my visit to north carolina...

for the last 4 days, mommy & i have been visiting pappy's family in north carolina. we just arrived back in birmingham on saturday night. we had so much fun catching up with my great grandmother, and mommy's aunt, uncle & cousins. this first pic is of me riding a banana at the outlet mall -- a "rest-stop" for us on the way to north carolina. the next pic is of me & aunt mary ann playing with some oldie-but-goodie-toys.














the next picture is of me organizing my crayons. i did a little bit of coloring too! also, you can see me here listening to mommy's cell-phone. daddy was not able to join us for this trip, so he sang songs to me on the phone! i was SOOO excited to hear him!











another fun thing we did was to visit an antique store. now, you may think that a two-year would be bored in such a place, but i behaved REaLLY well! (of course the juice & cheerios helped!) but these are other things i also enjoyed... i rode in the stroller, i taught a snowman about his head, shoulders, knees & toes, i chatted with an eagle & i got to talk to santa!

head, shoulders, knees & toes...

i love this song!! recently, i have begun to sing it spontaneously, without being prompted. i can do all of the motions, but sometimes i am a little slow at that. these pictures are of me doing "shoulders" (well, right after shoulders), doing "knees" & "eyes." the other picture is just of me dancing around.

i'm a party crasher...

on saturday, grammy & pappy's sunday school class had a Christmas luncheon & pappy's harmonicas group gave a concert. i wanted to hear the concert, so i CraShED the party! unfortunately, we have no pictures of me with any of the class members... you know i don't care for strangers talking to me or touching me. but i was as pleasant as you could expect any 2-year-old to be. the party room had a fun colorful chair that is used for children's activities & i loved this chair!! i named all the colors again & again & climbed in & out of the chair many times. as you can see, i wore myself out & was asleep before we even left the parking lot.

my woodsey family...

i have continued to enjoy the woodsey family that belonged to my mother when she was a little girl.


i have learned that i can load up the family into their log-house & carry them with me. my favorite woodsey is the little boy, because i love his striped shirt, which i call "chlipes."

my laid-back wednesday...

here are some of the fun things i did today. i found some more cake decorating supplies in our pantry. grammy used these things to decorate cakes for mommy when she was a little girl. i found cinderella, a prince, & a pumpkin-stagecoach! i also found several hearts & curly-shaped things. then i played my keyboard for a little while. note that in this picture i am pulling at my pants a bit. i have started talking about my diaper quite often ("didoh") so mommy bought a potty-seat for me. we tried it out for the first time today. that part of my day was NOT fun. maybe i am not ready for that just yet!








i have made a few christmas ornaments at school & daddy hung them in very prominent places on the tree so that everyone may marvel at my craftsmanship. i think i did a good job, if i do say so myself!! and i have also enjoyed my new flamingo, whom i have named "nan-do." daddy bought nan-do at the bass pro shop last week. nan-do does not have legs, so he looks a little funny. but i do not care -- i LOVE him!!

look how i've grown...

when my cousin madison was visiting, she borrowed my bath seat that i used when i was a little baby. i had forgotten all about it, but once i saw it again, i just had to enjoy it some more. i like it because it has fish on it & i LOVE fish! so i sit in it while i play with my toys & read my books. i know i am too big for the seat, but it is SO comfortable. i thought you might enjoy comparing some current pics to pictures that were taken when i used the bath seat as a bath seat. this first picture is of me during my very first bath when i was only 3 days old.

this next picture was taken in january of 2009, when i was about 5 months old. the bath tub still stressed me out a little bit at that age. thank goodness i enjoy my bath time now!

and here i am, as a BIG girl, sitting in the bath seat! i'm not sure when we will put this back in the cabinet. i might miss it too much!

this is what i did on wednesday...

sorry i am a day late on this post... but i wanted to show you what mommy & i did on wednesday this week. it was an exciting day for me because we didn't really have anywhere to go or any chores to do. we did go grocery shopping in the morning, but the rest of the was all about ME!

recently, i have developed an aversion to coats & sweaters. this is rather troublesome since the weather is turning colder. so one new thing we tried was to wrap me up in my ducky blanket. i actually enjoyed it! so we may use the blanket instead of a coat -- or maybe i can find a jacket with duckies on it!


i also had fun playing with my "woodsey family" set. this belonged to mommy when she was a little girl. i like to line up the woodsies, their furniture & big bird (i know, it's a random combination!) and i move them all around. then we built a tower with my blocks. i say, "deal tall!!" that means "build tall!" for lunch, mommy gave me a grilled cheese & some star fruit. the kiwis that i so love are out-of-season now so they taste really gross. we are trying to think of new foods that i might like. since i LoVe stars, mommy thought i might eat the starfruit. she was wrong! i think this particular one was not quite ripe, so we may try it again later...

the blue ball...

grammy got this blue ball because she thought it was neat, but i really enjoy it too. the "ball" is made up of many individual pieces with very strong magnets inside. the magnets help you to put the ball together in the right way. at first, i would only take out one piece at a time, and then put it back. but now i can remove 7 or 8 pieces and i am still able to put the ball back together! it gets more and more difficult when i remove more pieces, but i really enjoy the challenge. if i put a piece in the wrong place, i don't get frustrated -- i just try to figure out the right way to do it. when i put the ball completely together, i get SOOO excited!

visiting with madison rose...

my cousin madison & her mommy trudy went home to texas this morning. i had fun visiting with them. i enjoyed saying "nan-duh" in a high-pitched voice, which meant "madison." mommy attempted to capture this on video, but sadly, she was never successful. we had a good visit & i look forward to seeing them again.












grammy got these cute coordinating outfits for madison & me. we had a little photo shoot -- as best as we could! it was a little difficult to find a time when madison & i were both clean, happy & awake! santa wanted to be in the pictures also, but madison nor i was too happy about sitting so close to him. but i think we got some pretty good pictures anyway!

playing in pappy's yard...

today i went to visit with grammy, pappy, aunt trudy & my cousin madison. when mommy & i arrived, pappy was outside doing yardwork. it was such a perfect & beautiful day for playing outside. i was super excited about all the leaves blowing around! i got to chase the leaves & throw them up in the air! autumn is SoOoOo much fun!!














i was also super excited to get to play with another nativity. but THIS nativity set is especially for ME!! it is a fisher-price "little people" nativity set, complete with animals & everything! and when i push the angel, she plays music for me & the star lights up.

prepare the way...

last night we started decorating for Christmas. mommy put out this nativity & i really enjoyed playing with it.

some of my second helping of thanksgiving...

we have SO much to be thankful for! i have been spending time with my cousin madison since she & her mom, trudy arrived from texas about a week ago. (uncle kyle is still in afghanistan.) but there have been a few little kinks during this holiday... yesterday we had planned to celebrate thanksgiving at grammy & pappy's house. but then a pipe under the kitchen sink corroded & water went everywhere! a little later, the oven caught on fire & we had not finished cooking the meal! we are thankful no one was hurt & there was very little damage. so grammy, pappy, trudy, madison & my family all came back to my house to finish cooking & to eat dinner. i did take some pictures, but now the camera card is not pulling up all of them. so here are some pics of me hanging out with my sweet cousin madison. i LOVE her, and i have even named one of my baby dolls "madison." hopefully i can make a full post soon.