I'm a little sleepy,

but I'll have some more peas, please.

On Andy's birthday I referred to Addison as a Baby Banshee....this is what I was talking about:

That'll wake you up with a start!

Silly Sleeper

My mom always said that sleeping with me in her bed was like sleeping with a tornado. Christie describes sharing a bed with her niece like sharing a bed with a boa constrictor (a description that I have also assigned to Andy...if there is a spare inch of bed he takes it!).

Andy and I learned over Christmas that sleeping the same bed with Addison is like sleeping with a cyclone. She never stops moving, she wiggles and jiggles and giggles all night long. Lately my favorite game has been trying to predict where she will be in her crib when I check on her before bed or when I get up in the morning ~ it is NEVER in the place that I put her down.

For her nap this morning I put her laying on her back, her feet facing her sheep and her head facing her bear and star....this is how she ended up 10 minutes later:

Little Girl in a Big Car Seat

For Christmas Grandma & Grandpa Neyer bought Addison (okay, really, Andy & I) a new convertible car seat.

Basically, it is time to retire the car seat we brought her home from the hospital in and have been using ever since.

That car seat, a generous gift from the Arndts, only is safe for babies up to 22 lbs. and 29 inches long. Addison is already over 18 lbs. and 28+ inches. Not to mention while this car seat is the "lightest" variety on the market, it alone, with out a chubby bunny baby in it, weighs 9 lbs. Pulling 27 lbs in and out of the car everyday is starting to take a toll on my back.

Okay, so maybe I am out of shape, but after right after I finish here I am going to tune into ExerciseTV and do a little work.

Addison's new car seat will be able to be used now until her 1st birthday facing rear in our car, and then will convert to a front facing car seat up until she is 50 lbs and 50 inches long. I was 48 lbs in 4th grade, and Gramma Kathy is only 62 inches tall now, so this puppy should last quite a while!

Unfortunately the subzero weather has hindered our installing this into the car, but when the balmy 40 degree weather hits this weekend, she officially becomes a little girl in a really big car seat.

Looks to me like she is ready for the big transition!

How Sweet It Is

Addison and I continue to battle it out over "solid" food. Our first several attempts with rice cereal were messy and ended with a not very content child. Next we mixed in bananas on the advice of a seasoned father of two. While bananas were a slightly more successful endeavor, most feedings ended with banana/rice blend smeared all over her face and hands, as well as dripping from my eyelids after one well executed zerbert with a mouthful of food. Delightful.

This afternoon I tempted Addison with a new flavor ~ sweet potato.

Historically I have not been a fan of sweet potatoes. I avoided them at all the holidays, they didn't even interested me when dressed up with marshmallows and brown sugar. However, lately I have taken a renewed interest in sweet potatoes and giving them another shot, mainly because they are better for me than good old straight carbohydrate potatoes. I now have another reason to establish a little bit of respect for the the sweet potato...Addison seems to LOVE them. She scarfed down 1 1/2 bowls this afternoon, barley let any slip back out of her mouth and did not spit any on my face.

Yummy little sweet potato, you are alright by me.

Self Sufficient?

Does this mean that I can now get up at 6:45 a.m., hand her a bottle and go back to sleep?

Somehow, I doubt it.

Heathen Baby No More

This past Sunday we had Addison baptized. We had been planning on christening her in Cincinnati at our new parish, but since we have not moved and don't know which parish will be ours, we decided to visit Queen of Angels for another sacrament. Of course we picked the day that was -3 degrees below zero to dunk her head in holy water. Ooops.

Addison did wonderfully. She flirted with everyone around her, including the priest; tried to pull off the bonnet of the other little girl being baptized; kicked her shoes off repeatedly; and in general, was a baby rock star. Aunt Nikki & Uncle Jeafen are Addison's godparents, her moral compasses, her model Catholic examples. Already her little halo is shining quite brightly over her angelic head.

At Grandma & Grandpa Johnson's baby girl refused to nap and entertained her loyal fans with shrieks, dress eating and head bobbing. Her loyal fans cheerfully toasted her with many, many, many mimosas, while shoving all sorts of yummy food down their throats.

Tonight Andy & I are exhausted and are about to pass out, Addison is already snoring.

I had to explain to Addie that tomorrow she will not be greeted with flashbulbs or fifteen different faces....she's going to try to adjust, but I am afraid that she'll be bored to death being stuck with just me.

**Oh, and Jeaf finally met his nephew Emmett, looks like they really hit it off, eh??

The family is about to swarm upon us for the weekend. The floors are mopped, the bathrooms cleaned, the laundry almost done, everything dusted, the babe bathed, napped and fed....but our first guest has yet to arrive. Gramma Kathy was due in at O'Hare at 1:11 p.m. ~ instead her flight out of Albany just took off! O'Hare rush hour traffic, here we come!

Addison is super excited to see most of her aunts and uncles (we'll miss you Aunt Kimmie & Uncle Rick) and her grandfamilies...If this face doesn't say happily waiting to be spoiled, what does?

Hey, That's not Chocolate!!

We've started her on rice cereal. It's a hysterical disaster...thank god for bibs! She was excited to try her cardboard mush, I mean rice cereal, but not so thrilled with it...maybe peas will go over better!
She went from excitement, to confusion, to "hey, it's better than that freaking soy milk you people are feeding me".




Remember those adorable zerberts she does....she also likes to do them with a mouth full of food!

At the table with the Big Kids

On Sunday I got to spend my afternoon with Evan Brooks. We had a smashing good time, he helped me with my crossword puzzle and some Internet research on booster chairs, and I changed his diaper, sang him silly songs and held his bottle as he chugged it down. Addison is only 6 months old, but already I had forgotten how 3 month old babies don't need to be entertained. Evan was not interested in playing on his jungle gym mat; he was much more interested in me holding him so that he could snuggle and sleep. Addison is never interested in snuggling and sleeping anymore!

Since I was already in the 'burbs I decided to make a trek to SuperTarget (yes, Michelle, I know you are super jealous). I actually had to go to Renata's Target because none of the Targets in the city had the booster chair that I wanted to buy Addison. So, I wandered around SuperTarget, totally enamored with the awesomeness of it, and eventually bought the coveted booster chair.

This chair of course is needed as we wanted to start Addie on real food, and our highchair is packed away in Great Grandma's basement in Cincinnati (because we foolishly thought we would easily sell our condo and officially be Ohioans by now...stupid us). So the chair came home. It got strapped to a bar stool (might as well get her used to bar stools) at the kitchen island and she tried it out. We didn't feed her in it until Monday night...but we let her practice ....

This wooden spoon is now her favorite toy/teether. She can bang it, throw it, gag on it...awesome. Why is it that we have a room full of toys again??

Oh LU...

Loyola fell to Butler last night. Boo. That doesn't mean these people didn't have a good time!!

Meet You at the Top of the Coconut Tree

While Addison doesn't have the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom , the entire day it has been running through my head (a result of spending too much time in Miss Broughan's kindergarten class over the past 3 years).
This morning I took Addison for her 6 month check-up. Our appointment was at 9:45 a.m. and we weren't seen until 11:15 a.m., but that is a whole other story. Okay, back on track.

At Addison's appointment today our doctor walked in and said "Wow is that ther? She used to be such a little peanut and now look at her, she's a coconut!". He's right, she is a little coconut. According to her check-up here are Addison's latest stats:


Weight: 18 pounds, 1 ounce = 90th percentile


Height: 28 inches = off the charts, higher than the 95th percentile


Head circumference: 45 centimeters = off the charts, higher than the 95th percentile


As Brad Riggins once said, Andy and I are, apparently, the parents of a BIG girl.... Big and beautiful and funny. Lucky us!





Not so lucky Karen and Matt. They babysat tonight while Andy and I attended a Baptism class ('cause we are such good Catholics). I left at 6:30 p.m. ~ Addison started screaming and crying at 7:00 p.m.....and she didn't stop. Guess I should have warned them that they were taking the first babysitting shift after a round of immunization shots. Ooops!

The Gift of Silence

For those of you who have been around Addison lately you are probably well aware of her eardrum shattering shriek. I really can't give it adequate description. It's the ear damaging, headache creating noise of a baby banshee.

Addison thinks it's hysterical...to her it's a happy noise. To us it's the beginning of a migraine.

It's particularly painful if you have a hangover.

Thus, for her father's birthday today, Addison and I decided the best gift he could have would be a silent house.

So Happy 31st Birthday Dad! May your hangover end soon, may you remember that you are in your thirties and no longer have any bounce-back ability; may you learn to tell Corey and Christie that this next drink really is the last drink, and may your know that you are the best dad around and we LOVE YOU!

**A very Happy 31st Birthday to Fairy Godmother Kate as well...we also hope that your hangover leaves you a better person...and that your martinis were as fabulous as you are.

***A super Happy 6th Birthday to Corbin....we were super glad that you weren't hungover and we hope that Mom & Dad brought you to a restaurant that sang you Happy Birthday in a wonderfully obnoxious way!

Overcoming the bedoinky-doink

The week before Christmas Andy, Addison & I went to the Berkshires to visit my mom. Since we stuck in a snow storm we had a very relaxing quiet weekend of eating, drinking, playing Scrabble and generally staying warm indoors (well as warm as possible in my mom's house where the thermostat is set somewhere near 43 degrees) .

My mom decided that it was her duty to help Addison learn how to roll over. The two of them laid on the living room floor and mom gave her step-by-step instructions along with a demonstration or two. Addison wasn't very willing to roll over, but I am pretty sure she understood what was being taught.

She has been rolling on to her side for weeks, almost making the flip, but unable to completely control her bedoinky-doink and propel herself over. By the time we were packed to head to Cincinnati she had rolled over once or twice. On our second night there Andy & I checked on her before we headed to bed and she was sleeping soundly on her tummy in her Pack & Play...she had gone to bed, as always, on her back.

Now she rolls over whenever she wants, but sometimes gets stuck on her belly and can't figure out how to get on to her back, which gets her quite grumpy and she complains and complains until Andy & I give her nudge and flip her over.

On Friday Keelin tried to demonstrate rolling over to her by lying on my dirty living room floor and rolling back and forth ~ talk about being dedicated to the education of others.

Not Feeling so Great in 2008

New Years Eve has come and gone. Addison didn't have the energy to put on her party dress, but she did enjoy her date, Evan. Both were such party animals that they almost saw 8:30 p.m.
The rest of us enjoyed some bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, spinach artichoke dip, cheese fondue and a whole lot more. We were piggies....a few games of Scene It and Taboo, several glasses of wine and a champagne toast later and the night was over. It was a nice night and we all managed to wake up with out hangovers...however, we still celebrated New Years Day in the traditional couch surfing way.

While Addison may have rung in the New Year in style, now she's feeling a little under the weather. I wish I could feel as good as she does when she's sick....she puked chunky formula all over me 3 different times, and still managed to smile. Three outfits , one bath and a puke or two more later and she's in bed....she barely even had the energy to cheer the Tarheels to victory over Kent State.

Get the camera outta my face before I puke on you!