Saturday, November 6, 2010

Halloween, 2010

Halloween Eve:
Aunty Lolo gets in on the binkies and bears and television.


Carving pumpkins:
Eliana gets into the Halloween spirit by doing her zombie imitation.


Eliana inspects my progress.


The cute bumble bee costumes the girls could have worn, had they not minds of their own. Calvin and I have bee hats, too, we could have been a cute little bumble bee family, but... check out what Adessa put together for herself, instead. She would have no help in the costume department, florescent pink socks and all.


Halloween:
The papparrazi at grandma's house.


Assembling the kids to trick-or-treat. Still a madhouse trying to get this photo, though more of them are sitting still longer.


Trick or Treat!


Checking out our pumpkins.


Adessa's princess pumpkin.


Candy Candy Candy Candy. Eliana inspects her loot. Both girls completely forgot about their candy the next day! It disappeared and no one has been the wiser. Whew! (Okay, by "disappeared", I mean, eaten by Calvin and I.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Quick Look at our Life

Helping bake.


Cleaning up.


Sharing.


Happy about boots.


Reading on the princess couch.


Pink girl and blue girl, loving the pink couch. I call this one: "Zoned out in monochrome."


How not to have a sticky house.


CHEESE!


Family fun at the Pumpkin Patch. It means the holidays are coming, yay!




With Gwen and Julie, 4th annual trip together! 8) We love traditions!




Tuesday, October 12, 2010

What The Girls Are Up To

Eliana is up to:
-Having a mind of her own and proving it whenever possible. Luckily she's still easily distracted from her forays into mischief.
-Eating and wearing volumes of yogurt.

-Talking! She told her first story: "Book on foot, oww." after standing on a book with one foot that her other foot was underneath.
She also says:
No,
yeah, (said oh-so matter of factly.)
baby, juice, car,
more, cheese,
nigh-night,
dog, meow,
apple (her clearest word),
Lijah (for Elijah),
Yiana (for Eliana),
Detta (for Adessa),
Rella (for Cinderella- I know, how proud/concerned should I be that she already recognizes the girl?),
airplane (sounds more like "ay-pay" but it's clear what she means),
Tico-tico- means tickle me more, please.
-Grunting when things are heavy (or when they aren't).

-Climbing on everything.
-Dancing and jumping (and paying attention when the TV is on, a blessing and a curse!) Sidenote: I LOVE how she says "Yeah", here.

-Making all kinds of sound effects- she can do a pretty mean airplane immitation.
-Smiling delightfully. Melts my cockles every time.
-Swinging. For as long as anyone will push her.

-Putting on other people's shoes. She doesn't discriminate, any shoes will do. On either foot.

-Her hair is long enough for bath time fun and bed head.




Adessa is up to:
-Saying sweet things, like: "Leaves are what keep the trees warm." and not so sweet things like: "Leave me aloneeeeee." In some ways Adessa is figuring out how to be flexible and less stubborn, and in some ways we're into a whole new level of inflexibility and stubbornness. We're working hard to keep her blood-sugar constant, as she's outrageous when she's hungry, which has helped.
-Preschool, twice a week of intense fun and social interaction. She's always ready to give me a lowdown of who cried, who played with her, who took her shovel, what the puppet show was about, and what the snack was. She routinely takes 3.5-4 hour naps afterwards.
-Singing, and dancing, and telling stories, or singing a story while dancing.

-Expressing her sense of humor, and understanding our humor. Calvin always corrects my grammar (thanks, babe), and after I said: "Lay around", he reminded me that it was: "Lie around, Keidi. Unless you mean you're going to lay an egg." We didn't even know that Adessa was listening, until she started cracking up. We just looked at each other in disbelief, because, ahem, it wasn't the first time that very conversation had happened in front of her. She's starting to "get it".
-Spending quality binky time on the bed, in full princess regalia.

-Wearing rubber bands in funny places.

-Enjoying church with her Nina, Romina.

-Bubble fun.



And one for the road: Dreamy girls after an evening walk. We love the fall!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A Few of our Favorite Things, Lately

Dress up clothes! A coworker handed down her daughters' amazing princess dresses, and Adessa is rarely to be found in her own clothes.


Eliana gets in on the game.


Sweet! (And becoming rarer every day).


Posin'.


How they really feel about posing. 8)


The creek! We've finally had some hot days (weird weather this summer) and have enjoyed time spent at the creek.






Evening walks that end at the rec field.


Preschool time! Please, God, help me figure out the logistics. We're having babysitter issues, and Adessa goes to school on days that I work. This Tuesday is her first day of preschool, and my first day of teaching for the homeschoolers. Whereupon I'm going to be running all over and trying to exude inner calm so that Adessa doesn't come unglued. Which has been a pretty frequent occurance these days--we're experiencing some profound disequilibrium.

Adessa (working hard not to smile) with her preschool teacher, Mrs. Zweers, at Visiting Day.



Skylake Family Camp... was so fun. We went when Adessa was Eliana's age, so it was cool to remember and compare.



Horseback riding was a highlight. Adessa was gleeful the whole time, starting the second she put on the only pink helmet available.






Hanging outside our cabins, relaxing catch-up time with family.


In the dining hall. A favorite part, the staff did all the cooking and clean up!


The whole gang!


Two years ago with Adessa outside our cabin, the famous "eyewear" shot.


Attempting a reenactment of the eyewear shot, but no! Adessa had other ideas. We chose an inopportune moment for her.


So it was reenacted with just Eliana. There.