This is is Addie modeling the headband she loves to wear so much. She will either make an excellent ninja or a wonderful house cleaner. The second image seems to indicate that she has temporarily chosen the latter. Daddy will have to work more on her karate skills and stop Mama from teaching her about the house work. Mama almost caught on today that Daddy was teaching her Tom Boy type things when she form tackled Maebrie at the restaurant. We will try to keep her training a secret a bit longer.....

Happy 17 month birthday!

For those of you haven't heard about my new interest of the week (I tend to be a hobby hopper), I have been reading the blog of Matt and Maddy from California. They were on Oprah and Matt was being recognized for being an nontraditional parent. His wife, Liz, died right after a c-section to deliver Maddy. Their story really has touched me and I can't help but think what would Jeremy be doing right now if I wasn't here. It has also been a day by day walk through of his journey without his spouse, giving me a better understanding of what my mom has gone through the last year.

Blah, Blah, Blah. Anyways, Matt is obviously gifted with cameras and computers and has wonderful pictures and blogs. He works/ed for yahoo (our blog will never be as cool as his). So for Addie's 17 month birthday blog I wanted to give you all a glimpse at our day and how thankful I am to be here with her.

This is how the morning started:
Addie, who is always the last rise, wakes up at 5:30 a.m. She wakes Jeremy by tapping him on the head saying "DaDa", I get awoken by her pointing to the television saying "Sprout Please" which really doesn't sound like those words but I know what she is saying. It is 5:30 am but of course she wins because this is the cutest thing ever and melts our hearts; how could any parent refuse this kind of cuteness! I love to hear those precious words and sounds coming out of sweet little mouth. Knowing we had to get ready, I obliged and took her to the living room placed her in her chair, wrapped her in a blanket and fed her Reese's cereal (purchased by Grammy, not me) and gave her milk. This is where she stayed while we got ready for school.

Baby Adalynn 1 DaDa and Mommy 0

She was happy this morning. Got dressed, brushed her teeth, got lotioned all without crying. Every morning as we get on our jacket and get ready to leave she starts making the kiss noise and goes to DaDa for a big hug squeeze (I mean a tight hold on to your neck like a baby monkey hug) and then a kiss. It is so precious and I know that it makes DaDa feel very special. DaDa is not much of a morning person but it only takes a few minutes of Addie time to have him and feeling great! On the way to Anna's house, she fell asleep because any sweet angel that arises at 5:30 is ready to sleep by 7:30.

Our Afternoon:
She had a good day at Anna's from what I could tell. I picked her up at promptly 3:35 (it takes me 5 minutes to get to Anna's and I don't waste anytime going to get her). On the way home she always starts looking for DaDa and moos aka cows. We went to the backyard for some playing. She loves to be outside and for the most part loves the dogs.

This is the first picture of Addie trying to climb on Bella's back by pulling her ears. Bella just took it and was very sweet with
Addie. Bella has lots of love for Addie and loves to lick her. We try to only play with Bella on bath nights because she has so much love to give. Addie is still a little scared of Bella because she is so happy and excited sometimes her huge butt knocks Addie down.




This is our cool new DaDa picture. Mommy was trying to be creative with the camera. DaDa didn't like it, Mommy thought it was kinda cool. When Mommy and DaDa have heated discussions about things Addie started talking very loudly to make sure that we are hearing her point of view as well! It is very funny making us laugh and stop talking about whatever it is at the moment we can't agree on, like how to get home from WalMart!


Addie enjoys sitting on the patio chairs and was so proud of herself for the way she is sitting (straddling the back bar). This is a smile that just makes everything in me turn to mush. When she has figured out something new, that smile comes and she is obviously so proud of herself! We are so excited and happy for each and everything that she learns, even sticking out her tongue at strangers.






Doom Doom Doom, All Happiness comes to an End

Dinner began with tears but ended with her shoveling ketchup into her mouth off a fork, which she has never done before? She pushed herself back from the table and said "no", DaDa said, "yes" anyways, you can see where this is going. We provided her a well balanced meal of fish sticks, french fries, parmesan spinach, baked beans and ketchup. She hasn't really eaten any veggies since baby food. She will eat pinto beans. Anyways, they told me she was anemic after her blood work.






She threw her cup of milk in the floor and then pointed and cried about it. DaDa says, "Addie, do you want your milk?"
Addie says, "No"

Dada says, "okay" and sits it back on the floor.
This continues for several cycles with her crying.
She WILL NOT say "yes"
We modeled it with Mommy's milk with no success



This finally ends with DaDa saying, "I want her to quit crying, give her the milk"
It did not stop the crying, I get her out of the chair. DaDa says, "now she is never going to eat"
Well she was never going to eat to begin with.
I hold baby in lap baby eats french fries, 1 fish stick and ketchup with a fork

Baby Adalynn 2 DaDa and Mommy 0

After Dinner Playing:

This is Addie's attempt at putting on her shoe. This frustrates her so much we are working on pants/shorts and shoes. She really understands the concept that it goes there but not the concept of how to actually put it on!





This is her playing all alone on the floor. She has been playing more by herself and she loves her little people and animals now. She likes to sit them on the table, put them in the barn and in the bus. She seems to be developing her fine motor skills.










We tied her blanket around her neck and she walked around like the Queen that she is for a little while! We also wrapped her up in the blanket like a burrito and tickled her. When she wanted out, I pulled the blanket and she rolled out. This was a fabulous new game for her!







This is Addie under her blanket with Mommy when she found me hiding under there. This resulted in those deep baby giggles! I hope that when I get to Heaven it is filled with baby laughs and giggles because it is my favorite sound.






Somewhere in there was a bath, we ended our evening with a final march around the living room while Mommy sang "The Ants Go Marching" Addie loves to "march" and say "boom, boom, boom" Then there were kisses and Addie climbed in my lap and started singing Rock a Baby. I held her and looked at those big brown eyes that look just like her DaDa's and sang. Then Jeremy and I gave her final kisses and laid her down. No fussiness, she looked up at us and said, "bye-bye bolllululu" we can't quite understand the last part.

As we walked out of the room, Jeremy said, "that breaks my heart" She is so sweet.

She may have won all the battles of the day but we love her so much and are so grateful to have her! She is the most amazing person I have ever met and even though we are so tired at 8 when she goes to bed............. We can't wait to do it all again tomorrow!

Mommy's Easter Memories!

As Mothers we all have to give up things for our children, I had to give up beautiful EGGS! I had forgotten how much I loved my Easter eggs. Last year, Addie was too young and we did not color eggs but we decided to start this year. Mom had like 7 eggs so I stopped at the Dollar General on our way into Mansfield and bought the Paas dying kit. That night I carefully boiled all the eggs and we were ready to color. Jeremy and Addie were the egg droppers. First egg, Addie throws it into the bottom of the coffee cup and it cracks. Oh my, my heart sinks. My first egg is broken. This pattern continues. But when finished we have bright beautiful eggs (with some cracks). The next morning we hid them. As she found them, she launched them across the yard, more cracks. She also beat them together, more cracks.

My eggs were no longer perfect or beautiful. I had forgotten this inner childhood memory, I had of my love for my eggs. I would color them so perfectly and not want to hide my eggs. We always hid my cousins eggs. I would save mine for weeks until eventually my mom would sneak them to the trash can. However, I love my daughter more than my eggs so she cracked them, threw them and broke them. They only lasted 24 hours but that is okay I have let it go!!

Easter 2009!

Somehow, these pictures upload in order backwards. Anyway, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings so I just uploaded a few pictures from our trip home to highlight the trip. Slideshows are a lot of work and take up a lot of space. This picture is of Addie with her Easter basket at our house on Easter Sunday morning. She got a bunny, and Pinocchio the movie, a few little toys and some candy. She had the basket thing figured out at this point and just dumped it in the floor! This was basket #4!



This is Addie with Tarah and Justin when she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. Finally, she just crashed on Justin. About two hours later, she had a fever and her sickness began. More on that to come.









We spent Saturday lunch with the Yates' family. We had a wonderful lunch with Ma, Pa, Memaw, Papaw, Grandmother, Justin and Tarah. We had an egg hunt, and drove the boat (out of water of course). Addie is officially terrified of the horses and cows now. She got basket #3 here in the picture! After spending two weeks talking about Pa, she enjoyed flirting with him but really didn't want to kiss him! Right now he is loved dearly but only from a distance!






We started our visit at mom's house. She had a basket for Addie (number #2). This basket was filled with several outside activities, bubbles, jump ropes (yes, Addie thinks she can jump rope), bats and balls and other goodies! We had pizza for dinner from the infamous Simple Simon's! We got to visit with Aunt Wheezer and Uncle Julio!

Her first basket came from Aunt Linda and Granny. Mom has the pictures of that visit!

More Spring Break

Oops I forgot to update!

Addie turned 16 months old on the 26th, which was during our break. When she was younger there were such huge things happening from month to month. The last few months have seems somewhat uneventful but this month we have noticed a lot of new things. She is doing so many things that make her a little girl and not a baby anymore.

Our precious baby is not a baby anymore. Here are all the things you are doing:

• Binks is gone this month!
• You are starting to use two words. You say "bye-bye ____", "Sprout Please" (that is from Sesame Street On Demand, and you can say "more Moo" (to Uncle Will's cell phone)
• You are a wonderful climber. We bought you a slide to try and redirect all your climbing into a positive manner.
• You still have only 12 teeth but I keep waiting for the others any day.
• You love to watch Sesame Street (only 1 a day)
• You are fascinated with your Pa. He is a very memorable person and you constantly look for him. You have found him in your Peter Rabbit book and you think Doc in Snow White is also him.
• You are starting to develop more fine motor skills. You love to put the animals in the barn and you are starting to play with blocks.
• This is also a new kind of play we have been seeing. You are playing more with your toys; instead of just exploring them.
• You are showing great concentration and attention to toys and books. You love to read your books and you point to the words. Except it sounds more like humming than reading!
  
• You also have continued your love for music and dancing. You dance with "fast feet" and you love to spin in circles.
  
• You have gotten your first skinned knee outside.
• Your hair seems to be thickening up but really isn't getting any longer. I trimmed the back today because you had a few long hairs.
• You love every animal that you meet and are not afraid at all. You tried to smother the bunnies in your Easter pictures.
• You answer all questions with "no" except it sounds more like "na"
• You say so many things that we cannot understand.
  
• You are the light of our LIVES and we can't imagine life without you!

One More Favor!

To the right of this page is a list of friends and babies that we know. My friend Devon's daughter was recently diagnosed with a stage 4 Wilm's Tumor. If you have a moment to go to her site and leave them an uplifting message or add them to your prayer list, I would greatly appreciate it. Devon is a kindergarten teacher at Decatur with 4 children. She and her husband are wonderful people going through a very rough time.