Addison - the 2-Year Old, July edition!

July was a very busy month, as a part of our very busy summer of 2011! The month was full of some great family activities and get togethers.

"Happy Birthday Ly!"

That is how Addison says, "Happy 4th of July!"
This was really Addison's first 4th of July that she's been able to enjoy all it has to offer.
The holiday weekend fun started on the Thursday night - the Schaumburg Park District had a 4th of July Flag Scavenger Hunt. It was a cute little activity with tons of toddlers running around finding flags in a playground that was set up like a little downtown. After that, all the kids got ice cream and then ran around like crazy in the big playground.
Then on Sunday we went to the 4th of July Festival in Hoffman Estates. Just a few rides, a couple games and of course some funnel cake!
On Monday, 4th of July, we headed up to Rolling Meadows for Addison's first 4th of July parade! She loved getting all the candy thrown at her. The best part, was Bluecoats drum & bugle corps was in this parade. When I saw them coming down the street, I took Addie to get a better look and she was SO excited! She yelled, "Look Mommy! Drum corps outside!" Addison loved the drumline and kept "drumming" afterwards. She still does it if we ask her what drum corps does!
Shortly after we got home from the parade, Grandma G and the gang came over to go swimming in the pool. Afterwards we ordered some pizza while Addie had a post-swim nap.
Come sunset, it was time to head over to Lake Park high school for Addison's first fireworks! There were some smaller fireworks going off in neighboring communities that Addison was really excited about. It was fun teaching her what a firework was, as she's never seen them before. But, when it was time for the main show, she got real scared and jumped up into Daddy's lap and hid her head. But she kept peaking out, and finally she sat up and watched all the fireworks. She really liked the green ones and the sparkly ones. She kept talking about fireworks for weeks afterwards. How they go BOOM, and Daddy "keeps my safe." Such an adorable memory with her!
On Tuesday, the 5th, I had the day off of work, so I took her to Pirate's Cove Children's Theme Park in Elk Grove Village. It's such a cute place and Addie had a blast, even though it was 90 degrees there and she hadn't napped. There's a little train that gets pushed around, but the kids get to spin the wheel on their own car. Addie went on that ride about a dozen times! She also loved the choo-choo train that we would just sit in and go around and around. The best part was the Pirate Show - just a cute lil skit, but at the end all the kids get to come up on stage and help. Got the most adorable video of Addison trying to act along!!! It's on Facebook, if you haven't seen it yet! Addison's lack of nap finally caught up to her so I had to coax her out of the park after a good 3 hours there.
The rest of the weekend was filled with trips to the parks, our swimming pool and her toddler swimming pool in the back yard.

Drum Corps!

For the few readers out there who may NOT know this about me, I'm a big band dork. I was in my high school marching band for 5 years and then went straight into 5 years of marching in Phantom Regiment, a drum & bugle corps based in Rockford. I am in love with the activity, obviously - so of course, when it peaked Addison's interest in the summer of 2010, I was in heaven. Her first exposure was the 2008 Phantom Regiment world championship DVD that I just happened to watch one evening with a drum corps friend who was visiting. It caught Addie's attention - her eyes were fixed on the screen and she was clapping along. Well, that turned into one of her favorite things to watch for several months! In that time she learned how to say "drum corps."
So, when I planned a visit up by my mom in Madison, I happened to see that there was a drum corps show going on that night. Phantom Regiment wasn't there, but I was very excited to give Addison her first live drum corps experience. She loved it! When we passed drumlines warming up on our walk to the stadium she exclaimed, "Look, Mommy! Drum corps - right there!"
She loved watching the shows, although she was a little antsy having to sit still in the stands so we had to go out for a few walking breaks. During the shows she kept asking me to go down there - she wanted to go with the corps! Then, when the entire competition was over, she said, "Awwww, where's drum corps? Want more!" Gotta love that!

Call the Zoo! 

Addison went to two Zoo's in July. First, we went to Cosley Zoo in Wheaton for the first time. It's $3/adult zoo, so we thought we'd check it out as it's closer and WAY cheaper than Brookfield Zoo! We had a really nice time! They had mostly farm/local animals. But is was more than enough to keep Addison interested and entertained the two hours we were there. Her favorite part was hanging out by the duck pond and watching all of them swim around. There was even a feeding time that Addie was able to partake in!
Then, when we were up visiting my mom again at the end of the month, we went to Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison which is a free zoo. It's a good size and they have a lot of large animals just like a major zoo. There was a play area and train that Addie loved too. She got to feed some goats, and Tim liked that part too :)
Sometime this fall we may hit up Brookfield Zoo or even Lincoln Park Zoo in the city (which is also free!) just to say we did it all. Addison really likes animals and has mastered most of the names, etc. She gets really excited when they are active and asks constant questions about what they are doing.

Fun with Friends! 

Addison is very social and friendly. When we are out and about in our neighborhood, she's always pointing out kids and interested in what they are doing. When we are at the playgrounds, she's not shy and goes up to the kids and wants to play. There is one girl, a 16-month old that we frequently run into at "Lil Park." Addison has started to call her "my friend"! Funny thing, is that this little girl is Polish (I think) and her mother barely speaks English. So it's funny to watch Addison talk to her and not even though most 16-month-olds don't have a big vocabulary, this little one probably really has no idea what Addison is saying. Yet they still play together.
At the end of the month, we had a friends get-together at Whitnall Park up in Milwaukee. It was all my high school friends, most of us who now have children. A great excuse to all get together and have our kids all play together. Addison had a blast! She played well with all the kids, and even all the adults! It's so fun to see her with kids who are younger than her and my friend Chelsea's newborn baby! Addison looks so huge and all grown up! When I see my friends' little girls who are only a year younger than her, it's amazing to see the difference! Even weirder is how I barely remember what Addison was like at that age. I have to go back to pictures or this blog to remember, since I'm so caught up in the every day-ness of raising Addison.
I hope that there are more functions like this in the future for Addison to get together with a lot of kids to play. It's a really fun experience for her!

All in all, it's been a great and busy summer. We have a lot of busy weekends in August too, but I'm hoping fall slows down a bit so we can take advantage of some of the great local activities and attractions. Until next time!!!!