Addie's First Best Friend

Addie made a best friend in preschool this year. His name is Trent, and her face always lit up so much whenever she had a story to tell about him after school. I often chatted with his mom, Jenni, while we waited for the kids to get out of school, and oftentimes we would let the kids run around together for awhile after school. We didn't have our first playdate until April, and then we had a few before the end of the school year, and all three girls loved playing with Trent. He is a sweet natured boy who had a lot of tolerance for three little girls surrounding him and competing for his attention (he has two older sisters, which probably helps!) Unfortunately for us, Trent and his family moved to Arizona at the end of the school year. I keep in touch with Jenni through Facebook and I will show Addie pictures of Trent that Jenni posts and she's always excited to see his face.

We ran into Jenni and Trent at the zoo in February. It was like striking gold and winning the lottery at once. Addie was so excited.

Of course, Trent was first on Addie's list of friends to invite to the girls' birthday party, and while all the kids were listening to the gymnastics teachers tell them the rules for play, Addie just couldn't contain her excitement and had to give Trent a squeeze.

On Saint Patrick's Day, all the kids were looking so cute in their green I just had to take a couple pictures.

Elizabeth and another one of Addie's friends, Mitchell, wanted to join in the picture too!

In March, Sue and Larry came out for their annual ski trip and we joined them in Breckenridge for a few days. Addie found a Ninja Turtle stuffie at a gift shop and bought it for Trent with her birthday money.

We got to go over to Trent's house in April, where the kids had all kinds of fun in his backyard.

Towards the end of the school year, Addie and Trent participated in the Tarver Trot. Here they are with their school mascot.

While Addie was having her Tarver Trot day, Emily was having crazy hair day at Little Lights. Even though the girls were at separate schools this year, it worked out that they both had special days, which was wonderful.

Addie is holding Mousie, the mechanical hamster she bought at a garage sale and became obsessed with for awhile.

Last day of school. Addie was so excited to wear the graduation hat she got to make at school.

~Bye Trent! We'll miss you, but we know you're going to have so much fun in Arizona!~

My Little Fashionista

Addie definitely has her own unique sense of style. She's been getting dressed all by herself since she was about 18 months old, and for the last year she's been very passionate about picking out her own outfits every day. This passion soared to new heights this school year. When she started the morning preschool class (which starts at 7:45am), I started encouraging her to set out her clothes the night before for school days. Now it's something she does every single night. She lays out the pants, shirts (usually two, a long sleeve under a short sleeve), undies and socks right alongside her bed.

When she's feeling extra ambitious, she'll pick out an outfit for Emily, too.

On this particular night she was feeling extra extra ambitious and accessorized her outfit with a scarf, bracelet, and ring.

She's started doing her own hair, too. Not often, but when she does, it's so cute to watch her focusing in the mirror.

This was a super cute outfit day, accessorized with a tutu skirt. Please ignore the spaced out zombie looks on my big girls' faces. These are their tv-watching faces. Luckily, Elizabeth hasn't gotten glued yet, and here she's happily coloring while her sisters sit zombified.

At the end of November, I started taking Addie's picture daily to document all the cute styles she was putting together. I was planning to do it for a month and then do a collage of the pictures. It only lasted three days.

For Saint Nick's Day, all three girls got boots, and Addie fell in love with her cowboy boots and began wearing them every single day. She's been asking for "clompin'" boots since the summer, so I knew they'd be a hit.

Addie has been carrying her backpack around with her these days, as it's easier than the grocery cart for toting her stuff around. This is a frequent scene...the two items always on her side by side.

Here she is in her "teacher" pose. She's talking to her kids, Emily and Elizabeth. Note the cowboy boots with pajamas...another popular look these days.

The girls were showing off the chocolate that JoJo had left out for them this morning. On most mornings, this is how the girls look...Addie all dressed for the day (it's the FIRST thing she does when she gets out of bed) and Emily still in her pjs.

And finally, a Santa hat to top off the outfits. :)

School Picture Day!

With school comes picture day! Addie got to dress up and wear ribbons in her hair for picture day, so why not have everyone dress up? :)

While Addie was at school having fun with friends (she talks about Brian and Summer when I ask her about her friends), Emily, Elizabeth and I stopped at the Golden Arches for hot fudge sundaes.

And then we wore out our chocolate wiggles playing chase around the house.

A few weeks later when I went to pick Addie up from school, she came running out of the school doors, waving her big LifeTouch envelope. She did a great job smiling for the camera!

We Have a Preschooler!

Addie started preschool last month, the day after she turned three.

The week before her first day, we went to the school to meet the teachers and see the classroom.
Addie packed a snack, water bottle, and a few toys in her brand new Tinker Bell backpack and brought it to school for the meet and greet.

Chris stayed home with Emily and Elizabeth while Addie and I went to Woodglen Elementary to see the preschool rooms and meet the teachers. Ever since we found out Addie would qualify for preschool services back in January, we've been reading lots of books about preschool. Addie knew her classroom would have cubbies, and she was very excited to hang her backpack and jacket in a cubby right away when we walked in to her new classroom.

We went to the school on a Wednesday, and Wednesdays are teacher work days for Adams 12 preschools, so there weren't any kids there. Addie had the whole classroom and all the books and toys to herself. She made herself right at home after hanging her stuff in a cubby, opening tubs and taking books off the shelf to show me. I had a chance to chat with her teachers, Miss Rachel and Miss Marissa. We both left feeling excited about preschool!

Me and my Preschooler!

On February 28th, the day after Addie turned 3, she had her first official day of preschool. She was so excited to go! After breakfast, she said, "Me go school Emmy." and then she gave Emily 5 kisses behind each ear. This is something my mom used to do for Dylan and I when we were little - a kiss on each fingertip tucked behind each ear, so we could pull them out whenever we needed them through the day. After giving Emily kisses, she did the same for Elizabeth and then for me. When it was time to take Addie to school, we all drove to Woodglen, where we waited outside the school with the other preschoolers and their families for the teachers to open the doors and lead the kids to their classrooms. I expected tears when those doors opened, but instead, Addie saw her teachers, beamed a big smile, and marched right in the building. She didn't even glance back. What a brave girl!

Three hours later, we went to pick Addie up. When she saw me, her eyes got teary, and she ran to me, squealing "Mommy!" Her teachers told me she'd asked about home a few times and got a little teary through the day, but she made it! Go Addie!

Addie with her first piece piece of schoolwork

My Stuff!!!!

As these little feet have been moving around faster and faster, the Big Sister toys have become more and more accessible. Sometimes big sisters want to share their toys, but sometimes, sharing is hard.

Addie has been a bit of a hoarder for quite awhile (see this post to revisit the beginnings of grocery cart as stuff keeper) but recently, she has really started keeping her stuff (My buff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) safe from Little Sister's curious hands. The grocery cart has come back as a tool in this game of safekeeping.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a pretty organized person, sometimes a bit on the OCD side. So looking at a grocery cart overflowing with stuff after the kids go to bed just doesn't work for me. So every night I was emptying the cart, putting the toys back in their appropriate bins, throwing away the scraps of paper and bandaid wrappers that made it into the pile of important stuff. After a couple of weeks of this, I tried giving Addie her very own bin for the toy shelf. However, the bin just ended up becoming another item in the grocery cart. Currently, the grocery cart is residing in the laundry room, because that seems to be a pretty safe spot.

Fun in the Kitchen

(Click on the logo above to visit Sticky Fingers' website. Among other things, you'll find tons of great recipes!)

The moms in my twins club meet one evening a month and there's usually a speaker. This month, we had a chef from Sticky Fingers Cooking come to talk about how to get kids inspired to make healthy choices when eating, and getting them in the kitchen to help with meal preparation. One of her suggestions was having the kids take turns making the dinner salad each night, and another suggestion was having kids use a lettuce knife to practice cutting skills.

In an ideal world, I'd have my kids in the kitchen every night to help me with dinner. The girls love pulling chairs up to the island to help with whatever they can get their hands on. But in reality, 5:00 is the witching hour and all I want is a few moments to myself while I throw something together for my family to eat. This weekend, though, with Dad home and focusing his attention on Emily and Elizabeth, I invited Addie to pull up a chair and make the dinner salad. She put the lettuce, carrots, and celery in the bowl and then cut up the avocado to put on top!

She was ecstatic, thrilled, glowing. She made the salad and then beamed as she brought it over to the table and immediately began serving it up to all of us. Throughout the meal, she reminded all of us that she had made the salad, and we all had many compliments for the chef. The most exciting thing for me - she ATE her salad! And so did Emily. Success!

Addie's in Undies!!

At the end of July (the 24th to be exact), Addie decided once and for all that she was done with diapers. She had been showing interest in potty training for quite awhile, but I wanted to wait until after Elizabeth was born after hearing baby sibling regression stories. Then after Elizabeth was born, I wanted to wait until our lives began returning to some semblance of routine. Even after more normalcy fell into place in our household, I resisted pulling the potty training trigger, having horrible visions of twins running around in soiled undies while I was stuck on the couch breastfeeding. (Or worse, twins running around soiling corners of rooms while I was stuck on the couch breastfeeding). But after receiving lots of potty encouragement from DeeDee, Addie began removing her diaper on her own to go on her little potty, and I started feeling guilty putting diapers back on her when it would clearly be much easier to just give her a pair of underwear she could take off and put on all on her own.

So on the 24th, I woke up with visions of taking Addie to Target to pick out her first undies. The morning, however, didn't quite go according to my daydreams, and it looked like Addie and I were going to be staying home with her two sleeping sisters. I called my neighbor, Courtenay, who has a four-year-old little girl, to see if maybe she could come stay with the sleepers so I could still take Addie out. She was on her way out the door, but offered to drop off a few of Berlin's old "roos" for Addie to start out in. Courtenay and Berlin were so sweet to wrap the undies up in a special red bag, which Addie proudly carried her new undies around in all day long.

It's a big moment!

Lining them all out....so proud!

Oh yeah!

The sisters get involved!

Emily's up and wants to check out the character on Addie's new undies

Elizabeth gets to provide a little potty-sitting entertainment while Addie sucks down some juice to encourage a tinkle.

A Shopping Cart and a Rubber Giraffe

These pictures are from back in July. I'm afraid I've fallen a bit behind in blogging, something that tends to happen to me in the summer.

One afternoon while Emily and Elizabeth were still napping, Addie and I were hanging out when I noticed she had put a whole bunch of toys in her grocery cart and she just kept adding to the bunch of loot. I decided to take stock of all her items, and then I had to take a picture of her (so proud of herself).

In Addie's shopping cart:
purse (X2)
baby doll (X2)
stuffed giraffe
blanket
rattle
McDonalds toy
brush
baby passi
hat
stuffed bunny
bracelet

That evening at dinner, Elizabeth sat with us at the table. She had been laying on her blanket in the other room during dinner, but began making such a fuss, knowing that she was missing out on important family time. Since then, she's been with us for dinner every night.

Emily and Addison didn't get their Sophie giraffes until they were 6 months old, but Elizabeth got hers quite a bit earlier, and boy has she enjoyed this wonderful  chew toy. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets teeth a bit earlier than her sisters, as she's been exhibiting intense teething symptoms since she was about four months old.