AJ is TWO AND A HALF!

Our little monkey boy is 2 and a half years old today! Happy half birthday AJ! Only 6 months left until the big number 3! It's hard to believe how fast time really does fly. I know parents always say that, but it is really true. One minute you are sleep deprived and tired from nursing and changing newborn diapers and the next minute you are still sleep deprived--but with a toddler that keeps you tired from running around making messes and keeping you on your feet. At least they sleep through the night!

Some things about AJ:

Favorite Color: Burgandy, as in Redskins Burgandy
Favorite Shirt: Any Redskins Jersey, of course
Favorite Movie: Nacho Libre--or as AJ says it, Nachos Libres. Yes, I know--it's not a kid movie, but John had it on his I Phone and AJ found it and started watching (yes he does know how to work an I Phone!). Toy Story comes in a close second.
Favorite Sport: ALL!
Mr. Independent: AJ now wants to do everything all by himself. If he can't reach it, he brings his chair over to it to get it. If we try to help, he doesn't want our help!
....BUUUTT: He still really loves to snuggle with his mommy and daddy. He loves to have his back rubbed.
Potty Training: It's...well, it's going. Without being very TMI, AJ has the peeing down and will tell us usually when he has to go (provided he isn't too involved with his activity), but he still doesn't 'get' #2. He can get it, but he goes so often, I think it intimidates him :).
Singing: AJ loves to sing all kinds of songs--usually making nursery songs into hip hop or rock mixes. He is too funny.

We had a parent-teacher conference yesterday and his teacher is very impressed with him. He will be leaving that class very shortly to move up to the next level, and while we are sad to see him leave his friends and teachers--we are happy for him to be moving on. We still very much love the school he goes to--and AJ does too.

Here are AJ's school photos from a few weeks back. He looks like a REALLY BIG BOY now!

Our Favorite photo:



He looks like a little studmuffin here:

We love this picture, but I don't get how a usually very beautiful smile from AJ turned into a bite-your-lip smile?

Happy half birthday AJ! Daddy and Mommy love you so much!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family! We travelled up to the Philadelphia area to celebrate at my Uncle George and Aunt Madeline's house. Their house is very beautiful and huge--I would love to live in their house! Despite the awful traffic on the way up, we sure enjoyed ourselves and the food. Everyone seemed to bring something so there was so much food and great company!

Here are most of us. Some of us got chopped off or cut out. There are just too many of us!


Three of the newest additions: Ava, AJ, and Leah. They had so much fun. They ran around the house screaming and chasing each other!

AJ gave everyone some great entertainment. He had his own Hip Hop rendition to B-I-N-G-O. He had everyone laughing!

Happy Thanksgiving--we have so much to be thankful for!

Breakfast with Santa

AJ and I had tickets to have Breakfast with Santa on Sunday morning. I know, I know--it's a little early, but it was for a good cause (the Junior League of Northern VA). The breakfast was really nice and Santa was a really good Santa! I'll explain more a little later.

Santa ran just a little bit behind and they wouldn't let us in the room, so we got to check out a model train set next door. AJ LOVED the trains. Some of them were really tricked out--one was a Nestle train and it had chocolate smoke coming out from it. It smelled sooo good and made me want Chocolate really bad. AJ wanted to 'blow it out' because he thought it was on fire. Here is AJ posing with the trains:


After the train set we waited in the hallway. Santa walked by and AJ about fell to the floor--he was SO excited. He kept saying, SANTA, OVER HERE. I was warned that he might hate Santa, but much like he loves Elmo and Mickey Mouse, he LOVED santa and wanted to take him home.

Then we were allowed in the room. AJ chowed down heavily on some food. He ate SO MUCH! An entire muffin, a half of a huge bagel with cream cheese, an english muffin with cheese eggs, and a ton of fruit. He must be going through a growth spurt because he never eats like he did this past weekend.

They called one kid up at a time to visit with Santa. AJ patiently waited and then got SO excited when it was HIS turn. He ran up to Santa and gave him a BIG hug. They had little slips of paper on the tables and instead of writing down what you want, you are supposed to write down all of the things you are going to do good in the New Year. AJ told me he would clean his toys up (already failed!), listen to mommy and daddy (he is usually good at this), and share his toys with his cousins and friends (we will see).

Santa was really impressed with AJ, which made a mommy feel really proud. He said, "I can't believe he is only 2--he talks so well!" and "Usually kids are scared of me at this age, he isn't at all!". They took some professional pictures (for free--but they are printed out and I haven't scanned them in yet) and we said our goodbyes to Santa. Santa gave AJ three peppermint candy canes. AJ promtly ate one and made a large mess. Thanks Santa.

Before we left, Santa told the kids a story. Now I do love Santa, but he must be really tired from making all of those toys and travelling to see the kids--because he wasn't a great story teller, even with a book. We will forgive him though.

Breakfast with Santa reminded me of my Grandfather--Grandpa Glose. As you recall from my postings previously, I lost my grandfather a year ago in October to cancer. As a kid, we would always visit Grandpa Glose and Grandma Marie around the holidays. One of my fondest memories was his Christmas train set. It was quite impressive. I also always thought my grandfather WAS Santa. Made me sad that AJ will not be able to enjoy his jovial Christmas ways. I know he is looking down on us smiling and so proud of AJ (and his other grandkids and great-grandkids).

While I'm being emotional, I was thinking about my Grandma Nelson. We lost her in June. Thanksgiving is on Thursday and it happened to be her favorite holiday. I get really emotional thinking we won't be going to her house to spend the holiday with her. Even though last year we had a wonderful first Thanksgiving in VA, I just wish we had all talked her into having Thanksgiving. We didn't know it would be her last, but now we all regret we didn't spend it with her. There is going to be a very empty space in all of our hearts on Thursday. I'm sure she will be so happy to see that we are still celebrating together--this time at my Uncle George's in Western Philadelphia.

Ok, now I'm off to find the tissues, because I really worked myself up. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Caps Game

On Saturday evening, we were invited to John's cousin Tori's 16th birthday party. It was a surprise for Tori. The party was in a Suite in the Verizon Center for the Caps vs. Flyers game. The Flyers won :). Anyway, needless to say--it was a blast. A Suite is how you have to watch the game! The best part--AJ was a little fanatic! He watched so intently during the game and loved shouting for the Caps! He would yell, "GOOOOO CAPPPIITTOOLLLSSSS" or "GOOOOO HOCCCKKKEEY!!"...literally the entire time! He was so much fun to watch the game with-even if you aren't a hockey fan!

Here is AJ and Nana before the game, chowing down:


The birthday girl arrived:

This is what AJ did for the 1.5 hours before the game started--non stop. The kid ate so much food!

AJ and Daddy watching and cheering together!

This makes my heart melt. AJ is going to be a sport fanatic just like his daddy.


A great time and Happy Birthday Tori!

AJ's first movie!

When we have movie night at home, the crazy-mile-a-minute kid of ours can actually sit down and pay attention to a movie! We were ready to try a movie theater. So, last night we went to the movie theater with AJ for the first time to see Megamind! They messed up the times on the internet and we hadn't originally wanted to see it in 3d, but we had no choice. We weren't sure how AJ would react to the 3d effects. After they promised a refund if AJ didn't enjoy it, we decided to go forward.

After some popcorn and candy--we were ready to go in. AJ was perfect! He lounged back in his chair with his 3d glasses on and chowed down on popcorn and Reece's Pieces. He didn't make a peep all movie. It was a success! He didn't even get scared at the objects that appeared to come towards us.

I don't have any pictures, but we did take the glasses with us and I'll try to get a cute picture of him in them (he sure does look cute!).

AJ is really growing up...

AJ has been in his big boy bed since February. He has always *usually* treated his bed like the crib. When we put him in there, he stays in there. In the morning, he calls for us to come get him, he won't get out.

Last weekend, he managed to destroy his room during his 'nap'. I use quotations because it was proven he didn't actually sleep when we went to dinner that evening and he fell asleep in the car (highly unlikely!). John put him down for a nap and despite me warning him several times to close the closet doors--just in case--he didn't. So let me tell you a little about his room:

1. He has cubbies in his closet where I put socks, towels, pants, shoes, bibs, extra sheets and blankets, and other items. I have everything neat and organized because otherwise I would go crazy.

2. On either side of the cubbies, I'm storing items for baby #2 (infant bathtub, mobile, etc.). These items are really hard for me to get out, let alone a 2 year old.

3. He has a fairly easy to open dresser. The various drawers store onesies, PJs, etc. Again, neatly folded and organized. This is the one thing he usually uses to destroy his room--but not that big of a deal.

4. He has a football toybox. There is mostly oddball toys in there. A lot of stuffed animals that he got as an infant and a few odds and ends here and there.

5. He has a basket next to the glider of books. Tons of books.

John and I both took a nap when AJ took a nap. We don't usually do this, but we had nothing to do and were tired. We didn't hear a peep until two hours after he went down. He called out "Mommy...where are you?".

I opened the door and gasped. Now AJ has made a mess of his room before, but NOTHING like it was on Saturday. Everything in the cubbies? On the floor. The stuff I'm storing? Pulled out (somehow) and played with on the floor. The organized stuff in the dresser? All pulled out and thrown everywhere (this is what he has done before). The football toybox? Every toy out and about. The basket of books? Not only were books obviously looked at 'read' by him, but some even were torn apart.

When I asked what happened AJ said, "I was playing mom, I read my books too". Needless to say, he definitely had a fun naptime...and not so much fun cleaning up afterwards.

Then on Sunday morning, John and I didn't awake to the usual, "mommy, daddy, come get me!". We woke up kind of in a panic to the sound of a door opening. We realized it was AJ as his little feet came running down the hallway to our room. He came to my side of the bed and said, "Hi Mommy, let's snuggle".

So then we had snuggle time. And it was great.

Mommy's Election Night

A coworker and I travelled to Allentown, PA for one of our client's, Pat Toomey for Senate, election night party. We got here early and they put us to work on the phones--yes, I was one of those annoying people who called you today! Now we are off to the election night party--very cool experience!

Happy Halloween!

We started Halloween weekend off with a Parade at AJ's school. The kids were really cute. Despite not having a great angle for pictures, I still got to take some pictures. Here is AJ's class, this is the shot I got before AJ saw me and ran out of line. You can't really see him, but he is behind the girl (his girlfriend) in the green:

And then the next shot I got, AJ was running towards me! He saw me immediately and then came running towards me saying, MOM!

So as you can probably guess, AJ was Super Mario. We looked and looked for costumes and AJ didn't like anything except the Super Mario costume! He loved the mustache, but didn't like it so much when it was on.

Here is a picture with his class:

I was pretty sick Saturday and Sunday, but after some much needed rest, I got myself together to go trick-or-treating. Our Halloween night didn't start out so well. Daddy took AJ to Pop-Pop's house for the game and so AJ didn't a nap. Needless to say, he wasn't so happy. By the time our first trick-or-treaters came to the door and AJ got to see what they were doing, he was ready. Here he is all dressed up:

Me and my boy:

Waiting to say, "TRICK OR TREAT!"

And me and my boy again, this time at the end of the night. We managed to keep the hat on!

So overall, it was a great Halloween. AJ was really good at knocking on the doors and saying TRICK OR TREAT! He mostly enjoyed when we let him eat to his heart's desire in candy. We stood outside talking to neighbors as we waited for trick or treaters. He had a brief sugar high during his bath, he couldn't stop laughing. As soon as he got in his PJ's, though, he was ready for bed. He fell right asleep!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!