Addie and I spend a lot of time with Bess and Anne. We're in a mom's group with them and they live all of an 8 minute drive away, so when you need some baby/mama fun, who else do you call? Bess and I realized that Addie and Anne had matching outfits, so we got them all suited up for some twin action (note: Addie's dark features, and Anne's red hair...not so twinny, but whatever, they're too cute together!)


Our little strawberries


Butt shots are always cute, right?


Anne, cute and happy as can be in her stroller


My uncle John and his daughter Olivia were in town from Toronto this week. We spent some time at my mom's pool with them and had a bbq there last weekend...


And at our place last night (Steve, the photographer of this shot, so not pictured, is quite the ribs master these days thanks to Aunt Robbie's recipe)


Addie's been having fun doing all sorts of new things lately. She loves pulling herself...


...up!


And while she's been able to sit upright without falling for 3 months now, we've always had to put her in that position. So it was to our surprise that one day after a nap we found her...sitting up on her own! She loves doing it now and looks very proud each time she gets up to sitting from lying down. And yes, we dropped the crib mattress since taking this picture so that she can't pull herself up and out!


She also is becoming quite the kisser--if you count an open-mouthed swath of drool coming at your cheek a kiss....we do :)


And a hugger....the sweetness of our little bear is unending.


Our super-girl is growing up so fast!!!

Addie the Muppet

This is hands down one of my most favorite video clips of Addie to date. I laugh like crazy every time I see it, and as you will hear in the clip, I laughed like crazy when I saw it happen. I don't even know why, but really...just watch:

8 months old!!

Our little girl is growing up so fast! Didn't we just post the 7 month pictures? Sheesh! Here are a few in-a-pretty-dress-on-the-glider shots:



And on the floor with her taggy ball

And some random on-the-living-room-floor action:

I'm so happy to be 8 months old!!


I'm not crawling yet, but I'm working on it. Practice makes perfect, right?


Ooh....a toy!


Almost...got....it....

Gotta practice my look....is it Blue Steel? Magnum?


So what's new with Ms. Adeline lately?

Favorite Food: Watermelon

Least favorite food: Sweet Potatoes

Favorite Toy: Her taggy ball (see above)

Favorite non-toy: A pop-up travel foldable hairbrush (looks like this)

Favorite new trick: Getting up on her hands and knees

Number of teeth: two (bottom center)

Most annoying habit: Stealing the shopping list out of our hands and eating it, OR--screaming bloody murder if we don't let her eat said list.

Cutest habit: Ummm...everything?

Actually, our current favorite is how she loves to kiss her reflection.


Some 4th of July pics! Here is Addie helping us clean the house in preparation for the BBQ:


We dressed Addie in her WonderWoman onesie because it was the most patriotic outfit she had (we weren't very prepared)


Luckily, our wonderful neighbor Christiana who also gave Addie her Valentine's day bib brought over a flag for Addie to play with as well as the cool rubber ducky who we named Michael Flanagan (long story--but here's a winky smile for the only person reading the blog who would think that's funny;)


Our good friend Janine came over to play this week and Addie had a BLAST with her. (for those of you who were at our wedding, Janine was the one with the amazing voice who sang at the ceremony)

In other news...we're packing Addie up in a box and sending her to Egypt.

Just kidding :) But we are packing up--our landlord decided that he wants to sell the townhouse we're renting from him. The fact that the other townhouses in our little community that were up for sale are now being rented apparently didn't deter him. We could have stayed month-to-month until he sold it, but who are we kidding--we can't keep this place clean enough for ourselves, let alone to have walk-throughs for total strangers at the drop of a hat.

So we're moving about 10 minutes down the road near our friends Joe and Renelle. So if anyone LOVES packing boxes, please let us know. Delicious, healthy home-cooked meals and slobbery kisses from a little peanut will be showered upon you.

Random Fun Stuff

I keep finding photos I like but they didn't fit any particular "post theme." So here's some fun stuff.

I ordered some cute hair clips from etsy.com (a cool website where people can sell their homemade crafts). Addie likes modeling them for about 2 minutes before she pulls them out. Here are a couple:



Addie's getting pretty good at self-feeding these days!

She can grab small chunks of food, such as a piece of baby cereal, a quarter of a blueberry, or a chunk of watermelon and put it in her mouth all by herself.

She's learning how to use a sippy cup


And she can even take a spoon of pureed food that we hand to her (her current favorite is a homemade mix of applesauce, pear sauce, and prune sauce...mmm...prunes) and it usually makes it to her mouth.

Usually...


Not wanting to waste a drop of food...


If we forget to feed her, she'll just gnaw on the nearest item...in this case, a screw on the side of her crib...

Uncle Dan playing with his favorite little girls: Addie and Lily


As Steve lowered Addie into the laundry bag thing, the mothering instinct inside of me said "Um...why are you doing that?" and the instant she hit the bottom and began to laugh, instead of rescuing my daughter from the hands of her adventurous father...I ran and got the camera :)




And I leave you with a video...some clips that I liked that I thought were also a hodge podge, but when I put them together, realized that they are all the essence of our happy little girl, so I entitled it:

Singing. Dancing. Smiling. Laughing.

More Miscellaneous Summer Fun (MMSF)

Last week there was an amazing rainbow--a perfect arch--AND really really clear. Just one of the many reasons I love summer!


Addie had her first trip to the zoo! We met up with Rosanne, Pearl, and Elijah. It was a hot day, but we had a blast--we saw cheetahs (they never win), a tuft of a Panda (we think), elephants, and orangutans.

The beautiful Pearl

Pearlie took this photograph! How many 3 year olds can capture the fun mood so well?


Unfortunately, she didn't quite capture her little brother in that frame, so we took another :)

While we were in the Ape house, Addie and Elijah were playing footsie...by the time I got the camera out, they had stopped. But I promise it was super cute. Rosanne and I are calling the zoo trip Addie and Elijah's very first date ;)

Addie took her first dip in the River Towers pool this weekend! Danny and I were total pool rats during the summers growing up and we spent many many (MANY) hours at this pool...it was so fun bringing Addie!

Grandma Eva doing some laps with Addie

She loved her crab raft---she kept kicking her feet and drinking the water...

Don't drink the water, silly :)

Fun in the sun, sand, n surf...

Two weekend vacations in a row? Lucky Silvestro Family, huh? This weekend we went to Chincoteague, VA. My very good friend Sarah's family has a house there and they let us stay for the weekend! Jodi, Chris, and Shannon came and joined us. It was SO SO much fun. A lot of relaxing, spending time with the kiddo's, and enjoying the quaint town of Chincoteague. No boardwalk, no crazy huge hotels. Just a nice, slow town with plenty to do...but not too much ;)

Below you'll find A LOT of pictures that captured the weekend. I couldn't narrow them down--and these aren't even any ones that the McGee's took! If there are any good ones from them, I'll post again.


Pre-trip preparations: Addie helping me pack.


Not pictured: almost 4 hour drive on Friday evening. Addie was good, then cranky, then finally slept for the last hour of the trip. Put the kiddo's to bed and the adults talked till wayy past midnight. Hey, that's crazy late for new parents!

The next morning the girls woke us up early (actually...the rooster next door did...yes, the next door neighbors have quite a menagerie) and so we all went for a walk around town, looking at the sites, and picking up goodies at the bakery. Here we are having breakfast on the back porch.


Then some after-breakfast "parachute" fun with the beach tent.


For those of you who have followed the blog for awhile, you've seen Shannon grow up as much as you've seen Addie--she's now 11 months old, crawling all over the place, pulling herself up, and curious about everything! She'll crawl into your lap for a quick snuggle, then crawl away in search of another fun toy--such a sweetie!


The girls shared really well...for the most part ;)


Super fun porch swing!


The girls alternated naps all Saturday, which made it hard to figure out when to leave for the beach. When Shannon went down for a nap, Addie got up and vice versa. But we still had fun! One pair would head out to pick up lunch, or hit the farmers market, or get water, while the other pair would stay and watch the awake baby.

Here's some quality Addie time...


And then the switch--quality Shannon time. Baby in the basket fun!



"Okay folks, let's get this show on the road...when are we going to hit the beach?"



They finally were up at the same time, so we quickly got ready and hit the beach! Shannon LOVED the water, crawling towards it and everything-- she was a daredevil!





Addie...didn't like the ocean so much :(



Here let's see if you're happier with mommy....


...nope.



Back on the sand, the girls had fun playing with toys and the sand.



Addie definitely enjoyed the sand better than the surf. She especially loved EATING the sand.






Some momma-daughter pics:
And:


Pensive Addie staring into the water.



Back at the ranch: There's nothing like an outdoor shower!



We had a fun cocktail hour in the evening with Lane family. Then, after the girls went to bed, we adults had quite the feast: Crabs, Shrimp, and Clams. It was light out when we started, and by the time we finished cracking, picking, and pulling...




It was dark out and time for dessert: Watermelon and Tastycakes...deeeelish!


We went to bed early this night: had to get ready for early beach time on Sunday!

Here's Addie on Sunday trying to be as cool as Shannon. She's not crawling yet, but she's getting into position. By the way...she still hated the ocean on Sunday :)


So we kept her far away from it and she was much happier.


Jodi and I both needed beach cover-ups and ended up buying similar ones--they were cute and on sale, and plus, we needed to solidify our twin-ness with matching outfits :)


Sunday was Jodi and Chris' 6 year wedding anniversary! Congrats, guys!


Steve joked about burying Addie in the sand. I'm never quite sure if Steve is kidding or not ;) I made him compromise--he dug her a hole to play in. She loved it!


Group shots:



Family portrait!


After heading back, packing up and stopping for ice cream at the Island Creamery (yum!), we got into our cars and headed back to our respective states. The trip back was much quicker for us than the way there and Addie slept much of the way home--tired out from all the fun, I'm sure!

We had such a fun weekend! Thank you so much to the Lane family for letting us stay at your beautiful house!