Jason's first birthday!

On Friday Jason turned one. Can you believe it? I know I can't!

The day was relatively uneventful. In the late afternoon my brother Jim came over to say hi to the little man.

Then my dad and I took the boys to Salad Works for dinner. Jason ate a few bites of bread and a few pieces of pasta and was pretty pleased. Luckily the restaurant was empty though because he has taken to screeching when he wants something. Fun stuff.

We came home and had a mini birthday celebration, complete with cupcake. Jason decided the quickest way to attack the cake was to put aside all utensils and limbs and just dive in. He did like the icing I think. He kept smacking his lips and laughing. He only ate a small morsel of the cake though and spent the rest of the time finger painting with the icing before tossing the cupcake to the ground. LOL.





We topped off the evening with a trip to the lake, which Tyler says is Jason's favorite activity. Long gone are the days of strapping him in the stroller and relaxing on a bench. Now he wants to spent a little time on the swing and the rest of the time exploring. Let me tell you, he has an impressive ability to get a rock from sand to mouth in a split second. He manages to crawl right along, pick up stone, place in mouth, and continue on with barely missing a beat. I, thankfully, have an impressive ability to get said rock out of mouth before swallowing. Knock on wood.

week in review

Monday: Okay, I know that it was only 6 days ago, but I don't know what I did. I think I took those little sailor pictures from the last post. Not totally sure. Maybe I attempted to take a nap while Jason attempted to take a nap. He's been MISERABLE with that new tooth coming in. I do know that Tyler had "snack attack", a story and food activity, at the grocery store while my mom and I shopped with Jason.

Tuesday: Uhhhh, maybe some laundry? And it was Tuesday, which of course meant we went to Kid's Night at Chick-Fil-A.

Wednesday: Uhhhhhhhh, did I do anything this week? Oh, yes, that's right. After two VERY rough nights and lots of doses of Tylenol, I decided to take Jason to the pediatrician. He had been running a mild fever, so I just wanted to make sure it wasn't an ear infection or anything. As predicted, he was totally fine. Those stubborn little teeth were just giving him (and consequently me) some trouble!

Thursday: I went birthday shopping and ran errands in the morning, little man in tow of course. I had to buy his birthday presents so I thought maybe he could point me in the right direction in the toy department. Wrong, he screeched at EVERYTHING. That afternoon, likely due to my brother being back in the house, we needed some things at the grocery store again, even though we had just been on MOnday. The play area at Shoprite unfortunately was closed, so I had to drag both boys, which I wasn't looking forward to. Thankfully they had some new car carts which contained both boys. They were happy little men! That evening we had a little trip to the lake as well, which I think happened most nights this week.

On Friday, for the first time ever, I had to wake up Tyler to make it on time for school. He eagerly got out of bed though as soon as he realized that it was book fair day. When I dropped him off at school it occured to me to take a picture of him and the little swarm of girls that surround him at most times. Too funny.
On the way home from school we walked home with his closes little girlfriend. They are just adorable together. She informed her parents that she is in fact marrying Tyler. Not sure how that will work considering Tyler insists that he will not be getting married...at all...he plans on living at home forever. LOL.
Oh, and the afternoon was pretty exciting because Jason's halloween costume arrived! Tyler had informed me that he wished to be Mickey Mouse for Halloween, yet again. After debating (in my head only) I agreed that this woudl be a great idea. Saves me the hassle and expense of finding another costume. He wanted Jason to be one of Mickey's friends, and after first suggested that his BROTHER should be Minnie Mouse, he decided Pluto would be fun. I spent more than I am comfortable with ($37) to score this Pluto costume on eBay. I have justified this because I can resell it next year. Works for me.
Friday, of course, was also Jason's FIRST BIRTHDAY, which will obviously require a post of it's own!

sailor baby

When Tyler was little someone had given us this little sailor outfit. I had taken some really cute pictures of him in outfit, both with and without his daddy, when he was maybe 9 months old. I kept meaning to do that with Jason, and then he got chicken pox and I wanted to wait until his face cleared a bit. Then I realized the weather was getting colder and it the outfit was getting smaller, so it was now or never.

Apparently I should have ironed the outfit. It was a spontaneous photo shoot. But yep, should have waited until I ironed.

They didn't turn out great, but at least I have record of the outfit.

Even though the only other person at the lake though "he" was a "she". Hmm.

weekend continues

On Saturday, after soccer and rest time, we my parents and I decided to take the boys to great adventure. In reality I decided we needed to go because I also had to do a return at the stride rite outlet. I also got some great deals on some polo-type shirts for Tyler at the Children's Place outlet ($1.99 each). Anyway, we got a late start at great adventure, but had a nice time. It was cold though! When we finally got back to the car I believe the temperature read 54! That night it went down to 44 degrees. 44 degrees in the late summer!!!





The next day we had a nice little gathering at Jim and Cara's place with the immediate family and my grandparents. It was a Eagles viewing party, which for me just meant a chance to eat some yummy food.

Speaking of food, Edy's has a pumpking ice cream out on the market right now. Yum. I do see this as my duty to inform you that it's a must-try!

soccer time!

On Saturday Tyler finally started 5-year-old soccer. They all gathered and got their shirts and balls and then began "practice". I use that term loosely, because in addition to some stretches they also did duck-duck-goose and various other silly drills. They had fun though. For the "game" they just broke into two teams (one wearing pinnies) and got started. My mom said they always referred to 5-year-old soccer as "bunch ball" because all the kids kinda just run for the ball in a huddle. In Tyler's defense they never really explained the concept of the game, so he didn't really ever fight for the ball. He kinda just followed the pack of kids. He did enjoy himself quite a bit though, which is all that matters. Hopefully, if we keep working with him, he'll get a bit more aggressive. He did finally touch the ball though during the game, so he didn't do terribly.

We got a pretty good reminder though that these kids are all 5 years old when they all play suddenly ceased to view the ladybug that someone found on the field. Talk about priorities. LOL!

Anyway, on with the pictures....

busy weeks

Last week sorta flew by. I don't remember doing incredibly much, but yet we were busy the whole time. On Monday Jason was majorly cranky but finally cut that top right tooth after many sleep-deprived nights (not to mention napless days). Like magic he suddenly slept until 4:00am without waking and then started napping again, taking up to 1.45 hr naps! Heavenly. Unfortunately the nighttime sleep didn't last long, but for now I'll focus on those couple of good nights. LOL. I was able to be more productive during the days, which is always good!

So the days were busy with school for Tyler, and then our typical afternoon/evening activies (playground, Chick-fil-A kids night, crafts, walks, some exercise for me, etc).

Tyler has been continuing to enjoy school. He loves it all! On Monday was back to school night. Kinda boring, if you ask me. Got a general idea of what will be expected of him this year. Don't get me wrong, I know he'll learn alot, but i had to laugh at some of the "expectations". By December he should be able to identify a circle, square, triangle and rectangle. Are you kidding me? He had that down by December of 2006! LOL.

Speaking of school, Tyler also received his first invitation to a party for a classmate. He's so excited, especially considering it's for Pump-it-Up, which I didn't even realize existed in NJ! Oh, and on Friday he even had his very first playdate. He and Mackenzie enjoyed a little picnic lunch at the playground, along with the mommies and babies of course. He was so excited.

Cape May Zoo

On Saturday Tyler was supposed to start soccer, but due to the rain it had to be cancelled. Bummer.

On Sunday my parents and I decided to take the boys to the zoo. If you are local, I highly suggest the Cape May Zoo. There is no admission price, but it's run completely on donations. The first time I ever went I wasn't expecting much, but much to my surprise it's actually a pretty impressive zoo.

We packed a lunch and let Tyler play on the playground while we had a picnic. Then we went into the zoo when we were finished. Both boys had a great time. Tyler liked learning about the animals and studying them. Jason was quite fascinated too, trying to feed them puffs and yelling "woof" at most of them. I think any of the animals in the ape family proved to be both boys favorites (mine as well).

Before I show the pictures, I have to share a "highlight" of the trip, according to Tyler. While we were watching some sort of small primate a man came up with a map and was just putting it up to the cage for the monkey to grab. I didn't think much of it, but then I realized that the little guy was taking bites of it. Being that this little creature were only about the size of a squirrel, I didn't think it could be too good for it to eat a map. I figured the guy would stop offering the map if he realized the creature was eating it, but I was wrong. He kept doing it so I said "oh, he's eating it". Figuring it might get his attention. No such luck. As we moved on to the next exhibit I spot a security guard and mentioned the map incident, hoping he might go and make the guy stop. Much to my surprise the guard walked over, witnessed the map eating, and had the man (and his poor children) escorted out of the zoo. I don't know if there was an interaction that warranted him being kicked out (if he were argumentative or anything), but I felt pretty bad. The security guard later found me and told that they had to have the little monkey looked at by staff and that they can get quite sick. Stupid guy. I do feel bad for his kids though. I can tell you one thing though, Tyler will never feed a monkey a map!

first week comes to an end

Tyler's first week of school last week was a total success. He loved everything about it. Literally, everything. I'm not sure what he learned in an academic sense, but he's learning how to cross the monkey bars, he's branched out and decided to eat applesauce because Mackenzie does, etc. Very important things. Anyway, school's a bit hit, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

We're getting back into a routine and I'm happy about it. Jason has been napping each morning while Ty is at school, and he usually naps in the afternoon. He's cutting teeth so he's not sleeping at night, but for now I'll be happy about the napping. We had a storytime at the library, trips to the lake, projects for school, and of course the weekly trip to Chick-fil-A. I thrive on routine, and so do my kids.

I sound pretty pathetic, huh?

First Day of Kindergarten

I can hardly believe it, but on Tuesday Tyler started school. He had been reading a book I bought him called "Kindergarten Rocks" and was pretty darn excited about going. It was especially nice that Al was home to be there for the day. We walked him down to school, hoping for the best but really not knowing how he'd react to the actual start of school. We were both pretty surprised that he showed NO hesitation at all once we got there, and got right in line with his classmates. A few short minutes later and my baby was walking into school to start his career as a Kindergartener!











After dropping Tyler off at school Al and I went out to breakfast with Jason. A nice treat.

After a very short nap Jason woke up pretty cranky, but was able to enjoy a rare quiet nap in mommy's arms.

At pickup Tyler came bounding out of school. He talked NON-STOP the whole way home about his day. To wrap it up, they had library. Very exciting. You can only take 1 book out. Bummer. Olivia, his friend from this summer, is in his class, but they didn't play much. He REALLY likes Mackenzie and Adele. They talked, apparently quite a bit. His teacher is nice. He didn't have enough time to eat all his snack because he was too busy talking (shocker). The other kids reportedly all had juice boxes, while he had water. He wonders why they don't have kindergarten on weekends. And on, and on, and on.

He came home and showed off all his paperwork and stuff to my mom. He was so proud of himself! What a great start to what will hopefully be a great year!