My Ragin' Cajun

I was lucky (and unlucky for Addie and her future prom date) to be able to capture this picture last night. Addie has gotten her teeth in a very...well, Addie way. She has been doing things her own way since the day she was born and this is just one more example of her being her own woman! She got her two bottom teeth and then the next tooth to come in should have been one of the top front teeth...instead...she gets the one on the side! I was a little concerned because I've never heard of this before but my Mom helped me understand why this happened by telling me something like, "Well maybe that's what happens when you make a baby in Louisiana!" Thanks Mom. We will be sure to remind her of her Cajun roots when she is getting her braces on her funky teeth, or lack of, at this point! I love, love, love this girl to pieces...but doesn't she look like some toothless good 'ol boy sittin' in his rocking chair on his front porch laughin with his friends??? Sorry Addie, but I saw too much in Louisiana to think of anything else. I mean, I saw Santa greeting and taking pictures with children on the porch of a funeral home. I saw women shopping at Walmart at all hours of the day and night shopping in their camo pajamas. I saw a parade in town where the main vehicle for pulling the "floats" were quads. What else do I need to say?

Creme Brulee...We Are In Trouble!

Tonight we went to a yummy little Italian restaurant for a special dinner with Matt's mom. I had a caprese salad to start with and both Addie and Tucker loved the mozzarella cheese and Tucker loved the tomatoes. Addie would scream if I didn't have the next bite of cheese waiting when she finished the previous bite! She would sign "more" as soon as I put the bite in her mouth! After shoveling bite after bite of mozzarella cheese into her bottomless pit of a mouth, the waitress came to our table and told us that a couple sitting near us saw how much Addie loved the mozzarella and thought she would like CREME BRULEE just as much! So we accepted the very generous and thoughtful offer and needless to say Addie LOVED it! We finally decided to cut her off because after eating bread, gerber stars, bread, noodles, baby food pears, bread, a mushroom off my pizza, pizza crust and then creme brulee....she was bound to explode very, very soon. As Addie was downing her first creme brulee, Matt and I realized the kind of trouble that we are in for...this girl will be 10 months old next week and is already getting her desserts bought by nearby tables in a restaurant. What's next? "The table over there would like to get your daughter some caviar because she seemed to like the champagne so well"??? I joked that in elementary school there will be boys offering to buy Addie a chocolate milk because her mommy only packed her plain, boring white milk...we are in trouble...I think we are in bigger trouble than we can even imagine.

Sunny Day at the Park!

The last two days in Portland have been amazingly warm in the mid 70's and sunny...now today is back to clouds and 55 degrees! What a mean trick! We went to a park yesterday for a picnic and playing at the playground. Addie had a bunch of firsts yesterday...First time on a swing. This is something she will have to learn to like, she wasn't too sure this was fun. It didn't really surprise me though, because Tucker hates swinging! He holds his breath and turns bright red. I have to roar at him like a dinosaur to get him to roar back and actually take a breath!

This is the first time (I think) that Addie has sat in the grass. She is saying, "Seriously?"

Tucker is looking older and older every day!!! Yesterday in the car I was asking him what he wanted for dinner and he said, "I'd like fried chicken, please." I kind of laughed because he's had chicken nuggets before but that's about as close to fried chicken as he's ever had. I asked him when he's had fried chicken before and he said, "I had it at preschool" (He doesn't go to preschool!!) I asked him when he went to preschool and he said, "Twenty hours". He answers "twenty hours" and "twenty o'clock" when we ask him when things happen. For example, bedtime, bath time, lunch...all at twenty o'clock. I guess he's more of a military brat than we thought, living on a 24 hour clock!

Addie on the teeter-totter for the first time!

Tucker and Addie on the teeter-totter!

Addie is Changing Every Day!

I just posted an update on Addie, and there's already more news! In the last post I said she had two bottom teeth with no others in sight...well just a few days later she got her left incisor (which is the tooth right next to the front teeth). And you aren't missing any news about her top teeth...because SHE DOESN'T HAVE ANY!!! I have always thought that Addie would do things her own way and she continues to prove that in ways I never thought possible! I don't think I've ever heard of a baby with no front teeth but teeth all around them. Maybe Matt and I made a mistake making a baby in the state of Louisiana!! (sorry LA friends) We can kind of see the top teeth making their way down and the right incisor is not far behind. She is a shark! In the last post she was working furiously to learn to crawl and now she cannot be stopped! She is crawling, pulling up on things and can even stand alone while her hands are on the sliding glass door. The pictures below are her downward dog pose and pictures of her bottom teeth. I haven't been able to capture that incisor yet, but I MUST...so when I get it I'll post that too.

Quick Family Update...

Addie:  She is now NINE months old.  I'm not sure where the time has gone.  She is a beautiful, outgoing and playful little girl.  She is working overtime to learn to crawl, but not crawling yet.  Although there is no crawling, she is quite the yoga master.  She can do downward dog and other things that I'm sure are some yoga position!!  She has 2 teeth on the bottom and no signs of another tooth for a while.  She is babbling all the time, mama, dada, baba and she loves to laugh.  She is also kind of vicious!  Her nails are weapons and we have all had an Addie related injury.  

Tucker:  He is potty training with quite a few successes!  He had an accident yesterday, but we were kind of experimenting with him by not asking him to go to the bathroom and waiting for him to tell us.  He told us when, "Mommy!!!  The potty is coming out!!!"  Clean-up aisle 2.  He is doing well and responding to the potty chart.  He likes the idea of getting rewards but it also equals time focused on just him which is making him much more agreeable.  I think he was acting out to get attention...even bad attention was good attention in his eyes.  Makes me feel like a bad Mommy that my kid has to act out to get my attention.  The other day Tucker told me, "Whoa Mommy....easy!"  He was basically telling me to settle down!  SO FUNNY!!!

Matt:  Matt is in the process of going through a background investigation for a police department near Portland!  Things are looking good for the first time in months.  We still have to wait to pass through 2 more hoops, but we know this background investigation will come up clear.  He should be getting a conditional offer of employment in the next few weeks.  I will be sure to write about that...HUGE NEWS!  After the background is done he will have to go through a physical check-up and a psych evaluation, then off to the academy in June (am I getting ahead of myself?  I hope not!).  He is very anxious to find out what will happen in the next few weeks.  We are both getting excited about looking for a house and getting on with it!

Tami:  I am busy.  BUSY BUSY BUSY.  I feel more busy now than I have in a long time.  The potty training seems to take up every second of the day.  I had no idea how exhausting it could be.  I think the other thing that makes it so energy-zapping is that we are constantly backing the potty training with rewards.  Many of Tucker's rewards are outings that he enjoys so we are on the go nearly every day making good on what we call Potty Chart Rewards.  Addie is more active and so leaving her on the floor and expecting her to be in the same place when you get back is a long gone concept, so she needs way more supervision.  I finished The Secret Life of Bees, which I am very proud of because Addie is 9 months old and I've read 2 grown up books!  Tucker was 18 months before I read my first grown up book, sad but true.  The next book is the Twilight book, I'm excited to see what the hype is about.  I am also in full blown quilt making mode.  Not to mention the cleaning, laundry and cooking that just happens in daily life.  So I'm feeling tired and at the same time energized by the possibilities in our future and feeling good about all the extra things in my day that make my life my own for a little while, even if that means staying up late to feel like I've done something for myself.   

Secret Life of Bees

I just wanted to post quickly to say that if you have not read the book The Secret Life of Bees, you should just go buy it. I'm not done with it yet, but it's a really great book. I bought that book at the same time that I bought the first book of the Twilight series. I haven't read the Twilight book yet because I hear it's addicting and I wanted to get this single book out of the way before I started a series I couldn't stop. Blah, Blah, Blah...just go get Secret Life of Bees if you haven't read it.

My Mom's Birthday Party

I took some pictures of the cake and all the stuff that actually looked like a birthday party, but that was with my Mom's camera! So I only have a few pictures until I can copy her photos. Either way, we had so much fun. We all headed up to my Mom's house and ate too much. My Aunt Patti (Mom's sister) and Uncle Bob, Grandma BigFat (Mom's friend and don't worry, she knows we call her Big Fat), Connor (GBF's son), my brother Tommy and his fiance Sara, me and my gang, Michele (Matt's mom) and of course my Mom and Dan were all there. We played some Guitar Hero and had lots of fun.

For my Mom's birthday we let Tucker lose in the dollar store and let him pick out things that he thought Nana would like. One of the things he picked was these headbands! Of course, when Aunt Patti is around nothing is boring! One time when she was visiting us, my Dad made pancakes for breakfast and my Aunt was throwing them at everyone like frisbees!

(Uncle Bob, Aunt Patti, my Mom) Uncle Bob, Aunt Patti, Mom and Tucker all wearing the headbands!

Nana and Tucker wearing the headbands, and the Easter duck bubble necklaces that were her birthday present.

Nana and Addie

Tucker rockin' out!

Happy Birthday Mommy! I love you very much and I couldn't dream of having a better mom and friend. I know you will have an amazing trip next month. You deserve every bit of it...just remember your sunscreen! I love you!! Hugs and Kisses, Picks