New Years Eve

We hadn't planned to do anything for NYE because of all that had gone on the prior week.  With it being a work day, Addy being sick and travelling we just weren't feeling it!
Justin, Addison & I had a nice little dinner and hung out.  Addy went to bed a little later then usual, but nothing too exciting.  At about 10:30 I announced that I didn't think I was going to make it til midnight, however, Addy had other plans.  She woke up around 11 and I brought her downstairs to hang with us a little.  At 11:30 we brought her up to our bed to read and book and then it was bedtime again.  Justin & I watched the ball drop from our bed and then it was lights out for me!
Here is the only pic from that night...Addy in our bed reading a book at 11:30!

Christmas 2013 in NC

We made our long trek back home (around 12 hours!) the Saturday after Christmas.  Addison is such a trooper and did so well on the drive.  At one of our stops, she insisted on running around and taking a short walk, so we obliged.  We knew we weren't going to be getting home anytime soon and the kid needed to let some energy out!  Our carpets had been professionally cleaned while we were in NY and my parents had come over to put all the furniture back into place and tidy things up for our arrival.  It was so nice to come home to a very clean house!
The day after, we had our Christmas dinner/present opening scheduled with my family.  Addy was once again ecstatic to open gifts.  She was finally feeling/looking really good so that was nice.  Every time she opened a gift she said, "Look Guppy"!. My dad said it was like she knew my mom did all the shopping and was showing him what they got her.  It was a nice quiet finish to a long week and I actually got some family pictures!  It is nearly impossible to get a picture of all 4 of us, so i was soo happy!

Opening Gifts

Shelly & Addy

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

Christmas 2013 in NY

Once again, I have let time get away from me!  Christmas & NYE have come and gone and we are almost to Valentine's Day!  Let's back up and recap our Christmas this year...we drove to Endicott the Saturday before Christmas (a Wednesday this year).  We would be in town until the following Saturday and had lots of fun plans!
Unfortunately, things did not play out as we had hoped!  Justin's grandma (Nana) was admitted to the hospital the day we were driving up because she was having a hard time breathing.  She would have to stay put at the hospital until Christmas Eve when the doctors decided to have her flown to the Cleveland Clinic.
Talk about change of plans! Also, Addy decided to get sick.  The poor kid started off with a bad cough & cold. Justin, Addy & I were scheduled to head out to the cottage on the Sunday after we arrived, but Addy woke up with a horrible, nasty cough.  Katie was only in town until Monday morning, so i knew I had to get a quick visit in ASAP, but I also knew I couldn't bring Addy to meet Katie's 2 month old baby and risk getting him sick.  I decided to leave Addy home with Justin and head out alone which was a good choice because Addy eventually got worse.  I got back from the cottage and Addy was in full blown clingy mode.  She didn't really sleep well that night and when she woke up in the middle of the night she had a nice fever.  Her cough kept getting worse and her fever wasn't going down and then she decided to throw up.  So next stop for us, was the walk-in clinic.  The doctor we saw was the same one we saw on our last trip!  She said it was good we brought her in because she sounded like she was on the way to getting bronchitis.  We got Addy some medicine and hoped she'd start feeling better soon.
Christmas Eve day was bizarre...pretty much everyone, except Addy & I, went to the hospital to spend time with Nana before she left for Cleveland.  Addy was still sick, but I really wanted to go see Nana before she left, so I packed her up and off we went.  Addy was thankfully in good spirits at the hospital and behaved the whole time.  We were in and out in a half hour because I really didn't want Addy catching anymore germs!  After, Addy & I went grocery shopping for a few of her favorite foods to hopefully get her eating again then we hung out alone til roughly 6:30 when family started showing back up.  That night we went to Uncle Greg's & Aunt Lisa's for a late dinner.  It was great to see everyone and Addy had such a great time with her cousin Jordan.  Jordan is only 2 months younger then Addy and they were two peas in a pod!  They had fun chasing around Nicole & Natalie's little dogs and just hanging out in general.  Addy didn't get to bed until 10:30 that night, but it was definitely worth it.  She slept good that night and woke up looking somewhat better on Christmas day.  She still had her sick eyes and would go back & forth between feeling great and feeling yucky, but overall, the day was good.  Addy opened WAY more presents than any child ever needs and she loved it all.
The day after Christmas it snowed a lot!  Addy was on the mend, but I wasn't going to chance it and take her out in the cold to play.  Instead we watched Grandpa do the snow plowing from inside.  She loved watching him!  For the remainder of the days we were in NY, we laid pretty low.  We met up with no one else and just tried to enjoy the little time we had left.  Here are some pictures from our trip...

Sick baby!

Walk-In Visit

My sick lil Elf...Christmas Day

Gannon, Addy & Adam

Surrounded herself with her presents!

On the mend!

December 2013

Wow, the past couple of months seem to have really gotten away from me!  So much has happened, but I haven't really felt like reflecting on it.  Within a short two month span, we surprisingly found out I was pregnant and then seemingly just as quickly, found out I had miscarried.  I didn't want to write about it, but I also don't want to forget about it.  These turn of events have made me realize yet again, just how precious life is.  We saw a little heartbeat back in early November.  After some light bleeding two days before Thanksgiving I went in to get checked out by the doctor.  They unfortunately couldn't find a heartbeat anymore...the baby was measuring in around the 9 1/2 week mark which meant it had really just "happened".  So many emotions were had by all.  Justin & I were obviously upset, but tried to remember just how thankful we are.  We have a very happy, healthy 2 year old little girl who just lights up our entire world.  Addison definitely helped us push forward - she kept us smiling over those very tough days.  As time goes on, it doesn't hurt as bad.  I still think about where I would be in this pregnancy week-wise and think about how Addy would have been with a sibling.  Hopefully, one day we will be able to have another child and give Addison a sibling.  

On to happier things!
Since turning two, I feel like Addison has become a full blown little person.  She has SUCH a personality on her!  Justin & I took Addy to her first parade...it was the Raleigh Christmas parade and we had a great time!  Addy loved the horses, princesses (pageant queens), floats, dancers, dogs and so much more.  On the flip, she hated anyone who was dressed in a character costume, motorcycles & clowns!  

My family also took Addison to the Raleigh Museum the Saturday after Thanksgiving just so we could all get out of the house and do something fun.  We all had a great time, but my favorite thing happened at breakfast that morning. While Addison was sitting on my mom's lap she looked at us all and announced, "I pooping on Grandma!"  Now, i know when she says pooping, she really means peeing, but still it was hysterical.

On Grandma's lap at breakfast

Communication. She has been speaking in short sentences for a little while now (Addison wants M&M's, blow on food, have a good day mama, love you too!)  It is getting easier to communicate with her and I feel like we have actual conversations.  Don't get me wrong, she still has moments of pure giberish, but that mostly happens when she is singing.   A couple of weeks ago, Justin said to Addy, "Are you an Octonaut?" (Disney characters) and Addison's response was "I'm not an Octonaut, I'm a princess!"  We are trying to get away from the princess mentality, but she does love her princess shows!  Her two favorite songs right now are Jingle Bells & Enchancia, Enchancia (Sofia song).  

Attitude. Addison can be so so sweet but on the flip can be so so sour!  She has tantrums on the daily when she doesn't get what she wants and they are BAD!  I think the tantrums are extra bad right now because she her two-year molars are trying to come in...at least i hope!  She has such a mischievous side to her and is pretty defiant.  If you are going to give her instructions, you have to be ready to follow through by forcing her to do it because she will hugely ignore you if she isn't interested in it.  I have to try and remember her sweet moments when she is being "bad"!  She can be so loving and cuddly!

Sleep. She is going to bed around 8 and wakes anywhere from 6 -7:30.  We have had a few sick nights recently where she has joined us in the middle of the night, but hopefully she will go back to sleeping through the night soon!  When she goes to bed at night, she talks or sings to her buddies that are in her crib and then usually drifts off to sleep peacefully.  I love listening to her on the monitor at night because you never know what she will say!

Hanging with her buddies

Meals. Addison is still a pretty good eater.  She still has her preferences of Mac & Cheese, pizza & hot dogs (all very healthy, i know), but will try other things.  She is really into pears right now and cheese is always a favorite.  

Other tidbits I want to remember: Addison is pretty good with her manners.  She is consistent with please, thank you and your welcome.  if she forgets, she quickly remembers when prompted.  She is a great little helper.  She seems to really like little chores, such as: feeding Brinkley, putting her dirty clothes in the basket, wiping up the table, unloading the dishwasher, helping with laundry, throwing trash away and so on.  She is happy when she helps and I like that!  Addison knows the morning routine and recently told Justin, "Daddy get your shirt, Brinkley hungry".  We broke out in laughter because she knew the sequence of the events.  Lately she has enjoyed getting her nails painted.  When the paint comes off a nail, she requests that I paint more on.  She can count easily to ten (although she forgets 2 most of the time!) and has starting working towards 20.  Colors still seem to give her a hard time, but she is getting better.  Her favorite books right now are the llama, llama series.  We have three of the books and she wants to read all three every night multiple times.  I have tried using the "time-out" technique with her, but she seems to enjoy it!  If she does something bad, she'll say "I go sit in time-out" like it's a fun thing to do.  Addison "helped" us put the Christmas tree up and she has been really good with it.  She touches the ornaments occasionally, but doesn't try to destroy anything (knock on wood). 

Last, this child is so weird, she enjoys sipping water out of the top of my contact case!?  She loves filling up these tiny tops and then drinks the water from them.  I have an extra case that is just for Addy so she isn't drinking the contact solution residue left on the ones I actually use!

Next on our "to-do" list after the holidays is potty training!!! Oh the fun we will have!!

Drinking from a contact case top

A carriage ride through Brier Creek Shopping Center with Marty the horse

Addison's 2nd Birthday Party

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to write about Addison’s 2^nd Birthday party!

The day came and went in the blink of an eye, but I know Addison had a great time (when other children weren't trying to use her toys obviously!)  I didn't really have much to do other then prep some food, put decorations up and get the birthday girl ready to roll.  The Friday night before her party, I went to my parent’s house with all the groceries for the party and set up shop.  I enlisted the help of my mom, sisters and even Justin.  Everyone was hugely helpful!  My mom, Amanda and I did the majority of the food, Shelly watched Addison to make sure she didn't get into any trouble and Justin made the pizza rolls. It was a group effort and worked out well.  The menu included: Mac & Cheese, pizza rolls, little hot dogs in crescent rolls, veggies & dip, fruit kabobs, chips & salsa, Swedish meatballs, sugar cookies and cake.

On Saturday morning, Justin, Addison and I just hung out for awhile.  Once she went down for a nap, it was go time for me.  I showered, got completely ready and then headed over to my parents.  Once I was there, my sisters helped setup the tables, decorations and put the finishing touches on the food.  We were in good shape and surprisingly didn't have to run around like crazy people.  Eventually, Addison woke up from her nap and Justin brought her over to my parents for the big party.  The party started at 4:30 and we were ready to go!  Some of our friends were out of town, but we still had a good showing.  There were 3 other kids at the party, which was actually a pretty good number.  We ate an early dinner and mingled for a little while.  After everyone was done with food, we moved on to the present portion of the event.  Addison was pretty good, but had a fit if anyone took one of her new toys away from her!  We did have some crying moments, but got past them quickly.  Soon it was cake & cookies time…we sang Happy Birthday to Addison and she looked so happy!  She ate some of her cake, but was mostly interested in running around with her friends.  The kids ran around for awhile before everyone called it quits.  It had been a long day for me, so I wasn't complaining!  All-in-all it was a great day and I still can’t believe little Addison is 2!

2 Year Well Appointment

Addy’s 2 year appointment wasn't as smooth as I had hoped.  She is usually such an easy going kid and goes with the flow, but after she got her finger pricked to have blood drawn, she was pissed!  After that, she wanted nothing to do with Dr. Sarah or any of the nurses.  I even tried bribing her with chocolate, which didn't work!  Addy is also fighting a cold, so I know that doesn't help matters.

Her stats were:

Height - 34 inches (50^%)
Weight - 28 lbs (80%)
Head - 48 cm

BMI - 75%

So I was kind of shocked that they start monitoring a child BMI at 2 years old!  Apparently a child is considered to be:

• overweight if they have a BMI over the 95th percentile for their age
• at risk of becoming overweight if they have a BMI between the 85th and 95th percentile for their age
• underweight if they have a BMI under the 5th percentile for their age

A child has a healthy BMI if it is between the 5th and 85th percentile, so I guess we are good at 75%.  Dr. Sarah said that once we move her from whole milk to 2% milk, we may see a slight change.  Addy also received her flu vaccine at this appointment which was not in shot form, thank god.  She still wasn't pumped because they shoot a little nasal spray up both sides of the nose, but better then a shot I think. 

The appointment went by quick, but like I said, not the best appointment we have ever had!  Hopefully we won’t be back for awhile!  

Here are a few pictures while we were waiting for the doctor...

24 Months

Oh my gosh, our child is 2 years old!  Justin and I have been reminiscing the past few days about when our precious little girl was born.  It seriously seems like a decade ago that I gave birth to Addison, but on the other hand I can remember details like it was yesterday.  Her birthday party is this weekend and I decided to do a much more low key party then last year.  I will be shocked if Addison sits still long enough to even open presents. 

Size Stats:  Addy was 27.5 lbs when I took her to the doctors just last week.  We have her 2 year old well check-up on the 17^th, so I’ll have a better idea of height & stats soon.  Addy is still holding strong at 2T clothes, size 5 shoes and size 5 diapers.  I think we will be bumping her up to a size 6 shoe soon, but her feet just seem so tiny still!

Development:    This kid amazes us EVERYDAY.  The words she uses is where I am most astonished.  She will try to repeat just about everything back to us.  We call her our little parrot.  This month because of Halloween coming up, she is able to say Frankenstein, Dracula, Ghost, pumpkins, and even skeletons!  I feel like these aren't easy words and she just says them with such ease.  Her teacher at Daycare said it’s very easy to chat with Addy…she understands most of what Addy is trying to tell her.  Every morning, Justin will head downstairs to get Addy her morning snack (dry cereal) & a juice cup…well apparently he wasn't moving quickly enough one day because she looked at him and said, “Daddy, get my stuff”!  We couldn't believe her “grasp” of the situation.   She is starting to recognize/remember parts of the books we read as well.  She’ll know which words are coming up and will try to read to us.  We were reading Cinderella one night and on the last page it says, “It was a Dream Come True” and Addison got to that page and just kept repeating “come true”.  Pretty good memory!

Personality:  I just love her little personality.  She is becoming such a little person!  She is definitely mischievous, but can be so sweet.  I feel like so many words could describe her!  She is a very determined child, but I think her feelings get hurt easily.  If you tell her she isn't supposed to be doing something, or scold her, she gets really upset and needs a hug.  She is definitely getting into that “Terrible Twos” frame of mind.  She is bi-polar at times!  She can go from one extreme to the other extreme in mere seconds!  She is super sweet with her animals and babies.  I love watching her take care of them.  She feeds them, changes their diapers, takes them on walks and rocks them.  She is such a little mommy!  She also will head over to wherever Brinkley is to pet her.  She will rub her head or back and tell her she loves her, or she is being a good girl, and then gets a kiss from Brinkley.  Brinkley is totally fine with this and even looks like she may like it!    

Sleeping:  Addy is still all over the board, but for the moment it looks like things have settled down.  She basically comes into bed with us around 5-6 every morning and sleeps until we wake up for work around 6:30 or 7.  It isn't too bad, but the child has radar on me, I am sure of it!  I could push her to the farthest corner of our bed and she will roll, kick and struggle until she is right back on top of me!  There are times I will sneak to Justin’s side of the bed for a few extra minutes of shut eye while he is showering in the morning for some extra space.  No lie, within 5 minutes, she’s found me!  I’m just glad she is spending 95% of the time in her room.  2 adults + 1 child + 1 dog + a Queen sized bed = CROWDED!

Likes:  Right now, her favorite animals are puppy & teddy.  Usually where there is one, there is the other.  She is always hell bent on bringing both of them wherever she goes.  Addy likes to color and will even try to color on objects other then her coloring books.  We have to keep a very close eye on her when the crayons are out!  She knows what’s she’s doing and will check to see if you are paying attention to her.  I recently found bath time crayons and those seem to be a hit.  It gets her into the bath and keeps her happy.  She really likes it when you take her crib mattress out of her bed and lie it on the ground next to the crib.  She will go in and out of her room pretending to go to sleep.  This is how we keep her busy many mornings while we are trying to get ready for work.  We just turn the video monitor on and watch her to make sure she isn't getting into any trouble!  Addy also likes to help me bake or cook.  We've made a few things together and each time she loves to help pour & mix the ingredients.  It takes about 5x’s longer to get something accomplished, but it is fun watching her “bake”.  Last but not least, she loves her Sofia Amulet (necklace).  She got it as an early birthday present from friends of ours and I can’t tell you what a hit it has been!  She walks around asking for her Amulet or telling you to put her Amulet on…it seems like such a big word for such a little girl!

Dislikes:   I can’t think of too many dislikes.  Lately she has been much better at getting her diaper changed so it hasn't been too much of an issue.    

Pictures:  Here are some of my favorite pictures from this month...