Egg Hunt at First Steps

We love Addison's class at First Steps.  They seem to all get along so well and each little person has their own distinct personality.  I took off on Thursday to play catch up following tax season so I was able to join Addison for her Easter party.  We dropped her off at 9:00 like Monty does each week and stood around for a minute while we unpacked her bag, etc.  Addison walked up to her friend Noel and gave her a hug (she is very affectionate these days which I adore).  I could not have been more proud of the sweet child I have, and then she did something that is more along the lines of things I do (aah, she is turning out to be a control freak like me!)  she pulled sweet Noel's pacifier out of her mouth - just yanked it out.  I put it back in her mouth and explained to Addison that Noel is allowed to have her pacifier and that it is not our place to take it out.  Well, that speech feel on deaf ears.  Addison pulled it out yet again (three times to be precise) until her teacher put it in Noel's cubby. Addison appears to have a mindset much like all children that if she is not allowed to have hers, then other children need to follow the same rules.  What a wonderful experience parenting continues to provide.  Lucky for us we do have a wonderful child who is very eager to treat others kindly.  In the process, she continues to teach me patience..

We are having the worst fires in Texas since 1917 and they are about 30 miles from where we live.  God blessed the fires with a touch of rain on Wednesday night which meant the hunt had to come in to the gym.  It is propabably more safe for Addison's class as 4 little new walkers don't need any unexpected terrain to interfere with their journey.  They each had a blast, but surprising the girls were much more interested in the actual hunt.  Kayden liked to kick the eggs and Silas was just fine observing.  They are each so adorable

Addison and Noel on a mission

There is a gym full of eggs and yet they all huddled in one spot!

Addison holding her own - I don't know who won, but they sure were funny.

The best picture I was able to get of her class; believe it or not they do not really pose!  You really can't see, but Addison is sporting her Easter shirt.

What is a party without cupcakes?!?  

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Paw Paw's Birthday & Easter Hunts Begin

We all had a wonderful weekend full of lots of family time.  April 15th is now behind us (this year they are extended to the 18th though) and we can spend a great deal more family time together.  I got back from work by 9am on Saturday (we had to quadruple check extensions!) and had the whole day to ourselves.  After Addison's morning nap, we headed over to Weatherford for lunch at Cabana followed by a little retail therapy which no doubt included Target.  We came back to town and grabbed and snow cone and headed home.  We got all of our purchases unloaded and headed to Granny and PawPaw's house to celebrate PawPaw's birthday (a few days late).  

We had a wonderful fajita dinner catered by On The Border (no such thing as too much Mexican food in one day!) and more dessert that you can imagine.  Candi had an Easter egg hunt organized for the kids following dinner. We weren't certain how Addison would do (attention span, etc.) but she continues to amaze us.  She and Grammy have been practicing placing eggs in the basket and her practice certainly paid off.  She got about a dozen eggs on her own and kept trying to find more after they were all gone.  She wants to be like the older kids and can most certainly hold her own.

She cannot only walk, but also squat and stand back on her own!

The first of many egg that entered her basket

Strong girl holding her basket!  

Check out all of Addison's eggs

To spice it up, Addison found the eggs and Monty 'airplaned' her to her basket for the drop off

On Sunday, we had lunch and an Easter egg hunt following church.  Addison continued to do well at this event, but became much more distracted by some of the candy which had fallen on the ground.  The shiny wrappers on the Reese's cups really caught her attention.  She is now ready for the official Easter day celebrations, but too bad she can't really enjoy the candy.  There is always next year...

Spring

You love to play outside!  Based on your fearless and adventuresome personality this comes as no surprise.  This winter we bought you a slide for the back yard and we were so thrilled to find that you love it.  You have played on it before today, but today we took our first pictures.  You love the slide, but you also love the door that you go through to get inside the play structure.  I think this love of the door comes from a toy that you and your friends play with at school that also has a similar door; it is the hot toy in your class.  You will open and close it over and over and I think you enjoy it almost as much as you enjoy the slide.  I know we are going to have a great time with you with all of your outdoor toys and you will enjoy the change in environment.

This should come as no surprise given my complexion, but we are being extra cautious of the sun and wearing a hat.  It is a dual purpose item  - sun protection and a fashion accessory.

Beautiful day

It is hard work closing this door!

Mission accomplished

Sweet Addison waiting to go down the slide

You were amazed by the grass.  You would gently touch it because it is still a bit crunchy following winter and wanted to avoid getting poked.

Our thrill seeker.  Attempting to climb UP the slide at 11 months.  

Milk & Cereal

Your dad loves for you to do the same things he does.  He has often fed you bites from his cereal while you were eating your applesauce, yogurt, etc. but today he decided to give you your own bowl.  He ran next door to let some workers in and I snapped a few pictures of this monumental occasion - Cheerios, banana and milk.  I should have known this would end disastrously, but it was worth the spill to capture the moment.  You and your dad are so very close and it makes me so happy to see the love that you two share.  God has greatly blessed our family!

Oooh, I love new food!

Bet you can't guess what happend when she grabbed the bowl...

11 Months

It is impossible to think that as I write this the next month's post will read Happy Birthday!  You are an incredible joy in our lives.  You continue to smile and laugh at virtually all times.  You love people and the ability to interact with them.  You are still completely comfortable to be dropped off at the nursery or at First Steps.  I will probably laugh at this in the future, but have asked the ladies that have watched you without us around if you are aggressive.  When I asked the Director of MDO, she literally laughed at me and said you do not have a mean bone in your body.  To this point, I will not argue, my only fear is that you play too rough.  Your pats that you give us and others are so sweet but oh so hard.  You have a sweet spirit and would not hurt a soul on purpose, but sometimes I don't think you know your own strength.

You had an interesting month as far a food is concerned.  You went through a long stretch where you were 'over' bottles and had no interest.  Thankfully that phase has passed and still drink 4-5 4oz. bottles a day coupled with your meals.  You are sippy cup champ, but really enjoy the opportunity to drink for our glasses or any liquid we place in straw to give you.  You certainly have a choice food 'color' group.  You would be perfectly satisfied with goldfish, cheese and peaches.  We continue to expose you to other foods/colors to show you life is a bit bigger than your choice three.

You have never required a great deal of sleep especially compared to your peer group.  You are now consistently waking up between 6:15 and 6:30 no matter when you normally go to bed (normally 8:30 - 9:00).  You are so happy when you wake up that we can't be angry to get up and go get you from your room.  I am now in full swing with tax season so I am already up, but we may have to talk about this pattern when I get to have Saturdays again.  With respect to naps, you take one in the morning and afternoon and they have been long enough to let Dad get quite a bit accomplished.

You LOVE books!  You will sit in your room and pull every single one of them off the bookshelf and 'read' for a very, very long time.  Our current definition of reading is turning page after page and stopping on most every one to see if there is an object that was meant for you to touch.  You love touch and feel books and books with flaps.  I love that you are showing what I would deem is an early interest in reading.  At this point, you are really not yet interested in listening to us read to you, but I think you are well on your way to that point.

You are:

• Able to turn things off and on without our help - lights, your jungle in your bed
• Able to shut doors and open and close drawers
• Feed us your snacks.  We love how you share, but sometimes you will take them back if we are not fast enough
• A speed crawler
• Walking holding our fingers
• Balancing on your own
• Walking behind your dinosaur at a very high rate of speed
• The best driver of Cozy Coupe I have ever seen
• Curious
• Incredibly happy.  You constantly clap and cheer.
• Verbal.  You will attempt to imitate each and every sound we make with great success.  We are anxiously awaiting more sweet words from your mouth.

We love you so much and are blessed to have such a sweet, sweet daughter.  

First Mud, First Bite, First Step and a Pot o' Goldfish

February 17th-20th

When Monty picked Addison up from school on Thursday she was in her spare clothes.  After 10 months, we are very familiar with why this happens, so we thought.  It appears while they were playing on the playground Addison discovered a mud puddle of some nature and decided it looked like a good place to play.  She must have had a good time because she manged to get it in her hair and enough on her clothes to require a change.  I am so sorry we did not have a picture, but it did earn her the name "Pig Pen" from PaPa.  Oh the messes Addison finds!

It has been a busy weekend for our family as far as firsts go.  When I got home from work on Friday night we all ran next door to see the progress of Grammy and PaPa's house.  After the update tour, we were sitting in our living room talking.  I was sitting in Addison's chair and she was crawling all over me laughing and playing.  She wanted me to put her in my lap, which I did, and then proceeded to what I thought was kiss me.  When you ask Addison to kiss someone goodbye, etc., she will open her mouth in a large "O" and place it on their cheek.  She had the same "O" formation when she approached my face only she closed her "O" and let her top and bottom teeth touch around my right jaw.  Needless to say this did hurt a bit and she did leave slight whelp.  More than anything tough, we now realize that we have a biter!  I pray this phase will be short lived (in fact, I would be ok if it is now over!) and that we don't get any notes sent home from school or church.

We continued our evening with a visit to Lisa's (Eric had Disciple Now) to take her dinner.  Her mouth was bothering her so we ate an El Paseo picnic in her living room.  Addison ate mainly pineapple tidbits, but Lisa was kind enough to introduce her to Oreos following dinner.  Needless to say she is quite a fan!  One other amazing thing Addison did was lean her torso over to get a bite off her spoon while standing.  We were quite impressed with her core strength to keep her balance.

Saturday was rather uneventful as far as firsts go, but Sunday you made a giant leap!  After Addison got dressed for Sunday School, she was in our room for me to get ready.  I was letting her play in the floor and she crawled over to me and grabbed my pant leg to pull up.  I pulled her off and  held her by the hand and let go (she can easily stand with no support) and she took ONE step to me and then grabbed my hand.  I realize this is not walking but this shows our true progress in that direction.  It would appear we are getting more close to increased mobility!

Before church she also discovered how a Kleenex box works and pulled out one (thankfully!) Kleenex and shredded it into a ton of pieces.  She loves new discoveries and continually amazes us.

How small can pieces of Kleenex become? (February 20th)

Busted!!

 What mess?

Addison and Monty have some interesting things they do together.  She loves to play with pots and she loves to eat Goldfish.  So, you ask, why not put them together??  Monty has done just that!  He fills her pot with Goldfish and she eats them at her leisure.  Isn't he a genius?  It is like a giant snack trap without the lid Addison hates.  He might be on to something...

Addison and her pot o' fish

Our Valentine

As we celebrate a day that is set apart to show people in our lives how much we love them, it is hard to believe our love has grown so very, very much over this past year.  A life absent Addison seems impossible.  You fill each moment of our day with incredible laughter, pride, joy, and an abundance of other wonderful emotions.  You bring a smile to our face with your giggles, the way you pose for the camera, how you lean in to people who blow on you, the way you close a door before you reopen and go through it and too many other things to count. You are the love of our lives and cannot imagine a moment without you!  

You were showered with gifts from your Granny Virgie, Granny & PawPaw, Gram & Grandpa and Grammy & PaPa.  You now have more animals to entertain you and more books to read along with chocolates.  Mommy and Daddy thank you for your generosity in sharing your chocolates this year.  I have no doubt you will make up for it in future years!  Happy Valentine's Day!!

This is the pose where we show you our new turtle.  Wheel of Fortune here I come!

Sweet girl!  Elmo and the Elmo Loves You book are sure to be a hit.  She laughs when we 'talk like Elmo".

The toy Granny and PawPaw got signs and dances.  Addison is still a bit uncertain even when it is not playing.