Addie's Top 10 List @ 4 Years Old (#'s 1-3)

This has been a long tradition in our home dating back to Carter's 2nd birthday. I look forward to the time each year it takes to decide on the important items that make this list because it makes me reflect on who Addie is right this moment.....

3. Her Mommy & Her Night Time Routine: It's taken quite a while until I could make the top list with either of my kids with their super-amazing-hands-on-natural-of-a-dad, that Blake has always been. But we can officially say that Addie is my girl and I love how she yells "MOMMA" at the top of her lungs and sprints to me whenever I walk in the room. More than anything, I love how dedicated she has been over the last year to our night time routine. After dad reads tons of books and gets her tucked in, she always wants me to come in one last time and lay with her. In the last six months, we have made up a "special Addie Mommy kiss" that we do every single night and as I walk to the door to leave, we both say, "Night night, sleep tight, see you in the morning light." The funny thing is how dedicated she is to the fact that I come in, there are nights, where I KNOW she is EXHAUSTED, and I am super busy and forget and she will continue to quietly open her door and say, "Mommy... are you going to come in? I promise it won't take long." She melts my heart!

2. Dancing AND Singing: This little girl is a natural born performer. She LOVES it and she gets SO into it. This is a talent I am so impressed by. For several months, she has belted out songs that she makes up on the spot and they actually sound pretty good.

One of her favorite Christmas presents from YaYa and Grandpa was her very own CD/clock radio. She loves to play her favorite Kid BOB song and just dance and sing away.

She has even gotten Carter to dance... which is hard to do!

#1 (JUST LIKE LAST YEAR!) Playing ANYTHING with her brother. Nothing tops Addie's list except her big brother.

When we get home in the late afternoons and it's WAY too hot to be outside, you will find these 2 playing together throughout the house. They play hours of "doggies," where they pretend to take them to school, have parties for them, take them for rides in the car and for walks.

Also, paper airplanes are another favorite activity and they LOVE when magazines come to gather the postcards and turn them into planes.

So at four years old, what does Addie not like????! Tomatoes and bubbles in her baths!!! She's not very into Marcie, her baby doll anymore, and as far as we have come, she still throws an occasional tantrum if tired or not feeling well... like this one a few weeks ago...

Addie's Top 10 @ 4 Years Old: (#'s 4-6)

**This list is continued and is a SNAP SHOT in time of Addie as she turns FOUR years old tomorrow!

6. Smokey and all dogs in general! This has been a consistent list maker since day one with addie. This girl has a definite thing for animals and these four legged animals. No matter where we are, she always asks to pet any dog she can. I see a possible veterinarian in her future or maybe just a house FILLED with every rescue animal she can find! 

... these days, it can be even the stuffed, pretend Smokey that she is obsessed with. Here, she is allowing him to put his head outside the window, while we go to school one morning.

5.Drawing Pictures (by hand not coloring book pages) She is very insistent on this and it could be mainly because her new pre-school, over the last year, does not allow any coloring book pages and encourages them to be creative with all art. If she isn't playing with her brother, this is where you can find Addie... (I can't seem to keep my printer stocked with plain white paper for too long, for some reason.)

4. Talking... talking... talking. Her favorite thing is to introduce her brother. No matter where we are, it usually goes like this... "Hi, my name is Addie. I'm 3 in a half. This is my brother CAAArter. He is five!!"

Another tradition that Blake started with Addie a year ago was making up stories at night and telling them to one another. Just today, I asked her to quickly think up a story and tell me, giving her no time to prepare...

Addie's Top 10 @ FOUR Years Old (#'s 7-10)

10. Her best friends: Believe it or not, after a full 12 months of not seeing these three on a daily basis and making dozens of new friends at her new school. If you ask Addie who her best friends are, the friends she loves the most, without hesitation, she answers: "Ella, Jack Nicki and Ella Madrid." (This isn't something I ask often anymore and was shocked when I continue to get this same confident response! There must be something to infant and toddler brainwashing.) She is lucky if she gets to see Ella M. and Jack every six weeks and Ella Perkins probably every couple of weeks on average now. But when they are all together, they pick up right where they left off.

9. "Striking a pose" is ALL Addie these days! I seriously don't know where she gets this. I know if you know me, you are probably laughing out loud right now... but seriously, when has she ever seen me do something like this?!?!?!

8. Rollie Pollies: Addie could be running across the yard to get a toy and if her eye catches a tiny rollie pollie crossing her path... that's it, we have officially lost her to collecting as many rollie pollies as her little hands can carry. She LOVES them and even tries to name them. We went as far as to attempt to convert Carter's ant farm to a rollie pollie farm... but it didn't end too good for the rollie pollies!

7. Eating: This girl eats anything and everything! Well, except tomatoes!! Some of her favorites include watermelon, corn & her new rice milk, but she cleans her plate morning, noon and night. She loves to inform us she "tore it up!" meaning she cleaned her plate!

A cute memory of her around dinner at this age: When she sets the table, she wants ALL four of us sitting next to each other. So this is usually the set up, 2 chairs are brought over from the end to sit all in a line!

Carter's Top 10 at FIVE Years Old (#1-3)

# 3. Learning!
This one has reappeared in the last 6 months and since Carter changed schools. He comes home every single day telling us what he did that day, what experiment they tried out, how many guessed which outcome it would have and even more exciting, he tells us what he is doing the next day. He's so excited to go to school each and everyday.

At home, it's the same thing. His very favorite books are these kid-like encyclopedias that Meme finds that answer questions like, "Why do cats pur?" or "Why do owls only hunt at night?" Combine this with his favorite show Wild Kratts and Carter is a walking random fact machine and he is always wanting to share what he learns. Sometimes, he gets frustrated because he has to take turns with Addie each day on the way home from school telling me what he did. He doesn't care much for the fact that Addie has just as much to tell me.

His fact quest continues each night, with Blake's customary night time regimen of answering his latest questions. Last night's was, "Daddy, do they use sand and dirt to build houses in Africa?"

#2. Anything with a motor.
I thought this came a little early at FIVE years old but in the last month since Carter received a toy car from Sean, Kaylee and Rose... this seems to be the kind of toy at the top of his list.

This shot was a perfect example/memory of how much Addie wants to be with you. Even in a picture with a car.

Soon after this came Meme's birthday gift of a motorized Police boat. So many nights after bath, this is the scene in our bathroom.

# 1. It's pretty cool to be able to confidently say that SPORTS is Carter's #1 because at eight months I could have pretty much said they same thing. This little guy isn't partial to just one either... he will take them all. It really does depend on what season it currently is and with basketball in full swing with his once a week practices already at school for the past month, he's ready for this real team to start up in just a couple of weeks. This will mark FIVE year old Carter's 3rd season of basketball, already. My fondest sports memory in just the past month has to be watching Carter lay with his daddy at the lake and work on his addition and subtraction while watching the President's Cup and Bubba Watson make a birdie. I walked in the room to hear this...

Carter: "Yes, it went in!!!"
Blake: So... that was a _____?
Carter: "Birdie"
Blake: So what is his score now?
Carter: "Minus Two."

I'm pretty sure my chin might have hit the floor, hearing my four year old son comprehend the game of golf way better than me.

Carter's Top 10 at FIVE Years Old (#4-6)

As we continue this snap shot of Mr. Carter Brown, we can't help that notice that this year's list is different than years past.... it's not filled with "things" or just people, rather, we've seen such a little personality take shape these days.

#6 - Carter's spontaneous and sweet side has become even more evident. Just today, his teacher Mrs. Andrea was saying she wanted to take him home. She said he was playing a board game with three little girls and he kept winning all the pieces. A couple of girls became really sad to be loosing and Carter would look at them and lean over and say, "I'll throw in some pieces for you so you can stay in."

A couple of weekends ago, on our long drive home from Dallas, the kids got to take turns choosing DVDs. When it came to Carter's first choice, he choose The Princess Movie because he, "knew it would make Addie happy."

Every day, Carter does something thoughtful or amazing that makes me gleam with "mommy & daddy proudness." He is such a naturally kind and thoughtful little boy and I am happy to say it becomes more and more evident each year that goes by.

#5 - Staying on the personalty topic, we have seen a huge growth in Carter's sensitivity. I remember the days where he couldn't walk into a new house filled with people for a birthday party without needing to hide in a room for a while to get used to the environment. Don't get me wrong, he still has his occasional bury his head in mom's legs, kind of moment however they much farther in between. Just this month during our kitchen renovation, the kids got to eat dinner at McDonald's and Carter saw that another child got a different toy in the Happy Meal that he preferred. I told him if he wanted to go stand in line all the way at the front and ask the cashier if he could exchange his toy for a different one, he could. I was blown away when he jumped off the stool and confidently marched up and stood in line. I was so proud of him and know that 6 months ago that would have never happened.

But don't be fooled, we still have an occasional emotional breakdown over something completely minor and silly, like this when he was told he had to wait till after bath to open a birthday gift.

#4 - His mommy, daddy and Addie. It's neat that I can still put these three people on this list because I wonder if in a few years he will go through a stage of not really wanting to be around us all that much? But as for now, even with his FIVE year old independence, he would much rather be around the three of us.

The questions he is constantly asking us, everything he wants to show and tell us and just the time spent lounging on the couch or on his bed reading books, is where Carter wants to be.  I pray it will always be like that but I have a feeling there will be a stage of sports, friends and one day, GIRLS, that will take his attention away from us so for now we will take as much of it as we can get!

Carter's Top 10 at FIVE years old! (#10-7)

As a refresher, take a peek at the past Top 10 lists over last three years to see Carter evolve. This list doesn't encompass Carter over the last year, rather, right now as a snap shot in time. Just a little tradition  I have liked to do each year and a fun way to in essence hit "pause" in time.

#10. Everyone has little mannersims that are their own. Carter is starting to have his own that are we are regularly noticing. One of the biggest ones is how he LOVES to lace his hands together behind his head. We started spotting it while he was laying down watching TV but one night this week, he did it after he was all done with his dinner.

#9. Personalty at this age: He loves earning money and being a true helper. At recent trips to the lake this fall, he begged Grandpa to take him to the "man-cave" they are building so he could sweep up dirt and earn money. At one point when I checked in on them, Carter was the hardest working guy there of the five grown men.

Tonight, it was all about helping daddy with some chairs...

#8. He is definitely more into computer like games. About a month ago, he was obsessed with a Buzz Light Year game that his cousin Marshall passed down to him. It had became the most annoying sound Blake and I ever heard and somehow the batteries disappeared one day. The old saying of, "Out of sight, out of mind," holds true because it has now been replaced my his Leapster Explorer. This is how I found him tonight before dinner...

#7. Superheros, in general, are still cool to this five year old. Remember it started out with Spider man man a couple of years ago and then progressed to Batman, Green Lantern and brief mention of Captain America but now there is one confident answer when you ask the FIVE year old Carter Brown, "Who is your favorite Superhero?" SUPERMAN! "Why Carter?" He is the strongest of all superheros. Superman is the best because he can hold up the entire world!!! That's what my friend Kai told me at school."

Addie's Top 10 List At 3 Years Old Cont'd (1-5)

**This post is a continuation. Please first see yesterday's post with #1-5**

5. Princess Books and Movies
Addie's love of book as grown over this year and we are currently at a all time high. She loves to read and she is always "packing up" books to take with Baby Marcie on trips. Her favorite for Marcie is her tiny little white Bible.

4. Dogs and Other Animals
I know this was on last year's list and nothing has changed. Addie always makes time for the dogs and anyother animal she finds including a recent turtle and a family of birds we watched grow and eventually learn to fly over the last 6 weeks.

Addie was fearless on this day, the first time ever to see a turtle up close. After she snatched the littel guy up, she insisted on introducing him to Maverick.

3. Mommy OR Daddy
Blake and I would agree that Addie is an equally fierce momma's girl AND daddy's girl, depending on the day and more importantly her mood. There are days were she wants mommy to do everything with her and equal days where daddy is the only one she wants to help her out. She loves to cuddle with both of us tells us both that she has 3 best friends - "momma is her best friend, dadda is her best friend and Bubba is her best friend." I wouldn't change a thing and love how she depends on all 3 of us for love and support.

2. Coloring/Folding/Writing

Meme made this passion even more amazing when she opened her birthday present this past weekend. Meme had spent weeks putting together the most perfect gift for Miss Addie... 2 plastic organizers filled to the brim with paper, stamps, colors, markers, stickers and anything else you could imagine a three year old arts and crafts girl could ever want. Thank you Meme for making one happy little girl with your well-thought our birthday gift! :)

1. Carter (still calls him her Bubba)

Whether it's just hanging out together...

Or Addie right by his side proving that she can do anything he can do...

Or perhaps telling him what to do...

As independent as she is, Addie wants to be with her brother every single waking minute. I pray this relationship continues every year of their lives.

In three short days, you will officially be able to hold up those 3 fingers sweet girl!