Moo and Baa

Today we headed to a park that had some farm animals for kids to see and touch. There were cows, pigs, sheep and horses. There was also a sheep shearing stage where you could watch the sheep being shaved. Addy loved seeing all of the animals and kept saying "moo" and "baa". It was fun to see but incredibly crowded. Luckily Addy isn't old enough to know that she didn't get to do a pony ride, or go in the bouncy house or feed the animals but the lines were so ridiculous we would probably still be there now. But it was another beautiful spring day and it was a fun way to spend it with Addy outside.

18 months

Addy turned 18 months yesterday and I took her to her 18 month check-up. The growth spurt has not slowed down! She weighs 27 lbs 12 oz's (90%) she is just under 33 inches tall (75-90%) and her head size is 48.4 cm (90%). I think it won't be long before I am the shortest one in the house! The Dr. was happy with everything she saw, except that Addy happened to have an ear infection that we didn't even know about. Since she hadn't shown any symptoms the Dr. wasn't concerned but gave me a prescription just in case. Addy was really brave during her shots and was absolutely in heaven when they showed her the basket of toys and asked her to pick one because every single toy was some sort of duck! There was a superman duck, a sports duck, an angel duck, at least 20 different ducks. Addy could not decide and picked every single one up. Eventually she just grabbed the entire basket and said "thank you" thinking she could keep them all. I tried explaining "just one" for several minutes before I had to just give them back the basket and she had a complete meltdown. We did make it out with a fairy duck and that seemed to make her happy. Here are some pics of our 1 1/2 year old...how did this happen already?

Easter Part II

After enjoying an Easter brunch & opening her Easter presents (which were just books but she was SO excited about them) we headed down to Kris and Sarah's for an Easter dinner! Before eating though we had another Easter egg hunt. Even though Addy was a pro by now, she couldn't quite keep up with Lilja, but luckily she left plenty of the eggs for Addy to grab. Addy was so interested in all of the animals, especially the dogs (yes, that is a dog in a diaper). I don't know what was more interesting to her, the Easter goodies or the animals! We had a great visit, a delicious dinner and an overall fabulous Easter.

Easter Part I

Easter morning started with Addy doing an Easter egg hunt in our living room. She knew what to do right away, the only hard part for her was trying to hold on to all of the eggs. She was hesitant to let any of them go, but finally decided since she couldn't hold more than 4 she could set them down. She would see an egg, go and get it, and then see another egg and say "more?" and go and get and then just repeated this over and over! I think she would like to start every day with an Easter egg hunt.
After the hunt it was time to get ready for church and I was nervous that she wouldn't let me get her dressed because the last time I tried to put the dress on her she had a complete meltdown. But it was as if she knew it was a special day and she had to look her best. She didn't complain about the dress, the tights or the shoes. Just for fun I pulled out a flower headband that I have never once been able to get on her head without her crying and she even let me put that on. But probably the biggest surprise was that she let Wendy put little white gloves on her. They were gloves that Wendy wore as a child and so did Heather. Addy not only let her put them on, but she wore them through the entire church service. Wendy and I had so much fun dressing her up, but we weren't able to get the perfect picture, despite our many attempts!

Gramma & Grampa

Gramma and Grampa Evert are in town! Yesterday they watched Addy all day, took her to gymnastics and for a long walk. She was such a good girl & didn't even care when Mom & Dad got home from work because she was having so much fun with Gramma and Grampa. She warmed up to them right away and showed off all of her new skills.
Today we went to the Tulip Festival and saw all of the beautiful flowers. They were so pretty even Addy had to say "wow". It was the warmest day of the year so it was a perfect day to be outside enjoying the flowers. It finally feels like Spring!

Welcome to the Digital Age

The other night we were talking to Adelyn & we told her that pretty soon she would be seeing her Gramma and Grampa. Well as soon as we said that she walked over to the computer expecting to see them. Because we Skype & ichat so often with our families, Addy expects them to be at the computer whenever we say their names. So we called up Gramma and Grampa and they wished her a goodnight. It was adorable.
A similar situation happened the following day. My Dad called to see if we could skype and as soon as I said "papa" Addy went to the computer. As I was pulling up the program she saw their picture and immediately said "Kathy, Kathy" (pronounced kaky), it was really cute. Even though it's hard that our families aren't closer, in Addy's mind they are always just a computer away...

The Girls & Gus

This morning I had brunch with a bunch of my girlfriends and their kids. It ended up being 4 little girls and baby Gus who is only a month old! It is crazy to think that it wasn't that long ago that there were no kids in this group and now we can't get over how big they are all getting. Addy is quickly on her way to becoming the biggest kid in the group. I don't know why all of my friends kids are these tiny little peanuts but Addy is going to pass them up in no time.
It was great to get everyone together and catch up and see the kids with each other. What a cute bunch of kiddos!

Good Night

I have always been the one to put Addy down at night and reading books has always been a part of our routine. For months and months I'd read several different books but always end with "Goodnight Moon" but recently she won't even let me start reading it, I think she's had enough. So a week or so ago, I switched to "Goodnight Gorilla" and I'd ad-lib a lot of it since it doesn't have many words. Well now we've gotten to the point where Addy knows what I usually say on the pages that don't have words and she says them with me. It is the cutest thing, especially the page where I always say "uh-oh" now she says it on the page before in anticipation of it. She can identify all of the animals in the book and loves to point out the banana and moon on every page that she can find them. The other night she wouldn't let me read any other books, but we read this one 5 times. A new bedtime ritual has begun!

"No"

I forgot to bring it up when it started, but it was about two weeks ago when I came home from work and Brian said, "Addy has discovered no, she hasn't stopped saying it since we got home." Sure enough as if on cue, Addy said "no." I will say it is about the cutest no you've ever heard. It's very polite and almost soft-spoken. Or at least it was. Initially she used it at all of the appropriate times, "More milk? No." "Get down? No." "Another book? No." But recently it is her catch-all for everything and it becomes more defiant every day. She says it before you get her dressed, change her diaper, put on her shoes, pretty much everything. At least I will say it is always very clear what our Addy doesn't want.

Well it's back to the regular routine again. My Dad and Kathy left on Monday but we had such a great time while they were here. It was so cute to see her interact with them and she was so good the whole time they were here. On Saturday we went to the gymnastics place and Addy had a great time. My poor Dad did his best to capture all of her moves on camera but of course as soon as he got into position she was up and off in another direction. I think he took 200 pictures and maybe 10 of them she is actually looking at him. (I'm sure he'll send me some)
We went out to eat two different nights and Addy did great at the restaurants. No meltdown or tantrums or crying, it was great! She was tons of fun the whole weekend and I think my Dad and Kathy read her every single book we own!

Duck Duck Shoe

My Dad and Kathy are in town and it has been so much fun. They got in on Thursday and spent the afternoon and all day Friday watching Addy. She was so good for them, I was so relieved! I received several calls on Friday about how good she was being for them, even laughing during a diaper change which is unheard of. She impressed them with her love of books and by repeating so many new words. Probably the two most used words so far have been "duck" and "shoe" because they brought her the most adorable shoes with ducks on them. She is, of course, obsessed with them, but she won't actually wear them. She just wants to carry them around and say "duck" & "shoe". We decided she may never actually wear them and that's ok because they are already one of her favorite things.