A year in pictures

A couple years ago I posted photos of Ellie during the year that she changed from a baby to a little girl. Perhaps it is because of all her hair, but I feel like Addie is already there. Someone please slow this girl down!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Poop attack of December 2010

I can't seem to find a post about it, but I recall the Diaper Explosion of May 2007...

It was a warm spring morning and I was entertaining a friend in town. We stopped to nurse Baby Ellie in the car before heading to our next destination. Baby Ellie pooped as she often did when feeding. I didn't think much of it and waited until she finished eating. When I finally did see the damage, it was EVERYWHERE. Not only did it escape her diaper and clothese, the mess was all over the back seat and all over my pants. I had never seen anything like it.

I spent a lot of time cleaning it up and trying to pretend like it was no big deal (I didn't want to scare my friend away from parenthood) and we went off to pick up Daddy from work. When he got in the car he asked why the baby was naked in her carseat. I responded with "Don't ask." Once we got home, I quickly headed upstairs to change my pants. Michael noticed and tried to warn me. It looked as though it was ME who messed my pants. Oh. My. God. It was the nastiest experience EVER.

Until last night.

Daddy now holds the record for experiencing the nastiest thing ever. Ellie had to go potty and apparently Addie followed her into the bathroom. When she came back out she was smacking her lips. "Maybe she ate some toilet paper" Ellie suggests. Upon further inspection Daddy found poop smeared EVERYWHERE in the bathroom. It was on the door, cabinets, floor... everywhere. The problem? Apparently Addie's diaper wasn't put on well and it fell through her pants. And as any toddler would do, she was curious about the substance. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

Gramma Gable Gobble

I have been wanting to write this post for a long time but also avoiding it at the same time. Why? I'm not sure. I think that in many ways the relationship between my mom and my children is the one that means the most to me. That's not to say that the other grandparents aren't special, but I think that since I'm personally the closest to my own mother, seeing her interact with my children moves me in a different way than the others. And part of me is fearful that I can't find the words to give their relationship justice.

But oh how special it is. My mom is an amazing grandmother and watching her with my daughters is something of magic. I always knew that my mom would enjoy being around the grandchildren, but I had no idea... NO IDEA... how much my daughters would love being around her too. There is no doubt in my mind that my mom brings as much joy to my daughters' lives as they do to hers. It's really incredible to watch.


If Nana's specialty is always coming up with educational activities for the girls to do, Gramma's specialty is including Ellie (and I'm assuming Addie as she gets a little older) in her everyday life. Gramma volunteers to have the girls spend the night so often yet she has somehow found the secret to still accomplishing her To-Do list. If she needs to plant flowers, she has Ellie help her plant flowers. If she needs to paint, she has Ellie help paint. It makes Ellie feel so grown up to know that Gramma trusts her enough to do the work herself.


What I love most about Gramma is her sense of play. She is silly with the girls and they soak it up. She turns everything into a wonderous adventure where she often asks "Have you EVER seen anything like this???" and makes Ellie feel like they're discovering things that are new and exciting for BOTH of them. She shows Ellie how to play and use her imagination.


One way that Gramma has taught Ellie how to play is in friendly name-calling. Gramma often calls Ellie "Ellie Gable Gobble" and Ellie does the same in return. "No, you're da Gramma Gable Gobble!" When Gramma asks, where's Ellie Gable Gobble? Ellie says "Here I am Gramma Gable Gobble!" And it's not uncommon for me to answer my phone only to have it be Gramma calling to talk to Ellie Gable Gobble. It's a special thing just between the two of them. It's obvious that it's done with lots of affection.


Here is a Gramma who loves her job, and she's so good at it. I'm looking forward to seeing how Addie will follow her sister's steps and have a fantastic relationship with Gramma too. Gramma Gable Gobble, we love you very much!

Wordless Wednesday XLV

Flingo the Flamingo

I am ashamed that it took me so long to write this post. It is long overdue as the pictures were taken in the beginning of September! Shame on you Niffer!


In September we went with Daddy to Virginia and Maryland (he had to go there for work). It was nice to see some of our old friends, but it was especially nice to see Grandpa Lou (formerly known as Grandpa Blue) and Grandmommy Jeanne. We don't get to see them nearly enough!
I'm always surprised at how different all the grandparents are with their "grandparenting skills." Grandpa Lou's style is laid back. If the girls want to come up to him and talk, that's great. If not, that's ok too. He loves to just watch them as much as he enjoys interacting with them. As you can see in this picture, even though he's holding Addie... he is not fussing over her. What's fascinating to me about it is that by not fussing over the girls, they actually feel quite comfortable around him. It's as though they understand the vibe of "It's cool. All is calm." It's wonderful to witness.

I love this picture. He's showing Ellie a picture of some ponies he saw at Chincoteague Island, and Ellie is holding up toy ponies so that they can see their friends.

As much as I know Grandpa Lou loves Ellie, I especially enjoy watching him respond to Addie. Maybe it's because she's the second grandchild and so, in general, everyone is more at ease with her, but I think part of it has to do with Addie being named after his mother. I see a deep natural connection between Grandpa Lou and Addie that is a beautiful thing to see.

Have you ever looked at two different generations and thought "Wow! They look EXACTLY alike?" Never? I don't believe you. Well, that's exactly how I feel when I see Grandpa Lou. I look at him and I can see what Daddy will be like in the future. It's incredible. And I think the girls pick up on it too. I wonder if they look at him and think, "He's just an older Daddy. He must be special."

Grandmommy Jeanne was meant to be a grandmother. You can just sense it. She seems to encourage the silly side of childhood without making it *feel* silly. I'm not sure if that came across quite right, but take Flingo the Flamingo as an example. Ellie wanted to put sunglasses on him for the picture and Grandmommy Jeanne wasn't phased at all. She just acted as though that would be something anyone would do, let alone a child.

And she loves to hold Baby Addie. This particular trip, Grandmommy Jeanne was wonderful by offering to help with the girls often. She even offered to let us go out for dinner on our anniversary, which was a nice unexpected treat. Thank you, Grandmommy Jeanne!

Grandmommy Jeanne showed Ellie the proper way of playing with a barn full of horses. They eat over here... and they drink over there... and they run around like this. I'm sure Ellie now wants a pony and would ask for one if she thought it was anywhere close to possible.

And I know Addie loves Grandmommy Jeanne already. This is one of my favorites.

I can already tell that the girls are going to always love visiting Grandpa Lou and Grandmommy Jeanne. They're the ones who like to go to the beach and they're the ones with a fun swimming pool close to their house. Not to mention all the fun stuff to see in Washington D.C.! Just check out Ellie's reaction to the neighborhood slide! This girl LOVED IT! Over and over again she'd pop out of the slide and say "I wanna do... I wanna do... I wanna do... I wanna do... I wanna do dat again!!!"


So there you have it... a much belated post about grandparents we love dearly. They are going to open up a world of experiences like none other for our girls. It's a shame they're not closer.

Wordless Wednesday LXII

Sisters

Life is good. Very good.

Look at you!

You complete me.

Bye Bye Baby Addie

Today is our last day with Baby Addie. Tomorrow she will suddenly become Toddler Addie. That's not to say she's toddling around yet, but some time ago I arbitrarily decided the label "Baby" was for infants through 1 year. "Toddler" covers years 1-2 and "Preschool" covers years 3-4. So no, Addie is not toddling around yet but she's close. Besides she can't start to walk yet because she's going to be a caterpillar for Halloween and I have yet to see a caterpillar that walks on two legs.

Get back on track, Niffer...

Tomorrow is Baby Addie's first birthday. It's hard to believe that it has been an entire year since we met Baby Addie, yet here we are. I suppose this calls for a summary or comparison of sorts...

Over all Addie has been the easiest baby - much much easier than her older sister was. In fact, because of Baby Addie I now better understand comments I got from other parents when Ellie was a baby. I could totally see wanting to be a stay at home mom with Addie. She is just simply easy and sweet. We just click and always have.

I think that Baby Addie cried less in her first 11 months than Baby Ellie did in any given single month. I'm not sure I can say that about this last month of Baby Addie's life... it seems that she has decided that getting teeth is a good enough reason to come down with a bad case of the crummies and a strong need for Mommy's attention. So this last month has been a little draining.

But oh is she fun now! Baby Addie's favorite games are fetch (Yes, we toss a small toy across the room, she fetches it, sticks it in her mouth and returns it to us. Over and over again) and copy-cat (She hits her head. I hit my head. She laughs. You get the point).

But Addie's favorite form of entertainment is her big sister Ellie. Ellie still has the magic touch. We still think that all she really has to do is read words from a dictionary and Addie would laugh. Of course, Ellie can't read yet, so really it just comes down to her having to make any sound come out of her mouth and Addie laughs. Poor Ellie. She knows that Addie gets too distracted when she's around so Ellie has learned that she can't be around us if Mommy is trying to breast feed Addie. I think Addie would prefer to starve and play with Ellie.

As a result, Addie is just barely hanging in there with the breastfeeding. I'm in denial that it's coming to an end, though, so let's just move on. Addie LOVES her food. She eats a ton of food, both mushy baby food and big girl finger foods. She just loves to eat.

And Addie loves to sleep. Or maybe I should just say she loves to fall asleep. She is by far so much easier to put to sleep than I ever thought would be possible for a baby. I practically have to just feed her, sing a song and leave her in her crib, though the feeding is now no longer a requirement. Sing a song and leave. It's THAT simple. Just because I feel guilty spending only 2 minutes with her bed time routine and 45 minutes with her big sister's, I have recently started to read her a few books too (which brings the total time up to 5 minutes - IF THAT). She takes two good naps during the day and almost makes it 12 hours a night (so close... so very close).

She's incredible. I wish I could describe it better. I am going to miss Baby Addie. We really could not have asked for a better baby, for us or for her big sister. That being said, though, I am SOO SOO SOO excited (and Ellie is soo soo soo cited) that Baby Addie is becoming Toddler Addie.

You heard me. I'm done with this whole baby thing. It's over. No more for Niffer. I have confirmed my original theory that I LOVE my sleep. I want it back. All of it. And the only way I can get to that point is to stop dwelling in this infancy/baby stage.

All joking aside, I am excited to continue to watch Addie grow and discover the world... and start to play more and more games with us... following her big sister's footsteps, this girl is going to make my heart expand so much it will physically hurt. Again. Soon Niffer's heart is going to take over her body. Then the whole world. Beware.

Big Sister Quote of the Day LI

After looking at a few proof photos from the photographer, Ellie showed Addie the pictures and said "See, Addie? Dat's you and dat's me, right dere. See? We're sisters, right? And these are my favorite pictures in all da world!"

To which Addie laughed and laughed.

Which resulted in Ellie joining in the laughter too.

This soon followed by repeating "In ALL da world!" over and over again to get more laughs out of her baby sister.

Tid-Bits XVI

As Daddy pulls the car out of the driveway, I love watching Ellie signing "I love you" and blowing me kisses while all I can see of Addie is her feet bobbing up and down, kicking the seat.

I love that sometime in the last couple of months Ellie has decided that it is NOT COOL to wake up too early. If I go to get her before she's ready to get up, she tells me she's not awake and please come back in a couple of minutes. It gives me hope that once again I may be able to sleep past 6:00 or 7:00 am.

I love how when Ellie sleeps with me, she takes good care of her mommy. She rubs my back and makes sure I'm covered with blankets. She even tucks the blanket in under my chin.

I love how when I give Addie a choice (often to try to figure out which color is her favorite), she picks both. Wise woman.

I love that at age 3 years and 5 months, Ellie has learned the trick of how to add and subtract using her fingers. She really is one of the smartest little people I know.

I love how Ellie has recently started calling Daddy "Papa" and she claims she's going to start calling me "Mama." Though I personally like "Mommy" better, who am I to discourage her coming up with her own terms of endearment. Besides, "Papa" is pretty gosh darn adorable.

I love the fact that my Ellie is so polite. Just the other day we bought a toy from the store and she asked the clerk, "Can you take the tag off, please?" The clerk seemed surprised that she was speaking to her. Then as we were leaving, Ellie turned around and said "Dank you for taking off the tag for me!" I loved that my 3-year old reminded the grown woman complaining about something in the next line over to thank the clerk who was helping her.

On occasion Ellie can't contain her feelings in just three words. "Mommy I love you hundred" or "I love you so big" seem to be her solution.

I love how Ellie is old enough now to recognize that she's just grumpy. She looks at you sadly and says "I just have da crummies because I did not eat much dinner" or "...because I just didn't get enough sleep." The poor girl is so devastated you'd think she was diagnosed with an incurable disease.

Not long ago we were at a restaurant and Addie starts getting super excited and audibly loud with lots of squeals and wiggles. It turns out that she saw her friend Otto (another baby in her class) sitting at the next table over. I guess Mommy is going to have to start paying attention to who her favorite friends are too.

Ellie knows not to touch a wall socket because it's dangerous, but when probing a little deeper about what makes it so dangerous, she says "We don't touch dat because if we do den a spider will come out of da wall and bite you! Right, Mommy?"

On a recent trip to Maryland where we were able to hang out with some friends, Ellie met Lucas. After playing with him for a while and then saying good bye Ellie asked to use the phone so that she could call Lucas and tell him that he was her prince. She insisted on calling him, but when Lucas' mom said he wouldn't take the phone, Ellie told her instead. "Can you tell Lucas for me dat he is my pwince and I am his pwincess? Ok. Thanks. Bye."

In one of her recent songs (Ellie is always singing) she sang over and over again, "I am Lori-lelle and all is good for me. All is good for me. All is good for me. And I am Lori-lelle."

Big Sister Quote of the Day L

After a particularly short nap (Ellie has a difficult time falling asleep when she takes a nap with me at home - Daddy was out of town), Ellie woke with a VERY bad case of the crummies. We got ready with her crying the whole time, all piled into the car and were off to see Nana. After a few minutes I noticed that Ellie was no longer upset.

Mommy: Did your crummies go away?
Ellie: Yeah, dey just go'd away because Addie just looked at me and it just made me want to laugh!
Mommy: Oh good! I like it when she can make you happy.
Ellie: Yeah. Me too.

Addie knows what to do

I bet at least a few of you are wondering where Addie was when the rest of us were at the wedding. Since the wedding was so late at night, Addie stayed home with some family members. Gramma watched her on Friday but it was Grampa who watched her on Thursday (so we could go to the rehearsal). It was a surprise to me that Grampa offered to watch her. I wasn't sure how he would do and apparently neither was he. After only a few minutes with Addie he acknowledged that he had no clue what to do with her, but apparently she did. From what I was told, their evening together went something like this:

Play on the floor where Addie was sitting upon Grampa's arrival.

Addie starts to fuss and Grampa looks at the clock to see he was a little late giving her dinner. Grampa takes that as a sign she's hungry.

Grampa sits Addie in the chair and she eats until she starts to fuss and pushes away the spoon when he tries to feed her. Grampa takes that as a sign she's done.

Grampa sits Addie on the floor and she crawls to the staircase and starts climbing it. Grampa takes that as a sign she's ready to go upstairs.

Into the bathroom she goes and she stands by the edge of the bath. Grampa takes that as a sign that it's bath time.

After playing in the water for a while Addie starts to fuss and stands up. Grampa takes that as a sign that bath time is over.

After dressing her and putting on a diaper, Addie crawls over to the books. Grampa takes that as a sign that it's time to read books.

When Grampa tries to read the third book, Addie takes it and throws it on the floor. Grampa takes that as a sign that story time is over.

Addie leans towards the crib, practically throwing herself towards it. Grampa takes that as a sign she wants to go to bed.

After playing for a while with the blanket over her head, Addie grabs the blanket and pulls it up under her chin and closes her eyes. Grampa says good night and leaves.

When I talked to Grampa a few days later, he was dying to know just one thing... did he or did he not put the diaper on the right way? Yep. Well done, Grampa! You done good. You done good.

Big Sister Quote of the Day XLIX

We recently learned that the longer we're on vacation, the less Addie sleeps. And on one particularly annoying night in the hotel, Addie decided to wake up every hour from midnight to 3:30. Finally Daddy tells me to just let her cry for a little while, which is always a big risk since Ellie was sleeping in the same room. But we were frustrated so we both dropped to our pillows in disgust.

Ellie, of course, takes this time to wake up and says "Oh oh! My baby is crying!" To which we, of course, snapped "We know! Go back to sleep!" Ellie, sensing that both of her parents were frustrated and had given up on trying to make Addie happy, decided she knew just how to help.

Standing up in bed, she yells "TOOTIE!!!" and Addie, of course, started laughing. Ellie, proud to have accomplished the very thing neither of her parents could do, plopped back down on her pillow.

Needless to say, Addie took the gesture to mean it was REALLY time to get up and the whole family woke for the day before 4:00 AM. We were done with our first nap by 7:00!

All Done?

I think that Addie is considering being done with this whole breast feeding thing. When we went to Maryland last week, it was hard to get her to feed because Ellie was always in the room. Her big sister is always so entertaining. But since coming back, it's been very similar. She no longer seems interested in breast feeding before taking a nap like she usually does and even the times she does feed, it seems to lack the same sort of enthusiasm.

My goal was to pump and feed until she was 12 months, so I'm close. I was going to keep up the morning and bedtime feedings until she was about 13 months old. That's what I did for Ellie. But if she's not interested, we may be ending sooner than that.

This is not good. What she doesn't know is that **I** am not ready to be done with breastfeeding. Oh, sure there's the connection between mother and baby and all that sappy la-dee-da, but it really comes down to this: I have plans for these babies! I NEED these boobs. I am in two weddings in the near future and both dresses were ordered FOR THESE BOOBS. I'm guessing that neither bride would appreciate being upstaged by one of their bridesmaids suddenly turning the wedding into a topless form of entertainment.

So, my dear Addie, you CAN NOT give up on me yet! Mommy needs you. Mommy NEEDS these boobs! These boobs and I have obligations we HAVE to meet. Don't let us down (both figuratively and literally).

Wordless Wednesday LVIII

Caption Contest II

Wordless Wednesday LVII

The Clean Plate Club*

My post about our trip to see Pappy made me realize that I really need to talk more about some of the other grandparents. We visit Grandpa Blue and Grandma Jeane this weekend, but sometime's it's hard to remember to talk about the grandparents in town because we see them so often that it lacks the obvious "adventure" aspect to the story. But oh, are they special!

Nana has always embodied the sweet little grandma that you read about in the story books. And if not, then they should write stories about her. She's so tiny and so energetic that I think it's impossible for someone to not smile when they see her with her granddaughters. She wears her excitement proudly and is simply not capable of hiding it inside.

Books and learning are Nana's thing. Whenever she offers to take Ellie over night or for an afternoon, she always has a plan laid out. There is always an activity in store for Ellie - some learning experience, whether it be the county fair or a trip to the bookstore. Sometime's it's an arts-and-craft or coloring activity that she found online. Sometimes it's a new game she bought. Regardless, it's always in the spirit of learning.

And she makes learning fun. I can SEE the effect it has on my Ellie and I'm looking forward to watching it with Addie too.

Nana always has such a big smile on her face whenever she's with the girls. It's one of those smiles you KNOW is real. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they're practically the same size, but there is something about her that makes it so easy to get fantastic pictures. The girls simply adore her...

... both Ellie...

... and Addie.

She is a fantastic cute grandma and I love how her energy and love for learning rubs off on my daughters.

But let's not forget about Grampa! Oh Grampa! Nana likes to joke that he did it the right way. Grampa did not have any children of his own so he didn't have to deal with the same frustrations that come along with raising young children, yet he gets to be a grandpa. He gets all the benefits with none of the work. Or so Nana likes to say.

If there is an award for "Grandparent with the most laughs" then it definitely goes to Grampa. The children make him laugh out loud more than any other grandparent. I'm not sure why that is, but whatever the reason it's definitely apparent that he loves being a grandpa. Maybe more than anything else.

Grampa likes to try new things with Ellie. Both he and Nana do a fantastic job of trying to think of unique adventures to take Ellie on. I love it. So does Ellie. Ellie loves spending time with Nana and Grampa and often tries to convince us that it's Friday night so that we can go have dinner at a restaurant with them.

And Addie loves Grampa too. They have this special "bond" let's call it, where she likes to put her hand completely in his mouth. I don't know why, but she does. And she only does it to him. Strange, I know. But she thinks he's great fun because of it.


* And if you're wondering what the Clean Plate Club is... somehow these two have figured out the magic recipe to get Ellie to eat more than she does anywhere else. Ellie is always so proud to belong to the Clean Plate Club - but only if Nana and Grampa are around.