It has been
a month of adventures for us as we’ve settled into “coastal living” in Biloxi,
Mississippi. We’ve also started our
Thanksgiving countdown! Some of our
adventure highlights include: Biloxi
Tour Train, Biloxi Shrimping Trip, Hurricane Katrina Memorial, West Biloxi Library
weekly storytime, Biloxi Library weekly storytime, Our Lady of Fatima Catholic
Church masses, Biloxi Visitors Center, Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary mass, Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, Gulf Islands National
Seashore, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, French Quarter horse-drawn carriage
tour, Honey Island Swamp Tour, and IMAX Theater “The Last Reef 3D.” We’ve dined at Mary Mahoney’s French Restaurant,
Atami, Sweet Thangs Ice Cream Shop, Aunt Jenny’s Catfish Restaurant, New
Orleans Seafood Festival, and Bourbon House on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Atami is our new favorite place for sushi,
and I was shocked at Aunt Jenny’s that the menu itself wasn’t deep-fried for
authenticity! We’ve enjoyed walks along
the pier and harbor in Biloxi, as well as swimming at the community pool. I am relieved to have finally found a
wonderful fresh bread and organic vegetable source at the Ocean Springs Fresh
Market. Of course, despite our attempts
to expose her to culture and new foods, Addy is most intrigued by the huge
guitar outside the Hard Rock Café and Sharkheads, the souvenir shop boasting a giant
shark head entrance that would make Wisconsin Dells proud!
Addy had her first popcorn experience in Mississippi. Daddy was laughing when Mommy asked him to show her how to pop popcorn. Apparently, Mommy can make homemade noodles, prepare a full Thanksgiving dinner, freeze and can produce and spreads, and bake anything you request, but she missed the lessons on making air popped corn and coffee. Note: She still has no idea how to make coffee!
Addy had her first popcorn experience in Mississippi. Daddy was laughing when Mommy asked him to show her how to pop popcorn. Apparently, Mommy can make homemade noodles, prepare a full Thanksgiving dinner, freeze and can produce and spreads, and bake anything you request, but she missed the lessons on making air popped corn and coffee. Note: She still has no idea how to make coffee!
Addy loves looking
for the Biloxi Lighthouse, big TAR (Hard Rock Café guitar), dolphin friends (sculptures
of dolphins in oak tree remnants left by Hurricane Katrina), jump house (from
the International Children’s Festival), and big houses (multi-floor casino
hotels).
One night
before bed, Addy befriended a piece of dirt from the bathtub. When she put her pajamas on, the dirt got
lost, resulting in an extremely dramatic display of tears. Mike found a “replacement friend” from the
laundry room, and while Addy knew it was not her original buddy, she accepted
her “new friend.” Crisis averted by Daddy!
Addy is a
fan of “takin’ a break” on the walk home from the park. This involves her sitting down in the grass
and refusing to move, while we explain that the park is only two blocks away,
thus not a long enough trip to require a break!
When Mommy
asked Addy how she got hurt, Addy responded that she had been “goofin’ round.” She also enjoys the phrase “bein’ a monkey.”
Addy
dribbles a basketball by crouching down, bouncing up and down, and pushing
against the ball with both hands.
At the
library, Addy was having trouble choosing books for herself and Stella. It finally got to the point where Mommy had
to narrow the choices and eventually just put some books in the bag. When Mommy told this story to Grandpa Mark,
implying that Addy had inherited Grandpa Mark’s indecisiveness, Grandpa Mark
said he was proud that Addy was so deliberate and cautious!
When Mommy
introduced the song, “This Old Man,” Addy was intrigued. She proceeded to go for a hunt around the
house “lookin’ for the old man.”
Toward the
end of mass at the Cathedral, Addy loudly announced that “all the people go on
the boat.” She was very excited about
our Biloxi Shrimping Trip.
When we boarded the rickety old Biloxi
Shrimping Trip boat, Addy pointed to one of the huge fancy yachts and declared
that she wanted to ride on a “different boat.”
Daddy’s comment so far on Grandma Vicky’s “1000
Books By Kindergarten” challenge is, “You know, there are some children’s books
that are better off not read, but when you have to read 1000, you are going to
come across them!” We let Addy choose
almost all the books when we go to the library, and she’s picked some real
winners. One night, Daddy got stuck
reading a poorly translated Norwegian folk tale. It contained grammatical mistakes and made no
sense in certain parts. It also had a
very memorable line spoken to a bear in the story, which read, “Hey pussy, want
some sausage?” Addy is also quite adept
at choosing books that have little to no plot or involve things we really don’t
want to reinforce like, “At Grandma’s house, we eat treats all day,” and, “When
I was little, I drank milk, but now that I’m big, I eat Cheetos.”
Addy calls everyone FRIEND and often asks us
to, “Find a friend for me?” followed by, “Find a friend for Addy?” at the park
and on our adventures. Of course, “friends”
range from pieces of dirt to wooden sculptures to stuffed animals to actual
people, so this is not a difficult task at the moment!
One day, Mommy was sorting through
Stella’s closet to pack away outfits that no longer fit. Addy held them up by the hangers and declared
each one TOOT (cute).
If we catch wind of something that could
potentially be a messy diaper, we ask Addy if she needs to go potty. Her most common response is, “No, just
toots.”
Addy woke up one morning with her hand
raised as if to hit something. That
should have been Mommy’s first clue as to how the day was going to
progress. By mid-morning, we had already
had one timeout and several lectures about hitting. Finally, Addy agreed with Mommy that the best
thing to hit, if she needed to hit something, would be a pillow. We will see how long this lasts…
During timeouts, Addy now runs over to her
bookcase and knocks her framed ultrasound picture off the shelf. Unfortunately, her room still remains the
best spot for timeout, as it has the safety gate on it!
Stella loves pulling CDs off the rack and
playing with them. (For my
technologically advanced friends and family members, CDs are the mechanism by
which we used to purchase music. They
came after eight-track tracks, records, and cassette tapes.) Addy loves alerting us when Stella is headed
across the room toward the CDs by yelling, “Stella playin’ with CDs!” One day, she brought a pile of CDs over to
Stella and proceeded to shout the warning.
Luckily, Daddy caught on to that set-up!
We continue to work on Addy’s
manners. She was struggling one day to use
her “may I please” request. After many
failed attempts, she finally said all the words nicely with appropriate voice volume
and no fingers in her mouth while making eye contact. Unfortunately, one of the hands no longer in
her mouth happened to be down her pants, so we had to start over. Ahhhh!
We were invited over to finally meet our
next-door dog neighbors, Bruce and Rusty, and Addy was both intrigued and
terrified by them. They are taller than
she is, so Mommy does not blame her for being a little intimidated by two
Dobermans. Rusty was quite the character
and had to go to the garage for timeout after humping Bruce and jumping on the
couch. Addy talked about, “Rusty go to
garage for timeout…jumping on couch!” for days afterward.
Grandma Vicky would be very impressed with
Addy’s “cheerful smile.” She puts her
fingers to her mouth and forces a smile when Mommy reminds her that we need to
have a “cheerful attitude.”
Daddy is working with Addy on saying “yes”
rather than the usual “no like that” or “no thank you.” They practice saying YES with much
enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the practice
has yet to transfer over to everyday life requests!
Mommy asked Addy what she would like to be
for Halloween, and her immediate response was ITSY SFIDER. Despite Grandma Gretchen and Grandpa Bob’s
best attempts to show her all the other possible costume options in the
catalog, Addy stuck with her original choice.
Sorry Grandma Gretchen. We know spiders are not your favorite creature!
Addy loves helping Mommy with cooking and
baking, but her excitement for the final product is hampered by her
memory. By the time the item is finished
cooking or baking, she has usually forgotten about it. After assisting with zucchini cake, Addy
forgot for several days until Mommy and Daddy decided they should at least drop
a little hint. Suddenly, Addy remembered
and wanted her cupcake for breakfast.
She proceeded to spend 15 minutes savoring every little bite.
Addy and Stella love playing with a box of
Mommy’s old toys. Addy’s favorite is the
mailbox with openings to “mail” various shapes and then “unlock” the box to
gather the mail. Hopefully, most of the
lead paint on the other toys has neutralized by now!
Addy is intrigued by Mommy’s makeup and
loves when Mommy puts a little powder on her nose. One day, Mommy was using the tweezers to
clean up her eyebrows, and Addy kept asking questions about it. Mommy admitted that it did cause a little “sting,”
but when she offered to pluck some of Addy’s unibrow, Addy said, “No thank you—too stingy.” She then reasoned that maybe the “doctor
check unibrow.”
At the library storytimes, Addy states her
full name, “Addy Grace Roltgen,” and given that this is the south, Ms. Dede and
others now call her “Addy Grace.”
Addy loves spinning in circles in the
living room and declaring, “Floor moving!”
Addy informed Mommy that her dolls were
hungry and needed to eat. When Mommy
suggested finding their bottle, Addy said, “No, no, no,” and began to lift
Mommy’s shirt. Apparently they are
exclusively breastfed as well!
For Stella’s six-month birthday, we once
again attempted to have pictures taken of the girls. At some point, we should probably just throw
in the towel, but Daddy and Mommy continue to torture themselves at family photo
sessions. We’ll probably laugh about it
someday, just not anytime soon! The
photographer was a southern belle who called Mommy “Miss Tiffani” and had all
sorts of little nicknames for Addy and Stella, including sissy, little miss
pris, pretty girl, and ma’am. Addy was
not impressed with the photographer’s attempts to tickle her and adjust her
body position. The famous Addy “knee
lock” occurred when the photographer tried without success to bend Addy’s knees
into a cute sitting pose. When Addy
refused to do an outfit change into a pumpkin shirt, the photographer asked if
she could put the shirt on, and Addy said, “Yeah,” in what was clearly an “I
don’t give a crap” tone. Ahhhhhh! The photographer gave us some wonderful
unsolicited parenting advice that the more we bring them in for pictures, the
more comfortable they’ll be in front of the camera. Judging by the fact that we’ve religiously
brought them in from birth through two years at every major milestone—newborn,
two weeks, six months, one year, 18 months, two years—and a few extra times to
boot, we are going to go ahead and disagree with that advice!
Addy was beyond excited to see the USO
Sesame Street concert on Keesler Air Force Base. She kept telling all the kids in line to “be verrrrrryyyyyyy
quiet” during the show, as they were running around like wild
monkeys outside the theater. Throughout
the 30-minute performance, Addy was completely entranced by the singing and
dancing. Mommy and Daddy had never seen
her sit so still! Daddy commented that
we’d probably get a similar result if we let her watch TV.
We decided to venture into Sharkheads, the
huge souvenir shop along the beach that boasts a shark’s mouth as the
entrance. Rebuilt post-Hurricane
Katrina, the entire shop is now on the second story as supports lift it high
above the beach. As we marveled at the
junk for sale, Addy found a rock collecting station to play in. Within minutes, she had picked up and dropped
a shot glass that was out of place among the rocks. Daddy had to take it to the front register to
show them that it broke, explain what happened, and ask if we needed to pay for
it. Did Mommy mention that the shot
glass was in the shape of a boob? In his
former life, Daddy would have probably thought it was a really cool purchase! The clerk’s first question was if Addy was
okay, which impressed us, and thankfully, we did not have to buy the ceramic
pieces of boob.
During the precious time when Mommy gets
both girls napping together in the afternoon, the sound of engines revving
filled the house one day and threatened to disturb the peace. As Mommy looked outside to figure out what
was going on, she realized that the Cruisin’ the Coast cars were parading on
the road right behind our house. Despite
bringing an early end to naptime, the cars provided some interesting afternoon
entertainment from the comfort of our backyard area. We did have to look through the spaces
between the poles of the Keesler Air Force Base security fencing, but
nevertheless, our wish to live “on a parade route” was finally fulfilled!
When commercial airplanes fly overhead,
Addy refers to them as “far away planes.”
She is used to the huge Air Force planes flying right over our rooftop.
One morning, Addy had a scratchy voice, so
Mommy asked if she had a frog in her throat.
Addy opened her mouth for Mommy to check.
After a family run on base, Mommy ran back
to our house to get some extra miles in, while Daddy loaded the girls in the
van. Daddy got Stella buckled in and
situated before walking around the vehicle and calling Addy over to “her side”
of the van to get into her carseat. Addy
responded, “Am on my side!” Apparently,
Daddy had buckled Stella into Addy’s convertible carseat, but Addy was still
waiting patiently next to Stella.
Addy has definitely picked up on the
little phrases and nuances of our conversations. One of our favorites we hear her repeat is, “Ohhhhhh
Stelllll,” whenever Stella is getting into something she’s not supposed to or
is crying. She also warns us to “be
verrrrrryyyyyyy careful” when crossing the street, opening the oven, and in other
hazardous situations.
Addy is really interested in our Halloween
decorations this year. She especially
likes the GHOST-ES, as she calls them.
Mommy tried teaching Addy that when it was
morning and the digital clock in her room said “7,” she could get out of bed to
choose books to read independently and quietly in her bed. Addy interpreted this a bit more broadly as
she now enjoys getting out of her bed to gather books, clothes out of her
dresser, and hair accessories. She also
likes taking off her pajamas and diaper in the morning, so Mommy usually finds
her completely naked among her animal menagerie and books. Throughout the day, Addy will take note of
the clock and let us know if it does or does not say 7. This has prompted many discussions about such
abstract concepts as a.m., p.m., and the need for Mommy and Daddy to get more
sleep.
We’ve noticed some southern terminology
that is somewhat foreign to us. Of
course, everyone says “y’all” constantly, but we’ve even heard a few “all y’alls.” Strollers and carts are referred to as “buggies,” when you prepare to leave the house, you are “fixin’” to go somewhere, and females young and old alike are referred to as "ma'am." Example:
“Y’all fixin’ to go to the park in the buggy, ma'am?” Then there is also the entire vocabulary of
military terminology, most notably PCS (permanent change in station), DITY (do
it yourself), and TDY (temporary duty).
Example: “Thankfully, we were
able to PCS here through a DITY move, rather than TDY.” We’ll get it all figured out by the time we
are ready to leave!
