Serious Moments

(Yesterday, Addison walked into my room after I had pulled out my lamp and fan in order to get into the attic... was done in the attic but hadn't moved the furniture back.)

Addison: (shocked) Mommy, err yite. An' err fan! (your light! and your fan!)

Me: Yeah, I moved them for a minute. I'll put them back.

Addison: (crosses arms over chest, very seriously) Mommy... what happing? (happened)

***

(This morning, as I'm getting her dressed to go to Poppy's house)

Addison: I give Poppy a biiiiiiiiiig hug.

Me: That's good, you should give Poppy big hugs. And kisses, too!

Addison: (somber) Mommy... err dun mits me. (you're going to miss me.)

Me: Yes, I will miss you!

Addison: Err not mits me now!

Me: No, I don't miss you yet, but I will miss you when you leave!

Addison: (somber) Mommy... er dun mits me. A yot. (a lot.)

First Prayer

Addison prayed for the first time last night at dinner.

We were all sitting at the table... Mom, Addison, myself, and Addison's new toy, "Animal" (It's a tarsier, but since she can't say that, she calls it "animal.") We have a usual prayer that we say, "God thank you for ______, in Jesus name, Amen." Simple enough that we hoped she'd eventually learn it. Well, Mom started with "God thank you for these hot dogs, in Jesus name, Amen." I followed with "God thank you for the cheese, in Jesus name, Amen." Then Addison, who usually just pipes up with "Amen" paused, and said "God tank oo fer.... God... tank oo fer animal." She smiled really big, obviously proud of herself, and we praised her efforts probably more than she expected. How cute is she?

Hopefully posting regularly once more

I quit my job. Hurray! I hated that job, hate that I have to go in for 5 more nights, but as of 7:00 a.m., August 9, 2009 I will officially be an ex-employee of Walmart. Could write a book about my experiences there, but would probably get sued by the company. Hmm...

Anyway, my hope is that I can start updating my blog again. I'm also hoping to start working on writing some of my "memoirs" so to speak... not really to be published or with any hope that they would be, just so that someday I'll have a written record of some of my fantastic memories.

Fun words/phrases Addison is saying these days:

"wa-choo tink err dooning?" (what-chu think you're doing?)

"dog hogs" (hot dogs)

"patter-pitter" (caterpillar)

"is for my baby nose. Not err BIG nose!" (regarding her sunglasses)

Potty Rewards

As part of our potty training incentive plan, Addison gets two "cookies" (teddy grahams) when she asks to sit on the potty, regardless of if she does anything, and gets a sticker to adorn her potty when she DOES go potty.  It seems to be working quite well, at least in the evening... during the day she usually seems to forget the potty exists, but when she's downstairs in the evening, she frequently lets us know she's about to "go" and has had several successes in recent days.  The problem with this is, she's an extremely intelligent little girl, and she is learning to work the system.

In the last couple days, I've noticed while we're downstairs that she'll ask for a cookie, and when I say no, she waits a few minutes and then indicates that she'd like to "go potty."  These particular instances usually yield nothing, except that Addison gets what she wants-- "twooooo cookies."  This morning, after we finished taking our shower and while she's still walking around in a pull-up and her bathrobe, she came into my room and proclaimed "POTTYYYYY!!"  I asked her if she needed to go and she said yes, so we walked to the bathroom. 

On our walk to the bathroom, she began her list of demands... "potty, twooooo cookies, twooooooo stick.... (stickers)" in a tone that sounded like a mother giving chores to her child.  I couldn't help but laugh-- she got her two cookies, but as it was a "dry run", she never did get her "stick."

All Done Potty

We've started pre-potty training Addison... this consists of making her take potty breaks to sit on the potty, even though we don't have expectations of her actually producing anything; using pull ups instead of diapers at all times except overnight and nap times; talking about the potty and what it's for; and yes, even taking her into the bathroom with us while we go potty so that she can see it's normal for others to use the potty as well.  Although she's still very insistant that she does NOT need to go potty, she seems to enjoy the novelty of the whole thing, and definitely likes keeping track of everyone else's progress.

Today I took Addison to McDonalds for a mother-daughter lunch time... I enjoy these trips largely because I KNOW she'll actually eat food, even if it's not the healthiest food, which is more than I have any other time (she's exercising her toddlerly right to refuse food at any given time, which she does more often than not.)  I chose the booth closest to the bathroom for no other reason than the fact that it was empty and looked mostly clean; however, this is a mistake I'll never make again.

Every time another customer went into the restroom, Addison would look at me and loudly ask, "POTTY??"  to which I would whisper "yes, he/she is going potty, but we don't have to talk about it."  Nonsense, she must think-- we talk about it all the time at home!  Which is why she then, loudly, would ask the stranger "All done potty?" when they emerged.  Luckily, Addison embarrasses me enough in public that I hardly feel any shame anymore, but this was ridiculous-- they were all laughing it off, but most of them also gave me very strange looks.

I can't even IMAGINE how this is going to escalate once she actually gets a grip on what actually goes on in the bathroom...

Walmart, here I come!

I was hired at Walmart today... I will be working 10pm-7am 5 days a week, doing stocking/inventory... Not sure what all that entails but am just happy to be employed :)

Overdue Update

For those of you who need to know...

Dan is finished with his surgical rotation and has started on his internal medicine rotation, which happens to be in geriatrics.  He travels from nursing home to nursing home each day, which can be stressful as he still doesn't yet know where everything is, but the hours are WAY better than surgery, so the trade-off is in his favor. He will be finishing this rotation on March 20, at which time he will be coming home for a week-long break (yay!!)

I am currently job-hunting, and am ridiculously stressed out... not only am I looking for a job, but I'm trying to find one that would be late evening or night shift, enabling me to work without putting Addison in daycare (expensive!!!).  So far I've had no luck, but I'm trying to stay optimistic... The biggest concern is that I can't apply for CHIP for Addison until I have a job, so we are BOTH currently uninsured.  

Addison is learning new words every day, which she mostly uses to argue with everyone... she also has become the proud owner of two fish, which she named "mine" and "bebee".  Mine and Bebee live in Mommy's room, as everyone is afraid of what would happen if they were alone with Addison...

Not-So-Secret Admirer

Addison randomly decided to be Haley's best friend yesterday... unfortunately, Haley wasn't entirely on board with the whole idea.

"I crawled back here to get away from you, kid... please go away."

"No, seriously, I don't want to talk about it... just go away."

"HELP!!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!! THIS HAS GONE TO FAR!!!"

Too Big, Too Fast

Addison is turning into a big kid and it's as adorable as it is difficult for me.  She's learning more words and sentences, and imitating behaviors like never before.

As always, when I went in to get her up this morning, I sat in her bed with her while she showed me all of her animals.  Then, abruptly, she said "Mommy.  I wah eeee.  NOW."  (Mommy, I want eat.  Now.)  It still takes me off guard when she uses sentences, and the "NOW" made it even more surprising... although I suppose I'm not entirely shocked she learned it so quickly, as I feel like I have to use it a lot with her.

When I picked her up to take her to the kitchen, she gave me a big hug.  Then, to my surprise, she grabbed my face with both hands and planted sloppy kisses very deliberately on my mouth, cheek, and nose... she said "teee?" and when I showed her my teeth, she tried to kiss those too (I closed my mouth though, because...ew).  Grabbing her face and kissing her is something I've done since she was very small... and now she's doing it right back to me.  I love it :)

I'm suspecting, though, that I'm going to grow to hate the word "NOW".....

No Hat, No Sleeves... No Cooperation

I figured I'd retell this story on my blog, as it was a hit retelling it to my family....

I took Addison to the mall yesterday to burn off some of her energy.  We walked around for awhile, largely guided by her every whim-- I only had a couple destinations in mind, and those were brief, so I just let her take us where she wanted us to go.  This took us to the Children's Place, where she stumbled upon an adorable pink hat with blue flowers that she ABSOLUTELY had to have... it was very loud-looking, considering she was also wearing a bright magenta velour track-suit at the time.  The clerk also gave her two stickers, which she placed upon her cheeks, proving that if you are 21 months old, you can never over-accessorize.  As we made our way to the mall exit, I reminded Addison that we had to put on her coat which, as it was mild outside, was a puffy vest instead of a winter coat.  This is how that conversation went:

Addison:  ha?  haaaaah? (translation: hat?)

Me:  I can put your hat on you (extends hands to put hat on Addison's head.)

Addison: NO!! NO-WAH-HA!!! (t: no!  no want hat!)

Me: Ok, fine!  You don't have to wear your hat. (puts hat down.)

Addison:  ha?  haaaah? (t: same as above)

Me:  Would you like me to put your hat on you?

Addison: NO!  NO HA!! (no! no hat!)

Me: Ok then! (puts hat down, picks up vest) But we have to put your coat on so we can go get in the car.

Addison: Ah-doh-wa-coh. (t: I don't want coat)

Me:  But you have to wear a coat!  It's not even really a coat, see?  It has no sleeves!

Addison: Ah-doh-wa-seevs (t: I don't want sleeves).

Me:  It doesn't have sleeves!  (Finally manages to get Addison to put on the coat)

In case you couldn't tell, Addison has entered a new phase of speech-- she is learning to speak in sentences.  Unfortunately for all of us, her first and favorite sentence-beginning phrase happens to be "I don't want."  This morning, when I went in to get her out of bed, she thumped her chest and said "joooo?" (thumping her chest is her way of communicating that her tummy is empty, and "joo" is juice (or milk, etc.))  I took her to the kitchen, where she loudly exclaimed "AH DOH WA EEEATTT!"  before polishing off her entire bowl of cereal and then a fruity-cheerio snack.

Not afraid of the little girl, no, not me....

Don't look at me that way... you'd hide from her too if you were her size.

Fashion-Forward Toddler

What is this picture of, you ask?

This is my 21 month old this morning, still in her jammies, wearing her winter hat and rearranging her furniture while watching TV.

This is also, sadly, not an uncommon sight these days.  Little Miss "I HATE HATS" of 3 months ago now wants to wear her hat indoors, outdoors, and every second she can.  I have to fight her to take her hat off when we get home, and I have to struggle to get her out of her jammies and into "real" clothes in the morning.  Often, I give up and just let her wear the hat-

and-jammies combo for an hour or so in the morning, hoping to appease the monster within.

I'm hoping this phase will carry through to summer, though, because little girls, in summer hats... CUTE.

Prior to this, the only hat Addison would wear on a regular basis was a purple dress-up hat with ribbons on it, which she at one point decided looked even better on her Great Grandma:

New Developments

So I thought it'd be fun to have my first post in a long time be an update with new developments in our lives.... 

Dan:  Has begun his surgical rotation at St. Vincent's hospital in Massachusetts.  Is exhilarated by what he is doing and really enjoying it so far, despite mandatory 24 hour shifts every 4 days.  

Jemma: Not really doing anything of note.  Has begun exercising daily, and is up to jogging for 15 minutes at a time, which is an improvement of her initial 0 minutes.

Addison:  Is test-driving her big girl bed tonight (!!).  Has discovered that her fingers get pruny in the bath/shower.  Is obsessed with owies-- not only on her body and other people's bodies, but also any scratch, crack, etc. in or on furniture, toys, paint....  I could go on.  Has gone from calling her blankie "beee" to calling it "bingie" which Mommy sees as an improvement.  Calls Poppy "Boppy" (which she also uses for "potty"... luckily Poppy is a good sport), calls Pappy "bah-bah" (for "Pap-Pap", to differentiate from Poppy and potty... she had been lumping all three into "boppy").... still has not settled on a name for Grandma.  Has tried out "Gomer", "Go-mah", and "Der-mer", but does not appear satisfied with those.

UPDATE 2/5/09: Addison has upgraded Grandma's name to "Hubber."  Still not sure where these names are coming from.