Christmas, and a Walking Baby!

December was another month of family, fun, and (of course) great leaps in physical and cognitive development for Addelyn!  She's officially walking!

The Milestones:
December 10:  Addelyn waved - I think the first time she waved was when we were just downstairs playing - I waved at her and, to my surprise, she waved back!
December 13:  Addelyn clapped her hands - she was in her high chair and I was clapping my hands then clapping her hands for her when it finally clicked - she's been giving rounds of applause ever since!
December 15:  Addelyn signed "up" with no prompting from me  - she was in her bouncer and really wanted out...I wasn't paying attention to her whining, so she must've decided that she had to resort to my form of communication :-)
December 16:  Addelyn "danced" to music - We were in the living room singing and dancing to one of her Baby Einstein music CDs and she just started swaying back and forth in time with the music - it was so adorable!
December 18:  Addelyn took 11 controlled steps in a row - I didn't count this as officially walking just yet, because I had to stand her up and help her get balance, then catch her when she fell.
December 19:  Addelyn signed "ball" with no prompting from me - we were playing in the basement and she looked at her ball, then looked at me and signed ball.  At first I thought she was clapping, but it just looked different - she kept looking from the ball to me and signing it until I got it!
December 24:  Addelyn said "up" - Annnd she hasn't stopped since!  I think she likes that word better than "mama"!
December 25:  Addelyn officially started walking!  For her Christmas present to me, she learned how to fall down, and also started walking longer and longer distances and attempting to turn around without my help.  Though at this point she was still afraid to walk away from an object that she pulled herself up on.  That didn't happen until...
December 30 or 31?:  Addelyn started to pull herself up on something then let go of it and walk away.
January 1:  Addelyn both showed that she understood the word "dada"  AND she said "dada" for the first time
January 2:  Addelyn clapped her hands when I said "yay" (without clapping my hands)

As you can see, Addelyn has been quite busy!  She just changes and grows so fast!  I saw a 13-month-old at our Mommy&Me group yesterday and he was so grown up!  I just can't even believe that Addelyn will be that big in just a little over 4 months!

So, without further delay, here are some pictures from early December and Christmas!

This shows Addelyn's strong will.  Jake and I were drinking out
of wine glasses and Addelyn didn't stop yelling at us until
we gave her some water and apple juice in a wine glass, too!

Addelyn with the Christmas Tree

Addelyn and Santa!

My attempt at a Christmas picture for Addelyn - I love this dress!

Addelyn's professional Christmas picture (and the one
that would've been on a Christmas card if we had
sent one...

Great Grandpa Brown and Addelyn dancing on Christmas morning

Figures...We get Addelyn all these toys and she plays with the wrapping paper.

The girls all got toy shopping carts from Grandma and Papa!

Kylie says cheese!

Playing with the clown puppet with TWO grandpas

I love this smile!

Grandpa Eric crocheted a headband just for Addelyn!

Playing peekaboo with Grandpa John on Grandma Janine's lap

Addelyn was VERY good at opening presents (for an 8-month-old)

Love from Aunt Vicki

Grandpa Yogi and Addelyn spending some quality time together

The ball from Uncle Rob was a popular toy!

Looking at a calendar and playing with her new gingerbread doll with Grandpa John and Grandma Wanda

And, of course, cards were played.  Addelyn helped.

Uncles are great!!

Four generations!  

Addelyn did a LOT of walking in Grand Rapids

Addelyn got to use a lot of daddy's old things...like his rocking chair...

...and his piano...

...and his original Air Jordans!

Mommy and Grandpa Eric made a snowman...Addelyn watched :-)
Update:  The snowman got sad when we left

Stats:

Age: 8 3/4 months

Weight:  19 lbs, 12 oz

Length:  28ish inches

Drinks:  about 5 8oz bottles of milk per day (all of which is formula)

Eats: puffs and 1/2-1 jar of veggie or meat baby food and a jar of fruit at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed or a jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2-1 jar of fruit at lunch time.  Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite is peas.  She has also started to eat more and more table food - anything soft enough for her to gum!  She loves chicken!

Sleeps: 11-12 hours/night - 9pm-9am  (usually wakes up around 3am for a bottle)

Naps: 1.5 hours after lunch and 1 hour in the evening (6-7)...if I'm lucky.

Awake for: 2.5-5 hours at a time during the day.

Clothes size:  mostly 12 month

Motor skills: WALKING, crawling well on hands and knees, standing standing alone well, pulling herself up to standing,  furniture, self feeding several things (as long as it's not too slippery)

other skills: putting balls into her toy (then the balls fall out and roll away and you do it all over again), clapping, waving, playing peekaboo (very well with a blanket, not yet with just her hands)

words:  mama, up, and we're working on dada...she's said it once or twice

signs: bye bye (waving), yay (clapping),  and she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "binkie", and "eat"

Baby's First Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful (and BUSY) Thanksgiving!  Addelyn got to see lots of relatives and made leaps and bounds in her large motor development over the weekend (which surprised me given how much she was held that weekend :-).

There was definitely no shortage of people willing to hold Addelyn!

So, with all of the love and attention that Addelyn got over the weekend, she learned so many things, such as:
Play the piano (November 24):

This was the first time Addelyn played the piano - Addelyn especially likes the high notes

Addelyn also found her tongue for the first time (on November 25), she had so much fun sticking her tongue out at Uncle Rob, and having 8 adults react so positively certainly helped to encourage her!

Addelyn learned a couple of large motor skills over Thanksgiving weekend, too.  On November 24, Addelyn crawled on her hands and knees for the first time - she still only goes a couple of inches on hands and knees before she gives up and goes to her belly, but it'll happen soon, especially if Aunt Becki keeps working with her :-)

Addelyn also learned to "cruise" along furniture (11/25), she got to a sitting position from laying down (11/24, but she hasn't been able to do it since), and she got really good at pulling herself up to a standing position from sitting or laying (11/23), though she's been pulling herself to standing since November 1.  And last but certainly not least...

Addelyn learned to FLY!

On Thanksgiving Addelyn played with her great-grandparents,

Got loved on by her cousins,

And Addelyn even provided the placecards for Thanksgiving dinner :-)

Addelyn had fun with her Thanksgiving art project

Stats:

Age:  7 3/4 months

Weight:  19 lbs, 8 oz

Length:  26.5 inches

Drinks:  about 4 7oz bottles of milk per day (8 oz of which is formula)

Eats: 1/2-1 jar of veggie or meat baby food and a jar of fruit at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed or a jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2-1 jar of fruit at lunch time.  Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken.

Sleeps: 12-13 hours/night - 9pm-10:30am  (usually wakes up around 1am and 8am for a bottle)

Naps: 1.5 hours after lunch and 1 hour in the evening (6-7)

Awake for: 2.5-5 hours at a time during the day.

Clothes size:  mostly 12 month

Motor skills:  sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, crawling short distances on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, standing alone for up to a minute, scooching, pulling herself up to standing, getting onto hands and knees from sitting without falling over, and "cruising" on furniture.

other skills:  babbling, going backwards in her walker (REALLY well!), shaking a rattle, playing piano

words:  mama

signs:  she's starting to wave and she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"

And She's Off!

Addelyn just reached a very important milestone - she can scooch now!  She just started doing it all-of-a-sudden on Friday, November 4.  She was trying to get to an expired health insurance card on the floor of all things.  It's so funny, though, because she still prefers walking, so if she's in a bad mood she will yell at me the whole time she's scooching to get a toy.  Another funny thing - she prefers to scooch on my bedroom carpet rather than the carpet in the room she usually plays.  Jake thinks it's because the bedroom carprt is longer and she can get more purchase with her feet.

Speaking of milestones...first steps at 6/12 months??  I'm not sure whether to count this as her first steps, but Addelyn did take four controlled steps the other day!

After that, I had to run out and get her one of those toys that she can push around:

Now that Addelyn is sitting much better, I decided to start bathing her in the bathtub.  She LOVES it! Her favorite thing to do is lay down and kick and splash!  Her first bath in the big girl tub was on November 1.

Jake's birthday was yesterday, and for it mommy made daddy a nice dinner (rainbow trout with green beans and cous-cous) and Addelyn fingerpainted daddy a picture (that was an adventure...).  To my utter surprise, Addelyn only tried to eat the paint/paper one time!

The "Before"

The "After"

The work of art

The Happy Daddy

And here's Addelyn's new favorite game:

Stats:
Age:  6 3/4 months
Weight:  19 lbs, 3 oz
Length:  26.5 inches
Drinks:  about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (1/2 of which is formula)
Eats: baby oatmeal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie or meat baby food at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2 jar of fruit at lunch time.  Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken.
Sleeps: 11 hours/night - 9pm-8am  (usually wakes up around 4am for a bottle)
Naps: 2 hours after lunch and 2 hours in the evening (5-7)
Awake for: 2.5-5 hours at a time during the day.
Clothes size:  mainly 6-9 month, some 12 month
Motor skills:  sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, standing alone momentarily, scooching, pulling herself up to standing, and we're working on getting onto hands and knees from sitting without falling over.
other skills:  babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle
words:  no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means.
signs:  she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"

Addelyn's First Halloween

In the spirit of Halloween, Jake, Addelyn, and I went to Bloomsberry Farms - it's a pumpkin patch/corn maze/petting zoo etc... just outside of Cedar Rapids.  Addelyn LOVED it.  We fed some animals and Addelyn even got to pet a pig!  The lady that worked there said that the pig was lonely because all of the kids thought it was gross and never petted it, so Addelyn gave it some love.

                  

 

We also slid down a big slide, sat in a big pile of hay, went through a corn maze...

                

                

             

...posed for some more pictures...

...And finally we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out Addelyn's very first pumpkin!

Addelyn loved her first Halloween!  we handed out candy for a couple of hours...

...eating some along the way...

That's a banana Laffy Taffy.  Don't mistake her facial expression for one of confusion...this is definitely a look of utter concentration.  This solitary piece of candy turned Addelyn into a MONSTER, and helped her to discover her "angry voice" (when the candy was taken away she yelled at me quite forcefully)

...then Addelyn got all dressed up in her bunny costume and we visited a friend and a couple of our friends' parents.

Addelyn with her carrot.  And her bunny friend has a carrot too!

nom nom nom!!!

Stats:
Age:  6 1/2 months
Weight:  18 lbs, 3 oz
Length:  26.5 inches
Drinks:  about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (4 oz of which is formula)
Eats:  4 teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2 jar of fruit at lunch time.  Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken.
Sleeps: 11 hours/night - 9pm-8am  (usually wakes up around 6am for a bottle)
Naps: 2 hours in the late morning (10-12), a short one in the afternoon (sometimes) and 2 hours in the evening (5-7)
Awake for: 1.5-5 hours at a time during the day.
Clothes size:  mainly 6-9 month
Motor skills:  sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, and standing alone momentarily
other skills:  babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle
words:  no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means.
signs:  she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"