Infant to Toddler

12 Months!

This year Adisyn went from a helpless newborn to a walking, babbling sweet-heart! Isn't it amazing what a baby can do in one year? Could you imagine if we accomplished as much in one year as a baby? She is turning more and more into a toddler every day. I officially got rid of all of her bottles (although she has not used them since before Thanksgiving) and although she does still use her paci, she is limited to sleep time and travel. She went through a phase for about a week when she really didn't want to eat anything, but now she prefers to feed herself finger foods. We have begun feeding her what we eat (most of the time) and she really enjoys eating what the family eats! At her 1 year old check up, she weighted 19lbs, 1 oz. She has transitioned from a newborn to infant and now to a toddler!

After having a family birthday on Christmas, we decided we just wanted to have a quaint little get together for her birthday. We originally rented out the clubhouse at our subdivision, but since we invited only a few friends who live near-by, we thought it would be more intimate if we went for breakfast. So, on January 12th, we went out for breakfast at the Grapevine Restaurant and it was perfect! Adisyn shared the morning with her friends McNeill, Jefferson and their families. They all did so well together!

 

After breakfast we spent the afternoon in Greenville. We went on a nice walk around the park and played at the playground. The weather was great! After the park we stopped by the Rousey's to help with their remodeling project. While Mark and Trey worked on their back porch me and Paige watched Jefferson and Adisyn play. It was a great end to the day!

For Adisyn's birthday weekend, we went to the beach. It was cold there, but we were able to swim in the indoor lazy river. Adisyn loved it becasue she had her own little tube and loved to kick her feet! We also went to the Ripley's Aquarium. We were the 1st ones in there so we got to take our time and Adisyn could really enjoy all the exibits. She really enjoys touching and feeling the glass and of course trying to catch the fish! We also went walking on the beach and Adisyn picked out some seashells. It was a fun, relaxing weekend!

Since Adisyn has turned one she has started a whole new chapter in her life. She started day care and is free to eat just about anything! Since Mark and I eat pretty healthy (most of the time), she eats pretty good as well. We're hoping starting eating healthy from the beginning will set up good habits as she gets older. Day care is very exciting as well since she is in the "1 Year Old" classroom, she is meeting new friends, is learning so much and gets to try even more new foods! Her first project was a penguin that she colored on her first day. I love the excitement of what she's going to learn and do that day! In fact, her 1st two days of school, she didn't even care that I was leaving and I had to kiss her and tell her "bye" with her not even watching me leave! I know that this will be such a great opportunity for her to grow and learn!!

Adisyn had her first bout with walking pneumonia and a few weeks later (at the beginning of 1st full week of daycare) she got RSV and then, two days later, a double ear infection. Since having pneumonia in December she already had a nebulizer so we were already prepared for the treatment with RSV. But, despite her not feeling well, all of the staff at the pediatrician commented on how sweet she was, as she still loved to smile and wave at everyone (even the people walking by in the hallway of the medical building) - she truly is a very sweet girl!

Adisyn has learned a few new tricks since my last blog. She now says "ball" and loves to roll or kick the ball. She still loves her dolly and loves to hold, carry and hug her. She also likes to say "yes" or "no" by nodding or shaking her head. Surprisingly she does this appropriately - if you ask her a question she knows it's a question and will answer you. More commonly now she likes to nod "no", but to know that she's learning to express her own wishes and wants is amazing.

Adisyn also does "squats", as I like to call them, because she bends and straightens her knees repetitively, like she's doing her exercises. It's funny because I never realized how much she was really paying attention because when I'm holding her sometimes I'll go "down" and "up" in the squat position because she would always think it was fun. Now she does them on her own! Every day this week she has been walking more and more to her toys (where before she preferred crawling). She also is preferring to stand to play more often now.

She LOVES the song "If You're Happy and You know It". She has the song on her CD that we listen to in the car, but once again, I didn't realize how much she was actually paying attention. Then, one day while I had Pandora Radio on, the song came on. It was a different version of the song that she has in the car, but when they said "clap your hands" she actually clapped her hands with the song! Now, every time she hears the song she claps along with it.

Zoie (our female German Shepherd) and Adisyn have developed quite a symbiotic relationship with each other. I have noticed that Zoie is really beginning to appreciate Adisyn, now that she's more mobile. Now, though, Zoie will hide under the table and Adisyn will sneak food to her when they think we're not noticing it. When Adisyn is all done with her food, she just starts feeding Zoie. At least Zoie is there to pick up any scrap that Adisyn dropped, but it's still funny to see them work together!

What a great first year! We are so proud of Adisyn and she is growing into such an inquisitive toddler! We can't wait to see what her 2nd year brings!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

She just couldn't contain herself before Christmas!

The days leading up to Christmas....she loved the bows on the gifts!

Adisyn loved the lights and the shiny ornaments

Christmas was even better than imagined! Adisyn loved opening her gifts, although she was very dainty when she did so. Surprisingly, she enjoyed looking at each and every toy that she got! I thought she would like the ripping open of the gifts more, but she just took in the whole thing! She was so tired, but with all the excitement she didn't want to stop. Then, when it was time for her afternoon nap, she slept over 2 hours!

Adisyn's 1st Christmas

On Christmas morning, we all got up about 7:30am or so. After a quick breakfast Adisyn opened her gifts from us and my parents. Then, Adisyn went upstairs to wake up Grandma and Grandpa so she could open their gifts. She sat on Grandpa's lap the whole time and looked at each present one by one. After a late lunch for Christmas dinner where we had ham, turkey, corn salad, mashed potatoes, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese, all homemade! Her aunt Sue, uncle Wayne and cousin Sarah came by afterwards.Adisyn really liked playing with Sarah and walked a lot for her. For dessert, we had a some homemade raspberry cupcakes, that Mark and I made to celebrate Adisyn's birthday with the family. Adisyn loved the cupcakes with the home make raspberry icing!

Adisyn's birthday cupcake

She loved the icing!

She ate the whole cupcake!

Sarah liked reading to Adisyn

Adisyn loved walking to Sarah

For Christmas Adisyn got some girly building blocks and a Disney Princess Castle from us. I am amazed how Adisyn stands to play with the castle and gently puts the princesses inside. She really likes it! She is standing up a lot more to play, especially when she plays with things like her castle. At times, she's even walking to her toys instead of crawling! She got two baby dolls (from MiMi and Grandma and Grandpa) and she loves them both. She loves to cuddle up to them and hold them.

We had a wonderful Christmas as a family and we couldn't have asked for a better time. It was so exciting to see Adisyn experience everything for the first time! We feel so blessed to call her our little girl!

Our living room before our family arrived

These Boots Are Made for Walking

11 Months!

What an exciting month! Adisyn has been up to so much this past month that I had to write it all down as the month went on.

To start off, the moment we've all been waiting for - Adisyn is officially walking! She has been standing and taking a step since 11/11, then on Thanksgiving day she took about 2 steps and on 11/24 she took 4 or more steps! Here is a video from that day:





Mark had to work on Thankgiving day and originally we planned on making a nice little meal for the three of us when he got out of work. But, on Thanksgiving day we were invited to the Rousey family dinner and they didn't want to take no for an answer. We really love spending time with them and Adisyn really likes playing around Jefferson. Adisyn had her first taste of turkey and she loved it. She ate all the pieces we put on her tray. She also ate stuffing and sweet potato casserole. It was nice to share Adisyn's first steps with them so we had a memorable Thanksgiving around great friends!

The following day we decided to have our own little Thanksgiving at home when Mark got out of work. Besides turkey Adisyn had some more stuffing and sweet potatoes. She is really getting the hang of finger foods and is starting to prefer to feed herself. She even drinks her milk from a sippy cup!

Thanksgiving meal

Thanksgiving Day







Adisyn has a lot of special friends. At the end of November we went to the park with her friend Amelia, who's about 4 months older than her. She liked watching Amelia walk because she's so good at it! She also met, for the first time, Ava and Bella (who are a few years older than her) at the park.


Adisyn & Amelia 11/2012



Adisyn & Hunter playing at his 1st birthday - 12/1/12

On December 1st Adisyn went to Hunter's first birthday party. Hunter walks so good and can run where he almost looks like he's skiing with his arms back! She also met Santa for the 1st time that 
day. We went to a place called "Hatcher Gardens" where they had free picture in exchange for can goods. So, we got Adisyn dressed up in her cute Santa outfit and got her picture taken. The only problem was that the photographer took the picture right when Adisyn first sat down, so she wasn't looking at the camera....it was still a cute, memorable day, though!

Adisyn's 1st time with Santa at Hatcher Gardens

Adisyn has been to a couple play dates since the last blog. In November her friend McNeill hosted, then in December, Jefferson had a playdate where Santa came. All of her friends wore their pajamas, so it was really cute!


Playdate at McNeill's house 11/18/12

Pajama Santa Playdate 12/9/12



Pajama Santa Playdate 12/9/12

 

It's apparent that Adisyn is understanding a lot more words. On 11/14 she started nodding "yes" when you ask a question. On the 19th she actually said "dada" on purpose, when calling or talking to Mark. Now, she loves to call him all the time! She knows what the words kitty, doggy, mommy, daddy, grandma, light, fan, ball and dolly are. She also blows a "kissy" and waves "hi" and "bye" on command. Later in the month, on the 26th, she started saying "mama" on purpose (not just when she was mad).

As Adisyn is starting to understand more, she is also letting her personality really show through. She now tries to be silly and makes funny sounds like putting her hand up and down on her lips when talking and she starting clapping. The first day when she started clapping, on the 29th, she would crawl 2 feet, sit, clap, then crawl another 2 feet and do the same thing.

Adisyn clapping:



We noticed she is also getting more sociable because she wants to wave at everyone (and everything). The three of us went to the Greenville Christmas Parade on December 1st and she really liked all the music. But, what she liked most of all is that everyone was waving! When people in the parade or in the audience would start waving, she would just wave back to everyone around her. When we go in a restaurant or store she waves at everyone that goes by. Every morning when we wake up she has to wave at Mr. Snowman by the fireplace, Zoie, Guss, Camo (the cat), even the ceiling fan. She is quite the social butterfly!

After the parade we went to Roper Mountain Lights. There, you drive through and look at all the Christmas lights from the car. By this time it was getting late and she was really tired, but when I got her out of her car seat to look at all the lights she watched them like they were the coolest thing ever! We loved to see her face of excitement! It makes us feel like we're re-living our childhood again. I loved the feeling I use to have around Christmas and as an adult, I never thought I'd feel that same way again. Now, to see everything though Adisyn's eyes and to join in to all the festivities makes us feel as we did when we were younger.

Greenville Christmas parade 12/1/12

We really want to make Christmas special for Adisyn so that she loves it as much as we do. One thing that we decided to do and we want to start the tradition off when she's young, is that she understands the meaning of Christmas. Mark and I have been talking about this for some time and then I got a message from my sister telling us that she is trying to get my niece, Kylli, to appreciate less materialistic things during Christmas time so she is limiting her spending. I just thought this was such a great idea because we were wanting the same thing and to know my sister is on the same page just gave us the push we needed to come up with some ideas. To begin, we adopted a family in which we bought Christmas gifts for the family. Adisyn went with me as we picked out the gifts for the children. We want to be a part of this as a family every year so Adisyn will grow up and look forward to this.



Adisyn helping pick out gifts for a special family

We also decided that we are only going to buy a few things for her. We don't want her to think of Christmas as a time when she gets infinite toys that she doesn't even need. At the same time we do want to get her a few things so that she will get the thrill of the excitement of a few new things. What we really want to focus on is, like I said, what Christmas is all about. We want it to be a celebration of Jesus's birthday and not about proving your love through materialistic things. We have what we want in our family and we want to share that with others. To further encourage us with this idea was our Sunday school lessons this month were about the "Advent Conspiracy" which basically talk about the same idea of how commercialized Christmas has become. The lesson's don't necessarily say not to get gifts for one another but instead makes you realize how you can make the season more meaningful to your family to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas.


With this in mind, the final thing we plan to do this year is bake cookies to deliver around the neighborhood to the new neighbors. We figured we have about 6 new families living here, so we want to make some cookies, put them in some pretty packages, put a tag on them with a verse of the true meaning of Christmas followed by "welcome to the neighborhood". We thought it would be a fun thing to do as a family every year. Adisyn and I have been busy making crafts to give to her grandparents that we thought they would enjoy, rather than gifts. We hope this all will create great traditions for us as a family and at the same time get Adisyn excited about Christmas time, while understanding what Christmas is all about.

This pass month Adisyn has been trying a lot more finger foods and she finally has 2 bottom teeth! We thought she was teething long ago, then, at the beginning of November the two finally came through! Besides our Thanksgiving dinner, she has eaten spaghetti squash, wheat pasta, black beans, turnips and instead of processing everything in the food processor, we're getting her to eat more solid foods of things we eat such as meats, fruits and vegetables. She weighs almost 19 pounds now and is growing by the day. She hardly fits in some her her size 2 shoes but some of the size 3 are still a little big. I have been pulling out more of her 12 month clothes, although I noticed she still fits into 6-9 month clothes, but I guess that's because of sizing. She fits better in her 12 month footy pajamas than her 9 month ones. Her new favorite things are her dollies and sleeping in with mommy and daddy on their days off (after getting up at her normal time, we bring her back to bed and she has slept to 9 or 9:30!). She has also started trying to play with Zoie and is learning how to climb up on things (such as the mantel). She still loves to chase Camo around the house and he's realizing that she's getting a lot quicker! She loves to be outside as she'll kick her feet as we're opening the door. She loves being able to be more independent and she's able to explore the world around her!

We're all ready and very excited for Adisyn's 1st Christmas! We can't wait to share it with you next month!


I just love this video, so I had to share. Adisyn really doesn't like to nap....

One Busy Chick

10 Months!

Is Adisyn really 10 months already? She has had a busy month so it really flew by fast! Not only has she been doing some new and exciting things but she has also been to a lot of new places!

To start, for the long weekend on October 19th to the 22nd the three of us drove up to New Jersey to see my dad. The trip was supposed to take about 10 hours but took over 12 with traffic. Adisyn did really good on the drive, despite having to be in a car seat for so long. We spent Saturday with my dad in Philadelphia. We took in the sights, got some cheese steak and went to the New Jersey Aquarium. Adisyn really liked watching the fish, the sea turtle and the penguins.

Adisyn loved watching and trying to touch the Sea Turtle

 

Adisyn watching the penguins



New Jersey with Philadelphia in the background

Adisyn and Pops watching the divers

 

We left Sunday morning, but wanted to make the most of our drive and take our time, so we stopped in Washington D.C. There, we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Adisyn loved the Butterfly room! She really wanted to touch them but the #1 rule was that we couldn't touch! After leaving D.C that afternoon we headed towards Richmond, Virginia, which was about the 1/2 way point for us. We spent the night in Richmond before heading out the next morning for home. We really enjoyed the ride home much more because we got to take our time and stop more frequently. We had a great trip and I was glad my dad got to see Adisyn for the 1st time.

Me & Adisyn in the Butterfly room

On October 28th Adisyn and I went to a Halloween party. All of her friends were there dressed in costume and it was so cute! I love to see how she is able to interact with her friends more and more.

The cutest bumblebee ever!

Attempt at doing a group shot at the party

Adisyn and Jefferson (the magician) playing



On October 27th we went to the apple farm. It was our 1st time there, and we're thinking about making it a tradition. We went to the pumpkin patch, went through the corn maze, and bought some apple butter. Adisyn loved the big pumpkins there that were bigger than she was!

Checking her height

Not in the mood for pictures after her nap 

Adisyn loved playing on the big pumpkins

Pumpkin patch

Mommy & Adisyn in the corn maze

Corn maze

The following week was Adisyn's 1st Halloween. That night, we headed over to our neighbors across the street and sat outside with the fire pit to hand out candy. Adisyn dressed up as a chick and it kept her warm! It got really cold that night and the fire pit really helped. Adisyn got to see her friend Hunter, who was a lion. His older brother, Jackson, was Mario. We also had hot apple cider, spider cupcakes, mummy hot dogs and apple bread (all of which Mark made). We had a total of 1200 trick-or-treaters before we ran out of candy at 8:00. It was a fun night! Adisyn held in pretty good, kept her hat (or chicken head) on the whole time and at about 7:30 or so she started getting a little sleepy. Mark is already thinking about what he wants to do next year!

"My 1st Halloween" picture

One happy chick

Daddy and Adisyn getting ready for Halloween

Adisyn & Hunter (the lion)

Over the Sims house
 

Besides all the festivities, Adisyn has been up to a lot of new and exciting things this month. On October the 6th Adisyn started dancing! It is the cutest thing but I haven't been able to catch it on video yet but she does it whether she is crawling, sitting or standing. She will pretty much dance to any type of song or beat she hears, but she really loves her stuffed dog that plays music. As soon as I get it out, she starts to shaker her head a little, letting me know she wants to dance.

Since the 25th, she standing has been standing on her own and has been pulling up to standing in th crib. Now, when I say "standing up" she was actually in her bathtub, put her hands on her knees and stood up without holding onto anything or pulling up on anything to a standing position. When she did this she was so shocked (as was me & Mark) that she started crying when she realized she was doing it on her own! That night, she wouldn't stop doing it in her crib, in fact, the rest of the week she didn't sleep so well because she was so excited to stand up every chance she got! She is able to take a step but then dives towards you because she's still afraid to do it on her own....she'll get there!

Her new favorite thing to do is chase the cat around the house in her walker. She can go so fast now and the cat is terrified (but yet still comes out for her to find him again). She just runs, giggles and screams as she follows him everywhere.

Since Adisyn has been more mobile our dog Zoie has taken a new interest in her. Zoie really likes to be with her no matter where she is. One day when Adisyn was crawling around and Zoie was playing with her favorite stuffed squeaky toy and Adisyn seemed interested. Zoie looked at Adisyn like she wanted to play but then placed the toy right in front of Adisyn and walked off as if saying "you can play with it".  You have to understand that Zoie loves her toys! But, if Zoie wants to be in the same room as Adisyn is in, she stops at the door and waits for us to tell her it's OK for her to come in. Adisyn really likes Zoie and loves to watch her play!

Adisyn has had a few new foods this month: beets, eggplant, whole pieces of bananas and avocado as well as different flavored yogurt flavors like peach. She still really likes bananas and avocado no matter what form they come in. She is getting more efficient with her sippy cup and is cracking down on the paci habit and uses it only when in her crib or out in a restaurant.

For the first time Adisyn has had some separation anxiety. Any time I leave, whether at church or before I go to work, she cries. It seems like this month she has been more attached to me than before.  She prefers to play with Mark, but cuddle with me, but I'll take it! I know this won't last for long so I want to enjoy it while I can!

This has truly been a fun and busy month! We are so proud of Adisyn and how much she is learning every day!