Addison's first week at school!

This week, Addison started going to day care full time. She just finished her first week and she LOVES it there! I warned them on the first day that she doesn't like to take naps and is a picky eater. Boy, have I been surprised to learn that even the first day, she has taken naps and eaten just about anything they put in front of her. I guess that's the positive power of peer pressure!

There are 10 other kids in her class at Carolina Kids. It is such a nice place and I love the way they split up the children. All the kids in her class are exactly her age, within a couple of months. They have multiple classes in her age group, but they put the ones together that have the same birthday within 3 months of each other. When it's time to go to the next class (when they all turn 2), they all go up together as a class.

Her friend from swimming lessons, Katie, is in her class. Her mom and I worked together a long time ago when we were Winthrop students and now our girls are in the same class together (and swim class last year). Another coincidental thing about Katie's mom is that her parents also live in Greenwood (as does my entire family). Here's a picture of Addison and Katie. They sit beside each other at the table every day.

Today was the Valentine party for the class. I managed to get Addison to wear her heart dress and tights for the party. I tried to get her to wear tights and a jumper yesterday, but after getting her all dressed, she said "No tights. I want pants!" So I didn't have the heart to make her wear it. She definitely has a mind of her own. Here is a picture of her showing off her "canny" that she got at school in her Valentine box. She hit the motherload!

Here is a picture of Addison helping me make her Valentine box this week. Of course, Zoe and Elmo had to be featured on her box!

She seems to really like school and she can say school ("cool"). The other morning, she was wanting to play at home instead of leaving. I told her it was time to go to school and she said, "No cool toDAY, Mama!" I thought that was hilarious! She wants me to stay when I drop her off, but she is fine when I leave. I usually go to the lobby and watch her on the video camera for a little bit and she is always playing when I leave. When Jason picks her up, she usually isn't ready to go home! She also likes to say the name of one of her teachers, Ms. Yasheika ("missheka").

I thought I'd also give a potty training update to all those who read my first post and might have gotten the idea that she was potty trained immediately -- WRONG!! After showing us she was able to do it, she lost interest in actually doing it. I could get her to sit on the potty for a while and read a book, but not much was happening and she really didn't care for it. Now she is telling us "tee tee potty", but it is usually after she has already done it in her diaper. However, this week, she went two times on her own and actually did tee tee in the potty. She's making progress. She is certainly capable, it's just a matter of making up her mind that she wants to do it (which hasn't really happened yet). She does like the idea of wearing panties - I bought her some pull ups and she likes those and calls them "cannies". It is so cute!

Addison's Newest Happenings...

There's a lot of fun stuff going on with Addison these days! She's talking up a storm in full sentences and singing songs randomly. She loves to tell you what she wants and more often, what she doesn't want. She can say pretty much anything she wants and even puts sentences and phrases together on her own, much to our surprise. She will also pick up something the first time she hears it and surprise you with it later.

A few fun phrases:

• "No ma'am" - when I do something she doesn't want me to do, she uses this phrase that I often use on her when she is doing something she's not supposed to do
• "My HAND" - as she reaches out for you to hold her hand
• "FAST" - when she or someone else is running fast
• "Nose sucker" - referring to the battery-operated nasal aspirator that we use to suck out all the snot when she is congested (a little graphic, wasn't it)
• "I jotchu" [I got you]
• "Num, num, num" - when something tastes good, or she's pretending to eat something
• "See Addison" - this one is frustrating - whenever I try to take a picture or video, she looks up and says this and comes over to see herself on the camera. I try to explain to her that I have to actually take a picture or video before she can see herself, but she doesn't listen. Instead, when I resist, she pitches a fit. Below is one of the pictures I took of her when she was mad that I wouldn't let her see Addison. I showed her this and asked if I could take one of Addison smiling, but she didn't comply.

Songs she likes to sing by herself:

• Itsy Bitsy Spider - (with the motions) "pider...pout...washed him OUT(favorite part)...sun...rain...up the pout AGAIN"
• Pat a Cake - (with the motions) "pat cake, pat cake...MAN...can...roll, roll, roll, roll...PAN"
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - "tinkle, tinkle...STAR...how I wonner...you ARE...upa buba worle so HIGH...ika diamon in the SKY, tinkle, tinkle...STAR...how I woner...you ARE"
• B-I-N-G-O - "bee, eee, gee, ohh...bigo wasis name-o"
• Wheels on the bus - (with the motions) "whees on bus...round an round...all through the TOWN...bus...beep, beep, beep, etc...open an SHUT, etc...waa waa waa, etc...
• "Rock, rock, to and fwo, Addison, ______ (Mama, Elmo, etc) here WEE go" - when she is rocking in a chair

Here's a picture of her singing one of her songs with the motions:

Most of these songs she learned from a fabulous $3 DVD given to her by her GrandNanda called "Mommy and Me". She has the cd also and she listens to it at night when she goes to sleep. She likes to also sing the theme song: "Mommy and me...SEE...day...can BE...mommy and me".

She also loves to sing the theme song to Dooley and Pals, which is hilarious. She says "Dooley,PALS...Dooley, PALS...ay Dooley!". Another Dooley song she has been singing along to for a while now is "Will you be my friend". Her most favorite part is when Maxx sings "I know". She also likes to sing "Dooley Says".

Besides "Mommy and Me" and "Dooley and Pals" her favorite DVDs are anything with Abby Cadabby. She LOVES Sesame Street! Her most favorite one is "Abby in Wonderland". She knows what's going to happen before it happens and will tell you.

She reads her favorite books along with me by either repeating or by saying it before I do when she sees the page. Some of her favorite books right now are, "Ready, Set, Skip" "Raindrop, Plop" and "Just Like Me." She also likes the nursery rhyme books and will recite them before I even get the chance to read them. One of my favorites to do with her right now is that I'll say "1, 2, buckle my _______" and she says "SHOE". [3,4, shut the...] DOOR; [5,6, pick up...] SICKS; [7, 8, lay them...] STRAPE; [9, 10, the big fat...] HEN!

Her favorite game to play is "Ring around the Rosie". She also loves to play with her Elmo restaurant, her house, and build towers with her blocks. She will take your hand and say "Upstairs" so you can take her up to play with her toys. She loves to order "hamburger cheese" from the Elmo restaurant.

She LOVES to dance, anytime music is on -- just like her mama! If you tell her "do your feet" she will start running in place as fast as she can.

She is also scared of things that she has never been scared of before. She has become terrified of the bathtub drain and hates taking a bath. This week, I've had to take a bath with her every night to get her to take one. She is also afraid of the dark - she won't walk into a dark room or hallway like she used to without holding your hand. Strange sounds startle her and she will say "was dat?"

Anyway, we are having a BLAST!!!

Christmas Happenings

Here are some pictures of Addison enjoying her Christmas

My little sweetheart in her Santa jammies posing in front of the Christmas "Chee" (Tree)

Addison with her own cuddly A.J. doll sitting in her Mickey Mouse chair watching her new Sesame Street DVDs.

The famous Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street! Addison's favorite!

Elmo's restaurant from Nanda and Pippy. She loves it! Elmo, Grover, Cookie, and "Ocar" (Oscar) talk and sing.

Sit & Spin from Blaine, She-She, Jordyn, and Hunter. She's getting the hang of it and it plays music so she loves it!

This was our picture for our Christmas card. We tried to get A.J. in too, but he wasn't very cooperative. He couldn't sit still through the 10 attempts it took to get this picture just right with the timer on the camera!

Addison and her new little cousin, Emily, in their matching dresses enjoying Christmas Eve with family at their Great-Grandparents Mimi and Papa's house. When Addison first saw Emily, she thought she was a baby doll and didn't pay her much attention until Emily woke up and started crying. Then Addison was very curious about this baby doll that cries and moves around!

She finally got her own house toy from Grandma and Papa just like cousins "TiTi" (Trinity) and "Jayen" (Jayden) have.

As you can see, we had quite a fun Christmas. She got a lot of other neat stuff too, like a slide, baby dolls and strollers, a Little People manger set (now she has her own Baby Jesus to play with!), and some money for her savings account. We had a wonderful time visiting with family and sharing our blessings together. What a Merry Christmas it was!

Visit to Santa

I've been away from high speed internet for 5 days, but I survived! Now that I'm back home for a couple of days, I wanted to share about Addison's visit to see Santa Claus.

What an eventful day that was...not the best day to pick. Friday afternoon before Christmas when it was freezing cold and pouring down rain. I was crazy that day (as usual) and forgot to bring the good stroller, got soaking wet, and we were hungry when we got there. Lucky for me, Krista, Kevin, and Landon Pendley (Addison's second family a.k.a. daytime babysitters and our friends) were meeting us there and they came to my rescue. Addison and I ate and talked with The Pendleys until time to go see Santa!

The line to see Santa was short (thankfully) and we stepped up to the price menu to pick out the best deal. Who knew Santa pictures were so pricey?? Last year we did the free Bass Pro Shop pic, which I highly recommend, except the line is always extremely long. Anyway, one of Santa's "elves" gave us the scoop on the 5x7 and cd deal which meant you could print all the pictures you want and you get another 5x7 free. Score!

As we waited in line, I showed Addison Santa. She looked at him curiously and said "Santa Caus" and "Ho, Ho, Ho". As you can see in the picture, the Santa at the Rock Hill Galleria is quite a wonderful Santa. He has the real beard and everything! As we walked up, Addison was giving him the once-over, just checking him out. Between jolly "Ho, Ho, Ho's", Santa advised that I may want to wait until the last second to put her on his lap so that they could snap a good picture quickly before she starts crying. I said okay, and proceeded to hold her while I talked to Addison about Santa. We showed him her Rudolph and he really liked that. I gave Santa high-five and asked Addison to give him one too. She cautiously did, and from that moment on, she was Santa's girl.

I put her in his lap and she was in awe. She didn't want to get down. She sat there for at least 30 minutes as we took her picture, chose a picture and paid for it. Then, Landon wasn't too hip on the Santa, so Addison stayed on his lap through Landon's picture too. She had a ball. When I finally got her down, she walked away slowly, while looking back and pointing, saying "Santa Caus" and "Ho Ho Ho". It was so cute! So the dreary, exhausting trip to the mall was worth it after all.

Top 10 Favorite Things That Addison Says

[I tried to post sound clips of these that I recorded, but apparently, they only allow video posts...maybe when I have free time (ha!) I can cut some video clips out and post them here...but don't count on it!]

10. "Bess You" (Bless You) - as in when Mama sneezes at 3am and she calls this out from her room

9. "Scuse you" (Excuse You) - as in when Pippy burps

8. "Good girl!" - when she thinks she should be praised

7. "Jesus, where are you?" - as in when she steals baby Jesus from the manger and hides him in the dishwasher, her toy box, the kitchen cabinet, etc.

6. "Night Night" - as in when it's time to go to bed and we walk around and say "Night Night" to EVERYTHING we see..."Night Night chair...Mickey...Bear...Santa Caus, Stars," etc

5. "Ah Nuts!" - she thinks this is hilarious; so do we

4. "Choo Choo Buggy" (Choo Choo Boogie) - like the Mickey Mouse episode

3. "Tank you" (Thank you)

2. "Pease" (Please) - As in tonight, when she looked at Daddy as she ran out of blueberries, brought her empty bowl to him and said "More, pease!" ...Precious!

1. "I wove you" (I love you) - no explanation needed There's plenty more, but I'll stop there for tonight...

potty shopping

Once again, I am amazed by my daughter. She is 19 months old. She does so many new and exciting (who'da thunk it?) things each day, it is so hard to keep up with them all! That is one of the reasons I decided to start this blog. Hopefully it will help me to keep up and record all these milestones that are starting to run together.

She has been showing signs of being ready to potty train. Keep in mind, this is my first child. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind that she would be ready for this anytime soon. I just bought 2 cases of diapers, for heaven's sake! Nonetheless, she acts like she's ready. So, we went to Wal-Mart to pick out a potty. Who knew this could be so exciting?? (I have been saying that a lot in the past 19 months. Another example was last month when I was frantically trying to get tickets to see Sesame Street Live.)

So I looked online and decided maybe the Elmo potty was the way to go. It's cute, Elmo talks and sings, she loves Elmo, so that seemed like the right thing. I looked at ones that play music when a "deposit" is made, some that have their own toilet paper...all the bells and whistles. So, when Addison gets up from her nap, I decide that we should go to Wal-Mart and buy the Elmo potty.

So we get there, and I decide I need to check it out. My biggest concern is: How easy is it to empty and clean? I could care less about the bells and whistles; I'm just trying not to spill "poopoo" and "teetee"all over myself while I'm emptying the thing. I take the Elmo potty out of the box. Addison gives Elmo "high five" and he proceeds to praise her in multiple foreign languages...finally in English he says "good job!" I examine it to see how it empties and find that you have to lift the entire back and top piece off just to get to the little bucket inside. Nope, I'm thinking, this is NOT the one.

So I look around a little more and I see some ordinary ones that don't talk or sing. They are 3-in-1 potties. I think to myself, "I like this, more for my money!" After checking those out, I'm still not sure - they look as if they would leak easily, buckets are small, difficult to empty, etc. Then I see the one that I didn't even bother to look at online: The Froggy Potty. I had thought that this would be a waste of time, but now that I'm looking at it, it's PERFECT! Nothing but the seat and the bucket. The bucket is big and the child actually sits ON the bucket itself. GENIUS! There's no way this one's leaking. Simple, inexpensive, easy. Addison's totally into it too - she keeps saying "frog".

So we get it home and like the parenting books say, I just let her sit on it and check it out. No pushing. It's bath time so we run the bath water and get her undressed. She wants to sit on it again. (Pretty advanced, according to the books - go girl!). So she sits on it for a few minutes, then she gets in the bath tub. I'm thinking it will be a week or so before she actually attempts to use it. I was wrong.

After the bath, I wrap her up in her towel and she wants to sit on it again. So she does. I'm busy rubbing her with the towel to dry her and keep her warm. She starts to grunt. All of a sudden, a tiny trickle of pee comes out. "YAAY!" I shout, "Addison, you went tee tee in the potty! Good job! High five!" She high fives me and we clap and have a good old time. She's proud of herself and I am too. She goes once more before the night is over. Who knew going to the potty could be so much fun??!! I never imagined I'd be this fascinated and excited over all the new things she learns and does each day. I'm loving this mom thing.