Comic Addie

Did a lil' drawing of Addie. If Teri can pull herself away from the enchantments of New Mexico, maybe we'll get a few real pictures.

Denver County Fair

Today the girls and I went to the County Fair. We had a great time. The most important lesson I learned from today is that Carnies have always been/are/will always be... Crazy and Creepy (yes, I meant to capitalize both C's. I don't think any of them read my blog so I feel okay about saying that. I will hear any and all rebuttals. 

This was Addie's first time so up close and personal with the animals and boy did she have a good time! Most of them were a bit scared of the little one year old coming at them screaming.

Isabel and I recently talked about cotton candy so we got some and she loved it. Addie wouldn't even try it. I think she literally thought I was trying to shove cotton in her face.

We saw the exact fun-house as seen in Grease. Isabel thought it was weird that I took a picture of a ride we didn't even go on (it was expensive).

 Isabel did ride the boats. As you can see, there were very few people there. I am sure most people come out at night to these things but it was sure nice for us to not have to wait in line and have those Carnies all to ourselves.

Addie ended up falling asleep in this position. She was hot and didn't really care about the rides.

 Here we are on the Ferris Wheel. Neither one of the girls new what to expect. Addie wanted to crawl all around while we were stopped and Isabel had no idea we were going to go up so high.

 There is I-70 below us. We were the only people on the ride at this moment. So we didn't have that kind of freaky moment where you are stopped at the very top and you have time to look all around and get super scared while you have both of your little children on your lap. Thank goodness.

 A view from up top of the outside stuff.

 And cute little Isabel giving me a cute smile because the Carnie behind me told her to smile, all creepy-like. Have I mentioned the Crazy Carnies?

Wait? Did I just do a blog post on the SAME DAY that we did something? Weird.

Happy Birthday Dear Addie Cakes!

Today is Addie's Birthday. She turned one. I have so many emotions about this milestone. I won't share them here on the blog but I will share with you some of the things that this sweet little girl is up to. (Some of you may know that I write the girls letters to them on their birthdays so we all have a record of what they are really up to and what I am really feeling. I am only telling you this because it is one of my favorite things that I have decided to do as a mom. I recommend it.)

 

Addie is our tiny little peanut of a girl. She is still wearing size 2 diapers and she is not showing any signs of growing out of that size any time soon. We go to the doctor tomorrow for her well-child check-up so we'll see where is is falling on the scale these days. She loves to be held a lot so it's a good thing she doesn't weigh more than 20 pounds or I would have some super amazing arms. Wait?

She is one smiley girl (most of the time). She has so many teeth and loves to show them off. She is working on teeth numbers 9 and 10 currently and I think 11 and 12 are showing signs of appearing one of these days. When people see her, the first thing they comment on are her eyes/eyelashes and her teeth. It just looks strange to see such a tiny little thing with this full mouth of teeth. Makes me chuckle every time. Oh, and she is a walker. She loves to walk. Lately, she has been trying to run a bit, it's either that or her head gets way too far ahead of her. When this happens the arms usually go back and out kind of like she is going to take off in flight. I will have to get a picture of that one of these days because it is pretty special.

The girl LOVES to eat dirt. She walks all around the yard with a mouth full of something then surprises us when we discover what she has been mixing up in there. So gross. But she enjoys it so much. Can you tell? She is so proud. Other things often end up in there also but nothing quite a disgusting as the roly-poly incident of 2008.

We had a birthday party for her a couple of days early. She didn't really know what to think about all of the attention and all of the presents, signing, etc. Her eyebrows were furrowed like this quite a few times throughout the night. She gets those eyebrow expressions from me. Everyone will be able to tell her whole life exactly what she is thinking. A blessing and a curse.

I don't think I have mentioned here on the blog that this little girl is gluten-free. So yes, this cupcake fits the bill in all of it's red-velvet-iness. Her allergy is mostly manifested through eczema but we seem to have it mostly under control with this diet. We are not sure if she will grow out of it or not. It has been interesting trying to find things that we can all eat that aren't super-expensive and that are gluten free (gf). I am kind of selfish with our bread and treats that are gf because they are such precious commodities. I usually tell Isabel to eat something delicious and not our stuff. I don't think Isabel realizes what she is not missing.

I am so glad that I was able to capture Addie's funny face that she has been making for the past few days. I am pretty sure it is a practice for blowing out the candle face but I am just not sure. Again, so proud of herself. Wait. Can I talk about the hair for a minute? I know I have talked pretty openly on my blog about Isabel's lack of hair but I have failed to state the obvious. And since everyone else is thinking it (and most say it): My kids don't grow hair. Not until they are at least three (hopefully!). I can't tell you how many times people have asked me how my girls - MY girls - have so little hair. Have you seen my hair? I looked like this when I was two. Oh well. I think my bald little babies are super cute in all of their baldness (and blondness (again, what the heck?)).

We really love this little girl so much. Isabel continues to be such a good sister (shoulder checks excluded). She loves when Addie comes to see what she is doing and involves her in the task. Addie thinks Isabel is super funny as long as she is at least 12 inches away. Addie gets super jealous when Isabel is sitting on my lap or when she is getting a bit too much attention from me. I am really excited for the day when they are friends and can play together without said shoulder checks.

Happy Birthday to our Addie cakes! We have loved your first year of life and our first year of you.

Video of Addie walking

For those of you not on Facebook, here is a video of Addie walking. She's been working on it for a while now but she is just starting to do it more casually. You know, with toys in her mouth and hands and as if she were a real big human.

Adelaide is 9 months old.

I know, I know. It's been a while. Sorry. 

Adelaide is now 9 months old. Where has the time gone? She is still a really good baby. We feel super lucky to have her in our family. It will be interesting to see what more her personality brings to our family. We went to her 9 month well-child check-up today and the girl is tiny. I don't understand how a girl like me can have such a tiny baby. Oh yeah. Hi Ryan! She weighs 14 lbs. 14 oz. When I told this to Ryan's mom she said, "3 pounds more than Dan when he was born!" You got that right folks. Ryan's brother weighed in at 10 lbs. 15 oz.. Back to Adelaide... That puts her right in the 1.95th percentile. What? 2nd percentile? My little peanut. She is now 27 inches long and has a head in the 66th percentile.

 Addie is crawling and scooting and cruising and standing all over the place. She has 5 teeth! FIVE. And I am pretty sure a 6th one is on its way. She is eating solid foods (which took her a while). She gives a nasty look with every single thing I put in her mouth. Seriously. I need to take a picture of that. It's like she needs to get used to the food that we put in there and then she really needs to decide if it is actually something she should eat. She likes to clap. She (sometimes) really likes her sister. She does this funny jerking of her entire body when she gets excited about something. She smiles at almost anyone who will look her way. It even breaks her of a crying fit if a stranger starts talking and smiling at her. (Too bad this doesn't work for me).

Happy 9 months out, Addie-cakes!

Friends

Imaginary friends, that is. Isabel has lots of them these days. She holds their hands. Plays with them. Buckles them in their seat belts. Talks to them. Sleeps next to them. You name it, she does it. So I thought I would make a record of all the names of her friends that she has been throwing around lately.

Patty

Kaley

Deli

Simba

Big Bert

Zoey

Maddie

Elmo

I am told that this is really an oldest child thing to do. The only benefit to me that I have seen so far is that imaginary friend peer pressure really can work. "If you aren't going to (insert parental threatening phrase here) then Kaley is going to have to go home!" You'd be amazed how that actually works. She asks me to take pictures of them and is in fact playing with them right now, being quite bossy, I might add. I wonder how long these friends will be a part of our household?

From Isabel's Camera

Isabel was able to go on a road trip with her Mimi and Gramps to Albuquerque for her cousin Andrew's birthday this past weekend (sorry for the horribly composed sentence). I told Isabel to take some pictures with her camera so we could see the fun time she had. From what I understand, her eldest cousin, Ryan, hijacked the camera most of the time BUT he got some great shots. Here are some of my favorites.

 I love Isabel's face in this one.

 I really like that it looks like he is holding the doll in this one, you know, for perspective.

 There were quite a few of Mabel, I have a feeling she might have been an easy subject.

 Who doesn't love a picture of a cup?

 A close up of cute little Lucy.

 Here is another baby shot.

 I wonder if Gramps knew he was taking this one. If not, SURPRISE!

 Transformer.

Missionaries giving big smiles and thumbs up. If their mothers could see them now.

 President Monson.

And the photographer himself!

Great job, Ryan! We are so glad Isabel could go on a little adventure and spend time with some of her cousins! She had so much fun (and so did we!).

Isabel's Birthday Interview

I decided I am going to interview my children on their birthdays every year and make the interviews into a book to one day give them. This was our first year doing it but it was so cute I wish I would have done it last year with Isabel, she probably wouldn't have understood many of them but it still would have been cute. I thought I would post her answers because it was so much fun. I can't wait to see how her answers change over the years.

What is your name? Isabel. Isabel Lyla Grange.

What is today? My Birthday.

When were you born? Today. February 9th. (Nope, wrong date)

How old are you? 4. 3!

Who is your mommy? Momma Grange

What does your mommy do? She cleans up the room. (She also said I pee on the couch but that's not true.)

Who is your daddy? Aunt Erin? Daddy.

What does your daddy do? He plays with me.

What is your favorite color? Pink.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Fairy Godmother. Just kidding. A frog.

What is your favorite food? Grapes.

What food do you not like? Callapitters. (Caterpillars.)

What is your favorite animal? A Lion.

Where do you want to live when you grow up? In the jungle.

What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? Go to bed.

What does daddy say? Let's wrestle!

What does mommy say? It's time to go to bed. Let's do a dance.

What is your favorite song? If you're happy and you know it.

What is your favorite movie? Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate.

Where is your favorite place to eat? Panera.

Who is your favorite person? Mimi. Momma. Nana & Poppa.

Who is your best friend? Megan.

What is your favorite book? Little Hoot, the one that daddy got me.

Who is your sister? Adelaide.

Where did Addie come from? Your belly.

What is your favorite thing to do? Play with you. (That's me!)

What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios. Life.

What is your favorite vegetable? Crunchy carrots.

What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk and apple juice.

What is your favorite toy? The hammer.

What is your favorite TV show? Sesame Street.

What is your favorite game? Candyland.

What is your favorite holiday? My birthday.

If you could change your name, what would you choose? Abby Caddaby.
What do you love about each person in our family?

            Mommy I love when I hug her and she hugs me.

            Daddy I like when he wrestles with me.

Addie I like when I play with her.
Where would you like to go on vacation this year? Let me think in my head while I make some music...The Temple!
What are some of your wishes for this year? The angel.

And then I had her draw a picture where she proceeded to draw a picture of Ryan with a mustache and eyes with tears. This kid is really funny. She had a great birthday with lots of family, friends, toys and ice cream cake. We love our little Isabel. And thank you all for loving her too.

Games of Yore

I am a COLLECTOR. Ryan says I am a hoarder. That's not true. I collect things that I know I'll like a lot in 20 years and that I know my children will also love. Luckily, my parents support me in this addiction habit.

So, Isabel has been really "in" to games lately. I've played a LOT of Candyland and I'll admit I am a bit sick of it. One day I decided to look for some of my old favorite games. Found them! Again, NOT a hoarder, I can find things! Then I took pictures.


First up, PERFECTION! Who didn't love Perfection? Please note that after all of these years it is only missing one single piece, that's pretty amazing.

And when it did this? Still makes a girl jump. (For real.)

Second, Simon. Oh, Simon. This game was so much fun. We had the big version AND the travel version. I just bought batteries the other day to see if this baby still works but I haven't tested it out yet. What a great game.

Thirdly, Lights Alive. I loved this. It was so cutting edge (so I thought). This was a later 80's toy (I think) that was a knock-off of a Light Bright (which we also own). Really cool. I'll show you sometime what it does if you don't already know. (Please note the dress up cloak on the little feet in the background. See previous post.)

And finally (for now), an E.T. card game. Did anyone else have this game? My sister and I played it all of the time. It was kind of like Old Maid but you did something different. Maybe I'll read the instructions sometime.

I love the pictures on the cards. So classic.

That's all for now. I am sure we have a few more of these awesome games tucked away in my parent's attic somewhere...

Quoteable Quotes

At dinner tonight.
Me: Isabel, is Patty (imaginary friend) Mormon?
Isabel: No, she's a GIRL.

Ryan and Isabel in the car driving to church.
Isabel: What's mommy taking?
Ryan: To church? Addie.
Isabel: No, what is she taking?
Ryan: What do you mean what is she taking?
Isabel: Is she taking Santa Fe? (Santa Fe is a road.)

Last night while giving Addie a hug goodnight
Isabel: Addie, wrestle mania, Wrestle Mania!, WRESTLE MANIA!!!!
(All while having her arms around her neck and one leg on top of her.) (I thought I had girls?)

Dressing Up

It seems like all Isabel wants to do these days is dress up. I have become a mom who teeters on the edge of just letting her go EVERYWHERE in her dresses. Mostly what is holding me back lately is the cold. Come summer I'm sure she will be all dress all the time. If you see us, don't judge. It's a battle to get them off and it usually ends in a promise that she will be able to put a dress back on right when we walk in the door upon returning home. Oh, and I can do almost anything while putting the dresses on her (why are those things so tricky?) from eating to feeding Addie to cooking and even while trying to nap. So one day I decided to take a picture of her in each one of her outfits. I admit that one of these is from a different day but I would like to say that as the day went on and the outfits kept changing, I forgot to take pictures. So, here are four of the outfits but if I remember right, I think there were 2 more. And then I threw in one of Addie for good measure because I am sure her days of dressing up have only just begun.

This is a good story...

...about how I am a bad mom. Yesterday I was making dinner with Adelaide in the Baby Bjorn. I had to reach for something above the stove so I tried to hold her off to the side. Well, she's getting bigger and smarter and grabbier. She ended up kicking the hot pan I was using off of the burner and proceeded to put her little toes on the burner. TOES. ON. THE. BURNER. Zoinks. I saw smoke so I ripped her sock off of her foot and checked for damage. Her toes were fine. What saved her? Her sock. I picked up her sock and there was, in fact, evidence that there was some burning that had happened (besides the weird smell that is now penetrating my senses). All was fine. Then Isabel started crying. She was scared that her sister had been hurt and her sweet little caring self got all worked up quickly then was so relieved that she had to just let something out (so cute and sweet). Then it was over and we continued to make our delicious meal.

The Proof is in the Toof (I'm tired)

So that you all know, I am going to try (once again) to be a better blogger. The goal for 2011 is for me to blog once a week for the year. That's 52 posts for the year. Just a small goal but I am needing a bit of a fire to keep up with things. Today you will be getting a super cute picture of Adelaide.

There are those teeth. She's got 'em. Two of them. She really is one of the smiley-est babies I have ever seen. She loves showing off her teeth and smile to anyone who will look at her.

Stay tuned for a recap of Isabel and her clothing choices these days.