The Lilly Pad

Adelyn is obsessed with anything that has wheels. Obsessed I tell you! The first sign she used voluntarily was "bus", every time we drive by the Fire Station she wants to see if the Fire Trucks are "awake", and tonight she gave Matt some expert driving advice when she said "slow down, cars!" But her first love is really for trains. Specifically Thomas the Tank Engine and all his friends. She has several trains and books, knows all their names and talks about them all. the. time. Lately, the question I hear 95 times a day is "where did the train tracks go?" So yesterday, we went to see a train and tracks because I just couldn't take it anymore! Her first observations about the train: It has wheels, letters and is yellow. Then she noticed the steps... "Ah, yes! This is where I belong!" This is the reason I had to set my camera take pictures continuously... If you say "Adelyn, look at mommy & smile." thinking you...

Adelyn LOVES to watch videos of herself. There is one in particular that she really enjoys. These first two videos are of her watching herself. I know they're pretty much the same but I love them so much I couldn't choose just one... So what's this video that cracks Adelyn up? It probably won't have the same effect on you, but for her, seeing that whisk fall on the floor is like watching The Three Stooges.

Mommy: "Adelyn, guess what we're going to do tomorrow." No response "We're going to Sea World to see Elmo!" Adelyn: "And Grover too!" Grandpa: "What color is Grover, Adelyn?" Adelyn: "Yeddow!!!" Grandpa: "No, silly! Grover's not yellow he's blue. What color is the Cookie Monster?" : Adelyn: "Yeddow!!!" Grandpa: "You stinker, the Cookie Monster is blue too. What color is Elmo?" Adelyn: "Yeddow!!!" Grandpa: "Oh, you silly girl! Elmo is red. What color is Big Bird?" Adelyn: (with a twinkle in her eye) "White!"

This past week was jam-packed with fun activities at our house. Take a look... On Monday, Adelyn & I went to story time at Leu Gardens with Jaaron, Brody and Barrett. It was lots of fun going on a "gator hunt" and exploring the gardens. Jaaron and Barrett did great on one of their first trips out and Adelyn is still pretending to be on a gator hunt. Then on Tuesday, Aunt Darla and Kinsley came over for a play date. Aunt Corrie joined us for dinner and we really made the most of girl time. On Wednesday, Mimi and Grandpa came into town, and on Thursday, Adelyn celebrated being 22 months old. I won't even go into the whole, she's going to be 2 in two months bit... On Friday Matt & I got a glimpse into our former life when we headed to the beach with friends for a night away and boating day. Unfortunately, we failed to document the boating part. It is just as well. The water was pretty choppy and Matt & I both came home with sunburns. Oh well, we st...

On Saturday we went with some friends to visit a local chicken farm and gather fresh eggs. It was quite the adventure and I think we all had more fun than we expected too.  Here we are with Farmer Dale. This picture makes me laugh because Dale is trying to show Adelyn a baby chick but she's more interested in the cat who is very interested in eating the baby chick for a morning snack. Here we go to the chicken coop... You might want to hold your nose. There were 700 chickens in there! Don't let my smile fool you. I'm on the verge of a nervous break down. All those chickens really freaked me out! This one especially. I saw her eyeing me on more than one occasion.   It was actually very neat to see the chickens laying their eggs, learn about chicken farming and specifically Dale's business. These are quail eggs. They were so pretty and tiny. In addition to the chickens we also saw bunnies, cows, turkeys and geese. Do you see the calf in the lower right corner? Sh...