We Could Use Your Vote: Pepsi Refresh Everything Grant

Please check out my employer's application for the Pepsi Refresh Everything grant for $250,000. It just takes a minute to give your email (don't worry, they won't be sending you emails) and create a password to cast your vote. It would be greatly appreciated if you could vote for our application once a day for the entire month of March!!! Out of 1,093 applications, we are currently ranked #55 and only the top 2 applications will receive the grants. Thanks!

Maybe This Blog Should Be Called Catching Up With Addison

    I've been horrible at keeping you up with Addison so this one's going to be a doozy.  We've had Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Addy's 2nd Birthday party since my last post as well as many little outings to do fun stuff.  I definitely didn't capture pictures of everything as I wish I would've, but there's more than enough of the things I did take pictures of.  

   We recently went see Addy's pediatrician for her 2-year well baby visit and all is well with our Sugie Boogie.  She once again did awesome with whole process...even her flu shots!  She actually told the nurse "thank you" after she jabbed two needles into her leg!!!  Addison's weight was at 27 lbs 5 oz. and she measured at 34 1/2" tall...both were in the 50th-75th percentile for her age.  She estimated that Addy is at the developmental level of a child who is 3 years and 1 month old based off of a little worksheet they give you while you wait for the doctor to come in.  She seems to keep thriving and Nick and I are amazed by how quickly she picks up on things.  Her speech is out of this world and I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom.  Months ago, my mom and I sat down and made a list of what words she was saying on a regular basis and we made it to 360.  Since then she's added many more words, but is talking in full sentences quite a bit.  She even knows a couple of Chinese words thanks to Ni-Hao, Kai Lan!  She doesn't just say them, but you can ask her what is "ting" in Chinese and she'll tell you it means "listen" and then you can flip-flop the question with her as well.  She was trying to push my mom into the kitchen the other day and my mom asked her what she was doing and she told my mom "I'm pushing you...tway" (pushing in Chinese is pronounced "tway").  This age is so much fun!!!  Watching her little wheels just constantly turning while absorbing everything around her is awesome!!!

   Enough with my gushing on how wonderful we think our Addison is!  Enjoy all of these pictures from the past couple of months.  Thanks for checking back with us after we abandoned our blog for so long! 

The weather on Addy's 2nd birthday was much like it was the day she was born!

Yes, Addison is wearing a bicycle helmet, one elbow pad, pjs, and snow boots while saying "CHEESE!"

Aunt Marla got Addy a kitchen for her birthday so here she is cooking us some soup with her new kitchen.

This little birthday pirate partied a little too hard and is exhausted from all of the excitement!

I'm sure she was probably telling someone "THANK YOU" here...she was very grateful for everything!

Cousin Ashley and Karsyn got Addy this awesome Paul Frank helmet w/ elbow pads-she loves wearing it around the house as you can see in a previous picture!

Our little birthday pirate helped her Dada swab the deck after the party was over.

Dada did a great job on her pirate party sign, don't ya think?

Her Bam-Maw did a great job on her pirate birthday cakes too, huh?  The little pirates and parrot were made by hand out of gum paste-AWESOME JOB, BAM-MAW!!!

Bam-Maw even made Addy a birthday pirate outfit!

Addy and her pals, Marlee and Abram, riding in the wagon at the KC Zoo

We learned that Addy loves merry-go-rounds a little too much to have that be the first stop at the zoo because she did not want to do anything else!

Halloween night and Addy was pretending to drink pumpkin juice from her little pumpkin's stem-yummy!

YEE-HAW!!!!

Addy and the wooly worm she toted around for hours at her Bam-Maw and Grampy's one day.  She's such a tomboy!

Picking out a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch for the first time!

Addy and I on the train at the pumpkin patch.  She enjoyed waving at everyone we passed.

Addison was a KU Jayhawks cheerleader for Halloween (funny video to follow).

Climbing a tree at Bam-Maw and Grampy's

Dancing with her mini scarecrow in the driveway

She L-O-V-E-S picking flowers

The following pictures were taken by my BFF, Beth, the end of October...thanks again, Beth!!!

Ewww...it's stinky!!!

You will want to turn the music off at the bottom of the page before playing this video.  

A Long Time Coming

I've once again put off updating Addy's blog...imagine that!  Over the past two months our little Addison has changed so much.  She now has a full head of wavy hair, a mouth full of chompers, and is full of spunk!  She talks up a storm now and enjoys making animal noises on cue.  Her specialties are a monkey, cat, mouse, chicken, elephant, snake (Grammy taught her that a snake says, "sssss" and she moves her neck like a cobra), bear, and cow.  She's gotten pretty good at it and takes it very seriously...especially when growling like a bear!  She even growls at random strangers when we're out and about.  I'm thinking we're well on our way to having a "class clown" because she's a complete goofball and is happiest when she's the center of attention making us all laugh.  Her latest "trick" she started has been picking her nose (as you can see from one of the pictures in the post).  I will say that she mastered it right off the bat...that's my girl!  She skipped over using just one finger and jumped right to using both index fingers at the same time!  Just as I pulled the camera out to catch that Kodak moment the little stinker pulled one out, but luckily left the index finger in prime picking form so I could show the picture and tell the story to her when she gets older.  I don't know why, but for some odd reason she thinks that during dinner is the ideal time to do her picking...even if we're out at a restaurant.  Fun times!  My parents always told me there would be paybacks from how I always tried to embarrass them as a child when we were out in public.  I hate to say it, but they could be right about that!  

About a month ago I started watching my best friend's baby boy, Bennett, 2 days a week when I'm home with Addy.  Addison is obsessed with Bennett and is so sweet and gentle around him.  She is still napping when Beth gets here to pick Bennett up so she doesn't get to say her good-byes.  You'd better believe the first words out of her mouth when I open her bedroom door to get her up from her nap are "BABY" or "BABY GONE?".  Once I bring her downstairs, she checks anywhere and everywhere Bennett has been...the bouncer, the playmat, the bassinet...and keeps saying, "baby gone" with her shoulders shrugging the entire time like he's M.I.A.  She's even started wanting Bennett to come sit with her while she eats her breakfast in the mornings so she can stare at him saying, "hi" while waving in between bites.  Needless to say, she's definitely enjoying his company and I don't think he minds her company either.  She tends to get some pretty big grins out of him.  I just wish I knew what she was saying to him when she gets to rambling a mile a minute.  It's like she's speaking Chinese and he'll look at her like he knows exactly what she's talking about.  

This kid is most definitely the outdoorsy type.  She could stay outside all day long just exploring.  Picking and smelling flowers, playing in the grass, gravel, dirt, blowing dandelions, etc. 

Here's a condensed version of some of the words/phrases she's been saying quite a bit lately:

Banana, Chair, Apple, Dog, That's cool, Hey guys, Monkey, More, Drink, Done, Noodle, Baby, Hi, Money, Raining, Where'd it go?, Tickle Tickle Tickle, Bath, Teeth (she likes to look in our mouths and inspect our teeth when she says it---see the last two pictures of her playing dentist with her daddy), Shoe, Belly Button, Hair, Ew, That's Stinky, Yuck, Duck, Fish, Ball, Bubbles, Balloon, Bird, Peach, Beans, Tree, Chip, Cake, Book, It's a baby, Baby gone, The baby's crying...she says that anytime we're anywhere and she hears a baby crying-it's cute how she looks so concerned when she says it!  

Well, I'm going to stop myself now and by the looks of how lengthy this post has become, I'd say this post sure was a long time coming!  I could go on and on about how awesome our Addison is and how lucky we are to be her parents!