A mere two weeks later...

Addie took her first unassisted steps just two weeks ago, as you all know. Well it didn't take long for her to become an expert! She practices all day long--she walks from the front door to the playroom and back over and over. She's often clutching something--a sippy cup (or two--"doublefisting" with one in each hand) or our keys or her hippopotamus sleep pal "Hiccup."





Trying on Daddy's hat

Bundling up for our morning walk! Despite the cold, we still go out every morning unless it's also raining. This blue fleece jacket zips up around the both of us and we stay toasty and warm!

Addie's 1st Halloween

It's time for Adeline's 1st Halloween! Well...sort of. Last year she was around, but she was just a little peanut hidden under a mountain of snow ;) One of the mom's in my mom's group (remember the pile o' babies?) had started planning a big Halloween party months and months ago. We were all very excited, talking about it in the past few weeks during meetups and costume preparations were underway in the Silvestro household (thank you, Bess, for your wonderful sewing skills!)

The morning of the party, my phone rang and Kristi (the host of the party) called with the news that her little son had croup and that she would need to cancel the party. I turned to Steve and asked "want to host a halloween party?" So we rushed home, put Addie down for a nap (she slept for an hour and 45 minutes--how did she know we needed that time to clean? Smart girl) and cleaned our hearts out. Another mom stopped at Kristi's and brought all the wonderful food Kristi prepared over and ta-da---the party was still alive. It was SO much fun. The kids were adorable and all the adults were dressed up--wait, no scratch that. Besides Jolyn who wore cat ears, Steve and I were the only adults dressed up (shocker) :)

Here are some of the pics from the festivities! Our camera has been acting up again (The only time it works perfectly is when I bring it in to the camera shop and show the person working there) so I'm giving photo credits to the wonderful mom's and dad's who also snapped away these photos (M. Yanagi, T. Monfet, and A. Durham)


Presenting....Princess Leia, Yoda, and Han Solo :)

Addie working the room

Princess Kailey, Fish Eleni, Pirate Chase, and Turkey Reese

Helena the Dragon, Wyatt the Ninja, Mason as Tigger, Ellie the Pumpkin, and Mateo as Elmo

Reese decided to bring two outfits--here she is as a Redskins Cheerleader.

And here she is as a Turkey. Peekaboo!

Addie and Reese

In attempts to get all the babies together, we had a bit of a meltdown. Lion Emma began to "roar" and Addie got a little scared

(There are actually some really hilarious ones of Addie crying, but I'm having a hard time downloading them as they were from other's photos--if I can do it, I'll update the post)

Oooh, am I not supposed to have candy yet?

The daddy's (and Kate) with some of the babies

Happy Halloween!!

First steps!

This morning Addie decided to take her first unassisted steps! She was holding onto a laundry basket, I was playing the "I'm gonna get you" game with her and she happily looked at me, let go, took three steps towards me, then whoopsboom, she was down. I caught her a few more times today on video. She still prefers crawling (er....her style of scooting) and doesn't go more than a few steps without falling, but...yay!!

Despite the temperature being a high of 80 degrees today...

....they tell us it's officially fall. So what better way to celebrate the season than hitting a fall festival? We headed to Cox Farms this weekend. I had visions of a happy Addie petting baby farm animals, dancing to a banjo player on a hay ride, swinging on rope swings (okay...maybe in a few years). We had a lot of fun. It was a gorgeous day, but not all went as idealized in my mind :)

After a long car ride and standing in line for tickets, the last thing Addie wanted to do was pose in front of this autumnal scene--I'm cracking up because she's trying SO hard to get out of my lap.


Once she was down and standing, she was much happier. Mmm....so THIS is what hay tastes like.

We headed towards Goat Village....

Addie was a bit nervous around them and decided to stay safely in the arms of her daddy.
Here they are off to ride the big slide. Woohoo! Addie will love this, right? Well..she didn't HATE it, but she was more confused than anything :)

Me trying to pose for a cute momma/daughter picture but all Addie is interested in is stealing my kettle corn.

So we had some crackers for a snack, did some people watching, decided against standing in the long line for the hay ride....

...and headed home. This is what we found the minute we pulled out of the farm....

Happy fall, everyone!

11 months and 1 word

Before I had a baby, and even when my baby was still very young, if someone had asked me "how old are they when they become toddlers?"---I would have probably said "2." But nowadays, I feel like Addie isn't a baby anymore! Is she a toddler already? She's doing SO many things that I feel like a toddler would do. From the way that she sits on her knees while playing to saying real words (yes! more about that later), she's definitely grown out of baby stage. To use my friend Megan's phrase, we'll call Addie a "Twoddler." She's in betweeen baby and toddler right now.

Here are some photos from her 11 month photoshoot




Look, ma! No hands!








And some other recent cuteness...

As the weather has been cooling off it's been brrrr....COLD for some of our morning walks. Gotta bundle up!

New fleece pajamas are sized 18 months...they're still a little big for even our tall girl.

Loving her new smile--the scrunch face :)


And yes, we have a first official non-mama/dada word! Drum roll please......

DOG.

I think if we actually had a dog, her first word may have been Spike, Sadie, Moose, Otis, or Maverick (just a little shout out to some of our family friend dogs out there). But since we don't have a dog, we have to settle for saying "hi dog!" to every dog we pass. And in our new neighborhood we walk a lot. And there are a LOT of dogs. So imagine our surprise and happiness when one day I said "see the dog?" And Addie said "DOG" clear as day. Sometimes it comes out "Dob" and sometimes it comes out "Daw" but she's said it with the "G" and all sometimes, too. Our little social butterfly will spot a "daw" before I do and say it's name and start waving frantically. SO much fun.


Happy 11 month birthday, Adeline. No matter what anyone says, you will always be my baby girl :)

Goofiness and adventure and cuddles.

Addie and I got to spend the day with Uncle Dan and Grandma Eva. Dan took a ton of photos and here are the best of the bunch! Goofiness and adventure and cuddles all around.

So much fun being had in the Silvestro household

I never understood those parents who wanted their kids to do "tricks" for friends and family. Leave the kid alone, I thought. Okay, now I get it. When your baby starts doing such cute things, you want to share it with the world. Here is a video that encapsulates some of the fun tricks Addie has been doing for us lately.




Addie does stuff from Monica Silvestro on Vimeo.