Auntie Jan's Early Birthday!

Later that night, after the "Sprinkle," we did some more celebrating for Auntie Jan's birthday!

Three generations in the kitchen makin' Auntie Jan's birthday dinner!

A Sprinkle for Baby Boy

My good friend Jen threw us a "Sprinkle" (a lighter version of a shower). It was a great celebration! I felt very loved and special and I think we are a little closer to being ready for our baby boy! Thank you, thank you Jen and everyone else who came or sent their love!

I wish terribly that I had had someone take more pictures of me with friends, but here's what I have from Jen's blog.

Pedis and Manis

 My Mom, Auntie Pam, and Auntie Jan all came in last weekend for my "Sprinkle." There was lots to celebrate and lots of love and laughter! I feel so fortunate! We kicked off the weekend with pedis and manis!

Not the best picture, but it captured the five and a half of us!

Grammy officially gave Addie her first pedicure, but this was her first pedicure at a nail salon with the girls! She did great!

Love

Addie's mom didn't get Valentine's together until the night before, so they'll be going out a little late this year. But they sure were made with lots of love!

After we put Addelyn to bed the night before Valentine's Day, I set out her Valentine's gifts. Little did I know her Daddy had more to add the next morning. He even got her a sweet little Valentine's card and of course he remembered me too! Love him!

Thanks to Pinterest, I made these heart cinnamon rolls, which Addie didn't touch and Kevin had an early morning, so it was just me who got to enjoy them.

As I said, Addie didn't want much to do with her breakfast and actually had a little stomach bug, so no Valentine candy for her either. Poor thing.

Toy Story 3-Disney on Ice

Last Saturday, Kevin and I kept telling Addie that we had a special surprise for her. I think she was pretty surprised and truly enjoyed her first Disney on Ice experience!

Kevin took a little clip of the show for Addie to remember. So here it is baby girl!

Practicing

Yesterday morning, while I was getting ready for the day, Addie set her baby doll in the swing, wrapped her with blankets, gathered her books, and sat down in the Bumbo to read to her baby doll. I'm looking forward to many sweet memories!

30 weeks

Three quarters of the way there! In about two months he will be here! Since the holidays, time is just flying by! We are getting closer on a name, but might wait until he is here to make the final decision. Currently the front runners are Liam and Hudson. Kevin handed me a name book he had secretly purchased and had been highlighting. A lot of the names we both liked, but they just didn't flow well with James Widmer. The one that stuck for both of us was Liam. So we'll see if there are any new revelations in the next couple of months.

As far as the baby goes, my last appointment went well and Dr. Le estimated he was in the 50th percentile for size and said he had great muscle tone. Which I get to feel quite often!

One Smart Cookie

Addie loves to paint, draw and of course whenever the house is quiet, 90% of the time she is looking through her books. But I haven't been able to work with her as much on her letters lately and I've started thinking about what I would do with her this summer. So the other night we started talking and playing (a.k.a. "informal assessment" in teacher terms), and I realized she recognizes all lower and upper case letters and most of their sounds! I knew she was getting exposure but had no idea the power of Sesame Street, Word World, and various iPod apps! Wow!

While we were playing, I also decided to try her skills out on more focused drawing (a.k.a. "fine motor skills" Hee! Hee!). I had her trace over letters and draw lines to match baby letters with big letters, when out-of-the-blue she drew me a picture of a jack-o-lantern. I was so impressed, that I had to take a picture for keepsake to put on the blog! It even has arms and she colored in the eyes!

 

Watching her grow and learn is such an emotional experience for me. I know it's to be expected and all kids grow and learn in their own way and time and perhaps I'm just another proud, doting mother, but this week it seems as though it's been hitting me harder than normal. Besides discovering all the great things she knows, we also checked out a preschool on Thursday. Tears started streaming down my face as we entered the classroom. (I was humiliated and hoped the teachers didn't notice.) It reminded me of my own classroom and all of the joy I had witnessing other people's kids learn. It was completely surreal to think there I was on the other side with my very own child.

On a lighter note, here is a clip of her calling for her daddy so he'll come make her into a "cheesy roll-up" (Kevin wraps her in our comforter and takes her on a ride out into our living room). Kevin and I are around the corner giggling at her. We missed catching video of her hollering "KEVIN!" She alternates that with "HONEY!" and of course "DAD!" or "DADDY!"

Busy Bees!

I know it's been a while since my last post and here's a little explanation...

Kevin redid a dresser that once was my mom's, then my parent's redid it for me as a little girl and now it's Addie girls!

We painted stripes in the baby's room! I'll have to keep you posted on our progress with the new nursery. We also moved a few things in and a few things out for a weekend garage sale!

Making room for our new family member! It's amazing how much junk you can acrue! I don't love garage sales and dickering with people but I did love the opportunity to meet many of our neighbors. We got invited over to dinner with an Indian family, that makes THE best smelling food! And we also met a nice Lebanese doctor and his wife, who also invited us over for dinner. There were several other nice neighbors we got to meet. Who knew we had so many nice neighbors?! I guess we kind of just stick to ourselves.

Our neighbor Susan, whom we do talk to often, asked if she could put these items out and we said sure! It cracked us up when Addie moved on in. We told our customers, "kid for sale!" Hee! Hee! She was so social to the all the people who came by. She'd say "Hey Guys!" and "Have a nice day!"

Santa bought me a sewing machine! I can't wait for my mom to get here to teach me a thing or two! And although I don't have any new pictures Kevin's been quite the brew master lately!

And Addie, well, she is officially wearing Big Girl Panties! (Except for at night.) We are so proud of her!

Nothing cuter than a little bum or "bunkey," as we call it in our family! It's what I grew up knowing it as and it cracks me up to hear my husband telling her to wipe her "bunkey!" Ha! Ha! Ha! We never even talked about it and somehow it just became a "bunkey."