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.