Baby Steps.......

Today I was brought to tears when Addison decided to take her 1st steps! We were at Sun Country with a group of our friends from our NFRMC playgroup. We decided to take the babies (well I guess they are toddlers now) to the "small" gym portion of the complex. Addi was playing in the ball pit and I took her out to give another child an opportunity to play in them. I stood her up next to me and she walked 2 steps to reach a yellow divider wall. I couldn't believe it. I think I was grinning like a Cheshire Cat at this point and brought her into the middle of the room to see if she would do it again for her friends. After I placed her on the floor she took 5-6 steps toward me before leaning in and falling into my chest. At this point I was reduced to a blubbering mess and was overjoyed as the other Mommies cheered for her accomplishment. I was blessed enough to get her "moment" on film because Lisa, Ryder's Mommy, had her camera with her. I think that may have made me happier than the accomplishment itself because I was overwhelmed that Jeff was out of town and not with us to witness this milestone.

Taking her 1st steps has been a "waiting process" for us, and we were hopeful she would do it by her 15mo. check-up, and true to Addi form.......she didn't disappoint!

A lecture for Grandpi

My Dad is in Jacksonville for work this week, so I invited my Mom over for dinner last night while Jeff was also gone for a baseball game. Before she left my Dad called and Brooke asked to speak to him. I was listening in on the conversation(well Brooke's side of it anyway) and heard her tell him what she had for dinner. She then turned to me and said "Mommy, Grandpi had a hamburger and french fries for dinner." She got back on the phone and said "Grandpi, that's not very healthy!" HaHaHaHa! That little girl just cracks me up with the things that come out of her mouth. The funniest thing is that at least 3x a week she begs for a burger from McDonald's. She doesn't get it, but she asks for it, so for her to tell her Grandpi that his dinner choice was unhealthy was just plain hilarious.

You're never too young to thank God

Austin has been so diligent lately about saying the Blessing before we eat dinner. It truly makes my heart smile to know how much that means to him, however; tonight my heart not only smiled, it melted when Addison decided to join in on the Blessing. I looked over at her and she had her little hands folded together as Austin recited "Thank you God for this great day.....Amen!"(okay, I know this isn't the traditional Blessing, but its Austin's version and for a 3 year old, it is perfect.) I told Addi how proud of her I was and she just grinned from ear to ear. As a Mother, I am overjoyed to know that my children have God in their lives and make it a point to include him in their daily lives. To me, they are all so uniquely special in their own little ways and I thank God every day for my 3 little miracles and am proud that they rejoice in his love.

You have to love the effort....

As we sat in the car for a few minutes tonight after arriving home from CHEERS, Brooke asked me to look at her cell phone(my old one that I gave her after Jeff and I got new ones a few weeks ago.) She has been using it to take pictures with and somehow got sticky food finger prints all over it. I made the comment to her that it was dirty with food fingerprints and left it at that. We went inside and I began to prepare dinner for the kids. I told Brooke and Austin to go wash their hands before sitting down at the table. Austin did and came out and I kept hearing the water run, and run, and run. I yelled to Brooke to turn the water off and asked her what was taking her so long. Her response: "I'm washing my phone off!" (Gulp!) My stomach jumped up into my throat and I ran in the bathroom. Sure enough, the sink was full with soap suds, the phone was dripping with water, and Brooke had that proud look of accomplishment on her face. I quickly took the phone and wiped it off, took the battery out to free it from any water. I then explained to Brooke how we don't wash electronic equipment and the only thing she was to wash was herself. I couldn't be mad because she didn't know any better and honestly thought she was doing a good thing. I mean, what little girl wouldn't want a sparkling clean cell phone?!?!
After all was said and done, the phone miraculously worked, and I was able to laugh about the situation.

A FABULOUS new word and other notables

Last night I was swapping out some of the pics in the frames above the couches on our "family" wall to ring them up to date. When I was doing Brooke's Addison was being very inquisitive and all about trying to help me. I asked her who was in the picture and she kept saying "book" which I guess is her Brooke, but then I told her it was Sissy and asked her if she could say Sissy. Clear as day.....and like 10 or so times she repeated "Sishy". Brooke smiled SO big hearing this and we were in awe. It was such a fun moment to share.

In other notable achievements and things worth documenting on the Addi front:

She can now tell me when she has a dirty diaper. When she smells "BAD" I will ask her if she poopied in her pants and she will look at me, smile and say "Yes" while shaking her head. If she hasn't she will shake her head no. Looks like potty training may be around the corner :)
On the same note you can ask her anything and if she wants to do it she will shake her head yes and if not she'll give you a stern shake no.

She has stood on her own a few times. She can stand up holding on to something but won't let go on her own. We have to stand her up in the middle of a room and let her hands go. She can hold the stance for about 10 seconds or so. She is walking ALL over the house with the assistance of whatever she can find.

She HATES being locked up in her stroller now that she is mobile. Wherever we are she wants to be down and moving about, which can make things kind of difficult.....especially when you are in a store, a bathroom, or in the middle of the mall food court.

Brooke has taught her how to turn her light and fan on and off. So, for instance last night she woke up an hour after going to bed and I decided to check on her and sure enough as soon as I entered the hallway I noticed her room was lit up bright as day. She had turned on her light and was standing in her crib crying. A little bottle and things were all better.(Getting rid of the bottle will be our next milestone.) I must say she is quite proud of herself most times when I walk in there and she is just flipping away at the switches. You can hear her in her room laughing and talking to herself while she is doing it.

She takes a sippy cup of water to bed with her now. This started one night last week when she woke up and was crying and I could hear that she was standing up in her crib saying "dink, dink, dink" I gave her the sippy cup, she took a few swigs and went right back to sleep. I guess she'll be just like her older siblings.

She LOVES making out with Maddux when I'm not looking....I know.......EWWW GROSS are my thoughts too, but she loves to find him and beg for kisses. We are so blessed to have such a great dog who loves our kids!

She can wear her hair up in a pony tail and actually LEAVES it that way. She needs a haircut to make it all even, but I'm not ready for that yet.

She likes to wear sunglasses in the car and likes putting them on her babies even more.

She asks to take a bath and likes to try to put her socks on :)

And as always, she LOVES to eat! She'll try pretty much anything, but if she doesn't like it she'll pull it off her tongue and shake her head no. She has also started using the sign for "more" quite frequently. Its nice to know when she's still hungry.

I truly thank GOD every day for bestowing such a blessing on us! I am so happy we decided to add her to our already wonderful family.