Summer Lovin'

20 Months!

We had a great family vacation at the beginning of August. It was me and Mark's 11th anniversary so we all went to St. Simon's Island in Georgia. We never have been there before and were excited because we knew nothing about the area. There was another adjoining island, Jekyll Island, were we also visited often. We had so much fun because we were able to bring our mountain bikes with a seat for Adisyn on the back too! We found out the area (especially Jekyll Island) is famous for the migration and nesting area for sea turtles. Even though we didn't witness any nesting, we were able to see two sea turtles released back into the ocean after being rehabilitated due to injuries. On Jekyll Island we visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center: http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/. Adisyn loved seeing the live sea turtles and we were also able to see other sea turtles that were being rehabilitated in the hospital because they have "boo-boos", as Adisyn said.

Looking at a sea turtle in the museum

Watching a sea turtle in the hospital

Baby sea turtles in the hospital

Watching the sea turtle being released into the ocean

Adisyn watching the sea turtles being released into the ocean

Adisyn & I on the beach waiting for the sea turtles

We also took a carriage ride to tour the historic district of the island: http://www.threeoakscarriageandtrail.com/#!. Adisyn loved our horse, Daisy, and loved sitting in the carriage seat like a big girl. The history of the island was very interesting as the millionaires of the past, such as the Rockefeller's, had "cottages" on the island, which were more like mansions. The first phone call ever was done on the island during this time as well as the first indoor pool is there.

Adisyn loved her own seat!

Family picture on the carriage ride

Our horse "Daisy"

Adisyn loved touching Daisy, but kept pointing to her eyes

We found a hard-to-find area called Driftwood Beach: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g35034-d2415179-Reviews-Driftwood_Beach-Jekyll_Island_Golden_Isles_of_Georgia_Georgia.html. We heard the beach existed, but it's not well marked so it's actually hard to find. The first day we went looking for it, but didn't find it, so after a little more research we found a trail head leading to the beach! We brought our mountain bikes along for the ride and we felt like we were on a deserted island! There were conch shells everywhere and Adisyn loved roaming around the beach. We also got some cute pictures on the beach, it felt like a different world!

 

Adisyn loved playing in the water!:

 

Another exciting place was Summer Waves Water Park: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g35034-d105070-Reviews-Summer_Waves_Water_Park-Jekyll_Island_Golden_Isles_of_Georgia_Georgia.html. We did not realize how much Adisyn LOVED water until we went here. She went down the kiddy slides by herself and kept wanting "more". She also loved the lazy river and just walking around in the area. Warning: I have an overload of cute videos:

 

Adisyn & I in the lazy river....I think she was relaxed!

The only entertainment we did on St. Simons Island was the St. Simons Island Lighthouse: http://www.saintsimonslighthouse.org/ were we got some pretty pictures. It was right at one of the parks next to their pier.

Right next door to the lighthouse was Neptune Park: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g28931-d531861-Reviews-Neptune_Park-Georgia.html, which was basically their community pool, but it had a GREAT kiddy section that Adisyn just LOVED! She would just laugh continuously the whole time she was walking around in the water, going down the slides or climbing up the cargo net (by herself!). She even met a friend there, Adalyn, who was almost 9 years old. Adalyn would walk with her up the stairs, race her down the duel slides and push her around in her floaty in the pool. When her and Adalyn would get to the top of the slide, Adisyn would count on her fingers "1, 2, 3" before they would race down together. Adisyn was actually the one who initiated the friendship because she kept talking, saying "hi" and smiling at Adalyn when she was playing. Adalyn played so good with Adisyn and they had a great time! We actually went back the next day (it was within walking distance from the townhouse where we stayed) and Adisyn got to see Adalyn again. She had so much fun in the water, that there was nothing to compare to it!

Adisyn and Daddy going down the slide - she loved it!:

Adisyn & Adalyn ready to go down

Adisyn & Adalyn getting ready to race down the slide: Adisyn would count: "1...2...3"

 

 Adisyn going up the cargo net all by herself:

 



Adisyn climbing up and going down the slide. You can hear her laughing the whole time!:

 

 

This month we also went to the WNC Nature Center: http://www.wildwnc.org/. It's a nice, small zoo in Asheville, NC. Adisyn loved the otters and the big cats! She's really learning her animals and animal sounds! We also stopped by the Greenville Zoo too!

 

 

Walking thru the Nature Center

 

Adisyn looking at the "kitty"

We had a cold, rainy weekend so we took a trip to Atlanta to go to the aquarium! It was surprisingly cold there too, but inside the aquarium was perfect. Adisyn is really getting to know sea animals, as well. She loved the penguins!

 

 

 

 

We participate in the Imagination Library which is a non-profit organization that sends Adisyn a new book every month. The books are perfect for her age and this program sends books up to age 5. This month was their anniversary, so we went to the celebration in downtown. Adisyn wasn't too sure of the large animals! You can see that we had another cold day, as we had her jacket on her!

 

 

 

Adisyn also had a couple of big FIRSTS (and they were caught on video). She is now in her big girl bed and loves it! She loves that she can have her stuffed animals in there and she can get in and out by herself. When she's playing in her room, she'll actually get up in her bed to play or pretend to go "night night". Here's a video of her first night:

 



Adisyn also had her first kiss! We were invited to a cookout with the Rousey's, at their neighbor's house. When we were leaving, Adisyn was following Jefferson around to give him a kiss. He was running from her at first, but then he just leaned and kissed her back. We have a cute video of it (even though it sounds like a horror film because the Rousey's neighbor was screaming when she saw them!):

 

This month at school her teacher, Alex, told us that she is very sweet. When another kid is crying, she walks over to them, pats them on the back and gives them a kiss! This made me so proud! She is learning her friends names and she likes to point them out when I come to visit. She especially knows Drake and Aubrey. She also likes to show me new decorations or things she made in class, as she points them out on the wall. She moved up to a new Sunday School class now and it's called the "Hedgehogs". She doesn't know her teachers yet, so she's not quite sure of it, but every time we come in to pick her up she snuggling with one of them, so I don't think she minds!

 

We had such a fun and busy month! We love the summer and really love being outside and see Adisyn enjoy everything! I think we're having as much fun as she is!

 

Rainy Summer Days

19 Months!

The first 15 days of July were very stormy. I'm not talking about the nice summer rain that you get in the south that just cool it down a little. No, we literally had flooding and rain. every. day. In the meantime, we didn't get a much chances to go outside the first half of the month, except for the occasional play time in the back yard, which was basically a marsh land. Adisyn's little playhouse became a house for spiders. Still, we found ways to have fun. Adisyn really likes her tricycle and she can ride it in the house down the hall (she can't quite reach the petals yet, but she loves it when Mommy or Daddy push her!). The second half of July was pretty warm, but of course I like the warm weather! When I get home from work and if Mark was off of work that day, we all go to the pool. Adisyn loves to "kick! kick! kick!" as she calls it, as she "swims" around. She gets so excited when we pull up to the pool (which is a neighborhood pool) as she screams with excitement. She loves the water and when she had enough she says "all done" and is ready to leave!

We went to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia http://www.riverbanks.org/ this month and we expected it to rain that day, but it turned out to be a nice day! We love to go to this zoo when we can, as it takes about an hour or so to get there. The things Adisyn likes the most about this zoo is they have a kangaroo and wallaby attraction where you can walk right through their cage. Most of the time they're just laying around, but you are able to get so close to them! There's also an aviary where you can feed all the tropical birds which come and land on your arm to eat. Adisyn loved finding all the birds and tried to touch them, but they would always fly away. There's also a little aquarium at the zoo and Adisyn really likes walking around tank to tank looking at the fish. She gets so excited and uses her words a lot more now. Our bedtime routine consists of reading two books before she goes to bed. A lot of the time if we visited somewhere that day, I'll try to pick out books with pictures of some of the animals we saw.

Here's some of the pictures from the zoo:





She loves pointing out all the animals and the sounds they make

 

This is a cute video from the Giraffe exhibit at the zoo:



 

Speaking of bedtime routines, Adisyn loves her "babies", teddy bear "Pandy" (who Grandma and Grandpa just got her from Build-A-Bear), bunny, kitty, ducky and what every else she might want to have in her crib with her.  She'll say "night night" and want to put them in her bed. Her bedtime is about 6:30 - 7pm, although there are days when it can be earlier or later. She loves to go around the crib and point to each of them and say their name.  She also likes her animals to have a picnic with her or have a tea party. She'll put the animals next to her and she'll make sure that they eat the things in the picnic basket that Auntie Jeannie gave her a few months ago. She also loves to push her dollies or animals in her baby stroller and she will put them on the potty to go to the bathroom. Adisyn usually sits on the potty when we use ours, but she's not quite there yet...as so I thought, until one day when I was getting something ready in the other room and I heard her crying from her bedroom. Usually if she is crying about something she'll come to find me. But, after I kept calling her, she didn't come. I went into her bedroom and she had her diaper off, with a poop in it, and a fresh diaper in her hand. Luckily she just sat the dirty diaper on the floor, but it appeared that she realized she didn't know what to do next so she just cried for help. Then she told me "poop" as she pointed to her dirty diaper. I was impressed (and glad the dirty diaper didn't go anywhere else) but I'm not going to rush the issue. She's getting the hang of things and we'll know when it's time to start potty training.

Pushing around her baby in the back yard

Adisyn got 1 more tooth since the last blog. She now has 3 on the bottom and 2 on the top! She had her 18 month check up with Dr. Jack and he was surprised that she bumped up a line on the curve for height and weight so she's no longer in the smallest percentile. She weighs in at 21 pounds and is 31 1/2 inches long. He predicted that she would just stay on the smallest curve throughout her childhood, but he thinks that she's catching up! I noticed that she fits better into her 18 month clothes, but her 12 month clothes still fit good. She is finally growing out of her size 3 shoes, but she is still able to wear them. She is also still in size 3 diapers, although there is some overlap for size 3 and 4, but we tend to get size 3s because there's actually more diapers in them (as you go up in size, the amount of diapers decreases).

At school her teachers continue to tell me that she's so sweet. They told me that they'll randomly, throughout the day, feel someone holding onto their leg. When they look down Adisyn starts to kiss them. They say that she kisses them all the time! One thing that worried them, though, is that she was waking up from her naps, not too long after they put them down, screaming. They were afraid something was wrong because some of the days she would say "boo-boo", but they found nothing. We talked to Dr. Jack about it and he said he was actually going to talk to us about that at this wellness check - now is the time in their development that they begin having night terrors. It made us feel better that there was nothing wrong, but you do feel helpless when they wake up upset!

One of the new cute things she does is that she is really getting more into singing (and dancing). Her favorite song that she picked up on is Selena Gomez "Come and Get It". She loves the part that says "na na na na..." and she loves to sing along. Other songs, that she might not know all the words, she sings along too making sounds, feeling like she's singing.

We ended up having a fun month of July. She is learning more and more every day!

Splish Splash

18 Months! 

A year and a half old!

Finally some warm weather!! We love it because that means we can be outside more. I've been trying to get creative with keeping cool and entertaining a toddler. She really likes when I bring out the big bowl of soapy water and have various toys in it to find...or just to dump out. Whatever the case, she's surprising entertained for some time and she wants "more" after she dumps it out. We have a turtle pool that was left here when we moved in, which comes in handy. She loves getting in and out of it and bringing her dolly in it for a swim. We also have a Hello Kitty sprinkler that she wasn't too sure of at first, but then when she realized it really cooled her off, she liked it. Zoie loves all the water fun!

Playing in her bowl

"Ta-da"

Washing her baby

 

Hello Kitty sprinkler

It was Father's Day! Adisyn made a cute poster at school so we brought it to Daddy at work after I picked it up. Daddy loved the surprise!

Mark did manage to get out a little early on Father's Day so we can have dinner together. Adisyn loves it when Daddy comes home!

Daddy's home!

Daddy came home for lunch too!

I know I say it every month, but Adisyn is learning more and more words. She likes to repeat more words too. With that, she is able to follow directions better too! She loves helping mommy and daddy out by throwing things away, putting things in the dishwasher or dryer, sweeping, wiping up a mess and cleaning up her toys (most of the time). Her teacher at school said that she has really come out of her shell this month and just talks all the time! She has some stranger anxiety, which her pediatrician warned us was coming, in that when someone approaches her and tries to talk to her, she appears very shy. But, if she is the one initiating the conversation than she's fine with it, especially when she warms up to them a little. I'm glad she's talking more at school because she is so talkative at home! Her teacher also told me that she says "please" and "thank you" all the time and so clearly. One day at school one of the teachers brought in a turtle and all the kids were fascinated by it. Her teacher told me that as the turtle was leaving, Adisyn make sure she said "bye-bye" to it. She also likes to talk to her baby and her dolly (or whatever other character she has at the time) has conversations with other toys. It's so cute to hear her talking with whatever words come to mind or just sounds, that make it seem like a real conversation. She has actually said 3 word sentences (not consistently) but she can say things like "Dada, my shoes" and more commonly 2 word sentences such as "my shoes", "more please", "2 books", "I get", etc. It seems like she puts more together each day!

She loves her "baby"!

I know I'm biased, but I really think she's a very sweet girl! One Sunday we were going to pick her up in Sunday School and we peeked in before going in, and we saw her walking over to a little boy. When we walked in we noticed that she was handing him Cheerios because she was concerned that he was crying. I then realized this little boy is from her class at school and it was his first time in Sunday School. We all couldn't believe how sweet she was to try to help him (especially since she usually protects her Cheerios so much). Now, I do admit, the "terrible two's" are beginning to kick in, but that's just part of her normal development. She's learning that she can be her own person and is learning how to express herself. In turn, she's learning what the rules are.

I don't know how I forgot it last month, but Adisyn FINALLY got 2 more teeth!! Now she has 4 teeth total, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. This makes smiling that much more cute (even though I didn't know it could get any cuter) and makes chewing food easier. She also has more hair on the top of her head so I can actually put a Velcro bow on the top of her head, not just the crown of her head. Pigtails look cute too!

Getting ready for church - you can see how her bows now fit!

She loves to dance and will dance at home or in the car. Her favorite songs are "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Wheels on The Bus", "Happy and You Know It" and "Rise and Shine And Give God Your Glory" because she gets really excited and sings, as well as dances along with them. She also likes to do "Ring Around the Rosy" where she holds onto your hands, we go around in a circle, then fall to the ground when "we all fall down". Her favorite books are "Toes, Ears and Nose" because she can flip open the body parts to reveal them. She's very good at the different body parts now! She also likes other flip up or slide books, they seem to be her favorite. She loves to point out the kitties, ducks, and horses as well as making the sounds they make.

We all went over Grandma and Grandpa's in North Carolina to meet Aunt Beverly (Grandma's sister), who was visiting from Colorado. Adisyn also got to see cousin Sarah, who she just loves to play with! She kept wanting Sarah to pick her up and they played with her dolls together. It was a fun day!

Adisyn & Sarah

Later in the month we went to Hollywild: http://www.hollywild.com/ which is not too far from our house. We've been there with Adisyn a few times, but this time she was able to enjoy it much more, now that she's older. A lot of the animals run free and there's many animals that she can pet too. Around Christmas time then have a drive through safari where you can also stop to see Santa.

She loved the goats, but wasn't too sure about these big ones that jumped up onto the fence!

Adisyn looking at the real snake!

She loved walking around looking at all the animals!

 

 

The 4th of July was very rainy, in fact the whole week was very wet. Mark had to work that day, but I had a nice day off with Adisyn. She wore an outfit that Grandma and Grandpa bought for her and she loved the skirt! We were afraid that the fireworks would wake Adisyn up, because in South Carolina everything is legal, so it can get pretty loud in our neighborhood. But, she slept through it all! The next day everyone was shooting off more fireworks, so after Adisyn went to bed we just enjoyed the view from our back yard. There was any type of firework imaginable coming from neighbors yards in every direction!

Happy to see Daddy come home for lunch!

We took a walk around the Children's Garden at Falls Park in Greenville, SC http://www.greenvillesc.gov/parksrec/ChildrensGarden.aspx to attempt to take her 18 month pictures, but she wasn't in the mood. She loves looking at all the flowers and walking around finding ducks, but when it came time to pull the camera out...she wouldn't look at it. Oh well...better luck next time. We also went to the Greenville Zoo http://www.greenvillezoo.com/ that day, which we visit often. The zoo is connected to Falls Park, so we love to go there!

 

Mommy and Adisyn walking at the Children's Garden



This was our first attempt at her 18 month picture at the Children's Garden

 

I love the hot weather and so happy summer is finally here! We are able to do so much more outside and Adisyn is really getting use to the pool, she loves it! I can't wait to see what other fun things we'll be doing this summer!