Mid Autumn Moon Festival

We were invited to the Island to celebrate the mid autumn moon festival with a group of fellow adoptive parents & friends. What fun we had! the weather was great, food fantastic & it is always so wonderful to see our group of kiddies enjoying time together :) Half of the group adopted prior to the adoption shutdown so their children are almost teenagers. I like getting a glimpse into what life may be like for us in the future! the other half of the group adopted around the same time as we did, so our kids are all fairly close in age.

The kids were excited to take the ferry across to the Island, it was our first time on the island. Of course the kids noticed the amusement park first thing so I know another trip will likely be made next summer.

first time o the ferry. the kids loved watching the other boats go by.

when we first arrived the kids had a parade with the music makers. hey- if it makes noise my guys love it!

Grayson with mommy. 

plenty of open space to run around. I think Grayson became much faster after this weekend.

the kids found the church bell and would ring it over and over again.  probably some of the most fun of the evening :)

some fun with the parachute

lantern decorating

lantern fishing? notice the boys came up with this game.

one of many group photos taken on this beautiful old tree.

Noah with his lantern

the evening ended with a lantern parade.

With a ferry to catch our evening came all too quickly to an end. We weren't quite finished celebrating so we planned a second mid-autumn moon festival with friends that live close by :)

more lantern decorating, even grayson made a lantern :)

we took a similar photo last year, just look at how much these babies have grown!

group photo

at this point everyone was overtired and ready to end the night lol 

some parading down the street

Thanks for celebrating with us friends! we look forward to many holiday celebrations in the future.

Noah's First Day of Preschool

During the summer Noah enjoyed a week long day camp with his brother. It was the first time he had to do something without me there & it was a nice transition because he still had his big brother around to help him out. Being the middle child I find that not only does he get a ton of hand me downs, he also doesn't get to experience as many things on his own. 

We found a preschool program that is offered once a week and runs for the school year, we thought it was a great opportunity for Noah to try something on his own without mommy around :) Here is my sweetie on his first day! Backpack is compliments of Grandma & he loves it, he even asks to carry his backpack when we walk Owen to school!

LOVE this picture of Noah :) soooo cute & innocent.

my two boys ready for school

he's looking a little nervous, but this is a usual Noah 'look'

I wasn't sure if Noah really understood that Mommy wouldn't be staying with him at preschool because he didn't express anything in the days ahead. I made sure to tell him that he'd meet some new friends and the teachers would help him with anything he needed & that Mommy would pick him up at lunch time, he didn't seem to care about it either way lol. When I dropped him off there were no tears and after a quick kiss he went off to play. When I picked him up I could see him looking for me from circle time and he came running to give me a hug & kiss when they dismissed him! so cute!

Way to go Noah! We're so proud of you :)

13 Months

13 Months Old! and I've got a full time walker on my hands now :) he prefers to be on his feet at all times and rarely crawls anymore. He had a week of really terrible sleep & I was sure his teeth were coming in, but he still has none! His gums are sooo swollen and I can feel some bumps under there - so they must be there right? HIs hair has been growing like a weed and is starting to get hard to manage. I expect a first hair cut not to be too far in the future, just another sign that he's growing up. 

Grayson has taken to Homogenized milk well and gets one bottle in the morning and another in the evening. I still nurse him late afternoon, before bed & if he wakes at night to nurse - which is usually just once these past few days YAY! He did have 1 night that he slept through the night & I was shocked when I woke up in the morning and realized he'd slept for 10 hours! pure bliss I tell you. He seems to be weaning himself from nursing and I'm a bit sad to move forward and lose yet another baby phase, but I'm focusing on how much fun he's becoming & watching him learn new things every day :)

We've been putting him in his crib for some naps and when he goes to bed at night, but we aren't very diligent about it. He usually sleeps most of his naps beside me on the couch & sleeps most of the night  cuddled up between mommy & daddy. 

it's hard to get photos of Grayson because he constantly gets up and walks towards the camera!

his very favourite toy - his new ball from Papa!

He's started eating more foods that we are having for meals just cut up really tiny, but for the most part still has baby food. 

Just recently he's started giving big open mouth kisses and his new words are "mama, dada, baba (bottle or nursing),& ba or baba for ball" as soon as he sees a ball he starts saying ball and wanting to play with it. 

I had a couple of new daycare kids start at the end of August & they are working out great with my kids and the current daycare group. Grayson has been showing some jealousy though with the little girl, she's only a month older than him. Hopefully that settles down soon when they all get used to our new normal - suddenly my baby has to wait for things and he's not liking that too much!

updated with walking video :)

Happy 13 Months Baby!

First Day Of Senior Kindergarten

Oh Wow that summer just flew by & I can hardly believe it is back to school time already! My little boy started senior kindergarten this year and loves it! It helps that all of the kindergarten classes are JK/SK split and the students are expected to have the same kindergarten teacher as the year before. Such a bonus! especially because he loves his teacher & the group of SK kids are fantastic. 

The last couple of weeks of summer vacation was spent shopping for some new clothes, shoes & backpack. Owen's one request was a pair of light up shoes & the challenge of finding him some in his size was brutal! Luckily, we found him a pair he liked at a shoe warehouse - he chose some star wars light up shoes for his outdoors & he chose a pair of running shoes that had green lantern on them for indoor. I bought him a few cute fall clothes but the weather has been too warm to wear them yet.

The first day of school poured rain & I wasn't able to get very great photos :(  I was worried that Owen would be nervous of the thunderstorm coming, but he seemed to manage alright with it at school. It was a quick drop off because of the rain & I wasn't prepared for my little guy to go off so easily - but it was great to see how excited he was to see his classmates & teachers.

First day photo with his teachers. Owen was thrilled to be the 'leader' for the day & his teacher told me that she chose him because he's her go to guy to get the job done right lol. I guess with so many new JK's there isn't time to worry about teaching someone how to be the leader lol. The leader apparently gets to line up first, lead the prayers, sit in the rocking chair during story time etc. 

Since the first day back to school I've been amazed by how much confidence Owen has this year. He enjoyed school last year, but this year seems to be so outgoing with the kids & speaking more about what his friends are doing etc. It also seems like there is a group of the SK boys that are playing & eating lunch together etc. This morning on the walk to school he told me he didn't see any of his friends in the yard yet & hoped they'd get there soon :)

Growing up before my eyes! 

Grayson's 1st Birthday Party

Grayson's 1st birthday party was celebrated with family on his birthday, August 12th. We had a great time celebrating together & even though Grayson was getting a little sleepy he managed to get in all of his party before his nap.

We were scheduled to get photos taken of the boys with a local photographer but they got cancelled because of the weather :( Sunday morning we dressed the boys up in their new cute clothes & tried to get some cute photos of them. Below is a cute pic of my little 1 year old! oh how I hope he stays so sweet!

Grayson's first birthday was a sesame street theme. I made these cupcakes saturday afternoon & by Sunday the eyes had all melted together, I'm not sure what happened :( oh well - despite big bird not turning out the way I pictured, they all resemble sesame street characters & they tasted yummy too!

Grayson started to get tired just after lunch, so we quickly decided we should give him his first taste of sugar & sing Happy Birthday to him.

He really wasn't sure what the fuss was about & my normally very smiley baby was a tad grumpy!

He'd rather have the sesame street plate - he quickly tried to discard his cupcake. Grayson didn't want to even taste it!

After mommy put the cupcake back on the plate he decided to try & pick off the icing. Surely if something is green, it must not taste very good.

Eventually Papa snuck him a taste of the icing and his cupcake view was changed!

Grayson ended up eating almost an entire cupcake - some of the cake was left behind under his chin & inside his shirt!

Yummy! 

After cake we opened his presents,  Grayson received many great gifts from his family!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby!

Around Here

Here are a couple of videos taken over the last couple of days. These kids sure do make me smile :) I love them so!

I love that Noah 'sings' along to the song even though he doesn't know the words & how they always watch their reflection in the t.v when dancing :)

Oh Grayson was so sleepy that evening! Such a cute moment to capture.

1 Year Old!

Grayson turned 1 year old on August 12th! I can't believe it. The year has just flown by, and while there were times I wasn't sure how we'd make it through, we did :) I'm looking at these adorable photos of my youngest on his birthday and I can suddenly see why so many people are saying he looks less babyish & more like a big boy...sniff :( he'll still be my baby forever, but I am seeing him transform into a super cute, super sweet little boy. I know how fun this age is but I'm having the hardest time with letting him grow up. It was much easier with the other two boys, I wonder if it's because I'm expecting Grayson to be our last baby? who knows, it's hard though!

At twelve months old Grayson still has no teeth, he's got a big gummy grin but it looks like maybe those swollen gums will cut some teeth soon. He's still a tiny little guy, he often looks much younger than some of his friends the same age. On wednesday he has a Doctor's appointment so I'll update his stats then. I'm guessing he's 19lbs or so. He still fits into his infant car seat but we just recently switched him to his big boy seat. Even though he fit, it's still heavy to lug that thing around. Plus when we go out it's easier to put him in the ergo or stroller, he likes to look around at things. 

Updated With Current Stats: Grayson is 17lbs.11oz (3rd percentile), his height is 76cm (50th percentile) & his head circumference is 43.5 cm (not even on the growth chart). My little one is smaller than I realized :) he's still following the same growth curve he has been since birth, growing consistently. People always comment on how tall Grayson is, but based on his stats he must appear tall because he is so thin.

Grayson sure is a happy baby! rarely cries and if he does it isn't for very long. He's a mommy's boy and   most of his whining takes place when he's lost sight of me. He thinks his big brothers are hilarious and his new game is to crawl after them and chase them around. He's got quite a screech while playing, I often think it's one of the big kids making noise & when I look it's him :) he'll fit right in with the rest of these guys! His favourite toys are cars, trucks and balls - I'm not sure how that happens so quickly. He's been making car noises like "vroom" when he plays with them, it's so cute.

Grayson has been standing well on his own & started taking his very first steps on his big bro's birthday (July 31st). He's not quite a 'walker' yet, still crawls around as his main method of transportation but he is well on his way! he generally will take a few steps then get down & crawl, get up take a few more etc. If he's distracted with something in his hands he'll walk much further than when he's concentrating on walking :) he's actually taken about 20 steps from the coffee table to the kitchen, but mostly it's only a few at a time.

My baby is quite the dancer (video soon) any music he hears he starts to dance to it :) he's recently learned how to put the stereo on and dance :) Even if he hears music while sleeping his body automatically starts moving to the music! 

Grayson loves to chatter and babble. He's just started using dada for daddy & I caught him saying "dada" over and over while watching Gavin from the window while he was coming in from the car :) I've heard him say "bye" while waving but that's only been a 1 time thing. He does get his point across & will shake his head no if he doesn't like something. He has started to mimic a few sounds so maybe he'll start saying some words soon.

Food wise he's not a big eater & is still mostly eating baby food. I've got to start having him try more regular textured foods & see what he can handle. We've sort of fallen into feeding him foods that are easy and convenient, must get out of that habit soon! He still nurses regularly during the day, and a couple of times throughout the night. I'm expecting to start weaning him by offering him some homogenized milk at lunch, hopefully he'll transition easy to that. I'm just trying to decide if I want to keep him using a sippy cup or try a bottle - I'm undecided on that. I'll let him wean himself completely when he's ready, but will be starting him on milk very soon.

Sleep is another area we are going to work on, we probably are going to try him in his own room & crib soon - wish us luck with all of these changes!

Happy Birthday Baby!