The Handley Family: Monthly Update - September 2013 Silver Dollar City

Addie's September Photo

Cooper's September Photo

Silver Dollar City - We met up with Shane's family in Branson and hung out at Silver Dollar City. Addie wanted to ride just about every ride she saw. Even the big roller coasters, she would point to and ask if she could ride them! We let her ride a few of the kids rides and play a few games. One of the games Addie played was where you throw a large whiffle ball onto a flat surface covered with circles. Each circle has a color around it, indicating the type of prize you will win. Only TWO circles out of over 100 of them were for the BIG prize. On the first throw, Addie made it in the BIG circle!! We were shocked! Even the game operator was a bit shocked! LOL She won a big Hot Pink Teddy bear. While we were there, we rode the Train and I think that was probably the highlight of our day. Both kids really seemed to enjoy being on it.

All about Addie

School - Addie is learning a lot at school and is so excited about going now. She no longer gets sad about being dropped off. Even more, when she gets home, she seems eager to talk about her day and all of the neat things she has done. Every day when she gets home, we take a quick picture of herself and whatever art/school work she has done for the day. I don't know how long this will last, but it's fun to see the progression of what she has worked on so far.

"reading" - Addison loves story time. We typically save it for right before bed but occasionally she likes to get her books out and read to us at other times. At one point, she was in the bathroom reciting one of the books she's used to us reading at bedtime. I looked in and she's sitting on the toilet without the book and "reading" it verbatim! Addie is a very quick learner and it doesn't take much for her to catch on and start reading from memory.

All about Cooper

Walking Update - We've hit a few milestones this month. On 9/2 he walked with mommy from one hallway to the next while only holding one hand. On 9/14 he took his first steps without holding onto anything when daddy stood him on the kitchen floor. On 9/22 he continuously walked between Mama and Nana without holding onto anything. He's making huge progress on walking but still seems really reluctant to let go of walls, furniture, or our hands.

"Yeee-Haw" - We've been watching Toy Story in the car a lot so his newest phrase is Yee-Haw. It sounds more like "AAHHHH-HAAA" when Cooper says it but just as cute! :)

Using Head - I think we've posted about this before, but Coop loves to use his head to knock into things while he's crawling. If Addie is on the floor playing or even if she's just walking, he will crawl really fast over to her and barrel into her using his head. Sometimes Addie will laugh and go with it and other times I think she gets really irritated. If Cooper finds a ball, he will use his head to move it about the room.

All about baby #3

IT'S A GIRL!!!!! We found out on 9/16 that we're having a girl! Of course Addie was really excited when she came home from school and we told her. Mommy bought two big balloons saying "it's a girl" and took pictures of the kids holding them. Cooper had no idea what was going on but seemed to really enjoy having the balloons :)

Symptoms - I haven't had much in terms of symptoms. Started feeling flutters around the middle of the month which grew stronger towards the end of the month. Haven't had any overly noticeable nausea and most other symptoms have tapered off.... except for the weight gain though :) lol

More photos from September:

Letter A week. They talked about

Johnny Appleseed.