1 month until 2 years!

It's hard to believe but Addy will be 2 years old, one month from today. Just the other day Brian and I were talking about how incredible it is when you think of everything she has learned over the past year. It is really amazing how much kids learn in such a short time.
Addy has really gotten into her dolls lately and taking care of them. She loves to give them bottles and blankets and change their clothes. She thought it was hilarious when I gave her a diaper to put on her baby. I started dropping hints to her that nooks are for babies and that maybe it was time for her to give her nook to her baby. She just laughed. A few nights later Brian put her down with her nook and sure enough she took it out of her mouth and gave it back to him. He set it on the ledge of the crib and she never used it all night. We thought maybe the transition from the nighttime nook might be as easy as that, but not so. She's back on the nook and we haven't officially decided what our weaning plan will be. Unfortunately, she has regressed in her sleeping patterns as well and has been waking up multiple times a night over the last week. At first we thought it might be her ears, then we thought it was her lip from the fall, but finally the other day Brian solved the mystery. Addy wasn't sleeping well because she is getting in her 2 year molars, you can actually feel them coming in.
This weekend when Addy was about to have a meltdown Brian had to come up with something quick to distract her. So he grabbed the broom from the closet and for the next 10 minutes Addy swept and swept and had the biggest smile on her face. Just tonight, Addy spilled some water and immediately ran to get the cloth to wipe it up. She loves things clean and she loves things put away. We have a unusual toddler on our hands, I'm sure of it.

Pocket Full of Trouble

Over the past couple of weeks Addy has been on a kick of putting her hands in her pockets. She gets this smirk on her face and then walks around with the cutest proudest swagger you've ever seen. She twists back and forth to accentuate the fact that her hands are in her pockets. She especially loves it when both she and I have jackets on and we can both put our hands in our pockets and if I don't put my hands in my pockets I'm scolded for it. Well, the other morning we were walking to daycare (she had a mini-veto on the stroller for a few days) and Addy had her hands in her pockets. Unfortunately she had a misstep on the sidewalk and fell face-first and was unable to catch herself because her hands were in her pockets. I scooped her up and ran her home as the blood was coming out of her mouth. I was trying not to panic myself but her lips were huge- both of them were completely swollen and bleeding. Luckily Addy is an extremely good patient and LOVES ice packs more than anything in the world so she was loving that I was wanting to ice her mouth. It broke my heart and made me smile at the same time. Unfortunately we realized that night that she had actually chipped a tiny part of her tooth. It's been about a week and it doesn't seem to be bothering her anymore and her lip is finally looking better. Here is a pic our poor little patient. I mean really have you ever seen anything so sad?

Papa & Kathy

It's been a busy week, so much to catch up on. Two days before Addy's ear surgery my Dad and Kathy came to visit. It was so easy to have them here, they knew exactly what to do. They picked up Addy from daycare the first day and stayed home with her the next day. She kept them busy by showing them everything she likes, including every single photo album we have. They spent two days with us and then headed to the Olympic Peninsula with our family friends Dave and Kathy visiting from LA. Brian and I stayed with them for the weekend at an awesome house right on the water and we had the most amazing dinner. Best scallops ever.
Addy was great considering she was still recovering from her surgery. She loved all of the attention - so much that she skipped her nap on Saturday. That never happens, but she actually made it through without being a complete disaster. Brian and I agreed that being retired sure looks like a lot fun and Addy is a very lucky girl to have so many people that love her so much. So much that they are willing to walk backwards down the street for her.

All Better

Today was a big day for Miss Adelyn as she got her ear tubes put in. We headed into the clinic by 7 am for her surgery and waited for awhile. Then the procedure was explained to us and I went into the room with Addy while she got the anesthesia. That was hard for me to see because she was crying one minute and very scared and then her eyes rolled back and she started snoring. It was only 8 minutes later when the doctor came out to tell us that everything went fine and it was only another 10 minutes before Addy started waking up and we were able to see her. She was definitely scared for awhile, but it was nothing that some food and cartoons couldn't cure. We were home shortly after, she took a good 3 hour nap and then was back to her feisty self for the rest of the day.
So far so good, I'm hoping there are no lingering effects and that she is officially all better.

Operation Poop- Part Two

I swear this was a requested post.

Operation Poop has been going well. We started the miralax on vacation and were worried about what might happened but really it was great. Addy has no idea when she's drinking it and it has definitely helped make the process easier for her. Plus, we make such a big deal when she does it now that she's constantly saying "yippee, poopie." I would say we have successfully removed her previous fear.

We did however have one particularly unfortunate moment. On the plane home, waiting for take-off, Addy was sitting on Brian's lap and was clearly working on something. A few minutes later Brian had the look of fear in his eyes and leaned over to me to say "I think she pooped on my leg" and I just thought he meant she pooped while on his leg, which was obvious, but that's not what he meant. Sure enough she had a blowout, a full-blown blowout. So there we were on the plane, trapped in our seats, with the biggest blow-out we've ever seen from her. So we got creative and changed her on our laps, hopefully, unbeknownst to our seat neighbor but we'll never know for sure. As usual, I couldn't stop laughing at the entire situation and luckily Addy was a good as could be. She was quiet, and laid perfectly still while we tried to deal with the disaster, threw everything in a bag (thank god for those scented bags) and pretended things were normal. The rest of the trip was completely uneventful.

Last story on this topic. Just last night as I'm leaving work Brian calls me with some exciting news. He said that right before going to change Addy's diaper she kept saying, "pee-pee potty, pee-pee potty." So he set her down and she grabbed her little potty seat put it on the toilet, he lifted her up and she actually, for the first time ever, peed in the potty. We were thrilled! Technically the doctor told us not to even bother with potty training until our other mission was complete, but clearly she knew what she wanted to do. She may not do it again for months, but we're still very proud. Of course for the rest of the night all we heard her say was "pee-pee potty, pee-pee potty." Who knew so much of our time would spent talking about these things?

Teddy Bear Park

One of Addy's favorite part of the trip was our visit to Teddy Bear Park. It was this super cute park with slides, swings, trains, sand and of course Teddy Bears. She was so excited about the tree slide, I think she must have gone down it a dozen times in a row. Jack was the real trooper as he followed her around everywhere she went, even carrying her when she asked him. It was adorable (and relaxing) to watch.

Minnesota...again

We finished our vacation back in Minnesota, spending time with my family. As usual it was busy and we hardly had time to fit everything in. We did find time to head to the farm to see my Grandma Ruby though and Addy got to spend some quality one on one time with her cousins Sydney and Jack. Isabelle had nothing but love for Addy, but unfortunately I don't think I could say the same was true for Addy. She is still learning about sharing and hugging. I think Addy's favorite part of the trip was the lawnmower rides from my brother. Yes, that's right, lawnmower rides.

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Iowa

We managed to hit the "Midwest Trifecta" this trip by visiting Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. I figured we did 8 different state crossings during the week back and it was Addy's first time to Iowa. It was a beautiful drive along the Mississippi River through the cornfields of Iowa. It was the Midwest at it's best! We had a great time with Bill and Elaine, who gave us three desserts in less than 6 hours, what could be better?

Wisconsin

Vacation recap #1
After an early morning flight and a quick pit stop at my sister's, we hopped in the car and headed to Wisconsin to see Brian's family. Addy was a real trooper on the flight and actually slept almost the whole drive so all in all the dreaded travel day went way better than we expected. As usual it was so great to spend time with Brian's family. Addy got tons of attention and was really good. We did tons of fun stuff- went to the beach, played at the park, visited my friend Megan, went to Iowa and to the children's museum. Here are some pictures from our time.