Tyler's 1st Birthday

It seems impossible, but Tyler turned one less than two weeks ago! I've been wanting to blog about it, but it's been a little busy around here. As you already know, Tyler's big gift was a baby brother! Surprise to everyone! Of course that makes for a fantastic birthday, but we had a lot of other stuff going on too!

Ty's actual birthday was on a Wednesday, so we celebrated with just us and my mom. We started the morning with presents from family. It's amazing how much better he has gotten at opening gifts just since Christmas. He was far more interested in it this time around. We had homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner, that's Tyler's favorite. My mom and I also made a little teddy bear cake that was super cute and let him eat it all on his own. He made a pretty big mess and Daddy had to give him a bath afterwards.

On Saturday we celebrated with more family and a lot of friends. We had an Elmo themed birthday party complete with a 4 ft tall walking Elmo balloon and a 5 ft tall walking Big Bird balloon. We rented a helium tank to fill these guys up and also filled up a ton of regular balloons for the party. Grandma made Tyler and Elmo cake and some Elmo cupcakes. The party goers had some time to color pictures of the Sesame Street characters playing baseball. Tyler LOVED the party. While he didn't really play with the other kids, he was very happy to play next to them (gotta love parallel play at this age). He was so happy in the living room filled with kids that he didn't even care about lunch. We had to pull him away from his toys just to eat! We had pizza for lunch - Elmo's favorite food. We also had chicken nuggets and mozzarella sticks. All easy food for the kids. There were Elmo juice boxes and Dorothy the goldfish crackers. I think everyone had a good time. It was so much fun to celebrate Tyler's amazing first year with so many loved ones. At just two days old, Colton was taking it all in and making plans for his first birthday party, I'm sure! Happy 1 year Tyler! We love you so much!!!!

Another miracle

Colton James

We always planned that once we were able to finalize Tyler's adoption, we'd start working towards adopting again. As many of you know, once we decided to start the adoption process last time around it took a year and a half before we were able to bring Tyler home. Many people cautioned us that it might take longer the second time. Very often birth mothers will choose childless couples over couples who already have a child. We braced ourselves for a long wait and decided that starting as soon as possible was the best way to assure that Tyler wouldn't be too much older than our next new addition.

So in early December we sent in our application to Adoption STAR (the Buffalo agency that helped match us up with Tyler). At about the same time, one of my STAR friends was over for a playdate. She happened to mention another agency that they had come across in their wait - it's called Family Connections - located in Cortland, NY. I got online and filled out an information request with this agency and they called me back within hours. They sent us some information and a week later we scheduled an appointment with them for January 4th. We knew instantly that we were going to choose to work with both agencies - hoping to double our chances of finding a match.



Within weeks we had a profile opportunity with this new agency, but unfortunately it did not work out. Another two weeks went by and we were presented with yet another opportunity to be profiled with this new agency (2/5). We were blown away. This agency is relatively small - they often only place 2-4 babies a year. On top of that, in the year we waited to be matched with Tyler, we were only profiled 3 times before Tyler. Here we were with two opportunities in as many weeks. Not even two weeks ago, on Wednesday, February 10th, FC called to tell us that we had been chosen to parent a baby, gender unknown, due any day. We were ecstatic!



We began preparing for the birth of our newest addition immediately. We knew that we might not have a lot of time. Amazingly, we got all of our ducks in a row and even had my parents down for a visit (which made a great babysitting arrangement for Tyler), when in the early hours of Monday morning (1 am on the 15th) we got THE call that birthmom was in labor. We got the car loaded and headed for the Cortland hospital. At 3am we received a phone call from our social worker saying that the baby had been born at 2:56am - a baby boy weighing 7lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long! It was simply amazing! We named him Colton James



We arrived at the hospital at 3:30am and were brought in to meet Colton and his birthmom. It was such a great experience to meet her face-to-face and talk with her for a while. After a couple of hours they ushered us out so that J could take a shower. Just a little bit later they brought J to her room and then they brought us and Colton to our very own room. It was such a great experience to be able to stay right at the hospital with Colton all day Monday and Tuesday. We were able to see J one more time before we left. She had been discharged on Monday, but she returned on Tuesday to say goodbye to all of us. She brought the cutest outfit for Colton along with a teddy bear. She also brought a birthday present for Tyler and the most beautiful care for me and Chris. Finally, on Tuesday afternoon we were discharged. We made the 2 + hour drive home where we've been ever since. What an amazing week we had!

11 months old

I simply cannot believe that Tyler will be 11 months old on Sunday. Where has the time gone? His growth and progress amaze me every single day. So here we are, planning an Elmo themed birthday party and actually beginning the process of adopting a second time. Meanwhile, a year ago, we didn't even have a child. It's just amazing how fast life can change.

Tyler continues to be a very happy and laid back child. He's so content to hang out and play most of the day. He's a great sleeper - which we are very thankful for. At the moment, he's getting close to his first steps. He's cruising along all of our furniture and he's even starting to let go from time to time. He's talking non-stop in baby babble, but on occasion we hear a word or two. He's had mama and dada down for quite a while, but kitty is a new addition to his vocabulary. Once in a while I think I hear doggie too. My favorite part of this stage is how obvious it is that he loves his mommy and his daddy. His little hand will reach out for you the instant you enter a room. It just melts my heart!

As for our next adoption, we anticipate a long wait, but you just never know. I think it would be amazing for Tyler to have a sibling or two who are close to his age. So, we have filled out the mounds of paperwork and we now we are waiting for our fingerprint clearances to come back - after that - it's out of our hands. We simply wait and see what the future holds for us! I have to say, I'm much more excited than I thought I would be. I really thought that for the next year I wouldn't think about it all that much, but I am. Maybe it's just because the paperwork is so fresh in my mind, but I really think it's that I just can't wait to get my hands on another little baby! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love everything about Tyler right now, but I also miss that itty bitty baby I was holding just 11 short months ago.

All I want for Christmas is Elmo Live Encore

After Tyler's finalization we headed out to the mall for a little visit with Santa. I was worried that Tyler would be scared of him and cry, but he didn't! We were the first ones there to greet Santa and there was no line behind us so we got to take a lot of pics. The hardest part was that they would only let you choose one for your photos for the photo cd :-( I had a tough time picking between this one and the one of him actually looking at the camera. In the end I decided it was pretty cute that he was looking up at Santa and so we picked this one. I think it will be somehow integrated into our Christmas cards this year. The tree goes up tomorrow - I can hardly wait!

Finalization - yay!

This morning we finalized Tyler's adoption! We waited a long 9 1/2 months for this day and I have to say, it was pretty anticlimactic. We arrived early, as our attorney had directed us to - you have to pass through metal detectors and the lines can be long. In our case, we didn't have to wait long. We were in the waiting area for Surrogate's Court at about 8:40 for our 9:00 appointment. We waited until nearly 9 when our attorney showed up. One of the Sheriff's who was working brought us back to the judge's chambers where we sat and talked about sports while the judge signed/initialed a multitude of paperwork. He explained the details of getting Tyler's amended birth certificate and social security number. We posed for a few pics and that was it. We were in our car and headed out by 9:15! What a great birthday present for Chris!

9 month check-up

Tyler had his 9 month check-up this morning. He weighs 22 pounds (75th percentile) and he's 29.5 inches (90th percentile). That's right where he was at 6 months. The doctor says he's doing great in every way. He's healthy and clearly happy - he spent the whole exam clapping and blowing raspberries at her. He got his last dose of Hep B and the 2nd part of the seasonal flu vaccine. They didn't have any H1N1, but she said that he should get it. There has already been one round of H1N1 flu in the area and they are anticipating a second round in January when the seasonal flu typically hits. She suggested we either take him to a clinic - yippee there were like a million people standing in line for hours at the one that was yesterday - or we keep checking the pediatrician's website as they will post when they have the vaccine in the office. She also recommends the vaccine for Chris and I, but we aren't in the category that's allowed to get it at this point. I think that's about it... we go back at 1 year!

Good Deals!

I've been surfing around online today checking out all of the great deals that are around. I don't know if any of you check out the same sites or not, but I thought I'd share what I've found -especially with Christmas coming! I really started at www.babycheapskate.com and went from there. I LOVE that site!

Several of the websites I visited point to www.coupons.com for some Hasbro toy coupons which can sometimes be added with other coupons at certain stores - like Target that has their own coupons that just came out this week. I'm going to check out some of these today - might make some nice Christmas presents :-)

http://earlymotherhood.blogspot.com/, which I linked to from babycheapskate, shares several great ideas:

* How to get 7 preschool games for basically less than $4 at Toys R Us (this deal subtracts off the $10 gift card that you earn so you really pay $14 plus mail in rebates but you get that $10 gift card for later). The webpage with the rebates includes many other great games that cost a little more - you can still get a great deal though http://www.hasbro.com/familygamenight/en_US/discover/upload/RevisedHasbroGameNightRebateForm.pdf

I also found freebies on this blog (thank you earlymotherhood!):

*I followed this link for free Mozart for Infants and Toddlers downloads http://www.munchkin.com/information_station/downloads.html.

*I followed this link to the leapfrong website to sign up for a free board book: http://earlymotherhood.blogspot.com/2009/10/free-leapfrog-abc-animal-orchestra.html

*This link will let you sign up for a free Geotrax train dvd at https://store.mattel.com/transition.aspx?TransitionID=155.

Happy shopping!