The Wonderful World of Bribing...

Well it has now been two full weeks since Addison made the big girl switch. I am happy to report that life is almost back to normal! Pretty much as soon as Dave got back from Utah she stopped getting out of her bed and took good long naps. All it ever takes is her daddy! She isn't getting up super early anymore either which I am so grateful for! I will admit that all of this success didn't come without a price. I started a sticker chart for nap time. If she would nap in her bed for 4 days then she got a prize. She picked out princess dress up shoes and it worked like a dream!!! She didn't miss a day and when I open the door after her nap she shouts, "Hooray!" We have now moved on to a purple princess wand and the naps are going strong. I never realized how precious nap time was until it didn't happen for a week straight! A few days before the chart I tried using popsicles as motivation and it worked a few times. Mostly I ended up giving her one anyway because it was so hot and humid out. 

One afternoon when I was laying on the couch I asked Addison to bring me a pillow. She ran over and got the pillow and then pulled back and said, "How do you ask?" I about died. That is what we always say to her to get her to say please. It made me laugh pretty hard and she does it all the time now. Another little quirk that she has developed is that she wants to close every single door all the time. This has resulted in a smashed finger, split toe nail and a whack in the head. It drives me nuts so we've settled on she can close her door as much as she wants during the day! Most mornings when I go in there she has Harley's little picture in bed with her. She loves that little guy! She started howling in the car today and I asked what she was doing and she said, "Talking to Harley!" Dang that Aunt Jenny for moving and taking her buddy with her! A few times this past week Addison has come down the stairs with her blanket and binky. She has been really good about leaving the binky in her bed so I asked her what she was doing. She mumbled, "I having a hard day." Most of the days that Addison fought naps and was a little stinker I would tell her that usually through tears or passed out on the couch. She picks up on the funniest things and I am realizing that she is starting to understand emotions...she must have gotten that skill from her dad:) Usually after nap time or in the afternoon Addison wants to ride her trike. She flinstone peddles as fast as her little legs will let her. She can't reach the peddles yet, but she still gets going pretty fast. She likes to ride clear over to the Quinn's and back on it. She leans really far forward and puts her elbows out. It makes Dave and I laugh every time we are behind her. She has learned to climb into her carseat and high chair all by herself recently which has saved my back, but tested my patience! She is getting better about not running all over the car in the process of getting in her seat. She always says, "I do it , ALL BY MYSELF!" She even learned to buckle herself in her high chair without any pinched fingers...yet. On Sundays Addison takes off her shoes every week in nursery. It it gross and nothing we say will change her little mind about it! We have thought about using duck tape to solve the problem! Eating around here has been a little bit of a struggle lately with almost every meal. We starting clapping and saying hooray if she would eat something. This has now become a consistent activity at meal time. Where did my good eater go??!? We love all these new changes and phases that Addison is going through. I love seeing her develop and the thing that I love most is that she still loves hugs!

Visitors!

Our friends from nursing school who then later moved to El Paso while we were there came for the weekend. We have a lot of good memories of hanging out with the Andersen's and things were just the same! When we moved their kids seemed so little and now they are in school and grown up! Addison kept calling them her "friends". She enjoyed having the extra playmates to run around and giggle with. We had already planned a garage sale to have this weekend so that was the only thing we had to fit in before sight seeing. The sale ended up being a lot of work and little return. Dave thinks it was a success simply for the fact that now you can walk around our basement instead of weaving in and out of junk. We went to Niagara Falls Saturday afternoon and enjoyed walking around the American side. The weather was pleasant and everyone talked me into wearing my support hose...with shorts! I ended up being really grateful I did since my ankles were already really swollen to begin with. We stopped by Dee Dee's Dairy for some Perry's Ice cream. Dave enjoyed his ginormous double scoop the most! We introduced Duff's wings and New York Style pizza which was a hit. We stayed up playing games and watching movies at night. The boys somehow managed to bring out the xbox and reunite their night shift rituals of playing to stay up late. We're glad they made the trip over before we moved and it was great to catch up!  

Maternity Shoot Take Two

I decided that I would regret if I didn't take some pictures of this pregnancy. Juana was nice enough to snap a few for me at a local park. I am a few days shy of nine months and taking photos alone at this point is awkward! I had some fun editing them and am grateful for good friends to put up with me!

Erie County Fair

The Erie County Fair was one of the first things that Dave and I did once we moved here 2 years ago! I can't believe that Dave is almost done and we'll have to grow up here soon. We love fair food, people watching, the animals and more fair food. Last year we saw this guy who does a pretty good balloon show. He is entertaining for kids and has some hidden adult humor that makes it fun. We enjoyed seeing him again and Addison got a giant worm balloon thrown to her. She enjoyed most of the show, but kept hitting people with the balloon so we had to leave. Her favorite thing to see was the goats. Dave showed her how to feed them straw so they would come close. Scared me, but she was pretty happy about it. We saw cows, ducks, chickens, pigs, sheep, goats and bunnies. I got a corn dog and Dave got curly fries. Addison downed a big pretzel and half of my "spicy juice". We topped off the night with a bag of deep fried oreos. Addison wouldn't touch them which meant more for Dave so he was happy. We got home late which meant a long night trying to get Addison to calm down from all the caffeine she managed to sneak. We love fairs and always look forward to them every summer where ever we live!

Big Changes

A lot of new things have been happening around the Michael house this past week. We thought that with the new baby coming in five weeks (ekk!) that we better move Addison out of the crib. Little did we know that it would also mean the end of our sweet 2 year olds personality! We spent all day Monday (mostly with me directing Dave where to move things) cleaning out and moving things to the basement. Who knew we had so much stuff crammed into the smallest room in our house. Our home teacher was nice enough to help Dave with the heavy things and all of Dave's text books. We got the bed set up and sheets put on just in time to tell Addison goodnight. I want to look back and read this post someday and laugh thinking, " I can't believe she went through that phase!" It took almost 3 hours to get her down. It was a lot of tears, shouting and her slamming the door in our faces. Dave and I ended up taking turns laying down by her until she finally fell asleep. My entire body was numb by the time I got out of her room from laying so weird on it. The next day for nap time it took almost as long and she ended up finally giving in and then sleeping way to late! My perfect child has never been a consistent early riser. She inherited that awesome gene from me! This entire summer she has been getting up around 8:30 or 9:00 and it has been amazing for my pregnant body. Now she has been getting up around 6am!!!!!! AHHHH. I am so grateful that we waited to do this change when Dave had time off in between semesters or I would have given up and put her right back in her crib. Dave fixed the door handle to her room and now it latches. I am embarrassed to say that we put a child lock on the inside of her door. I feel really guilty about it since I used to say that I would NEVER do that to my child:) We are in survival mode around here! This morning Addison still got up early, but at least I slept better knowing that she would just call our names instead of sneaking down stairs and getting out every.single.toy! She has fallen asleep in the car on our way back from the playground the past couple of days so nap time has actually happened. She isn't napping her usual 3 glorious hours, but I knew that wouldn't last forever. Dave and I have become the parents that pass out at 10pm who whisper and tip toe as to not wake our big girl toddler. I was just telling Dave last weekend how Addison has become my little buddy and things are just so easy with her right now. She tags along on all my errands and will lay down for a nap without a fuss whenever we get back. I am laughing right now as I am typing this just thinking of how we brought all this change upon ourselves. It needed to happen, but I can't help but wonder if we are doing the right thing. I got out all the baby clothes and changed the bedding in the crib. Addison calls it "Avery's Room" now and it breaks my heart a little bit. I cried the other night laying by her looking at her trying to fall asleep. Big changes are going on around here and everyone's expectations have had to shift a little lower. I don't think that we'll be doing as much running around or "doing". I need to be okay with that and learn to enjoy these last few weeks that I have with just Addison as my buddy:) Oh and heaven help me this weekend while Dave is gone to Utah! I am hoping Addison is over the initial shock of moving rooms and will maybe only take an hour to lay down!?!? I love Addison and I am grateful to preserve this memory of our little family trying to figure out what the heck we are doing as first time parents!!

Happy Birthday to Daddy

Dave hit the big 2-9 on Saturday...although he thought he was turning 28?!? I love it when birthdays fall on the weekends. Mostly because the celebration lasts all weekend! We started off Friday after Dave got home with going to see the new Wolverine movie. I shoved a pillow in my purse to sit through the two hour event. We came home and Dave took Addison on a bike ride to the playground while I made his birthday dessert. He chose strawberry rhubarb crisp. However, I spent almost three entire mornings checking out all the grocery stores around here and rhubarb doesn't exist right now. It was very disappointing so we settled on adding some blackberries which were just as good. Addison sang her little heart out on "happy birthday daddy". She has been waiting all week for it to be his birthday so she could give him the present we picked out. Right when we got home from the store Addison shouted that we got him a belt so there was so surprise there. We have to be careful what we say around her now! Addison also insisted that we get daddy a balloon for his birthday. I gave her change to pay for the balloon and she got to carry it to the car. She was very proud and then had a difficult time giving it to him that night:)  Dave got birthday french toast and opened his presents the next morning on his actual birthday. I gave him an arrow rest for his bow and a bike tune up. He got some nice cards from both our parents to go and enjoy his time in Moab next weekend with. I had planned to drive down to Presque Isle Beach in Erie, Pennsylvania for the day. The weather was PERFECT. We really lucked out and we all really enjoyed the cool weather by the water. Addison isn't much of a sand digger so she spent most of her time in the water or laying by her dad on a towel. Towards the end Addison made a little friend that she kept wanting to have her sit on her lap. It was pretty cute. We tried to brush all the sand off and change before we headed out to dinner. We found a little Mexican place to eat ( I secretly wanted somewhere that would really embarrass Dave!). I ordered a fried ice cream at the end and threw in a oh it's his birthday comment to our waitress. Dave saw her get the sombrero and knew what was coming! I let my camera in the car, but they made him eat the cherry with his teeth followed by smashed whip cream in the face. It was awesome and Dave was a good sport about it. We hit up a store for Dave to get some her shirts and then made the drive home. It was a good day and Addison and I did a good job of reminding Dave how much we love and appreciate him throughout it! 

Dave cooked up a "Man Trip" next weekend with his high school buddies. I am not looking forward to being alone, but Dave has worked really hard these past two years so I am supporting him. They are going to Moab to do lots of man things like white water rafting, hiking, jeep and probably a lot of sweating! This baby better not decide to make any moves while he is gone though!

Dave has the next two weeks off before he starts his LAST semester! I feel in complete denial that he is almost done and that this baby is almost here. We are moving Addison to a big girl bed and attempting to do a garage sale next week. I still need to get down the baby clothes and wash and organize them. Before we know it she will be here and everything will change! I am hoping for the best and trying to help Addison prepare for her new big sister role around here!