Monday, October 27

Addison has been pretty intent lately on really exploring the world around her. Anytime she’s in the water (i.e., bath and swimming lessons), she splashes like crazy, but then she’ll stop and lean forward slowly and put her face in the water. A couple of times she’s tried to breathe with face in water, and comes up coughing. At this point, you’d think most kids would not want to do that again, but she looks over at me, smiles, and then puts her face right back in. Tonight I was filling up her bath, and she leaned over and stuck her face right in the waterfall. I swear she should have been born with fins and a tail.

She also had her first experience this weekend of carving a pumpkin. Well, okay, so not really carving- we’re better parents than that. But she did get to pull out the seeds and goop and play with it between her fingers and toes. At first she wasn’t so sure about it, but once she got into it, she really got into it.

Other than that, she’s just been concentrating really hard on becoming mobile and being cute- and doing really well at both.

Sunday, Oct 19

This weekend was a big weekend for us. On Saturday, we took Addison to her first swimming lesson. We had a wonderful time. We practiced floating on our back, which was a breeze, then jumping off of the side of the pool into the water. You would think that this would not be a good thing to teach a child that doesn’t know how to swim yet, but I guess those swim instructors know what they are doing. Of course, they also said that we would be completely submerging the children in the pool before the last lesson was completed, so we do have some question on who these folks really are. Oh well, I guess you have to let go and let the kid learn how to drown on their own someday, so it might as well be now. Today was the Buddy Walk for the Down Syndrome Assoc. of Tulsa. We had a wonderful time today, so to all who contributed, thanks for your support. We were able to raise $2200 because of your generosity.

Addison certainly contributed. She walked, well more like rolled, one lap around the track and then won a nice gold medal for coming in 236th place out of 1,240. Finishing in the top 20% as a ten-month-old makes me think she might have a future as an Olympian. She didn’t spend much time celebrating though because she quickly re-discovered the toy attached to her safety harness in the stroller, and immediately started playing again. Now this gal has her priorities straight.
Thanks to Peggy, we were able to get a nice family picture with the Team Addison flag that we made for the event.

For the next picture, I'm not sure if we caught her by surprise, or if she was trying to tell me something. Either way, I thought this was classic.

Tuesday, October 14

Wow. Addison is 10 months old. Our little baby is becoming such a little girl! I was at the mall yesterday and saw a few moms with new babies, then I’d look down at Addison, and she looked so big with her arms and legs overflowing from her stroller.
Addison has always loved bathtime, but her excitement lately has reached a new level. Wes will put her sitting in her tub facing the faucet and then let the water run into it, and she goes nuts! She’ll literally lunge forward onto her knees to get her hand into the waterfall. So she’s basically standing on her knees leaning on the tail of her duck tub so that the water can splash on her hands and face. We didn’t even know she could do that!

The other new thing she’s doing is getting up on her hands & knees and rocking back and forth. She’ll scoot backwards, and occasionally forward (it’s really more of a forward fall than a scoot), but no crawling yet. Guess she’ll have to keep rocking for now to get her momentum up.
One last note- THANK YOU! You guys are amazing. I sent an email out this morning about donating to Addison’s team for the Buddy Walk this weekend (see link to the right if you’re interested in seeing her fundraising page), and already we’ve raised $600! I’m blown away by your generosity. Thank you a thousand times over. Addison is blessed to have such a support network from such an early age.

Friday, October 10

Wes and I have both noticed lately that Addison seems to be connecting with us more. We’ll laugh at her about something she’s doing, and she’ll stop and look at us, and smile. She’s been showing us what she wants by grabbing our hands and putting them on the toy she wants us to squeeze or push or spin. She’s also started to become interested in Baby Einstein’s DVDs. Sometimes she’ll be sitting there watching it and just laugh out loud!


I mentioned last time that Addison was learning to clap. Well, she is a pro at it now. We were sitting in the floor playing the other day, and she just started clapping on her own.

She is also very interested in Bearfoot, our chocolate lab. He is so sweet with her, and she LOVES to grab anything she can as he passes by. She’ll pull his ears and his lip and climb all over his face, and when he’s had enough, he just gets up and moves.
It’s been a little cooler lately, so I’ve had to kind of bundle Addison up when I go running in the mornings. I found these little bunny slippers in our stash of baby gifts to grow into, and they’re perfect! She loves playing with the little bunny ears, and has actually done well at keeping them on her feet. I keep them on her as long as I can in the mornings because they’re just so cute. Gotta keep the little piggies warm!

Tues, September 30

I’m not sure how, but Addison gets to be more fun every day. She loves playing with her house lately. She sits in front of the door and pushes it open, then closed, open, then closed, open, then closed. This is very enjoyable for Wes and me as well, because it, of course, makes noises every time the door moves. Imagine that lady (you know, the electronic one on all the toys) saying “hellogoodbyelet’splayseeyalaterhellogoodbletsplseeyalatehelgoodhellogoodbylet’splay” She’s gotta be exhausted.
This picture illustrates a few things. #1-This is why Mommy usually picks out the clothes. Wes kept Addison the other day while I was working, so he was the one who put her to bed. When I got her out of her crib the next morning, this is what she was wearing. Okay-Wes deserves a little credit- so she was just going to bed. I just thought it was funny. #2- She really does look cute no matter what she’s wearing! (Can you imagine waking up this happy every morning?)
Addison and I have gotten to spend a little more time together lately, and it’s been a blast. (Doesn't she look like she's winking?) She’s been working on getting up on her hands and knees, but those darn knees keep sliding out from under her. She’s also started imitating motor movements (like banging the rattle on a ball). This is an important step for developing speech later on. Today she was holding my hands and clapping them together, so I was trying to get her to clap hers. When I’d say, “Addison’s turn,” she’d put her hands straight out in front of her with her fingers stretched out and palms together, and would wait for me to clap them together. Too cute!

Weds, September 17

I know some of you are anxious to see beach pictures- Mom- so I didn’t want to delay in getting these pictures posted. Addison absolutely LOVED the beach! Everytime a wave would come up over her feet she’d get so excited and start kicking and laughing.
She had a great time playing with her cousins, Matt and Ethan, and the rest of the family. We decided this week that Addison needs to spend more time around older kids. She was so enthralled by them and everything they did. They were good buddies by the end of the week.

Addison also turned 9 months old last week, which means it's time for another picture with the bear. She knows now that when the camera is pointed at her, she’s supposed to smile. It’s pretty funny. She had her 9 month check-up today, and was off the DS growth chart on her weight (but off the high end this time). The doctor mentioned that so far her Down’s seems pretty mild, and this may just be an indicator that her physical features are mild as well. All encouraging things to hear. Down’s or not, we know that she is on the severe end of cute and lovable!

Tuesday, Sept 2

We have been quite the travelling family lately. It has been difficult to some extent, but it has been wonderful! We were in Boston a couple of weeks ago and thought we could include a picture of Addison's first trip to Fenway Park

This weekend, we were in Waco with the Jumper family. We had a great time and took some fun pictures while we were there. It's neat to see the family growing
Addison is teething, so she is drooling all over herself. However, she has been much more social lately. There have been several occassions when she has been flirting with people who come up to her and talk. The drool all over her face doesn’t seem to interfere with the flirting for now, so I guess it’s ok. She's pretty laid back for a little baby and mostly easy to please as long as she gets her food and her sleep when she wants it. We may be getting spoiled, but we'll take it for now. Rach went to her first FLIP meeting today. FLIP stands for Family Learning & Intervention Program, and is associated with the Little Light House. For those families whose children are on the waiting list, FLIP is a monthly meeting to bring us up to speed on how the school works and gives Addison the chance to see what a class is going to be like. The parents meet and learn about things we can be doing to help our children develop while they are waiting to attend school. Since there is a two-year waiting list, and the first two years are the most critical times for kids to soak up information, we are glad to be attending. If any of you are therapists, we would love to hear from you, too. That is, for Addison’s sake. I’m way past the point of any effective therapeutic help.