Miss Independent

16 Months!

April has been cooler than I expected. We had a couple of warm spells so I was thinking Spring was finally here, but then it got cold again. Even with it being a little cool, after I pick Adisyn up from school we go outside to play before dinner. She really loves playing outside, being able to walk freely around and exploring. She is inquisitive about the flowers, dirt, acorns, birds and playing with her outdoor toys. She even throws the ball to me, then I throw it to her to chase it. She'll even try to throw the ball to Zoie! This past month, Auntie Jeannie sent Adisyn a talking picnic basket in the mail. She loved it! It also works perfect in her playhouse. She will sit and talk to it when she's playing with it, as it says things like "hello" and "goodbye".


Thank you Auntie - I love my picnic basket in my playhouse...

 

and I love to have a picnic in the yard too!



Playing outside after school

Speaking of playing, Adisyn has began to "pretend play" meaning that if she has two things in her hand, she pretends they are talking or kissing each other. She also has really claimed her baby. She is so excited when she sees her baby when she gets in the car after school but she hates to leave it when she goes to school. She is really becoming attached to her baby and she'll carry it around all day, feed it and when she's taking a bath, she'll bathe it too. It amazes me how she knew instinctively how to care for it.

Adiysn is being coming more and more independent. She wants to do more things herself, such as eating, rather than mommy and daddy doing it for her. She is getting very good at saying "thank you" and "please" when she wants something. Unfortunately this month she has gotten more particular with the food she's eating. I think this is just a phase that she's going through to exert her independence, so hopefully it won't last too long. Her new favorite foods (this month) are baked beans and shredded cheese. Not that these are the most nutritious foods for her, but at least she eats it! For some reason her favorite foods, such as bananas, are just fun to squish in her hand now! Here's some videos I wanted to share:

Eating with a spoon & "all done"

She is getting more and more communicative and I love it! She tries to repeat words that I say and she knows so many objects that I wasn't even aware of! She tries to say her name, which sounds more like "Aaaadi", which is really cute. She also tells us when she has to "poop" and can point out poop in the backyard when she sees it (I guess it's better than the alternative). Her teachers at school tell me that she's very tentative to the other children. They say that she takes a little to warm up in the morning, but once she does she walks around like she owns the place (in a good, cute way they said), not intimidated by any of the other children (some of who are much bigger than her, even though they're one as well). They said that she's very sweet to everyone and loves to cuddle. They all think it's hilarious that she eats a lot and she makes a huge mess! It's comforting knowing how she acts when we're not around. I realize some of her personality traits will be phases of her development, but some things, such as being sweet, are a just her!

 

"Happy and You know It"

 

 

 

We went to the Greenville Zoo http://www.greenvillezoo.com/for the first time this season and Adisyn is more excited about seeing all of the animals. She really enjoys watching all the animals, especially the monkeys, giraffes, birds, chicken and goats.

Watching the monkeys with Mommy

Daddy and Adisyn 4/2013



 

Mommy & Adisyn on the bear 6/2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also made our first trip of the season to Hatcher Gardens http://hatchergarden.org/. She loved smelling all the different flowers and watching the squirls run everywhere!





Smelling flowers 5/2013



3 Months Old pictures (4/2012) in front of same flowers!

Bye bye!

I also wanted to share some of the more recent hair bows and wall hanging that I made

Wall design we made

Some hair bows and flowers I made





Grandma made Adisyn a monkey and cat and I put them on a clip for her hair



 

 

 

Mockingbird

15 Months!

Adisyn had her 15 month check-up and she's staying on track! She's 19 lbs, 3 oz and 29 inches long. All of her 12-18 month clothes are out of our upstairs storage, which is mostly summer things hoping she could start wearing them. Even though Adisyn is wearing 12 month size clothes, her pants are still too big around the waist and I usually have to fold up the legs too. But, it's really all about the brand because some things fit really good, some are too small and some are way too big. There are some 9-12 month clothes that are still in her closet that fit fine, but all of the 6 - 9 month clothes have moved out. For some reason I hate putting them away because they're all so cute! But, we have a lot of 12-18 month summer clothes to look forward to! Surprisingly she's still in her size 3 shoes. But, just like anything else, it depends on the brand because I found that the Stride Rite that I bought on consignment fits her a lot better than other brands, which are way too big in the same size! I can't wait to put all of her cute sandals to use that found on consignment too!

Adisyn almost had her first kiss when we went to see Jefferson. They were playing together and I noticed Jefferson leaning over towards her, but Adisyn backed away. Later on they were walking around and Jefferson started doing it again. I asked Paige (his mother) if he likes to give kisses and she said they he doesn't even give her kisses! But when Jefferson leaned in Adisyn started pushing on his face to get him away. I guess she's playing hard to get!

On St. Patrick's Day I found a cute green dress that Adisyn could wear in her new 12-18 month clothes. It seems like all the other green clothes are really summery. Mark got out of work early so we went to McAllister's Deli (which has my favorite sweet tea by the way) and had a nice little family dinner.

St. Patrick's Day

Eating at McAlisters doing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

Picking out what book to read

We also had a great Easter! We weren't sure how Adisyn would do with the whole Easter egg hunt, so we first practiced Easter morning, before heading to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Once we showed her the Easter basket and what to do with the eggs, she picked it up right away! She went around the living room picking up all the eggs and putting them in her basket. We then all went to North Carolina to Grandma and Grandpa's house and they also hid some eggs for her. She was a natural! She loved it! We had Easter dinner there, then made the trip home. We all had a great day!
 

Easter morning

Easter morning with her bunny (that she got when she was a baby)

Easter egg hunt Easter morning



She found all the Easter eggs!

Making sure all the Easter eggs were in her basket

Just arrived at Grandma & Grandpa's

Picking up all the eggs

Easter picture with Grandma & Grandpa

Carrying her Easter basket and her new ducky around everywhere



Easter evening - she has her Easter bunny outfit on



The first week of April we all went to the beach for a little weekend get-away. We went to Brookgreen Gardens http://www.brookgreen.org/ and it was a beautiful place! Adisyn has learned how to smell flowers and with all the flowers now in bloom she loves looking at all the colors and smelling them all! Her favorite part was the zoo and they had a walking tour to watch them feed all the animals. She loved walking around, feeling "independent" going from animal to animal. When they would show us a new animal she would say "hi" to it. She met a little boy on the trail that was 2 weeks older than Adisyn and he was so much bigger than her!

Watching the horses

Watching the cows

 

Family picture at the swamp aviary

Adisyn with Liam - she was trying to talk to him, but he wasn't interested

Adisyn having fun on Daddy's shoulders

Adisyn watching the birds in the swamp aviary - I was worried she wanted to get too close to the birds in the water!

Later that day we went to the beach. It was a little chilly because temperatures were in the mid 70's, but there was a cool ocean breeze, but that didn't stop Adisyn from enjoying playing with daddy in the sand! Mark would build a sand castle and Adisyn would have fun knocking it down. Mark was showing her how to pack the bucket with sand and she followed in her footsteps and was doing it right with him. I brought her to the water so she could feel it on her feet, even though it was cold. We watched the water come up to our feet and Adisyn wasn't sure what to think of it. Then, the next little wave came up to our feet and it was a little stronger than the last and Adisyn feel on her butt. She was more shocked than anything, but I grabbed her and scooped her up and she just cuddled up to me as we took her back to the hotel. We had a relaxing and fun weekend!

Watching the waves

Adisyn wasn't too sure about the waves at first

Walking in the sand

Making sandcastles with Daddy

 

Playing in the sand

I noticed Adisyn is talking more and more. She can repeat some words if you ask her and she loves to "talk" on the phone. When I call Grandma, Grandpa, MiMi or when daddy is working, she is getting good about saying "hi" when they answer and is pretty entertained with the whole thing. She has a set of keys that have a car door lock/unlock buttons on them and she thinks it's a cell phone, so she talks on that too, as she holds it up to her ear. She even has a toy rotary phone that was given to her (I didn't know they made them any more) and when I showed it to her, she acted like she knew what it was and she picked up the phone and said "hi dada".

Adisyn likes music. She will dance when she hears it and she has some drums that she plays and will dance as well. Her favorite songs are still "If You're Happy and You Know It" as she will clap her hands when they tell you to, but she also now plays along with "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Patty Cake".

Her other favorite things are:

Food: bananas (she gets very excited when you ask her if she wants one), black beans, oranges, yogurt, bread (or anything she can hold onto and eat), and drinking from a straw (which she has been doing for some time, but she's really good at it now)

Toys: baby dolls, toy keys, her rubber ducky, and bubbles


She loves putting her "bracelets" in the bathtub!

Games:  her rocking chair (which she will entertain herself by going on and off of it continuously), chasing Daddy around the couch, chasing the cat and puts her rings around her wrist like bracelets during bath time

She loves to sit in her rocking chair with everything!

Clothing:  her shoes, her pink hat, and anything for her hair (although she won't always keep her headbands in, now that she knows how to take them off)

Trying to put her headband on herself

She wanted to keep her headband on all morning!

Things to do: She loves to cuddle, give hugs, give kisses (but she looks like a fish when she's doing it), she likes to pick out books and sit on your lap to read (but it doesn't last too long) and point to body parts: she knows where her: nose, ears, mouth, lips, teeth, hair, head, ears, tummy, belly button, hands, and feet are. She also loves her playhouse. Adisyn's cousin Sarah gave her the playhouse and Mark put it together about a month ago, but she wasn't able to use it. One of Adisyn's favorite things is taking things out of the cabinets, so we put some Tupperware and cups in her playhouse and she can play with them now in her own house. We haven't been able to use the playhouse much yet, but when it gets warmer it's going to be a nice shady spot for her to go! Adisyn really likes to swing and go down the slide. She's almost able to do the slide on her own now!

She loves sitting in her chair in her playhouse

Washing dishes in her playhouse

Her new words are: "kitty" when she sees any cat, a picture of a cat, or even a small dog, says "milk" or more like "mmm", "nose", "eyes", "book" or "bbboo", "shhhh" with her finger over her mouth (especially if the dogs bark), "eat", "shoes" she points out her shoes any time we see them or anyone else's shoes, tells Zoie "ahh" when feeding her (she gets that from us telling her "say ahh" when we feed her a bite), "zozee" for Zoie's name, "poop" at times, when she's urinating or pooping in her diaper, and she will even sit on her potty when I'm using the bathroom sometimes.

As we're spending more time outside it gives us more opportunities for Adisyn to explore new things. She is mesmerized by the many new things out there and we just love watching her learn each day!

 

Snow Day

14 Months!

We've learned that having a toddler means that you really have to be creative on entertaining them when it's too cold to go outside. Sure, they're more easily entertained than say, a five-year-old, but they can get tired of the same ol' thing all the time. After all, they're learning and exploring more and more every day. This past month we found some cheap entertainment:

- Pet stores are like a mini zoo; they have so many animals to look at and Zoie can come with us too!
- Book stores have fun play areas
- Many cities now have indoor bouncy parks which have a "toddler" zone
- Librarys have play areas and story time

It might not sound like much, but these places are new and exciting for any toddler! We had the best time at the indoor bouncy park: http://www.mountainplaylodge.com/Mountain_Play_Lodge/Home.html

We were going Asheville, NC to visit some friends for dinner on February 23rd. It was very cold that day so we decided to the Yarbroughs to meet us there so Adisyn and Amelia could play before dinner. The girls had a great time and enjoyed it much more than we thought! The separate toddler area had some climbing toys, puzzles, a big play house and a inflatable just for the little ones! I was amazed how Amelia and Adisyn just crawled right in and were playing on all the bouncy things inside! They had a lot of fun together! After we left the Play Lodge we went out to eat with our friends Jessica and TJ, Brandi, Robby and their daughter Emma, and the Yarbroughs: Katie, Kyle and Amelia. It was the first time that Emma, Amelia and Adisyn were all together.

Amelia & Adisyn playing in the canoe

Playing together on the piano

Adisyn playing in the play house

Going through the tunnel

Adisyn in the bouncy, she went right to the big ring

Adisyn comgin out of the bouncy

 

Amelia and Adisyn playing

 

Emma (22 months), Amelia (17 months), Adisyn (13 months)

Since it's been so cold, Adisyn seen her 1st snow on February 13th. The snow was beautiful with big snow flakes and we got a couple of inches, enough for Adisyn to "get her feet wet". The day that it snowed Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, so Adisyn loved looking out the window with Grandpa watching it coming down. When there was enough on the ground, I took her outside so she could see what all the commotion was about. She looked at it in amazement!

Grandpa & Adisyn watching the snow
 

What is this stuff?

Adisyn was very excited about her snowman Grandma made

Mommy and Adisyn in the snow

Here's some videos of Adisyn seeing the snow:

Another exciting thing this past month, since about the 15th, is that Adisyn now wants to walk everywhere! She is more and more confident with her walking abilities, is able to pick things off the floor, stand up without holding onto anything and go where ever she wants to! The best thing about this is that she can explore where she wants to! It allows her to be able to play like a "big" girl. She also now says "more" and does sign language to show she wants more, can use a spoon, helps to put on clothes and shoes, put Mommy's slippers on, tries to brush her teeth by herself, eats a banana & packets by herself, washes her hands with help, cleans off the table with a napkin, throws away trash, puts away toys, and picks up little things on the floor and hands them to you (instead of eating them). She still loves to say "hi" and "bye" very clearly and as soon as we walk in the room to pick her up at daycare she immediately starts waving and saying "bye" to all of her friends.

Did I mention that I love this age? I think I say that every month. Each month I just find more things to love!