Future Hairdresser?

Addie has very fine, straight hair and she's a wild sleeper so we usually have to do her hair twice a day. Yesterday, my mom found her with her doll in its stroller and Addie spraying its head with the spray bottle so she could comb its "hair" (the doll is completely plastic- no real or fake hair on it anywhere). She strategically places the stroller over against the desk so it doesn't move while she's trying to do it.

We also wanted to wish Gwampa a happy birthday today! We love you!

Happy 24th of July!

Happy Pioneer Day everyone! This holiday was not as eventful as the last one and we are so glad! We started our day off with breakfast at Village Inn with Clay's family, came home and rested a little bit then headed off to Butlerville Days in Cottonwood Heights.

We made it just in time for the parade and Addie got to see Grandpa riding past in a car. She wasn't quite sure what to think of the parade- it's been awhile since we've seen her sit that still for that long! She didn't like the fire trucks and police sirens- they were pretty loud and I think they scared her! Everyone in the parade was tossing out candy as they passed, once the parade was over, we found a sucker for Addie and she was thrilled as could be. It started raining pretty hard as soon as the parade ended so we decided to get something to eat in hopes the rain would stop by the time we were done.

After dinner, we headed back up to the festivities. We went on some of the big blow up slides they had...mom got to be the guinea pig going down first and ended up soaking wet from the rain water....everyone else was able to avoid it thanks to me! Addie loved it!

Gwamma even went down the slide with her! She claims she was just screaming like that to make it more fun for Addie but we're not so sure!

We had a fun time! The rain really cooled things off so it wasn't hot and miserable out there. Addie got a flower balloon, free watermelon, ate Gwampa & Gwamma's corn on the cob, chased kids around, and just played, played, played.

We stayed for Fireworks, which again, Addie didn't really care for. She was having much more fun with her glow sticks!

She doesn't look tired does she?

If any of you are looking for something to do next 24th of July- you should definitely check out Butlerville Days! It's a lot of fun!

Escape the Heat!

It's been unusually hot here this summer so we are always looking for fun things to do to escape the heat. Last Saturday, we took some dinner and headed up to Silver Lake with some of Clay's family.

We ate dinner at a picnic table (with some squirrels and other small wildlife) and then took a stroll around the lake. The weather was perfect, the temperature was fantastic and it was easy to do with kids and strollers. Here are a few photos...

Shoe Fettish

For those who know Addie, it's no secret she loves shoes. The girl's got more shoes than I do! It doesn't help that her feet are growing faster than we can think. At Easter, she was wearing a size 4 shoe. We measured her feet last week and she's now a size 6!

I've been in search of some basic white tennis shoes for her so while shopping at the outlets a few weeks ago, we wandered into the Vans store. They didn't have any little girls shoes her size but we found some great ones at the Vans store in the mall. It's amazing how expensive little kids shoes can be but they were just too cute to pass up. Here is Addie in her new "kicks"!

Kids say the darndest things!

Last week for playgroup, we were heading to a splash park to try it out. I took Addie upstairs and told her we needed to go get her swimsuit on so she could play in the water. She looks at me and very seriously says, "my fishy fwimpoop?" I about died laughing it was so darn cute. Here is a picture of her in her "fishy fwimpoop."

Two More Make Six

One would think that a 20-month-old kid would have a mouth full of teeth. Tis not the case with our daughter. Up until Saturday, Addie has only had four teeth -- two on top and two on the bottom. Poor kid got her mother's genes when it comes to teeth- although she is ahead of where her mom was at this age!

She finally had two more teeth break through on the bottom this past weekend. It's about time! Addie has not let the lack of teeth hold her back when it comes to food. She can gum just about anything! We are hoping that getting some other teeth in her mouth will make her front teeth look less prominent and help her to chew her food a little more carefully so she doesn't have to grimace as she swallows when she didn't get something chewed up enough!!

So far we've had decent luck when it comes to teething (knock on wood). Most of the time we don't even know they're coming in until they are already poking through the gums. Let's hope it stays this way! We'll post a picture once her teeth are more visable....

Oakley Rodeo & the Cabin

My family has been attending the Oakley 4th of July Rodeo as long as I can remember. It's a fun tradition and something we look forward to every year. We are looking forward to carrying it on with Addie. This was her second time attending the rodeo. Last year she did great but wasn't able to really understand what was going on. This year was a completely different story!

Our little cowgirl with Carson & Brandi!

She was so much fun to watch (I may have watched her more than the rodeo)! She really got into it and loved seeing all the animals.

She was a little concerned at the calf-roping and wasn't sure what to think about them falling down and getting tied up but finally decided it was ok once they came running past us. As they'd run past, she'd point at them and yell, "a wudder one cow!"

She didn't care much for the fireworks at the end (she was tired) but loved going over to look at the animals up close! It was such a fun time- we can't wait for next year!

We spent the next day at my Grandpa's cabin just outside of Oakley. Addie got plenty of attention from all the cousins and had fun playing with the kids. We took a walk to the pond and she just wanted to walk right in the water! She liked going out on the raft but she wanted to push the stick!

We also went down to the river and Addie had a fun time throwing rocks in the water!

Short Stories

Sensitive
Like her old man, we're beginning to see that Addie's a bit sensitive. Just the other day as she was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Minnie, who Addie seems to love, smelled a rose that put her to sleep for 100 years. Seeing Minnie close her eyes and fall asleep, Addie became very upset and with big tears streaming down her face started yelling, "MINNIE MOUSE!" over and over again. We guess she figured something bad had happened to her. A day later on Sesame Street, Elmo fell asleep and we got another performance, but this time crying, "ELMO!" repeatedly. What can I say, she worries for the well being of her friends.

Gross
A few weeks ago, as we were loading Addie into the car after church, a man with what can only be explained as a Rollie Fingers-type mustache comes walking by the car. Unprovoked, Addie, from her car seat, looks at him passing by and says, "eewwwww."

My thoughts exactly, except I looked especially striking with mine.

Water Fight
Since it's been scorching hot the past few weeks, the only way to tolerate having to be outside with Addie in the afternoon heat is to play with the hose. The other day as I'm washing the car and Addie's manning the hose, the little stinker all of the sudden turns it on me and soaks me. I laugh, which only provokes her to spray me more.

Being the responsible and mature person that I am, I do what any parent would do and take it out of her hands and proceed to spray her down. I've never lost in a water fight, I'm not going to lose now to a 20-month old. To my surprise she loved it.

Band-Aids
With her increased mobility Addie's starting to accumulate quite the collection of scratches & scrapes on her legs. So as each notable wound appears, the need for a "bam-bam" is extremely important to her. To be frank, she's obsessed with them. Unlike the Blackham family, who only got the normal colored band-aids, Addie has a nice box of Sesame Street-themed band-aids to dress her wounds.

On Tuesday, Addie was at Bennett's house playing when all of the sudden Bennett pulls off her Elmo band-aid on her leg. Addie immediately erupts into tears; giant alligator tears, as we were told. Bennett's mom then grabs another band-aid, but it's not good enough because they are Little Einstein band-aids and not Sesame Street. Wynde had to salvage the violated band-aid to make Addie feel better. Addie's scheduled for therapy due to this traumatic incident.

Unforgettable 4th of July

Our 4th of July started out pretty calm but ended up being an eventful and scary experience for us. We slept in because we were up late the night before, lounged around the house and went out for brunch. After Addie's nap, we decided to head over to our city 4th of July celebration. It was pretty hot outside and there wasn't a whole lot to do. We got a snow cone and sat down to enjoy it and get out of the sun.

Addie enjoying her snow cone

Once Addie was tired of eating that, she decided to climb on the picnic tables. While doing this- her feet slipped and she fell down between the bench and the table. On the way down, she hit the back of her head on the bench. She started crying and we got her out from under the table but she then proceeded to go into the "silent cry".

Clay was blowing in her face to get her to take a breath but she was not responding. She lost consciousness and her body went limp. We did everything we could think of to get her to breathe and she finally took a breath but started crying again and again she stopped breathing. Finally, after what felt like much too long (less than a minute), we were able to get her to breathe again and she stayed conscious.

The paramedics came and checked her out and her vitals were doing good but because she had hit her head and lost consciousness, we needed to take her to the hospital to be checked out. They gave us the option of riding in the ambulance or driving on our own. While we didn't feel an ambulance was necessary, if something were to happen, we didn't want to be away from medical help. So, Addie and I rode in the ambulance and Clay drove the car.

At first they just put her in a child safety seat but then the hospital told them she needed to be on a backboard and stabilized in case of any injury to her head. She had finally calmed down from having to be buckled into a seatbelt away from me and we had to take her out, put a brace around her neck and strap her to a board! I felt so bad and helpless! By this point she was so traumatized by everything- she was just looking at me with tears in her eyes.

Daddy, Grandma, Clayton and Brandi met us at the hospital. Addie was happy to see all of them and to be released from the backboard. The Dr. informed us that because of her age, she probably needed to have a CT scan to make sure there was nothing wrong internally. We gave her a blessing and they left us alone to decide what to do. We were going to do the CT scan just because we didn't want to have something actually be wrong. By the time the doctor came back in, Addie was acting pretty normal and was asking for food, moving around, etc. The doctor felt like she was doing good enough to hold off on the scan (thank goodness) and after observing her for about a half hour, decided we could go home.


Waiting for the doctors to come in.


So happy to be able to eat her pretzels!


Can I go home yet? I'm just fine, can't you see?

On the way home, Addie was back to her normal self- singing, playing, talking, etc. I've never been so happy to hear her count, say her colors, sing her favorite songs, etc. She was happy to get french fries and to go have "pociples" at Gwamma's house. She was so exhausted and ready to go to bed by the time we got her home and she slept very well (although we did check her and wake her a few times to make sure all was well). Today she has done very well- it appears that she is just fine.

We are so thankful that nothing more serious happened and we are truly grateful and so blessed to have Addie in our lives. It is scary how quickly things can change. Life is so precious and so easy to take for granted! This was definitely an unforgettable 4th of July for our family!

Summer Fun & 4th of July!

We have been having a lot of fun this week. It's been pretty hot outside so we've been doing lots of water things to keep cool. On Tuesday night, we decided to bring out the sprinkler and kiddie pool to let the kids cool off and to kill some time before doing fireworks. Addie's friends, Bennett and Lily joined her. Addie jumped right in, Lily soon followed but Bennett wanted nothing to do with it until his Dad mixed in some warm tap water!

Bennett unhappy about getting in the pool!

Lily and Addie

Addie and Bennett- finally warmer water!

After having fun in the water, we enjoyed "pociples" (popsicles) and got ready for fireworks. We ended up having quite a crowd! It was fun to have so many people- it reminded me of my neighborhood when I was a kid! The fireworks were nothing special and Addie wasn't thrilled with Daddy being so close to them but she warmed up to them by the time we were done.


Enjoying the fireworks!


4th of July wouldn't be complete without sparklers


Tired girl!!!!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

It's finally gone!!!!

I'm happy to report that we are officially done with bottles!!! I am packing them away tonight! Addie has just finished her 3rd day with no bottle and it was all her own doing!

I have been dreading having to get rid of the bottle since she turned about 15 months. Knowing that the longer she continues to have it, the more attached she will be, I knew we needed to do it sooner than later. She has never liked drinking milk from a sippy so the only way I could get a decent amount of milk in her was to give it to her in a bottle. At her 18 month appointment, the doctor recommended we get rid of it as soon as possible. I tried it one day but she was not happy with it and then things got busy and I decided to wait and try again later.

On Tuesday morning (the day she turned 20 months), she got up and we headed to Grandma's house. She didn't want her bottle that morning so Grandma offered it before her nap and she didn't want it then either. Grandma asked her if she wanted it in a cup and she said yes, so she put it in a cup and she drank most of it! That night, I let her pick her cup for her milk and she did great drinking it. Ever since, we have only offered a choice of cups and she's been fine with it!

I'm so happy that this transition went so much smoother than I anticipated! Way to go Addie! Mommy is proud of you!