Taydoh

Recently, I broke down and let Addy play with Play-doh, or as she calls it Tay-doh. I know, I know, every child should be allowed to play with Play-doh, but to be honest all I saw was a future gigantic mess. Turns out a high chair and a bib pretty much contains the mess, and allows my little girl to have fun.

The little blobs of Taydoh are her version of "bumpy snakes".

Then she created a dinosaur, complete with a loud "ROAR!"

Cousins

My sister was so nice as to watch Addison Saturday night so that we could go to a charity event. It was so nice to get out. Would have been even nicer to enjoy a glass of wine, but oh well. Lisa took a few pics with my camera. These two are just so darn cute together. I hope that they are forever friends. And yes Addy is still wearing that raggedy tutu, she insists on wearing it. I am thinking for Valentine's Day she may be getting a new one.

First Haircut

Saturday morning I took Addy to get her first haircut. I was prepared for the worst, because on the way there she kept telling me she did not want to get her hair cut. When we got there she was pretty shy, but warmed up when she found the toy box. I showed her how to sit in the chair like a big girl. She sat up in the chair and hid a baby under her "blanket" (ie the cape). She sat there pretty mesmorized with the process. She was so good. And I only teared up once, yay me! I must say I was pretty opposed to cut off her baby hair, but it looks pretty darn cute. She has a curly little bob.

Turning a corner

I think I am finally over the hump and starting to be my normal self again. Last week I suddenly got so much energy back. Addison climbed out of her crib this week, so that sparked the "we have to start on her big girl room" phase. So Tuesday night instead of laying on the couch I went to work. I cooked dinner, cleaned the kitchen, and Tim and I started moving stuff out of the guest room. Let me tell you that was more work than I have done in the past two months. Then I proceeded to go to bed early in order to get up and go to the gym, I know crazy. Well I am still paying a bit for that decision. Skipping for an entire month, makes that first time back quite painful. I have continued to cook this week, and we are slowly getting things moved out of the guest room. I think the old Amy is back!!! Finally! So here's to getting on the ball and getting things organized before work gets out of control. Our little baby will be here sooner than we know it.

Dancing Princess

Addison LOVES to dance. Lately she had been putting on her Christmas tutu, (which she believes makes her a princess) and firing up her Violet dog for some tunes. Now I know I am biased but that little one has some dancing skills. I should also note that she might have some cheerleading in her future. I took these videos on Saturday morning.

Chuck E. Cheese

Last Friday, I decided we should try to be "fun" parents and take our kiddo to Chuck E. Cheese. Well, Friday night probably not the best night to experience this place for the first time. It was super crowded and there were kids EVERYWHERE. Plus, they weren't my kid so to me they were a little gross. You know the snotty nose, running around like a wild banchee kind. And I am not sure where the parents were of these little ones. They seemed to be running around like wild animals. Anyway, now that the ranting is behind me, we did have a pretty good time. Addison seemed to enjoy herself.

Bye, Bye Paci!!

With a new baby on the way, we feel as though we need to get Addison through a few milestones before the baby arrives. We have three things on the "to do" list, get rid of the paci, move into a big girl bed, and the dreaded potty training. We figured it might be best to space these out over the next few months. While still trying to complete these tasks with several months left before July.

This weekend was the paci. Yes, yes the books say this should have been done a long time ago, but we don't always go by the books. We decided we should do this over a weekend, so if there were sleepless nights we could always take a nap the next day. We made a big production of it through out the week. We talked about it how she was a big girl now, and her baby cousin Charlotte needed the pacis. Thursday night we picked out a gift bag and went on a treasure hunt for pacis. We have A LOT of them, so this took quite a bit of hunting. Then we poured them all out and told her she could have one for her last night with her paci. Well she put them all back in the bag telling us they were for Charlotte. We just went with it and took one out ourselves. During bedtime she usually always asks for one while we are reading books. Well she didn't even ask, so we followed her lead and kept our reserve paci out of sight. It did take her a long time to settle down and fall asleep that night, but she never asked for it one time.

The next day she carried around the bag all morning as we were getting ready to leave. She never once opened it and put one in her mouth. When we got to Stacy's she ran in the door and headed for Charlotte to hand over her gift. She quickly pulled one out and put it in Charlotte's mouth. Again during nap Stacy said it took her a while to go to sleep, but she did it. She hasn't asked about it since. (Side note: Saturday morning she found one in one of her toy bins. She happily came running out to us with it in her mouth and a huge grin on her face. We had to take it away, but she didn't seem to mind too much.)

 So one milestone done! It really wasn't hard, but so far all of the big milestones have been fairly easy. Bottle was a breeze. We may wait a little longer to do these things, but maybe she has been more ready and so there hasn't been too much pain yet. One side effect of the paci has been severely reduced or no naps. I am thinking she might be getting close to losing her nap all together. She gave up her morning nap very early, maybe six months or so. She is not much of a sleeper that girl. We will probably try to institute quiet time just for our sanity, but we will just have to see how it goes. Up next big girl bed. We will be doing a princess theme. (notice the tutu above). She is in LOVE with skirts, tutu's, dancing, and all things girly. So I am breaking down and we are going Disney Princess, so on to clearing out the guest room and painting. All volunteers welcome!

 

Attic Space

I hopes of finding more space in our house. Tim and his brother set out to put some flooring in our attic. They worked very hard the day after Christmas and built us a nice space up there.

We had no trouble filling it with lots of stuff. I would say a third to a half of it is baby stuff. Man kids sure do have a lot of stuff that comes with them.

2012 Goals

Well, 2011 goals went okay. I accomplished three of the five goals. I am still always running on the late side and that weight from little miss priss did not go anywhere. Guess what, since I am just going to gain weight with baby number 2 for 2012, I should just make that a goal. Haha. We ended up getting very serious about budgeting and our future savings and paid off not one but both of our cars! No car payments is amazing. I hope we never have another car payment again. I also make both our laundry and dishwasher detergent now. We haven't bought either since I started making them back in June. Also, I have increased my prayers. Mostly with Addison, but some is better than none. I definitely have much more to go in that area. So I think 2011 was a success for the most part.

I have been thinking about my goals for 2012. Coming out of such a yucky December, I still feel like I am somewhat in survival mode, and just don't feel I can accomplish anything. I have one more business trip next week and then I shouldn't have to travel anymore for a very long time. It was very nice to get back into a routine with everyone going back to work this week, but we are very tired. Even with this blah/survival mood I am in right now, I know this will pass and I need to make some goals for 2012. So without further ado, here it goes.

1. Try 20 new foods. What this means to me, is 20 new foods that I have never bought at the store and prepared or eaten at home. I have definitely gotten into a cooking (or lack of cooking) rut. I want to expand my recipes and palette and see what else the world has to offer. I am sure Tim (my hotdogs and hamburgers guy) is really going to love this goal. ;)

2. Birth a child and not be as much of a mess as I was with Addison. With Addison, I had postpartum depression and let me tell you that is not fun. I am not a crier or and emotional person, but let me tell you I could NOT get a hold of myself. I was a nervous wreck and never allowed myself to relax or sleep. The feelings I was having were not the happy, I love my life feelings you are supposed to have when you have a baby. This time around I am talking to my doctor about this before I give birth and accepting any and all help my family is willing to give (I already have a sign up sheet for Addison sleep overs. Hehe). I am going into it this time realizing that having a newborn is a big deal. It will rock my world, but this time I will be much more calm and know what to expect.

3. Continue to blog and take pictures. Towards the end of 2011 I started to slack on my picture taking, and blogging almost didn't happen. I love looking back at old blogs and cannot wait to print 2011 into a book. I want to make sure I try very hard to document and photograph baby number two, like I did for Addison. And monthly cards, I am doing them again! I want baby number two to know he/she is also special and we are just as excited about his/her arrival. I am also saving up for a new camera, so maybe that will motivate me to take even more pictures. 

4. Have a garage sale or sell unused items on Craigslist. Whatever is not sold must be given away or donated. With a new baby on the way, we have to make room. Well our guest room is cram packed! I looked through some of the stuff over the break and realized over half of the stuff we don't use. We need to simplify and de-clutter!

There you have it goals for 2012. I think all of these are doable and will add value to our life this year. What are your goals?

New Year's PJ Fun

This year we rang in the New Year with friends and pj's. We feasted on ham sandwiches and lots of different dips. We traded off watching the kiddos with the husbands. Let's just say I think the kids had more fun when the guys were in charge. We came in from the garages and kids were running around like crazy and balls from the ball pit were flying everywhere. Oh well, they had fun and we girls got some time to relax and chat in the garage. It was so nice to trade off and have an hour to just chat with out the interuption of "Mommy" being shouted at us. It was a very nice night with our friends and their families.

We tried to take a picture with all of the cuties in their pj's. Let's just say, posed pictures are still pretty trying.