10,000!

Quick note from Mommy...

Two days ago, I was in our guest room... aka our "storage room" (it's amazing how stuff accumulates so easily!) and Addi was out in the living room playing with her toys. You can usually hear her when she's playing - she's either singing, talking to her dolls/Roo, or banging things together... you get my point - there's hardly ever a quiet moment...

Well, there was an odd "quiet moment", so I went out to check on her... in the living room? nope. In the kitchen? nope. I check in our bedroom and I find Addi by the sink, sitting on the floor, licking her fingers very deliberately...

I exclaim, "What are you doing?!"

She says "Yummy........ teet!"

and I find her open tube of toothpaste on the floor beside her.

*she calls anything that has to do with teeth, "teeth"... so her toothbrush is "teet" and her toothpaste is "teet" and the actual act of brushing your teeth is "teet"

*usually we keep the toothpaste out of her reach, on top of the counter... but Daddy put her toothpaste in one of the safe drawers (the drawers she can reach)... the toothpaste is back on the counter!

At the Palace with Ella

On January 24, Mommy, Daddy and I headed to the city to take care of Ella while Uncle Jason and Auntie Monica were at his company party.

I had a lot of fun playing with Ella and trying to make her laugh by jumping on the bed and making funny faces.

Me and Ella!

Daddy was trying to make us both laugh... I guess Ella didn't find him very funny!

I'm 20 months old!

Isn't she a cutie!
Look at those cheeks!

Trying to give Ella a kiss...

Ella was very interested in pulling my hair...

Daddy and I give Ella a smooch!

Daddy kisses Ella!

I was trying to capture it on film...

This is DEFINITELY a better angle!

Daddy tickles Ella's hand with his chin

It made me giggle!

What a great night!

(from Mommy: it was a great night until bedtime!... and competing for attention time when James left to pick up dinner!)

I'm 20 months old!

... And I'm all over the place, as you can see...

Mommy was trying to take my 20 month photo, but I just wouldn't sit still... and if I did sit still, I wouldn't look up!

Mommy and Daddy just saw a State Farm commercial that almost made Mommy cry...



while searching for this commercial, I came across this one too... (parents, you know what I'm talking about!)

Happy Lunar New Year 2009

It's the Year of the Ox!
Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year!
I'm wearing a gold Qi Pao from Tiyo Kevin (I think it was for my birthday or Christmas last year), but it fits me now... Torrey sent me some beautiful clips and the yellow one matches my dress!

(I was picking my nose and Mommy told me not to, but I thought her reaction was hilarious so I kept doing it! Daddy and I were laughing at her!)

Note from Mommy

I forgot A LOT of little things that Addi does, and I didn't want to wait until next time (that might be another 3 months from now... yikes!). I'm making a Lunar New Year's Resolution (does that even exist?) to do a "Note from Mommy" AT LEAST once a month!

"come"
If Addi wants you to follow her, she'll say "come" and squeeze her hand in a "come here" motion... Sometimes, she'll take you by the hand to lead you wherever she wants to go!

secrets
Usually at night, we'll exchange "secrets" with each other - I'll whisper in her ear and she'll whisper in my ear... she's getting really good at this - she used to either talk out loud in my ear or whisper, but not in my ear. It's totally cute and she's been doing this with Daddy too!

"reading" her books
Sometimes she'll grab a book and pretend she's reading it... she uses SO MUCH emotion and nods her head as she reads... I wonder what she's thinking!

Letter recognition
I should be WAY MORE disciplined with teaching Addi her letters instead of playing Dolly with her, because I've taught kids her age before... So, I've been channeling Miss. Marie from a previous life and playing kids songs and trying to do "lessons"... I haven't done a "lesson" since November or December, but she still remembers the letters we did "A, S, O" (chosen for their distinguishable shapes)... another Lunar New Year Resolution: Letter Recognition!

Hair
Her bangs go past her nose right now and I swear, she prefers to have her hair in her face instead of tied back! I feel like I'm constantly putting something in Addi's hair, only for her to take it right off! She looks Snuffalupagus(?) or a sheep dog... Uncle Josh says she looks like Boy George! Daddy thinks her long lashes keep her hair out of her eyes.

Getting into things
I guess this will never end, will it? She loves to go through drawers and pull everything out - It's semi-babyproof because we don't have anything dangerous in the drawers... but *sigh* one thing she loves to do is pulling floss out of the dispenser... we have two floss dispensers with floss wrapped around the outside of the dispenser because of her. They are now out of her reach.

Towel, please
One good thing about pulling things out of drawers is when it's bath time, I can ask her to grab her towel from her dresser and she'll bring it to me. Unfortunately, most of the time she drags her towel on the floor to bring it to me in the bathroom - but she's learning, right?

Putting away her laundry
I usually fold laundry in the livingroom and once it's folded, Addi will help me take her folded clothes from the livingroom to her dresser. Rarely does a folded piece of clothing get to her dresser folded... but she likes to be a helper and I don't mind refolding a few pieces of clothing... for now, anyways!

Mommy's and Grandma's helper
Addi loves to help around the house... don't get me wrong, she still makes 100 times more of a mess than she cleans up, but she tries... she'll sing the "clean up" song with me while she puts maybe 3 things away... while I put away the other 97 (I'm overexaggerating...) She likes to "vacuum" - the vacuum is on and she does the motion, but she doesn't really pick up too much since she vacuums the same spot over and over and over again... and she'll wipe up her toys with a baby wipe. She helps Grandma too... yesterday, she helped Grandma load the dishwasher - a spoon here and there.

Jealousy around other babies
I've never seen Addison jealous around other babies - she never cares if I'm holding another baby... I've seen OTHER kids jealous when their moms hold babies, but not Addi... not until last Saturday! Baby Ella was crying and I was trying to soothe her by rocking and singing to her. Addi was trying to grab my arms and at first I thought she was trying to grab Ella to soothe her herself because Addi and I play a game with her dolly - I sway dolly first and then Addi copies me. Anyways, I wasn't about to let Addi grab Ella (I think they weigh about the same now)... so Addi starts crying too! I'm standing there, rocking Ella, trying to get Addi to stop crying too and eventually, I have both of them in each arm and I'm rocking both of them and singing.
... It was at that moment that I decided that I'm not ready to have a toddler and a newborn. Yikes!

Our Door
She knows our door - we can walk through the hallway and she knows which one is ours. It's not that difficult and she's known it for quite some time now, but she used to try to walk to our neighbour's door!

More soon!

What's ... name?

On our way to Grandma's, Mommy asks me about the people in our family... notice what I say about two of my uncles... (Sorry Jason - we'll do a special video for you next time!)

My knits

I love to play with my knitted sets - I like to pull them out of my dresser and play with them!
I'll usually announce to Mommy and Daddy that I have my "'at" and that usually means I have my hat and sweater set...

Showing off my hat and sweater...

I try to button the buttons by myself... I'm not ready yet!

Here's my hat and sweater!

Ok... time to take off my hat!

Welcome Mr. President!

Mommy and I watched the inauguration at home... Don't worry, I didn't sit this close to the TV - it's only for the picture!

Visiting Leia

After lunch, we visited Princess Leia... She looks a lot like her older brother, that's what Mommy thinks, anyways!

Cousin Isaac and me - he's only 5 months older than me, but he's MUCH taller!
I think we wanted to play outside!

Cookie time!
I cheesed for the camera!

Isaac cheeses for the camera!

Me and cousin Leia!
Can't wait to play with you!!!

Dim Sum with Auntie C

On January 18, we planned to meet Auntie C for lunch. We arrived a little early (and there was a long wait for a table), so Mommy and I went to Daiso. I loved running around the store and trying to get Mommy to catch me! We left with some plastic crayons that are supposed to be unbreakable - let's see what the strength of Addi the super scribbler can do!

The first picture I ever took by myself... Auntie C was the model!

Me and Auntie C ~ I think we'll take a picture like this every time we see each other!

cheesh! Me, Auntie C and Daddy

We were all supposed to blow out our cheeks, but it was just me!

CHEEKS!

Auntie C taught me how to blow out my cheeks!

Can't wait til next time!

Playing with Grandma

I love to play with Grandma! I especially love to play with Grandma in her front yard - I get to walk on the bricks like a big girl!

I can do anything I want, right Grandma?
(right, Addi...)

Grandma and me!

Cheese!

That's my Daddy... he's the best!
(She's definitely turning into a Daddy's girl...)

Look at how tall I am!

Can you see Daddy? He's so silly!

I can walk here by myself!

I need a little help over here...

I'm flying!

I'm REALLY flying!

Brunch with Grandpa

I was so excited to have Grandpa at our house! I kept screaming out his name "bapa, bapa, bapa!!!" I'm sure he was getting annoyed at this, but I couldn't help myself! I loved to walk into his room and talk to him!

We took Grandpa out to Brunch before dropping him off at home. I loved my sausage, barely touched my fruit and kept eyeing Grandpa's waffle - too bad I can't eat any!

Look at all the jam I can play with!

Which one should I play with first?

Here I am with Grandpa and Mommy.

Here I am with Grandpa!
(from Mommy: Addi's going through this phase where she literally says "cheese" when we take a picture of her - but she makes this scrunchy face when she says it - she furrows her brow and "ch's" her teeth... so for now, please don't think my daughter is unhappy... she's usually smiling before we ask her to say cheese!)

Here I am with Daddy and Grandpa!
(again with the unfortunate "cheese" face)

Xavier and Addi's photo shoot

We decided to have dessert at home - Auntie Chee-Deh introduced us to Toll House Brownie Bites(evil!).

Xavier woke up, so of course, the cameras came out! I was seeing stars by the end of the night!

He's going to be awake more often now, so I guess we'll have to get used to the pops!

Hanging out with Grandpa

Grandma had a slumber party at her house with her girlfriends, so we decided to have a slumber party of our own with Grandpa!

Grandma dropped him off on Friday the 16th and we walked to the park. We listened to Grandpa tell us his great stories of his Navy days - I'm sure I heard a few words that I shouldn't have!

We ended the night at our neighbourhood English pub and the Vargas' joined us. I enjoyed the french fries and chicken... yummy! It's been harder for me to sit still while the grown-ups chit-chat, so Mommy and Daddy took turns walking me around the restaurant. I found a few adults that we willing to talk to me!

"Whatcha looking at, punk?"