Her new favorite game

As with most the color games we've played this month, I got this one from The Toddler's Busy Book. This has been hands down her favorite game we have tried!! She played it 4 times in a row and asked to play it again, but it was lunch time. She seriously loved it and it was super cute seeing her concentration while trying to match up the colors.

You just paint a few rocks


Paint the inside of an egg carton


And let them match up the rocks with the colors in the egg carton

Wordless Wednesday: Her new fake smile and too much cream cheese

Pull up a chair - this post may take a while

My friend Ky and I went to music with Robert today at the library. We've been to see him once and (if you're from around here, I'm sure you've heard of) music with Robert and Gigi before as well. Acadia LOVES it and normally dances the entire time.

Well today I noticed that Acadia and Max were the only ones dancing and singing. I thought that was pretty cute :) Someone had mentioned beforehand that Robert didn't like kids behind him - I would imagine so that he didn't step on anyone? I'm not sure, but Ky and I would go grab the kids if they got behind Robert. After about 15 minutes, the librarian came up to me and whispered that Robert finds it very distracting when the children dance. I just stared at her and said, "Are you saying they can't dance?" She said "I'm sorry" and I said that we were leaving. I was pretty pissed off until we got out of the room and burst out laughing that our children were convicts!! At the age of one, Acadia got kicked out of her very first event - I wonder if there is a page in her baby book for me to record that?

Pre-criminal Maxwell and Acadia:

Post-criminal Maxwell and Acadia:

Mugshots

Side profile mugshots

In case you can't read the title, it's called "Nursery Crimes" Perfect!! Ky and I laughed our butts off when Max brought that book up to us!!!!!

Learning through....noodles?!

I must admit, this project was kind of fun for me. I just dyed some noodles four different colors and let dry for the day. Once they were dried, I put them into water containers and labeled them. When Acadia wants to play with them, she refers to them as "shake shake shake". LOL!

I remember Monday

I remember...going to Carter's a few days after we found out we were expecting you. We were on our way to Maine to meet daddy's family for a week long vacation and there was an outlet mall along the way. I noticed a Carter's and at the time, we didn't have a Carter's in Vermont.

It was the first baby store I had gone in after finding out I was pregnant for you and I just walked into the store and stared. I was so overwhelmed by the thought of our little baby wearing the tiny outfits, playing with the little rattles and wearing the shoes that were sold in the store. To say I was excited was an understatement...

Daddy said I could choose a couple things (if it was up to me, I would have bought a couple bags full!) and I carefully chose the softest blanket I could find along with a stuffed giraffe lovey. We got back into the car and I pulled my two items out of the bag and just stared at them. Literally stared for a few miles. I asked daddy if he realized that this blanket and lovey were for our little peanut. Our own little peanut. At that moment, I just couldn't wait to meet you - it was one of the first times it actually hit me that we were having a baby.

I still have that blanket and lovey and will give them to your sister. Once she is too old for them, I will pack them away with your belongings as a reminder of the first things daddy and I ever bought for you :)

Elmo in the bath

Going along with our winter theme for this month, I found this activity in one my children's craft books. Just freeze a toy, throw it in the tub and watch it melt. I froze one of her cars and an Elmo train. We talked a bit about how cold the ice cubes were and Acadia LOVED seeing her little Elmo train melt in the tub!

Elmo half way through melting


Excited to find her car and Elmo after they melted!

Pushing Elmo into the bath

SO excited to see Elmo again!

Two minutes in the life of a toddler

Oh, the emotions of a toddler! They can change from second to second!

Yesterday I printed out a mitten craft for Acadia to color. She started coloring but was then more interested in my yogurt. I started cracking up and filming because she stopped coloring and just started signing "more" without stopping - even while she was eating! It was so funny!

Eating mommy's yogurt and signing "more" (Mood: happy)

Upset that mommy ran out of yogurt but then happy once I distracted her with coloring

(Mood: Sad then happy)

Then I was asking her to say cheese for the camera and I think it annoyed her. Actually....I know it did and I kept egging her on because I thought it was funny. At one point in the video she looks down at her paper so I can't take a picture of her face. Then she gets pissed at me.

(Mood: Annoyed then pissed off)

Learning through paint

I was driving home the other day and I thought of this art project. She really loved painting the letters and pasting them onto the construction paper :)

"Reading"


So serious when about to paint...

I think this was her favorite part!


Some of the colors we have done so far:

Color books

You may already have one or all of these books, but I thought I would share a few books about color that Acadia is loving! I love the pictures in these books and the colors are so bright and cheerful.

A Color of His Own

The Mixed-Up Chameleon

Lemons Are Not Red

TFT: Vacations

Last night Matt and I started talking about the future - specifically vacationing. I always thought I would be the type of person who would go to Maine every year, to the same town, and vacation on the ocean every year. Fairly inexpensive, close to home (ie. no plane ride) and what isn't there to love about Maine?

But once we had Acadia and were given the opportunity to go to California and Chicago for Matt's job combined with my mother's love of travel, we have decided it would be better to travel to different states. Financially, we are thinking that we would be able to afford to go on a one week trip every other year. On the off year, we'll probably do some camping in Maine or around Vermont.

On our list of places we want to go: Savannah, Georgia, Washington DC, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Colorado. I'm sure there are a bunch more that we'll want to go to, but those were some of the ones we talked about last night at dinner.

We'll also do Disney at some point and I would love to go on a tropical vacation as well (just with my husband - no kids!) - now all we need to do is get rich so we can afford all these trips! LOL!

TFT: Which states would you like to visit?

Wordless Wednesday: Prepared for next Christmas

Counting

Acadia has been counting to 5 and I've been trying to catch it on video forever. I finally caught it the other day when we were playing the color match game.

Then she decided she loved all of the colors and started giving them kisses. I was trying to get her to kiss the camera, but she had other plans and grabbed the camera out of my hands! LOL!

The cheapest game you will ever "buy"

I recently picked up 16 paint chips from Lowes - 2 of 8 different colors for this color-match game. Acadia is really into puzzles and games like this, and got the hang of it very quickly! She asked to play again two more times after we were done the first game :)

Patiently waiting while I set up the cards


Showing me where the yellow card goes

Matching the red cards together

Clapping after she completed the game! (She's her number one fan!)

I remember Monday

I remember...moving into our new home the December before you were born. We moved in the weekend before Christmas (never, ever will I do that again!) and with the help of our friends and family, we were able to move, unpack and paint every room in the house over the course of 4 days.

I remember looking into your bedroom while it was being painted and thinking to myself...there is going to be a little person here someday...either a Benjamin David or an Acadia June and I was thrilled at the thought of putting our baby to sleep every night in this beautiful nursery. I remember feeling how all these people were here helping and preparing daddy and I to welcome you into the world. So much love went into painting and getting that nursery ready, and there are so many wonderful memories of that weekend.

We spent hours at the paint store, picking out the exact colors we wanted (do you know how many yellow and greens there are out there?) and a border to go with it. I searched and searched on-line for what I thought was the perfect theme to go with your nursery and decided on a giraffe theme.

Once everything was completed, I would sit in the rocking chair in your room and read to you, talk to you and sing to you. I would imagine what you would look like. I would picture me rocking you in the same chair after you were born. I would just sit there....rocking...waiting....for you....

Fun times with family

We went to Miche and Jimmy's the other night with Sam and Jules for some yummy appetizers and drinks. U. Sammy and A. Jules got Acadia the Leap Frog Counting Maracas - if you don't have this toy, get it! Acadia LOVES it! She's very into dancing at the moment, so she loves dancing and shaking them all over the house! They were also so sweet and brought over some beer for Matt and some sparkling cider for me :)

Lovin' on Auntie Jules


She is obsessed with Auntie Sissy!!


Uncle Jimmy giving Acadia her first guitar lesson


Having a serious conversation with Uncle Sammy

Telling my family...

We found out we were having a girl the week before Christmas and decided that we would print out the name we had chosen for the baby and wrap it up with a dress to tell our families the sex of the baby on Christmas day. They had NO idea we were finding out - we didn't even know we were going to find out until the morning of the ultrasound when we changed our minds.

This video is of my sister finding out that she will be having another niece in May!

New year, new ideas

"You, the parent, are your child's first teacher and her best teacher. It's an awesome responsibility, but one that brings immeasurable rewards." ~Jacquie McTaggart

I have been wanting to come up with a plan for helping to teach Acadia here at home. It's taken a while, but I finally created a binder for her by searching through my craft books and some websites, and organized it per month. I chose to have two "subjects" per month and to help her learn them, I listed crafts, activities and field trips we would be doing for that month. For the month of January, our subjects are colors and winter.

Our first activity involved colored ice cubes and it was a huge hit!! (All you need for this activity is water, food coloring, an ice cube tray and ziploc bags.) I made three different colored ice cubes and added different colors to the ziploc bags ie. green went with yellow, yellow with blue, etc. and let her play with them.

We talked about the colors and how cold the ice cubes were. Every time I asked her if the ice cubes were cold, she held her arms around her shoulders and said 'brrr!' LOL!!

After she had played with them for a while, we left them on the table to melt, so we could see what new color the melted ice cubes made.

Getting ready


Excited to see the ice cubes!!


The tongue out in concentration

New Year's Day

Yesterday was such a relaxing and perfect day! We went out to breakfast with Jimmy and Miche for their anniversary (5 years!!), then Miche came over to our house to hang out while the guys went to see a movie. Later that night, Acadia and I went to my mom's house for dinner with Colleen, Auntie Brenda and Auntie Bonnie while Matt hung out at home. It was such a fun day - so relaxing!!

Yesterday was also the Haggerty's anniversary!! Happy anniversary, Jon and Holly! We love you guys! We're hoping we get to celebrate your 6th with you here in Vermont :) xoxo

TFT: Resolutions

Mine are simple.

1. Slow down.
2. Be present.

What are yours?