Happy Face, Sad Face

As soon as I thought Addison was ready we began introducing her to crayons and markers. She has been a huge fan! She now has her own coloring table in the kitchen with a basket full of coloring books, paper, and stickers-along with a tupperware full of markers and crayons. She has always asked us to draw her pictures of a variety of things when we color with her and lately we have been trying to get her to draw different things. We started with drawing a line, which she has mastered. The next was to draw a circle, she started really getting that down about 2 weeks ago. Then last week on her own without her pushy parents telling her what to do or showing her what to do she drew a circle with a couple of dots in it. We asked her what she was drawing and she told us "happy face" or "sad face". We are never around very many toddlers her age and when we do it is not a very long time, so I am not sure if this is a normally developing thing for a 20 month old to do, but Thomas and I were amazed!!!!!!!! We could not believe that she was able to already draw something that was very clear and that she is already in the pre-writing stages!!! WOW is all I have to say.

Much Love,
The Reynolds

PS. on the last drawing the two faces on the bottom are mine. After she started drawing her faces, she wanted me to join in and draw too.

Snowed In

Today we had a major winter storm hit Lubbock. It started this morning with rain and within an hour the temperature at dropped and the rain quickly became a "wintery mix". When I looked outside of my classroom window the rain drops had quickly become icicles along the trees and playground equipment. By 9:30 we had very heavy snowflakes falling to the ground. They did not cancel school but around 11:15 they used the school phone messaging system to let parents know that they were welcome to come and pick up their children. Where Thomas works, Texas Tech, they were going to close down at 12:30 and Addison's daycare was closing at 2:30. Thomas left and went to get Addison so they were able to get home quickly! I had to stay with my kids at school. Luckily though since our kids have to picked up first before elementary/jr. high/high school kids, they came to get ours 30 minutes earlier than usual-we then were able to leave right after. The bad thing was my car was completely iced over. My front window was fine but my side windows and side mirrors were unable to be scrapped off. Therefore, I had to make sure I stayed in the far left lane the whole time so I didn't have to change lanes.
Addison was really enjoying looking out the window at the house to see the snow. We had made it home last time it snowed to see the small last remains of it, but she has never seen it falling down-in real life. We went ahead and put her in her new coat from Christmas and let her experience snow falling and walking in powdery snow. She enjoyed it. She really thought it was funny when Thomas and I threw snowballs at each other. She tried to throw some at us, as well! She told us she was crazy. LOL!






The Great thing about tomorrow is that LISD has cancelled school for the day, so we get a snowed in day with Addison tomorrow. Right now Texas Tech is starting at 10:00, but I bet by the morning they will cancel classes for them, as well!
Much Love,
The Reynolds

Paint and Playdough

Addison has been having lots of fun playing with playdough. I was a little nervous at first, worried that it would go straight in her mouth. She does not mouth toys, but I thought that she might think it was food. She started too, but after a few "no no nos" she quickly learned it doesn't go in her mouth. She enjoys making lots of different things and having Momma and Daddy make things for her.




Addison also loves to paint these days. She does quite a bit of painting at school, but we make sure that she does some painting at home too! She does really well using a brush, but of course I think she enjoys using her hands more!

I'm Back

Addison has been having lots of fun coming up with fun new games and imaginary "scenarios" that she likes to play around the house. She will play kitchen, changed babies, put babies to sleep, and then the newest one is that she is going home. She will give Thomas and I hugs and kisses and walks to the laundry room and then will run back and say "I'm back!" She will do this over and over again. Sometimes she will tell us, "safe" because we tell her, "be safe" or she will tell us " miss you, love you" It is so cute and tonight she actually let me video tape her! Enjoy.

PS. Ignore Thomas on the phone in the video, he was chatting with his dad about the computer. If I was going to get this on tape I had to go with the flow!

Chilly!

So my parents and grandpa are very big fans of hockey. They are season tickets holders of the Houston Aeros hockey team and never want to miss a game! While my Grandpa was in town for the holidays, he would join my mom or parents to the games. While at the game, he bought Addison a Chilly hat. Chilly is the mascot for the Aeros. I wanted to share the picture of Addison with the hat on and say thank you to Grandpa Red for Addison's new hat!!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Let's Relax

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Snow or is it Ice?

While we were out of town in Katy for the holidays, Lubbock had a pretty big snow...for Lubbock! I was so sad that we missed it and that we were not able to have Addison see snow for Christmas. We were driving back home the next day, so I was hoping that there would still be quite a bit on the ground. The only area that the snow ended up staying around was in the shady areas of the yard. Well, we went ahead and took Addison out in the backyard one morning and we quickly realized that it was more ice then snow..but that is okay!! Addison walked around on it for a while and then began to bend down and say "Hi snow!" "Doing?" She likes to ask different things what they are doing...SO CUTE!!! We tried to video tape her talking to the snow, but she stopped talking once the camera came on (as usual!)




Much Love,
The Reynolds

Let's Get Cooking!

Addison has been very interested in cooking with mommy for a couple of months now! So since we knew that Christmas was coming, we made sure to request that as a gift for our little cooker. Well, Mia and Pop gave Addison a wonderful kitchen set and she is very much in love with it! I have to share though, what Addison did before the kitchen was set up. We had just arrived home from our long drive from Houston and while Thomas and I were unloading and unpacking Addison took her new play pan and food(thank you Horsley's!) and brought it into the kitchen and made herself at home! She pulled out my pots and pans and she literally stayed in there for 45 minutes cooking. She was having such a good time and she didn't need momma or daddy to get in her way!:-) Also, to add to the fun kitchen accessories, Nana and Poppa got Addison and Momma matching aprons so that we can cook together! How Fun! She will put it on to play and insist that Momma gets hers to put on, as well. I am so glad she is enjoying her new kitchen and we are pretty lucky because we are getting lots of yummy Addison cupcakes.




Much Love,
The Reynolds

Christmas in Houston

After Midland, we traveled down to Katy to spend 2 days with my family. When we got there, mom was eager to do Christmas gifts. Addison opened a gift with Nana, Poppa, and Grandpa Red. She loved all of her gifts! We did not do to many things because we had such a short amount of time. We did enjoy 3 of our favorite restaurants: Caspian Cafe which is persian food, Pappadeaux, and we also had the Cheesecake Factory. Addison really loved it there, she had butter noodles and strawberries with whipped cream! YUM!!! Thomas, my Dad, and I went to see Avatar at the 3D IMAX. It was really good! We left on Wednesday and headed back home to end our holiday travels! We had such a good time with all of our family, but we were glad to back in our cozy little home!

Sorry about the photo, I could not get it turned...?

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Christmas in Midland

The first part of Christmas for the Reynolds' family was in Midland. We were there for 4 days and 3 of those days our sweet girl was very sick. She really did not get to enjoy Christmas in full Addison spirit. She ended up having a fever and very bad cough. We took her to the urgent care just to make sure that she did not have any serious issue...since she normally does. The doctor said everything was fine, but we needed to put her on a cough/decongestant medicine, and she has no problem taking that! She began to perk up by the end of Christmas day.
Addison was so excited by the amount of presents under the tree and she did sooo good. She only went over to the tree once to "look" at the gifts. She was not to interested in opening gifts, but there was a whole lot going on in the room that I don't blame her. She was able to see Uncle T and Aunt Diana while we were there. They gave her a rocking cow. She was able to play with her cousin Hayden, they had fun coloring, playing with trains,and making tea. They did really well together!!! Another exciting thing is that she will have a new uncle, Justin. Tosha and Justin are engaged and we are so excited for them. Addison really started warming up to Justin this trip, and I think he was pretty happy about that!





Much Love,
The Reynolds

Christmas in Houston will follow!