Happy 4th Birthday, Addie!!!

Wait.  Did everyone else blink and miss that?  It was 4 years going by in a FLASH.  

Can you believe Adeline Eve is now FOUR YEARS OLD?  She's no longer a baby, she's a little girl!  Addie is many many things.  She's super super sweet.  She's an amazing big sister to Cole.  She is dramatic and loves to pretend.  She's an amazing reader for her age!  She's reading signs like "Rockville Town Square" and the back of cereal boxes, and can read real books now--Amelia Bedelia, Curious George, Arthur, Frog and Toad, etc etc.  She does need our help occasionally, but overall, she's reading a ton of children's books on her own.

She still loves to dance and does it all day every day.  At school one day I was reading her the list of "opportunities" that her teacher posts outside of the classroom. I said "Oh, Addie, look, today Ms. Janice is coming in and you get to do dance." and her teacher looked at me and said "Addie dances EVERYday" :)  She's also stubborn and sassy, and sometimes I think she's 4 going on 14 with the way she talks back to us.  But I think we'll still keep her ;) because she's SO good at snuggling, giving bear hugs, and throwing us daily birthday parties.   Speaking of birthdays...

Addie's birthday started out to here waking up to balloons in her room again! 

A few presents to get the morning started

And of course a birthday hat

Some special pancakes for the divine Ms. A

Addie and Cole got to watch a movie in the morning, complete with a chocolate milk treat.

Then at school she got to bring rice krispy treats in for her classmates.  Then we ordered her favorite dinner: Pad Thai!

On the day of her birthday party, Addie had her last ballet class of the session

Then later in the afternoon she had her "Mystery Detective Birthday Party"  Sadly, we were all running around so much that we didn't take many pictures!  Here is one of Steve leading Addie and her friends for the big mystery!

So I leave you with some sweet Addie pictures....she is the most amazing little girl and we have loved every day of being her parents.

Happy birthday, my sweet girl, little peanut, little bear, Adelina Ballerina, Addie Bear, Adsaloo

WE LOVE YOU!

Louisiana Trip #2!

The last time we were on a plan we flew to Louisiana to visit Steve's side of the family.  Here are the pictures--how little was Addie?   

Steve's cousin Greg was getting married so we made the trek again, this time with two kiddos in tow. 

Checking out the airplanes at National Airport--a long day of traveling ahead of us. 

Don't worry, Cole, I'll share my toys with you

We flew into New Orleans, opted not to stop for Hurricanes, drove 2 hours to Lafayette and promptly had some chicken fingers and amazing Frozen Yogurt.  Feel free to ignore Cole's look of disdain--perhaps he had a bite of strawberry when he meant to have Coconut? 

It was so much fun to see the whole family staying at the same hotel! 

Addie and Yaya wore the same Booktrader of Hamilton shirt :) 

Off to Aunt Robbie's house to see Grammy! 

And the wedding!  The kids got all dressed up for the ceremony.  Cole and I watched all of 4 minutes of it until he became loud. Not crying...just loud. "MOMMY?  MOMMY?  DIS?  MOMMY? CAR." Needless to say, we made a quick exit to the back vestibule where Cole and Julie had a dance-off. 

Addie was an angel and watched the whole ceremony--I mean what's as cool as a princess?  A bride :) 

Family pics!! 

The next day we got to spend more time at Aunt Robbie's to hang out with the cousins.  Julie sits on a pot to reach the table--apparently a Granger family tradition. 

 We did some tree-climbing

And some awesome swinging

Family!!!! 

Aunt Robbie and Aunt Ada

Cousins Agustin, Steve, and Doug

Ricardo, Cole and Agustin

Grammy, Steve, and Cole

Cole's turn to sit on the pot

Restin' and relaxin'

Go Kart Racing! 

And too soon it was time to go home.  The kids on the shuttle to the airport

Who doesn't love floor pizza? 

Both kids passed out on the plane ride back (not simultaneously, of course) 

A great trip!  Congrats Greg and Courtney and to the Picco family--we all love you!

Pumpkin Patch!!!

This weekend we had GORGEOUS weather and we were lucky enough to head out to Butler's Orchard for their fall festival and also visit the pumpkin patch. We love fall fun!

First we headed to the tractor-drivin' pit.  Cole totally dug driving the mini tractor.

Addie pushing Cole on the tractor.

Then we headed to a big box of dried corn.  There were a bunch of dump trucks, buldozers, and back-hoe loaders (see I'm starting to learn more of the "boy lingo") but not enough to go around--next year, Butler's Orchard, more toys and you'll have less tears in the corn box.   Not pictured--Addie in tears because she didn't get the truck right away.  And Cole doing is typical "Addie duh duh saaaaad" (with a finger running down his cheek like the drop of a tear).  My children the actors--hysterical!

Addie and Steve rocked the giant slide....WEE!  Cole didn't want to do it this year, we were all pretty hungry.

So while Steve got in line for the food, the kids and I hit the hay-loft.  They LOVED it. 

It was bouncy!

It was fun to throw in the air!

It was tiring--they're having a little sibling conference and I wasn't invited.

Then there was a post-hay-jumping game of Ring around the Rosy to shake out the rest of our sillies.  Not pictured: our lunch of junk food and ice cream.  The kids were too distracted to eat much food, but they both looooved the ice cream.  We finished our cones while standing in line for the hay ride.

See you take the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. We didn't realize this last year and came home empty-pumpkined.   But this year we were determined to get the perfect pumpkins.  Well, our rule was "you can bring home whatever you can carry" (hey, it was pay by the pound!)

Cole was almost lulled to sleep by the hay ride...almost but not quite.

We had a blast picking our pumpkins!  But by this time we were all tired and a bit cranky. 

Me proudly displaying our (easy to carry) festive decorations.

Happy fall everyone (or those who are still reading this blog!) enjoy the warmish weather while it lasts!!!

Bless me blogland for I have sinned...

...it has been over a month since my last blog post. I must repent. I don't know why this has been slipping through my hands lately...or my mind...with facebook updates I feel like most of my faithful blog readers already keep up with the kiddos, but I know this is different!

So...a quick update. Cole turned 18 months yesterday. A year and a half! How did that happen??? He's SUCH a boy. Such a boy. All trucks and loud crashing noises when he "tells" a story. But on the other end he gets all whiny if his hands get messy in the dirt? Really dude, because there's ketchup and yogurt all in your HAIR and you care about a little bit of dirt on your hands? He's also very sweet--he loves taking Addie's baby doll (ironically, the one named "Baby Doll Cole") and putting her (yes her) to "seep" (sleep) by placing her on a bed with a blanket completely covering her body and face (poor thing can't breathe). There's also a giant hedgehog in our living room named Lucy that looks like this. Cole is constantly trucking his sippy cup over to Lucy, plopping down next to her and waving in her face. "Hi. Lucy. Water." He likes trains (tah-mis) and is obsessed with mickey mouse. He still loves music and knows the last word to most of the lines of each Little Mermaid song (seeing as how we listen to it about a hundred times a week in the car). He's putting two and sometimes three words together in sentences ("Inono cookie book" also means "I don't know where the cookie monster book is, but please find it for me NOW so we can read it"), can identify shapes (heart, star, circle, triangle, sometimes oval and square), and know some colors (but is less consistent, and his default color is always "wat" (white). He can count to 10 so cutely while walking up and down the stairs. I have yet to capture it on video, but that is my next goal. If you sing the ABC's and leave a letter out, he can fill it in for you. This week he started saying abcd and then dissolving in a heap of giggles for some reason only known to that goofy little child. He's becoming a WAY pickier eater than I'd like...sigh...missing the days when he ate piles and piles of whatever we put in front of him. He's a big fruitatarian these days. All in all, a wonderful kiddo with a short temper and a huge heart.

Addie started a new school this year. Since she's a November birthday, she'll have 3 years of preschool, and the school she attended last year wasn't the best fit for her or the family. It was a co-op, which meant that I worked 1-3 days in her classroom a month and there was 1 steady teacher plus 2 parents who rotated each day. The inconsistency of me being there sometimes and not other times and of different parents each day left Addie a crying mess at almost every drop-off. We chose a new school which is not a co-op, so she has 2 teachers who are the same each time and...poof...she loves the school, hasn't shed a single tear, BARELY EVEN LOOKS BACK AT ME when I leave the classroom. May wasn't that long ago when she was clinging to my leg, but she is a changed woman :) And SO proud of herself too! Addie has a hilarious sense of humor. She knows when she's made us really laugh and then she declares "I'm funnier than the Great Zucchini!" (A local "funny man" that we saw recently). She's doing bigger things on the playground--she can flip on the rings that we have on our swingset, and she can almost pump her legs on the swing exclusively (but, she will let you know, she quite likes being pushed). For a girl who was terrified of going down the slide when we moved into this house...that's a huge deal!

They've been able to play together a lot more, which is SO nice. They get along for the most part, but do get on each other's nerves. We do our best to let them sort it out because I know they can do it, but we do have to intervene here and there to make sure no one gets hurt. But if Addie gets hurt, Cole is the first to rush over and give her a kiss. If she's sad he looks at us and says "Addie. Sad" and then runs over to give her a hug. But just as he knows how to make her feel better, he knows how to push her buttons. All in all....I couldn't ask for a better pair of siblings.

Pictures coming in a post soon...I promise....

We're famous!

Last week, I took the kids to Rockville Town Square, a shopping area that also has some fountains in the summer where we can cool off. A local newspaper reporter asked if he could snap some shots of the kiddos, so I agreed. Ironically, the title of the article was "As temperatures rise, residents urged to stay inside." Which we didn't do--oops :) Here's a link to the article: http://www.gazette.net/article/20110720/NEWS/799999842&template=gazette

__________________

So, I lied.

I promised more posts, didn't I? Sorry :(

So little Cole, at 16.5 months, is a crazy crazy talker. When Cole was young, I brazenly decided that he would be more active than his sister, less talkative, and more laid back. I was right, right, wrong. He is definitely more active than Addie was--he's handling stairs much better and can climb better than Addie could, but he's way more cautious than I assumed he would be, for a boy, I guess. And he has what feels like a gazillion words and has already started to put two words together like "Hi Daddy" and "Mommy Up" and "Addie sad" (sadly, he says that one a lot, because--well, she is cranky a lot ;). Today we were at Barnes and Noble and they have a train table there. He took one of the trains and pushed it into a tunnel and said "Bye Bye Choo Choo" and then looked at me and said "Choo Choo Seep (sleep)" and did the sign for sleep. So sweet! I love play pretend!

He can also answer questions:

When you ask him "How are you?" he always says "Goo(d)" and if you ask him how something tastes he will respond with the same.

When you ask "Who wants yogurt?!" or anything really, he will answer "I do!!!"

When you ask him where something is, he says "I no no (I don't know)" or if he's looking for something he will say "I no no no pashee" (aka I don't know where my pacifier is and I have a slight addiction and I want it RIGHT NOW--sigh, more on that another time). And while he has known "NO" forever, he now answers in the affirmative with a "Mm Hm"or an "Uh Huh"--too funny.

He wants to know what everything is by saying "Dat" as in "What's that?" and is a good parrot, which I think is how he learns so many words. Also that he has an older sister that NEVER STOPS TALKING :)

I'm proud to report that he knows one color now--Black! We have a What Color book and we've gone through it a bunch. He's repeated the colors, and black and white were first, but hadn't identified a color outside of that book until today at the bookstore. He first pointed to a black part of a train and said "back" and then found a Mickey Mouse book (he's kind of obsessed with Mickey) and the front had a picture of Mickey's head in a felt material. He pointed to the ear and said "B(l)ack" and then "sof(t)" SO fun watching these kiddos learn.

He's also very empathetic. When Addie hurts herself, he rushes over to kiss whatever it is that she hurt. If she's whining/complaining/crying about something, he will often just randomly give her a hug and half the time, it stops her! It's so sweet :)

He's also very stubborn. Oh man, I also thought he would be more easy-going than Addie, and he is to a degree, but he's not a laid back kid. He doesn't get what he wants and he has tantrums already, screaming, walking to a wall and facing the wall as if to say "I don't like you."

After reading all I wrote (and no, I'm not editing, you get my thoughts as they come out), I realize I am breaking the cardinal rule of NOT COMPARING YOUR CHILDREN. I like to say that this rule should read "DONT COMPARE YOUR CHILDREN....IN FRONT OF THEM" Okay?

So onto my Addie. She is reading...like a lot. Like a whole sentence like "The red hen sat on the fat cat." She has these BOB books that are awesome and of course she stumbles sometimes and needs help others, she's only 3.5 but she really really can read them! She remembers words and phrases as a whole, so once she asked on a catalog "what does this say?" and I said "Back to School" and 3-4 weeks later she saw it on a sign at Target and said "look, Mommy, that says "Back to School!" Yes, my dear, you are right, it does. She'll also randomly surprise me, like we'll look on the On Demand listings as I'm flipping through and say "let's watch Bob the Builder, I see it at the top" or "Oh look, Super Why is on" Um...okay?????? Soon the days will be over when we can spell things around her to avoid her understanding :)

She's also quite sassy....the other day we were in the basement cleaning up and I said "I'm going to put the blocks away, what are you going to do to help? and she replied "I'm going to DANCE in case you get bored" Nice try, girlfriend. And the only reason that Cole gets more airtime on this post than Addie is because at this age he's developing so much that SO much is new. We love them both equally and are equally amazed and in awe of these amazingly adorable and sweet children that we have in our lives!

Okay, more updates to come. We went to the Jersey Shore (and yes, saw Snooki) so I need to post the pictures before Halloween comes....love you all!