Family Christmas Book and New Jammies

Here's Addison modelling her new jammies on Christmas Eve after we got back from the Hansen's Christmas Eve party. She also opened the Polar Express which we added to our Christmas book collection this year.

We actually didn't ever read the book this year, we were just trying to keep Addison on a decent schedule and get her to bed so that we could open the elf workshop and slave the night away :)

Sitting on the Potty

Addison received a training potty for Christmas from her Auntie. I put her on it for practice and she calls it "potty" but she has yet to do anything while sitting on it. She will sit up on it for 20 minutes and play with some toys so I figure it's a good habit to start.

18 Months

Addison had her 18 month well-baby visit yesterday and she is doing WELL! She whimpered off and on and whole time we were at the doctors office - from the waiting room all the way through. It doesn't help that she has had a shot every 3 months since she was three months and today was no exception. She full on cried the minute the nurse walked in with the tray. She is smart and observant and if vaccines weren't good for her I'd be irritated that the doctor conditions kids to be terrified from birth :) (No this in not in an invitation to hear how you feel about vaccinating your kids because I truly don't care.)

She did let the doctor use his light to check her eyes, ears, and mouth. She also place the stethoscope so he could listen to her heart and lungs. She is in the 70th percentile for weight and head size and the 75th percentile for height.

She is right on track throwing tantrums, being a picky eater, and climbing and running all over the place. She tries to jump but just can't quite get airborne. She also loves to pray and we bless the food at least 2-3 times every time we eat. We take our prayer cues from her and whenever she stops playing and folds her arms we say a quick prayer. I'll forever be grateful to Jolene for helping me see the light in that area!

We expect a lot out of Addison and she lives up to and exceeds our expectations. She will do most anything you ask her to if she gets to do it herself - but she won't be forced to do most anything. If you ask her to put down a toy and come eat she comes running, but if you rip it out of her hands without discussing it with her then she will scream bloody murder. She is strong willed but easily trained with consistency and she loves being the center of attention.

The one area that Addison is very advanced is in her speech. We have thought that Addison's word progression is normal because she is the only child we have. The doctor said that he looks for about 6 words by 18 months and Addison has about 60. She says little sentences like "where you going?", "how you doing", "what's that", and "daddy go bye". She also says "a cup" and "the spoon" and "my binky". Here is a the list of words I can think of off the top of my head - I'll probably update it over the next few days so we have a good record.

mama, dada, nick, tasha, tay, papa, Kyle, Gay, house, mail, binky, bear, blanket, cup, bottle, bowl, spoon, fork, milk, water, juice, go, baby, duck, cow, truck, frog, doggy, kitty, meow, roof, moo, bird, "chirp noise", pear, apple, banana (nana), teeth, hi, bye, kiss, slide, roar, stop, out, in, up, down, tada, yay, chair, play, piano, please, thank you, phone, hot, blow, eyes, ears, head, hair, sleep, weee, again, off, on, blue, cheese, don't

Her favorite place to go is Nick's house, which is actually Oliver's parents' home, but Uncle Nick lives there. When we turn onto their street she starts yelling his name and get's so excited. What is so funny is that she wants nothing to do with him. She is currently a huge grandpa's girl and will readily go to her grandma as well but she doesn't want Nick to hold her or pick her up. But she calls him by name, knows his street and house, and I think she just know how badly he wants her therefore she won't give in :). She's decided that she's going to call Oliver's dad papa for now and we'll see what name she calls her grandma. My mom goes by Nana, and has since her first grandkids were born, and we don't intend to have more than one in the family. Plus, although Oliver's mom wants to be called that, all of the rest of us HATE IT. My sister and I hate that is the name my mom has chosen and Oliver and his brothers don't like it any better - we still haven't reached any kind of compromise - so we'll just have to keep waiting to see what grandma becomes. We've come to realize that what the first grandchild picks kind of sticks and so Addison has a great responsibility. We have to find something that not only we like, but also Emily & Taylor, and Nick.

Addison is always on the move and really isn't a baby anymore. She runs everywhere and has a very happy temperament when she gets enough sleep. We can't wait to see what these next months bring!

Opening Gifts

Addison loved opening presents this year! She loved to tear off the paper a little at a time and then fling things from the box and squeal "ooooo". She was a little overwhelmed with all the presents - so we opened them over two days. This is her on the second day opening her doll clothes from Nana and trying on the mittens. She dragged her new chairs into the living room so she could sit on her perch like the true Queen of Sheba that she thinks she is. Sitting on the floor is now SO BENEATH HER!

Table & Chairs

For Christmas, we/Santa wanted to get Addison a table and chair set. We looked at several store options and didn't find exactly what we wanted. As I was surfing blogland I found Ana White's rendition of $4 stack-able chairs. Her site is awesome - if you've never checked it out - you should! Anyway, I digress. We decided that we would make Addison's Christmas gift. What started as a December garage project with a space heater running full-blast turned into pure magic on Christmas morning.

We stayed up late on Christmas Eve putting on the last coats of paint (and we still haven't finished painting the clear coat 2 months later!). Plus, if you haven't seen the tip on Pinterest to put a rubber band around your paint can so that you can wipe off your brush, you should try it. There is no paint in the crevice of the paint can, no nasty tacky lid, and we just sealed the can between coats with the rubber band in place - it works wonderfully!

Addison loved the set on Christmas morning (we did make a fourth chair that is red and in our garage - we just push the table up against the wall and so there isn't room for the fourth chair). She could easily climb in and out of the chairs at 6 am Christmas morning - but less than 10 hours later she required a step stool to get in and out of the chairs. I'm not sure if it was the novelty of the step stool or tipping over once that changed her ability. She used the step stool to get in and out for almost a month, but she is now able to climb in and out on her own again.

Notes:
- The chairs cost considerably more than $4. I'm not sure if wood costs have increased, but the wood alone cost about $8 per chair not including the screws/paint/glue/etc.
- The initial start-up cost was also greater because we haven't done any projects like this before so we bought some tools as well.
- We could never have done this project without the Mini Kreg Jig Pocket Hole Kit. It is worth it's weight in gold!
- Wood at Lowes is almost half price compared to Home Depot - however, when I went back screaming to Home Depot :) they honored Lowes prices (but they won't beat by 10% like they do other items because wood is a commodity). Also, Lowes cuts wood for free and Home Depot will only do 3 cuts before charging you. Seeing how each chair required more than a dozen cuts - we actually preferred the service at Lowes - and we are normally Home Depot people.
- Like all good projects - we went to Home Depot/Lowes many more times than we thought necessary! :)

Red Pepper Lollipop

When Addison comes with me to the grocery store she especially is aware when we are in the produce section because she knows so many of the things that she is looking at and she wants to eat them NOW! Unfortunately, most produce is bought by the bound and she can't snack her way through the store. In December (16th), she was having a particularly hard day passing up the bananas (especially because she can't differentiate that she is allowed to eat one before buying from Costco because we pay for the bundle but not at Winco where we pay by the pound). As we were continuing down the aisles it was no to grapes, no to apples, no to the banana, etc. She finally spotted the peppers and wanted one - well that we buy per item so I handed it right to her. (Nope I didn't wash it or anything - the germs are good for her).

She chomped on it through the entire store and everyone thought she was sooo cute - and I was able to shop in peace. She held it and sucked on it like a lollipop and I was happier to have her eating a veggie than crackers or cereal or candy.

After washing her outfit 3 times I was finally able to get the red out :)

Modeling for Nana

Growing up, my mom knitted each of her four kids a new sweater every winter. She has since sold them and I don't have any to cherish - just pictures. This is one of the sweaters my mom made...

When my mom was in town in the fall I was expressing to her that I really wanted a cable knit sweater for Addison to have for the winter. Who knew that they would be so hard to find! I didn't want light-weight - I wanted chunky/could be a jacket if needed - type sweater. We looked at a bunch of stores and my mom ended up buying a gray one for Addison.

As has been true of her entire life, Addison isn't really lacking in the clothes department, but she finally wore her sweater to church on Sunday. The sleeves are way too long still - but that just means that it might fit into next fall too :) I was trying to get a picture of Addison in her outfit and wanting her to model for her Nana who doesn't get to see her. She wasn't overly cooperative - but here's what we got.

The last picture is very typical Addison after church. And yep, she smacked her face into the brick on the outside of our house, just 2 minutes before we were supposed to leave for church. Kids - gotta love their respect of timing!

Laundry Room Makeover - That Really Isn't

We have an extra refigerator/freezer. It has been in our garage but it just doesn't work very well out there. After speaking with some appliance people - it's because the ambient temps in the garage are too hot/too cold and so the fridge/freezer thinks it needs to work really hard or not hard enough. We tried putting it in our basement but it doesn't fit through the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. I had the brilliant idea just last Monday that we should move it into our laundry room. While Addison was spending the afternoon/night at her grandparents Oliver and I decided to give it a try. This is what the laundry room looked like before...

It has a bunch of cabinetry but I haven't really loved it. To me, it feels crowded. I know - some of you have your washer and dryer in a closet and I shouldn't complain - and I didn't say it IS crowded - it just FEELS that way. I hate how it is long and narrow. Anyway - the only thing we use the counter space for is to pile clean laundry. Sometimes 6 loads at a time before we get to folding - so we don't really need the counter space. It just supports our laziness. So we went at it with a crowbar, hammer, screw driver, and exacto knife and it all came out. Don't you just love how the last owners tiled on top of the old linoleum - top quality work people, top quality :)

We then hauled the beast inside (we probably should have measured that it was going to fit before we banged out all the cabinets). We had to remove absolutely EVERY piece that could be taken off to fit it through the door. The thing is gigantic! And even removing every single piece - it did have to get a few good shoves and a gouge out of the door frame to fit.

Here is how it looks now - it isn't a true makeover in that we still need to patch the walls, sand, paint, put up curtains (since we now have neighbors and can't streak through the laundry room anymore), and refinish the cabinets. But it is a start and it is AWESOME to have the fridge/freezer inside. I'm having my first freezer meal cooking day on Saturday - and it is going to be awesome that the freezer actually works!

I would really love our washer and dryer to DIE so that I could get energy efficient ones that fit side-by-side on the back wall under the window but up on a pedestal. And I would prefer open shelves to the cabinets that we have. But that is going to require re-plumbing, re-wiring, and money and there are SO many things higher on the priority list. So, for now, this is where the makeover ends...but it will get a coat of cheery paint in 2012. At least that's in the budget!

January spur of the moment house upgrade - COMPLETE!