The big Three-Oh.

So....this past weekend I left my 20's behind and joined a new decade. Yep, I turned 30 years old! A lot of people asked me how I felt about achieving this milestone birthday and I have to say, I wasn't nervous at all. Frankly, my life rocks. If you had asked me 10 years ago what I wanted my life to look like in 2009, I would probably have said: Um, hopefully married to a wonderful man, with at least one kid, and surrounded with my family and friends. Check, check, and check.

My birthday pancakes


Never too old to sit on your mommy's lap (ya hear that, Addie of the future??)


Thank you everyone for all the warm wishes!


And because the Silvestro fam can't get enough of the outdoors...when the sun comes out, we play.

Sleepy.

Hungry.

Smiley.

Goofy.

Happy.

Sweetie

Smiles and cuteness

I love spring!

Spring is here, spring is here! The weather is warm enough to be outside without a jacket. Okay, not consistently--on our walk this morning Addie was in her winter jacket and hat and covered with a thick blanket in the stroller, but YESTERDAY. Yesterday was gorgeous, so we headed to a nearby park/trail area. Can you believe this gorgeous spot is in walking distance from our house??

After months and months of asking to get into the swing and then getting scared and wanting out 3 seconds later, she FINALLY likes the swing!

Great handrails for learning to climb the stairs

Cheese!

Entertaining a sick child

So Addie is sick...AGAIN.



Two days after the first day of spring, she comes down with a fever and a lot of snot and coughing. Fun fun! So we were inside a lot (because mother nature doesn't really know that our calendar people has declared it "spring" and it's been a yucky week) and after playing with everything in our house a gazillion times, I decided to get creative. Unfortunately, the queen of the household did not deem my creativity cool enough and I realized I should have stuck to the old standbys. I kept thinking about the Fail Blog the whole time.

We headed out to Target to get some fun new cool stuff-woohoo!

"Hey, Addie! Wanna fingerpaint? You liked it when you were 7 months old. See, mommy is doing it. Wanna try, Addie?"


"You want me to do what now?"

Fingerpainting FAIL.

Instead:
"Hey mom, is that your toothbrush?? I resist brushing my teeth at bedtime when you actually want me to, but woooooo, let's brush my teeth NOW!!!!"


"Hey Addie, look! I took a big box and made you a cool fort. You can crawl into the fort. See, your stuffed monkey is in there, do you want to go in the fort?"

Monkey Fort FAIL

Instead: she colored happily in the "coloring station" (the wagon she got for her birthday and we have yet to bust out because the weather hasn't been consistently good enough). Okay, it's not bad that she was happily coloring, just funny because BEFORE my "let's do new things today" declaration, she wanted nothing to do with coloring.




"Hey, Addie, wanna make homemade playdough? It's SOOO fun. I'll make it pink--wanna touch it? Seriously, it's fun to touch--come on, Addie, I'm a cool mom--I make HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH"

Pile of Pink Playdough FAIL

Instead: "Ooh, mom, can I turn the light switch on and off a gazillion times? Ooohhhh....."

Okay, I did get one new thing that she really liked--a "no-spill bubble tumbler". It's a pretty cool device and she loves it. But we pretty much blow bubbles every day, so it's only "semi new and cool"



And here's a hint--when you don't want to take her out of the house for fear that other children will get whatever bug made your dear one sick, and you can't really go for a walk because it's too cold and you've already been to Target that day--let your kiddo pretend to drive. Seriously, it was TEN WHOLE MINUTES of fun. I got a video on my phone her driving and singing, but sadly, I can't figure out how to post the file. Trust me it's cute--next time you're with me, ask to see it on my phone.

Toddler Driving a car SUCCESS

So luckily, the sun is out today and it's going to be mid-60's. That's a good thing because I'm out of "cool new" ideas.

And I leave you with a classic Addie pic. This girl is such a drama queen--she doesn't just say "NO" when she doesn't want to do something, she closes her eyes, throws her head to the side and purses her lips into a long drawn out "nooooooooooooooooooo"

Horsey rides!

Who needs a gym membership when you can get all the exercise you need playing "Addie horsey"?

Hard working New Jersey trip

We took a quick trip to New Jersey this weekend and boy was Addie busy!

She showed Poppy and Grams how to walk safely through a parking lot.


She helped Grams ring up a few customers at the Booktrader

Then showed the customers how to use the cool baskets

And she kept the store safe by acting as security guard at her favorite little table.

Back at the home front, Daddy worked on teaching her some U2 riffs on the guitar...
...while Poppy taught her some drum rhythms

All that hard work and practice this weekend paid off! Listen to our musical genius ;)

What we've been up to

So you may be curious why the last post had a stick figure picture on it... And why it's been *so* long since the last photograph-filled post (I didn't think it was that long, but the natives were getting restless). Well...dum dum dummmm....the camera was missing. GASP! The very tool we use to capture the life and times of Addie Silvestro...gone. Poof. We checked everywhere, including the "hidey hole" (under the seat of Addie's little push car--we've found our keys and cell phones hidden in there). We were scanning our savings account to see if we could afford a "good" new one in these economic times when...

...it was discovered on a bookshelf behind some books. Phew! We're just grateful it's back and safe in our hands (especially because the last time we both remembered seeing it was when we took it out in the snow..eek!) I started to take more photos on my phone in the interim. It's actually a pretty good camera!

So what's been going on lately?

Well after the sickness lifted, we have just been doing everything and going everywhere.

The weather has been crazy. First we had snow:


(is that a camera down there?)

Then the sun came out and it was in the 70's less than a week later!

(this was from my phone camera--see, it's a good picture, right?)


We've been keeping busy by... reading stories with Uncle Dan's girlfriend Lauren. Addie calls her "Lo" :)



...dressing up and being a girly girl as always--look mom, I'm wearing a necklace!

(psst....check out all this that hair!)

...going to our mom's group every week and getting to play with other kid's toys. Here's Addie cheesin' it for Ellie's mom before climbing on Ellie's horsey (nayyyyyy)

Photo by Arria Ibach Durham

...and coloring. I got these amazing "Crayola Wonders" markers and special coloring book--the colors don't get on skin or furniture, just on the paper--it's great and keeps Addie occupied for hours!


Okay, that was an exxageration, it's more like minutes. Then the caps become more interesting.


And of course we actually have to get things done sometimes, like grocery shopping, running errands, etc. Addie usually behaves well when we're out and about (parenting tip: having snacks on hand always helps distract her from wanting to create general mayhem).

I'll leave you with this picture. I had to get the car serviced and the place we went has a little playroom. Addie walked right in and plopped herself down on the chair to have a snack. Doesn't she look like a big kid? She's no baby anymore!