Addison Mae - 17 months

Christmas with my girl was absolutely magical. Despite illness continuing into December, Addie did get to go back to school for a few days before Christmas break, where she made some very cute Christmas crafts. Probably my favorite pre-Christmas activity was a pizza and Christmas lights date with my two favorite people. Addie was enchanted by the Chesapeake lights, and pretty much anywhere we went that had any sort of Christmas lights. Her reaction was always a very enthusiastic, "LIGHTS!! LIGHTS!!! LIGHTS!!!!" She also loved that while parked watching a cool lights/music display in Mesta Park, her dad put her on his shoulders and let her watch out the sun roof. It's a miracle we got her to go to bed that night. We all went a little haywire for Christmas ... this sweet girl got more gifts than we know what to do with (don't tell her I've already given some away to a youth shelter in need of gifts for their kiddos!). She seriously loved everything she opened (though the wrapping and bows and boxes may still be the best part). She also loved the approximately one million cookies I made over the Christmas holiday. Guess she's got my sweet tooth after all. She enjoyed shrieking and playing with her sweet friend Daisy during Christmas Eve service (and had her first communion, and then asked for more ... that's gotta be a good thing, right???). Addie really loved playing with cousins Jackson and Audrey, Julia and Lila, and Averey and Landon over the holidays and talks about all of them pretty much every day. She was really excited to go back to school this week and had been asking about a few of her friends and especially her teachers for quite awhile. She is such a big girl, with lots of strong opinions about lots of things. She loves to say no (even when she means yes), loves music, loves watching either Elmo or football on TV, loves to laugh and play jokes, loves her dog and cat, loves the Ipad, loves making up games with her dad and me ... she just loves life.

Weight: 20 lbs 6 oz
Length: 29 1/2 inches

New things this month:

• Oh the talking! She's saying lots more multiple word phrases ... I love you, good girl (usually about the dog, sometimes herself :)), more milk please mama/dada, bless you (when anyone else sneezes, and especially when she sneezes), up please, thank you, no Addie (which means no, that's not yours, that's Addie's)
• And lots more precious words ... some of my favorites are happy (which she usually says happy, happy, happy, happy :)), gentle, tickle, pizza, apple, yellow, pancake, boobies (blueberries :)), truck, reindeer, play, snow, pillow, touchdown!!! (complete with arm motions), ride (insistently when she wants to go in the wagon or her Cozy Coupe), lots more animal names, rather than just their noises, which all suddenly end in -y ... mousey, ducky, horsey, kitty; the whole Sesame Street gang (her new favorites are Took, Cookie Monster, Ee-aww, Ernie, and Mousey, Abby). She can also name everyone in her immediate family ... all grandparents (my mom is officially mama), aunts/uncles, cousins.
• Singing. Her favorites songs to sing (in her words) are row, row, row; itty bitty (Itsy Bitsy Spider), ashes ashes (Ring Around the Rosey), wee wee wee (This Little Piggy), B-D-B-D (ABCs) 
• Slightly less of an obsession about the paci ... perhaps someday we'll be able to get rid of it.
• Gagging herself when she's super mad. What?! This often results in throwing up ... and she's totally doing it to get our attention when she's mad about being in time out, mad about going to bed, mad about not getting her way. She also gagged herself at the doctor and threw up all over him (that was kinda funny). Yes, she's a drama queen.
• Sleeping a little better at night. Which is totally because she's finally feeling better. And finally responding (sort of) to crying it out and putting herself to sleep again. Thank the Lord. It's been a rough two (or three?) months of not much sleep.

Likes:

• Christmas lights. If that wasn't obvious above.
• Receiving Christmas cards. Bless all of you who sent them. She's obsessed with getting the mail every day and the idea that there were fun cards with pictures of people was just over the top. Her favorites were those that she really recognized - like she was so surprised to see them in the mail. Tops were her Aunt Rebecca, Uncle Jeff and cousins Julia and Lila (the card is distorted from all the carrying around and kissing she's done to it), her sweet friend Stella (Hi Stella!) and our friends the Crawfords with 7 month old twins (babies!! babies!!).
• Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse (aka Mick)
• Her new kitchen. She is so into stirring and makes the most precious pouring, shaking and stirring noises while she's playing. She likes a big audience while she "cooks" - mommy, daddy, Izzy, Mia, Elmo and Ernie are required to be present for "tasting" and making appropriate tasting noises
• Her finally finished playroom. She says to us "Play! Play" and drags us by the hand to her playroom. Usually because she wants to play kitchen

• She's having a delightful time going from one new toy to the next. Loves her talking/signing Elmo; her Little People zoo, bus and car track; basketball goal; Cozy Coupe (and she prefers having a "phone," drink, blocks and/or stuffed animal in to ride with her), doctor kit (we get lots of check ups), Legos (which mostly she likes to dump everywhere) and on and on and on
• Her nesting and stacking blocks are one of her absolute favorite things right now. We do lots of nesting and stacking. In general, she likes to organize things in containers.
• Stickers and coloring. There is some slight hilarity that she calls stickers "dick dicks" 
• Making up games. She has several she calls "night night." One involves Jordan or me pretending to be asleep, one involves putting babies/stuffed animals to sleep (which actually has nothing to do with the babies, whom she flings about, but rather organizing their blankets) and one involves getting on our bed and getting tickled (her favorite)

Dislikes:

• Potatoes. Who doesn't like potatoes?
• Not getting her way. Time outs. Going to bed. Not being the center of attention (see the note about gagging above)