Kite flying

Back in March (only 4 months behind now!) it was a windy day so I took Addie to Target to get a kite. I told her that we were going to get something exciting and that it was something that flies. Addie wanted to carry it to the checkout, and after we had walked a little ways, I turned around to make sure she was following me and she said to me, with both arms wrapped tightly around the kite, "I am holding on to it so it does not fly away." (she held on good, it didn't fly away.)

It stayed windy and we all had a lot of fun!


No, I didn't use Photoshop (or Gimp) that's really her flying the kite


And here's an action shot of her going down a tube slide afterwards.

Just chillin'

Play-Doh Pie

Addie pretending to eat a play-doh pie......




...minus the pretending part.

Rainy Day

Addie is all ready to go out in th rain...

Happy Easter!!!

Merry Christmas

...in July

So it's been a little while; like over a half a year, which is really an eternity in the realm of 2 year-olds.

Here's Addie peaking out of the mail slot of her tent house. She was less than excited when she first saw it, we told her that Santa brought it, which she took as "Santa is hiding inside" and Santa kind of freaks her out; but once we convinced her that Santa had more important thing to do than stuff himself inside a little girl tent house just to ruin her Christmas morning, she really liked it.


Here's Addie taking a picture of us with her digital camera (we didn't have nothin like that when I was...). She's actually not taking a picture of us, she's taking a picture of the ground, which goes well with the other couple of hundred pictures of the ground and people's feet that she's taken pictures of. She's not patient enough to let it focus and snap the picture before she looks at the screen to see the picture, so by the time the camera takes the picture, it's pointed at the ground.


And rounding out Christmas vacation, this is Addie with Jen's cousin Erin at her Rainbow Girls graduation. Erin gave Addie a Monchhichi (now these the did have when i was a kid) for being her flower girl. We, on the other hand, rewarded her with a 11 hour car ride.

Trick Or Treat

Addie and Ella went trick or treating to a couple of Ella's neighbors on Halloween. Aren't they the cutest butterfly with jeans and purple footed giraffe you've ever seen?

Pumpkin

What a cute little pumpkin....oh, and the jack-o-lantern looks nice too...

If look real close you can see Addie's princess pigtail hair things from Great-aunt Debbie and Cousin Erin; she loves them.

Apple Orchard

We took our annual trip to the apple orchard a couple of weeks ago, and this time Hailey came with! Needless to say, they had fun. (And on a side note, lately, whenever we ask Addie to smile, she opens her mouth as wide as possible...so henceforth, that's a smile).

Happy Birthday Mama!

BEWARE

Pen's are dangerous! They seem nice and useful...but they can attack your toddler's face without any warning!!!

Yea, Addie likes corn on the cob.

Bounce!

One of Addie's favorite things in the whole world is bouncing. So for her birthday party, we got an inflatable bouncer*. She loved bouncing in it, especially with her friends. And at the end of her party, she only had one black eye, which we considered a success.

* I feel an righteous sense of duty to inform others that, if you plan a birthday party around a particular item, and you order that item online with the expectation that said item will arrive even remotely close to when you are told it will (i.e. well before the party), and you also have the expectation that when inquiring as to the whereabouts of said item, you don't repeatedly receive misinformation; then I strongly suggest that you not use target.com (yes, it was 3 months ago and yes, I'm still bitter).

Balloon

For Addie's birthday, Grandma Bette gave her some balloons. The one with a face on it didn't hold the helium very long, and Addie started carrying it around in her arms and rocking back and forth. When we asked her what she was doing, she said "baby go ni-night."

Bad Habits

You try so hard to raise your children right; teach them to be polite and respectful, have good manners, and brush their teeth. And then one day you come home and your 2 year old has her feet up on the table; and you can't, for the life of you, figure out where she ever would have learned something like that......

Tea Party

This past summer, Grandma Mundell hosted a tea party for Addie and some friends in Kenosha. In keeping with staunch tea party tradition, everyone wore a dress, ate with their hands and drank out of each other's cups.

I Love You Through and Through

This is one of Baby's favorite books, Addie reads it to her and puts a clean diaper on her before she goes night-night.

Quack Quack!!!

If you can get past the fact that Glen Havens Memorial Gardens is in fact a cemetery, it 's really a charming place. There's a man-made pond that has quite a few ducks and a pair of trumpeter swans.

Whenever you go to feed ducks, the most important thing is to make sure that pick out an appropriate hat...



check.


We picked a good time to go, there were a bunch of ducklings that couldn't have been more than a week old...

Blackmail

Some day when Addie going to get so fed up that we're making her eat all of her liverwurst sandwich that she's going to threaten to call the Police and report us for being mean parents; and she'll have pictures like this to prove how horribly we've treated her:

State Fair

I was going to try to pass these 4 month old zoo pictures off as brand spankin' new Minnesota State Fair photos...but I was done in by those darn zoo volunteers and their telltale shirts...

And here Addie is being brave and feeding a goat all by her self. It's almost as if she's used to being around big, dumb animals.......

(I realized after I posted this that Addie kind of looks like she's crying; let me assure you, she is laughing uncontrollably.)

Easter

Yes, this is about as timely as it gets....Easter pictures. Technically I'm only off by one season, right???

Some of Addie's easter eggs were filled with animal crackers and some were filled with stickers; as you can see she had no problem figuring out which was which.

BABY

I don't think that I've yet introduced Addie's most prized possession, Baby. Addie takes Baby virtually everywhere, and usually takes really good care of her...








But not always...

(Don't worry, Baby was fine.)

Ella's lap

Addie doesn't always respect other's personal space...but I don't think Ella minded too much. :)

Baby's First ID

So, I don't think I had an ID until I was a teenager....times they are a changin'.
We got a gym/waterpark membership and we signed up for the family plan. Well, appearently they've had people show up with 15 kids to go to the water park and claim they were all theirs, so they make everyone in the family get an ID card...we thought they were joking at first, but no, she had to have an ID card and show it to the check-in person and get a wristband just like us.

My friend Belle

Hey, this is my friend Belle. She has a doggy too; it's nickname is Pudge...which is too bad, cause that would have been a really good nickname for Chip...


I taught Belle the finer points of block stacking...she seemed more interested in eating them though (which is understandable, they taste really good).

Addie Tracks

While Addie seems to enjoy being outside in the snow, walking she's not so sure about. She finally got up the courage; but it's more like cross-country skiing. (She has however, decide that she likes eating snow very much...ahhhhh, the joys of being a parent and a dog owner.)

Addie's Second Snowfall

Unlike the first snowfall...

...this one ended much happier!

Addie's First Snowfall

Ok, so technically her first snowfall was last winter, but thanks to the Bundle Me not a one of those little suckers got within 2 feet of her.

So addie put on her snowsuit (and other cold weather accessories) outside she went. She seemed to be having a good time, so her and Jen made a snowman (well, Jen mostly stood around complaining about how cold it was while Addie did most of the work)...



...shortly thereafter, Addie decided she didn't like to be outside anymore and Chip realized that the snowman's face was edible; so ended the first snowfall (and the first snowman).

New Shoes

I know, this looks like one of those "put you kid in adult cloths and take pictures cause it looks really funny" things; but Addie did this on her own.......don't get me wrong we're not above shamelessly making her wear ridiculous things just so we can get a good picture; it just didn't happen here.

Sugar High

Question: What do you get when you take your cute little daughter (who's too young to eat sweets) around the neighborhood?

Answer: Free Candy (and lots of it)!

OK, so we didn't use our dear little daughter to coerce our neighbors out of their candy, we would never go to all of that trouble. We simply waited for the kids to come to our house, let Chip loose, and picked up their bags full of candy after they dropped them in terror and ran from the yard crying. Muha...muha.....muhahahahaha

Trick or Treat

Addie helps Mom hand out candy at Grandma and Grandpa's house (although, i think she was more interested in seeing the kids than in handing out candy).

Christmas!

Addie in her Rudolph jammies opening her stocking. (You wish they made those suckers in adult sizes, don't you?)

Addie getting a saucer chair from Aunt Heather (she loves to sit in it to watch Dora *swipper, no swiping!*)

Addie watching cartoons in High Definition with Great-Grandpa

Addie riding her new rocking horse (I know, why does she need a pretend horse when she already has a real one named Chip). If you look close you'll notice the she's using the traditional rodeo grip...