Happy 3rd Birthday!

JM turns 3 today! Our first birthday with him was so special. I think JM now gets the idea that it's his birthday. We're practicing holding up 3 fingers and he certainly knows how to eat cake and open presents!

We were so happy to share this weekend with family and friends (more details, perhaps, later!). Our extended family also welcomed a new baby girl yesterday. Congrats to Douglas, Tracy and family! It was a great birthday/Mother's Day weekend.

We have many reasons to celebrate.

It's official!

We're happy to announce JM's adoption was finalized on April 15!

Outside the Courthouse in Doylestown.

We celebrated with an afternoon at the NJ Aquarium, and JM saying "Hi Sharky!", "Hi Turtle", etc. It was a great day.

The next morning we left for a fun trip to Williamsburg, VA with our neigbhors. Later in the week  Aunt Michelle, Natalie and Noah visited (Happy 5th Birthday Natalie), and we enjoyed Easter dinner/egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Spring is finally here!

1 year ago today...

On March 9, 2010, we received the news we had been waiting for ... it's a boy! What a year since.

After mountains of paperwork and travel plans, we met JM early in August and brought him back to meet Maggie and another new pal, our dog Lucy. Some random milestones in the last year:

• lots of new words
• conquering the stairs
• discovering favorite foods, like ice cream, pizza, bananas, yogurt, eggs
• meeting family and friends
• so many firsts: kisses to Mommy, Daddy, & Maggie, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas & Valentine's Day sleeping through the night, saying "no" - a new favorite word :), haircut (with us anyway), snow and hot chocolate

post hot chocolate sugar rush

It's been a busy year - sometimes we tired eachother out.

I'm finding it hard to express just how much we love JM and how full our lives are. He is an energetic, silly, sweet kid - very much a boy. His smile is wide and his jump shot strong! We couldn't be happier to call him son.

JM's birthday is in May and we hope to finalize JM's adoption soon. We will keep you posted here. Thanks to you all for your love and support.

Snow!

Just a quick update -- JM is really enjoying the snow. He keeps shouting "snow, snow!" and "snowman!
Keith took JM sledding yesterday (Maggie was sledding with her friend Maya). The photos below say it all - he loved it.

JM loves to play and to play hard. He is in a "look at me" phase, so he's often showing off his latest skills. These usually involve jumping, spinning, turning something into a sled, etc.

On the developmental front, JM is working with a teacher two times a month and a speech therapist once a month to help him catch up a bit. He's starting to use pronouns more and is currently obsessed with possessive objects. JM walks around identifying what is "Maggie's", "Lucy's", and on and on.

Right now he's napping (yeah!) but I think he'll stir soon, so this post will be short. More later!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Maggie (missing another tooth, but adding chocolate to her lips!) and JM are really enjoying the holidays. JM helped decorate the tree in typical 2 yr old boy fashion - by throwing some ornaments and using others as hockey sticks. He loves spotting Santa anywhere and everywhere. Maggie is showing JM the ropes. They are opening a few early presents, have decorated a gingerbread house, and have gone to see Santa. Maggie and JM both love the very, very colorful light display Keith has put together outside the house. Clark Griswold does live here!

JM had some minor surgery - tubes in his ears - this past Monday. He definitely is hearing better and his pronunciation has already improved. He'll begin some speech therapy and meetings with an early intervention teacher on Monday. Our contacts at early intervention think he'll do well and make quick progress.

Meanwhile, both he and Maggie continue to make us laugh. Both love to sing and dance around. JM and I have discovered a fondness for James Brown while car-dancing on the way to day care. He is too cute.

We hope you all have great holidays! I'll try to post more often!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's almost Turkey Day. Lots to do, but I think we're all very excited. JM, of course, doesn't know what to expect, but Maggie has already chosen her outfits (yes, plural) and created the seating chart. On Thanksgiving, JM will meet Aunt Michelle, Uncle Trevor and cousins Natalie and Noah for the first time - should be a great day. We'll also spend some time with Big Pappy and Uncle Mike. Then, on Friday, lots of fun with the Layman cousins!

JM is a happy and energetic little boy. He loves singing, playing outside and in the basement. He jumps and climbs on anything and throws everything. We'll need to work on the latter, but I have to say the kid has a good arm :)

On the developmental front, we think JM may have fluid behind his eardrums, so we're headed to the ENT in early December. We'll see what they recommend. We'll start a bit of speech therapy regardless of the diagnosis. He's picking up a lot of new words but having some trouble with pronunciation. This could all be related to the eardrums, so hopefully we'll have a plan of action soon.

Daycare is going well, though there are still tears at drop off. His teachers report he is doing well, likes to participate and blows kisses to them. He talks about his teachers often, which is comforting to us. He has also been getting up very early, so occasionally he doesn't quite make it to nap time.

Even though we still haven't eaten all of the Halloween Candy yet (see above - Maggie as Princess Fiona from Shrek and JM as Lion; from our trip to Dutch Wonderland with friend Shira and her daughter, Maya), it's on to pumkin pie. It's that time of year, right?

Wishing you all the Happiest Thanksgiving!

Amy, Keith, Maggie and JM

ps - Congratulations to Shira, Mark and Maya on their recent referral!



Back to Work and Halloween

JM has been transitioning to day care since my return to work. He still cries at drop off he is now getting used to the routine, enjoying the songs, circle time and playground and is becoming close with one teacher and a few of the kids (he speaks of "Will" quite a bit). Keith and Grandma are also back in day care/bus pick-up routines (thanks Grandma!). For my part, I'm enjoying work and adult conversation and am slowly getting over the guilt associated with drop off.

We've been having lots of fun recently - trips to the pumpkin patch (see the "corn box" below) and Halloween of course. JM has a major sweet tooth. Which reminds me I'll have to make that dentist appointment soon.

Maggie was Nanny McPhee and JM was a lion. He didn't master "Trick or treat" but he did roar and say thank you.

Keith is running the New York marathon next week so we're all headed to the city to cheer him on. Should be a good weekend.

That's all for now - Thanksgiving here we come!

~Amy