Party Preparations: Monthly Pictures Display

I knew I wanted to display all of Jayden's monthly pictures at his party. I had a few ideas on how to do it, but when I came across little pots at a craft store, I decided to do this:

I bought little pots and added months to each one.

I also bought these little cubes with a photo holder that fit perfectly into the pots. 

I added spanish moss to the pots to cover the cube part and make it look like grass. (I also hired a cat model.)

I did a pot for each month from birth to 11 months.

One Week From Today!!

Jayden's birthday party is one week from today! I can't believe it!!

I am so happy we were able to finalize our adoption before his party. We will be celebrating both his birthday and his adoption. So much to c-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-e!

I realized the other day when I got all the RSVPs that there will be more people at Jayden's party than there were at our wedding!

To those of you thinking it's too early to start first birthday preparations...if your child is born, it's not too early! haha. I wish I had started earlier. I underestimated how hard it would be to get things done with Jayden getting into everything!

Here are some more pictures of things I've been doing for Jayden's birthday party. Some people asked if I could give more details and instructions on how to make things, so I'm trying my best to do that.

Welcome sign:

I ordered an 8x10 of Jayden and glued it to a 12x12 scrapbook paper.

I used the 'Day At The Zoo' Cricut cartridge to do the "Welcome" at the top.

I used 'Create A Critter' Cricut cartridge to make the balloons.

The "It's My Party" letters at the bottom are stickers.

I added ribbon to the bottom of the balloon stickers.

These pictures are awful, but this is another decoration I made:

I traced a bunch of circles on paper using a roll of masking tape as the circle.

I cut the circles out by hand with scissors.

I stamped animals on to each circle.

Punched small holes at the top and bottom of each circle.

Tied them all together.

Over the next week, I will posting a lot more party preparations!

Kids' Menu

Jayden is now eating enough that when we go to restaurants, I need to order something for him too. He's not satisfied just eating a few bites from us or eating a snack that we bring.

I'm new to the world of the "Kids' Menu."

Jayden is vegetarian, although even if he wasn't, I wouldn't be choosing things like hot dogs or chicken nuggets for him.

Macaroni and cheese is a common option, but every single time (even in nicer restaurants) I ask the waiter or waitress whether the macaroni and cheese is homemade, they say it's the Kraft kind from a box. REALLY? That is shocking to me. You expect me to pay anywhere from $4 to $6 dollars for you to give my child a serving of Kraft macaroni? Let's ignore for a second that I would never feed him that* and just look at the fact that it's insulting to charge people that price when it costs $1 for an entire box. And it takes zero culinary skill. Aren't they embarrassed to make it? They are chefs. Even I know how to make macaroni and cheese from scratch. It's not that hard.

Grilled cheese is another choice, but I am assuming that's just white bread and processed Kraft slices of cheese.

The other night I ended up buying him cheese quesadillas from the adult menu and paying extra to have veggies added to them. I was pleased with this decision because they came loaded with mushrooms, red peppers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, onion and a side of guacamole. He loved it. But, even after eating a good amount of it that night, my mom having some, and him eating it again for lunch the next day, there was still half of it leftover. (I can't eat it because of the onions.) I don't understand why stuff like that can't be offered on the kids' menu in a smaller portion.

Why did restaurants decide kids will only be served junk food? They are people too. They deserve to have meals made for them using real ingredients in the kitchen.

No wonder restaurants have those kids eat free deals all the time. The parents spend money on their meals and the restaurant only gives away $1 boxes of Kraft macaroni.

*I love a good creamy box of Kraft macaroni and cheese as much as anyone, but my crappy eating habits end with me. I am not passing them along to my son.

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.