If you ask Adeline, the best thing about Easter is CHOCOLATE, but a close second is dying the eggs! This year she coloured two dozen and she really didn't want to stop!
Considering the vast quantities of food colouring on the table it's amazing that besides her monster hands, Adeline and my house remained uncoloured. I, on the other hand, have some newly decorated jeans with a huge slop of yellow down one leg...
Happy Home-i-versary! Two years ago today Adeline started making the big blue house a noisier, messier and most of all a happier place!
The easiest pages to put together for the lifebook were ones like this that talked about Adeline's life since she's been with us...
And I apologize to all the scrapbookers out there, both digital and paper, that I have ever disparaged in the past. Yep, I was pretty snobby about the whole thing. It might not be art and you can get some pretty impressive results using very little creativity, but it's SUPER FUN and with some creativity I think it can really elevate photos to something much more special. Now I want to digital-scrapbook everything!
Ever since Adeline's Birthday we've been PARTYING. There has been between one and THREE birthday parties each weekend for the last few weeks. Adeline is LOVING IT!
Sometimes there are sandboxes...
Sometimes there's a bouncy castle...
There are ALWAYS good things to eat...
And the most important part - playing with good friends and lots of new people to meet!
And they always wear everybody out. This is Adeline exactly two minutes after leaving the party this afternoon...
David and I were both quite shy children and we're so happy that Adeline loves to be right in there with all the kids, big and little. She is wary of new grown ups at first but warms up quickly and she loves to play with other children and will always be found right in the middle of the action. Adeline and I are off next to visit Adeline's Nana for eight days while David stays home to go to work (and sleep all night long, sleep in on the weekend, watch television any time he wants, be able to clean up the toys and have them stay cleaned up, eat treats for dinner and be able to go use the bathroom without an audience, amongst other exciting things). Yes. I'm jealous. Verrrrrrrrrrrry jealous. But I'm glad David is having this time to relax and I hope he enjoys every minute of it! He's allowed to miss us a little, but only a little. Hopefully Adeline will do okay without her Daddy. We've been without him for 5 days in a row before but she was home in her own space with her own routines that time, so this could be harder. Hopefully she'll be having so much fun at Nana's house that she'll be happy all day and exhausted at night.
No more months to count, as of today my girl is a two year old. Wowza. I don't even know what to say about that. It's BIG, you know. Big for Adeline and big for her Mama.
Sometimes Adeline seems like such a sweet baby still...
And sometimes I can see the happy, smart and stubborn girl and even the challenging teenager that she's going to become...
My girl is growing and changing and blossoming every minute of the day. We're so very lucky to have been given the wonderful blessing to share our life with this amazing small person.
Here's Adeline last year on her birthday. I remember thinking how grown up she was getting and how I was already missing my little baby. Now I look back at Adeline at 12 months old and think of just how little and brand new she still was then. I don't think she'll be wearing this crown on her next big day...
My second! And it was a great day, thanks to the man I adore and the world's sweetest little girl. I'll do a proper post later but I was just busting to wish all the Moms and Moms-to-be out there a great day!
Adeline was too busy making sure that the butterflies were listening to her words to look at the camera. She kept saying "Don't touch Adewine, buttafies! and was making sure none of them got too close.
A lot of Adeline's little friends have either just turned two or will be two by the summer, and this week it was time for her friend Mylan to have her big day. Her Mom knows I'm handy with a sewing machine so she asked me to make a banner to celebrate the day and to be used for years to come. I can't say this was my favourite project (it was easy, but repetitive,and took way way longer than I thought it would, especially since I decided that the letters had to be hand sewn) but it was a labour of love, so I didn't mind.
I think the banner looks lovely in our side garden and I'm thinking I definitely have to make one for Adeline now. I should start soon though as with all the other things I've got going on in the next couple of months I know I'll be scrambling at the end to get things ready for my girls big birthday!
And doesn't my garden look good in this picture? It's cropped strategically so you can't see the really weedy patch to the left, and my prized peonies aren't blooming yet, but I'm really pleased that a full season of neglect last year hasn't seemed to have done any harm. This year much more is already being done in the garden as Adeline loves being out there and helping is her favourite thing. She's decided that when she helps outside she's a "Helper Robot" or a "Garden Robot" and it's sweet to hear her proclaim "Helper Robot did it!!!" every time she adds something to the compost bucket or pulls a weed.
21 months old today! Although I've stopped answering in months when people ask me how old Adeline is - now I just go with "She'll be two in the summer". I'm always amazed that some parents can keep track of the months until their little one is more than three. Soon she'll just be "two" and then she'll be "two and half". Can you believe how close Adeline is to two? Wowza. But before she is two, Adeline gets to have all the joy of being 21 months old!
In her twentieth month...
Adeline talked and talked and talked and talked. Just like her Daddy, Adeline loves the sound of her own voice and she chatters all day long. People think David is such a quiet guy, but at home he's anything but., and Adeline definitely is just like her Daddy. She speaks most of the time in sentences of 2 or 3 words, some of them getting quite complex with up to about 6 words. She is starting to grasp pronouns and uses "I" and "me" and sometimes "you" correctly. I love to hear her talking to her toys. Actually, bossing them around would be more accurate as she's usually telling them things like "Turn around!" "Sit down!" , "Time to sleep", "Look at me", "Everybody eat" and "Uh-oh. No no no. No feet on the table" (which is what she hears me say to the cat). Adeline also learned the words/concepts "everybody" and "nobody".
Adeline learned to use some fun phrases, and knows when they're appropriate, such as "excuse me" (when you squeeze behind someone), "oh well" (when something doesn't go as expected or you give up on something) and "I'm cool" (when walking with her hands in her pockets or when wearing her sunglasses).
Adeline continued mostly sleeping through the night and also started taking some nice long restful sleeps during the day. We hope this trend continues! When Adeline is well rested, she always wakes up super happy and has really nice days! It's been good!
Adeline worked really hard to learn how to do a "thumbs up" but hasn't mastered it yet.
Toilet training is at a standstill after some gains last month. We're not pushing it yet.
Adeline now weighs 24.5 pounds and she's about 31 inches tall! She's wearing mostly size 18 month clothes, although we do have to cinch the waist on many of her pants or she'd be losing them. The Dapper Snapper is an awesome invention for tall skinny girls!
Adeline celebrated her second Easter at home.
Adeline started to spend more time each day playing on her own and it's amazing to see the all the different ways to play she thinks up!
Things that make Adeline really, really happy right now:
- that monkey hat (but only inside)
- chocolate (those twenty or so m&m's at Easter have made her into a chocolate fiend and she asks for it all day long).
- prawns, tofu, pretzels, noodles, cantaloupe and red peppers - her favourite foods (since I don't classify candy as food)
- being upside down, hanging from things, jumping and calling herself "monkey girl"
- pretending to be a kitty and being patted and fed pretend cat food from your hand
- reading books tucked under the covers in the big bed. Her favourites this week are "Home for a Bunny", "Curious George Rides a Bike", "Owl Babies", "Cowboy Bunnies" and "Colour Kittens".
- helping cook
- playing with her animal figures and having them get stuck and then rescued from the fire truck's ladder over and over and over again
- making beds in the playroom by taking pillows and blankets and then arranging them so she can lay under the carpet with her stuffies
- using her toy record player to make her little figures go "round and round and round"
- going to the park to slide and to learn new words from the big kids
- working in the garden with Mama
- the moment when Daddy comes through the door at the end of the day and scoops up his giggling girl
- visiting the chickens that live across the street from us
- bird watching
- getting mail
- the peach coloured marker (she got a set of 20 new markers in her Easter basket and has learned lots of new colours like "magenta" and "teal" but it's the peach one that's really captured her attention
- hugging... I'll stop pretty well anything when I hear a sweet little "Mama, hug Adewine, peese"
And just for comparison...
Last year Adeline was MUCH easier to take pictures of and didn't even seem to notice the giant bow on her head. This year there was no chance of getting a photo of the girl with her Easter basket and she was all about the CHOCOLATE and absolutely NOT about wearing the bunny ears (although David did look very sweet in them). Easter is our first "second" holiday with Adeline. Last year Easter was just a week after we got home from Vietnam. We were oh-so-tired, sick-sick-sick and hadn't quite found our new normal yet, but I remember it as a happy happy time. This year Adeline was so much fun. She loved colouring eggs and she dyed two dozen of them one after the other with no disastrous results (yay!). Then on Easter day she cracked everyone's eggs, helped peel them, cut most people's in half, added salt and pepper to anyone who wanted it and ate two of them herself! Adeline figured out immediately that each of the eggs that the Easter bunny had hidden for her had a single m&m in it and she was THRILLED. My girl LOVES chocolate. All weekend long she would search our faces in turn and then declare "Happy Mama", "Happy Daddy", "Happy Nana", "Happy Adewine". And she was so right - it was a very happy Easter!
Certainly I couldn't let this milestone go unmarked! Yup - TWENTY months on this planet! And what a lucky planet it is! 18 months was challenging (and fun) and 19 months was fun (and a little challenging, but that's her job, right?)
In Adeline's 19th month she:
Started sleeping through the night on March 13th. Just like that. From the terrible, horrible sleeps she was having previously to sleeping straight through the night in her own bed from about 7:30 to 6:30 at least 6 nights out of 7. Hallelujah! We're not sure what turned the tide, but we think giving her a pillow really helped, along with adding a few more stuffed friends for her to hug in the night. But really we think that all/most of the challenges of 18 months were typical toddler separation anxiety and it seems to have passed for now, which allows Adeline to hug a friend and fall back to sleep when she wakes up in the night and to wake up in the morning happy and calling for Daddy. We're enjoying this, but know it could change back at any time...
Talked up a storm! 4 and 5 word sentences happen every day (but still impress me!) and her pronunciation and syntax are getting much better. Yesterday while waking up after naptime she came up with a perfectly pronounced "Brobee help Baby Gogo eat", which was not only a great sentence, but the plot of a television show she'd seen days before. Adeline is also a total parrot, so Daddy has had to be a little more careful...
Became a really good storyteller and likes to tell her favourite stories about things we've done over and over. Her telling of the "poo in the bathtub" story is hilarious and it ends with a great imitation of Daddy saying "Oh, man!!!!" and frantically waving his arms around.
Discovered a true and unending (and possibly obsessive) love of the television show ""Yo Gabba Gabba" and especially of DJ Lance Rock. What can I say - we all had the flu for almost 2 weeks - it was such a relief to know that for 30 precious minutes a day she would be giddily happy and totally transfixed and both David and I find it one of the more tolerable shows available for the toddler set.
Finally learned to say her own name! All day long now we hear "Adewine turn", "Adewine do it" and "Adewine check it out".
Got really really LOUD. Crazy loud bellowing and that little girl nails-on-chalkboard screaming that drives her Mama crazy. We're working on it. I don't mind the yelling, but that screaming? Yikes.
Started enjoying some very long books and is very careful with paper paged books now. One of her favourites is the classic Syd Hoff "Sammy the Seal" and it needs at least 3 consecutive readings every time we sit in the big chair for book time. Adeline also loves to watch the seals down in the harbour.
Started doing lots of big art projects and will spend up to an hour at a time at her little table with a big sheet of paper, her crayons, markers and some stickers.
Learned most of her colours most of the time. It seemed to happen all of a sudden in the last week. Blue and purple sometimes confuse her, but other than that she seems to have all the basics - red, green, yellow, orange, brown, black, white and pink.
Can count to 4 and really understands what "four" means. I'd rather her only count to 4 than be able to memorize up to 10 to or 20 and have no idea what it meant.
Got her first "real" haircut. Adeline talks about the haircut and Maggie all the time.
Celebrated the first anniversary of when we legally became a family and when we finally arrived home.
Played outside a LOT as the we had some really lovely spring weather finally. Adeline is a DEMON on the slides. She scares Mama a little and shows up all the other little ones, but she has no fear and she likes to go FAST and by HERSELF. Our girl can be a DAREDEVIL.
Went pee on the toilet. Just once. Accidentally. Well, not quite accidentally. It's the only time she's asked to sit, so it was probably a fluke.
Got too tall for all her 12 month pants but hasn't grown into the waist on her 18 month pants yet. Hopefully the "Dapper Snapper" that David picked up today will solve this problem.
Learned to name pretty well every animal in the world and to imitate what sounds they make.
Got really into birds, especially ones we see every day like seagulls, crows, robins, starlings and sparrows. This is how happy she is when she sees a seagull...
March 26th, 2010, we finally stumbled in our own door, set down our suitcases and were HOME forever. We were tired, jet-lagged, sick, and adjusting to our new lives, but we were HAPPY. Even Adeline, who was only seven months old and who had just gone through a huge change in her life knew that there was something special about being home. She was immediately comfortable here and hated to leave to go anywhere.
Here is sweet baby Adeline last year in the playroom on her very first day home...
This weekend we celebrated being home for a year by having a full two days of family fun! On Saturday we went to the Ocean Discovery Centre and I've NEVER seen Adeline more excited. She kept yelling "WOW!" and this was the face she had the entire time we were there...
Everything she saw she yelled hi to. And I mean YELLED. "HI FISH". "HI JELLYFISH". "HI OCTOPUS." "HI ANEMONE!" "HI SHRIMP!" "HI CRAB!" "HI SEA STAR!".
After we said hello to all the fish and stood for a very long time in front of every tank we headed outside to check out the seagulls. Adeline is VERY into birds lately and she was excited to see lots of seagulls here near the water and she also really liked running in the big field.
Here she is spotting an "eagull up inna sky, fly fly fly".
And here she is waiting impatiently for more seagulls to appear...
Once I got too cold it was time to find somewhere for supper. We continued the "under the sea" theme with a visit to a restaurant where Adeline had what is likely to become her favourite meal ever - tasty breaded shrimp and yam fries. She even shared a chocolate milkshake with her Daddy because it was a very special occasion!
On Sunday Adeline was super excited to have her friend Mylan over for a play in the morning. They worked together on an art project...
Had a snack...
And of course played, played, played, played, played. Toddlers are notoriously hard to get a picture of as they are in constant motion, but we tried... The trampoline was especially popular and the girls did a great job sharing and taking turns. I just love watching Adeline have fun with her friends!
We finished off the day with a trip to the park and ice cream cake after dinner, just to make it a full weekend of celebrating. I can't believe how fast the last year has gone. Seriously. Someone has put our life on superspeed mode and I just want it all to slow down so that we can really enjoy each stage before we're on to the next one. Adeline was such a little baby last year and here she is zooming towards two years old already and very much a little girl now. I really love the age she's at now, as she's just so happy and curious about the world and is learning new things all the time, but I think I've said that about every age before this one too. The last year has been...amazing. It's a word that gets used a lot, but I am truly and utterly AMAZED by my daughter and how wonderful and funny and smart and sweet and stubborn she is and I'm AMAZED by how much we love each other and I'm AMAZED by how happy she makes me every single day.
Yes, it's that time of the month again! On the 27th, Adeline became a 19 month old! Seriously - this girl is getting cuter and more fun all the time. Oh, she's a pip sometimes, but fun? So fun. Here are some things we'll remember about Adeline's 18th month making this world a more awesome place...
- Adeline attended two birthday parties and discovered that she shares her Daddy's love of food on a stick!
- Adeline got the last vaccinations she'll need until she goes to kindergarten! Yay!
- Adeline has all her teeth except her her two year molars! We're enjoying a break from teething, finally! Yay!
- Adeline dealt with having a super sick Mama for two weeks. She enjoyed the little bit of television watching that a super sick Mama needed to get through the day just a little too much.
- Adeline stopped putting all sorts of things in her mouth. Yay!
- Adeline learned to recognize a lot of letters...A, D, F, H, K, L, M, O, R, S, T, V, Y. I kind of hate to even write that, as in the past if someone had told me that their 18 month old knew a lot of the alphabet I would have inwardly rolled my eyes and judged them a pushy flash-card-Mommy who likely had a stressed out baby, but we just read a lot and she's curious about the words and has a good memory, I guess.
- Adeline may or may not know what purple is. Her Daddy is sure she does, but I think it's just lucky guessing.
- Adeline uses 2 and 3 word sentences all day long and just never stops talking! She learns new words every day. Her pronunciation on a lot of things is pretty original though. She has lot of verbs now (walk, eat, jump, play, kick, go, etc) and she uses them in her sentences. Adeline is also starting to add some of the not so necessary but awesome words like "and" to her talking.
- Adeline has been even snugglier and huggier and cuddlier this month. I didn't think she could get more affectionate! She also finally learned to say "I oove you, Mama" (I love you, Mama).
- Adeline can put on her own socks and sometimes her shoes.
- Adeline can take off her zipped up pajamas and diaper...
- Adeline celebrated her first Tet and Valentine's Day at home. She discovered that she loves Banh Chung!
- Adeline went to the big city and hung out with her first friends, who were all adopted at the same time as her.
- Adeline met a jumpy little dog named Bailey who made a huge impression on her even though she was kind of nervous around him. She re-named her black stuffed dog Bailey and she talks about the real Bailey every day and asks often where he is.
- Adeline met a shy cat named Kitty-Boo who also made a big impression on her.
- Adeline learned the "pss-pss-pss" noise you use for calling cats.
- Adeline had her second snow day and her first snowman.
- Adeline went through a phase where she didn't want her feet to touch the ground and she would cry if they did. It was challenging. At least she regularily added "please" to her almost constant demands for "UP!" this month.
- Adeline went through a phase where she would wake herself up super early from her naps and then be tired and crabby all afternoon. It was challenging.
- Adeline went through a phase where she really only wanted to sleep in the big bed with Daddy and Mama. It was challenging.
- Adeline went through a phase where she didn't want to sit in her high chair but would be fooling around and not eating if she sat in a chair at the table. It was challenging.
- Adeline was traumatized by Mommy and Me Music. It was challenging.
- Adeline decided that oatmeal was okay, after it making her sad every other time she tried it. Now the only food she seems to not like is kiwi.
- Adeline's Mama learned to do some cute hairdos on the hairdo loving girl. I LOVE the way Adeline says "hairdo". It's just so perfect and sweet.
- Adeline continued to love to be "fancy". When she is dressed up and accessorized and has a hairdo (especially one with the yellow star barrettes) you can just tell she feels fabulous and she loves to check herself out in the mirror.
- Adeline learned to call for us and will repeatedly shout "DADDY!" or "MAMA!" if we're doing something in another room and she expects an answer every single time.
- Adeline was all about helping with cooking this month. Every time I work in the kitchen she insists on pulling up her stool and getting in on the action. She's actually not much help and she makes every job messier and slower and I'm always worried about her falling off the stool, but it's still fun. Does anyone have a Learning Tower? They look awesome and would likely lessen the odds that cooking with Mama will lead to a head injury. Cooking with my child was something I dreamed about long before she came into our lives so I'm so happy to finally be at that stage with my girl!
- Adeline's favourite games this month were "go to sleep, WAKE UP", which she played with herself, her toys, us, her water bottle...basically anything she could make lay down. She also enjoyed doing a very dramatic slow motion fall to the ground and then would expect a big dramatic reaction "Oh no! Oh dear! Poor sweet Adeline has fallen down! Are you okay?" Sometimes she would say yes and jump up, but sometimes she would say no and you'd have to pretend to call the ambulance and she would make the "weeee-oooo" siren noise. Some days she could do this alllll afternoon. Adeline also loved making Mama cold - by pulling off my blankets or by opening up my bathrobe and then I would have to shiver and say "brrrrrrr" and she would laugh and laugh and then finally cover me back up when I said please. Another favourite game was "Sad Baby, Happy Baby". She would lay back in my arms and say "Wah" and I'd ask her if she was Mama's sad baby and she'd nod. Then I would try everthing until I found just the right thing to make the baby happy - kisses, hugs, nose rubs, pretend bottles, tickles, etc. When I found the right thing (usually pretending to give the baby a bottle) Adeline would pop up and smile and say "Happy Baby!". Adeline's pretend skills are really growing - this month she also pretended to be various animals and would eat and drink on all fours like that animal.
It's the big 2-0 for our girl next month! I know she's only going to get cuter and sweeter and more fun!
That's how you wish someone a happy New Year in Vietnamese! Tết Nguyên Đán officially started on Thursday and we've been celebrating ever since Wednesday evening and it's not over yet! In the Vietnamese language you do not "celebrate Tet" you "eat Tet" and we've certainly been eating well ever since Tet eve when Adeline pulled up her stool and helped me in the kitchen to prepare rice and fried pork-stuffed tofu with a delicious garlicky tomato sauce. The Vietnamese name is escaping me right now, but it's a family favourite! Adeline LOVED being in the kitchen helping and although it took wayyyy longer than me just fixing dinner I could tell she was very proud to be helping. She measured out the rice and water, drained, dried and helped slice the tofu, peeled the onion, washed the scallions, helped stir the meat mixture and watched as I stuffed the tofu.
The bowl of five fruits was the last thing to be added to our altar on Tet eve and Adeline and I had a very long discussion about our ancestors and all the things on the altar. In one of the frames I included a painting of a Vietnamese woman with her hat obscuring her face to represent Adeline's Vietnamese ancestors. I think about Adeline's birth family a lot, but never more than around the holidays. I always want Adeline to know her story and be proud of where she comes from and to always know that her birth family is a part of our family too, even though we will likely never meet.
I've been trying to learn as much as I can about how Tet is celebrated in Vietnamese families and although I'm sure I got some things wrong, I'm glad to be making traditions with our daughter that she will carry with her for life and that honour her Vietnamese identity. One thing I learned is that the first visitor of Tet is very important and your fortune is tied to theirs for the next year, so we made sure to make our own luck by having David knock and be invited in first thing!
On the first night of Tet we had dinner with Adeline's friend Mylan and her family.
The girls were very sweet together as always and had a lot of fun playing with each other in their high chairs. They both ate a huge Vietnamese feast and were very excited to receive their lucky red envelopes. Adeline was thrilled just with the envelope, but when she found out there were chocolate coins inside she was so very happy!
Saturday (the 3rd day of Tet) was our celebration with some of the other families we know who have children who were born in Vietnam. Adeline wore her lovely pink and yellow ao dai and you could tell she felt like a princess in it!
David and I decorated the house with flowering branches and traditional Dong Ho wood block prints (which is one of the things Adeline's province is famous for) and set out some traditional snacks, including banh chung and candied fruits.
The banh chung looked like a beautiful present and weighed as much as several bricks!
This is the banh chung before it was taken out of the plastic wrap, re-wrapped in foil, tied with string and boiled for an hour to refresh it after it's week in the freezer (instructions were found in "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" by Andrea Nguyen).
Here it is cut open... I can't seem to make the slices as even and beautiful as it looks in other people's photos - maybe there's a trick I don't know. It may not be the world's prettiest food, but it was really tasty and I'm happy to have 2 more in the freezer!
Many of the littles, Adeline included, couldn't get enough. Here she is eating it...
And here she is using the sign for please because her mouth is too full of banh chung to talk and she really wants more!
Speaking of the littles - Adeline was really happy to have some time to hang out with her friends. Handsome Tai is certainly going to have his pick of the young ladies as the only lad in our very pink world...
Please ignore what appears to be a giant knife and an unattended glass of wine just inches from sweet Natalie... I assure you that there were lots of grown ups there to make sure everyone was safe. Really.
I took quite a bit of video of Tai and all the pink clad little girls (not a plan, but it was sure cute) but I didn't take many pictures. Maybe some of the other families did? (hint, hint). After some snacks and playtime we headed out to a Vietnamese restaurant for another feast!
Next weekend we're off to the big city to connect with some of the other families who travelled with us to Vietnam and whose children were Adeline's roommates, and to attend a big Tet party, complete with dragon dances and martial arts demonstrations.
My world was always missing a holiday like Tet to get us through that inevitable after-Christmas slump. I've had so much fun celebrating Adeline's first Tet at home and I'm already making plans for next year and for some year in the future when we'll celebrate Tet in Vietnam!
Yep, my little person has been making the world a sweeter place for an entire year and a half. I can hardly believe it. She is becoming more big girl every day.
Adeline had lots going on in her 17th month...
- started attending playgroup and loves to hang out with all the other little toddler girls. Especially the ones with runny noses.
- finally decided that hair accessories are awesome and asks for ponytails (the more the better) and clips every day. I'm going to have to work on my hairdo skills!
- started eating snacks and some less messy meals at the table in a big chair
- had a very busy social calendar, including lots of playdates with her little friends
- helped make playdough and played with it almost every day and never ate any of it!
- used lots of two word combinations and a few longer sentences like "Daddy at work" and "Daddy work day" and "Daddy home eat" (can you tell that she thinks about her Daddy a lot while he's away?). She also knocked my book from my hands and snarled "Mama book ALL DONE", which while impressive linguistically just couldn't be encouraged.
- decided that she didn't like sharing Daddy and tried hard to get me to stop hugging David. Not going to work!
- finally cut two sharp little canine teeth - one on the top and one on the bottom. There was a lot of drama and a few nights with very little sleep. I'm looking forward to teething being behind us.
- went to the Doctor for the first time since she's been home - her big red mystery bumps were declared heat rash and went away in a few days
- is starting to work on dressing herself and likes to put on David's underwear and my bra over her clothes. Is also getting quite good at the undressing part of learning to dress, which means if you stop in at my house who knows what that girl will be wearing or not wearing.
- found her favourite song ever (at least for this month). Jill Barber's "Oh My My". She sings the "oh my my" part and asks for me to sing it many, many times a day. We just got the cd from the library and she can't get enough of that song!
- she also likes me to sing "John the Rabbit" from one of our Elizabeth Mitchell CD's and gives a very dramatic "Nooooooooo Maaaaaaaam" at the end.
- stopped saying "No" to everything! Whew! This was my favourite thing about the last month as that knee-jerk "NONONO!" to every question was so very tiring. I'm glad that stage was short lived!
One more Christmas morning picture just because...Adeline thought that the orange in the toe of her stocking was very surprising and very wonderful!
16 months was huge for Adeline. HUGE. She changed and grew so much and is becoming such a FUN little person with a mind of her own, an amazing sense of humour and smart? Oh so smart.
This past month:
Adeline went from a tentative new walker to a confident walker, climber, runner and jumper.
Adeline discovered how fun going to the playground is when you can walk and climb, but swinging is still what makes her laugh and laugh.
Adeline started to really get up on her feet and dance and the girl has MOVES and even choreography. If she sees dancing on television she tries to imitate the arm movements. Super cute.
Adeline has started singing. Mostly songs she makes up about her Daddy or cats. She has a little keyboard that she only has in her carseat so she plays the keyboard and sings songs while we drive. Super awesome insanely cute.
Adeline got 3 1/2 molars this month. Ouch. Right now she's working on her eye teeth and the other half of that molar. Ouch. The teeth along with losing the baby fat in her cheeks is really changing Adeline's face. She's losing some of the cute, but she's more beautiful than ever!
Adeline slept through the night a few times (and even a few times in a row) but mostly didn't. I guess that hasn't really changed. It might be time soon to try some different things at night, although we are not going to do any version of "crying it out".
Adeline noticed the print in her books and although I never set out to teach her, she has figured out what a capital "A" is and can find them most of
the time in the titles of books. She does a lot of drawing with crayons and markers and I always write her name on her paper, so I'm sure this is where she learned it.
Adeline can count to two and really knows what "two" means. I didn't teach her this either.
Adeline has a huge vocabulary and is adding new words every day. Recent new words include "awesome" and "octagon", although she calls all the roundish shapes an octagon and has no idea what any other shape is except the star.
Her favourite word continues to be "NoNoNoooo". She says no to EVERY question even when she doesn't mean it. We joke that she's so advanced that she's even defiant at the level of a 2 year old.
Adeline has been VERY affectionate this month and she has learned how to give big squeezy bear hugs and does it many times a day. If all she can reach is your leg or arm, then it gets just as enthusiastic a hug. I can't get enough of them!
Adeline grew and grew and grew. She'll be weighed and measured next week at her vaccinations, but I know that she is zooming through the 12-18 month clothes which she only started wearing in late fall and she'll surely be in a size 2 soon. Even her diapers are getting small.
Adeline's hair really thickened up this month and it got crazier than ever. Haircuts are traditional for Tet (which is coming up in early February) so I think we'll get Adeline a professional haircut for her first Tet at home. Hopefully she will freeze rather than fight like she does with me. I've only ever trimmed her bangs and I'm tired of them constantly being crooked and it's finally time to cut the back. I think she's going to look like a real kid and lose all the traces of baby once she has an actual hairstyle.
Adeline had her first cold since coming home and along with it came her first big gusher of a nosebleed. It was the first time we'd had blood of any sort and I think I dealt with it pretty well. Of course she was wearing my very favourite shirt when it happened...
Adeline can play "Ring Around the Rosey" "Sleeping Bunnies" and other games and can do parts of some fingerplays.
Adeline discovered how hysterically fun it is to be chased by her Daddy, although sometimes it gets to be too much for her and she starts to cry and needs hugging instead of chasing.
Adeline hung out with her friend Mylan a few times. Adeline calls her "MeMan" and talks about her a lot. If you ask her who her friends are she always starts with "MeMan".
Adeline discovered chocolate and the world will never be the same for her.
And of course in her 16th month Adeline celebrated her first Christmas at home and you could tell she found the whole thing magical and SO MUCH FUN. I think she's going to be very sad when all the lights and sparkles go away this weekend. She's already very disappointed that the advent calendar is no more as she really looked forward to pulling out an ornament and putting it on the felt tree every evening after supper. The thing Adeline misses the most so far are the elves.
The elves showed up on December 1st and left on Christmas Eve and every night after Adeline was asleep they moved to a new up-high place. By the third day she totally got it and would look for the elves in the morning and was always thrilled to find them and then would talk to them all day long. One day she was trying to get them to come down and sit in her Daddy's chair and getting quite frustrated with them that they wouldn't. She kept yelling "Elf!" "Chair!" and pointing at the chair with a stern look on her face. I already can't wait for next year!
There are lots of new adventures coming for Adeline's 17th month too - music classes and swimming lessons, a visit with her exactly-the-same-age cousin Angus, preparations for Tet, a visit to the Occupational Therapist and the Plastic Surgeon to check on her hands, a new potty arriving in the bathroom (no pressure, just there to get used to and if she wants to sit on it she can), maybe a trip to Vancouver, and of course all the usual fun we get up to!
Our first Christmas with Adeline was exactly as fun and special and exciting and magical as I ever dreamed it would be.
Opening her stocking at almost 9 am...Adeline gave us an awesome present by sleeping all through the night and until almost 8:30 in the morning, which is totally unheard of.
New Christmas pajamas opened on Christmas Eve and worn all day long along with bed hair...we like our Christmas casual.
Opening presents until supper time...Adeline insisted on carrying each one while exclaiming "hebby" (heavy) even if it wasn't. There were also lots of breaks for snacks, playing, reading all her new books and even a nice long Christmas nap.
Becoming an expert on opening presents... Adeline helped everyone open their gifts and was very enthusiastic about each one, saying "hmmmm" as she opened it and "wow" once it was opened even if she had no idea what it was.
Taking time to enjoy her new trampoline and drums! The rubber duckies from her stocking were her most played with new toy on Christmas day though!
Discovering chocolate...Adeline gave us a very wary look the whole time and didn't want anyone too close to her while she was enjoying this chocolate sucker she found in her stocking. I think she couldn't believe that we had given her something that amazing and she kept expecting us to take it away from her. Of course having chocolate necessitated a change into another pair of new Christmas jammies. For supper Adeline had a lot of her favourite foods - prawns and scallops, roasted red peppers, a crepe, guacamole, pineapple, mandarin oranges, black olives and one of her Nana's shortbread cookies.
It was just a perfect, perfect day.
