Louisiana

We have been in Louisiana since last Tuesday and have been having a great time. We've been bouncing all around trying to see everyone-- my mom, brother, Rocky's family, and my dad. We will be in Ruston, LA starting Saturday. Then we'll be off to middle of nowhere Arkansas to visit friends from college. It's tiring living out of a suitcase especially since we haven't been at home really since the middle of May. We've got about a week and a half more of traveling before we head back to Austin.

We've got lots and lots of pictures.

Adelaide loved every minute of being at home before we headed to Louisiana. I did as well. Her new favorite thing in the world are shoes. She loves to wear them. She loves to pair them together. She loves to bring them to their owners and watch them being put on. She's playing right in to her girl stereotype.

Adelaide has also gotten into accessories. She loves hats, gloves, socks, bracelets, necklaces, etc. Here we are playing dress up one morning.

Adelaide has become quite a share-er these days. She loves to take care of others (even if they don't want her to). This doll was more than happy for Adelaide to feed her and give her drinks all day.

On to Louisiana. . .the 8 hour road trip went really well. Adelaide slept about 30 minutes of it and was awake 'til 11pm , but she was generally happy. Every one was so happy to see her.

Adelaide with her uncle Dan at the zoo. She can now say Dan, Mike (Rocky's brother), Pops (Rocky's dad), and Nanny (my mom). Her vocabulary is off the charts good these days. She amazes us with words like "tractor" and phrases like "i want food."

Swimming at Rocky's parents' house.

Playing with Cousin Claire at Rocky's parents' house. They played together really well. Claire is going to be 2 next month. It's great to see that Adelaide actually plays with other kids now, not just plays alongside them.

Adelaide trapped Claire in her highchair, buckles, tray and all. She's gotten quite proficient at buckling things now. Luckily she can't unbuckle yet. I've been teaching her to say "help please" when she needs things to be unbuckled. She says it often since buckling over and over is so much fun.

We went to visit my dad and pick blueberries at an organic blueberry farm last Saturday. I tried to teach Adelaide to pick the berries and put them in her bucket. Instead of doing that, she ate every berry I put into her bucket then began to pick berries but not one made it to her bucket.

They made it to her mouth instead. She ate so many berries her mouth turned blue and she had green poop for 2 days! I can barely get her to eat a blueberry now. She's pretty much sick of them.

When she was done withe the berries, she shared with Claire. She put them in her bucket and fed them to her. Super cute.

Adelaide is pretty good at eating on her own these days. She requests spoons and forks at almost every meal. If it's a spoon type meal, we'll scoop the food for her and then hand her the spoon. She usually makes it to her mouth with no spills. She's doing even better with the fork. Her progress makes for some slow meals these days but fun ones for her. We left her with her fork and blueberry pancake for just a minute and found her covered from head to tray. I'm not sure what she did, but she thought it was funny.

Rocky and I went to Lafayette one day to visit a supporter of ours. We left Adelaide with Rocky's family. He surprised me with a night at a bed and breakfast on the way back. It was our first night to both be away from Adelaide. The grandparents had fun with her. Here she is with Claire at a local park.

They said she did well swinging on this half big kids sort of swing.

Adelaide did not sleep well the entire time we were at Rocky's parents. She was up late (around 10:30, 11pm) and generally woke up earlier. She was exhausted alot of the time. Here she is, cute but exhausted, sleeping on Rocky's mom's shoulder at lunch.

Somewhere in the car.

We gave a presentation at Judson Baptist Church last Sunday evening. We talked about Thailand and our work with CCC. Adelaide was dressed the part of missionary kid wearing a dress I bought for her in Thailand this summer.