when he was about 6 months old and by 12 months he recognized a lot and could make just a few. By 15 months he consistently used about 25 signs, although he started dropping them as he learned to actually say the word. But he began understanding the signs much earlier than he could make the sign and it made life so much easier (from what I've heard from other parents anyway) because we knew if he wanted a bottle, wanted to to eat, wanted to sleep, etc. rather than him just crying at us.

I started signing with Abby a couple of months ago (just doing 'milk', 'diaper change', 'eat', and 'drink') and she definitely recognizes the sign for 'milk'! Here's the proof....

I have seen her squeeze her fists in reaction to me signing it or while she's drinking her bottle so I think that might be her first attempts at signing back! She also seems to recognize the sign for 'eat' sometimes. I want to add in 'sleep', 'more', and 'bath time'. It's just so much harder to remember to do the signs than it was with Adam. I just need to make it second nature again...I'm out of practice!

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween Adam was his favorite character Buzz Lightyear!  And Abby was a cute little flower.  I love baby costumes, they are so soft and warm!Our ward’s Trunk-or-Treat was on Friday.  This was our first year doing a Trunk-or-Treat and it was a lot of fun!   Adam was thrilled to find his pal Woody!
Sharing suckers

Cute little flower

On Saturday night we went down to my parents’ house to Trick-or-Treat in their neighborhood.  Their neighborhood is a really active one so nearly every house is open for business!

“Impressive wingspan”

Comparing lasers with a “big Buzz”
Adam could’ve stayed out for another hour….he loved trick-or-treating!
This is how Abby spent the night….warm in Daddy’s arms   
It’s so much fun having 2 kids, even if Abby is oblivious to most of life. :)
Happy First Halloween Abigail!

Tot School – Halloween Week!

- Adam is 35 months old -

Last week was our Halloween/Pumpkin theme week and it was fun. I especially liked the art projects we did. Again, I got lots of ideas from the Fall Fun webpage from 1+1+1=1.

We sang songs including “Ring Around the Pumpkin” and read lots of Halloween books from the library.

I found some great pumpkin math activities from a fellow Tot School Mom’s blog, Life With My Giggly Girls. And I just realized I don’t even know her name even though we comment on each other’s posts almost every week!
Thanks Kayleigh’s Mom! :)

Pumpkin Size Sorting

Candy Corn Patterns
Patterns are hard for Adam. Something to work on in the future!

Candy Corn Patterns

Of course the candy was a hit….kind of hard to keep him focused on counting or sorting, but oh well!
Counting candy into his pumpkin

I made this Jack-O-Lantern Math Mat. The eyes and nose are glued on (and the whole thing is laminated) and then the black squares are loose so Adam placed as many squares as the number at the top in order to make the mouth. He lasted all of 2 minutes doing this.

Pumpkin Patterns….can’t remember where I got this

Glow in the dark Halloween stickers from the Target dollar section

Halloween coloring book for .97 at Wal-MartNotice how the plastic pumpkin is never far away….I’m not sure when I’ll be able to discreetly get rid of it!


We did two art projects this week. The first was making ghosts with hand and foot prints. I think they turned out so cute!

The second project was making a Jack-0-Lantern out of a paper plate

Of course we also carved pumpkins as a family
And for lunch one day we made Jack-O-Lantern pizzas

And throw in some ABC matching using Leap Frog magnet letters and a printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler for good measure
It was a fun week!
Here’s my little Buzz Lightyear!