Addison You're FOUR!

Addison,

Everyone says it, it sounds so unbelievably dumb, but how in the world has time gone by so fast?  Not only that you JUST turned three, but you were just born I swear it!  But here we are another year has passed. It's true what they say, time passes so quickly when you have kids!  (Mostly I'm sure because life gets crazy and I barely have time to think at the end of the day!)

As far as personality is concerned, I wouldn't say you've done a whole lot of changing in the last year, if anything, you've reinforced who you are.  You have a very, very strong willed personality (get the stubborn out now, before you really do turn into a teenager!).  You test every boundary that is set for you.  If someone tells you you can't do something its the first thing you are going to try and do.  If I tell you your not big enough to do something cause you'll get hurt, chances are you'll get hurt trying to do it anyway.  If nothing else, you keep us constantly on our toes.  And my are you mouthy now...I swear you may as well be turning 14, that't the kind of attitude you've been dealing out around here!

What you hand out in defiance you make up for with sweetness.  You are quick to apologize, easily embarrassed, and always ready with a hug and an "I love you".  You are often incredibly emotional when your feelings are hurt often crying just because someone yelled at you rather than the fact that you got into trouble.

When we tuck you in at night you still request a song (usually Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) every now and then, though not nearly as frequently as before.  (ok when I tuck you in, Daddy tries to keep bedtime to a quick as he can possibly get in and get out.)  Most nights you still tell us when we leave your bedroom that you "love you more than chocolate ice cream".  (Chocolate potatoes, Chocolate hot dogs or various other chocolate item...You sure love you some chocolate.)

You became a big sister this year and stepped into the role like you were made for it.  You LOVE your little brother SO, SO, SO much.  I think part of it is jealousy (okay, I know part of it is) but you truly LOVE him.  You see him getting attention from someone and you immediately have to rush up to him and make sure that you are the one giving him the attention.  As much as you want to squeeze, hug, kiss, squish him, he lights up when you talk to him.  A huge smile and now a squawk of happiness, no matter how much it looks like you are tormenting him.  I just love to watch you two interact even if I have to tell you 40 times in 15 minutes to "keep your hands off his face", "stop squeezing him", "your going to hurt brother" or "we don't put our feet on people's faces, Addison".

Speaking of repeating myself....OMG, do you make me repeat myself.  So many times that I'm ready to rip my hair out.  I love you kid but seriously, we have to work on these listening and comprehending skills.  Someday's I feel like I need a serious brain vacation after an outing with you.  I refer to an afternoon with Addison currently as being brain raped....my god the chatter never stops.  :) We're in a huge curious question asking phase too so on top of the not listening you question everything.  Sometimes you ask silly questions that you already know the answers to.  Sometimes it's just why?, Why this and why that?  Other times you question something you saw or heard like the other day "Is the moon really made out of cheese?"  Bummer, its not.  You remember the smallest details about the most random things that happened weeks/months ago.  Sometimes you'll ask about something that even I've forgotten about but you can recall every detail.   (It must be a fresh kid brain thing, my old used up brain is running out of room.)

You are funny, you are fun, and you are fearless.  You love to be the center of everyone's attention and I love that you remain very outgoing.  There is not much of a fearful bone in your body, you want to do everything taller, faster, louder.  You are really starting to understand what it means to "pick on" someone (which thank God, cause your in the wrong family to not be able to handle being picked on!) and you like to make up jokes to tell or silly names to call people now.  Which really isn't nice but it's funny to hear you call someone a potato fart face.  And your Knock, Knock jokes are just plain silly.

You love to make up songs and can frequently be heard singing some song that you just made up about whatever it is you are doing.  You also are getting really good at playing make believe house with your baby dolls.  You continue to occasionally have an invisible friend though the name frequently changes.  Currently you have a boyfriend named Igloo but he kind of sounds like a jerk when you talk about him, so I'd find a new one if I were you.  You keep talking about getting married, and recently decided you like dresses and girly things a little bit too.  You actually for the first time ever last week insisted on leaving the house in your princess dress up garb.  So you got to parade around Dollar General in your click clack shoes, princess dress and tiara.  Everyone told you you were beautiful and you ate it up, I'm actually surprised that you even removed the princess outfit after that!

You love to be told that you are beautiful, and frequently look in the mirror (also a new obsession to carry around) and say you are gorgeous.  Of course we need to work on the "thank you" response because you are likely to respond by saying "I know" right now. :)  Which is good to be confident, and yes you are beautiful, but let's be a little modest. You still refuse to have your hair done most days past being brushed, "just leave it like this, I like it crazy" is your go to phrase.

 Like I said you haven't "changed" this year just gotten bigger.  Bigger personality, bigger vocabulary, bigger attitude, and a little bit bigger in size.  Still "My favorite girl in the whole wide" (as you say), and I couldn't begin to imagine our world without you.  Love you baby girl.

Happy 4th Birthday!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Addison,

I can’t believe we have a three year old on our hands.  I know they say time flies but really it does.  I feel like we just celebrated two, one, your birth, finding out we were having a baby!  You have done so much growing and changing yet I still see my little baby.  You’ve mastered the potty, dressing yourself, and helping yourself to whatever it is you want from the kitchen. 

You’ve always been an outgoing child, you were never afraid of anyone as a baby and you continue that trend as a toddler.  Occasionally you will see a “scary” biker looking man and announce it loudly enough for him to hear as if to get them to pay attention to you and as quickly as you thought you were going to be afraid of him you are giggling and laughing.  You are the child that people worry about being too friendly!  You love everyone and there is no one that you wouldn’t happily go spend the day with.  I love that you are easy going and quick to make new friends.  (I just wish you'd have a tiny little fear of strangers!) 

You love to sing.  You love when people sing to you.  When we go see animals at the fair or wherever you are sure to stop and find a few that need you to sing to them.  We went to the Ingham Co. Fair for your birthday and you stopped to sing twinkle, twinkle to a few sleeping pigs!  You wanted to sing Happy Birthday to everyone at your birthday party after they sang to you.  You make sure that mommy sings you as many songs as you can con her into at bed time.  I frequently have the radio on in the car and you ask me to turn it off, you like to sing to yourself.  Recently though you have picked up on a few songs and I’ll catch you singing a line or two.  Your favorite and most requested is “Rock Me, Momma”  Darius Ruckers version.  I had to buy it on iTunes because you so frequently want to hear it.

You are without a doubt a tomboy.  You love to get dirty, you hate to wear shoes (see above photos, you started your party out with shoes on!)  and you would never wear pants if you didn't have to.  Actually one of your favorite things to do when getting ready for or out of a bath is run into the room and stick your butt out and ask “did you see my butt?”.  Where do you learn these things?  You are gross and obsessed with farts which you call “tarts”.  Obsessed, you don’t just go pee and poop in the potty you HAVE to tell us that you tarted two times in the potty too.  You live for your new sand box and pirate things right now.  You have a girly side that loves to play with dolls but it’s always short lived and your back to being rough and tough. 

Even though you are a tough kid, tomboy, you are the sweetest kid in the world.  Quick to apologize when you are naughty, always ready to give a hug or a kiss.  You are in a stage right now where your feelings are easily hurt.  You are always concerned about other people if they are hurt, and you are a sympathy crier.  And you are pretty good at remembering to say please and “tank you!” 

Your pronunciation has improved so much, I secretly hate it.  I loved your little mispronunciations of things like “papples” and can’t stand it when your daddy tries to make you say “farm’ rather than “Tarm”  it will come with time for now I’d like to enjoy the little bit of baby that you still have.  Go ahead a mispronounce those F's, V's, & G's When you say your alphabet you always leave out “E” and and an incredible amount of extra “MNO’s”  before you move on to P. 

You had so much fun at your birthday party this year, you said it was your “best day eber! “   You loved every second of it.  Last year you were into it, but this year you ‘Got it’ it is so neat to see you get things and really enjoying yourself.  I love watching you grow, even though I don’t want you to. 

I can’t wait to see how you take on the role of big sister.  Half of me is terrified that you will be too rough and too crazy with a newborn, cause let's be honest you are anything but a calm quiet child, but then I see the side of you with other babies where all you want to do is help.  I am sure that you will be such a good helper.  You already say you want to teach a baby how to play with toys and use the potty.  (all the sooner on that second part the better!)  You want mommy to have a baby brother and you want to have a baby sister.  But it changes every day and I don’t quite think you grasp the whole thing yet.

 Happy Birthday my sweet girl.   We love you more than anything, and are so thankful to have you in our lives.