Independent Addy

It seems like I could write a blog entry every day with the exploits of Addy, but I'm pretty sure I don't have that kind of time!
Here are 2 signs of a child that is far too independent for her own good and for mine! I think it's that third child thing. I've found she's much more capable than my other kids were at this same age. It's amazing what they can pick up on with older examples to follow and when we don't have time to watch them like a hawk!

Addy likes to climb.
So far I've caught her on a chair (how can you get mad at that face?),
drinking and eating from whatever food was left on the table,
on the keys of the piano,
on the table,
and I haven't even captured her favorite spot, sitting on the tray of her high chair with her legs hanging off the front! I have a feeling stitches are in her future.

Addy also loves to be outside. She's very cute whenever someone goes outside. She grunts and bounces excitedly, then she heads to the back entryway and brings back her shoes. (She usually even finds 2 matching ones. That's better than Emily manages sometimes!) Lately she has even been bringing a jacket with the shoes. If I tell her no, or don't take her out, she watches for a chance to head out on her own. As is inevitable with a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, an opportunity always arises. (I might need to invest in a self-closing door. 3-year-olds and 5-year-olds don't seem to know how to close the door when they go out no matter how much I nicely remind them!)
In the past week, I have found her not just sitting nicely on the porch right outside the door, but clear on the other side of the yard in the sandbox (she was quite proud of this one),
headed to play with her friend next door (Emily caught her and monitored her this time),
and eating a huge chunk of ice leftover from our latest snowstorm.
Thankfully all of these escapades wear her out and we can all get some rest and recovery time at night! (Not even goldfish could keep her awake this day!)

Did I Mention...?

Did I mention that my kids are growing up far too fast? I don't like it one bit!

Did I mention that Cole learned to whistle...

...and soon after lost his first tooth which has severely limited his whistling abilities. (We aren't really saddened by this!)

Did I mention that Emily has learned to spell her name...

...and is now learning to write it?

Did I mention that Addy is officially a toddler? Thank goodness for diapers to pad the behind!


Did I mention that I want them to stay little, if only for a little while longer?

A Day at the Farm

For "F" week, Emily's preschool went to a farm. (It was actually more of a horse ranch, but the kids didn't care!) Since it was in the morning, before Cole's school, Emily said Cole and Addy could come too.

Emily loved it. She got to pet a goat.
Cole also thought the goats were pretty cool.
Addy, on the other hand, was not sure what to think about being licked!
They also thought it was fun to help brush a horse.
Then, they got to pick out their very own pumpkin that the farmers grew.
Jack-O-Lanterns, here we come!

Trick-Or-Treat

Once again, I had great hopes of doing a "themed" Halloween. I figured Cole could pick his costume and then I could steer Emily in a related direction. Once again, Cole had other ideas. A while back, he decided he wanted to be the Star Wars character Jango Fett. I kept waiting for him to change his mind, as kids usually do, but after a month of no changing, I decided I was stuck. We've already done a Star Wars theme, so I decided he would once again have to be left out of the fun. (Sadly, I'm not sure he really cared!)
Just in case the yellow crocs weren't enough of a give away to tell you who it was. (Notice the serious bounty hunting face!)
Emily loves Tinkerbell right now and initially decided that was who she wanted to dress up as. However, not too long after that, she saw a cartoon that told the story of Little Red Riding Hood and changed her mind (I think the fact that she found a basket that looked like Red Riding Hood's helped sway her decision. She really hoped to put cookies in the basket!) She flipped back and forth several times until finally a week before Halloween I made her decide for sure. She settled on Little Red. (Good thing because she is pretty darn cute!)
I could handle that costume for Emily because then I could make Addy into the Big (or Little) Bad Wolf. This idea eventually morphed into the Wolf dressed up in Grandma's clothes. (Imagine what I could have done if I had more than a week! Ok, maybe not. I think I work better under pressure!)
Of course, I was a little worried at first that Addy wouldn't wear the costume. After I brought the fur home from the fabric store and laid it on the ground, Addy refused to go near it and would crawl 10 feet out of her way just to get around it. However, one thing about Addy (and most kids her age), she is very bribable. So, half a bag of goldfish later, we got her in the costume and she even cracked a smile or two!
The kids had a great time on Halloween. It's fun that they are getting to ages where they really enjoy it and I don't have to wonder why we go to all of the effort.
We started at a Trunk-or-Treat.
Addy learned to like her costume really fast once she realized that she got candy if she wore it! She decided to crawl like a wolf without my prompting even!
Then we moved on to the houses!
Our fun trick-or-treating group.
It used to be that a trip around the block was enough to satisfy my kids. But Cole is obviously growing up and he and his friends really got into it. So after a while, I took Emily and Addy home, while Chad stayed out with Cole.
Obviously the Big Bad Wolf was worn out from all of the fun. She fell asleep in the 3 blocks that it took to drive home. (I guess when you come down off the sugar high, you crash hard when you are 1)!
Emily used the time at home to line up and count her candy. I was cracking up when I realized what she was doing!
After the bigger kids finally wore out, they all came back to our house for hot chocolate! They were gone for much longer than I expected. I was glad that it was Chad who walked all that way with them.
What a night!

Jack-O-Lantern Chaos!

As is tradition, we went over to Jennifer's to carve Jack-O-Lanterns. We keep adding people and kids to this tradition and it turns into jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin guts everywhere!
In order to speed the process along (and make it easier on myself), I cleaned out 2 of the pumpkins earlier in the day. That left the third one for picture taking as it was cleaned out.
Notice how high up their hands are so as not to actually touch inside the pumpkin! This next picture is typical of my kids trying to avoid touching any sort of pumpkin guts while trying to satisfy their mother's request to take one spoonful out. (Cole is trying to get anything from the very top that doesn't require his hand to actually go in the pumpkin and Emily is frantically trying to get off the one orange pumpkin string that got on her hand! Oh well, maybe one day!)
Thankfully Chad is not afraid of a few pumpkin guts and he finished cleaning the thing out.
Cole, "Addy, you might as well learn now. Mom has to get her obligatory picture."
Addy, "Fine. Can I just pretend to touch the pumpkin and call it good?"
Cole, "No Addy, Mom wants you to actually touch the stuff." (Notice the fear in her eyes!)
Addy, "Can I just chew on the spoon that was used to clean the guts out, while watching carefully to make sure that nothing touches me?"
(I have discovered that I can easily take care of my young ones on pumpkin carving day at Jennifer's if you put them on the chair and surround the area with pumpkin carvers and pumpkin stuff, they refuse to get down just in case they might actually touch something yucky. Addy was no exception. I think she sat in the chair for an hour. The longest she has sat in one place in a long time!)
I do have to say that finally my older two did get into the designing and carving part of the pumpkin. (Maybe there's hope for the rest of the process.) Cole and Emily got paper out to carefully design what they wanted their jack-o-lanterns to look like.
Then, they brought their pumpkins to me so I could draw what they wanted on the actual pumpkin.
Then, they took them to Chad so he could help carve them. They did carefully monitor us to make sure we were doing it properly!
Like I said, there were lots of other carvers in the house.
Cole thinks he is a cousin too, so we can't leave out our buddy Brock!
Somehow, Chad and I ended up helping some of the big kids also. Chad helped carve and I helped clean out! (Apparently by cleaning out my pumpkins earlier, that freed me up to clean out some for the big kids that don't like to touch the pumpkin guts either. Maybe there isn't any hope for my kids later in life!)
Thankfully, Kim was there to entertain the little ones after their pumpkins were finished. (Funny, I guess that means she also avoided her hands getting dirty!)
And don't forget the yummy? treats. Emily sure enjoyed them. Apparently she doesn't mind getting her mouth dirty if it's for a good cupcake!
The finished products don't look too bad, even if I do say so myself!
Baby steps. This year, designing. Next year touching the insides!!