Twenty months...

Addison was 20 months old yesterday.  That means in four short months our little girl will be TWO!  How did that happen?  I have really truly loved every stage of Addison's life, and this stage is no different!  She is getting to be quite the character, which makes our household lots and lots of fun!

FAVORITES: Some of Addison favorites right now include: watching Elmo and now Barney, anything outside, her babies, reading, singing, story hour, helping daddy, feeding calves with mommy, helping mommy around the house, taking a bath, and playing in the water.  She has become VERY active and doesn't stop going all day long.

EATING: Addie is somewhat a picky eater, some days.  Other days she will eat just fine.  I have noticed that on hot days she does not eat as well.  It's funny because one day she will eat one thing and act like it is the best thing she has ever tasted, and when you try to give it to her again a week later, she doesn't eat it.  I just can't figure this girl out!  She still hates veggies, but eats LOTS of fruit.  Her favorites being grapes, strawberries, and grapefruit.  

GROWTH: She is a growing girl!  I decided to weigh and measure her because Dan and I were sure that she has gotten taller since her 18 months appointment.  She sure has!  She is weighing about 29lbs (1 lb gain) and is 33 3/4 in. tall (3/4in. taller)!!

SLEEPING:  Little difficulty in this department at night time!  Addie has slept through the night since she was 7 weeks old, and NOW she decides that she isn't going to sleep through the night.  Again, cant figure this girl out!  She goes to bed just fine, does not fuss, but she is up around 2-3am and cries until we put her into our bed.  We tried to crying it out thing, but after twenty minutes of Addie wailing and me nearing an anxiety attack, we just keep bringing her into our bed.  I don't know if it is the right thing to do, but it is working for us (and how could I pass up cuddle time with my little girl?). Nap time, on the other hand, is wonderful!  I lay her down after lunch and she takes about a 2 hour nap, no fussing from her at all.  Most of the time she will even ask to lay down!

DISCIPLINE:  Boy is that hard at this age!  We struggled with hitting and pulling hair this winter and she seems to be back in full swing.  Literally, full swing, she it hitting again.  She doesn't do it all that often and most of the time it is when she is playing and begins to get excited.  I use time outs and they seem to work for the most part.  The other times we have meltdowns is when she does not get her way.  It is usually over playing with something she is not supposed to, and they typically happen when she is tired.  I usually just offer her choices of other activities and walk away.  The tantrum seems to end quickly and then she if off doing something else!

POTTY TRAINING:  Addie has been doing SO well in this department!!  We have started using pull-ups and this weekend, even though we were away, she only had a few accidents in her pants!  At home she does exceptional and we usually don't have an accident at all!  We have definitely got the pee in the potty down, we are still working on telling mommy or daddy when we have to poo.  She still wants to go in her pull-up.  Usually if we are paying attention we can see her cues that she has to go and we get her to the potty. I have been really surprised at how much she loves going potty on her own.  She actually gets mad at us when we have to put a diaper on her for nap and bedtime!

WHAT WE ARE LEARNING:  I will have to admit that since starting the potty training the things we used to work on each day have been put on the back burner.  I realized that we really need to get back on track!  We are working on colors.  Addie is much better with them and gets a few mixed up.  Counting, she can count to six, but knows all numbers 1-10.  Beginning to work on the basic shapes.  Singing our ABC's.  I love to hear her sing some of the letters.  She can't sing the entire song, but will chime in when she knows.  Her vocabulary continues to grow and grow.  She can talk in short sentences and really does not stop talking all day!  When she is not talking she is singing!  Oh, and as I posted before, the girl can read her name!  I love that I am able to stay home with her and work on all of these things with her!

I finally got the good camera out to take some pictures today.  I wanted to do it yesterday, but it was raining in the morning and the rest of our day we were busy.  Today it was pretty windy outside, but we captured a few good ones...

I will post about our weekend soon!  I start my 3-day weeks tomorrow!  I am looking forward to only working three days, but I have to work 7-8hr days.  I am SO not used to that and am a little worried it is going to wear me out!  I have been working half days since Addie was born.  Also a little worried about Addie's routine, but I think she will adjust just fine.  She always seems to.  I hope that everyone had a great weekend.  I also want to thank all of our men and women (and their families) who have and are currently serving our country.  You are all heroes.  THANK YOU!  Happy Memorial Day.

rain, rain, GO AWAY!!

Today we are stuck in the house.  Quite a shocker when we have spent just about every minute outside this past week!  Addie LOVES being outside and she is a much better sleeper when she gets that fresh air, so we embrace it!

Addie and I have been feeding calves in the morning.  She loves helping out!  She insist that she carry one of the buckets back to the barn when we are done!

This past weekend we had a few graduations to attend, and we finally planted flowers!  Addie had a lot of fun playing in the dirt...

Riding her tricycle...

Isn't this tricycle cool?!! Grandma found it at a garage sale, not sure what she paid for it, but it is definitely a hit with Addie!

We have really made some strides with the potty training these past couple of weeks.  HURRAY!!  I have been letting Addie run around the house with no bottoms on and it has been a huge success!  She goes whenever she needs to, has not had an accident yet!  The only problem is that when I went to put her new Elmo undies on, she thought she was protected and had an accident in them.  We are working on that, but she is off to a really great start!  The best part about it...she has a positive attitude about going on the potty again!  Here she is reading baby a book while she goes potty...

In her Elmo undies...crazy hair and all...

We always have a baby with us, and when we go outside, baby waits for us on the bench...

You will usually find the babies naked or half dressed around here!

So, the reason we are not going outside today (besides the fact that it is not only rainy, but cold) is a couple of incidents from last week and the weekend...

Yes, Addie LOVES mud puddles, and on THIS farm there is plenty of them when it rains.  This was last Friday and I could not get her to come in the house!  She wanted to play in the rain!  It didn't end with the rain, though.  The puddles stuck around for a few days, and so Addison's obsession with puddles continued!  Between graduations we even had to come home and change out of her entire outfit because she decided to JUMP, and I mean JUMP, in the middle of a huge mud puddle as we were walking to the car!  I think there must be a magnetic force pulling this little girl in!

We have not finalized plans for the weekend, but we may go to the campgrounds.  All depends on the weather.  We have my cousin's graduation on Sunday and I am hoping to spend a nice relaxing Monday with the fam.  Next week since the kiddos are out of school, I only have to work THREE days a week!!  FOUR day weekends all summer long...doesn't get much better than that!  Everyone enjoy your three-day weekend!!

Tractor Ride...

Yesterday, Addie and I both took our very first BIG tractor ride!  We have both ridden in our smaller tractor, but this was our first time in one that made for those big farmers!  The technology in these things is unreal.  Addie liked watching the computer and listening to all the beeping noises!

We got a few pictures on our trip, but Addie was pretty tired, so she seems very somber in most of them...

She found her own little seat, right on Uncle Jeff's cooler!

This was towards the end and she was getting really tired by then!  I love this picture because you can see the barn in the background!

We both had a lot of fun, and Addie took an extra long nap when we were done!!  I am SO grateful that we are able to raise our children on a farm!  It's so wonderful to know that they will get to have experiences that many kiddos don't get until they are 25 years old (like me)!!

Addie can read her name!!

On Sunday I was baking in the kitchen, when Addie walked over to the fridge to a page that Max had colored for her.  Max had written "To:Addie, From:Max" on the top.  She pointed to her name and said "Addie!"  I really didn't believe it at first, so about ten minutes later I pointed to her name and asked what it said.  Plain as day, she told me "Addie!"

Today I wrote her name on a piece of paper and she recognized it again!  This girl is just TOO DANG SMART!  She surprises us each and every day!!

On a side note, she has also learned MY name!  While we were out at some garage sales, she picked up on the fact that no one else was calling me Mom, so she thought she would call me Sarah a few times as well!  Last night Dan called my name to ask me a question, and little Addie ran out to me, calling me Sarah.  The fun has just begun!!

On the farm...

We have been keeping plenty busy!  If only the weather would have stayed like this...

our corn would have actually been planted.

We were busy painting nails.  Look at that crazy hair, it absolutely goes wild in the humidity!

Busy swinging, which is her favorite thing to do outside...

WEEEE....

 

and when the going gets tough... a good ol' nap in the swing always does the trick!

Busy taking baths in LOTS and LOTS of bubbles...

because they are SO fun!

Busy waiting for this weather to warm up again so we can enjoy some more time outside!!

Mommy's Day

This past week I have really reflected on how wonderful it is being a mommy.  It truly is the best job in the world, and even though some days can get pretty rough, it is worth all the hard work!  Let's face it, we are molding our children, teaching them how to live, loving them to pieces, so that one day, they too can become a wonderful mommy to their children. 

My Mother's Day brought me to the reality that there is NEVER a dull moment in your life when you have children!  I told Addie when I put her to bed on Saturday night that she had to be good tomorrow, because it was Mother's Day.  Not that she is normally bad, but JUST IN CASE...

On Sunday I had my last day of Sunday School.  I am going to miss my kids, but am happy to spend more time with Addison on the weekends.  I got up, took a shower, and then got Addie up and dressed.  I turned Elmo on so I could finish getting ready, and did her hair while she was watching Elmo.  First mistake...I left the spray bottle within reach.  I am in doing my hair, when I look around the corner to find Addie spraying herself with the water!  She had her "I love mommy" shirt on and everything!  So, I decide to change her shirt and throw that in the dryer.  On the way out the door, she sees a small thing of bubbles sitting on the buffet that is in our mudroom.  She wants to go outside and play with bubbles.  I tell her that she can take them to Grandma's house and do them there.  Well, she still wanted to do them at home and was very reluctant to get in her car seat because she wanted to blow bubbles.  I finally get her in, running late, and off we go.  On the way to my mom and dad's house I look back in the rear-view mirror and she has those darn bubbles in her hand.  I had forgotten to take them from her!!!  I tell her to keep them closed, only to see that 2 seconds later she has them open and POURS the bubbles all the way down her coat and now her pants are soaked!  Really?!!  Thank goodness my mom is good in a crisis, because she took care of her!  What a little stinker!

After church we went out for brunch with my mom and family, where Addie was great for the most part, but towards the end of sitting there she had enough.  So my brother took her outside for a bit!  We got home, Addie napped, and so did mom and dad!  It was wonderful!!  That afternoon my family came over for a bit, then Dan's family came over that night for a grill out.  It was a busy day, but we had lots of fun and Addie was in a wonderful mood after her nap!  In fact, I think she had too much fun because it is 9am and she is still in bed!

Here are some pictures from the day...

Reading my card to me...

I truly have the BEST family in the world!  I finally got a new camera!!  My little one broke almost a year ago, and still have not gotten one.  It's a touch screen, and it's purple, I LOVE IT!!  Addie also picked me out some flowers to plant!

In her "I love mommy" shirt!

I had a wonderful 2nd Mother's Day!  I am truly blessed with the best people in my life that make me the best mother I can be!  To end the post a quote from one of my favorite shows...

"It's not easy being a mother.  If it were easy, fathers would do it."   
~The Golden Girls

Random moments from our week...

We have been up to a lot this week, here are some random pictures from our week!  Enjoy!

Have I mentioned that this girl LOVES her babies?  She takes care of them all day!  I even had to swaddle baby yesterday in a "lanky" as Addie called it...

In her baby's bed...

She built herself a stool to sit on!  If you are ever around Addie you will notice she tries to sit on EVERYTHING.  Even things MUCH smaller than her, so it was pretty fitting for her to build a stool!

Our trip to the greenhouse.  Addie loved all the flowers!

She loves getting up on this chair and watch for Daddy.  Notice her hair fit into pigtails!

Wearing mommy's shoes...

Coloring on her Elmo AquaDoodle that I scored at a garage sale for $1!!

I had to wet her hair down after her nap and made her a unicorn horn.  She thought she was pretty silly!

Horsey rides, which she now asks for ALL the time.  She says, "back, horsey!"  

Today we played with our sidewalk chalk...

and blew bubbles because it was SO beautiful outside!

Have a good one!

busy, busy weekend...

What a busy weekend we had!  On Friday we left a couple of hours before story hour to go and see a few of my hospice patients.  I still volunteer and see a couple patients every month, and every few months I take Addie to see them as well.  They love to see her and it is a great experience for Addie.  We then went to story hour, which was pretty uneventful.  Minus getting whacked in the head with the puppet show curtain rod by another little boy there.  We left with a big honkin' goose egg, but she was fine!  Friday night was our girl's night, which was a blast!

On Saturday morning we were up early to go to a children's fair that was held in Fredericksburg.  To my surprise it was just as much a benefit to me as it was to Addie and Max!  They had lots of resources for children and information for parents as well.  I was able to gather lots of information for the parents and children I work with!  They had games for the kids, lots of free little toys and books, free eye exam, and a free ID card.  I thought this was pretty awesome!   So here is Addison and Max at an activity.  Addie really liked putting the letters on the pan and I am going to have to get a pan out for her to do that with her letters at home!

I didn't get anymore pictures than this because Addie was a handful to keep up with!

I wanted to go back to the ID cards that were provided.  It is a wonderful idea to have one!  They took Addie's picture, her fingerprint, and the information like her height/weight/age, and put it on this card.  So if anything were to happen you have this available.  So, here is the funny part.  Addie is still somewhat afraid of strangers and did not take a very good picture!  When Dan saw it he had to laugh and asked that if Addie went missing was this the picture they would use.  He didn't know if this would be a good one for the milk carton.  What a crazy man!  BUT, all joking aside, it is a wonderful thing to have!  AND we just had to scan that picture for you to see...

Doesn't she look thrilled to have her picture taken?!!

So, on Saturday night Dan surprised me and asked if we wanted to have a date night!  I of course said YES and we went out for supper to the store.  It was a great night!  Sunday was pretty uneventful.  I had to teach Sunday school, we skipped church because it was Confirmation Sunday, and it was packed, so we enjoyed some family time at home!  Now, we just wait for next weekend...Mother's Day!!