Happy Birthday Big Boy!

What a bittersweet birthday! My little round ball of love turned one this past week and I don't know whether to cry of happiness or sadness! He's moving around so quickly lately I'm afraid he's going to leave the front door sooner than I would like him to...how the time does fly!

The day before his first birthday (Tuesday) he took his first few steps! It was very exciting for everyone!

Here are a few pictures and videos of him eating his cupcake. It's clear he truly is part of our family and has a sweet tooth! Enjoy!

New Year (2 weeks late)!

I still can't figure out where the time between Halloween and January 16 went to. Oops now it's January 17th already! See how time flies?

In a nutshell, we've enjoyed the last few months of holidays with friends and family. Justin got to enjoy his first Chanukah, and of course, ended up loving the wrapping paper more than any gift he got. Jordan got a trillion times more gifts than him and our big family gift this year was the Wii system. We even got Aunt Sam and Uncle Mike to visit us for a weekend where Mike managed to teach Jordan some moves. Despite the snowstorm we got in late December we were still able to celebrate Chanukah with Bubbee and Zayda and Nicky and our cousins down in Haddonfield with some yummy brisket that mom made.

Justin has been on the move since about 8 months, around Halloween. He has figured out that crawling on hardwood floors is quite painful, and has figured out a new method to getting around. He uses his right foot as a push to catapult himself forward rather than crawling on it. Take a looksie here. It's really quite funny and he's super fast. Interestingly enough, when he's on carpet he crawls the traditional way.

We've had to put up gates, lock doors and quickly baby proof to avoid any accidents to the little guy. He has also finally healed from his stomach dehydration incident of October. He's back to eating nearly all foods and just over 2o lbs. He has started taking some small steps, and likes to use this small hippo walker to get around. The boys are getting along pretty great, although there has been some jealousy between Jordan and Justin (surprise there :)

Just a few more pics:

Doesn't Aunt Sam have a "Please don't leave me with your kids" look??

We are looking forward to celebrating Justin's first birthday in a few weeks! We cannot believe it is here already!

Fun in the Tub

You know what they say. Don't bother buying toys because they are just as happy in a box. Or a plastic bin :)

Quack and Buzz

Ah Halloween. The best holiday ever! This was probably the first year Jordan got super excited about Halloween-running from house to house in search of more (and even more) candy. I don't even want to talk about how much candy we have in our house right now. I'm just thankful I'm not pregnant again and addicted to Sour Patch Kids.

Anyway, I digress. Two days late is better than never. Pics from our wet but fun Halloween. Quack and Buzz.

I really tried my best!

Tonight Jordan's elementary school, The Gregory School, had a social function at the ice skating rink. Now, for those of you who don't know me, I'm not the best on wheels, much less blades for that matter. Learned to bike ride at 21. Yes, you read that right. Roller skated when I was a kid by hanging onto other kids. Ice skated once at 20 where I fell on the rink and was brought into the ER so they could drain my knees of fluid. I'm just not the best on balancing of any sort. Running marathons? Climbing? Flying through the air on a zipline unthinkable heights? I'm your girl. Balancing? Not so much.

I had thrown the idea of ice skating at William a week ago. He was like SURE no problem-I'll do it. But once he got his legs into the skates, he was like NO WAY AM I GOING THROUGH WITH THIS! I looked at Jordy who was like HELP ME MOMMY-DON'T LET ME OUT ON THE RINK ALONE! So me being the guilty mom, thought I'd give it one more shot on the rink.

So, Jordan, I really did try my BEST tonight as I hung to the side of the rink like a scared two year old. And I know I was of no help to you at all. But, thanks to my dear friends Mark and Adria who fearlessly brought him around and made him feel like sort-of-a-typical kid :)

Kindergarten!

So I haven't posted about Jordan's Kindergarten yet...

I'm somewhat mixed with the curriculum. First week I was told they would be learning colors. Colors? Really? O Boy I thought. Are there really kids that don't know their colors yet? But, as it turns out, they learned how to spell and write the colors which I suppose is better than just learning what green looks like. Hmph.

Each day Jordan comes home with a report of whose name was on the chalkboard for "misbehavior." Now, as far as he's told me, Jordan's name has NOT been put on the board yet. I did ask his teacher Mrs. Mace how he was adjusting and she told me for the first few days he was silly. I can only imagine what that means. In fact I know what it means because she told me he was hiding behind her. I think as soon as she introduced the "I'm in charge" speech he settled down and decided to only be silly after 3:13pm. Lucky me :)

Here's a pic from the first day...yeah yeah...I know 2 weeks late. I never said I was perfect :)

Happy New Year! Happy Kindergarten! Happy New House!

Happy Craziness from the Amayas! That's what I wanted to send out this year as a NewYear card from us! All great stuff, but we've been super busy with all the changes going on here!

We've been in our new house for about 2 weeks now, and as you can imagine, pretty busy trying to unpack and get "settled" with 2 kids in tow. We also were very excited to see Jordan start Kindergarten at the Gregory School!

We went to SouthJersey on Saturday to celebrate the New Year, and because of all the new changes with everyone, we decided to go out for dinner rather than do it at home. I have to say it was a load of fun. Everyone was very relaxed, we all ordered whatever we wanted (Jordan got a hot dog AND pancakes) and all in all the kids were happy and not too silly. We got some great pictures of Bubbee and Zayda with the kids so I'm posting them here. We did however, miss Samala and Mike in the festivities.

PS. I'm not posting any of William because Sadie decided to play hairdresser with him and the poor guy-well let's just say his hair was a big ole mess.