"D-oh Badders!"

I know this post is a tad too late, but it has a cute story, so forgive me!

We all received new Badgers gear for Christmas (this seems to be the trend whenever they make it to the Rose Bowl...) and for once, Adele was thrilled about it. (Memaw brought her a pink Badgers shirt last spring that Adele loathed for some reason...) She has worn her "Badders" gear several times since Christmas, and always wants Anna to wear hers too.

On Friday night, as we were getting ready to go to our Rockin' Toddler Eve party, Adele (who had dressed herself in her new Wisconsin sweatshirt) started shouting frantically from the top of the stairs, "Mom, MOM! Is Bucky a raccoon?"

Parenting fail.

Goodbye 2010!

2010 was a pretty good year for us.

It's amazing how much our lives have changed in the last year...when we just found out that the baby in my belly was Anna Kate (today is actually the "anniversary" of her getting her name-during my ultrasound, as the tech tried to convince me that she was indeed a girl I made the decision, and announced it)

Adele turned two, moved completely to a big girl bed, potty trained, learned her ABC's, started talking up a storm, became a big sister, completed several "sticker charts" and more!

We welcomed our precious Anna into the world, and she has been nothing but a bundle of joy since! She is still a happy baby. She had another round of "practice teething" (what I'm deciding to call it) on Christmas day, but has otherwise been a "happy, happy" girl.

She sits on her own and can reach toys from *really* far away without tipping over. She STILL hates to roll and doesn't do it often, but she has actually rolled both ways at least once! She will stand up and hold toys or fingers, but doesn't really pull up on anything yet. She especially loves to stand at her "music table" and her (Adele's...) toy train. She's not really sleeping better at night, but she had a good night two nights ago (Wednesday, I think...) and was only up once. I must say, I really do still love the cuddle time in the middle of the night...every now and then I think that we need to let her cry it out, but I love snuggling her so much, so I never follow through. She eats solid foods two or three times a day and very much prefers fruits to vegetables. She still nurses every 3 or 4 hours during the day, but will ONLY nurse in her room, in her rocking chair (and even then she spends more time looking around the room than she does nursing...which MIGHT be why she's up so much at night...).

Lastly, Daddy has had a great year as well. He has successfully completed several plumbing projects, the most recent of which was replacing the garbage disposal today. He's a pretty good guy. We think we'll keep him...especially now that he fixed the disgusting smelling sink for us!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at our neighbors' house and had a "Rockin' Toddler Eve" where we turned the clocks ahead and counted down to "Midnight" at 8:00. Anna and Daddy left early (because 8:00 might as well be midnight on Anna's schedule...) and Adele had absolutely no idea what was going on when everyone started counting down, but she did seem to enjoy herself during the countdown...and several glasses of sparkling apple cider (most belonging to the other kids at the party).

It has been a great year, and I'm looking forward to another great one in 2011!

More Christmas!

After a fun-filled early Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Gropp's the week before Christmas, Adele had so much fun playing with her new doll house that she almost forgot to be excited for the "real" Christmas. A doll house had been on her "Santa" list, and since Grandma and Grandpa fulfilled that wish, she was almost at a loss as to what Santa might bring her. She needed dolls for the dollhouse, but when Memaw and Bapa arrived on Thursday, they brought her some dolls.

Thankfully, I saved a copy of the letter she wrote to Santa. She had asked for a teddy bear, a doll house and a club house for the back yard-this summer we were lucky enough to "borrow" our neighbor's while she was away, but we gave it back this fall. Every night Adele thanks God for her clubhouse "that I gave back to Bailey". It's pretty cute. Despite all of this, right up to Christmas Eve, Adele wasn't quite sure what she thought Santa might bring her.

She went to bed on Christmas Eve without any fussing. She WAS up at 4:00 AM but just wanted to snuggle in Mommy and Daddy's bed (didn't even ask if Santa had been here yet-so I quickly shuffled her into our bed and told her to listen for Santa to keep her quiet!) She was up with Anna at 6, and by 6:30 everyone was up and on their way downstairs. Daddy had the video camera ready:



She took one look into the piano room and had to sit down. (She was also squeezing my finger so hard I thought it would fall off!)


Right there, in the middle of the piano room was her VERY OWN CLUBHOUSE (well...the tag said to Adele AND Anna...but Adele thinks Anna needs to get bigger first...)

Happy Girls in footie jammies:

Anna kept holding out for some new teeth for Christmas, but since then her teething has backed off a little bit. She got a Noah's Ark Little People set from Memaw an Bapa and is thrilled to have a toy all of her own (Adele still sometimes takes away Anna's toys because they're "hers"...we're working on it!)

Very Merry, Not so Little

Christmas 2010...

















And that was just the start of it!

Christmas Songs

Adele has become very picky about her Christmas songs. She likes some, dislikes many, and even has some that she won't let me sing along with (like the theme song from The Polar Express).

Tonight at bedtime, she asked me to sing the Pom Pom song. I tried to get more information, but she just told me that it was about Jesus and Mary.

The pom pom song. Hmmm...was she just stalling? Nope. She actually had a song in mind, and I figured it out. Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning when I started singing it, too. It was pretty cute. So, any guesses? Pom Pom?

Christmas Spirit!

I'm trying to get Anna ready for our family pictures today...can you tell?












and...we're....DONE!

The Big Sleepover...

...or not :(

Daddy is on a rock and road trip this weekend, and I thought it would be sweet to have a snuggly sleepover in my bed with Adele. Judging by how huge her eyes got when I asked if she wanted to sleep in Mommy's bed tonight, it seemed that she liked the idea. So, bedtime rolled around. We brushed teeth, got our "cozies" on and snuggled in. Well, Adele snuggled in, and promptly kicked me out. Of my own bed. So now I'm downstairs waiting for her to fall asleep. (Part of my plan was to get a few extra hours of sleep, going to bed at the two year old's bedtime myself...guess that's not going to happen now...)

And because this blog is about Adele, she is now summoning me....she wants to snuggle. There's a big surprise!