Holiday report part 1

November was a pretty busy month. We got used to Addie’s preschool schedule with no trouble, and she still loves it. Today she got to take a big poster with pictures we picked out that was “All About Addison”. We practiced what she was say to her class while telling them about the pictures, and I typed up little captions underneath so that the teachers might be able to prompt her or translate if they couldn’t understand her. But her teacher told me that Addie said pretty much word for word what was written on the posterboard while she was talking! They have one child present their poster every week. Now I know why Addie was telling me so much about a little girl named McKenna’s trip to Alaska.

Addison went camping with her Grammie and my brother’s daughter Sarah (2) for a couple of days before Thanksgiving. She had a lot of fun! My sister and other niece came down early and then went to Matt’s parents’ farm for the day with us. Addie, Sarah and Grammie met us there, and Addison was in hog heaven to have Cammie to play with! We all had a good time, running around and eating and going on the hayride. It was hot and humid during the day ,and then about 4 pm a big wind gusted up once, and then twice, and with the 2nd gust the temperature dropped 15 degrees. Just like that. It was in less than 30 seconds. And man it got cold cuick! We had to break out Casey’s coat to keep her warm!



We do have a little bit of fall here!



Up on the haystacks



Aunt Caiti and Ryan



Addie and Farmer Cammie



Me and my niece Sarah - one of the only times she wasn't crying when I came close.



Ryan with turkey and Sarah



That weekend, I headed to Baton Rouge by MYSELF for a few days to visit my friend Kate. Her house is not really built to accommodate 4 extra housegusts (and she’s still nuring a baby at night too), so it was just easier for me to come alone. Matt took a couple of days off of work and was fully immersed in the kids for 4 days straight. I had a good time hanging out and laughing with Kate, and we are starting to plan our 2011 road trip to Napa, California for an old friend’s wedding in June. Woohoo!



Now that Abrielle moves everywhere, fun times like this are ahead for Kate and the girls



The Pied Piper and the Rat (sorry Kate!)



Matt took another half day off and went to the zoo with us. They were doing a preview of the African Forest section that is not yet officially open, and it had been nearly a year since Matt’s gone with us, so that was fun. The weather was great.



New drums in the African Forest at the zoo





Riding the carousel



I had a preliminary screening done for Addison for speech, and this Friday is our big assessment to see if any therapy might be needed. She has a couple of sounds that she has trouble with, and that are on the borderline of being considered “delayed” for her age, but overall the teacher said she officially was not considered a candidate for therapy. Due to the oddness of Addie’s G sound (or lack thereof), the teacher was able to squeeze in a recommendation for the full assessment. Basically it means we will go to speech therapy once a week or so, if they decide she needs it. Nothing big.

  

What else? This weekend we have a dress rehearsal for Addie’s first Christmas progrm at church, then a birthday party, and then the adults Christmas party for our Sunday school group. Next week, we have a MOPS Christmas party (my group), a cookie exchange with the rest of MOPS, and a Christmas party with book exchange at Addie’s school – the parents are invited! And then next weekend is Christmas at the farm with Matt’s family, and then my sister is coming for a few days, and that takes us right up to Christmas! Yikes! I’ve been playing Christmas music since Thanksgiving and I still can’t get enough of it.

Fall update

Addie has been loving preschool. She talks about a couple of kids, McKenna and Joseph, frequently, and a lot of little tidbits about her day come out here and there. She’s been the line leader, but not the flag holder yet. Once she told the teacher she couldn’t play a ball game because she hurt her back at her grandpa’s house – finally we figured out she was talking about something 4 days before when she fell on the deck at our neighbor Mr. Tom’s house. Her back was fine, so we don’t know why she said that to her teacher. She comes home with some sort of artwork every day, and the fire man and fire truck came to their school and taught them about fire safety. She got a coloring book full of fire stuff and it was fun to talk to her about it. The mornings have been going well. Addie wakes up around 7, and we get dressed, eat quickly and are out the door by 7:25 or so. Usually Ryan is awake, so I take him and his juice in the car with us. 

Almost ready for school!



The fire truck came to her school

Ryan and I have been having fun while Addie’s in school. I often will go run errands with him (MUCH easier with one child!) and before we know it, it’s time to go get Addison. I’m able to get in a different mindset with him now, shifting my view to see him as an “only child”, like Addie was when she was that age. It helps me to appreciate his development and personality, and see what he’s putting together and learning. All too often that stuff gets lost with him, while with Addie, Matt and I were keenly aware of every new word, phrase, or concept she came up with. Ryan is basically a happy little boy (big change from his first year of life) and is very silly. He jokes around and says funny things. He’s more easygoing than Addie was in a lot of aspects – more of a go with the flow instead of focusing intently on every task or errand, scrutinizing to make sure it all met with his approval, like Addison was. He talks all the time now, and has sort of latched on to a stuffed dinosaur toy. Last night we went to see a Christmas parade, and while we were getting him out of the car, he grabbed the dino and said, “Dinosaur. See it Mismis Parade. " Which meant that the dinosaur wanted to see the Christmas parade too. He’s also projecting, like saying the dinosaur was scared of something when really it was Ryan who was scared (of the sirens on the fire trucks in the Mismis parade).  


"Dinosaur. Wear it. Ryan's shoes!"


We had Addie’s birthday party a little early. She wanted a My Little Pony party, so I made her a castle cake (with fruit rainbow and yogurt cloud), and we played some games, colored, played with Play-dough, and had a good time. We had about 7 little girls - it was awesome to see all the girls that Addie has known since she was 1 year old all grown up at 4 (well, some are late 3’s). And it was fun to be able to play games with them since they are old enough.

Pony castle cake and fruit rainbow!

Making pink glitter playdough

Opening my old My Little Ponies that I have entrusted to her

Someone DID NOT ask before they began eating a turret.

Halloween – Addie was Toothless the black dragon from How To Train Your Dragon, and her costume turned out cute! It was black pants and top, and black cardboard wings I made, with black horns on a headband. At the couple of fall festivals (and Zoo Boo with cousin Hunter), people thought she was a bat, so I made her a sign to wear around her neck that said, “Dragon In Training.” We got LOTS of candy on just a couple of streets in Hunter’s neighborhood and all three kids had a great time. Ryan was Superman in a borrowed costume from a friend.

Birthday donut

Immediately after previous picture - she bit her finger and it bled a LOT

 


Birthday table and presents





Addie and Hunter



Our three cute kids trick or treating

Ryan and his Aunt Jennifer

Daddy and Dragon

At Zoo Boo

Dragon at the Zoo

At the pumpkin patch

Two turkeys

Reese, who just moved to Indonesia last week. I tried to get Addie to smile nicely.

Ryan being cute

Sharing their first-ever cotton candy

We’ve finally got all the pieces of the swingset up and the kids love it. For the past weeks, every morning they want to get up and go play on it first thing. It’s been warm some and cold some, so they either go out barefoot in their pajamas or with shoes and socks and coats over their pajamas! It’s been VERY nice to see them play together so much, and although they do get into squabbles (apparently two swings aren’t enough for two kids), when one of them comes inside, the other one calls for them to come back outside to play.

The new swingset!

We got one quick visit with Santa this year, and it went very differently from past years:

She was happy to go see him and hug him!

Ryan was still a NO for Santa