I kinda like this every-other-month thing. We have had a wonderful last two months as a family of three. Addie absolutely loved everything about Halloween, including picking out pumpkins, Howloweenie at Pawpaw's work, visiting Pumpkinville at the Myriad Gardens, going to Storybook Forest at Lake Arcadia (thank goodness that was a hit since we waited for over an hour to get in!), the Fall Festival at our church and, of course, trick-or-treating Halloween night. She was the cutest little kitty you ever have seen (complete with a black and pink glittery tutu ... remind me never to make a glittery tutu again). Her favorite part was having her nose and whiskers drawn on her face each time. She didn't so much care about eating any of the candy (unless it was a lollipop), just collecting a lot of it. Which was fine with her pregnant momma.
While this girl of ours has gone to a few OSU tailgates in her little life, she's never been inside the stadium. Until this fall. She LOVED the game, especially watching and cheering for Bullet. She's still quite suspicious of Pete (I no like him. He has a big head. He scares me a little bit.) And she did not love sitting right next to the cannon. But she cried and cried when we left at halftime. Love that she's totally already a Cowgirl! And she even loves watching her Pokes on TV, although it's seriously a bummer that they never show Bullet during home games (thankfully Grammie remedies that by sending videos from the stadium.)
We finished up her gymnastics class in October, where she seriously made some awesome progress. I can't wait to enroll her again when our lives calm down a little bit.
She loved all the prep for Thanksgiving, but didn't so much care for any of the food. We did make some super cute turkey cupcakes that she quite enjoyed.
And she is ecstatic about Christmas. She loves all the lights and decorations.We had a fabulous time on my birthday going to eat pizza and taking her to see the Chesapeake lights and an awesome house with lights set to music. She was awestruck when Santa sent her her very own elf (who she immediately named Coco) and has been doing a great job teaching him about Jesus and being kind to others (our take on the elf, rather than the naughty/nice list).
The funniest and most exasperating part about the last two months have been Addie's turning into The Negotiator. Which really doesn't mean she is negotiating - it means she tells us exactly what's going to happen, rather than using her "listening ears." She also like to tell me, "Mommy, use your nice voice." To which I typically respond, "If you'd use those listening ears, I would be better able to use my nice voice."
Tomorrow she officially becomes a big sister. We are anxious and excited, and of course very concerned about how our sweet girl is going to react once this baby boy gets here. We covet prayers that the transition goes (mostly) smoothly! We can't wait to share this Christmas with TWO sweet babies!
Weight: 26 pounds
Length: ~32 inches
New things:
- LOTS of using the potty. Which in no way shape or form means she's potty-trained. She does go several times a day, be typically we have to initiate it. She has been having more dry diapers, which is encouraging. She has also used the potty at school, which is awesome. But she also likes to stand right next to me and declare that she's peeing or pooping in her diaper. So we're not really there yet.
- Doing a great job sleeping in her big girl bed and big girl room. No more rolling out of the bed in the middle of the night. But occasional requests to sleep in mommy's bed if she does wake in the night.
- Special phrases coined by The Negotiator. "I just do this for a little bit first" in response to being told it's time for nap/bed/leaving. "I do this a lot a lot a lot of times" when being told to do something one more time before nap/bed/leaving. This one comes with a waving hand motion right in the face of whoever she's talking to.
- Calling her daddy "my sweet Daddy"
- Saying "You my favorite/I love you best in the whole live world."
- An imaginary friend named Coco. And calling just about everyone and everything Coco. Including her new elf from Santa.
- Continuing to use her amazing imagination and play by herself even more.
- Recognizing letters of the alphabet, especially A is for Addie, D is for Daddy and M is for Mommy. Quite impressive.
Likes:
- Going to Hobby Lobby to see the Christmas trees.
- Playing train. Her Daddy recently got his old Brio train set out of the attic and she has literally playing with it every day since.
- Playing with her Little People nativity. And adding her nativity characters to my nativity.
- Helping with the advent candles. My favorite is that when we light the candles, she immediately wants to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and then blow it out.
- Blowing out candles in general. And singing Happy Birthday.
- Checking out the moon at night if it's not too cold. Or looking for it in the morning.
- Christmas lights viewing. Even if it's just the lights on our own house.
- Watching Christmas movies.
- Watching the snow. Playing in the snow.
- Playing chase. Playing hide and seek.
- Going to the library.
- Helping me cook or bake. Or even better, helping Grammie cook or bake.
- Helping Grammie garden.
- Watching her Cowboys or her "Thunders" on TV.
- Coloring. Painting.
- Being told what to do.
- Not being in control.
