Our Happy Babe

We truly could not ask for a happier baby. She is full of energy, laughter, and smiles.

She learns things as fast as we can teach them to her, and never ceases to amaze me. She knows so many objects in the house. You can ask her to go pick out one thing out of her mess of toys and she gets it right every time. She is learning how to put her shapes into her shape house as well as building towers with wooden blocks.

Tim actually left her playing on the living room floor to go to the kitchen and when he came back she had (apparently) used a pillow to climb on the couch and grab the remote. He came back to find her sitting ON the couch holding the remote. My dad taught her how to "send a text". She has her own play phone and if you tell her to send a text...her thumbs start flying. Oh my!

She is not walking all over, but can take 4 steps or so and stand for a while independently. She can run through the kitchen in her walker and even knows what it means to "take a lap around the table" in order to get more cookies. :)

She also can feed her baby doll her bottle, pick her up and pat her back to burp her, and then give her a kiss. :)

She loves to be "so big!" and play pat-a-cake. Knocking over towers is another one of her specialties. :) Sesame street is always a must at 10am and she loves the price is right and wheel of fortune (and she claps for everybody).

She had another neurodevelopment appointment this past Wednesday and did ok. All of her motor skills were right on target. She was TERRIFIED of the physchiatrist who was a big man with a beard, and did not want to do her hearing test either. She is old enough I think to remember doctors and offices and is NOT a fan. There was no explanation as to why she had the seizure back on labor day.

The only poor thing is her weight....ugh. When she was weighed the end of July, she was 16 lbs 8 oz. After almost 2 months she is only 17 lbs. So a whopping 8 oz weight gain. We are waiting to hear from the dietician what they recommend. She eats like a cow, but does NOT sit still!! She burns her calories as fast as she can eat them. She is still in 9 month clothes... a few 12 month.

Even though she is small... she is strong and determined. She is also the happiest, fun loving baby around. I can come home after the worst day but she will run up to me and give me a hug and a kiss. Love her to pieces and wouldn't trade a thing in the world for her!

Smarter by the day...

Our big girl is a little sponge!! You can teach her anything and she will do it within a matter of days. She is so curious and loves to learn!! When you ask her where things are, she will crawl over to it and point. She knows which saying say what on her walls in her bedroom. I taught her to wave her hand in front of her nose when I ask her if she is stinky, and to do a funny mouth trick which you just have to see for yourself.

She continues to LOVE water!! We put away the monkey pool for the summer so now she wants to play in Tim's cup of water. The colder the better! She loves sticking her whole arm in, splash around, then pull her hand out and open and close it to "feel" the water. Her giggles are contagious!! She can clap on demand, loves pat-a-cake, this little piggy, and loves to brush her own hair (well kind of :) ).

She coninues to be a little book worm. Every morning and evening, she will sit on your lap for as long as you will read to her. This can be for hours!!

We are also teaching her shapes and how to take care of her baby doll (no there are no little ones on the way), but she loves to learn and play with both of them.

We still love to go for walks in the stroller as well. We cannot imagine our lives without our precious little girl!!

What kid doesn't love to play in the laundry basket!?
 

Our little book worm!
 

Feeling Dadda's water...she loves it!!

Baby Geocacher

Somehow it has been over 2 weeks since I posted something here-- so sorry to our out of state family!! Addison is getting out more and more. Tim has even taken her out geocaching a few times. In the pics below.. they went down to New Richmond. She will do anything that is outside. We try to go out in the stroller everyday, she loves to pull out grass, she "helps me" water the flowers which ended up getting us both soaking wet!! She is such a happy baby and we usually have a giggle fest in the evening when she thinks absolutely everything is funny.

Tim also just took her outside to be my motivation on a late evening run. I did way better than I thought I would do, but Tim is still a WAY better runner than me!!

Geocaching with Daddy

She is so content with books. She will empty the whole basket EVERY morning!

Addison and Grdma Sall at the Sandy Pines waterpark (not sure if I posted this before)
She LOVES Grdma Sall!!!

Crazy hairs and cute pink jam jams!!

My running inspiration :) (Tim pushed her and walked because our jogger stroller strap is broken)

Our Crazy Happy Baby

Sorry this is a bit dark... but you will still love it!!!

Mornings at the VH household

Our mornings are usually pretty laid back. Because we don't bring Addison to formal day care, she is used to hanging out at home in the morning. Every morning at 10am, this is how you will find Addison..... in her "car" (as Daddy named it), watching Sesame Street. She loves it! This is the time when I can get ready for the day and eat breakfast. She is just so so cute!!

Neurodevelopment Check Up

Yesterday Addison had her home nurse visit to see if she is on track with all of her milestones. This was the first visit that Daddy was there since Mommy was in Grand Rapids for work. She did SO well!! She scored on track in some categories and ahead of track in quite a few others. As expected, she is ahead with word association! She knows so many words and phrases! The nurse was also very happy how she did with gross motor movements like pulling herself up, standing, and how strong she is. The one thing that she is a bit behind in is her fine motor skills. We have been on and off track with this since the beginning. She doesn't try to grab something with just her thumb and first finger... she uses her whole hand which is an "immature" way to do it. Part of me wasn't surprised because we don't practice picking up small things because she would eat it faster than I could take it away!! The nurse always has her try to pick up this small button off a clipboard, but we will practice with the gerber puffs. We tell Addison they are "num nums" or "cookies". :)


Here is our smartie pants demonstrating her word association skills..... "monkey pool" is just outside on the deck. She got herself behind the curtain and was hitting the window to go out.

One year Dr appt

It is always fun going to the Dr's office to see how Addison is doing, how much she weighs, and how badly she will rip up the paper on the exam table leaving the mess behind EXCEPT when you know there are 5 immunization shots with her name on them waiting for her. I know kids need there IM's and it is a part of life, but I know that I am better at being a nurse giving the shots than the mom holding her daughter down. I gave her some Tylenol in her lunch before we went to her 2pm appt and she actually did quite well. The usual piercing scream that comes after the mouth open with no sound, but after all the pokes, I had a partial bottle ready that she sucked down in no time, burped, farted and was back to laughing and causing trouble. :)

She weighed in at 16 lbs 8 oz!!! That is a 1 lb 3 oz gain in the last month! She had only gained 1 lb. previously over 2 1/2 months. So way better!! Still have to take her in for extra weight checks just to keep a close eye, but I was very happy with that. She also grew a little over another inch.

It is now time to pack away the 6 month onesies and move on to the 9 month. She has already been in 9 month outfits for a while, but this is still a big step for Mommy and Daddy. She is just getting so big so fast.

She also can understand a lot of words and phrases! She knows where her ears, nose, and mouth are. She knows where to go in the house to get outside to feed the fish. She knows where her "num nums" are whether she wants a bottle (baba) or food. She says mama and dada all the time. If you ask her "who's home?" she will crawl around to the kitchen to see. She can clap on demand... although sometimes hitting herself in the face and she knows how to wash her hands. She even folded her hands when we prayed yesterday. She also knows highchair, car seat, monkey pool, books, bear, dollie, blocks and has even started to match up her shapes with the correct hole.

She crawls everywhere, walks along furniture, stands alone, and is just constantly on the move!

What happened to our 4 lb preemie that would hang out in her boppy next to me??

Every night we go out to "feed the fishes"!!!

Crazy pool hair

LOVE TO SPLASH!!!!!!

Water RAT!!

It is NO mystery that Addison LOVES to be outside and now IN the water. She is happy to get in to whatever water she can whether it is sticking her foor under the sink faucet or her hand in our drinking glasses. Her new love is her little tikes monkey pool!! She knows and understands so many words. You can ask her where her fish are and she will crawl to our side door to go out to our koi pond or if she wants "num nums" and she will laugh and clap. Now if you ask her where her monkey pool is she will crawl to the window, PULL the curtains and hit the window while screaming at her pool. We have taken her out in it a few times... the first time being the night of her birthday!! She had so much fun and so did we! She splashed so hard, Tim and I were about as wet as she was. We let her stay in until she was getting pruny and it was time to start the bedtime routine.

She is growing up so fast! We love interacting with her and her sweet laugh and endless expressions!!

Splashing!!!

She has to stand and walk ALL the time!

She loves that the monkey spits water :)

Snuggling by Mommy

Already wants to go back in.... and look at her stand!!

She is going to walk away any day now!

Landon John

Happy 1st birthday to our perfect baby boy up in heaven! We talk of Landon often with Addison so that she knows she has a twin brother watching over her.

We placed balloons on his tree in our yard and have his stone placed by it that we made as well. On the previous post you saw that we also did one blue cupcake for him. One other thing we did in rememberance was posting a memory announcement in the Holland Sentinel that ran today.

It has proven difficult again to be both happy for Addison and mourn for Landon.  We all went to the cemetary and sang "Happy birthday" and placed a car and a truck in his flower urn. We just can't say enough how much we love and miss him.

Thanks to our family and friends for all your thoughts and prayers over the last few days.

This is on the back of Tim's car

The stone we made for under his tree

Our twins

Playing with his car

Our family

Addison's First Birthday!!!

I have gotten behind in "blog world" and I apologize!! This past Tuesday I took Addison to the pediatric eye specialist and she passed with flying colors!! We never have to go back unless something would happen to her eyes (she goes cross eyed or fails an eye exam at the pediatrician). Another accomplishment and item off the list!!

AND......

ADDISON IS 1 YEAR OLD TODAY!!

The time has absolutely flown and we cannot believe everything that we have conquered. She is right on track with all of her milestones but is just small for her age (which is expected). Her most recent weigh in she was 15 lbs 5 oz. We get so many comments in stores how cute she is and then when we say how old she is, the response is always "she is so small!". To which we respond, "No, she is hige!!". She was only 3# when she was born. :)

Her birthday party today was so much fun. She slept right before so was happy and the life of the party all afternoon. So many of our family members were able to come, which made us so thankful we have a WAY bigger house now!! Not to mention... all the toys we have to find a spot for. :)

My decorating didn't turn out as planned because apparently there is a national helium shortage so we blew up all the balloons the old fashioned way. Tim made plenty of food and over 100 cupcakes! I brought some to my weekend friends at work (since I was supposed to work today but traded).

Addison loved all her presents and grunted and laughed at every card. We had her try a cupcake, but she wasn't too impressed. She made more of a mess with it than eating any of it.

She is crawling everywhere and will pull herself up on anything. She can walk along the couch and get to anything she wants. Her determination is crazy! She LOVES books and is learning so much.

We cannot believe a year has passed already! We love and cherish every moment we have with her.

The cupcake factory!

Cupcake table! We had a cupcake for Landon too.

First cupcake!!

She sat in her adirondack chair to open presents

Addison crawling through the tunnel from Mommy and Daddy

Playing on the bike from Uncle Kevin, Auntie Chris and the Fab 5....

....but she can't quite reach the floor...

so it is a scooter :)

July!!

We cannot believe it is July already!! Addison went to her first 5K-- the Zeeland Zoom where we got to see lots of friends and cheer for Daddy!!! The whole time Tim ran all she would say was "Dadda, Dadda, Dadda.... over and over!! She loves to be outside no matter what you are dong. She was even content to sit in her stroller and watch Mommy and Daddy finish some landscaping over the weekend ;).

Today was too hot though to be out for too long.... so we played inside. Mommy likes to build and assemble things... so I built the ducky a little house to sit in. Addison only destroyed it 3 times before the last time that I finally got it built! :)

Chillin with Dadda before the race

Waiting for Dadda to finish....

Mamma's Duck House....

And Addison on her way to destroy it :)

(It actually stayed up for over an hour!)