10 Months

Yet another month has passed and it seems unreal that this could have already happened!  2011 is off to a great start.  You have had a busy month full of wonderful activities.  You are a busy, busy girl. During January we finally had to break down and put locks on all of the cabinets because our mobile genius has determined how to open the cabinet doors and drawers.  There are a number of drawers and cabinets that we let you play in, but there are some that are far too dangerous for you to explore.   Beginning in about mid-January, you began to let go of the objects you were holding to gain support, and stand on your own.  In the beginning, you started this because every time we say ‘Yea’ or ‘Yea Addison’ you automatically clap and you had to let go to clap at these phrases.  Eventually, you moved from doing it only on this instance to doing it at random.  You also love to hold our hands and walk, as well as walk behind the Dino Grammy and PaPa gave you for Christmas; it is adorable! 

You love music.  You love for us to sing to you, listen on the radio/TV music station, and on your piano.  Your class has also started to go to music time each day and your teachers comment that it is your favorite part of the day.   The part of your music experience that we enjoy the most is that you shake your bottom when you listen.  It is absolutely priceless and melts the hearts of everyone that sees you.

You were sick for the first time this month with bronchiolitis and an ear infection.  As you will read, you were on antibiotics and breathing treatments.  Coupled with these, we also added a humidifier, propped your bed and put Vick’s on your feet after bath under your socks.  There were so many ‘remedies’ going at once who knows what (if any) contributed with the antibiotics to get you well again.

You love to eat, aside from the week or so you weren’t your normal self!  This month we added a ton of new food, and there really have not been many that you don’t love.  To be honest, you will eat anything, but you love almost everything.  This month you tried lemons and pickles and loved them both.  You really, really take after me in the respect that you like snack foods.  You adore Goldfish crackers, YoBaby yogurt, applesauce, and fruit.  You are extremely bright in that you know when Daddy is eating ice cream and if he eats in front of you he knows he is going to have to share with you.  You did have a rough patch this month where you would throw fits when you wanted out of your high chair.  You would rare back and wiggle until you turned around and could stand up.  Needless to say you have now begun to wear the harness when you sit in your chair.  Luckily this was a short-lived phase and you are back to loving your highchair.

Bath time is still a highlight of your day and you will splash and sing and play with your toys until we make you get out.  We love how much you love water and are still anxiously waiting until pool time this summer. 

You are quite vocal, or as Dr. Ramsey noted, articulate.   Your current vocabulary includes: Dada, daddy, wow!, hi, bye-bye, ba-ba, pawpaw.  Sadly, you will notice it does not yet include mom, mommy or momma.  We are all three diligently working on it and I you are so very, very close.  You also like to flip your bottom lip and make a boat sound, and you love to motor boat your lips.     

We love you so much and are thankful for such a fantastic month!!    

Lake Mineral Wells

It goes without saying that Monty's fishing trips have decreased following Addison's arrival.  He is the absolute best dad and would not trade time with Addison for fishing any day of the week.  His boat, however, is in  shock following such a long break from the lake.  In order to not create a problem from lack of run time for the engine, the three of us took a trip to Mineral Wells State Park for a quick ride around the lake to get the boat in the water.  It was a gorgeous day, about 80 degrees, and what better way to enjoy the day than the lake.  Addison wore her camouflage Bass Pro hat and red life jacket that we bought last summer in anticipation for the arrival of this day.  She loved it!  She stood in floor of the boat while we drove (I held on to her life jacket 'handle') and then helped Monty 'drive' the boat when we were going at slower speeds.  She loved everything about it from feeding the ducks (Monty even remembered to bring bread!) to crawling around the bottom of the boat as we idled and let Monty fish a little (that would be evil to go to a lake and not fish!).  There will be many, many trips in her future, and we are so thankful we got off to such a great start!  I must confess I don't have any of the pictures with the ducks because they fed them while I was parking the truck.  This takes me a VERY long time because I am absolutely horrible with trailers and no matter how many times I practice, I seem to crumble under pressure.

First day on the water - January 29th

Addison loves to dig in her bad no matter the location

What a sweet end to a day Monty has looked forward to for a long time

Ear Infection & Bronchiolitis

Addison battled with what we thought was a cold beginning around mid to late January.  We took her to the see Dr. Ramsey on Friday, January 14th and she noted that Addison  had a cold and to give her Tylenol/Advil in alternating doses every three hours and it would run its course.  She ran a fever for a couple of days an was fever free by Monday and returned to school on Tuesday, January 18th.  Things continued to seem routine in our house except that we continued to pass cold-like symptoms around.  On Saturday, January 22nd, we went to my friend, Stephanie's, baby shower in Coppell and then hit the DFW malls before heading home.  That evening when we were leaving Ft. Worth, Addison seemed a bit hot and as a matter of fact had a fever by the time we got home that night.  We missed church again that Sunday due the fever and she continued to have a fever on Monday coupled with a very, very runny nose and the desire to constantly be held.  In addition, she began to pull on her ears.  We went back to Dr. Ramsey on Tuesday, January 25th and this time found she did have an ear infection in her right ear as well as Bronchiolitis.  This required that she begin taking 2 antibiotics:  1 tsp. of Amoxicillin twice daily as well as Albuterol Sulfate breathing treatments every 3-4 hours.

She loves the Amoxicillin but did not have great affection for the breathing treatments.  They require that she wear a mask that looks similar to an oxygen mask and inhale the steroid treatment for 10 minutes.  This is a difficult challenge on multiple levels 1) she is only 9 months old and does not stay in any one place for 10 minutes which required we 'restrain' her 2) she has no desire to have a foreign object covering her face.  To simplify, there are no pictures/videos of this process because it took everyone to do the treatment/entertainment and no one was free for pictures.  We enjoyed the help of Lisa and Grammy in the afternoons when they would sing and read to Addison during her treatment.  This made a difficult process a little less stressful. We are glad that is behind us and we have our healthy, happy girl back.  I must stay she did laugh and play even while she was sick; she has the sweetest spirit!

We are the proud new owner of a nebulizer compressor complete with a fish mask.  I bet you can't guess who picked the mask?!?

Our Big Helper

Addison is learning to do new things every day and during her 9th month she has learned to do some very 'helpful' things.  She can now open drawers, doors (if they are open she will grab on the side/bottom and swing them shut), and cabinets (with handles) as well as pull kitchen chairs "across" the kitchen.  Granted, she does not always recognize that something is capable of being opened, but her recognition of such things increases on a daily basis.  Needless to say, we have gotten very serious about Addison-proofing items that could potentially be hazardous.

She has not only discovered the drawers, but also realized it contains clothes that can be pulled out. (January 11th)

This is just the beginning.....

 Another new thing she loves to help with is unloading the dryer after I have loaded it.  She finds great humor in pulling wet clothes onto the laundry room floor after I have placed them in the dryer.  I know that one day we will work in unison with laundry, but right now I am just pleased to have her company!

Step 1- Pull out the clothes (January 16th)

Step 2- Throw them in the floor and go back for more (a bit blurry but the end result is the same)

Hello Toothbrush!

Dr. Ramsey mentioned at Addison's 9 month appointment it is time to start brushing her teeth, and by teeth we mean the two bottom ones she currently has.  Thanks to Heather's wonderful baby shower gift and mommy wisdom that knew a baby toothbrush would be needed in our future, we got Addison's Elmo toothpaste and tooth/gum brush to get the process started.  Her first session was on January 4th, immediately following her ice cream cone like good parents.  She loved it!  I guess it should not be surprising because she enjoys any time you would like to put your fingers in her mouth to let her chew on and this process comes with the added bonus of toothpaste!  The only difficult part of the routine is getting her to let go of your finger long enough to brush her entire mouth and not use the toothbrush (fingerbrush) as a toy.  Dr. Baum will be so proud when he sees you in a few years for your first dental visit!

Ice Cream Cone

 Addison had her first encounter with an ice cream cone (January 4, 2011) and loved every bite!  A picture says a thousand words.

New Year's Eve

This year we celebrated Addison's end of her debut year.  Needless to say she was in bed by 9, but we still had some party attire to celebrate the occasion and her 9-month birthday!  If you will notice, she touches them in most every picture.  She has now discovered she can remove all objects that were once safe on her head including my most beloved bows!