Addison - the 22 Month Old

This month's entry is a special installment. Addison lost her first pet this past week, Pebbles. While I will discuss Addison's personality and growth as usual later on, first I want to share the memories of Addison and Pebbles that she may not remember herself someday.


Pebbles and Addison

Addison had two kitties, Pebbles and Colby Jack. To the world, Colby Jack is the more likeable of the two. He's younger, nicer and more active. Pebbles was crabby and slept most of the time. But there was something about Pebbles that Addison was drawn to. Perhaps it was because Pebbles was a fixture at the foot of the bed, so Addison always knew where to find her. The first time Addison noticed and pointed to a kitty, it was Pebbles. The first time she tried to say "kitty" ("Kkkhhh"), she was talking to Pebbles.

It may have been because of all this notice Addison gave to the kitties, Colby Jack would be startled and run away, while Pebbles didn't seem to care (or have the energy to care!) and would just lay there and take whatever attention and baby babbles Addison would yell at her.
In any case, Addison loved Pebbles and in the past week, she has asked about Pebbles multiple times - and we can almost see the gears turning in her head as she processes what has happened. The night Pebbles was put down, we did not know that was going to happen when we took her to the vet. So I took her on my own, and when the vet gave me the diagnosis, I called Tim so he could come with Addison and say goodbye. They were only there for 20min or so, but Addison gave Pebbles and hug and kiss and we told her to say goodbye. Of course at the time she was just repeating what we were saying, and on the way home with Tim was asking about Pebbles. Tim explained "Pebbles was sick, so we said goodbye." The rest of the car ride she said "Pebbo sick, Pebbo sick."
Over the next several days, in her own toddler way, she was figuring it out. I think it helped that Addison saw Pebbles at the vet before she was put down so we could use it as a point of reference moving forward. She has asked us several time "where Pebble go?" and we say "Pebbles was sick. You gave her a hug and kiss and we said goodbye." To which she nods and said "yea, bye bye Pebbo."
Time heals all wounds and in the near future Addison's confusion will drift away. It breaks my heart that she will most likely have no memory of Pebbles - or that she had to deal with one of life's biggest lessons, and not remember it. I can only hope that somewhere in her mind, this makes sense and she will remember Pebbles and this experience in her own toddler way - even if it's in a way she cannot place when she is older.

Addison Updates

Addison starts her day by cuddling up in our bed and watching 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' while I get ready for work. She's got quite the nice set-up with blankets and sitting propped up against our pillows. She requests a cup of milk shortly after waking up, and she'll slowly drink that while watching her show. Sometimes she does still come see what I'm doing and want to copy me. Her favorite things to do with me is brush her hair and teeth - and she also puts on makeup! I gave her a clean powder brush and she pretends to put powder her face. So cute!
Her favorite activity the last couple weeks has been watching the cars drive down the busy street behind our house. She'll climb up on a bench we have by the window in our bedroom and point at all the cars driving by. It's been a little bit of a learning activity too since she'll count how many cars, say what color they are, etc. Her other favorite things to see outside are squirrels, geese, ducks, planes and doggies walking!

Addison has been ready for spring weather for the past couple weeks. She's had a few meltdowns because I won't let her wear her rain coat, since it's too cold outside! Last week, I bought her rain boots, a hat and a windbreaker - she wanted to wear them all weekend long, and even put them on several times and just walked around the house like that!

Needless to say, we are all ready for the spring weather to finally arrive. It is going to be a lot of fun in our new surroundings. There is a playground down the street, and a walking path all through the subdivision that goes by a pond. Can't wait to go on nice evening family walks!

That's all for now!

Addison - the 21 Month Old

Referring to Addison by months is starting to seem silly. 21 months? We are so close to the 2-year mark, it's crazy! But what makes it not so hard to believe that Addison will soon be a 2 year-old, is how much she has become a child, no longer a baby.
Let's take a tour of Addison's 21st month!

"Night-Night Here"Not much has changed with Addison's sleeping habits in the past month. She still comes to bed with us in the middle of the night, but not as frequently as last month - which is a welcome change for Mommy & Daddy! She has been watching both "Monsters, Inc" and drum corps again with no nightmares so perhaps that was not the culprit.
One of her favorite games is "night-night here." It started a few months ago as a game in our bed where she would pretend to sleep (and tell us to pretend to sleep too) and then jump up and say "boo!" But now it has morphed into just bopping around on our bed. She "hides" under the blanket (and of course tells us to hide under the blanket too).
Sadly, she has been moving away from storytime some nights in the last few weeks, to just expending all her energy running around right up to bedtime - and then wanting to climb right into her crib (with multiple pacis, of course!). I hope that this is just a phase, as I do enjoy reading her stories.

Potty Training
I think it is time to actually start potty training Addison. We have been very fortunate that Addison took an interest in the toilet on her own, and with only little prompting from us has successfully gone potty about once a week. She has even gone poopy almost a dozen times! It's also becoming very obvious when Addison is or is ready for pooping. She now stops when she is doing and, well,  you know! But I think this will make it very easy for us to communicate with her. She knows all the words and all the actions that go along with it. But now that she is 21 months, I think it is time for us to make going on the potty more of a routine thing, so she understands it's not something she does just when she feels like it, or thinks of it or we ask her to.
She has worn pull-ups several times. The first time, she wanted to take them off right away, so I thought we'd have issues, but since then she has taken to them quite well, probably because they have the Disney princesses on them!

Addie Quirks
Addison certainly likes things a certain way and has her favorite things. I thought I'd create a section in this blog entry dedicated to just that topic. Here's a snapshot of how silly our little lady is!

• While we change her diaper/clothes in the morning and night, she loves to sprint out of her room and dash around the entire upstairs in hopes we try to grab her - to which she squeals in delight!
• When either Mommy or Daddy put her to sleep at night, she demands kisses on each of her cheeks, then requests the other parent to come in and say good night to her too.
• Everything in two's! She has to have two monkeys, two paci's, two piggies, two mickeys, etc etc etc. When we count, she doesn't start counting until the #2. Her current counting structure is "2, 3, 6, 8, 9" :)  I'm seriously curious if there is some diagnosed *quirk* of the obsession of the #2!
• Everything also has to be in too's! "Running too", "Eat too", "Cook too", etc etc etc. She gets VERY upset when we try to get her to do something on her own, or we don't "too" whatever she is demanding. Yikes!
• Mommy & Daddy can't sing! We don't have good voices, I give her that. But whenever we sing along to the radio in the car or at home, she yells "STOP IT!" Ha!
• The girl loves brushing her teeth. She's not very good at it, but she brushes her teeth about 4x a day.

As usual, I know I'm not thinking of all her quirks right now - but she's a very quirky lil girl.

We can't wait for the weather to get warmer, so we can get out more. Cabin fever! Check back next month for more Addie updates!