Playing catch up...

So it's almost been THREE MONTHS since my last post...not because there's nothing to tell, but I've been too busy to tell it! Let me see what I can catch you up on...

First and foremost, Addison is almost 100% potty trained!! Back around the first week of September she really started doing well and graduated from Pull-ups to big girl panties (during the day) sometime mid-September. She still has occasional accidents (mostly when she's too busy to stop what she's doing), but overall is doing very well. We are very excited that we don't have to buy Pull-ups or diapers anymore! One of the hardest things to overcome for her was using a public restroom, but she has conquered that like a champ! Thanks to cute and convenient travel fold up potty seats and covers, we've successfully mastered the public toilet! As a matter of fact, often she becomes obsessed with going to the potty when we are in public and I end up taking her repeatedly while we are out. I never imagined potty training could be so rewarding...and interesting. On a few occasions when we've been traveling, we've pulled out the froggy potty and let her go on the side of the road or in the car...those were definitely fun times. There were other interesting times that weren't quite so amusing, but I'll spare you the details of those.

Here she is proudly holding her Elmo big girl panties that she will be taking to school that day as a back-up

Hilarious things that Addison says: (Almost anything she says is cute, mostly because of the way she says it. She can't pronounce "L" or "R" (they both sound like "W") and she has a lisp when she pronounces "S")

1. Are you SERIOUS?! and Are you KIDDING ME?! These are fun and she will catch you off guard by throwing these out at the most random moments. She and I have a conversation that doesn't make any sense but is funny when we're riding in the car or need some entertainment. It probably won't seem that funny to you, but here goes anyway...
        Addi: Three hundred dollars
        Me: Three hundred dollars??!!
        Addi: Yes
        Me: Are you serious??
        Addi: Yes
        Me: That's a LOT of money!
   (Repeat from the beginning at least 5 times)

2. She likes to pray before her meals, before bedtime, and we've also starting saying a prayer on the way to school. Last week, as I was driving her to school, I asked her what she would like to thank God for and as usual, she said "Pizza!" so after thanking God for pizza, I started thanking him for family, friends, school, etc. and Addison started saying her own prayer, which was adapted from her nighttime prayer: "Thank you for this beautiful day. Thank you for my family and friends, keep me safe once again. Amen." I told her that was a beautiful prayer and she said "Shh, Mommy, don't talk." (Bossy, huh?) So I got quiet and she said her prayer again and this time, when she ended, I didn't say a word. After about a minute, she said, "Mommy, say Good Job Addison" so I did and she said, "Shh, Mommy don't talk!" I laughed so hard at that.

3. The other day, I was reading her numbers book to her and when I started counting, she said "No Mommy, do it in Spanish!" I looked at her in shock and told her I didn't know how to count in Spanish. So she promptly demonstrated in her Southern drawl "Uno, Dose, Trace, Quattro, Sink-o, Saese, Sietay, Ocho". I just about died! She's a little smarty pants!

4. She taught me a new song that she learned at school called "Days of the Week" it's cute to hear her southern self sing this song, while she points to the air (I assume her teacher points to each day on the wall, so she imitates). It's to the tune of the Addams Family theme song...Days of the Week (clap, clap), days of the week (clap, clap), days of the week, days of the week, days of the week (clap, clap). Dere's Sunday and dere's Monday, dere's Tuesday and dere's Wednesday, dere's Tursday and dere's Fwiday, and den it's Saturday." (start over)

5. Yes, I did! - when you ask her if she did something, she'll respond emphatically with this phrase (and her cute lisp)


Addison's favorite songs that she likes to sing and knows EVERY word:
1. American Honey and other Lady A favorites
2. Farmer's Daughter
3. Stuck Like Glue
4. You Make Me Smile
Actually, she knows almost every single song on country radio, which is disturbing at times. Can you imagine seeing/hearing a 2 and 1/2 year old singing her heart out to "Crazy Town" while she's dancing and holding her microphone??

Other favorite things:
TINKERBELL - she is absolutely obsessed with Tinkerbell. She has the Great Fairy Rescue movie and watches it constantly and quotes it throughout the day. She even talks in a New Zealand accent like the girl in the movie. She was Tinkerbell for Halloween and walked around saying "Mommy, I Tinkerbell!!" the whole time
CANDY - she's obsessed with candy and marshmallows, which probably had a lot to do with our success in potty training
CARROTS and RANCH - this is about the only vegetable I can get in her so I give it to her almost every single day
DORA the EXPLORER - the MOST annoying show ever

Addison had a fun-filled Halloween. She had a party at her GrandNanda and Pippy's house on Saturday night and went trick-or-treating at home on Sunday night. She enjoyed going around and getting candy from the neighbors, but I think she mostly enjoyed when we came home and she got to give out candy to the other trick-or-treaters. It was a blast!

Other great pics since I last posted:



Nanda and Pippy came to visit and we went to Black's Peach Farm in York



 

Orlando vacation

To sum it up in two words: FUN and HOT!!!  :)  We had a blast! Addison did great riding down and back, thanks to the iPod. It kept her busy enough that we only stopped once on the way down and once on the way back. The Fountains resort was awesome and the parks were great, but there wasn't enough time to do it all! Here's a few pics that hit the highlights of the trip.

Here's us at the resort playing in the pools. They had some really awesome pools and a water slide that Addison really wanted to go down, but she was too short. We had fun "shwimmin" anyway!

She also played on the playground at the resort and at Landry's Seafood House, where we ate supper one night. She enjoyed playing and the food was great there. There was a guy making balloon animals and Addison got a monkey, and she named him "Monkey", of course.

We went to Magic Kingdom one day and boy was it HOT!! We tried to stay inside most of the day, so we did a couple of shows that we didn't do last time, (which were great) visited Mickey & Minnie, and rode some indoor rides until the sun went down. Also, since she's into the Disney princesses and Tinkerbell now, we waited in line for 45 minutes to see the princesses and 1 hour to see Tinkerbell. They were great though, and spent a lot of time with Addison (no wonder the wait is so long!!).

Addison wasn't too sure at first, but then she warmed up, especially to Tinkerbell, who was the BEST! She loved Addison and asked Addison to stay with her forever, which of course Addison said "Yeah" and waved bye to us. It was really cool and I got some videos of her with the characters. She also got an up-close spot at the parade (same as last year) and got to greet some of the other characters as well. We had a blast and the fireworks show was great at the end also.

We also went to Sea World and saw Abby, Elmo and the gang as well as "Shampoo" (Shamu) and rode some fun rides. We had a great time there too.

When we got home, the first thing we did was...(unpack, you say?? surely, not us!!)....we drew a chalk picture in the driveway to celebrate our trip!

busy summer

Long time no post...we've been having a blast this summer!

We went to EdVenture and Discovery Place recently and had a great time at both places. Here's a few pics of our days having fun there.

This is at Discovery Place - there was so much to see and do there, but her favorite part was the 3D Turtle Movie. She was also fascinated by the big buildings ("castles") in Charlotte and enjoyed finishing the trip off with some pizza.

Here we are at EdVenture in Columbia. There was a lot of cool stuff here too and her favorite thing by far was the grocery shopping!

Here's some pics of our July 4th holiday. This was the first time in forever that we haven't gone camping on the 4th, but we had a blast keeping busy with all the family in Greenwood and Ninety Six.

Two weeks ago was Vacation Bible School at Northside Baptist and did we ever have fun! Addison really enjoyed her first VBS! Kudos to Alice and the rest of the nursery workers on a job well-done! It took us until midnight every night to get her calmed down for bed and she talked about all the fun things they did all the way home. One night in the car, she said "Oh my goodness, child!" and I asked her who says that, and she said "Mrs. Linda"...haha. She proudly showed off the crafts and things she made and loved being a cowgirl all week! While we were on our way to vacation in Orlando a couple days after VBS, she all of a sudden said, "Mommy I had fun at Bible school!". My heart melted. Thanks NBC for another great VBS! If you'd like to see a video of our VBS week (featuring Addison and Jason a few times), click here: NBC VBS Video on YouTube. Also, if you're on Facebook, you can see some pictures on Northside's page: NBC Photos.

Here's a couple of pictures of Addison on the last night of VBS, wearing her Saddle Ridge Ranch shirt

Some of the things I LOVE to hear Addison say lately:

1. Yessss or Yeah (it only took her 2 years to say "Yes," but "No" was her second word...imagine that...)

2. "Where is 'em?" (where is it?)

3. "Two of 'ems" and "Both of 'ems" (two/both of them)

4. "I sure did!"

5. "I shweepin" (I'm sleeping)

Her favorite songs:

1. "How much is that doggie in the window?"

2. "Undo It" by Carrie Underwood  :)

3. Any songs by Lady Antebellum

4. "The wise man built his house upon the Rock..."

5. "Jesus loves me...la la la" (Camp La Vida version)

6. "VeggieTales" theme song