Wednesday, April 30, 2008

At the Crisps

This past weekend Rocky went off-roading with the Bronco club he's part of (you can snicker and give him a hard time about this later). The only reason he's part of this group is for this one weekend of the year. It's the one time Rocky actually uses his '73 Bronco's off road abilities. It's a fun weekend of camping, off-roading, racing, eating BBQ, and talking to a bunch of rednecks.

While Rocky and Josh went off-roading this past weekend, Colleen, the kiddos and I headed to Colleen's parent's house. We thought since the guys were having a fun weekend, we didn't really want to stay at home missing them. The Crisps were very gracious hosts especially since we didn't finalize our plans until the night before we headed there. It was a great time despite Adelaide having two very hard nights there.

It's cool to see Kate and Adelaide sort of becoming friends. They are starting to do more and more stuff together.
They took a bath together one evening before bed. It's wasn't nearly the fiasco we thought it might be; they had a great time.

Kate is getting very close to walking and actually took her first steps this weekend. Go Kate! Kate really enjoys pushing the walker around, occasionally Adelaide thought she should join in on the fun too.

The Crisps have about 40 acres to explore. The first day we did a little hiking and Saturday we explored on the four wheeler. Adelaide had a fun time on the four wheeler. She's such an adventurous kid.

I brought Adelaide's four wheeler along too. The first time we tried to get a picture of us side by side, she took off down the driveway and we had to go chasing after her. It was hilarious.

After our fun experience at the Austin Zoo, we got excited when we heard that Elkhart has a "safari." You actually drive around in your own car and feed the animals. (I thought this was kind of crazy considering there are alot of crazy people out there). For a small town attraction, they had lots of animals-- zebra, bison, alligators, emu, ostriches, etc. I think Adelaide's favorite was the turkeys.

Adelaide is becoming quite the climber these days. She climbed into rocking chairs all by herself and was even attempting to climb out of the car on the safari. I've definitely got to keep my eye on her these days which isn't always easy (she's so fast now).

Saturday, April 19, 2008

A Busy Week


This week has been a busy one. An old friend of mine, Stacy, was in town so we got to hang out a couple of times along with Colleen. I also got to hang out with some newer friends Catherine and Melanie this week. Some other friends of ours moved yesterday and today so we helped with that too. Adelaide spent alot of time in her pack n play yesterday along with our friend's baby Avery watching the guys load up the U-Haul. Rocky was working alot with another short film at the beginning of the week so having so much going on was a nice distraction.

Adelaide is still teething. I canNOT wait for these molars to come in. None of the other teeth Adelaide has seemed to bother her nearly as much as these. I think all of them have at least partially broken through the gum now so we're getting closer. When she's done she'll have 12 teeth! We were supposed to go camping last weekend but with all the added whininess and trouble sleeping Adelaide was already having, we passed on that idea.

This week Adelaide has begun saying even more words. She's now added eye, outside, hi, down, and ball to her vocabulary. "Hi" and "eye" are quite distinct (maybe it's because she's either waving with "hi" or pointing to her eye when she says "eye"). Adelaide usually whispered "hi" making it even cuter. The others are words only a mother can understand. Her "outside" sounds like "ow sigh" though she is usually looking out the window when she says this one; that's helpful. "Ball" is the word that is the most off. She pretty much says "Dall" but does the sign for ball when she says it. Her sign for ball and more are almost identical, we just have to think about the context. She's also signing the word for milk now too.

Here she is saying "hi." She actually says it twice, but whispers it the first time.


And "outside."


Besides all the hanging out with folks, we also took a couple of trips to the park via the bike and trailer. I'm really enjoying that thing. Adelaide likes it too except for when her helmet falls in front of her face. We had a great time. Adelaide can now go up the stairs and down the slide on her own. She proudly showed me she could do it over and over. Of course, I was her spotter the entire time. For once the wetness on her shirt is not drool, it's the consequence of me leaving her with her sippy cup in the bike trailer.


Friday, April 11, 2008

Well, What did you do this Morning?

We just so happened to wake up to a manlift being delivered to our house. 2 manlifts to be exact. Funny. They are here for the filming that will be taking place tonight. If you are in town and have got nothing to do tonight, you should totally stop by. As far as Crusade short films goes, this one is going to be a big deal.

Our house was selected among loads of houses in the Austin area for the location. The director was looking for a house that was the epitome of American suburbia. Beautiful. That's what our house is. They are only doing exterior shots here though. They wanted the interior shots to look traditional as well which our house is definitely not. If you've ever been here, you'll agree.

The story is called Wings. I haven't read the script but the gist of the story is that everyone in Wings has wings. It's just normal. However, no one uses them. They don't think they can. Well, the part of the story that I know the most about, the part that's being filmed here, is a little boy climbing to the roof of his house, readying himself to jump off because he thinks he can fly. Like alot of Simplebulldog's other films, they don't want to tell you what to think about the film. From the bits that I've heard it reminds me of Christians. I makes me think of how we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and given everything we need, but we so often don't taken advantage of these resources. We often live defeated and worried and therefore hindered. Anyway. . . I'm excited to see this short film and another one they are filmed next week called Leland.

Once we were all up and ready, Rocky could not resist taking his little girl for a ride. I think the manlift is able to go 60 ft in the air. Rocky said 60 ft feels alot scarier with a toddler strapped to your chest.


After our morning excitement, we came in for breakfast. I've been having the hardest time getting Adelaide to eat anything even if she used to like it or even liked it the day before. I don't know if it's the pickiness that sometimes comes along with a kid turning one or if it is her teeth bothering her. Anyone got any thoughts? Did you run into this problem with your kid? Sometimes she'll eat something if she can feed it to herself. Sometimes she'll eat if it's what we're eating. Sometimes she'll only eat if she's not strapped into her high chair. Sometimes she won't eat anything regardless.

This morning I made both Adelaide and I one of my favorite breakfast items of my childhood, an egg in the basket. To make it you take a piece of bread with a hole in the center cut out. [I used a small glass to do it this morning but sometimes I've used cookie cutters.] You put the bread in a buttery skillet and pour an egg in the hole. Yummy. I made a fried egg for me 'cause I can't resist dipping the bread in the runny center, and I made a scrambled egg in the basket for Adelaide. I thought to myself as I was making it, "I'm just wasting food. There's no way she's going to eat this." But I proceeded anyway. You've got to at least try, right? Well, she loved it! She ate the entire thing. She ate the same breakfast as I did. After a few days of meals consisting of maybe 3 bites I was stunned. I'm not getting my hopes up that this is a trend.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Teething

I've been very interested in teething order today. Maybe I just like to read random things like that or maybe my kid wouldn't go to sleep last night but instead kept screaming like a crazy woman and chewing on her hands alot (which is not normal for her). I found this site to be the most helpful for a brief overview of teething order. Right now Adelaide is getting in a side incisor, and all 4 of her first back molars. Talk about painful (well, I'm speculating). Today we've been living on a beautiful cocktail of motrin and oragel and it's been wonderful.

Laundry

How long does it take to let a one year old help you load the washer? Answer: a heck of a long time. I sorted the clothes and had them in a pile on the floor. Adelaide was very helpful and handed me every piece one at a time to put into the washer. Note the one at a time part. It was cute but wasn't getting tasks done quickly. Then when they were finished being washed she attempted to push each piece, again one by one, into the dryer. It was so cute I had to share.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Bluebonnets

It is Texas tradition to have a family picture taken in bluebonnets every year. We didn't take our 3 week old into them last year so we thought we'd give it a try this year. Well, it didn't work out. Adelaide got up as soon as we sat her down every time, and she didn't like the way the bluebonnets felt on her legs. So we got lots of photos of Adelaide walking around in the beautiful flowers. It was a fun time regardless.





First Trip to the Zoo

Obviously from the last post, you can tell Adelaide loves animals. So when we found out we could get into the Austin zoo today with some friends of ours for half price, we jumped on board. Adelaide liked it all, but she LOVED feeding the goats and deer. She could have probably done it for hours.

another picture of adelaide feeding the goats.

adelaide feeding the deer.


and now a video of her feeding the goats. seriously i couldn't get enough. and by the way, yes, that is poop or something on her head. i have no idea how it got there. one second, no poop. next second, poop. you've got to expect these things at a zoo with a one year old i guess.

checking out the tortoise.

there was lots of pointing happening all day.

not just pointing by adelaide. kate loved pointing too.

more pointing still. i told you there was lots. i thought they both looked so grown up and cute today so i'm sharing lots of photos.

here we are in front of the lions' cage. of course we roared some while we were over there.

here's one last picture that a friend took. i love it. it makes me want to lug my SLR around instead of just my digital point and shoot.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Nature and Science Center





My mom was in town last week. We had a good time, mostly just hanging out, but one of my favorite things we did was go to the Nature and Science Center. Here's some pictures from our time there. Adelaide loves animals so she loved it there.

Learning to Talk

I've been meaning to post these for awhile but Adelaide's vocabulary is growing now like never before. Alot of it is just imitation at this point, but it's fun nonetheless.

Here she is saying "potato."


And bye bye.


And signing for the first time. She's now signing "eat," "more," and "all done." The first time she signed "eat," I was just doing stuff around the house and she came up to me, pulled on my leg, and told me she wanted food. It was awesome so of course I gave her a snack. Her favorite sign is "all done" though she likes to do it when I'm changing her diaper or suctioning her nose or trying to get her to do anything else she doesn't like.