Happy 15th of July!

The night of July 3rd Addison came down with her first real fever - a whopping 103 degrees!!! Instantly the plans to celebrate July 4th were nixed for Addison & I. Instead of attending the local community activities, Addison and I kept up her fluid & Tylenol intake and spent the day snuggling and reading books.

Outside of the fever she seemed normal . . she played and ate just fine. No runny nose or anything to indicate an ear infection. I had my fingers crossed that maybe she was just getting a new tooth and that was the cause of her high temperature; but just in case it wasn't I didn't dare take her out of the house.

A few days later on Saturday she began showing signs that she wasn't feeling well and I called the Providence nurses line and they suggested ways to help make Addison a bit more comfortable. The nurse also reccommended that if the fever wasn't gone by Monday to try and get her seen by a doctor.

Thankfully he clinic was able to get her in on Monday morning, even though her fever had broke the night before. The doctor told me that she had an upper respitory infection. He said basically that she had a swollen lymphnode and that it wasn't serious enough to require any medication; but to keep her at home for a week, if possible, because URIs have a tendency to turn in pneumonia. Within a few days of seeing the doctor all symptoms had vanished but we still stayed home for the whole week - no way was I chancing pneumonia!!!

So when Addison was 100% back to healthy we celebrated the 15th of July with Uncle Clint & Uncle Kyle. She even got to wear the 4th of July outfit Tudie (her Great Grandma) had picked out for her months ago!

Here are pictures of her outfit from Tudie:



Clint on his phone - imagine that!! :)

Uncle Kyle

Playing in the backyard

Walking the dog . . .

. . . or is the dog walking her??

Playing her favorite game with Kyle

The dogs even had a good time!





Happy 15th Everyone!

Lil' Piggies

Crayon Creation

While Addison was sick we found some quiet activities to fill our days. During this time Addison had her first crayon experience. I found the crayola twistables which are basically long crayons in a plastic tube. I thought that maybe she might try and chew on regular crayons and I really didn't want to worry about her choking on a piece of one. I just wish that these were a bit shorter so they weren't so close to her eye. But they worked great!

The process of creating two Addison originals:


A lot of concentration went into this stroke.


So proud of herself!


"Hmmmm, what should I draw next?"


Crayons can even be fun up-side-down!


Ta-Da! All finished!


Two gorgeous drawings for two very proud parents!

Eli, Nut-Job-Eli

Okay, for those who haven't been to our house recently its time I share an embarrassing fact with you. Ahh . . the horror. Okay, here it is: Eli wears a diaper. Yep, you read that right; my 7-pound-nut-job-dog wears an actual diaper. Oh the humiliation!

When Addison began walking, Eli began marking inside the house. He was neutered early as a puppy, but even still he cannot seem to fight the urge to mark. Because of the timing of his new-found, dare I say: skill; its presumed that he is marking in a disgusting attempt to tell Addison that this is HIS house.

So $500+ later our carpets have been cleaned and Eli wears a diaper. He looks like an idiot with that diaper wrapped around his mid-section; but it is his only option if he wants to continue living in OUR house.

The part that puzzles me the most is that he actually LIKES wearing his diapers. Seriously! He gets excited when I come near him with one. Just another way that Eli is not quite right.

I am a bit concerned on how this may affect my daughter. Understandably she believes all dogs wear diapers.

Here she is trying to diaper Maybel's head:


Giving Maybel a kiss for being such a good diapering subject:


What a good dog Maybel is and yes, at times nut-job-Eli too.

Peek-a-Boo

Addison is 13 months! The 11th & 12th months just flew by. The reason they probably went by so fast is because of how quick this sweet girl is changing.




Addison now has four words: dog (daaag), ball (baa), balloon (bamoom) & vacuum (vaacuooom). It's so amazing to hear her speak. I love that we're beginning to communicate with actual words; even if she's not saying Mommy yet! Although, as I've said many times before, I'm fine being second to dog and even balloons; but vacuum?? Come on!!!!



The newest song she's loving is the itsy bitsy spider song. Her little spider that she makes with her fingers is absolutely adorable!



Addison has always liked playing with books. She enjoys turning the pages. But about two months ago she started spending more time on each page, studying the pictures. Of course pictures of dogs tend to be her favorite. She makes little barking sounds and points the dogs out to me right away. She also loves pictures of balloons and flowers. You can ask her where any dog, flower or balloon is in her books and she'll quickly point them out - then congratulate herself by clapping (so cute)!



Addison has also started playing outside. Like all kids, she loves being outdoors. Once she's down on the ground there's no getting her attention. That's why I have very few pictures of her looking at the camera - she's way too busy checking out her new surroundings!



For her birthday she got a new swing and she just loves it! Of course our weather hasn't been nice this summer so she hasn't had much of a chance to swing.





Addison has this tiny little piano that actually sounds very close to the real thing. She'll spend quite a few minutes composing a new piece that is sure to change the music world as we know it. It's so fun to watch her 'play' - she concentrates so hard. Every now and then she'll sing along to the music she's making. I can only assume she learned that from watching Elmo sing the weather song!



Awhile back she started playing peek-a-boo with us. Its so, so cute! She would hide herself around a corner or piece of furniture and then poke her little face around the corner. Sometimes she'd laugh in anticipation of 'scaring' me that she couldn't poke her head around until after she finished laughing Now days she doesn't need anything to hide behind; she'll just turn her head to one shoulder and then quickly turn it back to the other and wait for you to say 'peek-a-boo!'



We're not really into the baby sign language. Nothing against those who use it - but we made the choice not to. BUT I did teach her the sign for 'all done' when I started introducing solid foods to Addison's diet. I figured it would help curb some meal-time frustrations. Well, turns out that I also taught her a sign for more. Now most everything gets a more sign: more snacks, more toys, more books, more playing, etc. But once in a while she'll sign more to me and I"m not sure what she's asking for. So the sign for more can also mean 'I want' in Addison speak. Sometimes when I ask her, 'more what' she'll actually point to what she wants (which I'm incredibly thankful for) - but usually it becomes a guessing game for me.




And for her stats: As of her 12 month check-up she is 29" tall and 19 lbs 6 oz. Her weight is the exact same as it was at her 9 month well-baby visit but the Peditrician assured me that this is completely normal. Oh yeah, not only did my poor girl get her blood drawn she got six, yes six immunizations. She wasn't behind in any of them but for what ever reason the nurse got her ahead in one of the series! Oh well, one less shot for her 15th month!