20 Months Old

Our little girl turned 20 months old at the beginning of November. She enjoys saying "cheese!" and posing for the camera (can you tell in the pics above??). Over the past month, Adley started putting more words together and saying phrases such as "Bye, bye Daddy" and "hold you" when she wants to be picked up. Everyone who spends time with her says that she is a bright little girl. She is very aware of the conversations going on around her, and she always wants to be a part of what others are doing. She often gives us running commentaries for all that is happening nearby. It's a joy to have this sweet girl as part of our lives, and we love her dearly! We're excited to see what God will continue to do with her little life as she grows!

WHAT ADLEY CAN DO AT 20 MONTHS:

PHYSICAL

• Learned how to open all doors-- it's now even harder to keep her out of trouble!
• Tries to shush Mommy or Daddy by putting her finger on our lips and saying "ssss" when we start to sing to her
• Learned how to unbuckle herself from the high chair and will often stand up halfway through the meal saying, "all duhhh"
• Can put her own two legs into a pair of pants (not always in the correct spot, though!) and pull the pants halfway up
• Knows how to pull off her own diaper
• Getting much better at drinking out of an open top cup

LANGUAGE

• Will chatter ALL the time about what's going on around her
• Says new words every day-- knows too many to count!
• Started to say her own name
• Still loves sitting for books and has an even longer attention span when the book is interactive (flap book, texture book, etc.)
• Can say the names of about half of her cousins when we point to their pics on the fridge; first one was Nathan... or Na-niss (see video below)

PLAYTIME/OTHER

• Likes grabbing a wipe to "help" Mommy wipe her up during diaper changes
• Enjoys sitting on the froggy potty chair
• Started to LOVE playing air hockey and will beg, "ah-key, ah-key" until someone plays with her; but then will only play for a couple minutes at a time
• Likes pulling clothes out of her brothers' dresser drawers
• Loves getting "Adley rolls," being thrown onto the bed, getting piggy-back rides, and being outside
• LOVES chocolate, especially M&Ms

Oct. Misc

Paces 4 Pink

At the beginning of October, I ran in a local 5K race that raised money for breast cancer awareness & research. It was a wonderful morning for a run, although a bit muggy. This race was somewhat smaller than other local races we've done (only about 200 runners), so I actually ended up placing 2nd in my age division and 17th overall! I loved having my family come out to support me. After the race, the kids enjoyed playing on the train car that sits in our downtown depot.

Cousin Time

One weekday in October, I babysat my sweet nephews Isaiah and Noah. Adley and I loved our time with these two boys! We ate some yummy snacks...

jammed out on the piano...

decorated some jack-o-lanterns...

...and learned to play air hockey! I was surprised that Adley could actually hit the puck at least occasionally. These two were a pretty good match-up with how patiently they played together. :) After this time with Isaiah, Adley got on a hockey obsession and would walk up to the table every day, saying "aw-key, aw-key, aw-key" repeatedly until someone in the family would agree to play with her!

Adley and Noah (only 4 months apart) got into some cousin shenanigans under the table. :)

What a fun cousin day!

Lego Amusement Park

On the same day that our family visited the Oil Ranch this month, Jaden and Cody came home and spent the afternoon creating their own amusement park, of sorts, out of Legos. Their ideas were so creative!

The Amusement Park entrance

Baseball Game (notice the bases around the diamond!)

Target Shooting practice

Nature Viewing (the Lego guy is looking through one of those
 large binoculars that you put money into)

Face Painting (my favorite!)

Roller Coaster

Fishing

Bumper Cars, Motorcycle Racing, and Mini-Golf

Ladder Climbing??

Petting Zoo

The Creative Park Designers!

Halloween Playdate

At the end of October, we hosted a Halloween party for Adley's little playgroup friends. It was so cute to see all the little ones' costumes when they arrived!

We started off the party with a game. Each of the kids got a set of "ghost" paper cups to stack up and then try to knock down with a ball.

We used the same paper cup for another game-- candy corn tossing, or in Adley's case, a little bit of candy corn dropping...

...and lot of candy corn eating!

Next it was craft time. Each of the kids used markers, crayons, stickers, and eyeballs to decorate a paper chain of pumpkins.

Then, Sarah read a fun pumpkin story to the kids and did a pumpkin fingerplay. The kids wanted to hear the fingerplay over and over again! 

Our last activities were outside. It was such a gorgeous sunny day! I had drawn pumpkins in a big loop around our driveway for the kids to walk on. Then I gave the kids special directions for how to move along the path of pumpkins-- hopping, spinning, walking backwards, running, stomping, sliding, etc.

By far, the kids' favorite activity was this next one-- Halloween-themed sensory bins! Each bin contained dyed rice, black plastic bats and spiders, measuring cups, spoons, and tweezers. All of the kids absolutely loved playing with these bins and were entertained for quite a long time!

Our very last activity was practice trick-or-treating. Each family group took turns standing inside, ready to hand out candy while the rest of the kids stood outside and knocked on the door.

It was great practice for the littlest kids to knock on doors, wait patiently, and then learn how to say "trick-or-treat." Sharing candy with friends was a good learning step too! ;)

Of course, the kids were all thrilled to receive a bagful of candy.

What a fun Halloween celebration with these friends!

Halloween Events

For Halloween this year, we attended several different events, so the kids got some great mileage out of their costumes. Jaden decided he wanted to be a ninja and wear the costume he had received for his birthday. Talk about an easy costume assembly!

Cody asked to be Sensei Wu from Lego Ninjago. We gathered pieces of his costume from all over-- a white Karate Kid outfit purchased online, a cheap beard from a party store, a walking stick from the corner of our garage, and a Chinese "rice paddy" hat that Mommy made from posterboard and burlap! The beard was a little itchy for Cody, but he was pleased with how similar he looked to Sensei Wu.

I decided to go an easy route with Adley in the costume-making department this year too. We used a black tutu in her closet and a inexpensive cat shirt from WalMart to create a black cat costume. I figured there would be no way she'd keep on a cat ear headband, so I found some DIY instructions online for creating cat ear barrettes. They were super easy to make, went on SO easily, and she didn't mess with them at all. So perfect! The tail, on the other hand, was quite a different story. Let's just say Adley made a great tail-less kitty! ;)

Here are my 2018 Halloween cuties! 

Zomball

The first event we attended was a trunk or treat event called Zomball in Tomball, and it was held already in early October. Unfortunately, it didn't end up being worth our time at all, as the event was WAY overcrowded. The lines for the bounce houses and games were all super long. Then, boys got only 5 or 6 pieces of candy from the trunk or treat line before they got tired of waiting. But, since this was our first Halloween event, it motivated me to get the kids' costumes together extra early. The kids were thrilled to have the chance to dress up for the first time too, so I guess it wasn't all a loss! ;) 

Police Station Trunk or Treat

This event was held at a police substation not far at all from our house on a weeknight the week before Halloween. We ended up inviting some friends over that night for dinner and to accompany us to get candy! It was fairly low key and ended up being a fun outing. This first picture has a glare, but it demonstrates how so many of the vehicles had flashing lights for the kids. Very fun.

The policemen and women were all in uniform which was exciting in itself for the kids.

A few of the stations had little games for the kids to play too.

The best part (at least the favorite for us adults) was that we got to walk through and/or near several of the police & rescue vehicles, like a rescue boat, an ambulance, a police helicopter, and a SWAT van. It was so cool to see all of their cameras and operations!

Cody and Jaden got tons of candy and enjoyed time with their friends Caleb and Ashlyn.

Salem's Trunk or Treat

The weekend before Halloween was Salem's trunk or treat event. We loved how well-managed and fast-moving the lines are here compared to the Zomball event earlier in the month! The boys enjoyed seeing a bunch of their school and church friends here too.

We liked being able to treat or treat along with cousins Ben and Abby too. Their ice cream themed costumes turned out so adorable!!

It's always entertaining to see all the creative trunk decorations.

Adley was definitely into the candy gathering this year. She didn't have to be told twice what to do!

Halloween

The weather forecast for the actual day of Halloween was an unfortunate predicted downpour all evening long (our second Halloween in a row of rainfall!). Thankfully, the rain lessened enough for a stretch of time that Jason was able to take the boys out with umbrellas for at least 30-40 minutes. He said the boys were gung-ho about visiting as many homes as possible! Our whole family spent part of the evening at a neighbor's house too, enjoying some indoor Halloween snacks and games.

After all of these activities, Jaden, Cody, and Adley's candy buckets were overflowing. Talk about getting a good stash of treats!