Y3W: Life is Ducky

Life is Ducky!

Since it has become very clear that ducks are Addison's favorite animal, it is only fitting that she be a duck for Halloween. I saw Carter's made a duck costume back in the beginning of September, and thought "I'll grab the costume later, I have lots of time" but when I went back for it the last week of September, they were sold out in the two stores that would have it here. So I was pretty disappointed. I did find one to bid on on EBay, but it's a size too small. Addie's Grammie thought she would make a very cute duck and was nice enough to call around the stores in Toronto that would have one and found one duck left that she could pick up. Guess what, it is even in Addie's size. So here it is, the duck costume. This will be perfect for Addie's first Halloween party that we are going to with our mommy and me group!

Addie the velociraptor

This is Addison a few days after figuring out how to yell. She sounds like a little velociraptor and Ryan and I can't stop laughing when she does it. She not only freezes her whole face up, but she gets her entire body into the yell. Addie thinks she's hilarious, and so do we. Every day she gets louder and longer at it.

Enjoy!

Dear Addison

Dear Addison,

Today is the first day you have ever been sick. That makes today the first day that I have ever wanted to be sick instead so that you could feel better. I know that this is just the first day of many that you will be sick, and I will wish it could be me instead. You have your first cold. Your temperature is up, your eyes are red and watery, your cheeks are red and splotchy, your nose is stuffed up and runny, you are coughing and sneezing and you are being very sucky. I noticed your eyes were red and watery yesterday, but today the rest of the symptoms set in and you are obviously not feeling well. Although my favorite kind of Addie is a sucky one that wants to snuggle her mama, I hate that the reason you feel like that now is because you are sick. I wish more than anything that you will feel better soon and we can go back to playing peek-a-boo and bouncing you on my knee. You went right to sleep tonight, a little earlier than you normally go to bed and I put your froggy humidifier on for you, so I am really hoping that you will feel better when you wake up in the morning. If you don't feel better tomorrow, I will snuggle you all day again and the next day and all the days after that until you are all better.

I love you bigger than the sky my little monkey,
Feel better soon,

Love always and forever, your mama
xoxoxoxoxox

Y3W: Baby Leg Love

I remember when I first saw baby legs, I thought "what a dumb idea... leg warmers for babies? Why wouldn't you just put pants on them?" Until I had a baby and had baby legs. These things are genius and anyone with a baby should be given at least a dozen of them when they leave the hospital. They are that functional. We first started using them when the weather turned colder and we didn't have any fall clothes for Addie. Put 'em on with a onesie and tada! warm and clothed baby. This is when I started to fall in love with them. Because they keep Addie's little legs warm and I still have access to her diapers for changing. This is important to me because Addie's cloth diapers are a little bulkier than disposables and so not all pants fit her right. No worries with baby legs! But my more recent love happened when Addie started growing out of all her sleepers. I am constantly buying new sleepers because Addie is so tall that she outgrows them really fast when they have feet on them. Baby legs to the rescue yet again. No need for sleepers and easier to change her bum in the middle of the night. But don't worry, the baby legs haven't seen the end of their hayday quite yet. Because in just a few short months, Addie is going to be crawling, and guess what she'll have on her legs so her knees don't get scratched? That's right baby legs! Love Love Love these things, and wish I had invented them myself.

The only downside of baby legs? Everytime I put them on Addie (which is pretty much every day now) Ryan starts singing Madonnna's Material girl because they remind him of the 80's.

I can live with that.

Addie's First Hike

Saturday afternoon, we decided to go for a hike on an island nearby our cottage. Grandma and Grandpa Phillips, Aunt Jackie and Uncle Ryan and Aunt Nikki came with us. It was so much fun hiking through the island trees, over streams and down big rocks. The boat ride over was pretty chilly. The wind was blowing pretty strong and it was quite cold, but as soon as we stepped into the forest, the trees blocked the wind completely and it was really nice hiking temperature. We hiked for almost two hours (including one bubba break), and Ryan and I took turns carrying Addie. She loved watching all the new sights and being surrounded by her family. Ryan and I were really impressed with how well Addie did with the hike.

Last weekend was our last weekend at the cottage for this year. It's hard to believe that another summer has already come and gone, and thinking about how different next summer will be with Addie walking and starting to talk is almost unimaginable. But it was a fun summer, and we're already looking forward to next summer at the cottage. Next year's hikes may have to be quite a bit shorter, or else Daddy will have to bulk up to carry a 1 yr old through the trails.

Here are a couple pictures from the day:

Daddy and Addie all geared up in the baby bjornSmurf Village

Daddy and Addie on the boat ride over. Winter coats and lifejackets don't go over well

Stopped for a break with Grandma Phillips. Addie LOVES bouncing! Some very red mushrooms

Y3W: Four Month Shots

Addie had her second round of shots on Tuesday. At the doctor's office, Addie did great, she is a real trooper that kid. She only cried while the needles were in her legs, and then had lots of laughs and smiles for the doctor as soon as the needles were out. I was really impressed with her lack of reaction..... until we got home.

Addie could not sleep Tuesday night, she had been awake since 7:30am and finally fell asleep at midnight because she was so exhausted. Her poor little legs were all red and swollen, and she pulled out "the lip" accompanied by the most pitiful little whimper I've ever heard. That combination paired up with the "Mama please do something, it hurts" eyes and I was crying too. I can't stand seeing my baby in pain. We gave her some Tylenol and it seemed to help a little, but every now and then she did her little whimper and let out a couple weak cries.

Wednesday and Thursday were not much better. She ran a small fever, was very fussy and uncomfortable, and especially sucky. I have had her attached to my body for the past three days now and cannot leave her sight. Daddy is only okay as long as she's playing. When she starts feeling sucky again she needs a Mama snuggle. She has also been throwing up every time she eats and has had a little bit of diarhea. On the up side, every day she's had longer periods of playing, and sleeping and she's eating a little more than normal so she's compensating for the fluids she's losing.

Hopefully today will be better, but it's still early.

Four Months Old

Day One
Day 117

Addison turned 4 months old this week. Yep, four months old already. A lot has changed since she turned three months old, and we are still amazed at how fast she is growing.

Her stats: Weight: 13lbs (32nd percentile), Height: 24.5 inches (57th percentile), Head circumferance: 39cm (6th percentile {yes you read that right, the 6th percentile}). Her eyes have changed dramatically, even just this week to a hazel green colour and are absolutely gorgeous. She is actually getting a bit more hair now but it's really hard to tell. Diaper size is a 2 still, or three snaps out on the cloth diapers.

Sleeping: Addie has been putting me through mommy bootcamp over the past month when it comes to her sleeping... errr NOT sleeping. We started her in the bassinet of her pack and play in our room still and she could not stay asleep for more than two hours at a time, sometimes not more than an hour. We tried everything to get her to sleep there for 6 weeks, and finally, we put the napper back in the pack and play. I think she just likes being all cuddled up. (ETA she grew out of the napper by about 8 weeks old) Since she's been back in the napper, Addie's sleeping habits are: in bed between 7:30pm-8:00pm (she goes straight to sleep with no problems), she gets up at 12:30am, 5:30am for a bottle, then goes right back to sleep, then she gets up again at 7:00am to poop and goes back to sleep until 8:30am-9:00am. In the morning when she gets up, I'll change her diaper, clean her eye up, then take her down stairs to play in her pajamas. She is getting pretty predictable about not wanting a bottle for about an hour and a half after waking up, but then she goes down for her morning nap. This is the longest nap of the day and lasts anywhere from 45minutes to 2 hours. I love this nap because it is when I get to shower, and get anything around the house done. The rest of the day is hit and miss for naps. If we're out and about forget napping because Addie doesn't want to miss anything. If we're home and she starts getting sleepy, I'll swaddle her up {yes, I'm still swaddling my 13lb four month old baby} give her a pacifier and rock her to sleep. She'll sleep for 20 minutes if I do that.

Eating: My little piglet eats 4oz every 2 hours, but I will be upping her to 4.5oz this weekend

Personality: Addie is still stubborn, still hilarious, and quite manipulative. She has not only her Mama and Daddy wrapped around her little finger, but Grammie and Grampie seem to be wrapped up pretty tightly too. She is still very social, but has just started playing shy with men. The only two men in her life that can hold her without her screaming bloody murder are her Daddy and her Grampie Knight. This lovely phase just started last week and we're hoping it's a short one. Any strange woman seems to be okay.

Addie's Likes: Right now Addie is loving her new bouncy seat, she really enjoys kicking and hitting the toys to make the fish light up and play music and ocean noises. Teething toys from the fridge are a big hit, but she hasn't caught on to chewing on them yet, she licks them like she's hoping they'll turn into popsicles. Addie loves going places. I took her to the zoo last weekend with my parents, and Addie really enjoyed being out with all the new things to look at. She especially loved the baby monkey and the goats. Addie's new love though, and Ryan and my's favorite thing to do with her right now is play peek-a-boo. Addie laughs out loud those beautiful full body laughs when we play peek-a-boo with her and we can't get enough of her laughs and smiles. Bath time is still a huge favorite of her day, and since she learned to splash, she's been loving it even more than she used to.

Addie at the zoo with Grammie and Grampie

Addie watching the Jaguar and the Leopard

Addie's Dislikes: Still hates the car seat, but the past couple weeks she's been getting much better at being in it. She's able to go very short (under 10 minute) drives without completely losing it, and sometimes doesn't even complain at all. Getting a mouth full of water in the bath really upsets her, when this happens, there is no consoling to be done, Addie needs out ASAP. She still hates laying down if it's not nap or bedtime.

Milestones: Addie laughs now every day, and honestly, when Addie laughs, I swear the sun shines brighter every time. She has learned to splash in the bath so I get soaked sitting on the edge of the tub every night now. She is consistently grabbing at toys and holding them to play with (play=eat). She's doing really well with trying to sit up and has gone almost 20seconds sitting with no help at all.