Forever Family

It's official.

We went to court this morning to finalize our adoption.

Jayden is officially stuck with us forever. ;)

From the moment we got to court, Jayden was busy charming everyone. In the waiting area he was walking around and dancing. He loved the marble floors. He reached down and touched the floor a couple times. He seemed so happy to be there. Everyone that walked through commented on how cute he was.

My Aunt gave him a kitty stuffed animal, which he loved.

In the courtroom the judge said it was okay to let him walk around because he was not in the mood to sit. He ended up starting up a game of peek-a-boo with the judge. Then he was blowing him kisses! The judge even blew him a  kiss back. It was so funny. He was walking around the courtroom like he owned the place.

My parents and my Aunt came with us. It was so nice to have them there celebrating with us. Then right after we left court, I checked my phone and there were so many tweets and texts and love from all over. We are so grateful to have had so much love and support through our adoption journey. Jayden is so loved.

We went out to breakfast with my Mom and Aunt after we left court.

Then we went home so Jay could take a nap.

Later in the afternoon Jen from This Is More Personal and her wonderful husband came by for a visit while they were in town. It was so special to have one of Jayden's twitter Aunts be part of the big day. Jen, like so many of Jayden's twitter Aunts, has been a huge source of support throughout our adoption journey.

We then met family out at a restaurant for a celebratory dinner. I love times like this because it's such a big reminder of how loved Jayden is. And he did so well! Court and two meals in a restaurant...all in one day...and he did amazing! Especially since he only had one nap and dinner was close to bedtime. His favorite part of dinner was sitting next to Grandpa. He was copying everything Grandpa did.

I've known since the moment I met Jayden that he was my son, but I don't think I realized until today how much finalization meant to me. I thought I would be able to put those feelings into words in this blog post, but I really can't express the full range of emotions I felt. I spent a lot of today thinking about our journey that led us to today. Everything we went through before Jayden came into our lives. I mostly thought about how lucky we are. After 11.5 months of parenting Jayden, it still feels surreal sometimes. And I don't think I realized until today that I have been holding my breath this whole time. Kind of waiting for the floor to drop out from under us. But, it didn't. And it never will. This is forever.

Like our lawyer said to us today, now we just need to worry about living happily ever after. :)

Jayden's Birthday Present Is Here!

Look what arrived at our side door!

Jayden's birthday present is here!!!

I can't tell you what it is because Jayden reads my blog ;)

Busy Baby

In the past few days Jayden has been very busy learning new things.

Walking Backwards
This one was hilarious. He all of a sudden realized he could walk backwards. As the day went on I kept seeing him slowly walking through the room backwards with a little smile on his face.

Blowing Kisses
He doesn't know how to make the kiss noise with his lips yet but he did figure out that if he sticks one finger in his mouth and pulls it out while sucking on it that it makes a kiss noise. So now when you ask him to blow you a kiss, that's what  he does.

Clapping
He all of a sudden started clapping and it's adorable because he looks so proud of himself when he does it.

New Dance Moves
There is nothing in the world I love more than baby dancing. He has added a few new moves into the mix and it kills me. One of them is a foot tap (or maybe more of a stomp.)

The Fake Out
He has figured out how to pretend he's done trying to do something, walk away, and then quickly turn and make a run for whatever he wants. Like if a gate is open and we block him from going that way. He will start to walk in the opposite direction like he gave up, then quickly turn, and make a run for it! He also did it the other day when I wouldn't let him put his hand in the toilet.

New Words
He now repeats "Get down!" with surprising accuracy. (If only he listened to those instructions as well as he repeats them.)

With being so busy learning new things, he doesn't have time for boring things like sleep. Why does that always happen?? When he's learning new things, he doesn't sleep. Like when he started walking along furniture, he would also practice in his crib at night. I would watch him on the monitor walking around his crib.

It's not like his sleep was ever good. He never makes it past 5:30 AM in his crib. Most nights it's much earlier and then I can usually get him to sleep in our bed a couple more hours.

But lately even bedtime has been rough. And the big wake up is more like midnight.

At 11 months I really thought we'd have a baby that slept through the night.

I'm exhausted.

But then I put some good music on and watch baby dancing and everything in the world is perfect.

Adam's Birthday

Adam took the day off of work for his birthday on Friday and we took Jayden to the spray park. Jayden and I have gone a few times, but this was Adam's first time going.

I like this picture because it looks like the cheerio is suspended in the air.

Every year for Adam's birthday we go to a restaurant about 45 minutes away. We've been doing it for 10 years now. It's a little nicer/quieter of a place than we usually take Jayden. I was nervous about the longer drive and then keeping him quiet in the restaurant, but Jayden did pretty well. Adam and I took turns walking him outside in between courses and I had a bag of toys to distract him when he wasn't eating.

One thing that he kept doing was laughing/squealing when people at other tables laughed or got loud. Like he was in on the joke. A table of older people near us got a real kick out of that. Actually, a lot of people in the restaurant were nice, smiling, and saying how cute he is. All except one table who were shooting us dirty looks.

 The big koosh ball always works as a distraction.

The really funny thing about this birthday is that two packages arrived on Adam's birthday. They were both for Jayden. Although one of them was NY Giants onesies so those are just as much for Adam. :)

And while we were out shopping for Adam's birthday present (a printer) Jayden also ended up getting a present.

A hippo chair.

I couldn't resist.

Birthday Party Progress

I wasn't as productive as I had hoped this weekend, but I did make some progress. Here it is:

(I still have a ways to go with these. This is less than half of what we will need.)

(It will say Happy Birthday Jayden when it's complete.)

The Invitation

I asked you guys for party planning websites and advice a couple months ago and oh boy did you come through!

I had so much fun following all your links and gathering ideas.

The big party is only three weeks away now. We will be finalizing our adoption the week before Jayden's party so we will be celebrating both finalization and his first birthday in one big party. I AM SO EXCITED!!

I decided to go with an animal theme because Jayden loves animals.

I am in the middle of a couple birthday party projects right now that I will be sharing with all of you when I get a little farther, but for now I will leave you with a picture of the invitation.

Not pictured is an insert asking guests to bring something to add to Jayden's "First Birthday" time capsule. A letter, picture, poem, song lyrics, newspaper clipping-- whatever they think of.

Also not pictured is the address labels I had made for his invitations. On the left side of the label, there is a little cake with the number 1 on it. On the right side, there is a picture of Jayden.

11 Months

Eleven Months

I gave him food to eat so he would sit there long enough for pictures :)

Sitting didn't last long.

Sometimes you have to catch pictures as he runs by.

He still loves looking at books.

He loves to play peek-a-boo. He started this round by peeking around a corner at me.

If you say, "How big is Jayden?" he loves to do "SO BIG" with his arms. He gets a big smile on his face when he does it. Adam can't get enough of it.

Jayden has become such a little person. I feel like we're friends now. Like we have inside jokes and laugh with each other about things. Just as I was getting sad about him turning one soon, he turns into this awesome little person and I can't be sad because I am too busy being excited for what's next.

Like his love for trains makes me so excited about getting him a train table to play on. He has played with train/car tables at Barnes and Noble and the library. There was one at a party we went to and he played with it for most of the time we were there. I plan on getting him one for Christmas.

He actually loves anything with wheels. My brother got him his first bike. (He has to grow a few inches to use it, hehe.) He loves to spin the wheels when the bike is upside down.

We had a family reunion this past month so he got to play with cousins that he had never played with before.

He went to the beach for the first time. He did so well with both the sand and the water. He loved it.

He had his first outing with just Jayden and Daddy. They went to the neighborhood playground one evening after Adam got out of work. Adam said there were all sorts of people to meet and things to play on, but Jayden was only interested in playing with Adam's keys.

He has figured out how to play his basketball game and he LOVES IT.

He likes playing with his kick ball too.

He enjoys playing with his raceway when Adam sits and plays with him.

But his favorite way to use his raceway is to sit in it.

He's gotten so good at walking. Even on tricky surfaces like grass, sand, and wood chips. He can walk and carry big toys or even drink from his sippy cup as he goes. He has gotten pretty fast, especially if he sees a gate open and wants to make a run for it. The coolest thing was watching him learn how to walk uphill. The trial and error on that was so funny. It took a couple falls back on his bottom before he realized he needed to lean into it.

He says hi, mama, kitty, and dada (actually, either da or dadada.) One day when Adam came home from work Jayden was watching him at the front door and saying "dadada." One time at the spray park Jayden got sleepy so I was holding him so he could take a nap and as he fell asleep, he touched my face and said "mama." It was so sweet. My heart melted. Kitty is his favorite one. He loves kitties. Kitties in books, on puzzles, or in real life. One day I heard him scream and I looked over quick and realized it was because he found a kitty in one of his books. He got all low to the ground where the book was and put his face right up to it so he could get a better look.

He says a few other words if we say them first. If not the whole word, then something that sounds like it.

He signs finished, more, listen, and milk. Although he hasn't been signing as much the last couple weeks.

He doesn't clap yet, but he now waves hello and goodbye.

He has started to hold his own bottle every once in a while if he needs to, but he would rather me do it. I think he's been able to do it for quite some time because he's been drinking well from a sippy cup for months. He just doesn't do it because he wants me to. I'll admit, I really don't mind it. Snuggling close to feed him is really nice. And with him eating more food and having less bottles, I cherish that time.

He had another haircut this month! It wasn't that long ago that he had his first one. I can't believe how long his hair had gotten again.

I bought his summer clothes in 9 months and 12 months, which has turned out to be a waste because he is not even close to fitting into 12 months yet. In fact, if he isn't wearing a cloth diaper, he still wears size 6 month shorts.

But, he is finally big enough to be able to wear baby leg warmers!! (Which I LOVE!!) Until now they would just fall down to his ankles right away.

He still only has those two little bottom teeth! There are two on the top that are coming...but they are taking forever and haven't broken the skin yet. It's really funny because they are not the front two. They are the next ones so he will look like a baby vampire when they finally come in.

The best thing about this past month is that we got our finalization date!! I can't wait to go to court and finally be declared a forever family.

I love this baby so much.