A Tribute to Simon

We made a final move in a long debated decision about our Yorkie Simon this week and took him to Texas with us to a new home. I'm still in Texas and Anthony flew back today to an empty house with no Simon. So sad. So here's my tribute to a great dog who was just a little too energetic and stubborn for our growing family.

We got Simon in October of 2004, almost four months after moving to Iowa. I missed Texas, wanted a baby, couldn't find a job, and Anthony was working all the time. In came Simon and there was something to smile about! He and I went everywhere together, and that first month while Anthony worked every night Simon snuggled me in the bed. We'd had him like 2 nights when he came down with kennel cough and his entire little 2.5 lb body would convulse as he coughed. Of course it happened at night when Anthony was gone and I was scared I was going to loose my new little baby so I rushed him to the pet hospital. A few hundred dollars later I was home with an antibiotic and a cough suppressant (how funny is that??) One trip to the pet hospital and you feel a true connection!

Before Addie was born I asked Anthony if I would love her as much as I loved Simon. Naturally, this is very humorous now because he has gotten the "boot", but that is just how much I love him. Somehow in the past 10 months, Simon's barking and constant need to go outside (we have no yard so this requires a leash) his presence has become primarily a nuisance to me and I didn't want things to be like that anymore. He deserves better and I didn't want to have an unnecessary reason for Addie to see me annoyed.

It will be a long time until we have another pet because it has been so hard to see Simon go. To give an idea of how spoiled good ole Simon is, he has a bed on 3 out of our 4 floors, his own carseat (he actually outgrew it, but this thing sat on the console of my car so he could sit up and see out of the windshield. It was so cute!), 7-8 sweaters (1 A&M of course), a winter coat with matching boots, a designer dog bowl, several holiday neck "scarves", more pictures than the average dog owner has of their dog and many many toys. His favorite toy was always this little plush squeaky duck which we would simply replace every few months when it was falling apart. This week I bought Addie a duck toy. I think I was missing Simon. Now we have to do something with all the STUFF!

On the upswing, Simon has been adopted by a nice family in Waco, Texas so we can rest assured he is in the right place. His new home has another Yorkie by the name of Fibi, so he will be hanging out with Fibi now and that should be great for him. These are two of my favorite pictures of him. One when he was such a tiny little puppy sleeping on my bed and the other of him doing his favorite thing in the winter - sunbathing!

Emmyloo

22 Things I Love About My Sister

Emily is 22 today & I know she loves the blog lists so I thought I'd do one for HER!

1. Her laugh!
2. People say we look EXACTLY alike which we find funny because she has gorgeous blue eyes and brown hair.
3. She has GORGEOUS blue eyes - and so does Addie, so that's a pretty cool link!
4. She loves loud trucks.
5. She loves to garden and decorate with flowers.
6. I can make her day with a basket full of fresh tomatoes.
7. She's a terrible liar.
8. She is not too proud to say "never mind" - like the time she begged to go to Tijuana and as soon as we got there and she saw how trashy it was, she asked if we could leave!
9. She bears the brunt of being youngest SO well!
10. She lets us tease her about the same thing over and over again. :) (Like Paris!)
11. She has big dreams!
12. Her nieces and nephews think she hung the moon.
13. She's not too timid to admit she doesn't want to do something.
14. She is a great listener.
15. She is true to her friends.
16. When she was little she would always jump in my bed at night and move around real fast to warm it up for me!
17. She makes cool quilts.
18. She makes really cool cakes - just a regular Martha!
19. She barely even has to try to get a great tan...not fair!
20. Per Anthony - She makes her husband fried chicken which he thinks is the coolest!
21. She has a witty sense of humor acquired through many years of teasing from Grandad!
22. She can light up any family event with her smile!

Blue Baby

 

Killing Time

 

We took Addie outside tonight to kill some time before bed. Anthony had some fun throwing her around. It was so pretty this weekend we were outside as much as possible trying to soak it up. 6 days till Texas! :)

Whiny Baby

We went to an anesthesia gathering this afternoon and Addie met Anthony's coworker's baby Mia. She's been pretty whiny from teeth bugging her today so we couldn't get a good photo, but I thought this one was a pretty good shot of Mia looking at Addie like "what's your problem?"

Waves, Cheerios, and Claps for Mom!

Happy Mother's Day to ME! Ahhhhh, after 28 Mother's Days of going to church and listening to everyone oooh and ahhh about moms, then give gifts to the moms (& sometimes the leftovers to the non-moms) I had my first Mother's Day. No complaints about the former really...It was always a good day full of reminiscence about my very cool mom, but it's also nice to have another day in the year to celebrate myself! (I've probably totally missed the point.)

At the doctor's appointment on Friday, some of the many questions they asked me about Addie included whether or not she clapped or waved goodbye yet. Since my answer was "no" I was concerned about this. On a side note, I leave the pediatrician's office most of the time feeling like I barely passed and I'm lucky their going to let me keep her. Anthony says this is because there are so many stupid people who have children that they have to run everyone through the works. Anyway, determined to not let my child fall behind we worked on both things Friday and Saturday. Sure enough, at lunch Addie started saying "hey" and waving non stop. Then, in the middle of sacrament meeting she decided she was ready to clap. It was pretty funny. We were just sitting there paying attention until Anthony noticed some commotion to our left. Turns out Addie was entertaining everyone. She'd clap for a while and then wave and say "hey." We had to try hard to hold in our nerdy excitement over her little achievement right there in the middle of the meeting.

She also started munching on Cheerios this weekend, which she loves. The faces she makes while she's trying to chew them are pretty funny so I had to post some.

Running Wild

 

I got a jogging stroller this week and thought I'd break it in on Wednesday. This picture of Addie is a good one to describe my experience. It has been about 18 months since I last ran. I still weigh about 10 pounds more than I did the time I ran and I was pushing 47 pounds. What was I thinking would happen?? My stroller has an odometer on it, which is really cool but I didn't get it working properly until halfway into our "outing" (can't call the whole thing a run or a walk...). I figured that I ran maybe one mile cumulatively and came close to the 1/2 mile mark all together. Once I stopped there was not much motivation to start again. You'd think that I would be totally defeated by this, seeing as the last time I ran I was averaging 25 miles a week. Instead, as I pushed the stroller up the last hill on the way home I thought about how boring it would be if it had been easy. There would be no mastery in that, no challenge, nothing to urge me to push forward and keep trying.

This afternoon I took the new stroller out for a WALK along a path we walk often with the odometer on so that I could see how far it was. I confirmed that I had actually made it to the 1 mile mark of all running on Wednesday, which I did not realize. So I actually did more like 1.5 cumulatively. :) This motivated me so much that after I put Addie down for bed tonight I went out for a much lighter jog. This was still only 1.5 miles but hey, a girl's gotta start somewhere! I'll be sticking to 1.5 to 2 mile runs for a while until I'm conditioned. I think Addie likes the stroller too. I can plug the iPod into it and it plays music on some small speakers so she can jam while she rides. It's pretty cute. I'm sure the people we pass are really impressed with our childrens' music. I actually like the Jack Johnson "Curious George" soundtrack we listened to today. It's hip kids' tunes.

We went to the pediatrician today. For all of Addie's fans who obsess over her chubbiness...she weighed in at 25 lbs today and she is 29 inches long. She's still off the charts on the weight & 90th for height. The doctor confirmed that she looks GREAT and that there is not a weight problem and that NO I should not put my baby on a diet. So there...

Future Basketball Great

In addition to being taller than all the babies her own age, Addie can palm just about anything. One of these pictures has her gripping her sippy cup with her little tiny hand. It's like her hands have suction or something. I think she has a great future in basketball...that is if the "culture" of women's basketball turns back around from what it was becoming when I left high school and again becomes a respectable sport for feminine girls who like to go on dates with boys. If things in that area don't change, well, I guess she'll be a great tennis player, golfer, or runner! Anthony has a highly unusual 3-day weekend this weekend. I think he's going to get the baby gates up, so life as we know it will now be over until we leave this house in a year. So sad.

Jailbird

 
Let's see if the Picasa-Blogger relationship works for me this time...I've been getting complaints that photos are not showing up. We'll see. Here's how I found Addie when I got out of the shower this morning. It's so funny when she does this and I was glad I finally had a camera handy. She wasn't crying or unhappy, just happily playing with her toys. She knows that as soon as the shower turns off I'll be coming around the corner though so she always starts looking for me. I love it when she gets the pig nose. Ironically, there are pigs on her PJs here too.

I had to clean my house tonight because I procrastinated earlier in the week. The weather was too nice to stay in and clean. While I was cleaning, I could hear my neighbor singing. Strange. She doesn't strike me as a particularly musical person or the kind who would just be rocking out by herself. This got me wondering about what she can here ME doing! I know my former neighbor (Sarah!) reads this, so if you've heard anything particularly embarrassing please do not feel the need to share. Most of my singing takes place in the car anyway so no major worries there aside from the occasional chance I get caught in the act. That's no big deal these days though, you can just hold up your cell phone and pretend you were on speaker or something! :)

Spring into Summer

Finally, for the last 2 days of April it actually seemed like Spring here...just in time for Summer to roll in. I seriously thought I was going to lose my mind if it rained another day. Sunday was so pretty, so we took the opportunity for some outside pictures with Addie. Anthony never gets the chance to take pictures of her since he's been working like crazy lately. I thought he got some pretty cute shots.

We're still trying to recover from our travels. Addie has been waking up between 3 and 5 a.m. for about a week. Since 12 hours of sleep has been pretty much the norm since she was 3 months old, I have not been too excited about the step backwards. Yesterday I decided to put the bumper on her crib so she can't play with the slats when she wakes up (she likes to run her hands up and down them) and I did my own variation on many sources of advice and put a sippy cup of water in her crib. I don't know if my solutions are permenant, but I got a full nights rest last night (aside from Anthony waking me up before he left this morning to ask if Addie had slept through the night...???) which was so good. Half of the water was gone, so I'm thinking that was a good move. Now Anthony wants to install a video camera in her room so that he can see how she entertains herself in the middle of the night.

As I alluded to above, she's finally grasped the concept of the sippy cup. When we were in Texas I caught her sipping on Emma's cup, so I went out and purchased the same brand. After a week of just chewing on it and swinging it around in her mouth with no hands she finally took a drink. While we were in Texas Nana also gave her some cheese, which she loved, so I've started giving her some cheese with her meals. Yesterday she was scarfing it so fast she sounded like a little piggy. We'll be working on manners asap.

Motion Picture

Here's the latest video footage of Adeline. In a lot of the clips she is squealing at Simon (the dog.)

More Texas Pictures

Just a few more pictures here to round out our trip. What would a good trip be without a diaper shot? Don't make too much fun of the gut. I'm loving the warmer weather clothes like tee shirts that slip up when I'm holding Addie. That belly is so soft!
The picture of Addie and Porter is the only decent shot I got of her at the Children's Museum. I love the last picture. Emma is being cute for the camera and Addie is eating her shoe. Hmmm... :)

Nana Daycare

Nana was playing daycare a little yesterday. The uniforms are not required, but sure are cute. You can't see it, but in the third picture Emma is holding Addie's phone up to her ear. Pretty cute.

A Day at the Beach

The weather was so nice when we got up yesterday morning that we decided to go down to the beach in Galveston. So Nana, Pops, Me, Addie, Lori, and the twins hopped in the motor home and went out for some fun in the sun. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Mike and Shaela met us there with their kids and that afternoon Amber and JD showed up with a bucket of chicken...Classy & Healthy! Luckily Dan was able to cut out of school stuff early and join us too. I think it was worth it.

All of the kids enjoyed themselves in the sand. Addie was happy just hanging in her play pen with some toys in the shade. I can't think of anything else we could have done here that would have been more fun. If only Anthony could have been there...

Bath Time!

We are having some fun here at Nana's house this week with Lori and the twins. Today we went to the Houston Children's Museum. Addie got a little spooked on the way there, so she was wimpy for most of the trip, but Annie and Chloe seemed to really enjoy themselves. The only part Addie liked was this neat little stream outside that had rubber ducks in it that would float with the current. Lori and I had to jump at the opportunity for this bath picture tonight. I'm so glad we did! The twins love "baby Addie." They are great about entertaining her. Yes, for those of you that are wondering...Addie does weigh the same amount as the twins that are 18 months older than them! When I sat Annie in the tub I was shocked to see that Addie was truly wider than she is! She has such potential!

Countdown to Crawling?

I'm not sure if it is all the people around to watch her while she plays in the floor or if it is all the large carpeted spaces in my family members' homes, but this girl is getting closer to crawling every day. That stomach seems to get in her way. Dad better get those baby gates up!

Tired Baby

We are in College Station and it has been so fun to catch up with both friends and family. I think we've seen almost everyone there is to see for this trip: Grandma and Grandad Clarkson, Mary Lynn, Mike & Shaela, Matthew, Katie, Porter, Dan & Amber, JD, Emily & Luke, Tilly, Joe and Melissa, Emma, Chris & Jamie, Dave & Serena, Bob and Sun, Gramma Berg & Ann...phew! Tonight we'll see Lori, Annie, and Chloe Blad. Busy Busy!

Addie seemed to really like seeing Emma yesterday. I sat her on the couch next to her yesterday to watch "Signing Time" and she just stared at Emma. Then she tried to touch her which she never does. She's really coming out of her shell with all of these people around. What a rude awakening she'll have next week when it's just the two of us again!

Addie has been so good about traveling too, despite some difficult teething nights. She's pretty tuckered out today. Luckily we're driving back to Houston today and maybe she can start catching up on her rest before we fly to Iowa on Friday! Luke took this picture yesterday morning before church. It was chillier than expected so I just left Addie in her jammies for the morning. He also got a really cute video, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to blog it from Emily's computer. Maybe I'll get it up tomorrow. I think she likes Luke. Or maybe it's the camera she likes...she really smiled it up for him.

Take Two

Last night we played "Take Two" (also known as Speed Scrabble) at Nana's House. It was really funny. Granny tried for a while, and just got frustrated. Then we convinced Pops to play and things got pretty funny. His first round out while we were all adding up our scores he sadly said, "All I've got is 'me' two ways!" It was hard not to laugh at the irony of my dad spelling two of his favorite words. :)

Basking in the Sun

We are having so much fun here in Houston! Both days we've been here it has been sunny and warm. So nice! Plus, we've gotten to have lunch with the cousins (except Emma!) both days which was really cool too. Addie loves being out and about. It's such a change from our ordinary life. She also loves the big carpeted living room at Nana's house. I just sit her down there with some toys and she is happy as a clam for at least 30 minutes. She doesn't crawl yet, but she manages to scoot herself all over the floor on her bum.

This weekend we'll go to Bayou Bend to see Serena, Sun, and Bob. Then we'll head up to College Station until Monday morning. When we get back here on Monday, the Blads will be joining us for a few days. So much to do...so little time! I love this picture of Addie and Pops. They are pals.

Hairdo Queen

 

I realize it's a little early to be trying to fix this girl's hair, but I just had to try. I'll wait a few more weeks and try again! :)

Anthony is starting his nights rotation tonight so I'm catching up on my blogging while I watch AMC's "Shirley it's Easter" Shirley Temple marathon. I'm hooked! At least it isn't "Stepmom." Seems like every other time he works at night that movie is on and Anthony will call to see how I'm doing right in the middle of Susan Sarandon making a quilt out of her children's photographs. I'm choking up just thinking about it...

Happy Easter!

 

Our Easter Sunday was a pretty good one despite the cold weather. I had to put an extra onesie under Addie's Easter dress because it was too cold for her but she still looked pretty cute. She was a little bowhead today and she handled it well.

 

The picture of our Easter table setting was definitely worth posting. Not because I'm so proud of my decorating skills but because I love that my husband knows me well enough to take pictures of the table setting on holidays. I laughed when I went to upload Addie's pictures and found this.

 

Anthony said I have to add some details on our interesting meal. The food was excellent. Steak & Salmon prepared by Brent and Anthony on the grill. Yummmmm. We had an array of good fresh veggies to go with it and some good bread. There was a twist to the event, however, because Holly invited a former Vietnamese coworker of hers and her significant other (named An?) who brought her five year old daughter and unexpectedly a one of her friend's daughters (who did not speak English). The meal was awkward at best.

An was a complete stick in the mud. I was making do with the lame conversation, but I got really thrown when he complimented me on the butter. Yes, the butter. "Wow, this butter is so good!" Like I made it or something? Then a conversation commenced about whether it was salted or unsalted and what brand it was. Of course I didn't know the brand, so Anthony tried to remember whether it was store brand or the one with the Indian lady on it. I was thinking..."Are we REALLY having this conversation?" If that doesn't paint the picture, nothing will.

 

Addie's expression says it all!

Polly Want a Cracker?

 

I gave Addie a baby cracker today. I think the pictures tell it all...she loved them!

Precious Sunshine

 Today we had about 3 hours of sunshine that was sooooo needed. It has been gray for almost an entire week and I'm on the verge of snapping! Today we had a little window of sunshine that was just enough to get a walk in and a few pictures. Grandma Sun is here visiting from Palestine so Addie has been having fun with her. Since we have seen so little of the sun this year, Addie always squints when she is outside so I bought her some shades. She doesn't mind them, but when she's in her stroller looking all around they get knocked off. I guess we'll have to reserve them for laying out by the pool. :) I love this picture of her and Sun...she smiles so hard sometimes! Funny girl.