Sunday, December 22, 2013

Christmas Time is Near!



23 Months!

Every month when I'm writing the blog I think that I'm not going to have much to write. I am always thinking, "at least I took pictures", because I can always put those in the blog, but it didn't seem like we did a lot in the past month. So as I was writing this months, of course I thought the same thing. Then, when I started digging through all of the pictures I realized that we did do that in the past month. So, our month in review:

At the end of November we went to the Greenville Zoo with Adisyn's friend, Jefferson, and his family. This was the first time Jefferson has been to this zoo and it was a cold morning! We took along our wagon for the two of them to ride in and stay warm. They really liked looking at the animals together! After the zoo they played at the park and had a lot of fun!







At the end of last month, Adisyn spent more time with her friend McNeill. They went to the Princess Academy at the SC Children's Theater : http://www.scchildrenstheatre.org/events/the-princess-academy. She had so much fun dressing up in her pretty dress, seeing and taking picture with Cinderella, and of course spending time with her friend! She would talk about it the rest of the week!
Someone was excited on the way to the Princess Academy!

Cinderella was Adisyn's favorite!

Adisyn & McNeill with Ariel

McNeill loved giving Adisyn kisses

Adisyn did well listening to the story time

We also celebrated Thanksgiving! Mark had to work the week of Thanksgiving, so that Saturday we went over Grandma & Grandpa's house. It was really nice to see the whole family as Sarah, Wayne, and Sue were there as well as uncle Ron and Louise were there too. Adisyn loved playing with Sarah. They played with their dolls and watched Wizard of Oz.
Adisyn loved being with Sarah

Adisyn, Grandma and Sarah watching the Wizard of Oz

 

 This past month has been all about preparations and starting traditions. Each weekend we've been doing a different craft or event to get ready for Christmas.

 I love to see the excitement in her eyes! Each weekend we made cookies, hand print ornaments for the family, painted pictures, decorated the tree and sang plenty of Christmas songs!






Adisyn loved decorating the Christmas tree and hanging up the ornaments. She LOVES it when the lights are turned on, as she gets excited.  Grandma and Grandpa were over one weekend so we went to Hollywild Zoo light show: http://www.hollywild.com/hlwholiday_lights.html. It's a drive through light show, which Adisyn loved sitting on my lap looking at all the lights. Then, when at the end, there was a Santa's village, where Adisyn got to feed animals, ride on a horse and see Santa Clause. She loved it and to make it even more enjoyable it was unseasonably warm that night so it was perfect!

Adisyn loved riding the pony!

....and feeding the babies bottles!


Adisyn & Daddy next to the Zonkey
 
 
Watching the Christmas lights in the front seat!

We also went to the Greenville Christmas parade: http://www.greenvillesc.gov/PublicInfo_Events/ChristmasParade.aspx  and Adisyn loved all the music and all the lights! It doesn't get more exciting than this! After the parade we went to Roper Mtn. Lights: http://www.ropermountainholidaylights.com/. She loved looking at all the lights and finding all the animals!


It appears that Adisyn is going through a growth spurt as a lot of her 18 month clothes are getting small (even though it depends on the clothing). She is talking so much more every day and it's so exciting to hear what she's going to say next! She loves to dance and sing, so I finally got it on video!:
 

 

 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Fall Fun

22 Months!

The weather has been getting colder. We will have some days in the 30-40s, then we'll have a 70 degree day! I rather stick with the warmer. Since the last blog, we have had other changes too. Adisyn's school unexpectedly closed so we had to look quickly for another school. We actually thought we had a month but when we found a place we liked, we had to move the next week due to availability. We are glad we did because her school ended up closing that next week! We really do love her new school. The program is a multilingual program where she learns sign language now, and when she's 2 she'll have days completely in Spanish. They somehow also teach Chinese and French too. And, the school cost the same as her last school! I really wanted a school where she would be learning other languages, so this is right up my alley!

Adisyn has been doing really well at her new school. One of her teachers is from her old school, so it was nice that she knew someone there. They tell us how smart she is and her favorite things are going outside and saying her ABCs. She LOVES to sing her ABCs and wants whoever puts her to bed to sing them, we sing them on the way to school, and basically any chance she gets. She can say just about all the letters and if you are singing and leave one out such as "H,I,J,K...." she'll say "L,M,N,O,P". She loves to sing with you as she'll say "mommy and Adi ABCs". Her teachers tell us that she wants them to sing them as well! At school we were told that she has a boyfriend named James. They tell us that her and James are always outside together, they play together all time and they also lay down on their little pile of pillows together. Her teachers also tell us that Adi likes to tell them if someone does something wrong such as "James don't touch". She loves to do her art projects too, especially painting.

Adisyn has a few favorite things that she just loves (at least at the moment). A few of these things are:
1. Singing to her songs or to "mommy's music"
2. Dancing and "jumping"
3. Playing outside
4. Caring for her babies: she likes to pretend to give them medicine by mouth or bo-bo medicine on their butts (AKA diaper rash cream), put them to "night night" where she gets a small blanket and pats them on the back, says "night night", gives them a kiss and sings "Rock A By Baby" to them. She also likes to feed and bathe them.
5. Telling us the things she did that day at school by pointing to them in her classroom "Adi play", "Adi's owl", etc
6. Helping mommy and daddy with everything!
7. Apples! Including eating a whole apple and apple sauce; one night she wanted to eat 2 apples for dinner!
8. Owls, kitties, and monkeys
9. Shoes: she will shoe random people her shoes and if she sees shoes that catch her eye, she'll try to talk about them too!

She is also talking so much more and more everyday. She has started saying more sentences and the biggest one she has said was "Where did daddy go?". This first happened when I was in a store with Adisyn and we were waiting on Mark to come in, when a women came up to talk to me and Adisyn. Adisyn said "hi" to the woman and then asked the women "where did daddy go?" The woman was shocked as she said "I could hear that as clear as day" and was so surprised that Adisyn could say all of that. Another thing she does, which is sometimes embarrassing, is when Mark isn't with us or if we're waiting for him, every time a man passes she says "daddy?" as if she's asking the man, then will say "no, not daddy" when she realizes it's not him. She also likes to say "bless you" if someone sneezes, "No thank you" (most of the time which I like it a lot better than NO!), "are you ok?" if you're coughing or if a baby is crying, "daddy's at work", "[I want to] play at home", "no playng, time for night-night", "please" and "thank you", as well as trying to name all types of objects when we walk by them. She also likes to tell me the names of the kids and her class when I pick her up at school. She's pretty good with counting to 10 now and can tell you all the farm animals almost consistently with the sounds they make.

I think she's starting to finally grow out of 12 month clothes. She is even able to wear some 24 month now, depending on what it is. Since she was growing out of the 12 month clothes, we decided to bump up to the size 4 diapers. She is still in a size 4 shoe, but it seems like they're growing a little quicker too. Adisyn had a bout with conjunctivitis, and while at the doctor she weighed 24 pounds. I'm anxious to see how she's growing at her 24 month check up!


Adisyn in her pumpkin costume
We had such a fun Halloween and I love that holidays are so much more exciting now that Adisyn can enjoy them! We went to 2 Halloween parties dressed as a pumpkin (I made her hat): one at her school and the other at my co-worker's church.
Fall Festival

She also enjoyed passing out candy to kids in the neighborhood. She wasn't quite sure why all these kids were coming to our house (we had a bout 700 or so kids) and she seemed to like giving them all some candy except ones with masks on...she was a little scared of them! Grandma wanted to see her on Halloween so she helped us pass out candy. Adisyn got tired very quickly so she went to bed halfway through the trick-or-treating. She had fun decorating a pumpkin and putting up Halloween decorations with mommy. It was so fun seeing how excited she was just putting up some decorations and lights!

Grandma & Adisyn waiting for the trick-or-treaters to arrive

She was so happy in her costume!

Adisyn's first customer - a bee!


She loved the light that Auntie Jeannie sent her - it came in handy!



She was so proud of her pumpkin she made!


She kept wanting to pose for the pictures with her pumpkin!
 
 
She gave Minnie a big kiss when she was done!


She was fascinated by the lights and would get so excited when we put them on but knew "no touch" as she would say
 
We also went on a little weekend getaway to Tennessee. It was a pretty drive over as the tress were all changing as we passed over the mountains. This was Adisyn's first trip there, so we were excited about experiencing this with her!
Quick picture on a fire truck after eatting

We stayed in Pigeon Forge and had a busy Saturday planned. First we went to Cades Cove: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cadescove.htm, where we always love to go. This an old settlement that now is a scenic loop that you drive around trying to spot deer and bear since it's illegal to hunt them so they're seen everywhere.

The trees looked beautiful....
 
.....and so did the mountains

Adisyn loved sitting on mommy's lap looking for deer

We took a pit stop around the loop to stretch and run

Adisyn like stopping to take a picture!

Wild turkeys

More beautiful views
 

Besides pit stops of old houses and churches along the way in Cades Cove, there are also hikes you can find as well. We decided on a hike to Abrams Falls:  http://www.cadescove.net/hiking_cades_cove.html, which is about a 5 mile hike or so. Adisyn traveled via backpack and this was the first time that we actually used this backpack, as she grew out of the one I use to use. Adisyn did really well as she liked to collect pine cones and talk about birds, trees, leaves or whatever along the way.
The trail head

We had to travel over some narrow bridges
...and some steep rock faces

....but Adisyn was safe and secure in the backpack

We arrived at the falls!

Looking at the waterfall with Daddy

Adisyn liked stretching her legs and walking around on all the rocks

We next took a trip to the Ripley's Aquarium: http://www.ripleyaquariums.com/gatlinburg/, which was timed perfectly because by the afternoon it was getting colder and rainy. Adisyn loved walking around looking at the fish and penguins. There was a lot of interactive things that she could do, like climb under fish tanks, which she really enjoyed. She is finally starting to like getting her picture taken and she'll pose when she wants us to take it. She particularly liked the penguin exhibit because not only could she climb under it through a tunnel, but she also wanted to pose at various locations by penguins. She will smile now when you tell her or say "cheese". She is so funny when she's getting her picture taking!
Just walked into the aquarium

Adisyn loved the tunnel under the penguins - as you went through it, there was water all under you and penguins on each side. She scooted down it on her butt like it was a slide.

In the fish tank with mommy

She loved going in the tunnels under the fish tanks



She wanted to pose by the penguin at the beginning of the exhibit....
....and after

Adisyn and Mommy in the penguin exhibit
On our way home on Sunday, we stopped by The Deer Park and Exotic Petting Zoo in Sevierville Tennessee. http://deerfarmzoo.com/ and we're glad we did. Adisyn had so much fun petting all the animals, especially going into the goat enclosure. She loved petting the goats! Her ultimate favorite thing was, though, was the pony ride. We didn't realize how much she would like it, but she talked to me the whole time, would talk to "Patches" and would smile so big when we pasted daddy taking pictures. She is still talking about it!


Adisyn loved petting the goats





She liked feeding the llamas
 
She was so proud when we passed daddy!
 

 
 
We had a great October and it was so much fun to see Adisyn experience new things! We can't wait to celebrate Christmas with her and see the excitement in her eyes!