16 months old!!! Toddler-mania!

When Adelaide was very small, we suspected she had a very big personality. Now that she's a big toddler, her personality just gets bigger and more dramatic. She started full-time in the toddler room, and we went to an evening parent-involvement meeting where we learned the songs they sing in daycare. (It's a very serious daycare). More than 20 parents were seated in a circle, and the kids were in the middle of the circle milling about. Adelaide performed - she sang and danced and made faces at everyone. What a character.

Here's Adelaide making dramatic faces on her great-great grandma's rocker, going down the stairs, and working on her artwork (as well as eating the marker - don't worry, it's non-toxic, designed for toddlers).

Adelaide is in love with her "big girl shoes" - the first pair of real outdoor/indoor shoes we got her. (She's been wearing the soft Robeez up until now). We took her to the real shoe store and had her fit, and she wore the shoes out of the store into the mall. She knew it was a big deal - she grabs them and wants us to put them on over her PJs! Good thing she loves them, they were a little pricey. Hopefully next time I'll plan ahead and make a trip to the Albertville Outlet mall.

We're having fun!

New Year!!!

It has been awhile since I've updated. Adelaide has changed so much! Even in the last week she's become more little girl, less baby. She says: hi, ball, cat (sounds like dat still), This, that (ok, it sounds a lot like how she says cat), uh-oh, oh!, mama, and dada. She shakes her head no. When we ask her to find her belly button, she can, but she also shows us her belly button if we ask her where her nose is. Her report card says she doesn't know her body parts. We're working on it. She still doesn't like to sign, she only does all done and milk (when it's a real emergency).

At one year, she finally started sleeping through the night!!! But then a molar tooth started coming in, so she's waking again. Oh well. She has a really random teething pattern. Now, it is a top molar - which is skipping the canine teeth. Very interesting, painful.

We went to Florida for my sister's wedding. She was a good traveler, but it is exhausting traveling with an infant. We miss the days of snoozing and reading a book. Thankfully, she was really great on the plane and MANY fellow travelers thanked us. Thankfully, several fellow travelers were nice and allowed her to befriend them. She likes making friends with strangers. I wonder where she gets that, ha!

Happy first birthday, Adelaide!

We can't believe Adelaide turned one on Thursday. Here's a picture of Addie with red velvet cupcake on her face as she celebrated her birthday (early) with her grandma, grandpa, aunt, and uncle-to-be in Iowa. She will celebrate again Halloween weekend with her other grandma, her dad and I. (We're celebrating late since her Grandma Susan was on a cruise!) We didn't do anything special on her actual birthday - two pieces of cake is more than enough!

Adelaide took her first steps on October 11, she now toddles around a little, but crawling is still more efficient for her. She goes toddle, toddle, crawl - as you can see in the video. She CAN walk farther than that, but she gets impatient.




Addie and I took a walk yesterday and looked at pumpkins around the neighborhood. She just started pointing with her pointer finger (as opposed to her whole hand, as she had been doing for several weeks). She pointed at the pumpkins at all the houses in our neighborhood.

Standing up!

Adelaide started standing up (for more than a few seconds) on Sunday! We were at my friend's birthday party, and I wanted to show everyone that she could stand for about 10 seconds. She stood much longer than that! She will, however, decide she's done; she lowers herself slowly down.

We're taking bets on how long until she walks, and how many days she walks before she starts running. She's more of a running kind of kid. I might need new running shoes!

Ten months

I am finally updating the blog for 10 months, even though Addie has been ten months for a couple of weeks now. I have been very busy, and life is a blur! Even though it is wonderful to spend the summer with Addie, it is a little nice to be back to work. I'm glad that I have the best of both worlds - summers, and school years.

Adelaide seems to be forming rudimentary language, she's trying to say dog, cat, and dadda. Just a few sounds, but they're getting more consistent. She also thinks a squirrel is a dog. She can now walk very well around furniture, the wall, and with a push-toy. She's a big giggler now, and loves to play with (and eat, ew, if we don't move fast enough) toilet paper and kleenex.

She won't take a bottle at daycare, but loves to eat finger food, and soft adult foods. Her favorite food is risotto - the way we eat it with chicken, garlic, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese. She also love greek-style pasta (a la Northwestern Steak House for the Mason City folks).

What a fun age! Here is a photo from the day before she turned ten months:

Nine months - jumpin' and jivin'!

Here's a video of Adelaide (almost nine months) jiving to some live jazz music at a restaurant in Lutsen, MN, during our recent trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior. The song is one of her favorite jazz tunes, Blue Monk by Thelonious Monk, but my camera has a lousy microphone. She's such a music lover! She still sings when we go for walks and when she's happy - a cute, wordless tune.


We are teaching Adelaide sign language - she can do one sign so far (the sign for "milk", no surprise there). Adelaide can now crawl quite quickly on all fours, make a pleasant little clicking noise and can blow raspberries, pull up and stand with furniture, and walk a along the furniture. She now eats soft finger food (like bread or puffed cereal), which is a good way to keep her happy while we eat :) She loves to laugh - especially at her daddy.




She has her two bottom teeth, and two teeth on top, but those are not the usual front two teeth - they are the next door teeth. In other words, she inherited the "Osborn Fangs". Her front two teeth are coming in now, so hopefully I can get a photo of the fangs, but it isn't as easy as it sounds to get a photo like that.

We are having a blast this summer! It will be hard to put her back in daycare this fall!

Eight Months

Adelaide is eight months old! As hard as it was to go back to work when she was three months old, it is really nice to be home with her at this age. We're having so much fun! Adelaide is scooting on her belly still, she hasn't moved to true crawling. This is mainly because she doesn't seem to care about crawling. The 'worm' gets her where she wants to go, and this way she can concentrate on learning to pull up and climb. To that end, here is a picture of her climbing onto 'the baby shelf.' We think that the coffee table designer must have designed it as such. She pulls off all her books, and then climbs in.



Another favorite activity each day is our music time. Addie is big on singing - she sings on walks, when she plays, looking in the mirror, and in the car along with late 1990's Latin pop. She has her own ipod playlist for the stereo, which includes much world music, Johnny Cash, and blue grass. She also likes to play her piano/xylophone. We thought the xylophone would be too hard, but she can get a pretty good sound out of it, when she's not teething on the mallet.




Here's my bathing beauty! Adelaide now loves swimming, and I finally got a baby pool so she can practice for her swim class. She loves the water, and isn't afraid to put her face in! Unfortunately, putting her face in allows her to drink the water. s At least the water at home has less chlorine than in the pool. She will kick and paddle, and splash.