Adeline Decides - Recap SIX

Greetings beautiful people! I am not going to discuss what a slacker I have been on here, let's chalk it up to me being awesome at other things. I wear too many hats/too many irons in the fire/ possibly some sort of attention deficit disorder/ OH LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY. Maybe one day I will grow up, settle on one job that pays superbly vs. 10 small jobs that pay not as superbly, if at all. Meh probably not. Anyways, Adeline has been very busy making wonderful decisions so I shall recap for you now.

         Adeline has found a new hobby that she both enjoys, and is good at. Fishing! She only does this in 10 minute increments, and stops as soon as she catches anything. At any rate, catching her first fish at 3 years old is putting her on the fast track to becoming a redneck. She can boast about this later. Oh wait, she probably won't want to mention any of this. Good thing I am PUTTING IT ON THE INTERWEBS. Sorry sweet cheeks.

 Yea right dad, I am not touching that...

She has also found a new love for baking. She prepared (all steps aside from touching the oven) a birthday cake for her nanny: 

 It was crazy good for a three year old. She's got skillz. 

             Recently my company was asked to participate in a vintage fashion show at the local nursing home. Another freebie job but very rewarding. We had a blast, and Adeline decided that the nursing home is by far one of the coolest spots to hang out ever.The kid would have stayed if I let her! We brought over a wardrobe of vintage threads for the models to use, and naturally Adeline had to take a stroll on the cat walk as well. And to think, I was sure she would be too shy to waltz around in front of strangers. HA. I was probably just projecting my own nervousness because the staff gave me a microphone and let me do ALL THE TALKING. Yikes. 

Here she is in one of her fashion show ensembles:

              Summer festivities are upon us, and school has ended. Her gymnastics classes have wrapped up as well and she snagged a trophy at her final performance. She decided it was much too wonderful to hide from the world. The trophy made it around everywhere the days following. Restaurants, stores, grandma's house, etc. 

Here she is with the coveted trophy at our favorite mexican spot. 

This was post performance, so she still had the leotard and refused to put on pants, so we compromised by pulling her leg warmers way the hell up her legs to make pseudo pants. 

                Adeline received her passport this week. She was so proud of it, and said that it was her story. She had to read her story to everyone around, and she even told grandma that I was in it. 

She explained that the illustration below is mommy at a party:

So if you ever wanna party like it's 1799, I'm your girl! 

In case any of you are wondering if this little project of allowing a toddler to make so many of her own decisions has blown up in my face yet, which I am sure a few of you are... Trolls. I am happy to report that it has not blown up in my face at all. I now present some observations.

Adeline Decides - Observations thus far in our experiment:

She is more outspoken, less shy, yet still polite. We get constant compliments on her demeanor in general, especially in public places where a majority of toddlers act bat shit crazy. She is cool as a cucumber. Her diet has improved, as well as her appetite because she has more of a choice in what she consumes. Don't get me wrong, she asks for treats more often than not, but we compromise by getting those treats after we have regular meals. In most cases she enjoys the meals so much she forgets all about the treats. Sleeping patterns have improved a bit as well. 

If you would like to read more about Adeline and her antics, and what exactly we have been doing the last few months click here. 

Adeline Decides - Recap CINCO

          Has it really been an entire month and a half since the last recap? Ouch, sorry folks. This recap of Adeline Decides is days away from Cinco de Mayo, which really means nothing to Adeline because she is half Canadian. I don't know where I am going with this. Proceed to the recap!

Ahem, if you need to get caught up and figure out what the heck Adeline Decides is you can go here and here.  In a nutshell, I am spending at minimum, 6 months letting my 3 year old make decisions for herself and for our family. We are at the halfway mark and I have zero regrets with starting or completing this project. It is hard to recall what decisions are notable on here though, as it is becoming second nature for me to get her opinion on a whole lot of things.

But here is what you might have missed in the last month and a half:

-We hopped in the van and drove down the road...TO TEXAS. I gave a detailed synopsis of that trip on our business blog that you can view here. Adeline did things like con an old lady out of some bacon, and play with cows, you know, the usual.

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          Moving along, I have been getting my nails done in a nail salon by my cousin for, 17 years now (what can I say, I am high maintenance). So we visit the nail salon every other week. Adeline decided it was high time she got to sit in the chair for a fresh coat of polish:

Is this normal? 3 year olds aren't supposed to stay willingly stationary for this long right?

Since the last recap, Easter happened. That weekend was a blur, but Adeline did decide to make Easter cards instead of buy:

She made the lil guys with her finger prints! I drew the faces and such. 

Everyone together now: "Awwww".

             Another month of March achievement for the books, Adeline became a knight. Wasn't her decision initially, until she saw that she got to hop on stage and have a captive audience. Oh, people are watching? Give me that crown and let's do this:

She did pick out several outfits for herself and I that I thought to snap a pic of: 

Not entirely sure why I look frightened in this photo. The outfit isn't scary at all. 

The dress she helped me buy from another recap. 

A shirt she got for a song during the Texas antique show. The vendor loved her to pieces. 

Remember from last recap she picked out her outfit for school picture day? I'd say she was pretty happy with her selection...

        Since the beginning of this parenting project I have had a few friends ask me if Adeline could decide for them too. While I don't plan on daunting her with everyone's life questions, if you have one you would really like to have Adeline give her sage advice on you may send it to us. Comment here on the blog with those, or email them to us at junkdrunkjones@gmail.com (subject line: Adeline Decides). If I feel like asking her, and she feels like answering, we will get back to you with her words of wisdom.  

50 States or Bust

Let me disclose that I cannot take full credit for this brilliant idea. I read an article in one of my parenting/soccer mom magazines someone purchased a subscription for me as a gift. In an issue they shared a story that inspired me to set a goal for our family.

Goal: We want to take Adeline to all 50 states by the time she graduates from high school. That is about 3ish states per year.
Lofty? Probably.
Crazy? Possibly.
Impossible? Nah.

For weeks I jokingly mentioned the 50 states or bust goal to Brett, and then to the rest of the family. In reality I was just verbalizing it enough to make it materialize, because it wasn't a few weeks after that mention that I invited she and I on a road trip my parents had planned almost a year prior. I don't normally invite myself on such adventures, but they agreed to let us stow away. The days following I packed us up for a 9 day/1,500+ mile trek up north. We hit 5 states that trip alone, and Adeline had a freaking blast. 8 months have passed and she still mentions it.

Thanks to my job (and what is evolving into quite the family business) as Junk Drunk Jones we get to travel a bit. We just got back from a trip out west that knocked off another 4 states on her list.

Is this goal gonna work out? I have no idea, but I am going to try like hell to make it happen. What is your favorite state? When we make it there, what should we be sure to see?

Thai Food

Recently my niece Chelsia started working with my family at our flooring company, and we share an office. I am pretty sure she has been bored to tears (physically) at least once. At least she gets to look forward to being around dad and I every day.

Dad: Hey kid, what the hell are you eating?
Chels: Thai food.
Dad: What? Cat food?
Chels: No! Thai food.
Dad: *blinks*
Chels: THAI FOOD. 
Dad: Huh? Stef, what is she trying to say to me?
Me: Thai food, dad. THAI food. You know, Thailand/ T-H-A-I.
Dad: Oh, so, ok.
Guess she could be eating a cat. (ok I may have said that last line... but I know dad was thinking it).

Adeline Decides Recap #FOUR

Business as usual over here. Since Recap #THREE we have been pretty busy doing important stuff. Like building big forts and sleeping in them:

 Family Fort Night was wildly successful according to Adeline. The mister and I have to disagree, we slept terribly. We also had to keep up with her waking every few hours to cry because she forgot she was in a fort, and then had to change positions.

 Bacon found a crack in the fort walls for them to peek out of. 

 Everybody together now! Awwwwwwwwwww.

  Bacon seems to be oblivious to the fact that his partner in crime is total lunatic. Total. 

Adeline took a trip to her first buffet. As we can see in the photo she made this particular selection after eating a plate full of random crap (I want to say majority black olives and ham). Dessert was an interesting assortment of jello, pudding, grapes, and gummi bears. Yummmm  ?

Still can't decide if this is the look of a full belly, or of total regret. 

       Over the weekend I (Junk Drunk Jones) was working an antique show, because that's my gig these days. After visiting with me she decided to take her dad for a little tour around the show. She found an old guy who sells cowboy hats and saddles and decided to take them for a test drive. I am extremely happy to report neither of those actually made it to our home.

But this did:

She took her first trip to Ikea with her dad and after playing Goldilocks and trying out all the beds she snagged the lovely fish pillow for our house. She says it is for our couch. It is THREE AND A HALF FEET LONG. And shiny. Thank baby jesus Ikea doesn't have an entire line of fish decor (yet). 

Here's the Goldilocks shenanigans:

Picking out extremely weird couch cushions can be exhausting. 

       For all of you who are exceedingly jealous of our new couch cushion I am pleased to let you know that you too, can own one. You can find out how to purchase your very own here. I am going to say it is probably for a very limited time only, these bad boys are going to go fast. 

*Correction: Ikea's website says available in store only. I bet that is so they can limit how many you purchase at a time. They have to ration this kind of crap out you know. My kid is a visionary, and is probably just ahead of the fish decor craze before it explodes. Hurry.

Thanks for recapping with us. 

Want to know what we are up to? We are letting our toddler make decisions, for her health and well being (or something like that). You can read all about it here and here. 

Luck of the Irish?

In honor of St. Patrick's Day I would like to provide a little proverb I heard from my father recently.
Let me start this by saying that my parents are a great source for really wacky sayings. Some are true blue southern sayings, and the rest I am fairly certain they just make up as they go. Some of the traditional stuff follows along the lines of: "colder than a well digger's ass" or "madder than an ol' wet hen" occasionally something is "rough as a cob", etc.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not immune to using the oldies but goodies, and I've been known to come up with a few odd lines myself.

When asking my dad how someone we knew happened to be so lucky all the time he found an interesting adage for me in the recesses of his mind. He could have just said "some people are just born lucky". Instead I got this:
"Some people can take a dump, fall in it, and wind up covered in gold. The rest of us? Well, we just wind up covered in shit".

Happy St. Patrick's Day, may you all wind up covered in GOLD today.

Adeline Decides - Recap #Three

So far so good with our little experiment. We are one month down, five (or more) to go.  I am realizing this recap that I should have taken more pictures. Ah well.

The vegetables I mentioned she selected from our Farm to Fork CSA program were delicious. She did well:

She ate half of that broccoli the first day. Let's just say that the resulting sounds and smells that venture produced she got from her father...

She decided this week it was prime time to start doing her own makeup, she was channeling her inner Frida Kahlo and only used my black eyeshadow to create this look:

She selected her outfit for preschool picture day:

She looks thrilled right? Pffffffftt.

My dad decided to teach her the art of being still and taking a nap:

She decided to call shenanigans and just moments later:

Adeline - 1                My dad - 0

On the topic of naps, we sort of let her decide to no longer take naps. NO MORE NAPS?! I would have laughed straight in my own face if I heard that this would be a consequence of my little experiment less than one month into the project. It was painful for me at first because I am a routine, overly organzied, go by the schedule, complete freakazoid. We transitioned from full on naps to "quiet time" in her room because she was too occupied to fall asleep, to not even trying to go there and fight with her to rest. There have been a few slip ups where she has dozed off against her wishes to stay awake, and a few car naps but that is about it these days.

BUT guess what? Bedtime is an absolute dream now. She falls asleep instantly. No more hopping up, water requests, extra stories, multiple fruitless bathroom trips, lost stuffed animal retrievals, *and enter here any and all other wacky requests we've heard her come up with to prolong bedtime. She also sleeps in later in the mornings, giving me time to get some stuff done around the house.
I would have happily traded nap time in a long time ago if I had known.

I didn't have any life decisions to make this week. She did get to select a few outfits and my hairstyle the other day though. She decided to select a hair band, and pigtails for me. Done and done:

If you want to know more about our little Adeline Decides project/get caught up on what we are doing for the next 5 months you can see all of the goodies here.