5 Months + 1 day

What a difference one month makes.

Daddy's Ways

Shall we just say unconventional?? But Adde loves her daddy and I have to admit she actually ate the cereal for him tonight. I'll let you take a look at the pictures and video to see...



Here's the video which happened before the standing feeding.



After having her most successful feeding, I looked at Mark in disbelief and questioned his unconventional ways. He replied, "So you don't think it's conventional to feed your kid sitting in a recliner with your feet up, watching TV, and making her stand up to eat?" Maybe that's what I'll try next time.

Thursday's Pop Quiz

Since I just sent in my letter to take another year off at school, I realized that my quiz and test writing days are over for a while. Since I know how much I will miss that (ha!) I thought I would write my first quiz for the blog. Just another way to tell you about our typical days. So grab a scrap sheet of paper and a writing utensil and join in the fun...

1. How old is Addelynn today?
a. 4 months
b. 5 months
c. 6 months

2. What is Adde's emotion in the video below as she plays with chirping bird?

a. happy
b. sad
c. mad

3. What is Adde's emotion a few moments later as seen in the video?

a. happy
b. sad
c. mad

4. What event followed the last video clip?
a. more happy tummy time
b. playtime laying on her back
c. naptime

5. True or False. Addelynn was the only baby to scream at our baby class when moms were working on their art projects and away from their babies.

6. True or False. Addelynn screamed the entire time she was at Steve and Liz's last night while her parents had a mini date to hit golf balls at the driving range.

7. What is Adde's favorite toy at the moment?
a. keys
b. chirping bird
c. rattling duck toy
d. Titus

8. Who is developing quite the opinionated personality right now?
a. Mark
b. Lana
c. Addelynn
d. Titus

9. How long did the squirrel stay up in our backyard tree after Titus treed it this morning?
a. 5 minutes
b. 30 minutes
c. 2 hours

10. How many loads of laundry did I do today? (Hint: I did laundry on Tuesday.)
a. 0
b. 3
c. 5

Now I trust you to grade your own quizzes and be honest! Your score will be out of 10 points.

1. b (Pictures in her onesie will be coming later. I forgot before I dressed her this morning.)
2. a
3. c
4. c
5. True - Quite embarrassing
6. False - She was fine for the first ten minutes but screamed the rest of the time. Quite embarrassing. (Test taking strategy - Be weary of any statement with the words all, never, always, entire, etc.)
7. d - Please see the bottom video for proof.
8. c - If you put "a", you can give yourself half credit. Read carefully though..the statement said developing right now not already developed.
9. c
10. b - Laundry takes place several times a week right now...so much regurgitated breast milk!

So how'd you do?

Funny note: I just went back to check and make sure the videos worked on the blog and Adde was happy until I played the one of her screaming. She started screaming when she heard herself scream on video...geez.

Dedication Saturday

Addelynn's dress had to be crammed into the carseat. I decided not to iron it for this very reason. We added a sweater since it was very cold yesterday. The shoes are the ones I mentioned before that I spray painted the flowers. Here's Mark introducing our family to the congregation. There were six families that dedicated their children during this service. That is our campus pastor holding the microphone.

The pastor talked about what parent/child dedication is while the families were up on stage. Addelynn did very well, but as you can see she did "need"/mommy and daddy thought she "needed" her nuk so we did not disrupt the entire service. Addelynn woke up just before the actual dedication.

She doesn't know how to be lady like quite yet. She really enjoys grabbing handfuls of her dress and shoving them in her mouth.

Here we are after the service. We had our small group over for dinner and dessert. Addelynn was very pleasant during her party.

We love you bunches little lady!

Nipple Confusion

I had to laugh today when I introduced the new teething nuk to Adde. She did not know what to think of it because she couldn't suck on it like normal. She had one in each hand and continued to try out both.



On another note, we had an interesting surprise this morning when we woke up...our furnace was not working. The thermostat read 61 degrees. I woke Mark up and he checked it out and had no idea what was wrong. I called in for repairs and Adde and I huddled in our basement corner by the fireplace for most of the morning. When that area got too boring for both of us, we took a trip to Target to pick up her teething nuks and got the call then that the repairman was on his way. Fortunately we did not have to purchase a new furnace as the furnace needed only a $150 part. So by 1:00 pm we were warm again and very thankful to have a warm house in which to live. I was reminded to greatly appreciate something that I take for granted every morning.

Adde's Love

Can you see from the video how much she loves her puppy? We think Titus might be her favorite family member at the moment even though he could care less about her. And yes, those are his toenails on our kitchen flooring that you hear. Surely can't be good for the floor.

No Wonder

It's no wonder that Addelynn loves Titus after all the crazy things he does. Today I could not get her to smile or laugh. All she wanted to do for me was this high pitched whine/scream to let me know she was unhappy. Then Titus walks by and she just busts out laughing. Good thing we decided to keep him as he is great entertainment. So I thought you might enjoy seeing some of Titus' random positions during the day. I need to capture him basking in the sun which is another of his favorite daily activities.

Here he is sleeping on his head. I think he is competing with the Potter kids for craziest sleeping positions since Adde can't really participate yet.

And who exactly sits this way?? I did not tell him to do this. He was just hanging out watching us in the chair downstairs.

Movie Wednesday

If you are wondering why so many posts today, I am really just avoiding cleaning the bathrooms. This is much more fun. I also decided to video Adde during a typical day to give you a glimpse of her day. She continues to grab and mouth everything and now has a greater repertoire of screams, which I thought you might enjoy hearing (probably you more so than me right now!). I just wish that I could catch her in one of her moments when she is giggling at Titus. She smiles and laughs at him several times a day and must think he is the most entertaining toy ever.

Saving Time

In order to save time in my busy days, I learned a new time saving tip that will reduce the time it takes me to scrub dishes. I feel like I am doing an infomercial, but you must see the before and after products.

Before

After

Any guesses how this was accomplished? It required little effort on my part. "Stay Titus...Okay." By the time I was finished with lunch, he was finished cleaning. And for those of you who recognize this bowl and are thinking, "I've eaten out of that before", I promise it still goes through the dishwasher with really hot water and soap.

Small Victories

Well, we have several victories in the last 24 hours to celebrate. To some they may seem ridiculous, but to a stay at home mom, they are definite victories.

1. Adde has had two failry successful cereal eatings in the last two days. The bowl is much emptier now when it goes in the sink. I started pretending the spoon is an airplane, which makes her smile, and the spoon goes in. Yes, much does come back out, but she is no longer screaming at me...progress.

2. At our class yesterday Adde stayed by herself on the blanket and played with one of the staff members while I went back to get our nametags ready. She did not even notice I was gone. This is major progress!

3. Last night Adde went to bed at 9:30 and I didn't hear a peep out of her until 6:30. For someone who has been waking up between 3:30 and 5 most nights for the last few weeks, sleeping until 6:30 was fabulous. I even put her back down after this feeding and didn't get her up until 8 for the day. I am hoping that a little more sleep in the morning might help her late night crabiness???

So that is what we are celebrating by baking chocolate chip cookies. We might not even tell dad we made them so mommy can enjoy them all week. (Unfortunately he reads the blog too :( )

Dedication

Addelynn will be dedicated on February 21st. After much reading, conversations, and eliminations, we have selected her life verse - Zephaniah 3:17

"The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

The dress Adde is wearing below is the dress that I wore when I was dedicated 28 years ago. I hope to wear this on her when she is dedicated as well, but I will have to add a sweater since her dedication will not be in the summer like mine. In some of the pictures Adde is also "wearing" my baby ring. We were afraid she might swallow it during these few pictures as everything goes in the mouth right now. Right now we are having a hard time getting smiles as all Adde wants to do is buzz her lips and blow lots of bubbles. I hope you enjoy the sentimental moments below as much as I did. (Side note: If you double click on the pictures, you can view them larger.)

Heat Wave

We greatly rejoiced today as the temperatures neared 40 degrees. But with a little baby, I felt I still needed to do some bundling since we were going to do the long loop again for Titus. So I thought you might want to see Addelynn emerge from her winter cocoon.

Notice the little gloves below.

Finally to my normal clothes. I came out nice and toasty!

Adde Jump Up

We put Adde in her "Johnny Jump Up" tonight and she loved spinning and bouncing around. I had placed her in it one other time but was somewhat nervous that it would come crashing down on her head. Mark looked at it and said it was engineered well and will not come off the door frame, so in she went tonight. You will also notice how she likes to chew on the seat bar...anything she can get her mouth on. Titus also gets his time in the limelight in this video. He must be wherever I am.


Today we went to our first ECFE class. There were about 7 other moms and the oldest baby was 6 1/2 months old. I really enjoyed my time there and think it will be good for me to meet with other moms who have babies around Adde's age. I did realize too that I just need to relax about Adde's "issues" after hearing the other moms talk today. Adde could only stay awake for half of the class and slept through the remainder. Luckily she did not scream at all and did not cause any major disruptions!

Just a side note: Don't expect a new video everyday. It just happened that she did two fun things two nights in a row. Most nights are more uneventful.

Bubbles and Noises

Wished we would have caught her on video earlier, but this still shows a little bit of Adde learning to use her lips.

Oh the things you'll grab...

Addelynn's newest fascination is grabbing things. I find it fascinating as well to watch her little fingers learn to move and close in on objects. Her favorites are items with little rings to grab. When she rattles these objects, I think her mind is starting to make the connection that it is her hand doing the rattling. Perhaps I just think my child is bright as all parents do.



This morning I had a "no, not me" moment. These moments are in thanks to my sister-in-law Jen's blog which has a "no, not me" column featured every once in a while. These are honest moments of motherhood. So in tribute to her, I will do my first "no, not me" list as I reflected on the events of this past week...

1. No, not me. I would not allow my dog to clean up my daughter's regurgitated breast milk off the carpet. I certainly would not allow him to lick it up or even consider allowing him to lick her face and clothes so I wouldn't have to wash so many burp cloths.

2. No, not me. I would not be so cheap as to spray paint the flowers on some white shoes that Addelynn is going to wear in a picture this week instead of spending five dollars so she has white shoes for her picture. No, not me.

3. No, not us. Mark and I would definitely not forget the diaper bag at home when we dropped off Addelynn for our date night. And we definitely would not make our friend drive to our house to pick up the diaper bag so we can still make it to our movie on time. We are definitely more responsible parents than that.

4. No, not me. I would not yell at my husband for being a "softie" and going in to get Adde when she is screaming in her crib. She needs to learn how to comfort herself. And I would certainly not yell at my husband a few moments later when he leaves Adde in her bouncy seat while she is crying. No, not me. I never send mixed messages about parenting nor tell Mark how he should be a parent.

Hopefully you've enjoyed those real glimpses into what being a mom is like for me.