Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

Last week Adelaide and I got to go to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond with our friends.  I didn't realize that my camera battery was just about dead, but I did get a few cute pics.  The gardens have a really great kids play area. So much to do that we didn't even get to do it all!  But we did get to play in some play houses, eat mulberries straight off the tree, and play in a giant sandbox.  Apparently Adelaide hasn't ever played in a sandbox and she clearly didn't remember the beach last year.  She was hilarious, constantly saying "uh oh" and wiping all the sand off her feet like it wasn't supposed to be there. Anyway... here are the cute pics i was able to get.

 

Adventures in Todderland

We have fully entered Toddlerland.  Can anyone lend me a map? We have NO idea what we are doing, and it is tough. I think ever since Adelaide has been born, every couple months I say "This is my favorite stage so far." or "She is so much fun right now."  Well, Adelaide IS so much fun right now. She is sweet and hilarious and is learning so much and fun to play with and i love hearing her talk... oh, and she gives the BEST hugs with a little squeeze that we just love.  But she is difficult and sometimes mean and can throw some wild tantrums and I don't like hearing "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" or standoffs at the dinner table over vegetables, and I definitely don't like it when she hits me.  As much as I enjoy her ALMOST all the time, the last 48 hours have not been my favorite stage.

Adelaide looked super cute at church today (I mean, let's be serious, she looks cute every day).  But I haven't taken many pictures of her lately.  My parents were in town last weekend, though, and my mom caught this picture of her in one of her super sweet moments with my dad and their new dog Kofi.

This moment only lasted about 30 seconds, but that is about her max snuggle time for Jason or I too, so it was a pretty big deal.

Well, I guess all I can do is pray for grace. Grace not to discipline out of anger, and lots of extra grace filling my heart to extend to Adelaide like God has extended to me. I'm praying that I'll be reminded that God is continuously sanctifying us through this, that he is drawing Adelaide to Himself, and that through our discipline of her we can help her know Him better, and not scar her for life.

But also if you have any amazing tips on how to navigate Toddlerland, we'll take whatever I can get.

McDonalds Coffee and the Basement

back to your regularly scheduled family updates and pictures...

Today Adelaide decided to pretend she was getting an iced coffee in the McDonald's drive through (don't worry the cup was empty).

 

We have been loving play-time in the basement lately.  For Christmas, Jason's parents gifted Adelaide with enough foam floor tiles to cover over half our basement.  We put TONS of hand-me-down toys down there (clearly I don't think we've ever turned down free toys) from family and friends, including a kitchen, chalkboard easel, cars to ride on, a rocking horse, a tool bench, a crawl-through farm thingy, AND Jason even hung a swing from the ceiling.

There is also an old tube tv in the corner there that we have never used, but it plays dvds, which we thought would be great if we ever host home group or just have adult chit chat time with friends after dinner or something.

Here is the other half of the basement, which clearly gives us plenty of space for storage.  That is Adelaide's soon-to-be big girl bed standing up on its end in the corner there.  There's also a table set up next to the washer and dryer so I can fold laundry while homegirl plays.

We had a little flood in the basement last week, which is why you see pieces of the shop vac laying on the floor... and which is also the reason we have no plans to actually finish the basement.

Adelaide can entertain herself down here for a long long time!! I kind of can't wait for the day that she is big enough to come down here with no supervision.  We are really thankful for this space!

He is pleased with me.

I don't really usually write "personal" stuff on the blog... like thoughts and prayers and stuff. I like to keep it to family updates and pictures. But something has kind of been on my heart lately, and I figured I should be able to share it, and maybe it will even encourage someone who feels the same way I do.

There is A LOT of information "out there" (namely, books and the internet) on how to raise your family well. How to be a good mom, what decisions are good decisions, etc.  A lot of it is very helpful and truthful and are good reminders, and I try to read whatever I can because I really do want to make good, informed decisions for my family.  But when I don't find myself lining up somehow with what I read, I find myself feeling defensive and/or inadequate.  Especially when things come across as THE right way to do things, and any other way is the wrong way.

Some things are not directly spoken to in the Bible.  It's those things that I feel most insecure about when I see and hear other people doing things differently.  Are people personally attacking me? No. Could I just avoid reading things all together? I suppose.  But like I said - Jason and I want to be informed and make good decisions.  Do I believe there are absolute truths?  Of course - truths laid out in the Bible are the absolute ones.  We make our decisions based on Scripture and how we feel the Holy Spirit is leading us.  Some of those things are clear (i.e. laid out in the Bible), and some are not as clear (i.e. lots of praying, listening, and discerning).

But by God's grace I have decided to be confident in the decisions that my husband and I make for our family.   As I have laid these burdens at the feet of the Lord, He has revealed something to me.  Something I knew all along, but CONSTANTLY need to be reminded of...

I eat AND feed my family gluten, dairy and soy... and my Heavenly Father is still pleased with me!


I had pitocin AND an epidural when I had my baby... and my Heavenly Father is still pleased with me!

I only breastfed til my baby was 6 months old... and my Heavenly Father is still pleased with me!

We did the "cry it out" method to train our baby to put herself to sleep... and my Heavenly Father is still pleased with me!

We plan to (though it's still a long way off) send our children to PUBLIC school... and my Heavenly Father is still pleased with me!

I am LUCKY enough to get to stay home with my kids now. But if at some point in the future my husband and I decided that I needed to get a job for any reason... my Heavenly Father would still be pleased with me!

This isn't directed at anyone in particular... they are just things that I am inundated with and are areas that I have felt inadequate, unsure, or defensive about because of other people's opinions and decisions.  It's also a reminder to myself that I am in no place to judge others for their decisions either. Their Heavenly Father is also pleased with them, just as He is with me.

High Flyin

We got a swing set!  I'm sure Jason would be happy to tell you all about the work this swing set has required if you want to ask him, but basically it's a really nice one (originally would be several thousand dollars) that we got on Criagslist for an awesome price.  We (Jason) had to put a little bit of extra work into it after getting it home and discovering that a couple of the beams were hollow - i.e. they had termites in them.  But still totally worth it, and Adelaide has been loving the swing and slide! And there are plenty more accessories - the trapeze bar thing, a rope/seat swing, a climbing rope, a fireman pole, and monkey bars - that she can continue to enjoy as she gets bigger!

All these pictures look alike and none of them are great but i didn't know which one to pick.

Here is a better picture of most of the swing set. Adelaide is pretty good about climbing that back ladder by herself to get up to the swing... we just stand behind her for moral support.  You can't see very well in the first picture, but the monkey bars are coming out from the front, right next to the slide.  The fireman pole isn't actually up yet, but it goes next to the climbing rope in the back left corner next to the ladder.

You can also see the corner beams and the ones along the bottom that jason had to replace.

Here you can see the monkey bars AND the top part of the fort that is still on the ground.  It actually goes on top of the monkey bars and is like an upper level. We figured Adelaide can't climb up to it yet anyway, so we haven't been in a rush to get it up.  We're hoping to get some gravel-type stuff on the ground and maybe eventually fill the underneath part with sand.

Nacho is loving that we have been spending more time outside lately.  He loves to have company in the backyard while he barks obnoxiously at everyone who walks by.

(Jason just killed all the "grass" that is up next to the house so we can fill it with mulch and maybe put some flowers down and then he won't have to worry about mowing around drainage pipes and appliances... hence the block of dead yellow stuff in the background here)

Miss Fix-it

Adelaide's (boy) cousins passed along an amazing tool bench, complete with tools, tool belt, and... GOGGLES. Now every morning she is on a mission to fix the house.

Being Miss Fix-it WITH her baby doll, of course.

Oh hold on, let me get my goggles on.

Off to hammer the steps or something.

A Year & a Half of Adelaide

*warning* This post is way too long. Probably only our mothers will get through it.  apologies.

I don't even know where to start with what Adelaide is up to lately because she is just doing so much and becoming so much of her own person.  Jason and I went to bed the other night and literally just laid there for like 30 minutes talking about all the things that Adelaide had done that day to make us laugh. And we laughed and laughed all over again. She has so much energy and so many funny little things that she does daily.

Life has been relatively routine for us lately.  Fun and busy, but nothing that has seemed extraordinary enough to have the camera out for (except a couple weeks ago when Adelaide was running around a friend's yard in a yellow polka dot ruffled bathing suit kicking a soccer ball... I whipped out my camera and didn't have a memory card in it. ugh. It was so cute though).  So I made a point today to try to capture a few pictures of her at home doing her thing.  There are A LOT of pictures here so I'll try not to say too much about them.

This was actually Adelaide a few weeks ago when she had a little sick day. She threw up for the first time ever, and even though she only threw up once and didn't have a fever or anything, she was just mellow the rest of the day.  So I had to snap a picture of her actually sitting still watching tv... this is rare - or possibly unheard of - in our house.

Adelaide will finally smile when we say "smile" as opposed to "show us your teeth."  It's still the same cheesy look though.

She has just recently become obsessed with this baby that she got for Christmas. It's adorable and hilarious and she is constantly yelling "BABY!!" and "BAH BAH" (bottle).

This is what I found on the stairs this evening... her baby, a pan, stirring spoon, and her empty spice bottle.  I love seeing the remnants of her playtime.

"Adelaide, put your hands on your head."

"Adelaide, put your head on the floor."

And then things just got wild...

She likes to put things in this bucket and then carry the bucket around on her arm like a purse.

I actually love this picture b/c she was shoving her giraffe in the camera so I would take a picture of it... and she was so happy with her self.

Tickle time.

And then, suddenly, she was done with running and climbing and toys and tickling and wanted to stop and read a book.  Yes, that is one of A's clips in Jason's hair.

Adelaide lately:

- At her 18 month check up she was about 21 lbs (5th%) and like 31 in tall (25th% I think). 

- MUSIC! This girl seriously cannot get enough of MUSIC. Every.single.morning she comes downstairs and points to the computer and does this hilarious dance (ask us and we'll show you how she dances) and points at the computer... meaning "turn on some music." Her favorites are Itsy Bitsy Spider (by doing the motions with her fingers), "A" (ABCs), "EIEO" (Old MacDonald), and "Ah Ah Ah Ah" (If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops).
- Sitting on the potty. This could be a whole post in itself b/c I have no idea if I should attempt to potty train her yet.  She is so young and honestly I don't know if I'm ready to do it, but she loves to sit on the potty... and just sit... and sit... and sit... ONE time she peed a little bit. But usually she tells us she wants to go to the "pah pah" right AFTER she goes, or she pats her buns and says "di di." to change her diaper.
- Nacho. She still won't go to bed without giving him a hug and a kiss and saying night night. I can only hope and pray that she loves her little brother as much as she loves her big brother.
- Books. books books books books.  Especially books with flaps... you know, like where you lift something up and there is a picture underneath. But really in general, just books books books.
- Cats. This is quite random b/c we don't have cats. But for some reason this girl loooves cats. We go on bike rides and she just goes "eow. eow. eow." over and over, hoping we'll see a cat along the way.
- Drawing.  Well, she loves telling us what to draw for her.  Always "eow" first, and then "dog." This is another thing we do every.single.day.
- Brushing her teeth.  And making other people brush their teeth.  And we make her sit down on a stool while she brushes b/c we don't want her to run around with the tooth brush in her mouth, so she likes to make YOU sit down too - while she's brushing her teeth and while you're brushing your own teeth.  If she sees Jason brushing his teeth, she will grab my tooth brush and chase me around with it saying "Mama! Mama! Mama!" until I stop and brush my teeth too.  She can be a little bossy :-)
- Water - We did 6 weeks of "swimming" lessons at the Y. She loved it every time and LOVES the bath and LOVES her little water table in the backyard. 

- I feel like she is already a first-born-rule-follower type. Sometimes I put her in her high chair and then just walk away and she yells after me going "MAMA! BUBU!!" reminding me that I did not buckle her. Of course she also likes to be quite the little rebel sometimes. The other day Jason was making a smoothie and let her stand up on a chair at the counter but told her not to touch the blender. But she looked right at him and stuck one little finger out and touched it as lightly as she could just to see if she could get away with it.  She didn't.
-She loves to help unload the dishwasher, put her dirty clothes in her hamper, and put things away in the fridge.  I also hand her things while we're checking out at the grocery store so that she can put them up on the counter.
- She is super outgoing.  Of course, she is crazy around the house and a lot of times when we're around new people - at someone's house or at church or something - she doesn't want to talk or say hi to anyone for a few minutes.  But by the end of our time there, I can't get her to leave and she is running around like a crazy person and cries when I tell her to put her coat on.  She also LOVES the child watch at the Y.  I feel like she is the only kid who doesn't come running to me when I go to pick her up.  She just looks at me like "Oh hey mom. I'm playing here."
- We've started asking Adelaide to "give us a squeeze" when we want a hug.  She wraps her arms around us and then clenches her fists around our shoulders as hard as she possibly can. It makes us laugh every time.

She knows LOTS of words... We counted a few months ago and got up to about 30.  But now that she will repeat almost anything we ask her to say (or at least attempt), it seems like she's saying something new every day, so it's too hard to keep track anymore.  Of course her pronunciation is not all there, so a lot of the words are things that Jason and I would have to translate.  Ex. The word "bu bu" means "bubbles" when she's getting in the tub or we're blowing bubbles in the backyard; it means "buckle" when she's in her high chair or stroller or shopping cart; and it means "butter" when we're making toast or eating peanut butter or something. "NO." is her favorite word. Sometimes she likes to tease us and act like she is thinking about it and she'll go "uuuhhhh... NO." The answer to everything is No.  Also, the word "MINE" is far too common.

I could go on and on and on about all the things Adelaide does and what she's up to and things that make us laugh.  Honestly, a lot of these things are probably not as remarkable as I like to think they are - I'm sure lots of other 18 month olds are doing the same things. But it is SO so fun to watch her personality come out more and more.  We are figuring out what types of things she really enjoys and she can really express her feelings and desires and her sense of humor. She cracks us up daily and I seriously have so much fun hanging out with her during the day.  I can't believe she's going to be a big sister in a few months!