Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Here I am taking my shoes upstairs:


I know...I have a problem...whether my problem is the shoes, or my failure to bring them upstairs each night is not certain. What I do know is that it was HILLARIOUS when Adele tried the same thing a few days later:


So here's my question...Where did Adele learn THIS?

Yes, that's a hamburger...straight off the grill. No time for a bun or condiments, she wanted BEEF!

Where were we?

It's been TOO long since I've blogged. I've had plenty of excuses (we were out of town, I couldn't find the camera cord, there was that 24-hour stomach bug that ended up lasting 8!! days, etc) but really there is no "good" reason (Okay, the stomach flu thing sucked!) besides being lazy. Oh, and I pretty much nap when Adele naps now a days too, but I just started my second trimester with "Little Bean" so hopefully I'll have a sudden boost of energy soon!!!

Anyway, enough with the blabbing, here are the pictures!

One afternoon, Daddy and Adele did a little "Halloween" photo shoot in her princess dress:



"Working" at the pumpkin patch at church:
She got a kick out of the "bumpy" one:

I love this one-the pumpkin was "dented" but the way she's holding it makes it look like she's squeezing it out of shape:

"Helping" me move the little ones:



We took her to the zoo for ZooBoo, but kind of missed the trick-or-treat times. It was chilly, and she was mostly scared of all of the Halloween decorations, but we still managed to have fun!



She finally started warming up to the decorations:


We spent Halloween at Tim and Laura's, and the cousins had a fun weekend filled with mostly...sugar!

Aunt Laura is great about having crafts for the kids at each holiday, and this time was no exception. James and Adele got to decorate sugar cookies (and then the grown-ups ate them all!) Fun!

She took her job pretty seriously:


Showing Bapa Grandma's music boxes:

Getting ready to trick-or-treat/Adele's first sucker:


The kids decided that toys were more fun than candy:

The first "official" trick-or-treat house of 2009:


Adele and James rode in the wagon. Thank goodness Daddy came along to pull them!


This is the sucker that I "found" in Adele's mouth after about the 3rd house of trick-or-treating. I meant to feed her a snack before we left (somehow, I don't think the dum dum at Grandma's counted...) but didn't. At least she chose one of her treats that was peanut free!!!

"Ketchup"

just catching up on my blogging a little:

Adele is really into Halloween right now. Anytime she sees anything Halloween related (including orange cheese at dinner tonight) she says, "boo." One of our neighbors has ghosts hanging in her trees, and I taught Adele that ghosts say "boo" when we first saw them. Since that neighbor has a ton of other Halloween decorations in her yard, it makes perfect sense that Adele associates the word "boo" with all things Halloween, I guess.

We tried to take her to ZooBoo (in the cold, rainy weather) on Saturday, but what we didn't know was that it didn't start until 2. We got there about 11. By 1:45 we had a very tried little girl on our hands who was scared of all of the "boos" and didn't really want anything to do with them. We took her home and will try again later. If I ever find the camera (or get up out of my chair to look for it) I'll post pictures of our little Ladybug. She was cute wearing her costume the whole time, regardless of if we were there for the scheduled event or not!

She continues to do well with potty training. She isn't fully in "big girl pants" yet though, because she does have a little bit of a stubborn streak in her. She was not very interested in potty training at all during Fall Break, so we didn't push it. Plus, potty training is a bit difficult when wearing a ladybug costume at the zoo!

In other news, she has started talking up a storm. She will repeat just about any word that we say. In addition to her infatuation with Halloween, she loves all things Elmo, purple and Cookie and will answer (with arms outstretched) "this much" if you ask her how much she loves them!

She has started to understand the telephone and will grab ours and say, "hello" in the cutest voice ever, but when it comes to actually talking to someone on the phone, she's still a bit mystified. She did request that I call Bapa last night at bedtime, but she was distracted by the time Memaw answered, and Bapa wasn't home anyway.

Her favorite animal is the elephant, thanks to Bapa's awesome elephant noise. If you live near us and have a chance to see Adele anytime soon, just ask her about it. (Asking about Bapa, elephants, or Bapa's favorite animal will do the trick!) Otherwise, stay tuned, we've been trying to tape all of her cute-isms lately (however, she hasn't been very cooperative lately.)

She can now "sing along" with the ABC song (with her favorite letters, at least). She is especially fond of the letters Pp, Ss, Xx and Zz.

She loves riding in the new mini-van, and has become quite adept at telling us which direction to go. She knows right where the park is, and is often disappointed when we don't listen to her and go "that way" (she points).

I feel like there are a million other things to brag about, but I can't seem to remember any of them right now. Daddy and I agree that 21 months (is she really THAT old???) is an awesome age. We fall in love with her all over again about twenty times each night. Every time she goes to do something (even when she has her little tantrums) it is the cutest thing ever. I'm very glad that we're expecting number two during this stage, because it makes me appreciate Adele growing up, and I'm not too eager to keep her as my "baby."

Potty Training!!!

I apologize for not having any pictures today, but Adele has been working on potty training, which basically means that she runs around the house without any bottoms on...at all. She has learned how to take her diaper off, and that is usually the very first thing she does when we get home from Miss Jenny's. And off the diaper stays until bedtime. (And even then, once I get her overnight diaper on, she immediately wants to "pee pee"...)

She's making pretty good progress at home. We still put a diaper on her when we go anywhere, and she's great when we're out and about at keeping the diaper on (thank goodness!) She has only had a few accidents, and that was mostly because we didn't get her to the potty in time (once she was strapped in to her high chair, and we didn't understand what she needed.)

She has even pooped in the potty for the past two nights. Hopefully tonight will make the third!

Daddy is not at all into this phase, but I must say, it's kind of exciting watching our "baby" grow up right before our eyes!

Adele's Newest Favorite Pastime

Miss Jenny, Adele's babysitter had her baby, Annie at the beginning of September. We were a little bit nervous about how our "baby" would do at daycare with another little, tiny person there. So far, so good:
Adele and Baby Annie:


In fact, Adele loves Baby Annie so much that she has started carrying her doll everywhere with her and has even been "taking care" of her:



Mommy and Daddy couldn't be more excited about Adele's recent behaviors-we just hope this phase sticks around for a while:
Our "Little Bean" is expected to arrive sometime this May, and Adele is already shaping up to be a fantastic Big Sister!

Busy Fall!

It has finally started to feel like Fall here in Indiana, so here are some pictures of Adele doing, well..."Fall" things...

We went to a Pumpkin Fest a few weeks ago, Adele liked the hayride and the pumpkins, but wasn't a huge fan of the blow-up attractions. Silly girl!


Here she is "decorating" the pumpking Bapa grew and brought her from Wisconsin:

Princess Dress!

While Memaw is in town, she's working on sewing a practice dress for Adele's flower girl dress for Aunt DeeDee's wedding. We went to pick out fabric yesterday, and I decided to have her sew a pink dress so that Adele can wear it for Halloween (and be a princess). Here she is with what's done of the dress-I think it's priceless!



The pictures aren't the best quality, and it was bedtime, so Adele wasn't very cooperative, but I'm sure there will be more pictures when the dress is done!