"Falling" behind - but welcoming FALL!

Yikes - I'm 2 months behind!  But, it's only a testament to how busy we've been!  I don't even know where to start.  Me & my bad memory, lets see how we do...

July:  So the last 2 of the 5 "fab-five" babies turned a year older.  We enjoyed Nate's one-year party, and had fun getting all the munchkins together.  It was seriously like herding cats though.  My little rascal was everywhere!  But, she did finally "blow kisses" for the first time @ the party.  I love all her little accomplishments! 

The Preggo-Posse and babes (in age order, right - left)

 

We tried to line all 5 up... wasn't happening

Look who's trying to escape?

July & August were brutally hot!  I barely managed to keep my little garden alive.  Lost a few plants (including my hanging ferns (see July post).  We tried to enjoy the outdoors as much as we could...   (@ the park)

 

@ Marietta Square Farmer's Market

 @ Marietta Square (fountain - 2 different occasions)

@ Marietta Square (playground)

Trying to stay cool in the pool

 Some other things we did in July....

Said "goodbye" to our worship pastor Gary (he will be greatly missed!)

 Introduced crayons (she is very passionate about her artwork)

 She really puts her whole body into it

 almost finished masterpiece

 Aislynn's signature "footprint" - one on every original :)

August was pretty much all about CaNaDa.  Michael went out a week ahead of me & Ais, to visit his fam. (that one lone week being a "single" mommy was tough!)  It was a great reunion with daddy a week later.

Mommy & Aislynn on the plane - she did awesome

 Finally - Ais & Daddy after one very long week apart

Our visit to NS was great (I call it Adamskiville b/c Michael has such a huge family).  It was John's (dad-in-law) 60th bday on the 8th.  Aislynn had so much fun seeing her cousins again, and meeting some new family.  We just had a nice time relaxing, hanging out w/ fam, eating the yummy foods we can't get down here (Donair & Poutine), shopping, etc... We ended the week with Michael's cousin Candy's wedding (beautiful!)  We were able to visit Rainbow Beach one day - it was perfect weather - Aislynn LOVED the beach (pics & video below).  It was one of those days that will always be a special memory to me :)  There are way too many pictures to list them all... so below are some of the highlights.

Aislynn & Aunt Rosie

 Good morning grandad!

 All ready for the party

 little scruntch face

 grandad, Ais, daddy & nanny

 Jay & grandad

 having fun in the bounce-castle

 going for a ride in the jeep - girls just wanna have fun (w/ cousin Mackenzie)

 ready for bed - Mackenzie, Ais & Jay

 playing with wrestlers :)

At Rainbow Beach

 testing the water (yep, it's cold!)

 Weeeee!

 getting buried - she doesn't know what to think

 My FAVORITE pic... so sweet

My FAVORITE video :) - headed straight for the ocean, no care in the world

 Swingin' w/ Jay

 On the moo cow at Cow's Ice Cream

 In downtown Halifax @ the harbor

 this is option #2 when you forget to bring a stroller...

 my little sweet tired-face girl...

 The Adamski crew enjoying dinner

 On our way to the wedding....

 baby blues

 Aislynn & mommy

 Uncle Johnny & Aunt Kerri

Having fun @ the lake

 

 Aislynn meeting her 2nd cousin Noah for the first time... "Hi"

 She loved him 

 Leslee Ann and Aislynn

 Aislynn trying to pack herself & the wipes

Michael and I celebrated our 7-year wedding anniversary on August 23rd!  We celebrated very low-key by having dinner at Rafferty's with Aislynn (just like last year, maybe a new tradition?) :)  August 23rd is also Lidia's birthday (our Compassion sponsor child from El Salvador).  We've been sponsoring her since 2005 and absolutely love it.  I feel like she's my special girl, thousands of miles away.  We got updated pictures of her recently.  I let Aislynn look at them while we were in the car - and got this precious picture.  I can't wait to send it to Lidia.

In the beginning of September, we found this nearby park that had a lake with lots of geese & ducks.  Aislynn gets excited when she sees ducks on TV, so we thought she'd get a kick out of real ones... and she did!  She says "uh uh uh" when she sees ducks.  There was so much goose & duck poo on the ground though, we just let her stay in her stroller :)

 Aislynn has also been enjoying the puppies my dad has.  She LOVES going over there and goes nuts over these cute fluffy little things.  She recently started "hugging" things, and loves to hug the puppies or "ro ro's" as Ais says...

 

 

 

 I love this one of her - her cute little matching hat & shoes :)

You wouldn't know that when the above pics were taken, I completely lost my voice.  Right after Labor Day, Aislynn started getting sick - but it was pretty much from teething.  We went through 2 weeks of crankiness, drool, stuffy noses, cough, no sleep, fever etc... FINALLY around 9/20, Aislynn's 2 bottom molars broke thru (poor little thing).  Then, I started getting sick and it took a good 2 1/2 weeks to pass through my system, (losing my voice along the way).  Just this past week, Michael picked up the "bug".  I will be glad when it finally leaves our house.  When one Adamski suffers - we all do :)

Other than that, I've just been sooo busy at work (busiest time of year for me).  We were also able to finish Aislynn's room!  We ended up repairing the termite damage ourselves, painted, and got everything cleaned up right before Michael went out of town.  I had a couple finishing touches I wanted to work on before I take "after pictures", so those will come soon (hopefully).  We've been really trying to work on the house b/c we are hoping to put it on the market soon (praying!)   

Today, we managed to go to the park, then swing by Marietta Square to grab dinner and watch my friend Sarah's dad's band play.  Everyone is in bed now, and I decided I needed to finally update this thing (no matter how long it took, and it has taken forever!) 

Rollin' in the grocery store in style...

 Aislynn is quickly approaching 18 months and I just can't believe it.  Some updates on what she's doing now...

• She signs "more" "please" "milk" "drink" "eat" regularly
• She has 12 teeth (I-teeth coming in any day)
• She has her own "Aislynn" word - "giggo" and she likes to say it a lot!!!
• She started calling dogs "ro ro"
• She says cracker and cookie like "cacko and cicko"
• She says ball & balloon like "bah"
• She loves to color now and really gets into drawing - she loves to use pens (when we let her)
• She just discovered that her little finger fits nicely inside her nose, and likes to frequent it
• She went from playing w/ her and our ears all the time, to pulling her eyelashes.  Drives me crazy... but when she gets sleepy or relaxed, she just pulls on her eyelashes, and sometimes wants to pull mine.  Have no idea where this came from - but hope she picks up the ear thing again
• Her hair is really starting to grow in - we can even do little sprouty bows on top now.
• She started stamping her little feet up & down really fast.  Kind of like she's tap dancing or running in place, short & fast.  She's done it a couple times when throwing a little fit
• She still loves to dance, but now instead of shaking her hips, she rocks on her feet side to side.
• She started POINTING!  Aislynn never really pointed much before - and almost a month ago - she just started pointing at everything
• She sings more
• She doesn't do it often, but she has started saying "no" - but she'll say it really fast "nonononono" and usually when she doesn't want to do something
• She started skipping her morning nap.  She takes one 50% of the time
• I gave her a little bit of organic cow's milk a few weeks ago (a big deal for me)
• Have I mentioned that she gets compliments wherever we go?  Her big blue eyes are like people magnets (men, women, young and old)
• She's still eating like a champ - anything we give her she does great!
• She got a little baby doll that she plays with like a baby.  When we tell her to "go get her baby" she'll get it and hug it - and try to give her sippy to it. (then she drops it on the floor) She loves other babies and little kids though.  At our friend's garage sale, she found this baby and just kept talking to him, and wanting to touch him (a good sign for us I guess).
• Speed!  This little girl has gone from 1st to 4th gear.  It has been really gradual, but now, she runs everywhere - and she doesn't slow down toward her destination, it's run to stop.
• She started walking around on her tippy toes.
• She's still in size 3 diapers (we tried 4s, they leaked). She can still wear 12m clothes, but into 12-18m and a couple 18m sizes.  She's mostly in size 4 shoes, but still has some 3's.  I weighed her recently & she was 22.5 almost 23 lbs.  She'll turn 18m on 10/8!!! my little tiny bambina - such a little toddler now.

I will say, I'm SO glad Fall is here.  I love Fall in GA - it's still warm, but the humidity is going away and the breeze is rolling in.  I will miss the green grass & all my flowers - but will try my hand at some nice fall flowers. I just need to stay motivated & keep this updated more regularly! 

One last funny pic, she loves coloring so much - she colored our hall closet (how nice of her)

Time for bed!

-Kim

4th of July weekend - thinking positively...

I was sooo looking forward to my long weekend.  Michael and I were all set to tackle our "new wall" project in Aislynn's room.  Prior to Aislynn arriving, termites decided they were going to have their fun in the walls.  We had treatment (twice) and now the termites are long gone.  But it was time for their high rise condos and shopping malls to go.  We stocked up on dry-wall supplies, moved everything out of Aislynn's room - and as Michael started pulling down the drywall... we quickly started realizing this was worse case scenario!  The termites had destroyed MUCH more than the drywall.  The 2x4's were totally shredded  - and the damage extended much higher than we thought.  This project is way above our skill level.  Now Aislynn's room is torn apart, we don't know what to do next.
I could easily freak out & stress about the $$$ this could cost, or the huge inconvenience & fact that we could seriously have to tear down the FRONT of our house and roof to make sure everything is fixed properly... but the fact is - none of that will help the situation.  So, we cleaned out Aislynn's room as best as we could (vacuuming everything out including the inside of the walls) we sealed everything up w/ extra tape and plastic - wiped the walls, baseboards & everything down.  I hate the fact that my baby's room is sub-par right now... But the truth is that the majority of the world lives in less acceptable conditions.  I'm going to put my baby to bed, thanking God for what we have - a roof over our heads, good food, health, clothing, vehicles - nice things & so much more.  Much more than most of the world has.  I'm going to pray this doesn't turn into a financial nightmare - but God has always provided and will get us through this as well.

So - in my mind, I imagined this great DIY weekend with the end result being a bedroom-makeover-adorable girls room... but it ended with our house being totally disheveled with a window into a deserted termiteville.   It's all good.

On a positive note, we ended up having a nice bbq with family on the 4th.  We splashed in the pool - enjoyed the PERFECT weather... and just relaxed

 Weeeee

(the water was clean, just looks green b/c it's saline & hasn't been shocked... whatever that means)

I had picked up a couple cheap bird feeders recently and finally put them outside last weekend.  There's one in the front hanging from a tree - and the one out back... well, I didn't get around to hanging it - so I just set it on our deck for now.  I'm excited b/c the birds are loving it!  I'm such a dork - I've been such a bird watcher just staring out the blinds at all the birds getting their snack on.  I saw male & female cardinals, I think a chickadee, and another little brown bird with a mo-hawk.  I need to learn my birds now.  The little brown mo-hawk bird was funny b/c it was all getting picky & digging through the seed till it found it's favorite.  Oh, and I must report that my little flowerbed is doing really well.  I haven't killed anything yet.  There's this tall pink flower that is attracting bees and butterflies (I might have to plant some more).  I watched this butterfly flirt with this flower all afternoon (again, my dork moment).  But, I'm really digging this nature thing we got going on... flowers, butterflies, birds (even baby birds coming soon)... (forget the termites though)

I'm thankful for this short week.  I just need to find out what we're going to do about the termites.  I want that to be over ASAP.  One last report about our little munchkin.  Have I mentioned that she is the cutest little thing ever? She's seriously the happiest baby in the world.  We went to the grocery store Monday, and she was just saying "hi" and waving to everyone.  There were a few employees standing at the end of an aisle, all staring & cooing at her.  Once she realized all eyes were on her, she gave her little 'courtesy smile' (an adorable smile w/ no teeth and extra dimples) and batted her eyes.  She said hi to everyone we passed by.  It's moments like those that just make my heart melt as a mom.

Aislynn was helping mommy organize her nail polish :)

One thing she's doing now is this new scruntch face thing.  It's like she scruntches her nose, pooches out her lips (kinda showing her front teeth) and does this little fast airy snort thing (like she's got something up her nose).  Sometimes she does it when she wants to be cute, and sometimes when she dislikes something.  I think it's adorable and sometimes do it back to her.  Okay - it's time for me to go to bed - will go to sleep with wonderful thoughts of my little girl.

 -Kim

Green thumb?

I don't have a green thumb, but I've always wanted to.  I love flowers and anything green - but somehow I manage to kill everything (sadly, from neglect).  Last weekend, during a trip to Home Depot - I flocked to the garden section... next thing I knew, we had all kinds of plants & flowers in our cart (Michael rolling his eyes at this point).  Oh, did I forget to mention we did the same thing 2 weekends prior (cart full of flowers) that died due to not being watered?  I know... SO this time I was determined to transform the front corner of our front yard/walkway.  The corner where the sidewalk meets our front walk way has been just bare-dirt for a year! (the grass got pushed out from the tree roots).  I even bought a little bird bath.  Our kind neighbor gave us some left over stone edgers, and we already had a ton of top soil.  So Saturday and most of Sunday, we soaked the ground, dug up the dirt, mixed in the potting soil, churned up the earth, edged out a little flower bed - and then planted away.  Below was the end result

I was so proud of ourselves.  I don't have a before picture, but imagine just a red, dry dirt patch.  I even put a flower bed at the bottom of our mailbox post, edged out, and filled with some marigolds & other flowers.  I know nothing about flowers - so I just bought the ones that need full sun b/c this area stays pretty bright.  I already had an area where I placed some potted plants, but I was glad we could finally do something with this corner!  The very next day, (Monday) Michael saw a robin splashing around in the bird bath! The next day, a squirrel (I don't blame the little guy for getting a drink on a hot day).  The flowers have been attracting butterflies and bees.  I'm not yet finished with this project.  I planted some seeds in the bare spots just to see if they will fill in a little.  Also - there's still an area to the right that doesn't have any grass now - so we bought some seed which will hopefully fill in those areas.  I'm going to mulch the flower bed a little (AND spray some insecticide to keep the stupid bugs away)... but - I'm beginning to think I can pull off this green-thumb thing.
I took a lunch break on Saturday and put my hat on Aislynn's head - she thought it was funny to wear my hat and to try & take it off - she's such a cute little stinker!

Another discovery last weekend... we have 2 hanging ferns on our front walkway.  I hadn't watered them in a couple weeks.  Watered the first one - watered the 2nd one and out flies a bird!  Scared me 1/2 to death, but I had to investigate.  Sure enough, there's a little tiny nest with 2 little eggs right inside the fern.  I could hear the bird yelling at me from a distance.  The bird is a Carolina Wren.  The boy & girl stay mated for life, and will stay in the same area and even re-nest in the same spot.  The dad even helps raise the babies just as much as the mom.  When we had our covered/screened deck - they made nests there every year.  But then last Fall we rebuilt an uncovered deck.  So I was happy to see that they chose our hanging fern to re-nest.  And now we get to enjoy baby birds again.  The bad news is that the fern will die b/c there's no way I'm going to water it w/ 2 little eggs cookin. 

(Not my photo)

As for the child - she is SUCH an active little girl.  We bought her a little bookshelf recently (pointless) b/c now all she wants to do is pull all the books off the shelf and throw them on the floor.  The trade-off is that she now has more of an interest in books.  We'll lay on the floor and read a book together until she's uninterested.  Did I also mention she's climbing everything?  She climbed up on the couch all by herself this week (gray hair sprouting). 

She climbed into a huggies box- I piled all her toys on top of her - she thought it was funny

Her hair is getting longer!

She also puts EVERYTHING up to her ear like it's a phone - books, my jewlery, remotes, spoons...

Today, she put a cookie up to her ear and actually said "Hayo?" (hello) She's such a pretender.  She's also gotten more coordinated with her hands.  She signed and said "more" the other night at dinner.  She does it all the time now.  I got the cutest video of it!  Speaking of video - I finally have the video icon on Blogger again!  So I'm going to post a couple recent cute videos of Aislynn.
Do we have a future plumber on our hands? (don't worry, she got a bath immediately after this pic! when i was running her bath water, she grabbed the plunger and walked off with it) :)

It's 4th of July weekend and the only plans we have are to re-do the drywall in Aislynn's room.  We had termites TWICE and it's finally time to repair the wall.  Poor baby has had plastic taped up covering the lumpy spots for 5 months!  After we're finished, we're going to spruce up her room a bit and put it all back together.  The next project will be our back porch. I have 2 flower boxes hanging on the rail (w/ dried up twigs sticking out of them) and one big potted plant, but we need some deck furniture & to make it feel more "homey" out there. I want to find a cheap BBQ that we can start using.

I hope everyone has an awesome 4th of July weekend.  I'm so thankful that God has placed me in a country where I'm FREE and can praise Him!  Thank you to all the soldiers who have fought for our independence.