We love water!

It's hot, it's miserable, it's time for tons of water! I'm pretty sure we have poured more water on our garden over these past couple of months than we have consumed. Our poor little plants are so thirsty... I think they would take a constant drink if we were able. When we get a place of our own- sprinkler system it is! Anyway... Aiden has been loving this because, not only does she love gardening- everything about gardening- but, she LOVES WATER! And we let her help with her own watering can which, of course, she promptly pours over her tiny toes the moment we step outside! Then she grabs her spade and away she goes to dig in the dirt. It's so fun! Anyway... Dan had the good idea of filling up a bucket of water and letting her splash around in it. So we did and she had a blast:


Giving Cainy dog a drink!

Watering the plants!


And of course running off...


And having to be captured!
She has been a bundle of mischievous little girl and we are having the time of our lives keeping up with her. How we ever would have handled twins I do not know!

On another note: Aidie has, as of late, been substituting pointing with kissing. She has gotten a fantastic knack for kissing now- just like a big girl!- and wants to kiss everything! It is too funny. Dan read her a book today and when asked "What are these?" (picture of blueberries), she promptly responds with "boobeawies. Mmmm..." and then plants a kiss on them! She did this for the ENTIRE book. When they got to the end there was a picture of a little boy, whom she kissed right as Dan turned the page. So of course Dan had to tease about "no more kissing boys" and she kept doing it and giggling. She thought it was tons of fun. I think we have a little lover on our hands ;-)

More fun at the Wisley residence

Aidie has been interested in getting involved in just about everything! She has been quite a little helper when it comes to house chores. She LOVES to help garden and laundry and sweep and EVERYTHING! We have got to get her her own cleaning tools to match mommy's.
She is also getting very interested in everything musical. She loves to dance, play guitar and the keyboard. She even asks for me to sing opera. It is awesome! Can't wait to see how my musical enthusiast turns out :-)
We also had another cooking extravaganza. Blueberry/Cherry Pie. Mmmm... This was a bit messier and complicated than our last endeavor. So everything was a mess after we were done, including Aidie and me!

Here Aidie is dumping in the dry ingredients. She kept wanting to toss them everywhere~ So mommy kept a sharp eye on that process ;-)

Aidie loves eggs. Everything about eggs. She has her own egg cartons full of Easter eggs that she loves more than just about any other toy she owns. Real eggs, in her opinion, are even better!

As you can see Aidie has tasted the progress at this point. I went to put a few things away, only to turn around to find her stuffing a flour/sugar mixture from her tray into her mouth. Apparently she like it because she kept trying to dip her fingers into everything after that.

Here is the filling - berries all ready to go thanks to my little stirring champ.

Getting the topping ready. So much better to mix by hand than with the fork!

She just loved pressing the pie shell into the baking dish. Probably her favorite part.

And of course, trying out the finished progress. She definitely liked this better than the muffins. She has been super attached to Moosie lately. So instead of allowing an all out melt down, as has been the scene around here lately, we just fixed him up with a bib and let him have a snack too!
On other notes: We are TRYING to get Aidie on a better pattern for naps. She has been getting progressively worse at going down for naps on the exercise ball. So now I am putting her in her crib to put herself to sleep. A lot of tears on both sides. Any suggestions? I'm all ears!

15 Month Check Up

So it's been insanely HOT hear in poor little Indiana, with absolutely no rain to speak of (yes, poor sentence structure. I know). So we have been having to figure out how to beat the heat. This means hiking at 8am, gardening for 10min stretches throughout the day, and playing lots of DDR- Which, when asked if she wants to play DDR, Aiden screams "DANCE DANCE" and throws up her hands and runs to the living room. Too adorable! This girl loves her dancing! I guess it's dance recitals for us in the future :-)
Any way, So we went out for a hike down and back on trail 8, a nice short 1 1/2 miles and played on the playground with Daddy and Caina. Aiden's favorite part was definitely the little playhouse. Freedom- with mom and dad near by of course! As you can see, we had a pretty funny, sweaty time!


Aiden has also become really interested in different foods lately. She has never liked bananas, for instance, and now that's all she wants to eat. She is getting to be such a big girl! She also has an obsession with this purple glove we have. Too funny!
She has also been quite the little baking helper! She loves to help in the kitchen. So we always try to include her somehow. Yesterday, we made doughnuts and she got to shake them up in the cinnamon sugar. Shaking fun!
As for the 15month check up, it went a little different than normal. Her head has grown in proportion to her body and is now 45 1/2cm which is 25-50% up from the under 25% we have been. Her height has actually slowed a bit. She is measuring at 30.25in which is only 25-50%. Her weight is still a little troubling, as she is only around the 15% weighing in a whopping 21lb. 2oz. Her Cognitive and Motor development were much more exciting. She is now up to 2 years and 4months give or take a little. We are now working on drinking better from a cup, kicking balls, etc. She also got a polio vaccination, which, when the poor guy came in, she immediately started screaming and stopped as he gave her the shot... hmmm... a little drama in our lives...
As for an allergy update: not only is she allergic to chocolate, but I'm pretty sure white potatoes as well. There is a consistency in her food journal with eating those and her outbreaks- she developed hives last night and had to have benadryl. Poor girl. Hopefully, we get this all figured out soon enough and then no more outbreaks!

Blueberry Muffin Time

It must be in the air. It's blueberry muffin making time! I think everyone has been taking advantage of the fruit bearing time of year. I tried a new recipe- cream cheese in the middle!- and it turned out pretty good. A little cream of tartary... but still okay. Aidie had a blast cooking with Mama in the kitchen. Follow along on our culinary journey...


First we combined all the dry ingredients. Mix by hand. Hehehe.
Time for the wet ingredients. Crack those eggs kiddo!

Now we have to blend it all together. Way to mix it all up! She really loved stirring up the batter, especially...

When we added the fresh blueberries from Grandma and Grandpa's garden. Yum Yum!

Of course we had to try our endeavor once it had cooked up. My little picky, never eats anything kid poked at it, licked the cream cheese off her finger. Did it a few more times and was done. Apparently cooked blueberries are not as good as the raw ones in her opinion. Oh Well. Can't win 'em all... but maybe we can win her over!

This may be the most hysterically random thing I've ever experienced

A little explanation: Aidie and I were playing on the couch and Caina came up and licked me square IN the mouth (mouth open, dog kiss administered). So I said "YUCK! PUPPY LIPS!" This caused Aiden to burst into uncontrollable laughter which we caught the tail end of on video. Hope you enjoy!

She's just been so darn cute today!

I just had to share her trying on shoes. It was too adorable!


I wish this picture was a little more in focus, but it's so cute. Look at all those curls. I guess the heat index is doing something constructive!


Here she is playing peek-a-boo from behind the curtains!

And here is a video of some more cuteness. You may explode from all of it. You have been forewarned.

Fourth of July

We had a bit of an unconventional Fourth of July. We spent the day visiting at my parents' house, as I had promised my brother a hair cut. So we spent the evening playing outside, making smores and shooting off the occasional bottle rocket and such. All in all, a pretty easy going, enjoyable fourth of July... and not a single tear from my girl when the bottle rockets were shot off. Makes me wonder if she has a hearing problem. LOL.
Tractor ride with Grampy. The best!


Everyone enjoying themselves. John with his bottle rockets, Aiden in the dirt, Dan wittling a stick, my dad taking the picture, the animals lounging and me and my mother watching over everything.


Aiden has discovered a love of sand. Sandbox time? I think so!


The boys setting off their "fireworks". Pretty much only bottle rockets. Though Daddy did have a few with a sprinkle of pretty lights stored away. Yippee! Maybe next year Aidie will be old enough to sit up for fireworks. She seemed to really like these ones.

The Beginning of Our 4th of July Weekend

To start our long weekend, we went over to Dan's parents' house and we got out the kiddy pool for Aidie. She liked playing in the water from outside of the pool, but really didn't want to get in. Finally I convinced Dan to get in with her and she was willing to sit on his lap out of the water... but we finally lowered her down in after about 10min. and she had lots of fun splashing around and playing with the toys! Then of course she wanted me and crawled up all soaked into my lap... LOL. I just love her even when she makes a mess!Petting Mr. Baxter

Showing off her swimmy outfit

Dumping out the water onto her belly! It's the best!

Ooohhh... Grandpa's making ice cream!


Mmmm... Grandma is making some more yummy bread, basil, lettuce and cheese snacks for me!


We have also been doing lots of hiking lately. Aidie, Caina and I take a 45min. walk around our little town of Gosport everyday. But since daddy is home on the weekends we have been branching out. So we took the river hike at McCormick's Creek- Park Pass and hiking pack were the best investments ever!
Daddy and Aidie trying to figure out where the heck we are


Caina had fun too!


Our little family (minus the furry four-legged member) on our awesome hike!

Other notes:
Aidie is officially allergic to chocolate (taking after my mother!). She is really interested in sweeping right now and hanging clothes. She loves to knock down block towers and is working on picking up her toys (particularly her books...). She has been super clingy and cuddly. Half the time I can't do anything without her somehow attached to me- either around my leg(s), on my hip or in the hiking pack. I'm hoping this is just a phase though. I think she must be going through a growth spurt (and the teeth. Always the teeth) because she is super sleepy lately. She actually went to bed at 7:30 the other night and didn't get up until 8 the next day. Yowzah!