Why it's an apple of course!

Not a lot of updates to talk about. Addison is saying new words and little sentences daily.

If we are coloring and I ask her to hand me a crayon please. She will ask me "which one?"

She will draw/scribble something and point to it and say "choo choo" or "dog" or "apple" or whatever she has drawn. Her imagination is so cute! We have to keep a close eye on her though as she has colored on the floor and couch - thank God for washable crayons so hopefully we can get it out.

She is still waking up at 5:00-5:30am though...

We head to SC and then NC to go skiing this weekend! Can't wait!

Of course I can't post without adding some cute pictures.

Sylvie's Birthday party...right after Addison dumped all the goldfish on her plate

Mmmm...chocolaty cupcake!

Before the party...just having fun hanging out with mom and dad

Check out my shades...

And hat...both party favors!

Showing off on the couch before we left for the party

Little things

that Addison does that I don't want to forget.

• She asks for help by signing and saying "help" when she can't reach something or get her toy bins down. 
• How after we take the toy bins down she dumps them out so she can sit in them and play.
• How she lines up all of her animal, Sesame Street, and Little People figures and says "uh oh" when one falls down or isn't in the line.
• When she is hungry she first asks for a banana, then an apple, then a cookie, then a cracker, then cheese. Usually, we try to get her to eat a veggie first since it is usually within an hour of dinner. Right now that veggie of choice is a cucumber.
• How she loves to color and eat the crayons. Yes, I said eat.
• How sometimes when she colors, she now points to her scribble and says "heart"
• The cute way she says "apple" and "shoe"
• Her obsession with reading "Harry the Dirty Dog." Fortunately, I loved this book as a child. If the book is in sight she will say "dog" again and again until we read it. Right now we read it in the morning when we wake up, before naptime, and before bedtime. It is out of sight the rest of the day usually.
• Sometimes when reading about Harry she points to Harry and says "dog" every single time - he is on each page.
• How she loves to steal Scott's breakfast every morning.
• How she is going through a really clingy phase so when she gets home from school she only wants her momma. We eat cucumbers (sometimes cheese and apples) and cuddle.
• How she eats bananas - her cheeks get really full like a chipmunk. 
• How she says "chicken" - I've been wanting to get it on video because it is so funny! She flaps her arms like a chicken and repeatedly says "chica, chica, chica" - we are pretty sure she learned this practice from Chica on Sprout.
• How her favorite part of "Wheels on the Bus" is the people on the bus go up and down and her movements to that part are so cute! Sometimes we do this part multiple times. 
• The way her and I sing Pat-a-Cake. For some reason at the part put it in the oven for baby and me she dives in for a hug. Now I meet her by opening my arms and snuggling close. She also likes to hold my hands and do the movements.
• How shy she gets around people - we started hanging out with our baby signing group again and she is really shy around them now.
• How she sticks her finger in her nose when you ask her where her nose is. We learned not to ask her to point out other people's noses...
• Her obsession with belly buttons - she loves showing her belly button off and of course she loves pointing out and now tickling our belly buttons.
• How when we pick her up from school we can watch her playing contently but as soon as she sees one of us she stands and starts to whine.

The list can keep on going...

Some pictures of our little Poppy Addison (taken last week)

She said a sentence!

Addison's first sentence (that we understood): "I draw hurt"

Context for her sentence, because it did make sense :)

We were coloring and I said, let's draw Daddy a heart because we love him. And I drew and colored a red heart. Addison colored beside my heart in red crayon. Addison looked at me and signed and said "hurt" (both firsts). I asked her, "what is hurt?" She looked at me, pointed to her red scribbles, and said, "I draw hurt." I got excited and she said it again! I tried to tell her that the heart was love (which she signed) and hurt was something different, but she didn't quite get it. It was so cute!

She has been putting together two words on her own since last week. She looked at Scott eating and said, "daddy eat" and then she looked at me eating and "mommy eat." Over the weekend when we were playing peek-a-boo, I was waiting on her turn when she said, "mommy boo" indicating that no it was my turn. How exciting! She looks at us and speaks in sentences all the time but we don't know what she is saying. She will say two words together, but we usually put them together (e.g. clean-up, uh-oh, oh wow, thank you). But now she is putting the words together herself. It is so exciting watching her grow.

Another fun random note...she loves to help empty the dishwasher. This started over the break while we were in SC but it has continued. She puts the silverware away in the right drawer (I put all the sharp and harmful utensils away first) and then I give her other plastic and metal items to put away. Many of them I only have to tell her once - she remembers it the next time (e.g. the mixing bowls - she puts them on the rack nested little to big). As soon as we start to empty the dishwasher, she runs over to help. I love that she likes to help. Hopefully, it will last ;-)

4 Year Anniversary

Today is our 4 year anniversary. We follow the traditional anniversary gift list and this year is "fruit and flowers" so I made Scott dark chocolate covered strawberries and bananas and arranged them like a flower (well kind of). Tonight we are going to dinner at a local restaurant with a rooftop bar. Since it is really cold, we will probably have our drinks inside instead of on the roof, but hopefully we will be able to walk around and check out the view. Our friend Natalie gave us a gift certificate to this restaurant for Christmas and included babysitting with it! She always watches Addison for us and we are so appreciative of this. When we get home we will have the fruit and champagne.

(Added later) 
When we got to the restaurant (Shula's), Scott had flowers waiting for me at the table. It was so romantic and sweet.  We enjoyed amazing food, drink, and company. When we got home we enjoyed the fruit, opened our cards, and decided the champagne needed to wait because we had two drinks with dinner and both had a lot to do today (we are so old sometimes!). Here are some pictures of the flowers. I couldn't get good pictures of them, and I don't edit flowers photographs well.

We don't do a lot on our anniversary as far as gifts are concerned. Usually, they are small gifts with large meaning behind them. Normally, we would cook dinner together (something new and fun!) or have an indoor picnic with our favorite foods (each person in charge of foods for the other person). When Scott and I first started dating he took me on a picnic on the old Santee bridge for our 9 month anniversary and made all of my favorites, which included pickles, olives, fruit, veggies and dip, various cheeses, pimento cheese and celery, and deviled eggs so we like to continue this tradition sometimes.

Year 1: Paper (I gave Scott a scrapbook from our honeymoon and he gave me a massage gift certificate).
Year 2: Cotton (I gave Scott a t-shirt and he gave me socks. Since I can't wear flip-flops year-round I am picky about socks but I love them).
Year 3: Leather (I gave Scott a wallet and belt and he gave me shoes).
Year 4: Fruit and Flowers (I gave Scott handmade dark chocolate covered strawberries and he gave me a bouquet of white flowers - I LOVE flowers).

18 Month Stats

Addison's Stats:
height: 30 3/4inches (15th percentile)

weight: 23lbs (30th percentile) - She is finally gaining weight!

Everything checked out well at her appointment today. Her tube is no longer in her ear (fell out since New Years) and the other one is just sitting in the canal surrounded by a bunch of wax. At this point we wait and see. Ped said to keep an eye out for ear infections (fever, change in sleep patterns, etc) and we will only put tubes back in if she gets more infections (I think 3 total again - it was hard to hear as Addison was screaming because she didn't like the doctor looking in and pulling wax out of her ear. She is really sensitive to having her ears looked at now). However, they both look good and are not infected.

And on another note today is 1-11-11 :)

SC Visit Part 2

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was stress free and a lot of fun. Christmas Eve we went to Mass and then to my Aunt Anita's house for hors d'oeuvres and stocking presents with my dad's family. Scott's parents always come to our Christmas Eve function even when Scott isn't home. Luckily, Scott arrived shortly after we got there.

My mom made this dress in the early 1970s for my cousin Hollie. Every girl cousin in my mom's family wore it after that point.

Of course she had to touch the tree. She was nice though.

On Christmas day we woke up at my parents' house and opened stocking gifts and had breakfast. We were all excited to see the gifts Santa brought. Then we opened presents and had more coffee. Scott parents came over to visit. It was an early morning with Addison so lots of coffee was in order. She woke up an hour early everyday we were in SC. Because of the decongestant she didn't nap very much either. But she wasn't that cranky or fussy while we were home. She loved being around so many people. After we opened presents we helped mom cook lunch, which was served at 1:30pm. Some of Dad's family came over for lunch. Afterward, we headed to Marie and Ricky's for Christmas at their house. The girls played while we gradually opened gifts and enjoyed everyone's company. It was so nice watching the girls have so much fun! Then we headed out to Scott's family reunion-type event. Every Christmas night, his extended family has a big dinner. This year there were over 60 people! Addison ran around the entire night but about an hour past bedtime she told Scott and I "bye" and headed to the door. We took the family picture and headed home to put her to bed. She was asleep before we pulled out of the drive-way. After we put her to bed we visited with friends and family for a short while.

Playing with the kitchen Sitti and Grandpa gave her. Shortly after we had to raise it to the next level (it grows) because she climbed on top of it.

She loved all the fruits, veggies, and healthy play-foods she got from us.

a MegaBlock tower!

Her excitement over the last chocolate from the Advent calendar. We forgot to give it to her Christmas Eve so she got it after breakfast.

She loves the easel although she won't have full access to the crayons quite yet...

Drinking some tea. Thanks Mo!

Dance Star Mickey! She loves to hug him and feed him. Right now she is trying to get him to hold the LP bear that Michelle gave her. She loves Mickey and all the LP animals!

Scott's surprise from Addison. It turned out beautifully.

Choo-choo!

Hanging out at Grandma Rie and Grandaddy's house

Playing with Elise's Talking Cafe.

Helping Elise put the blocks on her train. Please check out her pink snow boots!

Riding the train! She loved getting on it but didn't weigh enough to make it go so it just made noise and she didn't like that. This was her daytime play outfit for Christmas.

Her Christmas dress for the evening. This was a birthday gift from Grandma Rie and Granddaddy.

The rest of the week we visited with friends and had multiple play-dates. It snowed the day after Christmas, which rarely happens in the low-country of SC!

Snow!

Addison kept putting on Grandpa's hat!

Trying on the rest of his hunting clothes.

On NYE, Addison and I spent the day with Marie, Elise, Sally, and Ella Russell. Ashley and Brooks came over to play and then we headed to Pat and Libbi's for a Clemson game day party, hay ride for the kids, and fireworks for the kids. The girls all loved running around and of course the animals (cows, dogs, chickens) were a big hit! The girls had fun on Libbi's golf cart and they didn't even get a ride - they just sat on it. Scott, Ricky, and Derrick got home from the Clemson game and we took  the girls home to sleep. The grown-ups went back to Pat and Libbi's for a grown-up NYE party. Fun times! I love that we have a kids party and then an adults party after everyone takes the kiddos home - we are so old :). I have a lot of pictures of all the girls playing and will send them out on Shutterfly later. Will probably put some on FB as well.

Yes, that is a stick.

She loved the hammock!

On Libbi's golf cart playing with the iPod.

"I'm going to figure out how to drive this thing!" Check out the jeggings :)

Signing: Why we do it...

Recently, we have had a lot of people ask us why we are doing signs with Addison and if she has hearing problems so I wanted to explain why we chose to do signs. Although we have lots of ear infections and have had the tubes, Addison does not have any hearing problems as of yet, thankfully. Most of the signs we do are American Sign Language signs although some are modified for babies. It all started when a baby signs teacher visited a breastfeeding group I was part of when Addison was an infant. She did part of a baby signs class and explained the benefits of the class. Months later, my friend asked me if I wanted to take part in a class with Addison. I jumped on the opportunity to meet other moms, to get Addison socialized even more than she was getting in daycare, and so Addison and I could have something to do on one of the days we were home. But the main reason was to help Addison communicate with us earlier than most children can communicate.

Signing provides pre-verbal children with communication skills that they would not otherwise have. Infants develop motor skills and can understand communication long before they can speak verbally. So learning to sign helps infants and toddlers communicate their needs, therefore, there are less frustrations.

Here is one example of how baby signing helped ease my frustration and Addison's frustration! After this night, I said if that is the only sign she does, it was worth it! Of course she has done many more since. It was April 18th, 2010. Addison was 9 months old. She woke up at 3am and Scott was in DC. She was no longer nursing in the night and if she woke up, we didn't fed her. However, the night of April 18th, she was upset and I couldn't get her calmed down - I checked her diaper, I checked her temperature, I massaged her tummy for gas, and everything else I could think. Finally, she looked at me with a face I will never forget (kind of a "come on already") and signed for milk. She nursed for over 20 minutes. She didn't eat well the day before but it didn't occur to me that she would be hungry in the middle of the night anymore.

Another instance that followed shortly after:
At daycare in April, she wasn't drinking a lot of milk. Finally, I told them that she was signing for milk and showed them the sign. After that they gave her more milk, basically when she asks for it. I had to take twice as much breastmilk as before. Before she didn't get fussy (she doesn't fuss for food at school -I think she is just so engulfed in all the fun and learning) and when they just gave her milk, she wasn't interested/ready. After they learned the sign and how to recognize it, she did much better drinking milk there.

Now it helps because when Addison wants something we get her to sign or say it instead of whining. It is helping, although she still whines and fusses sometimes :) If she is hungry she signs for the food she wants. If she is thirsty, she signs for a drink. If she wants to go outside or put on her socks and shoes, she signs it.

An added bonus - there are many research studies that show that signing with infants and toddlers increases their expressive and receptive vocabularies when they are 1-2-3years old and that their verbal skills excel through elementary school years. I could go on and on...