All About Addison

I've been really enamored with Addison lately, even more than usual. She is changing all the time and getting to be her own little person. Her personality is so funny and curious. She observes things with amazing detail and recites information she learned herself, much to our surprise. She will often say or do something that causes Michele and I to ask, "where did she learn that?"

Last Saturday, we were all in the kitchen. Michele was putting away dishes (or something - I don't remember), Addison and I were sitting at the table, Addison lined up her food (prunes) on the table and was counting them 1,2,3,4,5 - she has counted to 5 on a few occasions but not consistently. Just then, she started back at the first one and counted 6,7,8,9,10! Michele and I looked at each other immediately and said "did she just count to ten?!?" She did indeed - we were so proud.

She is also starting to string several words together as she develops speaking in sentences. For example, she saw a picture of me in my car on my way to work and said "daddy, car, work". This morning, there was a note on the kitchen table from Michele - Addison took it and said "mommy, paper, coloring". When she wants something she says something like; "Peanut, want some, cookie, ok, thank you". When she drops her doll she say says "babydoll fell, owwie, hurt, peanut pick up, are you ok?"

Addison starting sleeping in her own "big girl" bed on Saturday also. I had to build a platform to raise it up a bit so the rails would fit and it works great. She has done a very good job of sleeping in it and not getting up several times a night like we were expecting with her new found freedom. She hasn't figured out how to climb back up on the bed so if she does climb down, she's stuck. We usually find her sitting on the floor behind the door but she's been quiet and seems to enjoy having a little more space to herself. The next project will be to dismantle the crib (it's too big to fit through the doorway) and move it into Van's room.

Last weekend, we went to fly a kite. She has seen kids fly kites on Barney and says "peanut fly kite?" when she sees them. On my way home from work last week, I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up a Sesame Street kite. On Sunday, it was breezy enough to take it out. I thought she would get tired of it after 2 minutes but she really liked it and enjoyed holding the string. A few times she would let go of the string (on purpose) and laugh at mommy and daddy running across the field after it.

My little girl will be two years old in seven weeks. I'd like for her to stay right where she is.