wordless wednesday: the look

When we were at the beach for Mother's Day weekend, I snapped this picture of Addie one more while she was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse waiting for us to finish cooking breakfast. We kept it pretty cool in the condo so she had her jacket on plus she wanted to cover up with our blanket. With the remote in hand and giving me this look, I knew I had to keep this to capture this moment to compare when she is a teenager and giving us these looks all the time. 

I see so much of Michael in her in this picture. It is pretty funny, though, that when we were at a party a few weeks ago, as soon as we walked in Mrs. Jane said "oh look! a mini Michael!" and then a few minutes later our friend Jenn said "oh Elizabeth, she looks just like you." 

I guess now this post doesn't really qualify as "wordless" anymore. 

toddler bed transition

We did it.

We took the front off of Addie's crib.

A few days after I wrote this post, I got online to see where we could purchase the toddler rail that would convert Addie's crib. What I found was that it is no longer available. Lovely. The most popular brand of the fold down rails on Amazon was all sold out and not expected to be back in stock until the summer. All of the stores in our area that carry them were also sold out. I finally found one that was in stock and not terribly expensive. Well, that one was too big for her crib. It was made for twin to queen size beds, and we did not feel comfortable with the way it fit on her crib frame. But the bright side is that we now have a rail for when we convert her bed to a full size one in a couple of years. Next up was more research on Amazon. I finally found one that was actually made for cribs and placed the order. This one actually attaches to the frame of the crib and barely budges when she sits up with her back against it.

It looks extremely small in this picture but it's actually the perfect size for Addie's crib. There is also three layers of blankets folded up next to the bed, with more padding on the right side where the space is bigger. I've thought about maybe even putting the cute bumpers that came with her crib bedding that we never really got to use back on. Lately, she's been sleeping with her beloved Pluto, one of the lovies pictured (usually the brown & pink one), and her blanket. 

The rail arrived on a Saturday afternoon after she had already taken a nap. We decided to just go for it & try it out that night. Bedtime went fairly well, especially since she refused to get out of the bed by herself. I would say she made herself comfortable, wouldn't you?

 

Around 2am the first night, she woke up crying and tried to stand up in bed. Thankfully, I made it into her room (which is right across the hall) before she did. I held her for a couple of minutes, then put her back down and she slept til the morning. I was cautiously optimistic that our first night hadn't gone too terrible, but I also wasn't naive to think it would stay this way. 

She stood up during her nap the next afternoon, but quickly sat back down when she realized there wasn't anything in front of her to hold on to. That night, bedtime went just like the night before, and she was asleep by the time I shut her door. But around 2am, she stood up again, this time she was facing the wall and tried to lean against the rail. I was so scared she would fall backwards over the rail. Of course, this made me second guess our decision to transition from the crib. I thought we had rushed it and should have just waited until after her surgery to see how she was going to do in the cast. 

But that was it. 

Since then, we really haven't had any problems. We've had a few hiccups here and there with her waking in the middle of the night; a few times she wasn't able to soothe herself back to sleep. She hasn't tried to get out of the bed herself...well, until this morning. I noticed on the monitor that she was awake but she was still just laying in bed. About five minutes later I went into her room to get her, and she was standing on top of the blankets holding onto the side of the crib with a big grin on her face. 

We may be turning her door knob around so she won't lock herself in her room pretty soon...

 

Wordless Wednesday: First Trip to the Dentist

Yesterday I took Addie to her first dental appointment. I know they say children should see the dentist when they are a year old, but our pediatrician told me if I wanted to wait a while, she didn't see a problem with it since we had so many doctor appointments at the time. I knew I wanted to get her established with a pediatric dentist, though, before she started nursery school in August. I had a few friends recommend Children's Dental Cottage, and I could not have been more pleased with our experience. Addie did 150% better than I anticipated she would, and within 15 minutes, her teeth were brushed, counted (she's got 12!), and had a fluoride treatment.

 

 

I'm sure she'll love that I posted this picture when she's older & looking through the blog book that will be printed.

Addie & Aunt JuJu

Only a handful of people have watched Addison for us since she was born because of two main reasons:

• We really don't have a lot of family who live near us (Mom, Dad, hint. hint.)
• With her being quarantined, she couldn't be around other small children or adults around other small children.

We have been fortunate enough to find a sitter who comes to our home everyday to watch Addison for us. It has definitely been worth the small fortune we've paid her to keep Addie's lungs as healthy as possible these last two flu/RSV seasons. We have decided to enroll her in a two year old program at nursery school at the start of the new school year in the fall, but that's another post for another day. One major drawback to having one sitter is if she gets sick or goes out of town, we're kind of stuck.

However, lucky for us, my wonderful aunt and godmother recently retired at the beginning of the year and lives about an hour away. When I found out our sitter was going out of town for three days last week, I immediately called my aunt to see if she was available to stay with Addie. Thankfully she was, and since she had watched her for us once before, I felt pretty comfortable everything would go pretty smooth.

The first morning, it took a bit for Addie to remember and warm up to her. But before too long, everything was fine. She ate all of her breakfast, lunch and dinner while my aunt was there. They read books all day long and played a lot of tea party too.

 

I got a text message while at work with this picture. It certainly brought back a lot of memories from when we were younger and would make flower chains in my grandma's front yard.

By Friday evening, we were all sad to see my aunt leave and head back home. I just love this picture and how much it shows Addie enjoyed spending time with her Aunt "JuJu" for a few days. We are so thankful for loving family members!!

 

a trip to the zoo

This afternoon, Addie & I took a ride to the Baton Rouge zoo to celebrate my godchild Zoe's third birthday. She wasn't really interested in the live animals the zookeepers were showing at the birthday party, and I even had to step outside with her for a minute when she was being too loud since one of the two rules they give the kids was to be quiet so they wouldn't scare the animals. I was a little shocked that she refused a bite of birthday cake, but no surprise that she couldn't get enough ice cream. She was having a ball dancing to the music and just walking around in circles in the party room. We have to work on our social skills though. She loves to see kids at a distance but when they get close, she doesn't really want anything to do with them. But, we had a great time, and Addie was asleep before we got on the interstate to head home.

the toddler bed dilemma

Addie will be 21 months old a week from today. Sometimes I look at her, and I just cannot believe how quickly she is growing up. Just last week I could have sworn she grew two full inches while I was at work. And she's so smart! (Don't all parents say that?) She picks up on things rather quickly, and we are at the stage where we must watch everything we say and do around her.



The last couple of weeks have been a struggle in the eating department. Thankfully, she eats very well for breakfast and lunch with our sitter. Dinner, on the other hand, (or really any meal she eats with me) leaves a lot to be desired. She's back to putting her hands, and anything she picks up, in her mouth so we think more teeth may be on the way. Hopefully this is the explanation behind the extra picky-ness she is displaying at dinner time.
 

Although we had some rough nights for a while, but things have improved significantly so I think it's safe to say we're back to having a pretty good sleeper on our hands. We've kind of had to let our bedtime routine evolve but I think we've found one that works for all of us. She usually goes to bed sometime between 7:30 and 8 each night and sleeps until 6:30 in the morning. I really don't want to mess with the good routine we've established here.

 

But I feel like we have no choice.

 

Ready for the beach
Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with this post.

On May 27th, Addie will have another (hopefully her last) hip surgery. This time the orthopedic surgeon is going to place a pin in her hip to hold it in place while the bone forms around it properly. We are praying hard that this will solve the problem forever! She will be in a spica cast again. This time, she's a million times more mobile than she was when she had the spica cast on last year. And she weighs a bit more than she did then too.

 

I will not be able to lift her up and over the side of her crib in the awkward position of the spica cast to place her on the mattress at its lowest setting.

 

I don't like the idea of coming home from the hospital, having her realize she can't move like she used to, then changing her sleeping arrangements all at the same time. My poor baby will have been through enough!

 

The dilemma: do we transition her to a toddler bed now?

Menu Monday

We did halfway decent job in sticking with the menu last week. Well, not really I guess...We had stuffed bell peppers yesterday instead of last Tuesday. And our beef tenderloin didn't smell so hot when we took it out to grill on Friday night so we tossed it. Instead we had Popeye's while watching continuous coverage of the manhut on Fox News. Oh, and we're having BBQ pulled pork sandwiches tonight. So let's try this again...I'm linking up with Rachel this week for Menu Monday.

Monday: BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Cheesy Chicken Casserole with Green Beans
(It's Women's Night at church so something quick & easy)

Wednesday: Flank Steak Fajitas (in the crock pot)

Thursday: Cilantro Chicken with Roasted Veggies

Friday: Lemon Pepper Tilapia with Roasted Broccoli

Saturday: Shrimp Scampi

What's on your menu for this week?