Smart Little Cookie

This morning after breakfast Addison and I were upstairs in the play room playing as usual. After playing for a little bit she crawled toward the stairs as she does many times a day. Usually I try to bring her back to the play room and distract her from wanting to go down since I probably go up and down the stairs 20+ times a day .  Sometimes she cannot be distracted and she wants to go down.  That was the case this morning so I helped her go down the stairs.  Often as soon as we get to the bottom she crawls right back up.  This morning she did not just want to go up and down the stairs.  She was on a mission.  She crawled over to where I keep her diaper bag.  She reached in and pulled out a diaper and my sunglasses.  Both were quickly tossed aside.  She reached in a third time and pulled out the little tupperware container where I had some animal cookies.  She then crawled over to me as quickly as possible and handed me the container.  She wanted an animal cookie.  

I was so amazed that she knew she wanted a cookie, she knew where to get one and she had communicated enough to me to make it happen that of course she got one :)  

Spaghetti

Addison had spaghetti for the first time last night.  She really liked the meat sauce but she did not like the noodles at all.  Every time one went into her mouth she spit it out.  She she had a lot of fun and made quite a mess.  

It's so fun watching her try new things.  So far there has not been much she did not like.  I guess for now we'll add spaghetti noodles to the list.  We'll have to wait a few weeks and try again.  

"Dawg" -Hogan

Hogan is our "grumpy" dog.  He is pretty set in his ways and his routine.  He is adjusting to Addison.  We have not really given him a choice:)  Here is an example of an encounter between him and Addison.  These encounters happen many times a day due to the fact that Addison is fascinated by her "dawgs."  We have not been able to take pictures until now because Hogan is finally becoming tolerant and not running away or snapping at every encounter. 

Addison: "I REALLY want to play with Hogan."   

Hogan:  Minding business chewing on  Greenie bone (bone not seen due to too much fur on poor neglected Hogan :))

 Addison: "I think I should take Hogan's Greenie away and then maybe he'll play with me."

Hogan: Grumpy look followed by slight body turn to get away from scary little person that has overtaken his house.  

 Addison:  "That didn't work.  Maybe I'll play with his squeaky bone- 'squeak squeak' to see if he'll play with me"

Hogan: Grumpy look followed by growl 

***Mommy: Inches away ready to intervene.  

***Mommy: Scooting even closer with non-camera hand outstretched for a quick intervention. 

Addison:  Hum...still no response from Hogan.  "Maybe if I shove it in his face he will play with me."

Hogan: Run away 

*Addison's plan did not work.  Right after this Hogan ran down the stairs and Addison crawled as fast as she could after him.  No photos of that due to Mom running after baby in danger:)

"Dawg" - Buster

Addison loves the dogs or "dawgs" as she calls them.  They are not too sure about her.  Hogan will tolerate her a little bit but Buster usually runs away and hides under the bed or wherever he can go that Addison cannot.  

Poor unsuspecting Buster taking a nap

"I see Buster"

"Look Mom there he is."

...And just like that he's gone :)

Teeth -(Double click on picture for full screen shot)

Addison's had her bottom two teeth for awhile now.  It has just been hard to get a picture where you can see them.  If you look really closely you can see them in this picture I took yesterday.  The pediatrician said she is working on four teeth on the top.  Her mouth is really sensitive so she wont let me put my fingers in there.  As far as I can tell none of them are poking through yet.  

Talking

In April when she was almost 7mos old Addison first said "Mama" shortly followed by "Dada."  Her next word was "no."   Then she started saying "baby."  She would point to photos that she was in and ones in baby magazines I have and say "baby."  We were amazed at how smart she was.  We then realized that she thinks all pictures are "baby."  It took us awhile to realize because she is in almost every photo we have out in the house.  We are still amazed at how smart she is :)  

Now it seems like she is saying a new word almost every day.  One day when the two of use were in the car she copied every animal sound I made.  I would say "The cow says Mooooooo." Addison would say "oooooohhhh."  "The cat says  meow."  She said something like "meow meow."  "The chick says peep peep." She said "peep peep" ...this went on and she tried to copy every sound I made.  I was kind of shocked and wondered if it was just a fluke so I told Andy when he got home.  He started doing the same thing and she copied all his sounds too so we knew it was more than a coincidence.  

Every time she hears the garage door go up she excitedly says "Dada!"  One day she even said "Hi Dad!"  

She also points to our nose and says "nose."  

She knocks on doors and the wall and says "knock knock."  

She points at the dogs and says "no no."  (This is copying her Dad and Mom who yell at the dogs when they bark.) 

She says "Dawg" when she sees dogs outside (At the zoo she thought a lot of the animals were dogs:)  We're working on teaching her the difference.)

Some of the other words she says (or tries to say) are:

- button

- down (We are trying to teach her to say this so she can let us know when she wants put down rather than just squirming to get our of our arms.)  

- belly (She loves belly buttons.  It's so funny!)

- airplane

- ball

- Buster (comes out as Buber.) 

-  Bye-bye (as she waves)

I'm noticing a theme with the "b" words :) 

I need to do a better job of writing them down because I am sure there are some I am forgetting.  

She's A Moving Machine...

Addison is quite mobile now.  She started off crawling backward, quickly moved to crawling forward, then to pulling herself up on furniture, pushing her little walker and now holding on to things one handed.  She then moved to walking along walls.  She also is great at going up the stairs.  This week she has started climbing up on anything she can get her little legs up on.  (No pictures of that since we have to keep both hands on her while she is climbing :)) 

It is so much fun but also a little scary for Dad and Mom :)