Y3W: Things we love

Y3W: Things We Love!


When Addison was only 3 months old, I did a post on the things we couldn't live without at the time. As you all know, babies change A LOT over 9 months, and so does their gear. I thought it would be nice to do a new things we love post to see what's changed and what we're still using.

Fisherprice/Playskool toys

We are keeping these guys in business these days with all the new toys from Grammie and Grampie, and between gifts for Christmas, Easter, and now collecting for the 1st birthday!

This is just a small sampling of Addison's toy collection. Addie girl is really funny when she spots a new toy... she totally scopes it out right away and loves playing with new toys.

Barefoot Dreams Bunny

This little guy was featured on Oprah and Ellen, and is by far the most important creature in our home. How could a little blankie with a stuffed bunny be so important? It's what Addison has adopted to be her lovie, and boy does she love this bunny! Addie has about 6 blankie/stuffed animal combo's very similar, but this one is super soft, and the bunny has satin ears and paws. Addie just loves the textures and she gives her bunny hugs and kisses every day, and sleeps with it for every nap and bedtime. We may need to get a couple extras..


Playtex Drop-Ins Bottle System

These were featured in my original things we love post, and they are still well loved around here. Addie doesn't eat very well, and although she uses a sippy cup and a real cup too, she absolutely LOVES her bubbas. We make up about 6 bottles a day for her right now and she drinks almost 5oz at each feeding. Although she still has no interest in holding her own bottle, these are great for her to grasp when she's ready. We use the large ones for formula and the small ones for juice and water.









Chicco Liteway Umbrella Stroller


This is definitely one of my favorite baby gear finds! My parents bought this for Addison for Christmas so we could use it when we travelled to Florida for Christmas vacation, and it is worth it's weight in gold. I LOVE my larger stroller, but it is not really meant to be hauled around in my small car. I really did my research before we purchased this stroller and I love it because: it folds/unfolds super easily, takes up no room in my car, has a full recline (very uncommon in umbrella strollers) and sits straight up, has a great storage basket, and a really nice sun shade. Not even the $400 umbrella strollers I looked at had all the qualities in this one, and I would recommend it to anyone. Best feature? Addison likes it!



Britax Marathon 65 Car Seat


Addison HATES being in the carseat. Since the day we brought her home from the hospital and she had to endure the gruelling 6 minute car ride home, she has persistently screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs every time we've even attempted to put her in the carseat. Until we got the new Britax big girl car seat that is. Addison and I got this seat after trying a few different ones out, and she loved this one. The recline is still more upright than her infant carrier, and this seat is really comfy. Not to mention that the cover slips on and off very easily for washing without having to remove the seat from the car. The only flaw I see is that my car is too small. Hmmm I should start looking for a new car, this seat rocks and is not going anywhere. Best of all? Addir girl doesn't cry at all anymore, and actually laughs and plays in it. She loves being high enough to see out the windows.



Robeeze



What do you put on your baby when she's almost a year old and still has newborn sized feet? Robeeze. They are the only shoes that fit my daughter (size0-6months of course), they are super cute, she has them in shoe and sandal styles, and she can't pull them off (she much prefers barefeet and takes off all other shoes and socks). LOVE these!

Pampers Cruisers Diapers

I LOVE my cloth diapers. That said, I have not been using them for the past three months for 3 reasons. 1. We're living with my parents and installing a diaper sprayer (which is totally necessary at this point) and line drying is not an option. 2. With Addie being in daycare now, it just works to use disposables and 3. which is the biggest reason... Addison has come down with a severe case of teething diarrhea and I do not have enough cloth diapers to get from one day to the next with what we have. We have tried other diapers, and we like Pampers the best. They are thin, soft and the hold up to Addie and her very small bladder. My child pees at least every 15 minutes and that does not stop through the night.

Grobag Sleepsack

When Addison was a newborn, she LOVED to be swaddled, and we swaddled until it got too cold out to swaddle. When we switched from swaddle to sleepsack, we went with Grobags. We have three of them. One lightweight one for summer (that I love and hope still fits this summer) and two winter weight ones. One for 0-6 months that Addie just outgrew recently, and one 6-18 months. I love these sleepsacks because they are so well made (I literally wash them at least 5 days a week) and they are so soft and comfy. It`s like wrapping Addie up in her own duvet every night. It makes me sleep better knowing that she is warm all night and can`t kick covers off, and when it was more of a risk earlier on, it was nice to know there was no way she could suffocate in it.

2-Piece Pajama Sets

I never put any thought into buying baby sleepwear before Ihad a baby. I figured they look cute in sleepers, sleepers are easy to put on, don`t need to be matched up in the wash and they just work well for babies. Now that I have a crawling baby my views have changed. Sleepers are no longer working for Addie girl. They either fit too snug and her poor little toes get cramped up, or they are just right sized and her feet get all tangled up and she trips. We have made the switch to 2-piece which is better for crawling, and much safer for her now that she is standing and cruising.

So these are a few of our current favorite things. It is amazing to me how quickly these things change, and I am excited to see what the list looks like in another 6 months.

Dear Addison: 11 Months old

Well baby girl, it's been another whole month and again I am asking myself what happened to the time. Another month gone, and you've learned so much! Everyone is starting to comment that you are starting to look and act more and more like a toddler, and although I am so happy to see you growing up so healthy and happy, it makes me a little sad to think that this year is already almost over and my baby will be a toddler in only one more short month.

You should know that although Mommy and Daddy think you are the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world, we are not the only ones. Everyone stops us everywhere we go to tell us how gorgeous you are, and what a happy baby you are. Of course we already know that, but when we take you places now, you really outdo yourself with the showing off!! Last week at swimming, you realized that everyone was watching you laugh and play in the water, so you turned it on and started yelling and laughing even louder. You would look to make sure everyone was watching and then put on the cuteness show. You make all the other babies look like newborns compared to how active you are. When I put you on the side of the pool and count to three now, you even wiggle your own bum off the edge and jump in! I am positive that you know when you are being watched and you just love the attention! You always laugh and play with strangers when we go to a store or any public place (which we will have to watch out for since you are NOT shy at all!).

Your enthusiasm and excitement just to be out and about and with your family makes Daddy and I so happy. Addison you are so well behaved no matter how tired you are, where we go or how hungry you are that you are a complete joy to take places. Daddy and I love taking you out and try to take you somewhere every day. You are even much better in the car now since you got your big girl car seat and one of my favorite things to do now is turn off the radio and listen to you babbling away in the back seat. You are just so much fun to be around, there is no doubt in our minds that you are going to have lots of friends in school.

Some more milestones this month! You now have two teeth, both the bottom teeth. You are cruising the furniture and anything and anyone that you can climb! You are crawling so fast now that we have to be very careful to keep an eye on you or you disappear. You are waving bye bye to us now and said bye bye this week! It is the cutest thing to see you waving and saying bye bye to Daddy when he leaves for work in the morning. The biggest thing you've done this month is take yourself off of pureed foods. You now only eat real food and especially love sharing whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating. Your favorite things to eat are macaroni and cheese, scrambled eggs and cheesies.

I am almost finished getting everything together for your first birthday party and it has been one of my favorite things to do. It looks like almost everyone we invited will be able to come, so it will be a busy day for you, but I know you will have so much fun and will love having all the people in the house to visit and kids to play with. I happen to know what some of your gifts are too, and I think you will be very excited to play with all the new things!

Addison last night while I was rocking you to sleep, I was thinking about the very first night we were home and I rocked you. You were so tiny, and all I could think to myself was that you were the most precious gift from God. I know I must be the most special person in the world to have been given my own angel to take care of and love. I promise you that no matter what, I will always love you and will always know that you are my special angel. The first night I rocked you, I remember thinking that there was no way I could ever love you more, but last night I couldn`t help but think that every day that goes by, I fall more and more in love with you. You are getting so big, up to 17lbs now, and you take up so much more room on my lap in the chair, but as long as you like to be rocked, I will find a way to make us fit there. Rocking you to sleep every night is one of my favorite things to do, and even though I am very tired when you wake up through the night still, I melt when I see your sleepy little face smile at me and I love when you snuggle into me and close your eyes to fall asleep. I feel like the best Mommy in the world knowing you feel so loved and so secure in my arms.

This is the very last month that you will officially be my baby... one more and you will be my toddler. Please let this month go very slowly and don`t grow up too fast Addie girl. Mommy is definitely not ready to give up her baby. If you could just keep doing all your little baby things a little longer, I will be very happy. I probably won`t be ready for you to turn one next month either. Maybe give Mommy some extra snuggles and kisses this month.. it`s going to be a tough one for me.

I love you bigger than the sky, higher than the moon and deeper than the ocean could ever be.
I love you monkey moo,
Mommy
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Officially done with purees!

Well, after three weeks of thinking Addison won't eat because she is teething, I have finally come to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with teething, it has everything to do with Addison's strong independent streak! The girl is fiercely independent and it's a trait that we are so happy she has. It means that she will stand up for herself, that she will be capable of taking care of herself, and that she will be confident to try new things and be confident in who she is. We can already see all of these things in Addison, and we LOVE this about her.

When it comes to eating though... well the independence is making things just a little bit harder for us. Addison now refuses to eat anything that is pureed. She won't even eat her favorite things like sweet potatoes or apple sauce if it is pureed, she strictly wants real food, and better yet, she wants food that mama and daddy are eating, and she prefers to eat it off our forks/spoons and plates.

Eating real food might sound easier, and in some ways it is. We don't really have to make special meals for her, she can have whatever we are eating, and at this point she's even had all the high allergen foods and loves everything from salmon to peanut butter, pasta, rice and her favorite food by far right now is Gerber cheesies! The only thing she doesn't like is potatoes. The difficult part is that she only has two teeth, so it's not easy for her to eat all the things she wants to eat.

So I'm off to the grocery store today to find more foods for Addie girl that she can feed herself, and hopefully soon she will be eating enough to start weaning her off the formula and start her on real milk. Addie is a grazer, so it will be tough for us to be comfortable that she is eating enough throughout the day to stop the formula, especially since she loves her bubbas so much still, but we are working on it, and are in no rush to hurry her out of babyhood any time soon.

Wordless Wednesday (a day late)

Wordless Wednesday

A couple weeks ago, Grammie bought Addison a tickle me Elmo. I've mentioned before how much Addison loves Elmo, and this is the cutest thing. She loves him so much that every morning, the first thing she does is go over to her toy basket, grab Elmo and she gives him a huge hug and lots of kisses! She doesn't really know how to make him laugh by herself yet, but she just loves him so much it doesn't matter if he just sits there. Here they are watching Elmo's World together.. cutest thing ever

Tooth Troubles

I am feeling so bad for my poor baby girl this week. Last week she was so grumpy and cranky every day for most of the day, and I could not figure out what happened to my sweet, happy no matter what is happening girl. Then Sunday I saw it. The second tooth is coming in. The first tooth she got gave her a little rash on her cheeks, and caused her a little discomfort, but as long as I kept the cheek cream on, and gave her a little advil when she went to sleep she was okay. There is nothing that is helping with #2. This round, she is absolutely miserable all day every day, she has had a horrible diaper rash since Sunday (and she has probably only ever had maybe 3 diaper rashes in the last year so this is odd) the poor girl has diarrhea (and screams in pain when she poops because it stings her rash) and even the advil only helps the tooth pain for a max of 2 hours. The poor baby is absolutely miserable, and there is nothing I can do but try to keep her distracted (which means a lot of playing) and keep up on the diaper changes and butt paste (which is a miracle cream and the only thing that is helping). We are having a lot of late night and middle of the night snuggles, and since we are still sharing a room until we get the new house next month, poor daddy has been doing a lot of sleeping on the couch (which beats not sleeping in our room with a screaming baby). All this over one tiny little tooth!! I am so happy that she won't remember any of this experience, and it would be nice to get at least a couple weeks off between tooth #2 and tooth #3.

y3w: Almost Cottage Season

Y3W: Almost Cottage Season!

What better way to celebrate spring than to start planning for summer? Ryan and I are so very blessed to have parents that want us around all the time. My parents are boaters and we are always welcome to go to the boat for the weekend, and Ryan's parents are cottagers and were extremely generous when they gave us our own cottage on their island! We love going to the cottage on the weekends in the summer, especially now that Ryan's sister and her husband also have a cottage on the island and there is always someone around and always something to do.

Because the cottage is water access only, we don't get to go up this time of year when the weather starts getting nice because the water is too thin for a snowmobile, and it's too early to put the boats in. So where do you go when you can't go to the cottage? The cottage life show!

Last weekend Ryan and I took Addison to Toronto to go to the cottage life show and see what was new in the cottaging world. We had a lot of fun. Addison is the easiest and happiest baby ever, so she just loves being out with us, it really doesn't matter where. She loves places that are busy with stuff going on and lots of people around.

Here's some of the fun we had at the show! (excuse the poor quality, I took the pictures on my phone).

I know usually you save the souvenirs for the end, but the first thing we did was go to the Cottage Life booth. I had seen these onesies last year and wanted one for Addie but never got around to ordering it, so since we were there, we let Addison pick out her own. She went with the pink and I think she picked out a really cute one.

Addison has starting pointing to things that she wants (the pointing is accompanied by a lot of arm flapping and babbling when she really wants something) and the first thing she started pointing to was the ice cream that everyone seemed to have. So we figured why not let her try her first ice cream cone. If I told you she liked it, I would be seriously understating how she feels about ice cream.

She was good in her stroller for the first umm 15 minutes, until she started getting all kinds of attention from everyone and then she realized all the action was much higher up. She spent the rest of the show (a good couple hours) on daddy's shoulders. Here they are checking out the Muskoka real estate boards (starting at 1.5 M we will probably never get to own one, but they are very nice to look at!) One of the real estate booths had a whole kiddie area set up so the kids could play while the adults talked. What a great idea! Addison absolutely loved riding the rocking moose that was just her size!