Happy Halloween!
After last Saturday's pumpkin bonanza, we were on a roll and spent Sunday exploring the amazing Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center. I don't even know how to describe it but it was beautiful, sad, silly and a little scary. If you are in LA, you must go; if you are visiting, you must go. Addie was sorta freaked out at first but once she found a sweeper she seemed content to tidy up the ark's kitchen (um, can you do that at home too Addie?). There are 7 kinds of fake poop in their ark, which is a detail I can appreciate.
We explored The Ark and all the animals with our daycare pals, Clyde and his parents and the triplets with their mom and grandma (otherwise known as Daycare Andi). It was hilarious watching the 5 of them together. I really wish I could be a fly on the wall at daycare one day.
During story time, all the parents and kids were sitting in a semicircle except Addie who stood dead center or decided to revert to crawling and hauled butt into the other room. Then she came back in, and took off down the hall the other direction. Clyde followed and then he decided to add some screaming to Addie's running game. Addie joined in. Now we have 2 toddlers running around and screaming not really out of earshot of the storyteller. Then Ethan, Madison and Kylie join the gang. Cap and Clyde's dad Joseph find them in the elevator lobby running in circles, shouting as loud as possible and having the best time ever. We then adjourned to the outside amphitheater for some snacks and, of course, more running around and shouting. YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
See other photos from our trip to the Skirball Center.
It's Pumpkin time and every kid in the USA is getting their photo taken with the ubiquitous orange gourd. Last year at this time Addie coudn't quite sit up on her own and we could easily plop her down and snap away. Now she isn't interested in posing for pictures or sitting still.
On Saturday we visited the Underwood Family Farms. Addie got to meet a real goat, chicken, rabbit and goose all of which she kept a rather safe distance from unlike her fearless pal Jake who immediately snuggled up with a goat. We went on a tractor ride, ran through the pumpkin patch and ate pumpkin pie for lunch. We even saw Carrie Ann Moss from The Matrix. Cap picked out a Dada, Mama and baby Addie-sized pumpkins, and Addie got to sit in the pumpkin-filled wheelbarrow. I think the entire thing was a little overwhelming for Addie, okay, for me too, but it was still super fun. Next year we'll tackle the corn maze and climb the giant hay stack. Next decision: what should we carve on our pumpkins?
See other photos from our pumpkin extravaganza.
Addie brought home this magnificent piece of holiday appropriate art last night from daycare. Addie's finely colored ghost is displayed on our refrigerator along with two other artworks made with chalk on construction paper that she did at daycare. At home we have a drawing pad and crayons where she creates one masterpiece after another. The drawing usually taking about 1 minute. The crayon tip eating and being chased around with the crayons takes about 3.
Addie locks in her prey with her laser beam stare. Dada is forced to watch her go down the slide all by herself. Watching, watching watching . . .
Saturday we checked out the free children's music down at the Santa Monica pier. How come we haven't done that before? Silly us, it's free and it's fun. They had rattles (sponsored by Dimetapp) and other instruments, arts and crafts and a band all the way from Long Island. Addie spent most of the time running around behind the stage, behind the arts and crafts table or smack dab in front of the bubble machine. We gotta get a video of her saying "bubble bubble." Too sweet. 
She also decorated a mask with stickers and watched me try to hula hoop. Then she discovered the back of the arcade where they have those ride-on kiddy cars. She got to sit in a tractor and a helicopter. I didn't even bother to put the .50 cents in the machine since she seemed to be enjoying herself without it jolting and rocking. 
Addie loves helicopters. She always is the first to point one out in the sky - funny how we can usually spot at least 1 on a walk to the park. She loves to look at the film cell from Apocalypse Now that Cap has in a light box in our hallway. If you are carrying her she'll make you stop so she can point at the helicopter- nothing like a little napalm, dead bodies on the beach, Robert Duvall and a military helicopter to pique your kid's interest. When my brother was little, he couldn't say helicopter; he called them hepicoppers. I can't wait to see what Addie says. Right now she points and says burr burr (bird).
OOOHHHHWEEEEE! GREETINGS EARTHLINGS!
I think this photo deserves a little "Insert Caption." Go ahead, show me what you got. What are Addie and Cap saying?
Nanoo Nanoo.
This was taken for my photo class homework. I bought a fantastically complicated new flash and the assignment involves "dragging the shutter." Basically the flash fires at 1/10,000 of a second but I manually make the shutter speed at 1/15 of a second which captures movement in the background while the quick flash suspends the subject. Like most of my homework assignements I go into a panic, run around like a chicken with my head cut off, and then eventually remember that this is supposed to be fun.
Finally, we took some video of Addie's words. We haven't tallied them up yet but I'm guessing maybe she can say about 30 words in varying degrees of common use. Some I have only heard once or twice, like "thank you," but "mine" she has mastered. In this 4 minute video, we "read" Colors with Peter Rabbit and then at the very end a little Bunny's Noisy Book. You'll hear her say duck and bird on several occasions, hat, shoe (i love it when she says shoe), agua (indicating her sippy cup which incidentally has milk not water in it), egg and bee. You also get to hear her slurping down her "aqua." slurp slurp slurp. My favorite part though is the last little bit in the video when the Bunny sneezes.
This girl loves blueberries. Frozen blueberries.
We gave Addie fresh blueberries many months ago and she would reject them with a splutter spewing all blueberry molecules from her mouth. Okay, she doesn't like blueberries.
That was then this is now; and now involves her blueberries direct from the freezer. I admit that this is how I eat them when they are not in season. Every morning I eat Special K with Strawberries and sprinkle it with frozen bluerries. Unlike other frozen fruit in a bag, the blueberries are actually not solid ice, but, don't get me wrong, they are cold. It's sort of like eating a blueberry slushee nugget and Addie likes them that way too. That second photo might lead you think that perhaps she doesn't like this at all, but in fact eating frozen blueberries is such a dynamic culinary experience of flavor and temperature that it takes all the muscles in the face to enjoy them.
Addie also insisted on eating her breakfast with her fancy, new, suede boots on. They are a tiny bit too big still, so she only wears them at home for fear that she'll wipe out at daycare trying to run around in giant clodhoppers. I had to resist the urge this morning to dress her in her black Star Wars T-shirt, white mini skirt and black suede boots. Maybe I should have just stuck some cotton balls in the toes and let her be the fashion envy at Andi's House.
