Roller skating!

This is a painting Adora made with her bath paints. She made the blue first--Daddy. She was telling me which parts she was doing as she was making them, like his legs, arms, etc. Then, she made the yellow--Mommy. Mommy is "big" and, of course, has a red (shows up more like orange here) Sap-Saps. The "orange" on top is Adora, who is "li-lle" (little).

Adora smiling for the camera while posed on her bike. Yes, those are water shoes. She loves them because she can put them on by herself and even knows which foot they go on sometimes. Yes, she is wearing a jacket, even though this is today, because it stormed like crazy last night, and it was chilly this morning, can you believe it in Wichita Falls in June?! She is getting more the hang of riding her bike. She can mostly keep her feet on the pedals and actually tries to push them but isn't quite strong enough and/or coordinated enough yet. We were on the sidewalk and she was trying to correct her direction when she was veering into the grass. She overcorrects, of course. She must get this from her Mama who does the same exact thing on driving video games. But still, it's a start!

I bought Adora some $2 Barbie roller skates at a garage sale a few weeks ago. After one 30-second try a couple of weeks ago, she went out again today and is practically a professional now. I wanted to put all the videos on here because they were soooooooo cute, but it takes FOREVER to upload them, so I just chose the first one. You can see how much she can do by herself. . . and how helpful it is to have a strong daddy behind her just in case something happens.

Sap-Saps

Adora has named her baby sister Sap-Saps. We have started calling her this as a nickname. It's much easier to say than "New Baby" or "Baby Sister" or "Baby Girl." I was on the computer and the phone today, and Adora was, of course, starved for attention. So she comes up to me, lifts up my shirt, and says the following, while hugging and kissing my tummy:

"Ooohh, hi Sap-Saps! What are you doing? Playing or sleeping? Playing?!"

It was so sweet! I love my girls.

See early post about Adora's conversation with Melanie

Daddy's conversation later in the week.

While reading a book with a potty training scene.
Adora "he has asinit"
Daddy's interpretation "where did you hear that word" (thinking she said he has his ass in it"
Adora "he had asinit"
Daddy (now thinking its funny) "Say that again"
Adora "he pee-pee floor"
Daddy (two pages later) "oh, he had an accident"

My 10-year high school class reunion was Memorial Day weekend. It was a lot of fun. Adora joined Jake and me at the picnic and ate a whole hot dog. . . well, minus the bun. I can't remember for sure, but this may have been her "smile" face. It's blazing hot already in Wichita Falls, and unless we get outside right after breakfast, that's pretty much all I can handle without being in the water. Adora's spent a couple of afternoons playing in the sprinkler, and we've been to the Spray Park three times so far. It's one of my favorite things about this area in the summer. She's getting much braver about getting water in her face and even seems to like going under the water in the pool. I signed her up for swim lessons at the YMCA starting in July, and I think she'll love it.

Here, Adora and I are going through her bedtime routine. She loves reading her Bible and trying to identify the people in the pictures.

Jake and I took Adora to a tye-dye workshop at the art museum here. She loved "painting" the shirts. They both turned out really well, and she is so proud of herself when she wears them.

After the tye-dye workshop, we hung out by the lake and watched the ducks. She has dye on her face and looks so cute, sweet, and BIG in this picture!

Adora loves to sing, especially Old McDonald. Here is a little clip of her singing.

Conversation with Adora

Adora came to wake me up after nap. I elected to stay in bed a few more minutes while she roamed the house. She was apparently looking out the front window. Then, she ran to me excitedly:

Adora: I see a stwollah!
Me: You saw a stroller?
Adora: I see a stwollah!!
Me: You saw a stroller outside?
Adora: AAAHH! (her frustrated sound when I don't understand her)
Me: I'm sorry, I don't understand you. Can you please try again?
Adora: I see a . . . mouse!
Me: OOOHH! You saw a squirrel!!!

(Somehow, squirrel and stroller sound exactly the same when she says them. Every single time, I think she is saying stroller!)

More random

This video is of Adora doing gymnastics January 19.

Fort Worth 05/07-05/09

Jake went cross country to Fort Worth this weekend, so we joined him. Friday, Adora and I drove up and visited with my high-school friend, Katie. I forgot to take any pictures of her with her 9-month-old son :( But we had fun playing at the park! Jake got in after Adora had gone to sleep Friday night, but Saturday, we went to the zoo! We were there a little early, so Daddy and Adora swung on the swings "weally high!" while we waited for the zoo to open.

Here is Adora's beautiful smile in front of the chimpanzee habitat. This chimp in the background was really acting up for us, playing, eating, and visiting us at the window.

If you look really hard, you might be able to see the washed-out ibex in the background. It was standing there staring at us for awhile, but as Jake got ready to take the picture, it started to climb down, I guess because we weren't staring back anymore.

Adora was really excited to sit on this tortoise after we had just seen the real ones.


This picture isn't great, but Adora and her friend, Celia (her daddy was also cross country to Fort Worth for the weekend!), had been giving each other really good hugs! Such good friends. So I tried to capture it and got a bonus kiss, too!

This is a video of Adora and Daddy swimming in the really cold hotel pool after dinner Saturday night. Unfortunately, our memory card ran out right after the video started, but I thought there were a couple of seconds of cute footage.

This is a video of Adora talking about rhinos!

Pictureless post

I'm downloading (uploading?) pictures from my camera as we speak so I can have a free memory card for some upcoming trips we have! We are going to Austin for a wedding, to Baton Rouge for a reunion, and to Wyoming to see family. I am excited to do all of these things while I can before Baby Hostetler arrives in October (please be in October). This first trimester has been great, compared to my first trimester with Adora. Still, though, I have been so tired and feeling somewhat sick, so I haven't gotten much more than the need-to-do things done. Therefore, up/downloading pictures from my camera has taken a backseat to trying to feed Adora while I don't feel like eating and sitting on the couch reading her books all day long. Not to mention she has been sick quite a bit.

Ok, so I didn't get a chance to post any pictures, but now that they are on the computer, it will be a lot easier for my next post :)

San Diego & Christmas

I know my blog's not nearly as organized as any of the other blogs I read. This is partly because I haven't figured out how to be a mom yet (does it take this long for everyone?!) and partly because I haven't figured out how to take care of all the pictures I take. So here are a few pictures and a video that you haven't seen yet. And you might want to start at the bottom and work up because they are in reverse order. Don't shoot me.


Adora loves to sit on shoulders! This was Adora's second-favorite zoo animal, the okapi. It is a weird mix between a moose and a zebra and a couple of other animals. At least, that's what it looked like. As a special treat, she got okapi slippers. When Lovey and Bear (with the tummy) got puked on last night, she wanted to hold her lamb and "kapi." So that tells you where they rank in this family.

Adora sitting on the hippo at the zoo.

Jake loves to take these pictures where Adora and I are both pointing at some animal at the zoo. The girls at the San Diego Zoo--me, Adora, and Aunt Kelsey.

Adora liked chasing the seagulls on the beach. Adora loves toddler beds, so I bet Little E was showing his off to her.

Adora and her second cousin (or first cousin once removed? I don't know how that works). They were best buds for a couple of days. This is some sort of flying car ride. I was in the car ahead of Adora and Jake.

Daddy and Adora riding the teacups. Toward the end of the day, we found all the cool kid rides! So Adora was pretty tired but still managed to enjoy some of them. There were absolutely no lines at all, so we could just stay on the rides and ride as many times as we wanted. San Diegans are really afraid of cold weather! Adora pet the sting rays. I was kind of afraid she'd be barbed like the crocodile hunter, but I figured these were probably debarbed, right? She was afraid to pet the dolphins but not the stingrays. Jake got to pet a dolphin, though. They are trained to approach you when you held your hand flat above the water. Then, you're supposed to give them some food, so how do they approach you? With their mouths wide open and their teeth showing. It would've freaked me out, too, if I weren't even two yet.

Adora looking at the Beluga whales. She calls them, "whee-wuls," and I hope she never stops. It's just so cute! Adora with the real polar bear. Ok, ok, there is a layer of glass separating them.

This is our second full day in San Diego. We went to Sea World even though it was cold, because, hey, it's free for military members and dependents. We still had to pay like $10 to park, but we brought soup and went back to the car to eat it, old school :) I think this is when Adora fell in love with polar bears, although she wouldn't take a picture alone with this one.
Here is the beach outside our room in San Diego. As you can see, it was cold! I was really glad we brought Adora's heavy jacket, even though she wouldn't wear it most of the time.

This is Adora opening her kitchen stuff from MawMaw for Christmas. She immediately started to eat it. This is Adora unwillingly taking a picture with Santa at the Riverbend Nature Center Christmas lights display. She is enamored with the idea of Santa, but gets frightened when she actually sees him.