17 Months

We seem to have hit an “I want to hit you” phase.  Addison has been hitting Justin & I a lot lately, much to our dismay.  It happens primarily when she is frustrated or isn't getting her way, but still it doesn't make it ok.  It’s been interesting to say the least!  I’m hoping it’s a quick phase that she’ll get over because I am sick of being smacked!  We have been telling her no and telling her that hurts, but sometimes we just have to walk away and let her cry.  The hitting seems to go on more when she isn't feeling 100%...the 3 of us have been sick on and off for what seems like a month now!
This month has been extra exciting because Uncle Gannon moved down to NC and is currently living with us!  Now Addy has one more person to show off for!
Size Stats:  I'm not really sure of her stats, I know she weighs around 23 lbs, but I'm unsure of the other two.  She is wearing all 18 month clothing currently, but some of the pants run a little big on her.  

Development:  Addy finally started walking!!!  My mom watched Addy for us on Sunday March 10th and at one point she texted me and said, "Is it normal for Addy to stand from a siting position and then just walk?"  Uhh, not really!?  She's been a walking fool ever since!  We had an appointment scheduled with our pediatrician regarding her walking on March 11th.  Needless to say, Addy decided she didn't think that appointment was needed and started walking a ton more!  Addy can kind of count...if we say one she'll say "two" and then "three".  Two & Three kind of blend together, but still very cute.

My new favorite sentences that Addy says are: “Where’d it go?” and “Lay-Down”.  When she says, “Where’d it go” she cocks her head to one side and throws her hands up like she is confused.  She looks so freaking adorable.  She also has a tendency to point at the dogs and tells them to lay down…guess she hears it enough from everyone else!  Addy is usually pretty good at saying Please & Thank You, but sometimes needs to be reminded.  I hear "up, up" a lot during a day and she is usually wanting her snack cup or juice cup.  I think she's pretty smart!  I pretty much jinxed myself on the last post because rides to and from daycare lately have been a nightmare!  She gets so pissed when I put her in her car seat and if she is wearing her pink puffy winter jacket, well let’s just say be prepared for screaming & crying galore! I've been giving her a juice cup & snack cup to help things go more smoothly, but sometimes she just isn't having it.

Personality:  I think Justin & I are going to have to lay the law down with her constantly!  She is soo hard headed!!  She is determined to do what she wants to do.  Even when she is sick, she is hell-bent on getting her way.  She likes to be held when she doesn't feel good, which I get, but she’ll only be happy if I am holding her and ONLY IF I AM STANDING!  It’s like what the heck child!  If I sit down for 1 minute with her she freaks out like I am causing her great pain.  I think it’s just another instance of Addy wanting to get her way.

Eating:  She has been kind of picky lately.  It probably hasn't helped that she had the stomach bug and a bad cough & cold.  She would eat fruit all day if I let her, but it seems to mess with her stomach a little.  She’s a big fan of cereal lately and munches on it first thing in the mornings when lounging in our bed before we get ready for work.  Every once in awhile, Justin & I find remnants of whatever she ate earlier in the day in our bed…yuck! 

Sleeping:  Again, being sick has not helped with Addy’s sleeping pattern.  She had been waking up in the middle of the night to: cry, talk, scream, cough, watch Mickey Mouse, hang out, etc.!  It’s always a challenge because I honestly just want to do whatever it takes to get her back to sleep so I can get back to sleep.  For some of us, it’s easier to sleep through a crying, screaming baby then others!

Likes: Right now she likes to color…but with that comes her fascination of chewing on the crayons.  She chews on it a little, makes a horrible face and then goes back for more!  Interesting, very interesting.  So usually coloring comes to an abrupt halt because she won’t stop tasting the crayons.  She still loves bath time…bubbles are a huge hit.  She is obsessed with taking wipes out of the container.  We usually say, just one, but she’ll grab as many as possible before we take the container away.  I swear we have more dried up wipes lying around the house, then fresh ones in the container!  Every once in awhile, she’ll decide a wipe is trash worthy and will take it to the kitchen to throw away.  She’s just so helpful that one. 

Dislikes:  Still isn't a fan of having her diaper changed.  She cries and cries like I am torturing her…I assure you, I’m not!

Pictures:  Not the best pictures, but I'll take some more at the end of the day!

16 Months

Another month, another Addy update!  This child has us wrapped around her little fingers!!  It is soo hard to discipline her because I find her to be hilarious.  I need to be more strict otherwise I am guessing I'll regret it at a later date!  Here is a picture that sums up her sassy-ness lately...she will give us this look a minimum of 20 times a day!

We had another ear infection this month bringing our total up to 3 ear infections total (2 in her left ear, 1 in her right ear) since she turned 1 years old. We have an ear recheck on February 18th with the doctor who has primarily seen Addy, so I'll have a few questions for her.

Size States:
Height - 31.5 inches (they didn't actually do this measurement, so I just copied last month's measurement!)
Weight - 23 lbs 5 oz
Head - 46 cm (they didn't actually do this one either, so I just copied last month's measurement as well!)

Development:    Addy is taking her sweet time in walking on her own.  She is very apprehensive about walking on her own, but really likes to walk while holding onto someone's hand.  It's pretty cute holding onto her one little hand and walking around.  She has taken steps on her own at home and at daycare, but doesn't really take initiative on her own.  I feel like it was the same thing when she wouldn't roll from her back to stomach...she was just scared.  At times she is very sturdy when walking with help, while other times she is still very wobbly.  Addy continues to expand her vocabulary.  She can repeat all of the other kids names at daycare and some of the teacher's names as well.  It is crazy how much of a "parrot" she is.  She really is never quiet unless she is watching TV or tired.  Lately, on our way to daycare she is super chatty!  She yells, chats and keeps herself entertained the whole way there.
Personality:  Addy is definitely a determined, stubborn little girl.  She knows which things we have deemed "wrong" in our house, but will constantly test her limits.  She has become a pro at going up & down the stairs and will try to do this without one of her parents close by which leads to Justin & I sprinting to her.  Man she is quick! She is so outgoing and I am pretty sure she knows when she has an audience.  She will definitely ham it up when anyone is over.  

Eating:  Addy is on a spaghetti & sauce kick lately...she can consume a large amount of pasta!  She is hit & miss on other items.  She likes turkey hot dogs and still is a fan of her mandarin oranges.  She fell out of love with bananas awhile ago, but recently decided she loved them again.  We have gone back to having to hide the bananas! 

Sleeping:  Her ear infections definitely screw with her sleep.  She has had some solid nights and some not so solid nights.  Justin & I continue to argue on how long we should let her cry it out...I usually win!  This will probably come back to haunt me!  I just have such a hard time listening to her cry knowing she is such a happy baby otherwise!  As Justin says, "You'll be getting up with her still when she is 12 years old!"
Likes: She LOVES her babies.  I wish Justin or I could come up with names for each of her babies, but I guess we have zero imagination!  She plays with her babies non-stop at home and also at daycare. The teachers say she cares for them all day long!  They've also asked when we plan on having our next child because they think Addy would be very good with a baby....UHHHH NO!  Not yet!  She is very caring towards her babies, always kissing, hugging & rocking them.  The babies are constantly being put to bed and she says, "night-night" over & over again and covers them up with their own little blankets.  So precious.  She still loves Mickey Mouse, but has learned to enjoy Blue's Clues & Go Diego Go in the mornings when we are getting ready.
Dislikes:  She still dislikes getting her diaper changed...nothing too horrible, but it makes having to change her a task.  She has been throwing min-hissy fits when I put her in her car seat after picking her up from daycare.  They are short lived, but not fun!
Pictures: Yup, she refuses to look at me for pictures!  It's like she knows what I am trying to do and does the complete opposite!

15 Months

This past month seems to have flown by with Christmas parties, Christmas festivities, New Years and traveling to & from NY.  Addison has been a trooper through it all, but that doesn't really surprise me.  Addy was pretty good to & from NY with one minor hiccup (throwing up 2 hours into the trip to NY).  Our car sure was smelly, but she bounced back quick!  
I know I should be working on taking away her last bottle which I usually give to her right before bed, but I am struggling with it!  I enjoy holding Addy tight, kissing and rubbing her little fingers & head and having the last 5 minutes of her day all to myself.

Size States:
Height - 31.5 inches (80th percentile)
Weight - 22 lbs 2.5 oz (75th percentile)
Head - 46 cm (75th percentile)

Development:  Addy still isn't walking on her own!  She is taking her dear sweet time with this!  She continues to pull up on everything and scales most of the furniture.  She talks all the time and is consistently surprising me with how quickly she picks up on new words.  Her fourth bottom tooth finally came in along with 2 top molars.  Addy blows us kisses when we ask and can say, "Love You" really well now.  She repeats it back to us and it just melts our hearts!  She has been better at handing out kisses to us, but Brinkley & "baby" definitely get more than Justin & I do!  She'll follow Brinkley around, going Muahhh, until she either gets a lick from her or gets bored in chasing her.  Addy probably has my dancing genes (which isn't a good thing).  When she hears a song she stomps her right foot and moves a little back & forth.  She can stomp her foot while sitting, kneeling or standing...she's very versatile!  She constantly twirls her hair when she is tired.  It's pretty darn cute watching her twirl a pigtail.  Also, when/if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she'll twirl her hair to soothe herself back to sleep.
Personality:  I think we have a stubborn one on our hands.  She knows what she shouldn't do aka touch the computer, touch the soap bar in mommy & daddy's bathroom, touch an outlet with plugs coming out, but she continues to test the limits.  She will literally go to do one of those things, look at us, say no-no then touch it!  She likes to tell us no-no all the time.  Greeeat! When I dropped her off at daycare the other day, she sat down looked at me and said, "bye-bye".  I was like, well jeez, she wants to get rid of me quickly!  But that same day when I picked her up, she was sitting at the table when she saw me, stood right up and exclaimed, "MAMA"!  I was beyond happy and her earlier bye-bye remark was easily forgiven.
Eating:  Addy still enjoys eating, in fact when she doesn't have an appetite, we know something is off.  She's been fussy off and on over the past month because she has been dealing with an ear infection and molars coming in.  It's no fun for anyone!  With our trip to NY we found that Addison really likes McDonald's french fries, I mean who doesn't?  It was the only thing she would eat out of a pretty large selection, so we went with it.  She still holds her fork/spoon in her right hand, but hasn't mastered the art of actually using them.
Sleeping:  I guess we are just going to have fun with sleep for awhile.  She was doing really well, then got an ear infection, was up multiple times a night and then we were in NY and she was a miserable mess there as well!  She has been doing better lately, but man she gives us a run for our money!
Likes: She is in LOVE with the Mickey Mouse Club House show...we only have a DVR downstairs, so she doesn't' understand that we can't magically make it play when we are in our bedroom.  It would be awful nice of Disney to put MMCH on at 7am everyday though so we could get ready in a more orderly fashion for work!  She received two Minnie Mouse little chairs for Christmas; one from Grandma & Grandpa Rosplock and one from Uncle Adam & Uncle Gannon...she loves these chairs and will go in and out of them and keep herself entertained for quite a while.
Dislikes:  She has become a pain in the butt while getting her diaper changed.  She wants to roll over, scream, cry, etc.  She also doesn't like to take medicine the old-fashioned way. Justin & I now have to spike her medicine with chocolate syrup.  I'm at the point where I just don't care...she just needs to drink it!!  If we mix her medicine, some milk and some chocolate syrup she drinks it all by herself.  I'll take that over holding her down, blowing in her face and her screaming and crying!
Pictures:  My poor little punky didn't feel good today and was home from daycare.  We spent much of the day snuggling and watching Mickey.  I think her shots got to her and I think she is getting a cold.  Here are some pictures from our day at home!

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