Thursday, December 29, 2016

Baby J is 23 Months Old!

So, on December 26, J turned 23 months old!

He is growing and changing so much! His little personality is so funny and keeps us laughing!

He eats great! He is back to loving yogurt, which is great! He also loves cheese! Anything I am eating, he wants to eat, so that is how I get him  to eat a lot of new things.

He loves books! He will sit on my lap and bring me book after book. I got him some new Sandra Boynton books for Christmas and they are his new favorites. He also got some new Thant's not my... books and loves them too!

He is up to 33 inches and about 25 pounds!

He is sleeping great! 13 hours a night. Plus naps 2 hours a day!

He is still not talking that great, but he tries. He calls Michael, "Didle". Flash is "Ash" and Molly is "Olly" He tries hard. He will get it one day. But for now, he talks enough to let us know what he needs/wants. We will continue with Speech therapy for another 3 months and then reevaluate.

We had a great Christmas, and he didn't miss a beat while opening presents! He knew exactly what to do. His favorite presents were a remote control car and lots of balls. He also got a trike that I thought he would love, but I was wrong. Maybe he will like it more when he can peddle it by himself.

He is playing independently a lot more often now. It is nice to not have to constantly entertain him, and see him happily playing in the play room by himself.

He has a lot more interest in TV! Not that we want him watching TV all the time. But if it gives me a chance to take a shower without little eyes peeping through the curtain constantly, I'm happy! He loves a show on Netflix called Little Baby Bum. It is just nursery rhymes, but he loves it! Michael has also introduced him to Curious George, and he likes that too!

It is great that we live in the south, because the weather is mild, and not too cold. J would be outside all day long if possible!

He is so fun, and makes us laugh all the time! We love you baby J!




Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Christmas card 2016

I sent out two different Christmas Cards this year. I’m always on the look out for free cards, and Shutterfly and snapfish never disappoint! And since I used our family pictures we took in July, I was ready to print my cards as soon as they offered a free promotion!

The first card was a tri-fold card with a letter written about our year. We had a lot to share this year!! I sent those to relatives we don’t see during the year and aren’t on Facebook to see updates about our family. 






The other card also had a little letter, but not nearly as lengthy and just mentioned the highlights!



I think both cards turned out great! 
Thanks Snapfish and Shutterfly!!

**Now that I can show Jayden's face, I figured I would post our Christmas card from last year! December 2017**

Sunday, December 18, 2016

8 Months With Baby J

Today J has been home for 8 months! Here is what he has been up to:

He growing like a weed! When he came home he was in Size 12 month everything. Now he is in 18 month and some of those are even getting too short. We are having to move up ton24 month pajamas now. He has grown almost 5 inches!

He is eating great! Trying lots of new things and loving a lot. He eats the most during dinner and usually just snacks the rest of the day. But if he is eating a good dinner, I'm not too worried about how much he eats the rest of the day. He is drinking mostly milk, but does love juice! We limit his juice intake, and try to get him to drink water, but he isn't a big fan.

He is sleeping great! A few weeks ago, there were two nights in a row where he slept 14 hours!! Must have been a growth spurt. We can tell if he is having a hard time emotionally, because his sleep will be off. He will either not go to bed good, or not nap well. He had a major regression a couple of weeks ago, and for about 4-5 days he did not go to bed good and also did not nap good. We are getting back into a good schedule this week, so hopefully that will stick.

He is NOT a fan of Santa! We have tried twice, and both times he is not at all excited and starts crying. I'm not one of those moms that is going to plop him on santa's lap just to get a crying picture. I think that is just horrible.

And my boy has had enough trauma in his life, he doesn't need more. So both times I will hold him and talk to santa, but he still does not like it. But that is ok. Maybe next year...

He loves books! He will sit and bring me book after book to read to him. He really likes Sandra Boynton books, and so did Michael. They are fun, rhyming books with fun animals.

J loves going to speech every week, and has made a lot of progress. He still has a long way to go, but he will get there. He has started trying to repeat what we say, where as before he wouldn't even try. He is also answering my questions with real answers. Where's Michael? "School". Where's daddy? "Work".
Where is you milk? "Floor"
He has trouble remembering the word "yes". He always answers no, and I always say, yes? And if he means yes, he will say yes back, but if he means no, then he repeats the no. Our new goal is to try to get him to say 2-3 word sentences. He does that some, but with only a few select phrases. "Where's Michael?" "Where's J" "There he is."

He still loves to play with balls. He kicks them, throws them, and hits them with a bat. And any long stick like object can be a bat. He is also really getting into toy cars. Michael has loved cars forever, so there are a lot around the house. So he plays with the hot wheels race track a lot.

He loved peek a boo. He plays in the car, behind a chair, under a blanket, next to the Christmas tree, behind his hands, anywhere or anything he can hide behind he will.

He has turned into a little charmer with me. It mostly happens in the grocery cart, but has happened a few times at home. Anytime I have to tell him to stop doing something , mostly trying to stand up in the cart, he will look at me, say "mama" I'm the sweetest voice and then give me the biggest hug. And it works every time. He knows he's got me!

We are so excited about celebrating Christmas with J this week! We had prayed for two years for another baby to share Christmas with, and this year he is here!!
Thanksgiving 2014 we decided to adopt again and Christmas 2014 we told our families that we would be adopting again! 2 years later and our prayers were answered!!

We are so thankful that we get to be his family!!!

What a blessing he is to our family!!

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

7 Months with Baby J and 22 month update

7 Months with Baby J and 22 month update
Well this post is very late! Thanksgiving vacation got me distracted, and then. Last week I was busy getting back to normal life. So here I am, 2 weeks late posting his update. So I decided to just combine the two. 
J has been doing great!! Sleeping great, eating great, playing by himself good, branching out to new toys for longer period of times, sitting and watching a show for a short period of time. 
He is just doing really well. Growing and changing all the time. He is getting taller and gaining weight still. 

He still doesn't say much, but he tries. Speech therapy is going well still and he loves Ms, Gina! He also loves books!! 

We spent a week at the beach during thanksgiving week and it was incredible! 
We had the best time and J did so well. He did great in the car on the way down and slept so good while we were there. 
The only thing that did not go well was our visit with Goofy and Donald Duck. They were at the resort taking pictures on thanksgiving. J freaked out!! Screaming and crying and holding onto me like they were the scariest things he had ever seen. So, needless to say, no pictures with the characters! 
So, this is a super short post, but I'll be back in a few weeks with the next month's update.