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: