Missing Addie's first party

Addison and I have been waiting almost a month for today. Today was supposed to be Addie's first Halloween party thrown by one of the moms in our mommy and me group. My mom tracked down Addie's duck costume, Ryan got dragged to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins to carve, and I had our contribution of veggies and dip all set for the potluck.

Last night at 8pm I was so excited to get Addison ready and take her to play with the other babies (which she LOVES to do) and take pictures of all the babies together in their costumes. Can you think of anything cuter than 8 babies in costumes? I can't.

By 10pm I realized that we probably weren't going to make the party when my breast pump canned out. Ya, welcome to motherhood. Not only do I get puked and pee'd on, wake up every couple hours all night for months and battle the war of teething, but I am now being held up by my breast pump!

I had two options:

1. Let my milk dry up and start feeding Addie formula so we could go to the party (p.s we already know she hates formula). We'd also have to continue to buy formula which is expensive.

2. Scour the house looking for a receipt that Ryan put somewhere safe (aka never to be seen again) then call and deal with Medela to get a replacement pump, find bank records from last May to scan to Medela so they can send said replacement pump and finally find a place to rent a pump from so that while we're waiting on the replacement pump, I am not in pain, and Addie is eating. The cost of renting a pump for a couple days is less than $10.00 and Medela customer service is amazing and said the new pump would be here in the morning.

I decided to go with option number 2. In the future, if Addie ever asks why we missed her first Halloween party, I can tell her it was either go to the party and starve, or stay home and eat.

So I'm determined to have some fun with her today to make up for the party she doesn't even know she's missing. We are using home made finger paint to make her first masterpieces of art, and roasting banana's for dinner.

Y3W: What A Monkey

This is what I came back to when I left Addie alone today for a couple minutes. We don't usually buckle her into her bouncy seat because she gets more momentum going without the straps, but today she figured out how to not only sit up, but sit so far up that she could grab a toy she's only supposed to be kicking and hang off of it. You can't see so well in this picture, but she is nowhere close to the back of the seat. She gave me the biggest grin when I walked into the room as if to say "hey mom look what I can do!".

What a monkey

5 Months Old

Dear Addison,

You are now 5 months old, and the time is just flying by. Every night when I give you your bath, I look at you and think you've grown again. Already some of your 6 month clothes are getting too short to wear much longer. You've accomplished a lot this past month and your Daddy and I are so very proud of you. This month you learned how to yell, and roll over, you're now sleeping (only getting up once in the night now) by yourself in your big girl crib (I am still staying up much too late watching you sleep) and you've tasted your first solid(ish) food. You also got through your first cold this month, and you were such a little trooper.

You had your first Thanksgiving at Grammie and Grampie Knight's house, Uncle Ryan was there, and Uncle Josh came home from school very excited to see you again (boy do you love playing with Uncle Josh!) We've been taking lots of family walks with you in your stroller (even though you always fall asleep on the walk and then don't go to bed on time) and it's time that Daddy and I love to share with you. We love to go for long walks through nice neighbourhoods and talk about what kind of house we want to buy. Addie girl, when we are ready to buy a house, we'll make sure there is lots of room in the backyard for a swing set, and hopefully a treehouse. Daddy really wants to build you a treehouse to play in. I want a house with a nice kitchen so I can teach you how to bake cookies just like Grammie did with me when I was little.

Oh Addie, You are so beautiful! Every morning when I go in to get you out of your crib (if Daddy hasn't beat me to it already) you just melt me with those smiles and bright eyes. I cannot ever explain to you what that smile does to me, but let me tell you, you will get away with an awful lot when you are older because of that smile. Your eyes have changed colour again and are a hazelish colour. They have lots of green and now some brown in them too and are such a pretty shade. You still have a blocked tear duct, but we are trying to keep it clean and dry so it doesn't bother you too much. Not much news on the hair front, but that's okay, you don't need hair to be beautiful to us.

Right now, your favorite games are peek-a-boo and get your tummy. You especially love it when Daddy plays with you right before your bath. You play with lots of different kinds of toys right now, but your favorites seem to be Sophie the Giraffe, Emma the bunny, and a ring of bright coloured bugs. You mostly eat these toys right now, but you'll play with them for a long time. You still love your bath, and are kicking up a storm in there these days. I can't wait until you can sit up and play with your ducks, because you love to watch your ducks swim around the tub right now.

You still don't love your car seat, but you are getting much better at going places without screaming and actually play quietly in your seat for longer trips. I cannot for the life of me figure out why you are so afraid of Uncle Ryan, but the very sight of him sends you into a screaming fit. We are really hoping you outgrow that soon, because Uncle Ryan loves you very much and just wants to play with you. You are also getting better at tummy time, but don't like to be left alone for too long. You are definitely a Mama's girl right now, and like your Mama to be in sight when new people are around or when you feel sucky.

You are about 14lbs now, fitting into a size 2 diaper still, but with 4 snaps let out on your cloth diapers, and are eating 5oz of milk every 3 hours or so. Every night for the past week you've had some oatmeal cereal to get used to eating off a spoon, but you aren't too interested in that yet. However, I gave you just a taste of sweet potatoes last night and you gobbled that up really quick. We're going to see how you do with the cereal for this month still and start the fruits and veggies with you next month.

My baby girl, you give everyone in your life such joy, and everyone who meets you falls in love with you so easily. I love taking you places and watching you take everything in. You are such a miracle and Daddy and I feel so blessed to have you for our very own. I hope you always feel safe and loved, and know that Daddy and I would do anything for you and will always love you unconditionally.

Happy 5 months Addie girl.

Love your Mama

xoxoxoxox

What happens when the Mama's sick?

I've been thinking a lot lately about what my biggest fear was about becoming a mother. Although there are the typical fears: will my baby be healthy?, can we really afford a baby?, will my pre pregnancy pants ever fit again? My biggest fear aside from these was "What happens when I get sick and my baby needs me?" Well I've been sick now for almost a week, and I've got the answer to my question:

YOU SUCK IT UP AND KEEP GOING!!!

Ya, unfortunately that's all you can do. Today is the worst I've felt so far, and this is how my day went:

Got up with Addie through the night, got up early to pump, got dressed (no time for eating today) and got the baby ready, drove accross town to drop off the baby with my Dad (thanks Dad!) went to work, had the crappiest day at work I could have while also feeling like crap, picked up baby, came home and tried to make some tea but baby was too needy so played with baby all afternoon stopping only to pump for her while she screamed because she wasn't being held for 10 minutes, husband then called to tell me he was sick, thought "great, now we're both sick", gave baby dinner, husband got home and asked what I was making for dinner (thought "umm hello, I was sick first, what are YOU making for dinner?") made dinner anyway, ate dinner, bathed baby, massaged baby, read to baby, put baby to bed. I'll probably get a couple hours of TV in before I have to get up with the baby again tonight.

ya, being sick has changed a lot since the last time I was sick and could call into work and sit around at home all day watching TV and being allowed to take medicine to feel better. Since Addie needs clean milk, I'm stuck to Tylenol and halls for my sore throat, and there's nothing I can take for the rest of it.

Good thing it's only a cold... I'd hate to see what happens when I get the flu.

Fall Family Photos

I've been wanting to have family pictures taken ever since Addie was born, and it just hadn't happened yet, so today we decided to get it done. We took our camera, our Nikki and Addie's duck costume and we went to the park for some pictures. There were at least 5 other families there having pictures taken, what a beautiful day for it. So here are some of our new fall pictures. Thanks again for all your help Nikki!

Enjoy!

Two more steps to becoming a big girl

Addison has had a very busy weekend!

We went to the baby expo yesterday, then we went to Babies R Us to get spoons! Yep, spoons for Addie since she started oatmeal! We decided to skip the traditional rice cereal as a starter food and went right to oatmeal. I got some organic steel cut oats, ground them up and cooked them into oatmeal. I watered it down so it was really soupy with milk, and then we tried to give it to her on a spoon. That did not go over well. Addie hated it, gagged a lot and refused to eat it. So we tried again today, and we got pretty much the same reaction. She did actually lap up a little today and we made a huge deal out of it so she would get excited, but she was really hungry and when she started crying we gave up and fed her a bubba. We'll spend this month trying out all the different kinds of cereal, and then we'll graduate to veggies and fruits next month. We are planning to start with sweet potatoes and roasted pears yum!

In other news, Addie slept in her crib last night all by herself. Not in her bassinet in our room, but in her very own bed in her very own room. She went right to sleep at bedtime, so I put her down in her positioner, but at about 12:30am she woke up to eat and she had wormed her way off the positioner so I just took it out altogether. I still need to get some breathable bumper pads, but for now she's not rolling, so I just took out the bumpers that came with her bedding and swaddled her up tight so she didn't move around too much. She looked so comfy in her crib but it was really hard for me to leave her there on her own. I sat in her room watching her until 1am and then finally went to my room. I also took the video monitor in with me and set it on my nightstand even though her room is so close I'd be able to hear a fly buzzing around in there let alone her if she needed me. Overall it was a great success though, and from now on she'll sleep in her own room at night and come in for her snuggles in our bed when she wakes up around 6 or 7am. She loves being in our bed, and every morning when Ryan grabs her and puts her in with us, she goes right back to sleep and nuzzles into one of us. There is nothing sweeter than Addie snuggling in and falling asleep next to us.

Y3W: We've Signed Up!

Okay that was cheesy, but it's true, Addie and I have officially signed up for baby sign language classes starting in November. The class we are doing is taught with American Sign Language and there are 150 signs, 2 nursery rhymes and 2-3 songs that we will be learning. I am so excited. I have only heard good things about teaching babies to sign, and am so eager to be able to understand Addie as early as possible. It must be so frusterating to know what you want and not be able to communicate it effectively. Some of the perks to teaching baby sign language are:

1. Babies who sign talk earlier

2. Babies who sign have a bigger vocabulary than their peers

3. Babies who sign are better able to communicate so they exhibit less fits and tantrums

4. Babies who sign are able to potty train earlier (yahoo!!)

5. Babies who sign have higher IQ's than their peers

6. Babies who sign look so friggin cute!

So the plan is for Addie and me to go to class and learn all the signs, then I will teach Ryan and anyone else that wants to learn. Every time we do something that we have a sign for, we'll use the sign so Addie will associate the signs with their meanings, and then when she is anywhere from 9-14 months, she'll be able to sign back.

Can't wait to start signing!