Walking!

So the big news for the week: MONTHS after her first steps, Addison is FINALLY walking! I still wouldn't call it her main mode of transportation, but she's doing it a LOT more now. I think the reason she finally decided to walk is because she likes the idea of being able to hold something in her hands and get from point A to point B.

Thanksgiving, Polkadot shoes, Bye Bye, and BAWT!

Okay, so I am way behind! But it's been a busy couple of weeks.

First of all we had a great time with Bart's family for Thanksgiving. Bart's sister made these cute little pilgrim's hats out of marsh mellows, cookies, and chocolate. Addison loved that...come to think of it, I think that's all she ate at the actual Thanksgiving meal. She got it ALL over her face! It was pretty cute though.

Addison LOVED Bart's aunt's dog, Bear. She would hold her hand out, Bear would lick it, she'd squeal and pull her hand back, laugh, and then hold it out for Bear to lick again. It was so stinking cute!!!

We went and got a Christmas tree with Bart's family. It's the first real time Addison has been out in the cold for an extended period of time. We were worried that she wouldn't keep her hat on (she hates hats) but she did a pretty good job.

The only bad thing about Thanksgiving is that Addison had a terrible cough. There were several times that she coughed so hard she threw up. Of coarse she was her usual happy giggly self right before and after, but it sure was messy to clean up. I took her to the Doctor on Monday, and they said it's probably just some cold she got. They said it may be allergies too, so they gave us some allergy medicine. I'm not sure if she got over it on her own, or if it was the allergy medicine, but she's doing a lot better now.

The main reason I didn't post last week was because I was working on Christmas presents. Bart and I are finally done. Well, we need to like deliver candy and stuff to friends, but other than that we're done. YAY!!!

Addison has somehow acquired a taste for fashion...well, shoe fashion anyway. Last Saturday while we were Christmas shopping we went to Payless and she grabbed these pink polka dot air walks, and refused to let them go. When I took them away from her so that the lady could ring them up she was not happy with me. We put them on her as soon as we got out of the store.

They are really cute. When she's not wearing them, she's trying to put them on her feet. It really is cute, and I'm happy she's wanting to wear shoes now...but the cute factor was somewhat diminished when she threw a fit when I wouldn't let her wear them with her Red and black scotty dog dress to church. Oh well, at least she now has shoes she'll wear.

Addison totally knows how to say bye bye now. Whenever she or someone else is leaving, she waves and says, "Bye Bye." Which really sounds more like "ba ba," but eventually she'll learn her Y's.

Addison also loves to pretend to talk on the phone. She'll grab the phone, put it to her mouth, talk into it, then had it to me. I put it to my ear, say, "Hello, yes she is here, just a sec....Addison, it's for you," and give the phone back to her and the whole sequence starts over again. Ironically, when I try to get her to talk to real people on the phone she just smiles or opens her mouth real big like she's surprised and refuses to make a peep. Kids!

Last week, Bart and I finally got our Christmas decorations up. YAY! I do have one more nativity to put up. But other than that we're done.

Addison LOVES picking up things, and giving them to you. Today as I was cleaning out the dishwasher, she crawled over, grabbed a spoon, and gave it to me. So I put it away. Then she grabbed a fork and gave it to me, so I put it away. This continued until we had put all the silver wear away! (I had taken out all the sharp utensils because I saw her coming.) I've decided this is definitely something I am going to encourage!

Today Addison also surprised us all when she was eating breakfast. I was feeding her in her high chair, and Bart came over to feed his frog, so Addison saw him and squealed with delight, "Bart!" (The r was more of a w sound, but the word was unmistakable). Then I was upstairs with Addison and called down to Bart to get me something, and after I had called to him, Addison looked to the door and called, "Bawt.....Bawt....Bawt." Until he answered! Then, at Church during primary Addison was being fairly rowdy, so I let her crawl in the Hall. Bart was teaching a class at the end of the hall and Addison heard his voice, so she bolted for the classroom. I ran to get her, and after I had picked her up she screamed, "BAWT!!!" And threw her head back right into my tooth. It hurt a ton, but fortunately it didn't break skin. Addison cried for a second, and wound up with a little bump, but other than that she was okay. I'm really going to have to start working on calling Bart Dad instead of Bart.

Well, that's it for now. It was a long one, but hopefully it won't be so long before I write again.

Going pantless

Okay, so this will be a quick post, but I just had to write it...so yesterday Addison wore some pants that are a little big for her. When I put her down for her afternoon nap, she just talked and played for quite a while (which is pretty normal).

But then it got to be like an hour and a half, and she was still up talking to her self. This was pretty unusual, and we had to go somewhere so I decided to go up there.When I opened the door there was my little girl, standing on the side of the crib smiling at me, pointing at a book she wanted that she had thrown on the ground... completely naked from the waste down.

She had gotten both her pants and her diaper off, and was just chillin in the buff. No wonder she was so happy for so long. I wanted so badly to run and get the camera, but I knew if I left she'd start crying and usually when she starts crying really hard, she poops. I didn't think it was worth the risk.

Day Care, Bums Up, and Belly Blows

Okay, that picture has absolutely nothing to do with this week, but I didnt' take any pictures, and let's face it, blogs without pictures are just plain boreing. Plus I like that picture of Addison and Bart's dad.... :o)

We made a HUGE change this week. We finally broke down and put Addison in daycare...well, sort of day care. It's basically this lady and her friend, and they do it out of her house, but it's pretty much amazing. I knew Amy was really starting to get overwhelmed, and one day my friend Richelle told me about how her cousin uses this lady to watch her one year old son while she works part time, and she absolutely LOVES her. I guess he was having a hard time crawling, and they really worked with him and got him to crawl.

So, I started looking into it. It was kind of a miracle really. I had known about her for over a month, and was thinking about using her next semester, but I really didn't like the idea of a day care type thing, even if it was in someone's house and very good, so I had put off going to visit and ask questions. Then last week I finally decided that I'd call and set up an appointment to visit either the end of this month or the beginning of next month. I called, and they said, "Well, why don't you come tomorrow." My head said, No, I just want to come at the end of the month, but I heard my mouth say, "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," which was especially crazy because I was really busy the next day and I really hadn't done much research on what to look for in a good day care.

So, I was up late that night researching, and basically everything I read said, this is what you want...but if you're going to be doing family care (i.e. in someone's home), you probably won't get a lot of it. I was like, "Great. Oh well, hopefully they'll have everything else." I went and observed what the kids did for the morning (which is when Addison would be going), and asked them all my questions. And all that stuff they said you wouldn't get in a family care, they had! And so much more!! They have scheduled story, game, art, outside, singing, meal and free times. It was neat, orderly, and clean. They disinfected their toys regularly, and the infant toys daily. They are a registered child care business, so they have to keep up with state standards. All of their workers and subs are licensed and have had background checks, and they keep up to date on the latest child development and care issues by going to training meetings, and even teach some workshops up at UVSC about child care/child development. The babies each have their own rooms to nap in. They will do your bedtime routine with your baby. There have about 7 kids (8 including Addison) ranging in ages from 6 weeks to four and they really try to develop sibling like relationships between them. They Hold and cuddle the babies, they provide age appropriate activities, they pretty much have everything!

I was SOOOOOOOOO impressed. And they had one infant spot left. (Babies are considered infants until age 2). I was praying to know if this was what we should do with Addison, and I just got the greatest feeling! I let them know that we had agreed to pay my sister through the end of the year, so there was a chance that Addison wouldn't be able to start until January. They told me to just let them know as soon as possible.

This was on a Thursday, so I figured I'd talk to Amy about it some time during the weekend and then call them back on Monday. Amy called later that day, and although I wasn't planning on talking about it, I heard myself bring up the subject. Amy said it was okay with her even if we just started her right away and that she could use the extra time. I talked to Bart about it that night, and he thought it was a good idea too. So, on Friday morning I called them back and asked if I could come fill out all the paper work and have her start on Monday. They said to come on over. While I was there, they were telling me that they were really happy I had called back because someone else called right after I left asking if they had an infant opening. They said that they did, but that someone was looking into it so the lady said she'd call back Friday afternoon to see if it had fallen through. So if I had waited until Monday, the opening may not have been there.

The first day was a little hard. They said she cried for about 15 min after I left, but then had a pretty good day, but when I got there she was crying again because they had just put her coat on her and she didn't want it on. The next two days, when I picked up Addison, she was very mellow, and it took me a while to get her back to her normal happy squealey mood. Every day they told me she was doing really well. Eating well, sleeping well, and playing and laughing and everything, but the fact that she either wasn't happy or wasn't herself every time I went to pick her up was leaving me with an uneasy feeling.

On Thursday, on my way home from work I said a little prayer. I asked Heavenly Father to please let me get a good sense of how Addison was really doing there when I picked her up that day. I told him that I knew that we had gotten a confirmation that this is where she should be, but the fact that whenever I picked her up she was either sad or not herself was really bothering me. I begged him to help me feel that reassurance again.

When I got there, everyone was outside playing. Addison was sitting next to one of her friends and one of the Ladies in one of those long swings, and she was as happy as could be! She was laughing and babbling, and grabbing her shoes. Normally I pick her up, ask how she did, say thank you and leave, but today the ladies were especially enthusiastic to tell me how she had done today. One of the Lady's kids was practcing the piano before she left for school that day, so Addison and one of her friends were over there singing and dancing away. She was playing really well with the other kids and loving story time. She was taking two hour naps and never had any problem going down, and she had eaten especially well.

I was so happy! It was such a blatant and immediate answer to my prayers. When I got back in the car I was nearly crying and thanked Heavenly Father for helping me know that Addison was doing well there. I love Heavenly Father! He's so amazing! He seriously is aware of our concerns and needs, and will help us if we ask.

Addison has also learned two new things. The first is Bum's up (sticking her bum in the air and looking through her legs). She's actually been doing it for a while, but whenever you would move to do it back to her, she'd sit down and look at you to see what you were doing before you could look back at her. Well this week I was finally able to look through her legs at her before she sat down, and she though it was the funniest thing ever! It was so cute!

She also learned to do belly blows. She absolutely loves playing with my belly button, so I was laying down and letting her when she opened her mouth like she was giving a kiss, and put it on my belly button. I thought she was trying to kiss my belly button, but then she started to blow! It was so funny, I just started laughing, then she started laughing. Now she thinks it's the funniest thing ever and loves doing it. It's sooooooooooo cute!

As for Bart and I, we are doing well. This new schedule of me working in the mornings is working out well for Bart too. Now he can stay after and get more of his lesson plans done, so he feels like he's more on top of things, then when he comes home we can do things together. I like spending more time with him. It's been a ton of fun.

And it's been nice for me. I used to go to work in the mornings on Mondays and Wednesdays and then in the afternoons on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It's nice to just have the same schedule every day. It's been a lot easier to get into routines, so I feel like I'm getting a lot more done. Plus my day isn't broken up by work. I just get it all out of the way in the morning, and then can do whatever I want for the rest of the day. It's been great!

She Speaks!

And I think she actually understands what she's saying...at least a little bit....okay, maybe she doesn't understand at all, and she's just mimicking, but HEY! AT LEAST SHE'S MIMICKING! :o)

One of her favorite books is "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can you?" In it, there's a section that says, "Boom Boom Boom, Mr. Brown is a wonder. Boom boom boom, Mr. Brown Makes Thunder." Well, Bart noticed that every time he read her that part, after he said, "Boom boom boom" Addison would repeat, "Boom boom boom." Now whenever we say, "Addison, say Boom boom boom." She says, "Boom Boom Boom."

I've also started teaching her a little bit of sign language...well, baby sign language anyway. Whenever it looks like she's done eating (ie she starts throwing stuff over the side of her high chair) I say, "Addison are you All Done?" And I lift my hands to the height of my head and shake them. Whenever I do this, she waves her hands crazily above her head and says, "Ah dun." If I think she wants more, I'll put my fingers together and say "More?" She says, "Mor" and puts her hands together. It's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute. I'm not sure that she fully realizes what either means because she doesn't do the done sign before she throws her food off the tray, and sometimes she'll do the more sign and then refuse to eat any more, but at least she knows how to do it. :o)

As for the rest of us, Bart & I voted this week. I really like voting. I'm glad we live in a country where we have a say in what goes on. Even though one of the people i wanted to get on the city council didn't make it, I still was glad I got to vote for her.

This weekend we got to go to St. George for Mckenna's blessing. It was a lot of fun seeing Bart's family, and Chris gave a wonderful blessing. I'm glad we were able to go.

Well, that's pretty much it for now, until next time....au revoir.

Dancing, Football, and Haircuts

We have had a lot of fun this week. Addison loves dancing now. Whenever she hears music or singing, she starts dancing.

Here is a video of her dancing. She was a little provoked to dance in this video, but she does it on her own too. :o)

On Saturday we got to go to the BYU football game with some friends from the Ward. We had a good time. Then we got to go to Bart's Brother's last football game. They lost, but it was still fun visiting with everyone.

Oh, and before we went to the BYU game, I got my hair cut! I cut a TON off, but I love it. Here's a picture.The back is very layered, and sort of slopes to the long front. It sounds weird, but it looks cool.

On Sunday, Addison had the HARDEST time with the time change!!! She woke up early, even without the time change, and then took her nap early too. By the time we went to church it was over an hour past her nap time. She was so horrible Bart ended up taking her home after sacrament meeting so that she could take a nap! That's NEVER happened before! Hopefully this week she'll adjust to the time change and be a little better next week.

This morning was pretty cold in our house. I got dressed early, but was wearing my slippers to keep my feet warm. When we got to church, I got out of the car and started walking toward the building. Bart took one look at me and said, "Rebecca! You're wearing your slippers!" I had forgotten to put my shoes on!!! I was laughing so hard!!! Fortunately we had left early, so I had enough time to go home and get my shoes. We were both laughing so hard!

That's pretty much it for this week. I will write again next week...actually, we're going to St. George next weekend for Bart's Sister's Daughter's Blessing, so it may be two weeks. But until then. Au Revoir.

Happy Halloween

So Halloween is REALLY big where I work...I mean REALLY big! Everyone seriously just goes all out. Every department has a theme, and decorates their space as that theme. Most of the employees dress according to the theme as well. This year our theme was Jail Break. We all dressed in orange jump suits, and put bars on our cubes...it really doesn't take much to turn those things into cells. We each chose what our "prisoner name" was and they had name tags made to put on our cells. Some of the highlights were Martha Stewart...who decorated her cube with cupcakes, quilts, fondue, and dishes..., Paris Hilton...who rolled up her jumpsuit to make cuffs that she put pink bows on that matched her pink pumps, and her Chihuahua's pink fluffy sweater..., Lisa Nowak...who had pictures of William Oefelein all over her cube, as well as an astronaut suit, and depends on her shelves....And Heidi Fleiss, who had her "Wall of shame" decorated with signed pictures of many around the office. It was pretty dang funny.

Other themes around the office were the carnival (complete with picture booth, games, and cotton candy, Pirates of the Caribbean (complete with golden treasure, a ship, and cannons that actually sent out puffs of smoke), Star wars, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, Sharks, High School Musical, and Disneyland. It was amazing. I told my family they are going to have to come up next year just to see it.

Addison is doing as well as ever. She loved playing with Paris Hilton's dog. I don't think she really liked all the decorations around my office though. I think it was a little too much to take in. I can't wait until she's a little older. Once she's three or four, I bet she will really like it.

She is becoming quite the little helper lately. Especially whenever I do laundry. She LOVES helping with laundry... and by helping I mean throwing the folded clothes out of the baskets and then climbing in them, and waving the clothes around. Yep, she's just a great little helper.

Her hair is also starting to get longer...at least parts of it are. There's a square on the top of her head that is growing like crazy. When I leave it down it kind of looks like a weird comb over, but she refuses to let me put anything in her hair. Today I was finally able to get a rubber band in it for a while. It didn't last long so I made sure I got pictures to prove I was able to do it! Te he he.

Happy Pre-Halloween Week

Well, pretty much all week I cleaned the house...something that was way overdue. It was getting so cluttered it was driving me crazy. It was hard because Addison demands so much attention when she's awake, and she hasn't been taking very long naps lately, but I got it done. I basically took about a room a day and not only de-cluttered, but also deep cleaned. I still have our bedroom and the craft room to do, but It feels really nice to have the downstairs and most of the upstairs done.

Addison has learned how to shake her head, and she LOVES doing it when I'm feeding her. I'm almost positive that she doesn't know what it means though. I'll hold up something for her to eat and she shakes her head, then I move it closer to her mouth and she eats it, so she's not saying she doesn't want it. I'm not looking forward to the day that she does know what it means.

She's been eating relatively well lately. I even got her to eat some chili with meat in it today. I was really excited. The only thing that is driving me crazy is that when she's done, she'll grab the food, and throw it over the side of her tray. In books I've read it tells you to stop feeding them if they throw food, but this is her signal that she's done, so taking the food away from her doesn't really do anything. I finally just put a trash can on the right side of her high chair. That way when she throws it, at least it lands in the trash.

I think the highlight of the week was our chili cookoff/costume party today. We had some friends (and my sister) over, ate yummy chili and corn bread, played some games, and visited. It was a lot of fun. It was cute seeing every one's costumes too.

Bart and I were adventurers and Addison was a giraffe. We bought Addison's costume about a month ago. Today when I went to put it on her it was too short! I could fit her in it, but she couldn't straighten her legs while she was in it, so she basically had the costume on for the picture, and was running around in a onsie for the rest of the time. At least we got a cute picture. :o)

Picky Picky Picky

So Addison has become a very picky eater! Last week all she would eat was whole wheat noodles, and honey dew. This week it's pears and corn chex cereal. I keep trying to introduce and re-introduce new foods to her, but she refuses to even open her mouth for them. On Sunday she did eat oatmeal and a tiny bit of squash, but for the most part eating has been a real challenge.

She's funny too because she'll come basically beg for a salad I'm eating, but when I try to give part of it to her, she refuses to even taste it. Crazy little girl.

She has also started to really love dancing. The little car Bart got her for her birthday sings songs when she opens the trunk or turns the key or pushes the radio button, or whatever, so whenever it starts singing, she starts dancing. It totally cracks me up.

Bart and I were talking about whether or not dancing is an inherent part of a human being. So far we've never really taught her to dance (I know, I know, for those of you who have seen Bart and me on a dance floor that's pretty hard to believe, but true). So we were wondering where she learned to dance from. Where ever she did, it's pretty darn cute. I'm going to try and get a video of it.

Well I have been very busy. I'm trying to finish a digital scrapbook of Addison's first year. It's coming along pretty well, it's just slow. I can hardly ever work on it when Addison is awake because she hates it when I'm at the computer if she's awake. She will come over, stand up next to me and just whine until I either pick her up or get down and play with her. She doesn't seem to mind if I'm doing anything else, it's just working on the computer that upsets her. Silly little girl.

I have also really started getting into Goodreads.com. My sister told me about it a while ago, and I signed up, but I hadn't really put much on there. Then, the past few weeks some co-workers have been talking about it a lot and kept telling me to add them as friends, so I finally did. Now I'm trying to get as many books as I can remember reading on there. It's pretty fun. I like getting ideas of what to read next by looking at my friend's reviews. Lots of fun. If any of you want to add me, I'm signed up with my regular hotmail email.

Bart is writing a technology grant for his classroom. It is seriously ALL he talks about these days!!! Even though I think it's cool, I must admit, I'm going to be glad when it's all over because I'm a little sick of hearing about it. He's going to try to get some computers with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Correll paint on it. He has some really awesome ideas. I really do hope he gets it. It would make it so he could do a ton of really awesome things with his students.

Something doesn't quite fit

My mom got Addison this toy toy that she absolutely loves. It shoots out balls, catches them in it's rim where they then roll down to be shot out again.

I swear she would play with it non stop all day if I would let her. She hasn't quite figured out how to get it going on her own though. She knows you have to push the red thing, but she can't do it herself very often, so she'll look at you and either point at, or hit the red thing until you start it again for her.

She's also found a new hobby. Putting things either in the rim of, or down the chute of this toy. So far we've found her bath fish, teething biscuits, other balls, grapes, cookies, blocks, books, and keys either sitting on the rim, or down the chute of this toy. It is so funny!

She's also finally learning how to put certain shaped blocks down certain shaped holes....well, she has the square one down, we're still working on the triangle and circle. As a result though I have noticed things being put in the holes of her toy car too.

It's such a stupid little thing, but I SWEAR every time I come in and see that she's put something new down that chute, or tried to fit something else in that square hole on the car, it just cracks me up!

100 loads of laundery in the washer

The Wednesday before conference my parents came up for my dad's J. Reuben Clark Law Society meeting. It was a lot of fun seeing them. My dad was mostly at meetings, but we got to see him Thursday evening which was a lot of fun.

My mom taped Addison talking and then "translated." It was so stinking funny!!! I swear I have NEVER heard her talk so muhc!!! It was adorable!!! She also got the cutest picture of Addison Kissing her!

It was fun seeing my family, but our visit was short because that Friday we left to go to St. George to visit Bart's Family. His sister who lives in St. George just had a baby, and his brother was going to run the marathon, so we all decided to go down. It was a lot of fun. It was fun seeing everyone and seeing the new baby.

When we got back, though, things were not so fun. Monday morning when I went to get Addison up, she had thrown up durring the night! She didn't even cry! She must have just thrown up and gone back to bed. We had tried feeding her some spagetti-o type things the night before, so I thought that maybe they just didn't sit well.

I took her to Amy's and told her to call me at work if she threw up again. About 15 min after I got to work, sure enough I get a call. And that call was the beginning of a MISERABLE week!!! I was able to work from home, but when Addison was awake, she just wanted me to hold her, so I could only work while she was asleep. To make things worse, it was quarter end, so I had to work a ton!!! Fortunately Bart had Thursday and Friday off, so he stayed home with her those days.

It was so sad though. I'd set her down and sit next to her, and she'd climb up on me and look at me like, "What's wrong with me mom?" And then sit on my lap laying against me. And that was pretty much all she did while she was awake. Lay on my lap. If she wasn't on my lap, then right before she threw up, she'd lay on her tummy. It was so sad! She looked so sad! It really made me want to cry.

Whenever she threw up I'd try and catch it in a bowl, but she didn't know she was supposed to throw up in the bowl, so she always tried to turn away. Then, when she was done, she was curious about what was in the bowl and try to touch it. It was really gross.

Then, on Wednesday, she got diahrea! I feel like every time I went into her room after a nap, or in the morning, she had either thrown up, or her poop had leaked all over the bed! I think I've washed her bed linnens more this past week than I have since she was born!!! I swear we went through three sets a day!

Now she's feeling much better, and I am VERY grateful to have a healthy little girl again. I was getting VERY tired of being covered in puke.

Other than last week, My friend Richele and I have been swapping babysitting while we go and exercise. It's a lot of fun, and it gives Addison a chance to play with Richele's daughter Nicole. They are very cute together.

Bart was feeling sick on Friday and Saturday of last week which meant we missed our annual trip to lagoon with his Aunt and Uncle. I was SOOOOOOOOOOO bummed! I look forward to that trip every year! I was seriously almost crying when he told me he wasn't feeling well enough to go. Oh well. That just means that next year will be even better because it will have been two years since our last trip.

Things seem to be back to normal now, but we shall see what this week brings!

Doctors, Doctors, Doctors, and More Doctors.

So the week before last week was FULL of doctors!!!

First of all we had Addison's one-year appointment. She dropped from the 97th percentile in height to the 87th, and from the 80th percentile in weight to the 68th since her last appointment. I asked the doctor if that was bad and he said it was pretty normal. As they get more active, they tend to lose weight...which is good. As he puts it, "You don't want them looking like the Michelin Man all their lives. :) Everything looks great. She has great muscle tone, is about to walk, and babbles in her own little language.

Which reminds me...I can't remember if I already posted this or not, but Addison LOVES talking to herself now. She is always babbling away. The other day I let her play in her nursery. Next to the rocking chair, we have a pile of books we read to her. She crawled over to it, pulled out a book, and babbled away while she turned the pages. It was so cute!!!

The day after Addison's Doctor's appointment, I had a doctor's appointment. For the past few weeks I've been having sort of a hard time breathing and my lungs hurt. It will be really bad for a few days, then I'll be perfectly fine for a few days. When it first started I thought I was just getting a cold...but the cold never came. Finally it annoyed me so much that I listened to Bart's nagging me to see a doctor. Well, the doctor couldn't hear any asthma or bronchitis, so she was worried that I might have some blood clots that moved to my lungs. She had me take some X-rays, then sent me to the hospital to get a V-Q Scan "to rule out pulmonary embolism" and to get some blood work done. I had to call my boss and tell him I wasn't going to be able to make it to work because I had to get all these tests done.

Nothing came up, so they sent me home. The next day (Friday) I felt considerably better. While I was getting ready to go to work, I realized we hadn't taken the car seat out of the car after we got home from the hospital, so Bart had taken it with him to work that day. I called my boss and explained to him that I didn't have a car seat, and told him I didn't have much to do that day. He said, "You've been through enough this week, go ahead and take the day off, and have a good weekend."

It was about half an hour into thoroughly enjoying my day off when my doctor called again and informed me she had scheduled a CAT scan for me at 4:30. Feeling perfectly fine, I really didn't want to have to go back to the hospital and get poked some more. I said, "I normally work at that time, can I schedule it for another day?" They said no, and offered to write a note to my work. I told them it wasn't necessary, hung up, and called Bart to tell him he had to be home by 4:15 so that I could go to the hospital again.

Once again the results were normal. And I went home not knowing what was wrong with me, but not caring too much because I was feeling fine.

All of Saturday I felt fine too, but then Sunday while I was at church, it came back. I was running around after Addison which only made it worse. Monday was just as bad, and I was about to call my doctor again when they called me at work and informed me they had made an appointment for me with a pulmonologist.

When I got there they had me do a breathing test before I saw him. Three hours and a million questions later, He told me he thought I had asthma onset acute bronchitis. But he said he didn't think I actually had asthma because nobody in my family has asthma, and I've never had any symptoms before. He just said my lungs were acting like they had asthma and that that may have caused the acute bronchitis. He also said it may have been acid reflux disease. I have never had heart burn...well, at least not what you would normally think of as heartburn...except when I was pregnant, but he said a lot of times it can feel like pressure in the top of your chest and throat. SO anyway, he gave me these pills for the acid reflux, an inhaled steroid for the asthma, and an antibiotic for the bronchitis. He said to take the pill and the steroid first and see if I felt better in a couple days. If I didn't I could start taking the antibiotic.

Well, Monday night Addison slept through the night until like 5:00 a.m. at which point I went and gave her a bottle. She fell back asleep, and slept until 8:00. Hallelujah!!! I felt GREAT when I woke up. Since then I've been pretty good. I still can feel it coming back a little at the end of the day usually, but I'm glad to finally know what the heck is wrong with me!

Bart is doing well...other than worrying about me. He had parent-teacher conferences this week which made for some VERY long days. But other than that everything is going pretty well.

Addison has also started getting very demanding, and very cuddly. She used to play on her own for quite a while, but now she hardly plays for two minutes without wanting me to play with her. When I do sit down and play with her though she will crawl up on me, and lay her head on my shoulder, or she'll crawl onto my lap, turn around and just lay back on me. It's SOOOOOOOOOO cute!!! She'll also lay down on our laundry when I am folding it. She loves climbing into the laundry basket and throwing all the clothes out too.

She has also finally mastered the kiss. If you say, "Addison, Kisses," She will either jut out her chin at you and wait until you give her a kiss, or open her mouth wide and plant a big wet one on your mouth. Those ones make for some wet kisses, but it is dang cute!!!

She is eating really well. We have transferred her...for the most part...from formula to milk. She loves eating whatever I am eating. Yesterday I had a tomato, onion, feta Greek salad. I was eating it on a chair in our living room, and she crawled over to me, climbed up, and opened her mouth like, "Give me some mom!" I thought for sure she wouldn't like it, but she LOVED it! She will hardly eat three bites of baby food now, but she'll eat just about anything that I'm eating.

Well...that's pretty much it for now...Oh wait!!! I forgot. A few weeks ago we went to Moab to visit with Bart's uncle and aunt who were in town. Addison LOVED Bart's aunt. And once again, she fell asleep while grandma was rocking her. I don't know how she does it! :o)

A Last and two Firsts, and a second.

Well, this week we had a last two firsts, and a second.

My family came to visit on the Thursday before labor day. They came up to bring Amy’s stuff back up to college, and so that we could see Eric one more time before he leaves on his mission. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them all weekend. Eric even helped us get and install a new hard drive on our computer…we are SOOOOOOOOO screwed technologically when he leaves.

Friday we ran some last minute mission errands. Eric & Bart stayed up late playing Star Wars Lego. Bart loved it. I’m still trying to figure out if Bart or I will miss Eric more. :o)

The next day Dad, Eric, & Bart got to go to the BYU game. It was AWESOME!!! Mom & I stayed home to watch the game. It was an awesome game!

Sunday we went to Grandma & Grandpa Timms’ house for dinner. It was fun seeing them. We went through a TON of old pictures they have! It was AWESOME!!! IT was also a lot of fun hearing grandpa’s stories. We’re glad we got to go.

Monday morning Amy & I drove my mom, dad, and Eric up to the airport. It was really sad. I think it’s not quite sinking in that that will be the last time I will see him for 2 years!!! I bet it will really start to sink in after he leaves and I can’t talk to him on the phone any more.

On Saturday, Addison got a runny nose. I wasn’t too worried because it was clear, so I thought that she was probably just teething. On Sunday it got a little worse, and was more cloudy, but she also was sneezing a lot and her eyes were watering, so I thought maybe it was just allergies. Bart has bad allergies, and they’ve been acting up a lot lately.

She didn’t sleep very well Sunday night because she couldn’t breathe, so I decided I’d set up an appointment with the doctor on Tuesday just in case. Monday night she slept very well, and even slept in until 9:00. I almost didn’t call the doctor because she seemed to be doing better, but I figured I’d better go to figure out whether or not she had allergies.

Addison’s nose had stopped running, and she was as happy as could be when we got to the doctors. I felt a little silly being there, but when the doctor looked in her right ear it was bright red. She said, “Wow! I can’t believe you’re so happy little girl. That’s a pretty bad ear infection.” She wrote out a prescription for the infection and sent us on our way. I NEVER would have guessed it was an ear infection! She’s been SOOOOOOO happy lately! She’s hardly been fussy at all!!! I SWEAR! I have the happiest baby in the world.

So this week I saw my brother for the last time in two years, and Addison had her first ear infection. So far, a not-so-good first and last, but it gets better!

Addison also had her first birthday! Bart got Addison a book called "Olivia" and a little car type thing that supposedly can help a baby learn to walk, then transform into something a toddler can ride. The seat splits in two so that a baby can stand up behind the car and use it kind of like a walker. She really likes it...although she prefers to sit down behind it instead of standing. She still loves it. It flashes, and plays music, and says things like, "Open" when she opens the hood, and "Close" when she closes it.

I got Addison some nesting cups and "The Very Quiet Cricket". My family got her a bunch of cute clothes. One of which she wore on her birthday. Bart's Family got her a doll, a bunch of awesome books, some really cool balls, and some sippy cups. She loves them ALL!!! She is just thrilled to have some new toys around. :)

I wanted to make chocolate cupcakes that I could frost and then let her get as dirty as she wanted eating it. But I totally burnt them, so I had to make brownie panckaes because we didnt' have any more cake mix.

The next day some of Bart's Brothers and Sisters were coming down to celebrate Addison's birthday, so I went and got a cake mix and made some cupcakes. Addison got her day with the frosting. :)

Bart's Parents, Sarah, Charles, Heather, and her sister Michelle stayed the night. The next day, Amy, Heather, Michelle, Sarah and I ran the Spanish Fork 5k. And I came in 2nd in my age group!!! YAY! True, if I hadn't had a birthday last month, I would have been like 17th, but we won't think about that. And! The only girl who came in ahead of me won the entire 5k!!! (Boys & Girls Considered)!!! So I was pretty proud of myself.

Sarah also took first in her age group, and Michelle took third, so in our group we had a first, a second, and a third. :)

Although the last at the beginning of the week was a little sad, Eric is going to serve the Lord...and although the ear ache was not fun, we are grateful that she hasn't had more. So overall it was a pretty good week.

My Baby’s Sleeping Through the Night!!!

All I can say about that is Hallelujah!!!

Well, Addison is getting closer and closer to walking. Right now she can stand for short amounts of time without holding on to anything…that is if she forgets that she’s not holding on to anything. If she realizes at any point that she is not holding on to anything, she will get this terrified look on her face and slowly reach her hand out to whatever is closest to her, once she is securely holding on to it she will squat down and sit. It’s pretty funny.

She has also started doing this thing where she’s kneeling, but one foot is up on the ground and she sort of bounces there. It looks like she’s about to stand up, but she never does. She just bounces. It’s pretty funny.

She is getting solids at least two times a day now, which is an absolute mess!!! She’s been constipated lately, and we couldn’t understand why. We took her completely off of rice (or other grain) cereal, and fed her fruits and veggies to her hearts content, but it wasn’t helping. We finally decided maybe it was the formula we were feeding her, so we switched. Sure enough it worked. But then we started trying the cereal again, and it plugged her right back up! So I’m not sure what to do. I’ll talk to the doctor about it next week…

Speaking of which! I got an email at the beginning of the week saying, “Next week your baby will turn 1!!! I was like, “What, no, that’s not right.” So I went to check the calendar. Sure enough, next Thursday, she’s one! I couldn’t believe it! I can’t believe how quickly the past year has gone by!!! Addison has also learned that when she’s in her high chair, if she coughs, I come running. She absolutely loves chewing on fruit, so a lot of times if I have to clean the kitchen or cook I will put her in her high chair and give her some watermelon chunks or peach slices and just let her chew on them. Well a couple of times she bit off a little more than she could chew, and coughed a little. I was worried that she was choking so I ran over to her. She was fine, but then a few seconds later I hear this little dry cough. I look over and it stops and she smiles at me. I smiled back and went back to what I was doing. Suddenly I hear the cough again. I look back, and it stops and she smiles at me. I believe we need to teach her the story of the boy who cried wolf.

She’s also getting much better at getting what she wants. This past week Bart left the diaper bag all zipped up in her play area. She somehow figured out how to unzip it, pulled out the formula can, opened it, and dumped it on the ground.

We have set up a baby gate in the door that leads to our kitchen so that she can play in the front room and I can work in the kitchen without worrying about her coming in there. We have molding at the bottom of the door way, so we usually put the gate up about 4 inches from the ground. Yesterday I was clearing out the dishwasher, and I look over. She is laying on her stomach flat on the ground, reaching her hands under the gate to try and get something on the kitchen floor!

She’s also really starting to learn how to talk…not that she understands what she’s saying, but she’s always saying stuff. When she wakes up, she almost always sits in her crib and babbles to her self for at least 15 min. Also, when she’s playing with her toys, she’ll talk to herself.

We’ve tried to get her to consciously say words too. I think she’s finally catching on…although she doesn’t quite have it. Whenever I say, “Say Mama.” She smiles, and very obediently says, “Dada.”

Hawaii Baby!

Okay Okay Okay, so I know it has been pretty much forever since I last wrote, but in my defense, a TON of things have happened since then, and it's taken forever to write them all!

My Grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary. We went up to New Mexico the last weekend in June to celebrate. It was a blast seeing everyone! Everyone except one family on my dad's side was there, so it was a lot of fun.

Amy & Stacy, my sisters, came home from the reunion with us and celebrated the 4th of July here. Bart's brother and his roommate also came. It was a lot of fun. We got some fire works and set them off on our street. Addison loved it. After that Bart was gone for a weekend in Virginia for the NAEA board meeting. Then the weekend after that we headed off to California. From there we left for Hawaii with my family. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!!!
We flew in on a Sunday to the Island of Kauai. The first full day we were there we just sort of hung around a chilled. Bart caught his token vacation creature. This vacation it was a crab.

That night we went to a Luau. It was a lot of fun. Some of my sisters went on stage to learn how to Hula, and Bart, my brother, and my brother in law wend up to learn how do the poi balls. It was a lot of fun. Addison loved the luau. She was memorized by all the pretty colors.
The second day we took a boat ride to the Napali Coast. It was beautiful. We had a ton of fun. There were these trampoline type things at the front of the boat that we could sit on. On the way home we were going over waves so fast it threw everyone up off the trampoline. It was a BLAST!!! And Bart had quite the hairdo after words.


Day three was Bart's birthday. Last Christmas my mom sent us a book about Kauai and told us to go through it and see if there was anything we really wanted to do. The only thing Bart really wanted to do was a hike along the Napali coast. So that's what we did for his birthday. He originally wanted to do a huge overnight hike, but he decided a smaller 8 mile hike would work. It was AWESOME! We hiked two miles along the Napali Coast to a beach, then two miles inland to a 300 foot waterfall! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was a hard hike though. It was really wet, so we kept slipping on mud. On our way back we ran out of water, and were VERY ready to be home. Overall it was a lot of fun though. :o)

Day four we went on a mud-buggy tour. That was a blast! We got SOOOOOOO muddy! We went to a few waterfalls, but after our 300 foot one, they weren't very impressive. :o) Somehow our tour guide managed to not get muddy though, so we snuck up on him afterwards and took care of that. :o)

Day five we got to go on a really cool adventure. We started out kayaking, then we hiked to a zip line and did that, then we went to this pool with a HUGE rope swing that you could jump off of into the water! It was a total blast! All the other excursions we had left Addison at the hotel with my mom, but this one they got to come on. I wasn't sure how Addison would like the kayaking, but after the initial dislike of her life vest, she did pretty well. I set her on my lap, and held the paddle in front of her and paddled. It was a great adventure.

My mom took Addison swimming every day. She really liked that.

Overall it was a great vacation! It has been very hard to come back to reality, but I think I've finally gotten back into the swing of things.

Bart is starting school again on Wednesday. The teachers need to be there a week before the students have to come. I'm going to miss having him at home. There are definitely some advantages to having the summers off.