Gobble gobble!

Although we had fewer than planned when the Franks had to travel to South Carolina at the last minute, we still had a great Thanksgiving (and plenty of leftovers!).

Aunt Jenna and Uncle Jon brought goodies, and we also cooked up a storm. The boys watched football and helped cooked while we watched Ade and prepped food as well. Take a look at Adelaide posing earlier in the day:


And here she is chowing down on her big meal, requiring not one, but TWO forks!


Yesterday Aunt Jenna watched Adelaide and they made cinnamon apple ornaments while Ryan and I went to the movies to see Four Christmases (our fourth movie out since Ade was born!). Today we took Ade to the Marbles Children's Museum. She loves to observe while she warms up and then she plays. She likes watching the other kids play. When an older girl took play food from her hand, she wagged that little finger and firmly scolded, "No!"

What's the buzz

So, what have we been up to in the Malynn household? I should probably share a few new things about Adelaide.

• Adelaide is very good at scolding the dogs now, or really anything she doesn't agree with, by shaking her little finger and saying, "Nooo!" I wish I could phonetically spell the way she pronounces it, but it is kind of like naaaoh.
• She uses a different sounding No to indicate that she means No to whatever you are saying or doing. It is shorter and curt, like "Na!" She says this a lot.
• Ade is still in love with that addictive Sesame Street crack they call Elmo. She loves everything Sesame Street, especially the Elmo's Christmas Countdown DVD.
• We have been singing Christmas songs at night to fall asleep. Current favorite: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• She loves it if you pretend you are going to chase her, or tickle her. Especially daddy.
• Ade can say some impressive 3-syllable words now, including her school friend's name - Harmony. She also is using 2 word phrases on occasion. Notably "G'ma More" last time my parents left and she wanted them back, "Elmo Mama" when we see Elmo's mommy in our coloring book, and "Doggie Hat" for the dog wearing a hat in her book.

It has snowed (flurries) twice in the past two weeks or so here, which is unusual but seasonally joyous. We are getting ready to have our Orphans Thanksgiving at our house this week - the couples and friends of ours who don't travel to see family traditionally rotate houses and have a really simple potluck Thanksgiving meal. Relaxing and fun. Then, we will probably do Christmas decorations this weekend too. Exciting stuff.

This past weekend, Jenna and I took Adelaide to Homewood Nursery for a poinsettia show and took pictures for our Christmas cards. Adelaide was an amazing model, a usual, attracting crowds of people to say how well behaved and beautiful she is. She is such a ham! I haven't posted the photo shoot because I don't want to spoil the Christmas cards, but trust me - every shot was a winner! But, I won't leave you without an Ade photo, so here she is eating some cereal for breakfast in her PJs:

Don't chew up my baby's ghetto doll!

This morning, I heard my mouth say, "Don't chew up my baby's ghetto doll!" as I scolded Cheyenne for beginning to chew on the cardboard doll I had made Adelaide by taking a big picture of an American Girl doll and gluesticking it to cardboard from a Target box.

Considering we are in the second Great Depression, I figured I better get crafty at creating depression era toys. ;-)

School pictures!

I feel like I am really behind on blog posts, but I wanted to at least toss up some of her school pictures! They totally try to rip you off making you pay crazy amounts for the pics on a CD, or print packages of only one pose. So, being the ghetto mom I am, I scanned in the proofs, and kept digital copies. They are not high quality, but I have captures the images for free. So there. :-P

Enjoy these few low-res images, and note the floppy hairbow:

How is Ade pronounced?

I've been asked so many times how we pronounce Ade since I use it for short-hand when I write her name. Honestly, I don't think we ever say it aloud, but if we did, I imagine I would pronounce it "Add" as in Addie or Addy. We usually call her Angel, Munchkin, Nugget, or the whole long Adelaide. I know Ade is probably properly pronounce "Aid" as in Gatorade, but really, it is just my written version.

Party baby

Ade has had a very busy social calendar lately. We had Ella Frank's first birthday party last weekend (and Oktoberfest where she had her face painted!), Fall Festival at school this week, Friday's neighborhood Halloween party, and Mira Guptill's 2nd birthday party this weekend. Plus, Grandma and Grandpa visited this weekend, which is a 3-day party as far as Ade is concerned.

Ade does new amazing things every single day. For example, she blinks on command, squeezing her eyes shut so cute. She says, "Help" when she needs assistance.

Here is Adelaide as Dorothy:


I will have to get more photos and videos uploaded as soon as I have two seconds to rub together. Mommy is panic-attack-busy lately!