Weekend Bday Bash, Part 1

 

Choo Choo, My Baby is 2!!! We had a great time celebrating here in our condo's community room. Here are some of my favorite shots of the decor and preparations!

 

So many friends helped us celebrate! And the little tots were loving the craft table, balloons, train table and all the choo choo toys and puzzles!

Time for cake and treats!

Happy Birthday to my handsome, charming 2 Year Old!

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate! And thanks to the following vendors/companies for bringing the ideas to life!
Invites: Sugar B Designs (my friend from Alabama...check her out!)
Cake/cupcakes: Buzz Bakery, Arlington, VA delicious!
Banners, cupcakes toppers, favor tags: Etsy!
Judah's custom outfit: Granma! (sorry, she's taken ;-)

Potty and Haircut

That's what's new around here, folks. Well, besides the small fact that a certain someone has turned 2 since I last posted!!! Much more on that later (after I get all the pics). This is just an attempt to catch you up.

While we are not officially potty training, we are having a little fun with the potty. When Judah's Granma heard we wanted to introduce a potty, she shipped us one...thanks Granma! When I told one of my friends that a potty was on its way to us via mail delivery, she told me about this book...

The plot?

No joke, Joshua's grandmother sends him a big present. And you'll never guess what's inside ;-)

I promise we did not plan this, but I thought it was perfect! So I ordered the book (obviously) and we read it to Judah before giving him the "big present" from Granma.

excuse the paci, it was late and we were having molar issues.

Wow! My very own, just like Mommy and Daddy's!

Sit Daddy!

Stand Daddy! Don't worry, it can also be used as a stool and of course he figured that out right away!

So far, it's mostly just been an item of interest around here, a new toy if you will. We're not pushing anything or conducting any structured potty activities. Judah did, however, poo poo in the potty last week and we certainly celebrated! But I think it will be a while before that happens again. Judah didn't seem too thrilled. Oh, and we have had a few of these...Many more to come I'm sure!

In other news, a little someone also got a hair cut recently. Wouldn't you agree he needed one?!

I mean, I love his long curls (ahem, 'fro) and all, but it was just getting a little too unruly for this mama to handle! So off to the African barber shop we go, thanks to a suggestion from my online adoption community :-) Let me paint the picture for you....We head to a barber shop with all Ghanian barbers that we hear is very family friendly. Judah falls asleep in the car on the way there. He is immediately seated and the old African grandfatherly-figure gets to work with the clippers. We shove a sucker in Judah's mouth (don't judge) and all is going well....

Until Judah fully wakes up from his little cat nap in the car and realizes that his head is surrounded by scissors and has just been picked out fully (dry!). The screaming commences and that was all she wrote. No pictures or videos after this one...we were too busy comforting our traumatized child. Fortunately, the barber was great and finished up quickly.
We like the length but I promise, his hair has been frizzy ever since. Since complaining about this to all of our friends of color, we have since learned that we should not have taken him to an African barber shop unless we wanted all his hair cut off. "They buzz, not style." Oh well. Apparently, we need to take him to a Dominican barber shop?! Luckily, we live in DC and this is available :-) Oh and anyone reading this, we are currently taking product/styling advice until we can visit the Dominicans. We've used the following products: Curly Q, Mixed Chicks Kids, Carol's Daughter, and Palmer's Olive Oil. A combination of a few of these products are getting us by, but this mama still isn't happy.

Here is his new shorter 'do...and a preview of his fun second birthday bash! Until next time...

Delightful Dixie

Last week, Judah and I visited my sweet home~Alabama. It was a great trip, filled with lots of love and laughter. Mixed with my excitement was a lingering sadness, however. This was the first trip "home" since my grandparents' passing. The last two visits were for their funerals. There were so many moments when I thought of them while there, longing to see them. However, I know they were smiling down on us from heaven.

We don't visit often enough, but as Judah gets older each visit becomes more memorable. We played outside for hours with cousins and friends, saw a real-life "choo choo" (multiple times, actually) from KK's (my mom's) front yard, had a blast with a new Thomas train track from Pop, and went on an adventure to the coolest science center ever! He's been talking about Maggie, Marlee, Uncle Wes, KK and Pop pretty much every day since returning. Since we live so far apart, my camera goes crazy when Judah is together with his cousins :-)

Judah kept saying "cheese" but couldn't take his eyes of Marlee and Maggie to look at the camera.

Judah and his youngest cousin, Maggie, were obsessed with a Toy Story ball. 

There were multiple lessons on sharing :-)

 

All forgotten when Uncle Wes joins in!

And I'm not sure who had more fun at the McWane Science Center, me or my son! Check this place out if you're ever in the Birmingham area. 

We saw sharks and stingrays. Judah wanted to "get them." Thus, we're going to wait a little longer before he's allowed to pet them :-)

We drove "Dig-digs."

 

We tumbled.

We played golf. 

We made gigantic bubbles. 

And even dug for dinosaur bones. 

Can you tell someone really enjoyed this?!

Thank you, KK, for a really fun day!
I love Alabama and can't wait to visit again!

Friendship and Imagination

I'm in a slight state of denial that my baby is about to turn 2, but I must confess that every day I'm amazed to see how much he's learning and growing....becoming a little boy right before my eyes...I am so incredibly grateful that it's my eyes that get to see the daily transformation.

He is so sweet and affectionate~ always initiating hugs, dancing, and hand-holding with his friends....

Walking the DC streets with Marilyn

And here is a sneak peak at what our days look like. He loves to "fix" things like Daddy....

And shop like Mommy....

We love you Judah-bean!

Party...in the name love.

Happy belated "Love Day" from the Nix family! It's been a busy but fun week here, complete with a "party" to celebrate V-day. Judah and his two leading ladies decided it would be fun to spend the afternoon making cookies and cards for their daddies. Okay, maybe the mommies contributed to some of the planning but the kiddos were definitely the life of the party! They had lots of yummy snacks, listened to some cool stories about love, explored their creative sides while making cards, and destroyed the kitchen! It was difficult to capture photos amidst all the craziness but I was able to get a few...

Pre-party....table full of goodies!

Let's get this party started people!

Finally....happy with his snack

Time to make cookies! They had so much fun but there were not many cookies left after all of the dough-tasting...don't worry, the mix is free of raw egg. This video is priceless...and yes, I did combine the words pandemonium and delirium~because that's what it was :-)

A series of attempts to capture smiles from all three...and yes, Judah's shirt appropriately says "The Ladies Love Me."

Oh well. 

An hour later, Judah is still trying to taste the dough.

A hug for his Valentine :-) 

At the end of the day, my home was a mess but my heart was full of love. Hope yours was the same, without the mess of course. Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

"Happy Day"

When you've been married almost 10 years, you learn to ask your beloved about their birthday expectations...especially when their birthday falls during the middle of the week. For his birthday this year, Jeff requested a nice evening "birthday party" at home with the three of us....no sitter, no fancy dinner at a restaurant, no extravagant vacation (that actually never happens)....just us in our (very) cozy condo. He also requested pizza and a cake (like I was not going to get him a cake).

This year, it was fun to have Judah's "help." Together, we picked out birthday cards, birthday balloons (he chose an Elmo balloon in the shape of a heart for Daddy), and decorated our place with balloons and other fun things. I think Judah is starting to "get" (and really enjoy) birthdays. Between two of his friends' birthdays in January and his Daddy's birthday this week, he's starting to learn to say "Happy Birthday" to others (well, it sounds more like a muddled "Happy Day"). He sometimes even says it to people who are not having birthdays...hey, maybe he's just wishing them a happy day :-)

Here are some highlights of our very own happy day this week. Judah and I are both so happy for Jeff's birth and his life. I'm honored to be his wife and love that I share the gift of parenting Judah with this man. Here's to many more, honey!

The birthday boy!

Birthday pizza! Notice how Judah did not wait for Jeff to blow out the candles.

Make a wish!

Judah had to make a wish, too!

After bath, Judah had fun playing with two of his favorite things...balloons and Daddy's umbrella ("breya"). 

Then someone got very sleepy...but he's still staying dry ;-)

Happiness all around! We love birthdays!!!!!!!!!!

Co-opping

Pretty sure that's not a word but it's alive and well in our home and in our neighborhood. It's the term I've claimed to describe the amazing friendship and lil' community that has formed in just six short months between our family and two other families in our neighborhood. Meet Natalia and Tara (and me, with the weird half-smile ;/).

Women with successful careers of production manager, teacher, and psychologist~ temporarily put on hold to stay-at-home and raise these lil munchkins....

"Why are you stopping us from play at our Christmas party?!"

I met Natalia and Tara (and their precious girls Sasha and Marilyn) at our neighborhood playground shortly after moving to DC last summer. After realizing we lived very near one another, we formed a fast friendship. That sort of happens here when you meet other stay-at-home moms in this city. We are few and far between because of the Nanny culture here so we (the mamas) tend to stick together. Anyways, we began setting up playdates and meeting each other at local activities during the week (story time, yoga class, etc.). Our children quickly became friends and we can hardly go anywhere now without Judah asking if Sasha and "Mar-Mar" will be there. They squeal with excitement when they see each other and there are plenty of hugs and kisses to go around when we say our good-byes. The three musketeers. 3 amigos. The triple-threat :-) Best friends. It has really been the sweetest thing seeing the three of them bond.

Two topics of conversation that seemed to frequently arise among the mamas were how we longed for "breaks"~both refreshing breaks (i.e., date nights with our hubbies) as well as working breaks, if  you will....time to clean, grocery shop, plan for the week, and simply finishing a project that's been on a to-do list for months. A second theme surrounding this idea was how expensive it is to live in the city~including the cost of child care. So.....under the leadership of Tara, we all put our heads together to come up with a plan to make the "breaks" happen... for FREE :-) I'm happy to report that several months later, we have a successful little "co-op" under way. Three Saturday nights every month, one of us "sits" for the other while we get that much needed time with our husband out of the house. It's pretty fantastic because 2 Saturday nights out of the month, I'm either reading my Kindle on my friend's couch while their child quietly sleeps or I'm out on the town with my hubby.This was so successful that we decided to try something similar during the daytime on weekdays. So three afternoons per week, we have a similar rotation. Two moms watch all three kiddos while one mom gets the afternoon to do as she pleases. Again, it's fantastic because three afternoons during the week you'll either find me hanging out with a friend playing with three adorable toddlers or knocking things off my to-do list while my own toddler is in good care :-)

I am so incredibly grateful for this resource, this time, but most importantly~these friendships. Truly a blessing. I share this with you in case our story can inspire other hard-working stay-at-home mamas who may be reading to engage in the same type of "co-operative." I promise, it will not disappoint.