New Words, New Toys, New Friends, and New Skills!

I can't get over how pleasent Addelyn is to be around these days.  She's just such a joy all of the time, and I can never get enough of her!  I'm so in love with her personality, and I wake up every morning just SO excited to see her and talk with her and spend time with her.  I thank God every day for the pleasent, funny, smart, well-behaved little girl He gave me.  I can't believe how lucky I am that I get to spend all day, every day with her!

I love watching Addelyn grow, and she's been doing a lot of that in the last couple of months - both physically and developmentally!  Here's what we've been up to:

New Words!

At 17 months, Addelyn is now saying well over 200 words by my estimation.  She has even started saying 3 and 4-word combinations to get complex ideas across.  Although she hasn't used too many full sentences yet, I have no doubt that that will be coming within the next month or two.  It's amazing how much she can develope in such a short amount of time!  Here's just a small list of some of the more surprising words/phrases that Addelyn is saying:

"Opposite" - and she can name a LOT of opposits...big/little/tiny, hot/cold, light/dark, on/off, open/closed, up/down, sad/happy etc...
"Accident" - She came up with this one a few days ago, and she even used it correctly
"choo choo.  Hiding.  See."  (she says 'see' while shaking her head no) - meaning, I can hear the choo-choo, but I can't see it, so it must be hiding.
"fix it" - when she wants me to fix something :-)
"Self" or "Hold" - this is Addelyn's way of saying 'back off, mom, I want to do this!'
"Dishes" - and she can name a lot of dishes - plate, bowl, fork, knife, spoon...
"Laundry" - Addelyn LOVES to help me do laundry
"Helper" - she says it whenever she 'helps' me do something
"Hungry, eat lunch"
"Oh no! baby crying!" - she's so cute when she says this - because she always has such a concerned look on her face :-)  Addelyn takes VERY good care of her dollys!
"Play outside!" - Addelyn's favorite thing to do!

She can also name a LOT of animals and say what sound they make, count to 10 (sometimes...she gets stuck between 4 and 6), name some colors (yellow, blue, green, purple, pink), name some shapes (star, diamond, circle, oval), and she can identify most all colors, shapes, and letters.

I just adore that she can talk now.  Now, instead of making her laugh by the things that I do, I can make her laugh with the things that I say.  We have inside jokes and tell each other stories.  She follows instructions VERY well, and can explain to me what's wrong when she's frustrated.

New Toys!

Addelyn has had an exciting couple of months!  She's gotten SO many new toys, and is enjoying her old ones in new ways.  Grandma and Grandpa Conway came over to our house a few weeks ago and got her a new jungle gym for the back yard and a cozy cruiser.  She absolutely LOVES them.  Whenever we're outside she has to play in the car, and whenever we're in the back yard she gets endless entertainment from the slide and ladder.  She's even started going down the slide on her bottom (something she hasn't willingly done since she had an accident on her slide in France...)

Addelyn "peeking" from the top of her new jungle gym

Here's Addelyn in her new car - she had daddy pushing her around the yard until he dropped!

Of course the swing is always a favorite.

  

Here is Addelyn giving her dolly a bath.  She likes to pretend play with her dolly - it's what she does most of the day!  Dolly gets fed with a bottle, burped, plays with baby toys, sits in the bumbo seat, gets fed with a spoon, swings in the baby swing, gets put to bed, gets her clothes and diaper changed (mommy helps with that part), and of course everywhere we go, a dolly has to come with us!  Dolly comes on walks with us, swings with us in the front yard, and even goes to daddy's soccer games!  Addelyn is going to be a GREAT big sister!

New Friends!

We have been watching my friend's baby, Carter, during the day these past couple of months.  All in all, Addelyn does wonderfully with him!  She has no problems sharing her toys with him, and loves to feed him and hold him.  Most of the time she's still pretty self-centered (as all 1-year-olds are) and doesn't pay too much attention to him, but she'll help me play with him when asked, and likes to tell me where he should be or what toy he wants to play with. 

We've also joined a group of stay-at-home moms and their kids in the area called Mom's Club.  We go to events at least 2 or 3 times per week.  Addelyn and I both enjoy getting out of the house - for her, it's a new place to explore with new toys (she doesn't pay much attention to the other kids yet) and for me it's actual adult conversations!  It's a win-win!

New Skills!

Addelyn has learned a few new skills!  (sometimes less than desirable ones...).  Though she's still closer to 1 year old than 2, she's trying out a few traits from that wonderful period called the terrible two's!  Her fits aren't bad at all - they're usually very short-lived and she's easily distracted from them.  She doesn't lash out at me or get physical, the worst I've seen her do is fall to the floor and cry angrily for a moment until I find a way to distract her.  Here's a funny example of one of her "fits"

I actually thought it was quite cute and funny...maybe it's because I'm mommy.

Another, more desireable skill is her artistic ability!  She's gone from randomly scribbling to picking something to color on then coloring it.  The first time she did it I was SO surprised.  Of course, she's still not coloring inside the lines, but she is definitely selectively coloring parts of a picture.  She can also scribble, draw polka-dots, and draw circles when asked to.

Stats:

Age: 17 months

Weight: 25.5 lbs

Length:  ____ inches

Drinks: about 2-3 6-ounce sippys of milk per day (all of which is regular whole-milk) with meals and a couple of drinks of milk before bed every night

Eats: whatever I can get her to eat for breakfast - lately it's been sandwiches and cheese :-); leftovers for lunch (spagetti, sandwiches etc...); and a fruit pouch, and whatever we're having for dinner.  I try really hard to get a fruit, a veggie, a grain, and a protein in her every day, but it's hard lately since she's refusing so many things.

Sleeps: 9:30pm-8am on nights where we have Carter the next day, and on weekends she sleeps in until 9 at least.  Most nights she wakes up at least once - sometimes 2 or 3 times from nightmares.  It's so sad to hear her just start crying out all of a sudden at 3 am because I just know she's scared.  Usually all it takes is a binkie, a drink of water, and a cuddle and a song from mama and she's ready to go back to sleep, though. 

Naps: 2-3 hours per day on days we have Carter and 1-2 hours on weekends- her nap is 4 or 5 hours after she wakes up for the day 

Awake for:4-7 hours at a time during the day.

Clothes size:  24 month

Motor skills: going down stairs well, running, 'jumping', and climbing EVERYTHING (she can get onto the top bunk of our bunk bed by herself.

other skills:pretend plays very well - loves to 'cook' in her kitchen and take care of her dollys.  She has started counting (to 10) and can recognize some shapes (circle, star, diamond, and sometimes oval) and some colors (purple, yellow, and sometimes blue)
words: I'd estimate she says 200 words or more.  She learns them very quickly and I can understand her when she talks about 95% of the time.  She uses nouns, verbs, and adjectives and has started putting together 2 and 3 word concepts, but does not speak in full sentences yet other than sentences I use a lot like 'got it'  Soon, though...very soon she'll be speaking in full sentences - I wouldn't be surprised if it happens by halloween!

signs:  over 100 - now that she's started talking we've learned less new signs.  And she makes up signs for words she doesn't know.

Goodbye, France!

We're back in the USA!!!  Here's a few picutres and stories from our last couple of weeks in France:

This was the back yard at the second place we stayed - Addelyn liked that we had a swingset! 

Addelyn is getting pretty good at swinging on a big-girl swing! 

Pretty girl :-)

I just love this smile - "look, mama!  I'm doing something silly!" 

Here's a small look at what the inside of our second place looked like - And also a typical Addelyn fit :-)  I think I might have bumped her head with the camera, and she was yelling at me for it for a little bit.  I figure I post a lot of cute videos, so just so everyone knows...she can be a typical 1-year-old, too :-)

Of course...she's usually just cute:

In early July we got word from Jake's employer that the French company he was working for was no longer working on the contract, so we were told to pack up and fly home as soon as possible!  I was getting VERY homesick, so I was SO excited to hear that news.  I was even thinking about just taking Addelyn home soon, anyway, even if Jake had to stay in France alone for a couple of weeks. 

With our days in France numbered, we decided to make one last mini-vacation...we went to Carcassonne, France which is a medieval castle-city.  It's very tourist-ey, but we enjoyed it a lot: 

Addelyn:  the ruler of Carcassonne!

We got to see a jousting tournament while we were there. Addelyn really liked when they got off of the horses and fought with their swords.  She swung her wooden sword around like she was fighting with them :-)

We're inside a 2000-year-old fortified city with a castle and ramparts and a beautiful  church and Addelyn plays with the gravel on the ground...typical kid :-)

Posing for a picture in one of the archer's windows

Family photo between the outer and inner walls of the city

After our final weekend in France, we were pretty exhausted and needed to start packing up for the long trip back

Gotta be clean for the long plane ride!  Addelyn in her new Snow White towel 

We didn't actually get to go into the castle on our first trip to Carcassonne, so Addelyn and I just went back by ourselves one day while daddy was working (it's only a 45-minute drive from where we were living, and I had never been inside a castle before)

Addelyn at the front entrance to Carcassonne

Inside the castle - this window was VERY WINDY!!!!!  Addelyn played here for several minutes :-) 

Beautiful view from a castle window

Addelyn trying to pick up the cannon balls

Make a Wish!

A couple of days later we headed home!  Addelyn did GREAT on the plane rides.  There were three in all - Toulouse-Munich-Chicago-Cedar Rapids, with the Munich-Chicago leg lasting about 8 or 9 hours.  The flight was during the day (unlike the flight on the way TO France), so Addelyn only slept for 2 or 3 hours of the 9.  We spent the other 6 or 7 hours reading books, playing with toys, walking around the aisles, eating, and (Addelyn's favorite) climbing between mommy's lap and the bassinet.  We got into Cedar Rapids at 10:30pm and Addelyn (who had slept the entire last flight from Chicago) was WIDE awake once she realized we were home.  The first thing she did was play in her bouncer, followed by reading all of her books almost constantly for the next two days!  (I had no idea she had felt so book-deprived - we only had a few in France).  I'm not actually sure she recognized our house as being her home...she certainly acted like it was somewhat familiar, but when I asked her to go to her room or to find her toys she couldn't remember where they were.  I guess being gone for  6 or 7 weeks will do that to a 15-month-old!

Addelyn's first morning back at home - she was a HAPPY girl! 

Stats next post - I'll be doing another post on all of Addelyn's new things soon!

Costa Brava, Spain!

Two weeks ago we took a mini-vacation to Costa Brava, Spain.  Jake's work was going slow and we wanted to do a little bit of traveling while we're in Europe, so we packed up the car Friday morning and drove 3.5 hours down the Mediterranean coast of France and Spain.  We ended up staying at the Rosimar Spa hotel in Lloret Del Mar.  Our hotel was literally 50 yards from the beach, and we had a room with a view to the sea.  It was wonderful.  

We got half-board with our hotel reservation, so a breakfast buffet and either a lunch or a dinner buffet was free every day we were there.  It was sooo nice after a long day outside swimming to not have to wait to find a restaurant, order food, and be served.  Having a tired, grumpy baby is not conducive to eating at restaurants.  We did go to a couple of restaurants, though, so we could try the local food.  I'm pretty pickey so I didn't really order anything adventurous, but Jake had some interesting seafood!  I distinctly remember crayfish...gross....

Here are some pictures of the trip: 

The French countryside on the way to Spain

Addelyn's first time touching the sea.

Addelyn getting knocked over by a wave - she's a trooper, though.  She didn't cry once in all the times the waves pushed her down and splashed her face.

Addelyn LOVED playing in the sand right by the water's edge

Playing in the sand with daddy

See all the sand in her hair?  It was from a really big wave.   It  was just barely over her head and got her completely soaked.  Luckily daddy was holding onto her nice and tight.  We moved back a bit after that one.  No toddlers were pulled out to sea on this trip! 

Soaked by the waves and still having the time of her life!

This is the face Addelyn made whenever the waves came and got her legs wet.  The water was a bit chilly!

Daddy and Addelyn playing on the beach at Lloret Del Mar

Pretty view down the beach.  There's a castle on that hill, but it wasn't open to the public.

Down the beach the other way - there's a castle on that hill, too.

There was a sea-themed park right by the beach - Addelyn simply had to play there every time we passed it (which was every time we left the hotel, pretty much).

Our hotel had a pool in it as well, which we went swimming in once.  We also went swimming in the Rosimar Garden Hotel pool, which was much more Addelyn-friendly.  We didn't bring the camera to that because we thought it would just be a hassle and we didn't want to run the risk of it getting wet.  Addelyn had SO much fun there.  First she walked around the kiddie pool (it came up to about her chest...maybe a little lower).  Then we took her to the big pool which had a 0-depth entry.  We spent about an hour in that pool just having Addelyn "swim" around, splash, and walk in the shallow end.  Addelyn is so comfortable when she's in the water.  She will kick her feet and hold her arms out in front of her as I support her tummy to "swim" to daddy - all the while making her "fishey" sound to say "I swim like a fishey!".  Also, she would often stick her face in the water (sometimes on accident, sometimes on purpose).  When she did this she'd just come back up, spurt and cough a little bit, sneeze, then just look at me and grin ear-to-ear and shake her head and go "woah!".  I don't know how I got such a tough girl when Jake and I are both such wimps about the water!  I will have to have Jake film us in the hotel pool sometime soon to show you how much Addelyn adores swimming.

Addelyn on the way home after a tiring weekend at the beach.  She got a ball out of the vending machine at the gas station.  She was pretty excited about it.

The mountains in Spain on the way home from Costa Brava

More mountains

A bus that we passed had a long string of toilet paper blowing out of the top of it.  I was a little too slow with the camera, but there was a good 30 feet sticking out before it finally broke off...

...part of which then blew onto this car :-) 

That's it for our fun vacation!  I'll do a regular Addelyn/France update soon.  I have been taking pictures like crazy recently, so I need to stay caught up with posting them :-)

On a Mother's Love

I was just listening to a song from a mix-CD I burned when I was pregnant with Addelyn.  There's a song on it called "In My Daughter's Eyes" by Martina McBride.  The first line in is this:  "In my daughter's eyes I am a hero.  I am strong and wise and I know no fear."  And I got to thinking...why is that?  I don't doubt that it's true, because I feel the same way about my mother, so why wouldn't Addelyn feel that way about me?  But in this case, surely it's not justified, right?  Me...be strong?  I can't bench-press my own weight and I cry at movies that aren't even sad.  How could I be considered wise?  I go through most of my life these days guessing at how to be what I'm supposed to be - a good parent.  And I'm certainly far from knowing no fear:  I'm the girl who quakes with fear when anything with more than 6 legs is nearby.  So what reason would Addelyn have to hold me on a pedestal?

And then I realized...it's because I am all of those things.  When I am with Addelyn.  When I'm around my daughter I could do anything it takes to protect her - body and soul.  I feel like a super-hero I have such quick reflexes (yesterday I caught her when she dove off of her chair head-first.  She didn't even touch the floor).  I no longer feel the false limitations my mind puts on my muscles and suddenly I could lift a car off of her if I needed to.  I make all of my parenting decisions with confidence and without hesitation.

But most of all, I am fearless.  My flight reflex turns into a fight reflex and I go from scared little girl to a force to be reckoned with.  For instance, I was taking Addelyn out for a walk one day and saw a dog running at us full-speed.  I couldn't tell whether it was being aggressive or friendly, but my mind just fully kicked into fight mode.  I put myself between the dog and Addelyn's stroller, faced the dog, and waited what seemed like forever for the dog to cross the street.  I wasn't even scared; I wasn't thinking about how the dog could hurt me or whether I would be able to protect Addelyn from it if it tried to go around me straight to her, because failure wasn't even a possiblilty in my mind.  There was no reason to be afraid because there was no doubt that I would succeed.  (The dog ended up being friendly, so all turned out well).  It just amazed me how calm I was able to be.  It seems that way every time Addelyn is in danger.  I never get the adrenaline-rush I always thought I'd get - that rush of fear that says we're in danger.  I just do what needs to be done in the situation without hesitation or emotion - when I'm with Addelyn, I know no fear.  (Unless there's a spider near us...then I'm still kinda scared as long as it's far enough away from Addelyn and she's not in immediate danger :-)

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

I took some good pictures of Addelyn yesterday, so I thought I'd share :-)

Addelyn picks me flowers whenever we go outside.  Sweet girl :-)

"Here, Mama!"

Addelyn and her slide.  She just learned to go up the ladder and slide down all by herself:

Here's a nice video of Addelyn's two new favorite things to do outside:  play with her friend the tree (or her friend the fire hydrant when we go on walks).  The game is always the same...she goes up to them and gives them a warm greeting, maybe with some hugs, then says bye-bye and walks away.  After a few steps she turns around and runs back to them.  If she's playing with tree, she'll "scare" it, and if she's playing with the fire hydrant she'll just go give it a hug and, much to my dismay, a kiss.  Rinse, repeat.  Addelyn's other favorite outside activity is playing on her slide.  This video shows the very first time she's actually climbed up the ladder and successfully transitioned to slide down all by herself.  I was quite surprised :-)

Feed the baby some milk

Gotta burp the baby (complete with sound effects from Addelyn)

Now give the baby kisses :-)