Fall Fun

Ok, I'm getting super backed up with photos from our fall goings-on from the past couple of weeks. We'll start with our visit to the pumpkin patch, which was also Poppy's first experience on a farm. A little hesitant at first, but by the time we were ready to go, she was acting like a regular old cowgirl...

She has some sort of strange fascination with goats.

Notice the little mill in the background near the apple basket? It was a little hand crank mechanism that turned corn into chicken feed and she was absolutely fascinated by it. We practically had to drag her away.

Little Miss Independence wanted to walk throuh the pumpkin patch by herself, but with just about every step she took she tumbled over. Luckily, she did eventually find herself a good pumpkin!

They were offering pony rides and Marc and I both thought to ourselves that there's no way she would want to go on the pony- she would be too scared. Not this cowgirl! Half way through the ride she even tried to let go of my hand and hold onto the pony herself!

Where there's food, there's Poppy.

And the true highlight of our day at the farm, Poppy's very own bag of popcorn.

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And then there was our annual family renuion at Emery Park. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Unfortunately I'm having trouble uploading the rest of my pics though, so if you want to see our newest family pic, you can check it out on Courtney's blog.

Mmmmmm. Chicken.

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Stay tuned, lots more fun stuff coming up this week!

Random cuteness

We call this Poppy's "station".  And she can be found sitting at her station  all hours of the day.  Any new toy, book, item that enters our house must be taken over to the station for a full inspection.  On this particular day, she was deep in thought writing a letter (perhaps to Santa?). 





Is it creepy that I am a little obsessed with watching her sleep?  I just can't help myself.  Like, to the point of using up precious nap-time that should be spent cleaning, catching up on work, etc, is actually spent just staring at her.  Can't help it. 







One afternoon last week we had to go out and practice her trick-or-treating skills.  I think she's got it down.  Halloween should be fun!

Two Peas in a Pod

Things are changing around here. My little snuggle bunny is quickly becoming "daddy's girl". The relationship between Marc and Poppy has changed and grown so drastically over the past couple of weeks that I can barely even believe it. Up until very recently, she would still cry most times that he tried to pick her up and she would try to squirm away to get to me. Over the past couple of months I sometimes wondered if she would ever warm up to him, but apparently she was just saving up all of her love for him. It seems like it literally happened over night - one morning she just held her arms up to Marc be picked up, and now she does that every morning, as opposed to the huge ordeal we used to go through when I tried to shower in the morning and I could hear her crying from downstairs, waiting for me. Now, she can't wait to go downstairs and help daddy make breakfast.  Then she has to walk him to the door and give him big hugs and kisses when he leaves for work. And during the day if I ask her where daddy is, she'll go and wait by the front door. As soon as he walks in the door, it's all smiles and giggles and wanting to be held and not put down. And then the biggest break-through was last week when Marc tried to put her down for a nap. No one has ever done nap-time except for me, so I was pretty leery that he would be able to get her to fall asleep. But lo and behold, this is what I found when I went to check up on them...



...and they've been inseparable ever since.

Adventures in cookie making

So, one morning last week I woke up with a serious craving for homemade chocolate chip cookies.  And so began Poppy's first experience with making cookies!  While I was preparing the ingredients, Poppy enjoyed going through the cabinet in which we keep spices.  The same cabinet in which we keep a small bottle of rum that I once used for a recipe.  Once I had the ingredients ready, I went to find Poppy, and what I found was shocking...










I figured that this was as good of a time as ever to talk about the seriousness of drinking while driving.  I'm pretty sure she won't ever do it again.

My little chef in the making.

17 months

As always, this has been a super fun month with miss Poppy in our lives. So much going on, I don't even know where to begin...

Last week she started saying "uh-oh!". And she likes to say it a lot. And we crack up every time she says it. And it's usually accompanied by both hands up in the air and a shocked look on her face. And it's absolutely adorable. Oh, and this morning she started saying "all done". I have a feeling her sign language skills are on the way out.

Knock on wood, everyone is getting a lot more sleep around here lately. She still wakes up almost exactly 1 hour after she goes to bed every night, but after that she has pretty much been sleeping through the night. And the couple of times that she has woken up during the night, instead of inconsolably crying, she has just been laying in bed, singing songs to herself and looking for Lola, and then she'll eventually fall back asleep. Mind you, this is all taking place in our bed, but as long as she is happy and getting plenty of sleep, we don't mind a bit.

She is absolutely loving our mommy and me music class. Week by week she has been coming out of her shell and it has been so much fun to watch. Her favorite part of the class is when she gets to sit at the grand piano and play. I think we might need to get her a piano.

One of her newest things to do around the house is playing with shopping bags and purses. She's always got to have something on her arm and everything in it has to come out and then go back in. And if she's not playing with a purse, then she's usually talking on a cell phone.





Her taste in foods has drastically changed over the past couple of weeks. All things Asian are still her faves, but she is now officially on a veggie-protest :( and is eating the typical "american" food she used to hate, like pizza, spaghetti, fries, etc.

Teeth are popping up left and right and I soooo cannot wait for this stage to be over with. I think she's just about got them all except for the 2 year molars.

We haven't measured her height in a while, but it seems like she's grown a bit. It's been pretty chilly lately, so the other day I packed away all of her summer dresses. It was so sad to think that she probably won't wear most of them again. But she does look super cute in a pair of jeans and a sweater.

Baptism

Poppy's baptism was on Sunday and everything went really well. She was great during the unusually long mass before the baptism and although she didn't seem to appreciate having water poured over her head (see picture below), she did great for the baptism too. For the ceremony, she wore my family's christening gown that was made from my great-grandmother's wedding dress, as well as a garment Marc wore during his baptism. There was one other baby being baptized at the same time and her name was Lola. So the priest kept addressing "Poppy and Lola", which made everyone on our side of the church giggle each time.

...Godparents, Jeff and Andrea...

...definitely did not like having water poured on her head...

...tired baby...

After church, everyone came over for a "Korean" celebration. We served our favorite Korean dishes; kimbap (korean sushi), chicken bulgogi, jap chae (noodles), fish cakes and kimchee. It was everyone's first time having Korean food and it seemed like just about everyone liked it. We tried to keep the party as small as possible so that Poppy wouldn't be too overwhelmed, but apparently it was inevitable. The fact that she didn't sleep well the night before and then the baptism was during her nap-time didn't help put her in the greatest of moods. So for most of the afternoon she clung to my chest and looked at everyone like, "why are you eating my fish cakes? why are you playing with my toys? why are eating my cake? when are you all going to leave?".

...modeling the sweater our friend Sarah knit for her, isn't is adorable?...

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We've had a super busy week so far, barely making it home for nap time and then out the door as soon as she wakes up.  The house is an absolute mess and laundry is piling up everywhere.  And did I mention Miss Popppy's baptism is on Sunday, and we are having a Korean celebration at our house afterwards?  So we are going to try to stay put today and get caught up on things and maybe even start cleaning.  As I'm looking around the house, contemplating where to start cleaning first, I am in awe at how much things around here have changed since little miss has been home.  I used to wonder if she would like our house, her house, because it doesn't really seem kid-friendly- it's so old and we weren't really thinking "kids" back when we purchased most of our furniture.  And now, there are piles of board books in every corner of every room (including the bathrooms) and trails of little girl shoes go up and down the stairs all day long.  And what would a dining room be without a Little Einstein rocketship sitting in it?  Oh, and let's not forget about the piles of diapers in the living room, of course.  And the hooks that used to keep our coats are now over flowing with diaper bags and little sweaters and silly umbrellas.  So to answer my question that I used to wonder about, I think Poppy absolutely loves her home and I can't imagine our home without her (and all of her stuff) in it.