Wednesday, November 21, 2007

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.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

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!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

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.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

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.

Friday, November 02, 2007

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.