Addison has always liked music. The new game is freeze. We play music and then say "Addison, Dance Break" which means we start dancing. Then we pause the music and say "Freeze" and she says "Peeze" and stops dancing fingers pointed and giggles. Then we start the music again and she starts dancing again.

She says buh-bye. It starts out in her little voice "Bye" then it turns into "Buh-bye" then it gets louder and louder "BUH-BYE!" over and over again, it's hilarious!

She feeds the animals, we tell her to get the bowls and one by one she'll get the bowls and take them to the garage where we fill them and then she calls the animals as she's feeding them "Ro-y" is Roxy, "Jo" is Josie, "E-ie" is Elphie and "Ocks" is socks. She'll also tell the dogs to stay, and tells them to go to their crate. While she's feeding the cats they usually will meow, and she will mimic their meows.

When Gigi was here last month she got Addison a backpack, which Addison calls her "Ba-pa" and will put on to go wherever we're going and take off and put in the car when she needs to get in her seat.

She finally says Jenny which Jenny is extatic about. We call Jenny - Jelly though so Addison calls her "Gully."

She sings Happy Birthday all the time. New thing is that if you're singing and she doesn't want you to she's put her hand out and say "don't"

Catching up

So I've been terrible about writing. Addison and I took a trip to the Bay Area at the end of July. It was the most challenging trip on an airplane with Addison. We've traveled since she was 7 weeks, 6 months, 13 months, and now at 17 months, this was definately the toughest time on the plane because she's much more independent and mobile. But we had a good time it was fun.
Cheech and Addison became friends during our trip. She is such a walker and a runner. She also repeats everything. She learned to say "Hi Cheech" or Hi to whoever she's talking to. She'd said Hi before and she'd said names before, but she put the hi and the name together.

She played in the pool and was enjoying hanging out with the Glavan's.
Also Devion's back and Addison loves him. They're pretty cute don't you think?

Pee Pee in the Toilet

Only when speaking of a toddler is it super exciting that peeing is going on in the toilet. I mean it's always a good to pee in the toilet, I can't think of a better place to pee really. But when thus far the only places that peeing has gone on is in a diaper, on my bed or in the bathtub, it's quite exciting. A couple of days ago Addison said potty and I put her on the toilet, mostly she just sat there. Tonight before she got in the bath I asked if she wanted to potty, I put her on the toilet and she peed! We were so excited, I called several people to tell them. I never thought I be so excited about toilet activites.

In other news:
She has learned to climb onto the kitchen chairs, this is bad, she's going to fall of one and crack her head open.
She's learned how to open the baby gate, but she knows how to open it but can't open it yet.
She has 4 teeth.
She says "hey guys" (we just need to teach her "hey you guys!" that would be awesome)

That's all for now.

Teeth, OCD & Rick James

Addison's top tooth broke through, just one, she looks like a little redneck right now with just 3 teeth, though you really can't see the top one. I'll post a picture when it grows in a little more. She also like clicking them together, which just hurts to listen to, I'm trying to break that habit. We brush her teeth, when I'm brushing mine she brushes hers, we got little baby toothbrush and toothpaste.

She's a little helper, or a little OCD, I'm not sure. Whenever a door is open she has to close it, when a drawer is open she closes it. If we are loading the dishwasher she closes it, if I'm loading laundry she closes the dryer door. She's being helpful I know, but especially with drawers if we leave it open and she can't close it right away she gets mad.

If she's in our room or the family room she'll find the remote and bring it to us, wanting us to change it to the music channel. Her favorite right now is the "I Love the 80's" channel. That's our go to station, this morning she was rockin' out to Billy Joel. The other day, there was a "Little Miss Sunshine" moment she was dancing to "Super Freak" it was excellent. Unfotunately usually when we pull out the video camera she won't dance that much. Which is too bad because it's AWESOME!

Toddling

Addison is becoming a true toddler. Must be watched at all times. I'm pretty sure she threw away my drivers license.

She has 2 teeth on the bottom, the two on the top are there we can see the bumps but have yet to break thru the gums. Which consequently makes her grumpy. Yesterday afternoon she was inconsolable. I tried holding her, playing with her, books, toys, food, milk. Nothing. I started digging through drawers trying to find something she could play with that she couldn't impale herself or others with and I found some nail polish. I used to paint her toe nails all the time so I thought we'll try this. As soon as she saw it she stopped crying and sat down and put out her toes. We painted her nails, blew on them, she showed them off to Devion. Perfectly content after that. I have a problem with this for one reason, I think this means I have a girly-girl on my hands. I don't know what to do with this.

There is a small part of me that misses putting her in one place and knowing that if I were to look down for one second she'd still be there when I look back.

She has discovered throwing the ball at the dog. Not throwing the ball for the dog or to the dog, no it's AT the dog. Elphie wants to play for about a minute, after that she' gets a little tired of being struck over and over again with the tennis ball that she's supposed to be chasing.

Her other favorite thing to do is to throw food to the dog from her high chair. Also throwing food in general, like throwing food at John when he's just gotten dressed in nice clothes.

Over all she's hilarious and talks a lot. Lots of jibber jabber, I always wonder what she's saying obviously to her she's making total sense, but we have no clue what she's trying to say.

Games and Food - that's what it's all about

Addison likes Elphie's bed. She will run, which isn't really a run, but a very pronounced bow legged fast walk, and just fall on it. She'll then giggle and roll around a little, sometimes Elphie will come check out what she's doing. But then Addison gets back up and runs away from the bed to the couch, then turns around and does it again. She also makes the horrible growling/screetching sound while she's doing this, which is funny for like the first minute and then it seems so high and shrill that you beg her to stop.

She still doesn't have teeth. The two bottom teeth have broken through, but they're kind of stuck, just little white nubs sticking out of her gums. The top teeth are just little bumps, yet to break through. Addison doesn't realize she doesn't have teeth and wants to eat everything that people with teeth can eat. When we're chopping her food up into little pieces that she can easily gum and not choke on she gets extremely impatient. She'll fake cry until the plate is put infront of her, at which point, like a switch the fake crying ends and the shoving food in her face commences.

Her favorite foods, beans - like black or refried, pizza - especially pinapple she really likes pinapple, mandarin oranges, pears, peaches, apple sauce, tortillas and bread of any kind, pasta, potatoes, most veggetables, sloppy joes.

This is generally how Addison looks during and after eating refried beans.

What's new with Addison?

Sorry I've been slacking in the blogging department.

She keeps me busy...

She has her spots - we volunteer at the Jr. High Youth group at our church. So we're there on Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights. The stage at the front of the room has 4 steps to get up to it and then 2 levels of the platform, with 1 step between the levels. That step between the levels is Addison's spot. She will go all the way across the room up the 4 stairs and go sit on that step. Just sit. She'll kick her feet if the music's going, and clap but she's perfectly content to just sit there. She's also learned to high five. She's kind of done it for a while, but now she does it consistently if the kids at youth put their hand up she knows what she's supposed to do. At home on our bed John's pillows are her spot, she'll go sit on his pillows. In the kitchen she has a cupboard she's allowed to play in, a lot of times she'll go sit next to it.

She loves the dogs. Elphie loves her. Socks, not so much. She makes a back of the throat growly sound at Elphie that causes to go nuts, she'll run in laps around the table the come running back to Addison. Addison squeals and tries to chase her. It's a fun game and good entertaiment for all.

Addison has become very aware of her head/hair. She's always putting hats, headbands and bandana's on. Now she's got more hair so she's always playing with it. Especially when there is food on her hands.

Addison is a Poser

If she knows a picture of her is being taken she will immediately strike a pose. We have very few pictures of her in her natural state of just doing whatever we're trying to catch her doing. From the time she was just a couple of months old she started looking directly at the camera. This picture is rare, she's not looking at the camera, shockingly.

Even better though, when you play peek-a-book with her and she covers her eyes with her hands, when she takes her hands off her eyes she throws her hands in the air (like "tada!") and smiles. If she's standing at the coffee table or window (which is about her chest level) she puts her hands on it, crossed over each other and often puts her head on her arms, looking like she's waiting for someone to take her picture. Unfortunately by the time I get the camera out she's moved on to other things. Perhaps I just need to have my camera at the ready ALL THE TIME, to catch such moments.

Speaking of pictures, I have pictures going back to Easter that need to be uploaded. I'm such a slacker.

What sound does a dog make...

...most kids would answer this question as woof, or bark right? Yeah, not Addison. Whatever you ask her, what sound does (insert animal here) the response is the sound of an elephant. Which is AWESOME!

We're going to the zoo

We took Addison to the zoo. I don't remember ever having so much fun at the zoo. She's at an age where she doesn't "get it" yet. But she's starting to be so aware of things. Don't ask if I took pictures, because I'm angry at myself for not checking the batteries on my camera before I left the house and the gift shop at the zoo was out of batteries of course, so we'll go back again soon and pretend it was the first time around.

They've just redone some of the stuff at the zoo, they have a new black bear and bobcat exibit. Addison saw the bobcats, pointed and said "cat" she's brilliant. When she got excited about stuff she'd say "OOOOO!" She was just facinated by everything. We went into where they have salmon and trout and sturgen, she would just point and look at us like "do you see that?"

There is a petting area with goats and sheep, she saw the goats and said "dog." Close enough I guess.

While she was still in a good mood we took her to see the elephants. Since I like elephants consequently she's recieved a lot of elephant gifts, which is great, she really likes elephants. Devion and I make the elephant noise (you know where you purse your lips together and blow) she tries to do it too...it's so cute! When we saw the elephants she was so excited. At the zoo there's 3 areas there's the front, where usually the baby and the females are, then inside is usually one of the big males, and then the back, where there are usually more males. Inside there's obviously glass between the elephant and us. She had to get down and walk along the glass, hitting her hands against it trying to get to the elephant, all the while making the elephant noises (or trying). We took her the back and I put her on my shoulders. She couldn't even sit still she was so excited.

The rest of the time she was more tired, but never fussy, just quite and sitting still. But she stayed awake the whole time had to observe everything.

It was so fun, we'll have to take her again soon.

Things People Never Tell You

There are things about babies that you hear over and over again, certain things that are just common sense if you've ever been around kids. Then there are the things no one tells you and you find out on your own, this is a story about one of those things. The other night after soccer I put Addison down in her crib - she was close to being asleep, and I went to shower. I came back to check to make sure she was asleep and that she had enough blanket, and she was staring up , I said "Hi" thinking she was awake, but her eyes were glazed and she didn't move at all. I panicked, completely freaked out that she was not moving, and laying there with her eyes open I plucked her out of bed, thinking that there was something seriously wrong. She kind of startled awake and started crying. I cozied her back down and got her back to sleep. This was not just eyes kind of open a la Owen, this was full on eyes open, deer in the headlights stare that made her look dead. Well come to find out that sleeping with eyes open isn't that uncommon in babies 12 to 18 months, they have much longer deeper REM sleep than adults so eye open sleeping isn't abnormal at all. No one told me this! Maybe it's not a common thing in our family, but I know lots of people with babies, I would think that I would have heard about this at least once before. Anyway, there's my story about how I almost had a heart attack - Addison probably did too considering how quickly she was pulled out of bed.

Night-Night

Yesterday at nap time Sarah (Addison's Daycare provider) told Addison to say Night-Night to the kids. So she crawled to each of the kids and gave them a hug and said "Nigh" she then went to the door and said "Nigh Mom." AWWW! That's the stuff that makes me miss her during the day.

Yesterday my friend from work Jan's nephew came into our office. Ian is 3 weeks old. He was cute and tiny and they're so cute like that, but I'm totally loving my 1 year old little monster who is chatty, and all over the place, and a ball of personality. When I got home and Addison wanted to sit in my lap and then get down and then back up and then back down, a newborn who just lays there seems so boring (but that would be welcome at times).

Growing up...

I'm still not posting regularly enough...Addison is officially toddling. She walks better if she's distracted, like if she's playing with a ball or a phone. Which she loves, cell phones are her favorite. She is generally happy, but has been learning the fine art of the tantrum. She smiles and laughs a lot. She knows where noses are, sometimes she'll point out eyes and mouths. If she grabs your nose she expects it to "honk" when she grabs her nose she hums trying to honk. She says the following words:mom, dad, Devion, Addison, bird, cat, dog, ball, thanks, hi, bye, hello, bottle, cup, cracker, go, car, up, down, closed, water, yes, here, there, block, bell, eye, mine...and random other words - by the way her pediatrician is so very impressed with her vocabulary, most 1 year olds only have a few words in their vocabulary she has 20+ that she consistantly says.

On sad note - I took Addison to her first funeral. My cousin Jocelyn was killed in a skiing accident on 3/22/08. We were blessed to be able to go back, but it was a very sad occassion. I'm grateful that we were able to go see the family, and get the closure on our end. But it was so sad, and my heart is broken for Dean & Lisa and their kids.

Addison's 1 year and 1 week

I was so ambitions a year ago. "I'll keep a journal of her first year." Well that didn't really happen, because life happened. Now Addison's a year old and we have lots of pictures so I guess that will have to do.

So I'll try now to keep a record of Addison and what she's like, up until now she's had personality, but now she's got attitude. Addison is, generally - when not teething, so happy. She is content to play by herself or with other kids, or animals. She loves outside, especially leaves and rocks. She loves to go to restaurants. She loves animals, she'll chase them down and give them bear hugs. She loves music, when she hears music there's a little switch that comes on that makes her rock back and forth, her little dance. She has no teeth, although we're pretty sure that there are some coming in now. She can take a few steps, when she wants to, but mostly she would rather crawl - she can get there faster. When she does walk she never falls she walks very carefully until she's going to loose her balance, she stops and steadies herself and then decides that walking is just isn't cutting it, drops to her knees and crawls. She likes to talk on the phone. She likes to use pots and pans and a ladel or whisk. She likes books. She likes veggies. When she gets mad she throws her head back and cries or lays flat on the floor as though she can't go on living. She likes to climb stairs. She can go down the stairs, but that's more work so it's usually down 4 then back up. She usually sleeps through the night. She knows her Daddy and crawls her fastest when the kids at daycare say "Addison's Daddy's here!" Daddy gets his time between picking her up and the time Mom gets home, if Mom's early the next time she'll want Dad is usually for her last bottle of the night. She plays with her hair when she's drinking a bottle, not that there's much hair to play with. If she can play with Mom's hair she does. She pulls Devion's hair. She folds her hands during prayers and laughs at everyone with their eyes closed. Sometimes she says Amen.