Addi's House and Other Things

Our friends Mike and Natalie brought us a little playhouse for Addi. Mike builds custom playground sets and took this down before building one of his own. This house was the only part salvageable, so they called us to see if we were interested. It needs to be painted and we are taking part of the railing off of it since it isn't needed but Addi can play in it in the meantime. She loves it and in the morning she runs to the window and says, "house, house" pointing to it.

We planted these flowers in the Fall when Michelle was in town (October, I think). I thought I put pictures of it up on a blog post, but looking back I realize I did not. Anyway, the flowers look great! They are not all blooming yet, but we love the plants we picked out.

Our sweet kumquat tree is overflowing with fruit. We picked it too early last year I think - it tastes much better!

Some other pictures of Addi and Dylan.

I tried out the new Flip camera Scott got me for my birthday...so here is a video from last night.

Birthday Fun!

I turned 31 today and had a WONDERFUL birthday! I am blessed in so many ways and had a wonderfully special day...I want to put into words how awesome it was, but I really can't so instead I will share my day with everyone.

My day started with being able to sleep in! That is right...all parents know that this is truly a special gift! So I slept until 8:20am and when I awoke Addi was dressed and ready to go. I grabbed breakfast and some coffee and we were out the door by 9:45. We had a playdate! It was our last signing group since Mrs. Carol (our teacher) is moving. We will have field-trips until she moves and continue the playgroups each week but the actual signing portion is over. After playdate Addi and I had lunch and she napped while I curled up and read a book for leisure. After she awoke from her nap we headed to the Tallahassee Museum to visit the natural habitat zoo. We just got a membership and LOVE it there! Addi and I spent 2 hours walking the trails and watching the animals. We also visited the farm animals and got to feed some of them since the trainers (not sure if they were trainers...maybe caretakers?) were out doing their rounds. Most of the animals in the wildlife portion were injured or in captivity and are no longer able to live in the wild because they will not survive.

We left around 4:00 and headed home where Daddy was already preparing my birthday surprises and getting dinner started. I came home to an adoring husband (this is an everyday thing though), an oreo cupcake that was big enough for us all to share, a purple orchid from Monica, birthday cards, phone messages, Facebook messages, presents (Asian zing sauce - my favorite wing sauce and a Flip video camera - lots of videos for the blog coming up!), and so much more! I am loved and feel really special! Scott made Dijon and rosemary pork chops with applesauce, roasted asparagus, and roasted potatoes. It is 8pm and I am tired. So off to hang out with Scott for  a little while longer. Below are a ton of pictures from the day. Man-o-man what a great birthday!

Play group with Bebo the Bear and friends

Sliding down the slide at play group

 A few of the animals we saw today:

owls

Otter!

Wolf

Bobcat

Albino Squirrel? We saw a couple of these white squirrels

Florida Panther - an endangered animal

Black bear - a little annoyed that people were watching him while he slept

Peeking over the fence at the sheep or "baa"

Kisses for mommy!

Chocolate Oreo Cupcake

"Have some of mine"

Orchid from Monica

Presents and Cards

"Can I have a chocolate hug please, Addi?" - "Of course mommy!"

Hugs & Pictures!

All is well. I've set a date for my prospectus (dissertation proposal) defense at the end of March so hopefully I will pass that and won't have many revisions before I can start collecting data. I am busy working on other research, school stuff, and consulting jobs.

Addison, Scott, and I have been enjoying the nice weather and are spending time outside as much as we can. Each day that we pick her up from school she runs to her cubbie and gets her jacket and then asks her teacher for her cup. She then says bye and runs over to us. When she sees her pictures or reflection in the mirror she says, "addi" and smiles.  She loves giving hugs, especially to us, Dylan, and her toys. Our little girl is growing up so quickly.

Giving Dylan hugs

More hugs

We asked Addi to say "cheese" for the camera...

Just hanging out

Swinging in the park behind our church

Addi thinks this platform is made for her!

"I'll go down the slide in a minute, ok Mom"

"See, here I go...no wait, just kidding"

Amen!

This morning Addi was being quite a handful so I prayed out loud, "God please give me patience" Addi responded with an, "Amen!" I couldn't help but laugh and be thankful that my prayer had been answered. 

Here are a few pictures from Valentine's Day (well, the day before when we celebrated...)

Scott's dinner - Red Velvet Pancakes, Eggs, and Bacon

Addi's Valentine's Dinner: Red Velvet Pancakes and Eggs with Cheese

Addi refused to smile...

Our cards, flowers, and goodies

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 ;-)