Happy Birthday Addelyn!

We celebrated Addelyn's first birthday on Saturday, June 19, 2010.  We had to celebrate a month late since Jay was out of town for the original birthday party date to be with his father during his final days. We all miss Addie's Grandpa Kim so much.

Addelyn had a very fun birthday celebration.  Grandpa Pat came into town, as well as Aunt Jennie. Great-Grandma Suzette was still in town too, so we had lots of family to help celebrate. 

Addie's cake and decorations were Sesame Street theme, and her favorite party activity was playing with the helium balloons her Aunt Jennie bought.  She is still playing with those balloons a week later!  She wasn't too sure about her cake...she eventually picked up one of the sugar frosting "crayons" and chewed on that for awhile. Her friend Baby Morgan had just come to the party when we started singing Happy Birthday, and all Addie was interested in was him!  ;)  We eventually just brought Morgan up to sit by her while she ate a few bites of cake. 

I think she thought Morgan was one of her baby dolls (even though he is about as big as she is!), because she kept trying to pick up him...so funny!

Other party attendees included Grandma Julie, neighbor "Uncle" Jimmy, neighbor Ann, Morgan's parents Jonathan and Aimee, friends Merideth and Nehamiah, neighbors Laura and Lindsay, and Uncle Adam and his girlfriend Staci. She got sooo many gifts (take a look at the "spoiled" hat below) which is good because she was getting a little bored with her old toys.  She got several beautiful new dresses, some cute new outfits, a Baby Einstein DVD, doll, books, her own laptop, giraffe, emerald necklace and water table from her Aunt Jennie, a backpack carrier (for Jay and I to carry her in), a couple balls, some wooden blocks and hammer toy, color and texture puzzle, and of course, her "If you think I'm cute, you should see my aunt" onesie.  Bet you can guess who that was from :)

It was a very happy celebration, although Addie wasn't too interested in opening presents or her cake.  Of course, after everyone left she was all about her cake! 

Happy birthday, sweet pea!

Swimming Fun

Addie still loves the water as much as she did last summer. We go to her "Uncle" Jimmy's pool to swim about once a week. Jim even bought Addelyn her own little pool that floats in the big pool. She just loves to sit in her pool and eat pretzles, which is a special treat that she only gets at Jim's house (she loves salty foods!)

We are starting to teach her how to swim, and she is great at kicking! She isn't so sure about floating on her back yet. I also tried teaching her how to blow bubbles the other day, and she tried it right away....and ended up with a mouth full of water. Sorry, chickpea!

What's Addelyn Doing at 13 Months?

I thought I should write a bit about what Addie is up to these days.  She is finally getting better at her nighttime sleep, and she usually only wakes up and needs mom or dad once a night now.  She sleeps from about 8:30 pm until 7:00 am.  She takes 2 naps everyday, usually for a total of 3 or 3 1/2 hours. When she's not sleeping, she is busy, busy, busy! 

She started to walk about three weeks ago. She has taken many steps, but usually only when coaxed or encouraged by mom or dad.  She still just prefers to crawl to get around - much faster, I guess. She still doesn't do a traditional crawl...she does a 1-legged scoot that's hard to describe.  I think it's a result of not wanting to put her knees on the hard tile floor...much more (well, not that much more since she's such a skinny-minny) padding on her bottom.

She knows where her ears, eyes, tongue, and teeth are.  She will brush her hair and teeth when I do, and likes to hold, rock, and feed her baby doll. She babbles all the time, although the only real words we've heard are da-da, mama, hi, and ba-ba. I swear I heard her say "balloon" the other day, but maybe it was just me.

She loves to play with Dakota, swing, play outside, and read books.  She likes going on outings and is so social - waves hi to everyone.  She loves bathtime!

She is finally starting to eat a little more, and her favorite foods are chicken, fish, pasta, blueberries, peanut butter, sorbet, and crackers - or anything salty. She also really likes spicy foods. Go figure...Jay and I love spicy foods!  She is starting to use her spoon and can drink out of a cup pretty well with just a little help.

She has two full teeth (center on bottom), and three on the top just broke through a week or so ago.  Her hair is getting longer, lighter, and curly. She is absolutely beautiful!

13-Month Photos

Our friend Sarah took Addelyn's 13-month photos a couple of weeks ago, and they turned out beautiful! We just can't believe how our little baby girl is growing up so fast. She is learning new things all the time and continues to amaze us everyday. We love you, Addie!

12-Month Stats

A bit late on this post, but here are Addie's 12-month stats:

Weight: 17.8 lb (5th percentile)
Length: 29 in (46th percentile)
Head: 17.6 in (35th percentile)

She's a petite little thing!

Grandpa Kim's Birthday!

We celebrated Grandpa Kim's birthday by going to Owen's Fish Camp, a new restaurant in Sarasota.  Great grandparents Bob and Joanne were there, and so were great aunt and uncle Diann and Kevin.  Grandma Julie also joined in the party.  Addie gave Grandpa Kim two framed pictures of them for his birthday.  Addie had a great time getting passed around the table, eating lemons, crackers, and lobster-tomatoe soup, and smiling and waving to all the other people in the restuarant.  She even went on a walk around the restauarant with our waitress, who said Addie was going to help her get great tips that night!

Addie's First Easter

We celebrated Addie's first Easter with Grandma Julie, Grandpa Kim, Grandma Kristi, and Great-Grandparents Jan and Virgil.  Addie got an Easter bucket with lots of fun toys and Easter eggs.  Dakota got some new toys from the Easter Bunny too. Addie loved her bubbles and the plastic Easter eggs.  She got a fun new outfit and crayons from Grandma Julie. Grandparents Kim & Kristi got Addie her first bible and a bunch of fun beach toys.  We can't wait to use those! 

Addie looked so precious in her Easter dress and she even wore her little headband - we thought she'd pull it right off, but she wore it for pictures like a champ!

We also had fun decorating Easter eggs with Addie the day before Easter.