Warmish

 
 
Anthony took Addie outside in the garden today for a few pictures. He was so excited that she sat on the bench so well. I was so excited that there were no injuries! The weather was really nice yesterday and today...almost warm! Anthony took a picture of Addie and I yesterday before church too. I should have had him take one after. I guess it got warmer than the maintenance people were prepared for or something...it was insanely warm in our building. I think Addie has my hot gene. Her little cheeks were bright red and she was so sweaty. If I hadn't had to teach I think we would have just left...I have my priorities! Either way, by the end of church we were both a sweaty mess & Addie was barely dressed. At least everyone got a good laugh out of her chubby rolls! Brent and Holly could not stop staring at the dimples on her knees. So funny.

Silence

 
The past few days have been full of this image here. Addie has her pacifier in ALL the time. Even when I take it out, she picks it back up and pops it in. Her poor little mouth has been hurting her so much. Here she is watching Signing Time with her upside down pacifier. The only thing that lets me know she's enjoying herself is that she wiggles her right foot to the music. So sad!

Smile!

 
For anyone who needed a smile today, I thought I'd share!

Eating is Better With Teeth

 
Adeline cut both bottom teeth this week. She's been pretty needy about it, but she won't mind being able to sink her teeth into food soon I'm sure. In celebration of the new teeth, we let her try out a glazed donut today. Yeah right, this is a frozen bagel that she likes to chew on. It looked like a donut in the picture though, so I had to at least throw it out there. With the new teeth some new expressions have arrived, mostly involving the tongue, and new noises. I got a few "la la las" and "ba ba bas" today. I use to think it was ridiculous for anyone to take note of the fact that their kids were using consonants, but I've read that babies much younger than her can do it so I was starting to brace myself for speech lessons. Phew! Good thing we got that milestone out of the way.

Sailing into Spring?

 
 
 
Since Anthony is pining for a sailboat I just couldn't pass up this little sailor dress. Plus, the novelty of Addie's blue eyes (we both have brown) makes it fun to put her in blue. The first two pictures are just her playing with her mirror...one of her favorite things to do. It's so funny when she looks in the mirror (pic #1). She gets up so close and stares at herself. Anthony was really proud of himself for catching the last shot. No, she cannot stand on her own. Somehow he managed to prop her up while I was out of the room and get this shot. The series of pictures he took even includes gradual shots of her falling...OBVIOUSLY I was out of the room. Crazy man.

Anthony got to watch Adeline yesterday while I taught New Testament. It was her naptime, so he swaddled her and layed her on the floor in an empty classroom. Then he and Brent sat out in the hall talking it up while she snoozed. He thought he was pretty clever. Hmmm...such sacrifice!

Tell me what you really think!

First Time for Everything

I ventured out on Wednesday for the first time with Addie in the stroller and Simon on the leash (for those of you who may not know...Simon is a dog, not an older child.) It could have been a disaster since everyone and their dog (Ha!) was out enjoying the sunshine which usually provokes Simon into a lot of barking and chasing. It went really well. Simon exhausted himself pulling us for about 3/4 of the trip. Then at the end he just tried to walk fast enough with his little tongue wagging to stay out of the wheel path. Addie really enjoyed watching him run ahead though so we'll definitely be doing it again. She just held onto her chubby feet in the air and cooed.

On Tuesday as I was changing Addie's disgusting diaper, for the first time ever...she reached her sweet little hand down and grabbed the yucky diaper. I was barely keeping everything contained as it was and then she did that. All I could do was laugh. Luckily this was her pre-bath diaper change, so we were on our way out of those clothes anyway. I'd heard this would one day happen...

This week I had to turn on our air conditioner for the first time in about six months. This led to a really intelligent conversation between Anthony and I. Last week we got a new furnace. The big green metal box that had previously occupied space in our utility room was replaced with a small shiny metal box that was about half the size. The only other thing you can see near the unit is the ductwork. When I saw it, I halfway wondered to myself, "Where is the air conditioner?" I quickly moved on to another thought assuming that the nice man who replaced the furnace would have let me know if he took my air conditioner.

Yes, the air conditioner did turn on when I ran it this week so that was all good. It was just funny when I mentioned to Anthony that it got hot enough to turn it on because he looked at me and said, "Did it work?" I smiled and said, "Ha! You were wondering where it was too!!" We both enjoyed a little laugh over our how clueless we were and decided it's all fine as long as that invisible air conditioner can cool the house. :)

La La La!

Here are just a few clips of Addie playing. She loves to lay back on the boppy and shreak, so if you are wondering what she's doing...that's it! She'll do it for at least 10 minutes at a time. There are also some with her phone and some new toys that Nana bought her.

Wedded Bliss

Five years ago today Anthony and I were married so I thought I'd recount a few points of interest.

A few things that we've done in these five years:

Children: 1 PERFECT Child, Adeline Park :)

Pets: 1 Not-So-Perfect Dog, Simon

Places Lived: College Station, Texas
Temple, Texas
Iowa City, Iowa (Wow are we boring??)

Vacations: Banff, Alberta, Canada
La Jolla, California
New York City, New York x 2
Mayan Riviera x 2
Minneapolis, Minnesota x 2
Nashville, Tennessee
Chicago, Illinois x 2
Park City, Utah

Outdated Cell Phones: 5

Cars Owned: 4

Car Accidents: 3 (Julie 2, Anthony 1 with a pole)

Jobs: 5 (Julie 4, Anthony 1)

Friends: Too many to count!

Here's to another fabulous 50 plus...and the ambulance siren waking up my baby!

Warm Woolen Mittens

 
 
 
Our friend Tiffany sent this red turtleneck and gloves to Addie for Christmas and I'm finally getting a picture posted of them! Several weeks ago I took a ton of really cute photos in this outfit only to realize after undressing her and putting her down for a nap that there had been no memory card in my camera. I know, there is usually a message to that effect when you turn on the camera. I think the process of staging the picture and getting everything ready somehow distracted me.
Addie's been teething this week and while her extra crying is not great, tonight for the second night in a row she let me rock her to sleep. I really can't remember the last time that happened. She is such a good baby, but when it's time for bed she wants to be in her bed. It was so nice to just chill in the rocker with her. I must say, there wasn't much risk of me falling asleep (which would have been really great) while I rocked her the way I used to because it takes so much effort to hold her big self up now! I'll just take what I can get.

Parenting Tip

So, being the new parent among a lot of experienced parents, I don't often have any advice of value to add to a conversation. As of last night, however, I now have a tidbit of information that some may find valuable: It is a smart idea to always make sure your cell phone is not in your baby's crib when you put them to bed. Yes, I'm sure many of you never thought of that so I thought I'd share.

Last night before Mom and I went to bed I was trying to find my phone. I have the alarm set on it and I didn't want to be waking up anyone at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday so I had her call me to find it. Even while Mom was ringing my phone I couldn't hear it ringing. I continued looking and then it dawned on me that the sweatshirt I was wearing has a tendency to drop things when I lean over to put Addie to bed. I went to the video monitor and turned it on. Sure enough, there she was smiling and bouncing around. I'm sure she was really excited to hear my ring and thought it was time to play. When I went in her room to get it and give her a pacifier she was just kicking her legs and smiling. It was so funny. I felt so dumb! I left the room and went to my bed where I sat and watched her eventually stop bouncing and smiling to suck her pacifier and go back to sleep. What a little angel.

Yesterday we took Addie to the photo place in the mall to get some pictures taken. It was really fun. The first thing we did was some nudes in a little clawfoot bathtub with little rubber ducks. She just smiled away and had so much fun. Then I put this cute gauzy white dress on her and a straw hat. I thought for sure those pictures would be my favorite but the bathtub ones were just too good. We have fun taking pictures here all the time, but this lady was so good at getting her to smile into the camera. We'll definitely be doing that again. If anyone wants to see the pics, just email me and I'll send you the link.