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.

No guns, no roses

Driving home from Target today, I was in bumper-to-bumper traffic due to a tractor trailer crash on a main road. The normally 10 minute drive took 45, and to keep my sleepy toddler awake until we got home, I was playing the radio and dancing along, which she loves. She danced to Britney Spears, Nickelback, Katy Perry, Kanye West (which was funny to watch), and so on. Then, "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses came on. I was dancing in the front seat and lip syncing along (I was born in the '80's, after all) and about mid-way through the song, I glanced back at Addison to see if she was still dancing. Much to my surprise, she had both of her index fingers in her ears and was glaring at me.

Needless to say, I abruptly changed stations. I guess even old Axl Rose isn't for everyone.

The Misrepresentation of Popeye

My daughter has turned into a cartoon.

For the last several weeks, every time Addison is mad, annoyed, tired, confused, hungry, thirsty, bored, or breathing, she makes this face. The first time I saw it, I said "she looks like Popeye, how cute." Now, the comparison has become a verb, as in "Addison, stop Popeye-facing me!"

In this photo, she is upset because I finally got a cabinet lock for the "dry goods" cabinet; I had tired of finding packets of oatmeal in my dresser drawers and boxes of pasta in my closet. You can see, however, that this does not create a shortage of toys for my little princess... there are 3 visible in this photo, which represents only about 4-5 square feet of space (I'm not counting the white item as a toy-- that is her potty, which she had relocated from the bathroom to the kitchen for a reason she refused to disclose.)

Cute as it was a few weeks ago, Popeye-face now makes me instantly fantasize about jumping through the nearest window and/or stabbing myself in the eye with a fork. I am hoping that it suffers a hasty demise, going the way of potato-face (her former "I'm going to cry" expression) and "the flying v" (her pre-walking habit of holding her feet up by her ears while in the stroller. In public.)