Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A Yes Girl

Not just yes but yeah too. Adelaide's main response these days has turned positive. It is so awesome. Those words have never sounded so beautiful. Rocky is convinced her "yeah" is the cutest yeah in the entire world. She says it with such joy and exuberance; I'll have to catch it on video so you can judge for yourself.

That's not all that has been going on with her vocabulary however. It is amazing these days. She has started using the pronoun "I" properly. I didn't really think about it until just last week, but she starts most of her sentences with I. Even if I try say something like, "do you want to go down stairs?" She'll come back with,"Yeah, I want go down stairs." It's fascinating that she's got it since pronouns seem so hard. She does get them confused depending on where they go in the sentence like she says, "hold you" instead of "hold me," but she's got "I" down.

Adelaide's sentences are off the charts too. She's able to communicate thoughts pretty clearly. The other day when I was babysitting Kate and had just put her down for a nap, Adelaide said, "Tate (how she says Kate) sad. Come down stairs." Yesterday she came up to me with a poopy diaper and said, "Momma, mess diaper" and pulled at her diaper. The sad part is that she knows not everyone understands her so she doesn't even really try to communicate too much with other people. She'll try with Rocky, me, other kids, and a few friends, but that's about it.

On to counting. Adelaide loves to count and she does it alot even when she's playing alone. I'll hear her "one two thee fi six seben six seben six seben." If I throw her an eight, the record will get back on track and she'll finish with a "nine ten."

Adelaide is a huge fan of Jesus. Seriously. She likes to read about him and occasionally she'll just start talking about him randomly. The other day we were in the car and she started saying Jesus over and over. So Rocky and I started singing, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. . ." She loved it and chimed in with Jesus, know, basically the last word of every line. She does that with Jesus loves me too.

Adelaide likes books and really loves one book in particular-- Moo, Baa, La, La, La. (Thanks Marti). We have read that book so many times that Adelaide has it memorized and she will fill in gaps if I pause (and she's in the mood). Hopefully she doesn't really think pigs say "la la la."

Thanks to Jude our neighbor's son who she gets to hang out with alot, she learned "too." Now if she wants to go outside and I say I'm staying in, she says, "outside too" like you come out too mom. She says it all the time, "eat too," "play too," "go too," "doll night night too." It's a little out of control, but useful.

She also left Rocky her first voicemail. It was all prompted of course, but she said something like, "Hi Daddy. Come home. Miss you. Love you. Bye Daddy." Now if Rocky could have her leave me one I could listen to it over and over.

I know that's alot of bragging, but I've just been so excited and I think she has been too that I wanted to share it with you.

Friday, September 26, 2008

camping videos


Adelaide did really well around the campfire. She totally avoided it and even ducked under the smoke when it came near her except for the one time she tried to eat it. I thought this was cute showing how much she feared the hot fire.


Here's Adelaide and Jude playing in the tent. They had so much fun.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Camping


Since the weather has been so nice, we decided Saturday morning to go camping. We headed to Pace Bend, a nice Travis County park that rarely fills up and doesn't require reservations. Our neighbors saw us loading the car and joined in on the fun as well. I'm so glad we did it. Adelaide had a great time too and even slept almost 12 hours! Enough talking already. On to the pictures.

On the way to the lake. It's funny to see my hair next to Adelaide's, and I wonder why people sometimes ask if she's adopted.

The beach was totally muddy. We didn't plan on getting in but didn't have much of a choice once Adelaide found the mud.

More muddiness.

Lounging in her hair, eating Cheetos.

Hanging out with me by the fire.

I don't know what it is about this picture but I think Adelaide looks so grown up.

Jude and Adelaide wrestled in the tent for about an hour or so. It was hilarious. They giggled the whole time. I think she was about to get body slammed here or something.

More playing in the tent.

Still more.

And more.

And more.



Warming herself by the fire Sunday morning.

Eating breakfast (the only meal to her. It could be 5pm and she'll say, "eat breakfast. Hungy.")
Walking to the lake in the morning.

Checking out some horses.

The roof of our tent is so awesome. It is totally open. The weather was so nice we could sleep without the rainfly. It was a nice view to wake up to.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Girls' Day

Colleen and I are trading off watching each other's kiddo once a week. It's been nice to get some stuff done that's difficult to do with Adelaide in tow. Anyway, yesterday was my day to watch Kate. And since I haven't posted pictures of our little girl in awhile I took the opportunity to get some pictures.

It's cute to see how they play so well together these days. Here they are sitting on the step stool together.

And having a tea party.

And trying on shoes and socks.

And playing with playdough for the first time. (I was Suzy Homemaker and made it myself yesterday afternoon. It was super easy, and I always have all the stuff on hand.)

Kate enjoyed it too, especially mushing all the colors together.

Monday, September 15, 2008

One of the many ways God provides

It seems that one of the many ways God provides for us to not only have everything we need but also to have nearly everything we could want is through finding good deals. This weekend was a prime example. I woke up early to stand in the line for the REI garage sale hoping that I would find a great deal on a family tent. Little did I know that I was going to find that and alot more. [Note: If you are one of those people that gets frustrated when you miss out on a good deal (like I am) you should stop reading now]. Here's what we were able to get:

REI Hobitat 6 tent (reg. $329) for $30.83
REI Hobitat 6 footprint (reg. $45) for $0
Chaco flipflops (reg. $34.83) for $3.83
North Face pants for Rocky (reg. $65.00) for $10.83
Bob Sport Utility Double Jogging Stroller (reg. $429) for $30.83
Aero Bed (reg. 99.95) for $10.83
Thule Roadway Bike Rack (reg. $182.99) for $20. 41
REI computer bag (reg. 59.50) for $1.41
Omni Fuel Camp stove (reg. $139.95) for $6.41
3 Polar heart rate monitors (reg. 109.95 each) for $6.41
Gemini headlamp (reg. $38.50) for $1.41

Total (reg. $1755) for $121. That's still less than a 1/3 of what it would have cost me to just buy my tent brand new. Just like a garage sale almost everything is used and was returned. Most things have very minimal damage. I'm super excited about all my finds!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

My live-in maid

I love my new house cleaner. He cleans all the floors downstairs and up. The only thing he won't do is the stairs. I left the house yesterday with a kitchen that was crumb filled and living room that was dirty, and came back to a nicely vacuumed home. No, I'm not suddenly rolling in the dough. A good friend of ours just gave us their old Roomba. I love it! Yesterday I picked up the rugs and chairs and the normal things you have to pick up when you clean and let the robot go to work. My whole house is vacummed and it only took me about 5 minutes (unless you count the time we watched it). I charge it, put it in the room I want cleaned, push "clean," and it goes to work. Because it's so small it could even go under places we don't normal get to vacuum like under our bed. I feel like a new woman. Here's to my first robot. Now if only they made one that did dishes and toilets and dusting and mopping and changing diapers and cooking and gardening and grocery shopping. . .

Monday, September 08, 2008

Women's Retreat

This weekend I went on a women's retreat to Lake LBJ with the ladies of Salina Street Church. It was an amazingly good time and not just cause I was nearly responsibility free. Rocky had a great time with Adelaide. He's a really good dad (and husband). I love how Rocky does such a good job putting me at ease when I'm away. He emails and texts with updates and pictures. Here's the ones I got from this weekend.

Friday night:
Adelaide is sleeping peacefully. Have a great time, I love you.

Saturday morning:
She woke up at 8 which I was thankful for. Scooter woke me up twice last night with his crazy sounds (this is a whole other story). That has to be the worst sound ever. I'm pretty sure I still need lots of practice with hair, that poor girl needs more hats. She is pretty pumped to have a bag to go to uncle jeffs she is carrying of around saying "uncle jeff". We miss and love you. AC&RC

Daddy daughter breakfast.

At the lake. Had lots of fun. (Rocky and Adelaide along with our friends the Ronks headed to Barton Springs on Saturday with some P Terry's hamburgers. You can tell it wasn't so much planned by how Adelaide is shirtless. Even though I was having a great time I was a little jealous of their fun too. I've never been and I've lived here 5 years now!)

Monday, September 01, 2008

Free Chicken!

Stop by any chick-fil-a today wearing a sports logo of any kind and get 3 free chicken strips. That's the only catch. Oh, and limit one per customer. You can even go through the drive thru! Here's all the rules.