Pretty People and Pretty Things

Addelyn might just be the most spoiled baby I've ever known.  It seems like every time I turn around she's getting something big and new.  This weekend it was doubly true, I think, because she came in contact with so many grandparents.  She now has a new walker and a new chair (on loan from someone from church).  She also has a new pair of shoes that she loves.  Yesterday was the first time she wore them and she had a huge grin from ear to ear as she was walking around the living room in them.  Then we went outside to play and she walked all around the yard.  I think she likes the way they feel on her feet.

The walker only had three height settings and even the lowest one was still more than an inch too high for Addelyn to be able to actually walk.  So, I took her walker apart yesterday and added another height setting. Now she LOVES it.  She figured out right away that she could move, and she works so hard at it but she can only go backwards as of yet...

This weekend we all went to Des Moines for Addelyn's Aunt Becki's white coat ceremony.  The ceremony was a bit long for a 4-month-old, so we left her in Mingo with Aunt Tara and cousins Kylie and Madison.  Then afterward, Addelyn had two sets of great-grandparents over to see her in Mingo and I also finally got some good pictures of Addelyn with my family, so here they are :-)  (All taken on August 27).

Addelyn with Grandma Sienkiewicz

Papa even held Addelyn long enough to get a nice picture!

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Brown

Addelyn with cousins Kylie and Madison.  It is adorable how intrigued Madison is with Addelyn.

It occurs to me now that I forgot to get one with Tara and Addelyn...next time...

A trip to Michigan

We took a trip to Grand Rapids and Mancelona on August 7-14 and I've just finished going through all of the pictures from it, so I thought I'd post a few of my favorites.  The drive wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.  We left Cedar Rapids at Addelyn's bedtime and stayed the night in Portage, IN; so the first 4 or 5 hours of the trip went very smoothly.  Then when Addelyn woke up (around 6 or 7, I think) we fed her and left right away so she'd take her morning nap in the car, and she woke up for her bottle just as we got off of the exit to Jake's parents' house.  The ride back wasn't as quick - We had to stop a couple of times to feed Addelyn and let her stretch  plus we took a detour down to Bloomington, IL to go to Mandi's baby shower.  The part that surprised me was how much Addelyn could sleep in the car - we were driving in the middle of the day (left Grand Rapids at 7am and got to Cedar Rapids around 9pm), but still Addelyn was asleep most of the way except for feedings and at Mandi's shower.  I was terrified for that night - I didn't think she would sleep at all since she got so much sleep during the day, but she surprised me again by sleeping 9 hours!  Yay!

Addelyn likes playing piano with grandma much better than playing piano with daddy...

Great-grandma Jabara carried Addelyn around a lot and showed her all of the pictures they have of her and her daddy.

Great-grandpa Jabara rocket her to sleep and held her for hours while she napped.

Great-grandma Conway also rocked Addelyn to sleep and loved to hold her.

Jake's cousin Barry was even there and stayed a little longer just to feed/hold Addelyn

Addelyn LOVED talking to Great-grandpa Conway - they had many deep conversations

Grandpa rocked Addelyn, played cards with her, and carried her around outside to see lots of plants and animals.  I think he was Addelyn's favorite bed of the week.

One Pink Tutu and Two Pink Eyes

Guess who has pink-eye?  Addelyn!  She woke up Sunday morning with both of her eyes COVERED in goo.  Being the first-time mother, I decided this could not wait until Monday, so we got ourselves a Sunday-morning doctor appointment.  They confirmed that it was pink eye and gave us some eyedrops.  I'm quite surprised - Addelyn has been doing very well with the eyedrops.  If I get her to look at Jake while I'm doing it, she just blinks a bit after the drops go in and she doesn't even fuss about it, really.  The first time I put them in I did it the hard way - me holding her down and prying her eyes open and her screaming.  I'm glad we've come to a better arrangement.

I didn't have the heart to take a picture of Addelyn with her eyes all covered with nasty goo, so here's a picture of her from yesterday - you can see the corners of her eyes are pretty red and irritated from either the eye drops or from the drainage from her eyes.  It's much better now than it was even yesterday, so I think we're on the downhill slope.

In other news, Addelyn LOVES the rice cereal with apple added that we've been giving her.  The first couple of times we fed her solid foods we just gave her plain rice cereal.  It was not met with enthusiasm.  Then daddy took pity on her and got her some rice cereal that had apple and cinnamon in it.  The first time we gave that to her she finished the whole bowl.  Since it has twice the sugar as just plain rice cereal I've since started mixing it half-and-half with the regular stuff.  I don't think she can tell the difference...

That picture was actually of the very first time we fed her on August 15.  The photo credit goes to my nephew Elijah who was staying with us that week.  (Addelyn was enthralled with Elijah - there's something about older children that just captivates babies...)

Alright, I'll give this blogging thing a try...

So here it is.  Every morning between 3:30am and 5:30 am Addelyn wakes up for a bottle.  Once she's done with her bottle, I pump.  This means that I'm awake for at least 1 hour in the middle of the night each night, so I've decided to give blogging a try instead of randomly browsing the internet during my time pumping.

Addelyn has been doing a lot of new things lately - Last Wednesday (August 17) Addelyn started saying "Mama"!  I don't think she actually knows what it means, but she definitely uses it when she wants me to pay attention to her or do something for her, so she probably has a pretty good idea.  She's also starting to be able to hold herself up on her arms for a second or two, during which time she also likes to get up on her knees as well - assuming the 'crawling' pose for a split second and sometimes even rocking back and forth.  Scarey.  She's also sitting up for longer and longer periods of time when she feels like it.  For those that haven't spent much time around Addelyn, she has very little interest in sitting and not much more in laying down.  She would much rather stand so she can walk to wherever she wants to be.  Walking is something she does very well - I'm starting to think that she'll walk before she crawls.  She's got the stepping thing down, she just needs to work on the balance!

Last but not least, she's started to giggle a little more often.  Her first real giggle was at 10 weeks, then we didn't get another one untli 14 weeks, then I got another great giggle from her on Friday (18 weeks, 1 day).  It was so cute, I had to get it on video:

What was making her laugh so much?  I was hiding behind the refrigerator in our kitchen and jumping out and yelling "Boo!!"  I tried it again yesterday to no avail.  Boy, this kid sure is a tough crowd!