Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year despite the fact that we were spending a second holiday season without little Aiden. On Christmas Eve a new video of him arrived which was like another Christmas present for us. We were glad to see that he appears very happy and healthy. But as we have been able to tell these past few months from his pictures, he is not a baby anymore. He is walking around easily and seems very much like a growing toddler.

Even though we were missing Aiden, Jordan sure made the holidays fun! He was so excited to open his presents! Here he is right before we began opening gifts.

Jordan continues to be extremely curious about anything new. Here he is watching Daddy put the batteries into the remote control for his new truck.

Here's Jordan trying out his new vacuum cleaner. He always tries to help me vacuum, so I knew this would be a hit. He's not easily fooled, though. He kept trying to find spots on the carpet that looked dirty and always noticed when the vacuum wouldn't pick up the dirt. Nothing gets past him!

Here's our happy boy after all the presents were opened.

Jordan's big boy room!

Up until about a week ago Jordan was still sleeping in a crib. When he learned how to climb out of his crib about a year ago, we bought a crib tent to cover his crib because we knew he was not ready to sleep in a bed. He was way too busy! And he has happily slept in his crib for the past year with no complaints. But I knew that once he turned three it would be time to make the move to a big boy bed. I was hesitant to move him for many reasons. I knew that once we moved him the nursery would stand vacant which would make me think even more about the fact that Aiden was not home. But mostly, I was worried that once Jordan moved to a bed he would have too much freedom and would start making visits to our bed at night. Thankfully I was wrong! After just a little training, Jordan has learned to stay in his bed without getting up while he falls asleep at nap and bedtime, and has learned to call for us when he wakes up. After one week in the bed, he has not once gotten out of the bed without permission. Horray!

This is what Jordan's new bedroom used to look like when it was still a guest room.

Here's Jordan the day his new bed arrived. He was so excited and ran to get his play dough scissors to try to open the box.

Here's Jordan's new bed all set up with Grandma Deena's quilt on top. He loves the quilt and his truck sheets!

We had to make sure to find a good spot to hang the Korean flag!

Success! Here's Jordan sleeping at naptime. He continues to be a such a good napper. He naps so well that I often have to wake him up from his nap otherwise he wakes up super early in the morning.

New pictures

We received new pictures of Aiden today. This is my favorite one. He is currently 26.6 pounds, 33.9 inches tall, and has 16 teeth. I can't believe that he is already 18 months old and we haven't even met him yet! Most days I feel like I can be patient with the wait, especially those days when Jordan is extra energetic. The hardest part for me isn't waiting; it's knowing that Aiden keeps growing and getting older. Only 2 1/2 weeks until 2012! We are hoping and praying that things start moving quickly once the new year is here.