14 Months

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...well not here in sunny North Carolina, but somewhere I'm sure!  I've actually had enough of the nice weather and would like to have some colder days so I can dress Addison in some warm comfy clothes! The Christmas tree is up and the stockings are hung.  Addison has been pretty good with our tree, she finds little interest in it.  When she does wander over to the tree, there are "safe" ornaments at the bottom so she can pull them off & on.

Here are her stats from our Thursday doctor's appointment, poor thing has an ear infection and 2 teeth coming in!

Size Stats:
Height - 30.25 inches (43%)
Weight - 21 lbs 15 oz (42%)
Head - 46.5 inches (97%)

Development:  Addy is becoming more & more sturdy when she walks with our help.  I feel like she will be walking on her own very, very soon.  She is pulling up on everything.  She enjoys pulling up on the couch and will then whine until you put her up there so she can sit & play.  She is totally into reading books lately and will throw a book at you and shake her head yes, like you will read to me or else.  I'd say she has 5 favorite books right now which are, "Goose on the Loose, "10 Tiny Puppies", "Farm Animals", Night Time Prayers (which is a book that is read by Grandpa & Nonna Crooks) and "Bunny Book".  I can sadly say that between Justin & I, we have probably read the above books no less then 100 times in the last few weeks.  I'm not proud of it, but I have actually hidden Goose on the Loose a few times because I just can't read it one more time!
Addy talks a lot and is using a lot of new words!  She can say, Nonna, BamPa(Grandpa), Ma-Ma-Ma(Grandma) Banana, No-No, Good Dog, Gannon, Shelly (La-La), Puppy, Brinkley, Hot, Go, night-night, belly-button, nose, Santa, scarecrow and obviously Da-Da & Ma-Ma.  Even though she can say many words, she babbles a lot as well.  As of this morning though, Daddy taught her Love You!  We are working on Adam & Amanda, but she's having a tough time with them!  She speaks gibberish all the time and it cracks us up.  One thing she has learned, which seems to be making life a little easier is to sign "more" when she wants more food.  She also knows to blow on her food when it's hot...well blow in its general direction!

Personality:  She is a hand full!  She knows how to make everyone laugh even when she knows she shouldn't be doing something.  She knows how to push our buttons for sure!  She is big on personality, but lately has been throwing in some diva-tendencies.  We are working on it!  She has been interested in everything lately and makes this noise, "uh-uh" towards everything!  We have no idea what it means and it's so frustrating for all involved.  It's like we know she wants something and she knows she wants something, but sometimes it's hard to find out what that may be.  She can be very cuddly in the morning which makes it hard to get ready on work days.  On weekends it's much nicer where we can all lounge and take the mornings slow.

Eating:  Addy is an eating machine!  She eats anything and everything.  She drinks lots of milk at all her meals and she gets watered down juice for snacks.  She still takes 1 bottle of milk at night before bed...I have no idea when I am going to attempt to take this from her!  She gets a fork at every meal and sometimes uses and sometimes it just sits there.  I'm in no rush for her to use it, so we will just keep making it an option.  For awhile she was favoring her left hand, but lately she puts her fork/spoon only in her right hand.  

Sleeping:  The angels are singing!! Can you hear them!?!?!  We finally (OK, I came to the conclusion a little later then Justin) decided it was time to make her sleep through the night and she actually didn't put up too much of a fuss.  There were a few rocky nights, but nothing horrible.  She had been consistently sleeping from 7 pm - 7 am for almost 3 weeks now, but lately has been waking up in the middle of the night at multiple times screaming!  What the heck!  I feel so bad and have read up on night terrors (don't soothe or console), nightmares (soothe & console) or illness.  So one question I have is how in the heck do I know if she had a night terror or nightmare!  I know right now is prime time for  separation anxiety, but again I have no idea.  Sometimes I take her out of her crib and hug her and rub her back, other times we just lay her back down and rub her back.  It's frustrating because I just don't know whats wrong therefore I'm not sure how to handle it.  I do know I can't (and most likely will not) just let her scream her head off...it breaks my heart!
Update: She has an ear infection and since she has been on her antibiotic, her sleeping has been much better!

Likes:  She is in LOVE with my cell phone & the app called Zoola.  If she even catches a glimpse of my phone, she wants it and she wants to look at Zoola.  Zoola basically has a lot of animal pictures and you can tap on each animal to see a Daddy, Mommy and baby version of that animal.  Each animal also has a song that goes with it...kind of weird, but Addy seems to like it.  She actually has a love hate relationship with the song selections, she isn't a fan of the slower songs and will quickly swipe them away if you play it.  She likes the more upbeat tempos. Although Addison loves this app, it is slowly driving me crazy.  I don't want her on my phone too much, so I have to hide my phone from her a lot lately.  This means, no phone calls, no texts and no browsing Instagram, Twitter or FB while I am in the company of Addison!  Plus when I do let her play with it, she doesn't want to sit there and touch the animals herself, she wants someone else to do the navigating.  Jeepers, what I thought was a nice gesture turned out to be a stupid download!  
She seems to be liking the Mickey Mouse Club, Backyardigans & Blues Clues.  Each show has kept her mildly entertained for ten minutes here & there.

Dislikes:  She freaks out and has a hissy fit when I take the phone away...but I've come to the conclusion that it's OK for her to get upset about it and to hold my ground.  There are way more fun things for her to do than look at a phone!

Addy looking sassy!

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Tonight we headed over to the Bright Leaf development to see Santa with some of our friends.  I wasn't sure Addison would like Santa because we have a small Santa figurine that sits in our Christmas tree that she isn't fond of.  She likes to stare at him, but don't think about bringing it close to her!  
As we suspected, Addison wanted nothing to do with Santa.  Santa was in a room all by himself and we took all of the kiddies to see him.  When it was Addison't turn, she clung to me like she has never clung before.  I felt soo bad, like I was traumatizing her!  We didn't put her on Santa's lap because I'm pretty sure she would have had a nervous breakdown, so Justin, Santa & I all stood together while I held Addy for a picture.  Santa was super nice and understanding, but she just wasn't having it.  After pictures with Santa we went into the adjoining room for cookies & milk.  Addy definitely enjoyed the cookie part!  We tried to get Molli, Dex, Elyn, Nolan and Addy to sit together for a picture, but that proved to be hugely difficult!  

Playing in the pantry before meeting Santa

Stacking spices

Meeting Santa

Family pic with Santa

Molli, Dex & Addison

13 Months

Not only is Addison 13 months old, but today Aunt Mandy is 27 and yesterday Uncle Adam turned 30!!  Wow, everyone is getting old!!  It is close to impossible to get Addison to sit still & look at the camera.  Such a tough task!  We are also all out of month to month onesies!  Her 12 Months onsie was the last one of its kind and it was a little sad for me this morning when I didn't have a 13 Months onesie.
This month was pretty much a lot of the same.  Our little Addy is turning into a copycat which I'm sure will become dangerous!  Her little checks & thighs aren't as full and her hair is growing in more and more by the day.  Our little baby is slowly morphing into a little girl.

Size Stats:

Height - 30.25 inches (12 Month stat)
Weight - 20 lbs 15.5 oz  (12 Month stat)
Head - 45.5 cm  (12 Month stat)
Development:  I can't think of anything new that Addison is doing lately.  She still likes to crawl in her awkward manner and still isn't very interested in walking.  I'm not worried though, she'll walk when she wants to.  She has however mastered the art of climbing stairs.  She can get up about 8 stairs until she is bored/tired of it and wants help getting back down.  Her hair is getting longer which means pigtails ALL the time!  I actually tried to change it up the other day and do just a ponytail, but she wasn't feeling it and pulled it out.  She seems to like the pigtails, which is fine with me. 
 She has finally learned to blow kisses!  This is a very recent development, but exciting none the less.  Usually she'd just hold her hand over her mouth and not know what to do after, but just the other night she moved her hand off like she is supposed to, very exciting!

Personality:  Lately Addy seems to be more clingy & needy.  I don't know if she has finally hit that stage where she has separation anxiety, but dropping her at daycare has been a little harder on us.  The teachers are usually very good with "us", they'll pick Addy up and soothe her while I'm leaving, now if someone could hold me and soothe me, we'd be set!  I have on a few occasions left the room but stuck around to see how long it takes for her to calm down, it usually doesn't even take a minute.  She seems to be very stubborn/determined to do things her way.  I'm sure this will continue to test my patience!

Eating:  We have made the switch to whole milk.  She will drink it in a sippy cup at school, but not at home for some reason.  If I put it in a bottle at home, she will drink it though.  She continues to do well with most foods and loves her fruits and veggies.  She has started to try and use a plastic kiddie fork.  She knows what to do with it and tries to put food on the fork, but usually isn't successful.  If I put food on the fork, she will then pick it up and feed herself.  It's a good start.  The other week, Justin & I were eating chicken marsala and she was pointing at it, so I let her try and she LOVED it!  It seems odd that a kid would like a mushroom, onion, lemony taste, but she did.  She ate a whole piece of chicken all by herself.

Sleeping:  Sleep continues to be a problem.  She is slowly depriving Justin & I of much needed sleep.  We are exhausted and the whole family has been sick with a bad cold for a couple weeks now.  Addison got the cold, passed it on quickly and Justin & I can't shake it.  Several nights we have given Addy a bottle just to appease her because we felt awful and needed sleep.  She will also wake up in the middle of the night and play, talk, clap up to 2 hours!?!  We just don't get it!!

Likes:  Addy likes to crawl up the stairs, ride on her "bike" or rocking horse and most definitely explore.  She constantly pushes boundaries and when she is doing something or going somewhere she isn't supposed to be, she looks at us like, "Are you going to stop me?"  I think she might like to hear, "No, No"!!  We recently have started to blow dry her hair after bath time and she loves the hair dryer.  

Dislikes:  She still obviously doesn't like to sleep and still isn't a fan of having her diaper changed. 

Happy Halloween!

This year was so much fun with Addy being a little older.  We went to a friends house where we met up with 5 other couples & 5 kiddies.  We enjoyed pizza & beers and then put the little ones in their costumes so we could do some trick-or-treating.  We of course attempted some group photos, but that proved to be pretty difficult!  Oh well, they all looked adorable!  We probably hit up about 15 houses, but that was plenty for all involved.  Addy rode in her stroller and we took her door-to-door. She at first seemed like she was going to pass out from being tired (it was already near her bedtime), but she was a trooper and hung in there!  By the end she was kicking her feet happily and clutching a few pieces of candy she had received.  It wasn't a super cold night, but cold enough...her lamb costume & hat was perfect for keeping her warm.
Halloween was a success!

Addy is wondering why everyone is dressed up!

Still a little confused, but not minding it

Showing us her glow stick and trying not to fall asleep!

Brian & Brooklyn, Justin & Addy , John, Nolan & Elyn, Joe & Dex and Mike & Molli

12 Month Well Checkup

Addison's 12 month visit went fairly well.  Addison & I were lucky to have her daddy with us...I hate shots just as much as she does and can use all the moral support I can get!
She was measured & weighed when we first got there, here are her stats, although they are the same from a previous post.
Height - 30.25 inches
Weight - 20 lbs 15.5 oz
Head - 45.5 cm
Next up was a finger prick to draw blood, poor thing didn't like that very much!  She cried a little, but was OK after the band aid was put on her finger.  It was then her life's mission to remove said band aid. 

Dr. Sarah than came in to look her over and said she continued to look good.  She said her gums had some swelling which are probably the cause of her latest whiny outbursts.  The goal is to wean Addy off formula over the next month or so and to switch from bottles to sippy cups.  Should be fun...
Other then that, she was happy with her progress as she continues a healthy growing pattern.  Last on the agenda was to receive a round of 3 planned shots and 1 flu shot.  YUCK, I absolutely hate that part!  Again, thankfully Justin was there and I was able to scoop her up right after and calm her down.  Next well appointment is in January when she is 15 months.

Addison's 1st Birthday Slideshow

Thanks Aunt Shelly for putting this together!

12 Months Old!

WOW, a year seems to have flown by!  I can't believe I have managed to do a post every month...I can't wait to have the blog published to a book so we can look back on it whenever we'd like.  Addison continues to entertain us and keep us on our toes!  She is such a happy kid and I honestly can't believe a year has come and gone. 

Size Stats:

Height - 30.25 inches
Weight - 20 lbs 15.5 oz
Head - 45.5 cm
Development:  Guess who can roll over finally!?  It only took close to a year!  Daycare was conerned about her moving up to the 1 year room while not being able to roll over, so we worked at home on it.  She gets the idea finally and doesn't cry when I put her on her back.  I honestly think she just didn't know what to do and it made her scared/nervous.  Not anymore! 
Addison continues to crawl at rapid pace!  She still only crawls on one knee & one foot.  She has started to wear sneakers at daycare and her left shoe gets all scraped up on one side because that's the foot she drags!  We recently saw Addison crawl up the first step at our house so she could unload her diaper bag.  Justin & I were kind of shocked and we weren't expecting her to be able to do that at all!  She is becoming very comfortable with us holding her hands and taking steps.  She will be moving to the 1 year old room very soon at daycare where 95% of the children already walk, so they all seem to think she won't be far behind.
We are slowly learning to "give" kisses, but it is more of a bite at this point.  This was a big month teeth-wise. Her two fangs are in and the two front teeth have pushed through the surface as well.  It also looks like the teeth on the other side of her fangs are pushing in.  She still just has her two bottom front teeth and I can't really see anything else down there. 
Addison knows to clap when we sing, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands" and she also knows what sound a dog makes.  She has the cutest  little "woof, woof" sound and makes her lips all pouty when she does it. 
We've always known Addy loves bathtime, but recently she's decided to scramble to the back of the tub I pop the drain to empty the water.  She looks like a crab trying to get away from me because she does't want to get out.  Fun times!
Personality:  I feel like Addy is oozing personality...everything she does I find amusement in!  She still has her diva tendencies and I find that Justin & I are constantly trying not to laugh at her when she does something bad!  She has started to point at us, kind of like she is yelling commands.  The other day Justin told Addy "no, no" and pointed his finger at her and she just pointed right back to him!  It took everything out of us to not laugh at her!!

Eating:  Addison is on a great eating schedule.  We will be switching over to whole milk soon and I have to imagine it will be a whole lot cheaper then formula!  She loves to eat what I am eating and will beg like a puppy if we are eating something when she isn't.  I finally bought some plastic forks for her and she seems to like eating off of them.  She had some icing off of a cupcake the other day and loved it, so I am guessing she will love her bday cake!
Sleeping:  Oh child, I hope someday when you look back and read over this you will realize what a pain in the butt you were regarding sleep!  Thankfully I've adapted pretty well to sleeping less, but I wouldn't mind a few more hours of consecutive sleep!  Your bad sleeping habits came back on the night your daddy went to go watch the Giants play in Charlotte and we slept at grandma's house.  You were up from basically 12:30 am - 4:30 am and after taking you to the doctor's, we realized you must have been in pain from your first ear infection.  You poor baby, you were so unhappy and we felt so bad for you.  All you wanted to do was cuddle with me 24/7, so cuddle we did.  You are now back to your old "tricks" and daddy & I will be trying to break you of them ASAP.  Although it is lovely to hear you laugh & play, I just don't see why you need to wake up in the middle of the night to do this.  You will lay in your crib for up to 2 hours just chatting, laughing & playing with whatever toys are in your crib.  And to top it all off, we finally let Addy stay with grandma & grandpa so we could have a lovely 5th Anniversary night and of course, you slept the WHOLE night for them!!! 

Likes:  Addy loves to bang on the dog bowls and to find dog toys to try and chew on.  It is pretty gross, but I am guessing there are worse things you could do with your time.  She loves exploring.  She is just everywhere right now.  She loves her ladybug toy at home that she can push all around...the sounds drive me a little crazy, but what can you do!?   

Dislikes:  Addy has given me a run for my money in the diaper changing department lately, she is just not a fan.  I asked the people at daycare if she screams for them and they said no...sooo I guess you just like to give me a hard time!  She has gotten better at "sitting still" (I'm using this term loosely) when I do her hair.  I love the way pigtails look in her hair, but it is way more hard to accomplish!