These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

 

Guess who's 2?!!

Adisyn turned 2 and we had such a fun day planned. We didn't want to have a party, since we already celebrated with our family and she's still young to have all of her friends together, so we just planned an excitement filled day. Her birthday was on a Saturday, so after breakfast at Chick-fil-a, we went to our regularly scheduled "gymnastics" class (as she calls it) first thing in the morning. We've been going to gymnastics for a little while now and she loves it! It's not a structured "gymnastics" class, because we felt like she was too young for that, but more of a "play and learn" class as they call it. I usually go with her, unless Mark is off then he goes too. We play on the equipment, which changes week to week, sing, dance and all of the other toddler loving stuff. She loves it and asks to go everyday! After that she took a nap in the car before we arrived at Monkey Joes ( http://www.monkeyjoes.com/) to meet her friends. I just wanted a few of her close friends there, because it wasn't an official "party" but more of a play date. Unfortunately 3 of her friends had to cancel at the last minute, so it was her and Jefferson. They had so much fun and it seemed like their favorite thing was the big slide! When it seemed like they were getting tired we left and took her to Club Tabby http://myclubtabby.com/. She loves it when I do her nails, so I thought she would think it was special when they do her nails for her and add all the glitter and anything else she picks out. She picked out pink and purple nail polish then they added glitter on her nails and hair (and for $5 it was a fun special birthday thing to do!). She did so good and really had fun. When the girl would tell her what to do, whether it was spread her fingers apart or put them under the fan, she would do what she said. She even got a balloon when she left! I was so impressed and proud of her! Since a two-year-old can't really tell you what she wants to do for her birthday, I think we did a good job of making her feel special and doing the things she likes to do best!

"Birthday Girl" shirt she wore to school on Friday

The birthday girl after she woke up

Birthday breakfast at Chic-fil-a

At "Gymnastics"

 

"Bumpy mats"

 

"parachute time"

At Monkey Joe's:

 





 

 

At Club Tabby:

 

 

Adisyn had her 2 year old check up and Dr. Jack said she's doing great! She jumped up a notches on the chart and is in the 50th percentile with height at 34 inches and  weighs 24 pounds, which is up to the 25th percentile for weight! He couldn't believe that how she jumped in height and is staying right where she needs to be!

Year to-date I was thinking about her favorite things:

1. "jump" when she gets excited - she still keeps 1 foot on the floor, but she's getting the hang of it!
2. play with her babies - she will give them medicine, listen to their heart, feed, change their diapers (or attempt to), put them to bed, etc...she loves taking care of her babies
3. reading books with mommy and daddy
4. coloring, paining, or any other art activity
5. "nymnastics" a.k.a "gymnastics" - she asks to go there almost everyday...too bad we can only go on Saturdays!
6. being outside
7. singing & dancing - she loves to make up her own song or sing one of her favorites - some of her favorites besides the ones I mentioned in earlier blogs are: The Wheels On the Bus, Rock-a-by baby, Muffin Man, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (or "How I wonder what you are", as she calls it) are just a few of her favorites. She really loves any song, especially kid songs. She also likes to dance and will dance to about anything!
8. any animal, especially owls, cats, dogs, monkeys
9. her favorite color is purple - she will pick this color out before others and prefers it more than any other color
10. is saying short sentences "daddy is at work", "where did daddy go?", "no shoes on the bed!", etc
11. pick out her own outfit and shoes so I sometimes give her 2 options, so she feels like she got to pick it out
12. she loves her shoes and will sometimes just want to try on different ones
13. her favorite stuffed animals now are the ballerina bear that my mom gave her for Christmas, any of her "babies" which she calls her dolls "babies" as well, her pink bunny to sleep with (but she does love them all!)

Milestones:
1. she can walk backwards
2. jump up with one foot still on the ground
3. say her ABCs
4. count to 10
5. spell her name
6. name a few of her friends at school when you ask (they tell us at school that she knows everyone's name in the building, including their mommies/daddies)
7. put on her shoes
8. take off her pants
9. knows her animals and what sounds they make
10. goes to the "potty" and has used it a time or two, but for now she's just getting the idea of it down and uses her "big girl undies" on the weekend when we're home
11. follows simple rules like no shoes on the couch or bed
12. eats with a spoon (but not all the time)
13. can use a cup to drink water (but we still use her sippy cup)
14. knows the colors: red, yellow, purple, and blue
15. knows the shapes: heart, circle and star
16. she can tell people her name and how old she is when asked

We couldn't be more proud of Adisyn. I love that I can document every little detail of her progress so she can look back on it in the years to come and see what a special girl she is! I can't believe how much she has learned this past year and how much she is becoming her own little person. She is such a sweet, caring, smart girl and she loves to learn new things! We have so much to look forward to this year as well and we love watching her blossom into a little girl!

Here's some more pictures I for her birthday pics:

Merry Chrismas!

The Christmas celebrations began early. After all of the festivities of the last blog, we went to Massachusetts to visit my family. It was Adisyn's first trip up there and also her first time on an airplane. On the way up there, we left after we got out of work, so it was a late flight. We gave her Benadryl early enough that it would kick in for the flight. It was also past her bed time by the time we arrived at the airport, so we thought for sure she would be asleep! But, just the opposite happened - even though we've given her Benadryl many times in the past to sleep, she was more hyper than she's ever been! I guess it was all the excitement of new things! On the airplane she did fine but you could tell that she was really over tired. When we landed, we got the car seat in our rental car and before we even left the parking garage, she was asleep. We stayed with my sister, auntie "Lala" and we got in late that night. Adisyn got to meet my niece, Kylli and my aunt Jeannie officially for the first time (even though she has talked to them on Skype before) as well as the rest of my family. My mom, "Mimi" stayed over my sister's house as well, so she could see Adisyn the whole time. The next day we got about 9 inches of snow. Luckily I have some ski pants that I got on consignment for Adisyn that I brought along with us so she could enjoy the snow. Even though she saw snow last year, she was too young to remember it. She went with Kylli and Mark sledding for the first time. I don't think she was too excited either about the snow or going down a hill on a fast sled, but when she got down at the end of the hill, she let us know that she was all done! She really like Kylli and wanted to follow her around. It was nice to see the cousins playing together - Kylli is so good with little kids! We had a pre-Christmas party where my family came over and opened our gifts for them and they got to see Adisyn open presents as well! She really liked seeing my family and did not want to leave!

On the way back Adisyn did really well on the plane. She did not cry or get impatient, at all. She sat on my lap the whole time and we just played and read. I was really impressed! She is still talking about the plane ride: "Adi went on airplane...it went up, up, up then down, down, down. Adis sat on mommy's lap!". Her teachers tell me that she talks about it at school too. She did great!

We had such a fun, wonderful Christmas! Adisyn was really getting the hang of the whole thing. She wasn't too sure of the whole Santa thing, at first, but then she really liked the whole idea of Santa, the reindeer, and Christmas. Her second meeting of Santa was great (the first not so good). She was talking to Santa and smiled for the pictures! She was so cute!

Christmas Eve we started a tradition where she opens up a special gift that night. This gift is something we can use that night, to get ready for Santa Clause. This year we got her special Christmas pajamas and a Christmas book that we read that night. The next morning daddy made a special breakfast and she opened our gifts from us and from our family then the Santa Clause present. Santa got her a kitchen, which she loved! She also got a medical kit and a play do kit from mommy and daddy. She loved the dolls that my dad sent her, which were ones my grandmother made years ago, as well as a cute big stuffed dog. Grandma and Grandpa got her a crib for her babies and a hello kitty cd player. She had so much fun opening everything and loved it all!

Christmas day Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and an apple cake we made for Adisyn's birthday. Adisyn loves apples, so that's why we made her a homemade apple cake! I think we just wanted something unique and since we were cooking anyway we thought, why not?

We really hope we are passing along traditions and memories to Adisyn that she'll always cherish. The purpose of Christmas is to remember the real reason, which is the birth of Jesus. We don't want her to get wrapped up in the commercialism, but understand the true meaning of giving, spending time with family and to celebrate. Each year as she gets older she is understanding more and more. We love making memories!

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!: