My Daddy Can Do Anything!

10/13/09 - Lately there have been a lot of things that have needed fixing and we tell Adley, "Its ok, Daddy will fix it." This has applied to ripped pages in a childrens book (Daddy has book tape), a wooden toy that needs some wood glue, the miniature red wagon with a loose front axle and the broom closet that Daddy is building into the wall.

Yesterday, Mommy knelt down on the floor to pick something up. The trip up was a lot slower than the trip down. When I felt the pain from a pulled muscle I've been dealing with I must have cried out because Adley asked, "what's wrong, Mommy?" I answered, "I"m ok, I just have an owie on my leg." Adley replied quickly with, "Its ok. Daddy will fix it."

That's my Daddy's girl!

September Anniversary Party

We attended a 50th Anniversary Party at a local restaurant a few weeks ago and enjoyed ourselves as you can probably tell. Adley was the only child there and she served as the afternoon entertainment as well.

I wish I could say I took these myself but I must confess these were shot by a member of our congregation who is a fabulous photographer. He gave us these in print and on CD so I could use them on the blog. What a great gift!

The Great Nap Standoff

As you may have seen Adley recently started sleeping in her big girl toddler bed. This helps her to feel like a big girl, and of course, gives her free reign of her room during nap time. As this is a new discovery she is just starting to test her independence.

Wednesday, Oct 7. - All was quiet...at first. I heard some noise but decided to let the scenario play out. The quiet was replaced by the dumping of toy bins and general play. When I walked in at the end of our typical nap time this was the scene that awaited me. I wished Adley had taken some time to nap but I was amused by her ability to entertain herself.

Thursday, Oct 8. - I asked Adley to stay in bed until it was time to get up. This time after I closed the door the dumping of the toy bins and subsequent play occurred much earlier in the nap time. Again I stayed out of the room and decided to let her get tired on her own.

Friday, Oct 9. - By the third day of no nap, Mommy was getting cranky. Adley was warned that she needed to nap during nap time and a "no playing" rule was explained. When the playing noise commenced I opened the door, helped her clean up and put her back to bed. This happened twice. Then we had some tears - on both sides of the door.

Saturday, Oct. 10 - Day 4 of the great nap standoff. I would like to say that I was an excellent parent and that I carefully arranged the end to the independence struggle. In reality, I put Adley down for a nap and then fell asleep myself before I even heard any sounds of playing. When I woke up I saw her light was on. So I went in and found the following...

The moral of the story...Toddlers Need Naps!

Pickwick Society Tea

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, we took our Lisa, our neighbor out to tea at the Pickwick Society Tearoom in Frankfort, IL. The Pickwick Society is a Tea Room that is thematically based on the novel Little Women and it is rated the number one tea room in Illinois (out of 82, in case you're wondering) by Tea Map.com.

We enjoyed our Breakfast Tea which included their quiche, fruit, a scone or muffin, fresh cream and preserves. As a bonus (and even more important) they had a bucket of toys for the young tea lovers including a plastic tea set, a fabric tea set and several tea themed books.

I would recommend the Pickwick Society if you're every in Frankfort.

Another Beautiful Dress

Mommy's favorite smile!

This dress was made for Mommy by our neighbor Lee Logan.
I wish she could see how great it looks on Adley 25+ years later.

Starved Rock Mini-cation

We created a mini-cation by joining Daddy on the last day of his pastor's conference last week. The conference was held at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL about 1 hour west of our house. We told Adley that we were going on an adventure and she has been talking about the trip for weeks leading up to it.

Doesn't this look like a great place to sit and have tea?
(in the lobby of the Starved Rock Lodge)

What should we do next?

The best part of our adventure - swimming!
The Lodge had a great indoor pool building with a perfect children's pool area. The children's area was fenced in separately and the pool was a continuous 18 inches deep.

Getting the hang of the water and getting braver all the time.

Adley started out on the steps unsure of going into the water up to her waist. Once she gained enough confidence to walk around, though, it wasn't long before she was splashing. At the end of her stay in the water Adley would scrunch down until her shoulders were in the water and crab-walk across the pool. I think she enjoyed the buoyancy and the independence.

The view from the top of Starved Rock facing the Lodge where we stayed the night.

The Illinois River from the top of Starved Rock.

Proof that Mommy was able to climb all the stairs to the top of Starved Rock.

Watching the boats on the Illinois River.

Matching smiles.

One last good smile before it started to rain. We made it back to the visitor center just before the heaviest rain started. Fortunately, hiking to the top of Starved Rock was our last adventure.

Preschool 9/25 & Mommy's Dress 9/27

Going to Preschool 9/25/09
Mommy said goodbye in the driveway and Adley went to school in "Daddy's truck!" We're fortunate that we were given a second toddler car seat to stay in Daddy's cab and that riding in the truck is still quite a novelty. I think it eased the transition from always riding in Mommy's car.

Adley appears timid in the photo but I think she's still waking up. She said goodbye to Mommy quite easily and Daddy said she chatted and sang all the way to school.

Sunday 9/27/09
One of Mommy's Dresses and it still fits!

For reference - these last two pictures were taken 10/5/2008!