First Word: Bye, Bye

It is official as of December 5th, Addison is now talking!!  We are so very, very impressed by her verbal abilities!  She will now say bye, bye to you when it is said to her.  We practiced before church while we were eating breakfast and once we returned from church and were practicing some more, she began repeating bye,bye.

She has been babbling for a while now, but this is her first word that she actually seems to associate and which is clearly spoken.  She is starting to also get the hand movements to accompany, but as of now the wording is enough to leave us speechless.

Her is her video of her first word and I must say it has gotten more clear each time it is spoken:

As I mentioned she is also working on her wave and is 99% there.  We love the ability to interact with you in yet another way.

Mitchell Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with Monty's dad's family on Christmas Eve.  We had a lovely meal followed by more yummy dessert.  This gathering was a bit larger than the one the day before which kept Addison very alert.  She and Jax, who is almost three, played very well together, all though I am not so sure he liked sharing his cars with her.  Addison really enjoyed the sweet potatoes that her dad gave her as the ones she is used to eating do not come covered with delicious gooey marshmallows!

Yet again Addison received a ton of wonderful things including singamajigs, a Little Tykes kitchen, dolls, clothes, a First Christmas ornament, a pink elephant with matching blanket, and more money for college (we are starting early!).  She is one fortunate girl to have a family who is so very generous to her!

The ABC money from Granny Virgie and PawPaw

Pink elephant and blanket from Aunt Heather and Uncle Corey

Oh tissue how I love to crinkle you in my hands and make noise

Action shot - pull that tissue paper out!

I believe I will check out the noise this Singamjig is making.  

That was fun!  I believe I will now yank my bow out and take a little nap.

Addison's gift to her dad was a Nascar driving experience.  We hope he has fun and is super careful because I am not sure if his life insurance policy will cover that type of incident in addition to the fact that he is the most important person in our lives!  

Mehaffey Christmas

In order to accommodate the many plans of our families, we started our Christmas festivities with Monty's mom's family on December 23rd at his grandparent's home.  We enjoyed a yummy lunch followed by amazing dessert and got down to the business of opening presents.  As Addison is the only great-grandchild it can go without saying that she was the absolute center of attention.

She loved all of the fun clothes and toys she received and will most certainly appreciate the money and savings bonds that were given to her.  We have them tucked away for college!

Addison with Nannah.  As you will notice she has a remote.  How she love those things!  

Addison loved "opening presents", but this only lasted a short while.  After the second one, she was perfectly content to watch everyone else and take it all in.

 

Office Christmas Party

Each year my office throws a party and allows everyone to bring their children to join in the festivities.  This year was my first and I was delighted for an opportunity to bring Addison to work; I can never get enough!  We had lunch (Addison brought her own) and then opened gifts.  Since I was on my own for this event, I have to apologize for the lack of pictures!  Addison is one busy girl who wants to crawl everywhere which is not a good idea on solid marble floors.  The fact that she could not crawl around coupled with the fact it was almost nap time made for a mommy that was busy keeping Addison happy and falling down on photography duties.  We were able to get one with her friend Dax after she opened her gifts from the office.  They were so sweet to give her a Fisher Price book and a really nice bear that comes with the rights to name a star (we will save this part and just love on the bear for now).  We had a great time and look forward to next year!

Dax and Addison -- Double Trouble (December 16, 2010)

8 Months

It is hard to believe in four short month we will be celebrating your first birthday!  Your seventh month brought so many new things, things which continued to bring us amazement.  The most monumental accomplishment of the month is the addition of crawling.  You began at a little over seven and a half months, but by the time the reached the eighth month, you have become a crawling machine.  We are not too certain how long this phase will last as you are already beginning to pull up on EVERYTHING from people (often time at the expense of mom's hair), to your bed, to furniture.  You are too funny because you will try so hard to just stand up on your own in the middle of the floor but get caught and basically stick your bottom directly up in the air making a 'triangle'.  It is also priceless to see you crawl on the wood floor in the study because you try so hard to get the area rug to have more traction and just giggle the duration.  You are one determined girl and don't give up until a task is accomplished.

(Evidence of hair pulling - we can't even take a picture without you grabbing a handful!)

You are the happiest girl ever!  By this point you would think separation anxiety would have begun, but you are completely willing to visit with anyone who wants to hold you.  In some instances, you make certain we are in visual range the entire time, but generally you go without reservation.  You enjoy both mother's day out and the nursery at church.  It makes us so proud that you play so well with everyone.

You giggle and laugh at all times during your day.  You wake every morning with a huge smile on your face that makes it impossible to resist no matter the hour.  We are working on getting you to sleep through the night again which has been a challenge.  We have loved the nights when you get in bed with us mid-way through the night to extend everyone's sleep, but we are trying to let you stay in your bed all night.  So far it has been a pretty successful venture.

You LOVE food.  There is not a food that you will turn down.  You are supposed to have 5 - 4oz. bottles each day and three meals.  For breakfast you either have bananas or a cup of applesauce, both of which you adore.  For lunch and dinner you have baby food.  During the seventh month, you were on stage 2.  Of these foods, your favorites were sweet potato with anything-turkey, corn, cinnamon, etc., peaches, and pear-raspberry.  With each of these meals you always eat your fair share of puffs which you seem to love in all varieties.  You now hold your own bottle and sippy cup which is fantastic.  You let it fall next to you whenever you are finished to indicate that you no longer need it.  It is priceless.

You still love your exersaucer and activity table and this month have discovered catalogs and eye glasses.  For as long as I can remember, you have loved to 'eat' paper.  It could be a Target ad or a grocery list; to you paper is paper and it all tastes delicious.  We will now give you catalogs we receive in the mail and you will tear the pages out and play with them.  This will occupy you for a good length of time.  We are very fortunate it is the holiday season and catalogs come each day.  Now that you have teeth, though, we have to make certain that you have not really gotten any paper in your mouth.  We like to avoid this because 'fishing' it out with those teeth is not fun; you bite anything that comes into your mouth.  

Your new noises for the month were 'panting' like a dog and crinkling your nose and blowing in and out of it.  You continued to stick your tongue out and blow.  You love to hear yourself make each of these noises and I feel it is because it makes us laugh which you love to do.

We put the Christmas tree up right before your 8-month birthday.  As you can tell there are no low hanging ornaments or presents at this point.  We are not sure if they could handle all of the affection that you like to bestow on objects and don't want to take any chances at this point.  That is why we chose the study for the location behind the glass doors.  

We have loved this month like all the others are so blessed that God gave us such a sweet, sweet girl.  We are thankful for your health and your smiles and for all of the adorable faces and noises you make.  What a gift!  

Crawling!!

Addison has been well on her way to crawling since she was around 6 months old.  She could seem to get the stance correct but never wanted add the arm movement to her already mastered leg motion.  So, consequently she took a while to make forward progress.  In the meantime, she REALLY became quite a little rolling machine.  On November 20th, I think we can officially say she is now crawling.

On that day, we were going to Monty's dad's house for an early Thanksgiving celebration.  Monty had so kindly offered to go to Whataburger to get me a drink.  When he arrived home with our drinks, Addison and I were playing in our bedroom floor while I was brushing my hair (I had just gotten out of the shower).  I sat my cup on the floor near me and Addison immediately honed in on it and started toward it.  That was the first time she had ever made such fantastic forward progress.  She does love to drink out of cups even if it just water.  I guess that because drinking from a cup is something she can mirror that we do.  She still is not crawling everywhere (resorting still to rolling), but when something catches her eye, she is off in a flash.  I have no doubt in the next week or so she will realize that she can crawl anywhere and everywhere she wants.  We are so proud of yet another milestone you have hit, but must admit this is a little intimidating.  Mommy and Daddy won't be able to look away for even a second!!

October 24th following church.  We had lunch at my parent's house and Addison gave her new Baby Legs a try.  She has them in a variety of patterns and colors.  My mom and I have more fun buying things like this!

Santa

At seven and a half months old, we were not entirely sure how Addison's first encounter with Santa would go.  At this age, she is not always too certain when people she is not entirely familiar with speak to her.  Often times, she will bury her head in our shoulders, but she does not cry.  That being said, we were a bit leery to hand her to a stranger in an outfit she is none too familiar with.  Much to our surprise and delight, she sat on his lap without issue and even smiled most of the time.  This might be because she could see Mom and Grammy the entire time, but at any rate we had a wonderful first experience with Santa.  We were so thrilled this went so well and we have such adorable pictures to document her first visit (November 13th).

Bubble Bath

Addison loves the bath and loves it even more when she gets to play in my tub with the jets.  She would stay in there forever if we would let her playing with all of her toys, the wash cloth, and bubbles.  We don't actually put bubbles in there (yet) but her soap just creates this many on its own.  I can't wait for her to try the pool in the summer, but this is a great alternative in the mean time.

She moves so fast it is hard to catch her in a picture, but as you can tell she has an absolute blast. (November 11th)

Happy Halloween

In October of 2009 Monty and I received the fantastic news that we were going to have a girl.  As no surprise, this created yet another reason for us to shop.  My mom (Grammy) bought Addison's Halloween costume 6 months before Addison entered the world.  I could not have been more thrilled to have such a cute mermaid costume for what I knew would be a beautiful baby girl. 

The costume appeared so big compared to all of the other clothes in her closet, but by the time Halloween arrived this year, it turns out the costume fit (if anything it was a bit short).  Time as a parents taught us a valuable lesson.  While costumes may be adorable, in the future, make sure you can legally ride in your car seat.  Addison was an adorable mermaid but an even more understanding traveler as she had to change in and out of her costume at each stop along the way.

New Car Seat

On her 7th month 'birthday' Addison made the move into her 'big girl' car seat.  According to the salesperson at Babies 'R Us, she was due for an upgrade as she was too long for her infant carrier.  I purchased a car seat while we were in San Antonio in addition to the one previously purchased for Monty's truck.  On our (my parents, me and Addison) way back from San Antonio, Monty installed her new seat in his truck so we could begin using it that night during our Halloween adventures.  She absolutely loves sitting in her new seats and I am sure will love it even more once she is able to face forward.

Bye, Bye Baby Swing

Addison was not feeling well on the 19th, and since I was finished with tax season (hooray!) I stayed home with her to snuggle while her teeth came in.  I put her in her swing to see if this might soothe her and it was a successful venture, but it caused me to realize that she is now too big for her swing.  She enjoyed it, but she is now big enough to grab on to the mobile and is the length of the swing.  The swing was a wonderful gift from Grammy and PaPa, but we said our goodbyes for now until Addison passes it down to her future sibling some day.  

It caused me to get quite sentimental as I put items like her swing and bouncer away because it really is starting to sink in how very fast she is growing.  Here is a picture from one of very early swing adventures to her last one.  What a difference a little more than 6 months can make in a wonderful girl's life!

April 7, 2010

October 19, 2010

Puffs!

According to Monty, puffs are the greatest invention ever with respect to meal time.  When Addison was a little over 6 months, we gave her her first taste of Gerber puffs (sweet potato variety).  As with all foods, she loves them.  Her first introduction was made as we placed them in her mouth but she very quickly began to start picking them off of her tray and feeding them to herself.  At this point, we are not quite sure if she is going to be left or right handed as she will alternate the hand that she uses to eat no matter where we may place the puff on her tray.  Monty's great adoration for puffs developed because puffs are fantastic filler and allow Addison to occupy herself so that we can quickly eat and return our full attention to her.  In the very beginning, it would take her a few tries to go directly in her mouth, but now (about 3 weeks later) she is the master eater.

First solo puffs - October 17, 2010

Around the same time that she started to self feed her puffs, her first teeth were really beginning to poke through.  In order to soothe her poor gums, she would take a puff and grind it between where her teeth eventually broke through.  She preferred this method to frozen rings or any other remedy we tried.  In the process, Lisa dubbed her 'Mater' from Cars.  Do you see a resemblance?

Mattress Move

Addison is on the move!  She loves to pull up on any and all things that surround her (if you have put her in a seated position or she is on all fours).  She has discovered her the rainforest toy that attaches to the side of her bed.  In true fashion, she quickly learned that it too could be used to pull her up.  This immediately made us realize that it is time to lower the mattress before she becomes even more brave and attempts to make a getaway.  You are one adventurous little girl! 

October 10, 2010

Crazy Water Festival

Mineral Wells is known for "Famous Water" and our annual festival to celebrate this fabulous water is the Crazy Water Festival held the 2nd weekend of October.  PaPa and I had to work in the Rotary T-Shirt booth and Addison hung out with Grammy until our shift was over.  The booth next to us was selling kettle korn and because Addison is so cute they gave her some.  Needless to say a six month old did not partake, but her family sure enjoyed the rewards of having such a beautiful, sweet girl.

The festival moved locations this year to the grounds around the Famous Water Co. and added chalk art as new exhibit.  My firm bought a square which turned out really well.  By the time our shift was over and Monty arrived to meet us, Addison was passed out for the afternoon.  Next year I know she will be ready to partake in the petting zoo and every other wonder they have for children.  It was a fun first year for us nonetheless.

Can you tell the Aggies were playing that afternoon?  We were ready to go cheer them on as a family!  

6 Months

As I look back over an entire half year, it amazes me how truly far you have come from the tiny 7lb. 10oz. baby to the adventurous 16lb. 14 oz. daredevil you are today.  You are so much fun to be around.  You are the happiest of happy babies.  You constantly smile (even first thing in the morning) and laugh and giggle all of which are all contagious beyond my wildest imagination. You light up any and every time you see your daddy, even if he has just been out of your range of vision for 30 seconds.  You have never met a mirror that you did not like and smile every time you see yourself in one.  You obviously do know who that pretty baby in the mirror is.

A little before you turned 5 months, you were beginning to use our fingers to pull up to a sitting position with our help.  At this point, you will reach for our fingers and pull yourself up without any assistance from us.  You are just beginning to attempt to pull yourself up on other objects, but mainly still reach for our fingers to pull yourself from your back to a sitting position and then up to your feet.  Once you are on your feet, you love to 'walk' to obtain any and all items that surround you.  Your dad and I like to attribute this to the introduction of the exersaucer at 3 months.

You are beginning to 'dive' to reach objects that you can see but can't quite reach.  Needless to say, you can no longer sit anywhere unattended.  You sit extremely well and your doctor is impressed at all of the physical milestones that you surpassing.  At this juncture, it is rare to do terribly more than sit.  As far as crawling goes, you have the motions down (at times) but seem much more interested in either scooting on your stomach or simply skipping straight to walking.

You still love your baths and now have toys that we play with each night.  You especially love your blue and green turtles.  I think you would stay in there forever if we would allow it.  We are starting to go on more walks now that it is beginning to cool off and you seem to really enjoy the outdoors and the opportunity to take in some new scenery.  You also have started riding in shopping carts and love the opportunity to look around at all the other shoppers.  We are constantly stopped and told what a beautiful baby you are; I must agree.

You are continuing to be a good eater and up until your 6 month appointment, you ate a 4oz bottle every 3 hours and cereal before bed.  You eat every last bite and make it known that you are not finished or we are taking too long to get the food to you.  You would think the moans you let out were indicative of great pains.  You were sleeping really well until about two weeks prior to your 6 month appointment. We are hoping things will get back on track and you will again sleep through the night now with the addition of solids.

You still seem to love both church and mother's day out.  As of yet, you have not exhibited any signs of separation anxiety.  This makes leaving you, which is difficult, a much easier task.

God has blessed our family beyond our greatest dreams and we are so thankful to have you as our daughter.  We look forward to all of the new adventures that our next months will hold.

Sippy Cup (September 30th)

At Addison's 6-month appointment she was given the go ahead to add sippy cups to her list.  We were very excited to let her start that evening after I got home from work.  Until now (with the exception of certain people letting her "try" sweet tea from their glasses) she had not had anything other than breast milk and formula.  Now that her kidneys are fully developed, she can add water.  When we handed her the cup, she immediately knew where to put it, but still needs to develop some additional technique.  She does great when we hold it, but it is a little large yet for her to hold it up and tilt her head at the same time.  She has the mechanics down, she just needs to catch up on her cup to body ratio.  It was yet another first which she was thrilled about which makes it all the more fun for us.  It won't be long before she graduates from this version to the next.  We are so proud of your adventurous spirit that prompts you to try any and all things that are introduced.

First Steps Preschool

Addison started First Steps (Mother's Day Out) on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning on August 31st.  This was a really big adjustment for our family as she had not stayed with anyone other than family before, with the exception of the church nursery.  We had "meet the teacher" the Thursday before and met Addison's teacher, Melissa.  We really liked her and were thrilled to learn this was her third year to teach the class.  Addison is one of three children in the class and the only girl.  Her classmates are Issac and Silas.  We are looking forward to watching her develop and interact with others over the school year.

Addison was not the least bit nervous about her first day as she napped on the way to school.  She was all smiles as we got her "locker" set up and gave Melissa a final run down.  When we left her, there were no tears, just a smiling girl.  We are so proud of the ease with which you adapt to new situations.  You are the best ever and will have an incredible year!

We are sitting!

It is hard to really nail down when Addison began truly sitting.  She had been able to sit for a while on her own, but I am not truly sure if it counts when you are still a bit apprehensive that she might fall back at any second.  On August 29th, I feel  certain that we can say that she is truly sitting.  She is even now brave enough to reach for things after she has been sitting for a while, but that never ends well.  She has the best posture and is so proud of this new feat.  It is amazing how quickly you have moved from the Bumbo to the look what I can do all on my own phase.  We are so proud!

July 16, 2010

August 29, 2010

High Chair- August 12, 2010

Now that you have begun to eat cereal, we decided it might be time to move from eating in your Boppy to the high chair.  Our first night, we discovered this might be a bit of a challenge as your dad noted that gravity is working against you in this mode.  You didn't love the high chair, but the reclining feature did help to ease into the transition.  You were able to finish your cereal, and we decided that maybe you weren't quite ready for complete use of the high chair quite yet, but we are going to use it a few times a week to get ready for the addition of foods following your sixth month visit.  You do have fun sitting in your high chair and getting wheeled around the kitchen area as we prepare our dinner and eat.  You really feel like a big girl sitting at the table with us.

Four Months

Addison-
It is hard to believe that one-third of your first year has already passed. You are at such a fun stage right now! Your dad and I are having the best time with you. Each day you continue to amaze us. This month you have continued to love your baths and we have even started putting you "on you tummy" to let you feel what it will be like some day to actually swim. Around the time you turned three months, we began to put you in your Exersaucer. You absolutely love it, specifically the dog, which I refer to as Spot. You push all sorts of button on him and just giggle in delight at all of the noises he makes. You are really beginning to also enjoy mirrors. We will talk at length about the pretty girl we see in the mirror and you just grin at her.

This month has marked quite a few firsts in addition to the Exersaucer. You have really started to begin to reach for any and all things that we place in proximity to you. You love to just talk to us and make noises with your tongue. You get so very, very excited when you notice that we are making a bottle for you and love to help us feed you. Your way of helping is not always the best, but you sure do give it a go. You try to put your hand in with the bottle and somehow haven't grasped quite yet that you are working against yourself. You and Dad have so much fun during the day and I rush home after work to join in on the fun.

To mark your four-month birthday, your Lisa took some special pictures for you at the Famous Water Co. as well as First Christian Church. As you can tell from the pictures, you LOVE to put your hands in your mouth and by hand I do mean the ENTIRE hand. One day you will learn that the gagging reflex you often evoke is the result of cramming an entire hand in your mouth all the way to your wrist. We can't thank Lisa enough for capturing our sweet girl at this fantastic time in our life.

Pictures taken August 3, 2010

Big Girl Bed

Monty and I have had differing opinions as to when the appropriate time for Addison to move to her own room would arrive. Most opinions shared with us ranged from 6 weeks to 6 months. Monty would have opted for 6 months whereas I felt Addison would get a more restful sleep in her baby bed. Until this point (less one night in her bassinette) she had been sleeping in her pack-n-play on my side of the bed. During the night, she would make various noises and I would notice her in a number of positions, all of which were different from where she initially started her night. In the process of literally turning 180 degrees, she would get upset as she kicked/ran into the side of the pack-n-play.

Our compromise was that when Addison was able to successfully roll over she would be able to move into her own room. On Friday, August 6th, we made the transition. She went down about 9:45 and slept until 7:15 the following morning. It was the best sleep anyone in our home has gotten since her arrival on March 31st. We have a video monitor in our room (thanks to Nannie's sisters!) and it was funny, albeit sad, but Monty and I watched her in the monitor that first night for quite some time before we went to bed.

In her new bed she is still just as squirmy as ever! In fact, there are nights that I have to wake up to move the monitor camera because she has moved so far out of range, and it has quite a substantial range. It is a good thing that I took her bumpers out of her bed. I miss the extra bit of color and the way they look, it was just too risky to leave them up with our wiggle worm. Yet another milestone as she continues to amaze us each day. God is so great!!

Sleeping beauty on her first night in bed.  Notice her sleeves are rolled up because otherwise she will work to make sure they end up in her mouth the minute you put her pajamas on! 

Firm Lake Party

Following her four month appointment, our family of three headed out to Possum Kingdom Lake for my firm party.  I really enjoyed the idea of closing the office for a half day for a break of boating and B-B-Q!  Addison did very well considering she had just gotten two shots.  She "played" in the lake with dad and was able to visit with everyone from work.  Needless to say Addison, Dax (Heather's son) and Sophie (Kelley's daughter) were the hit of the party.  It will be so fun to see Addison in a lifejacket next summer with the other two.  She already wanted to join them this year......

Cereal Time!

After a long day of a 4-month doctor's appointment, my firm party at Possum Kingdom Lake and dinner with Cousin Adam, Addison had her first taste of rice cereal (July 29, 2010).  Doctor Ramsey told us that Addison could begin to incorporate cereal into her final nightly feeding.  She instructed us to give her 1 tablespoon (dry measurement before adding liquid) and said she would probably not be able to eat that much at her age.  Dr. Ramsey wanted us to try to feeding her with a spoon, but mentioned that not all babies can start straight with a spoon and we could resort to a bottle if she did not like the spoon.

Since we started a bit later in the day than usual, she was extra tired and could barely hold her head up to eat in her Bumbo.  Monty suggested that we feed her in her Boppy which is where she normally takes her bottle/nurses.   She caught on immediately and would open her mouth for the next bite of food similar to the way which she will open it in the event that you remove her bottle from her mid-feeding.  We loved sharing her first "food" experience and can't wait to introduce her to even more.  What a precious girl we have!!