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!

TLC VOX BOX Review

It's no secret that I LOVE getting chosen for these Vox Boxes!  They are so much fun.  This time I was sent the T.L.C Vox box full of complimentary products for testing from Influenster.   Haven't signed up and want in on the fun?  Let me know and I'll send you out an invite to join the fun!  Everything here is my personal opinion of the products that were sent to me.

My TLC Vox box included the following items:

Neosporin's new NEO TO GO:

This guy is a handy little fellow especially with two kids.  Clip it to the hand sanitizer on the diaper bag, it's worth taking with you!  I LOVE this.  Especially since my family can't seem to keep track of where the tube of Neosporin is ever.   Just spray, hold child still long enough to dry and your done!  Just like with normal Neosporin cream, cuts heal faster & better!

Shell Fuel Rewards Card

I never knew these existed, and guys they are FREE you just have to sign up...That's it.  Sign up for the rewards card just like any other store and use it a the pump, you save .03 cents a gallon EVERY FILL UP, your second fill up you save .25 cents a gallon.  Use it in the store and you earn more off we've seen .10 cents off a gallon a few times already!  For me going to Shell isn't that convenient so my husband uses it more than me but it's actually WORTH going to a different station than I normally would (AKA: the station that is IMPOSSIBLE to pull out of in traffic) to get the savings!

PUFFS TO GO

 These guys are great for tossing in a diaper bag/purse/carry all/stick in a coat pocket, cause who doesn't need a tissue at the most random times?!  Now you can get them in Puffs brand, they must have cursed me because immediately after receiving my VOX BOX I was hit with a head cold...whomp, whomp.  SO I've already gone through my entire pack and need to restock my house with more to go packs.  You really don't realize how handy they are until you run though a whole pack and then have NONE!

Ivory Bar Soap

Who hasn't used Ivory at some point in their lives?  I mean its been around for 130 years....130 years people!!!  They have to be doing something right!  I liked this cause I could use it in the shared tub with Addison and Alex both and didn't have to worry that it would make Mr. Sensitive break out in a rash like some of the super cool, bright purple, grape smelling stuff does that Addison loves so much.  99.4% pure soap products not synthetics, who doesn't love that.  I mean check out the soap you are currently using I bet it doesn't compare.    And if washing up with it isn't enough to convince you, check out the millions of uses for Ivory including making your own laundry soap and THIS:

AVON ANEW Reversalist Wrinkle Smoother

This was weird.  To be honest I wasn't a huge fan.  It made my skin feel super soft but like it never dried.  I'm lucky to not have many fine lines/wrinkles anyway so maybe I was not a good example of how it works but I for sure wasn't excited over this one.  

Breyers Gelato Indulgences

Yum.  That's really all I need to say about this one.  YUM-FREAKIN-UM!  Delicious!  Meijer was actually giving out coupons and free samples of the chocolate version when I went to pick up my free tub and the shelves were barren so I had to wait a few weeks to pick one up...OH man they are good!!!

Alex Is Four Months Old!

Like all that I do lately, this is a little late but give me some credit I did go through the whole day Sunday thinking that it was the 5th not the 6th.  I thought I'll make sure I take Alex's 4 month photos a day early so that I don't get caught up in a work week and unable to accomplish it....little did I know I wasn't early at all.  Duh.

Anyway, Alex is Four months old already!

I don't have a length for him but we just went to the doctors a few days ago for a flu like virus that both kids picked up and Alex weighed in at 16lbs 12oz.  He continues to grow way to quickly.

He is comfortably wearing 3-6 month clothing, I'll be surprised if he doesn't outgrow most of it before the 6 month mark.  We're currently squeezing him into the last of a pack of size 2 diapers but the boy is technically in size 3's.

Still exclusively breast fed, still taking 4oz in his bottles.  Eats roughly 6-8 times a day, depending on the day and depending on if I've been gone at work all day or not.  He wants to nurse a lot on the nights that I've worked all day.
 I'm trying to look into donating to the Bronson Hospital Milk bank as I have a insane large freezer stash of milk.  Large as in a little more than 800 oz of milk, enough that if I completely quit pumping, completely quit breast feeding him I could make it more than a month still on breastmilk.  Pretty impressive, but I don't see me needing it and I still have plans to make it to a year of breast feeding so I may as well donate some of the excess right?  If not to Bronson then possibly another form of donation.

He is still a very easy going happy boy.  If you want him to smile you don't have to say a word, just look at him and give him a big smile and he's all smiles back at you.  Completely adorable.

Alex is trying like crazy to sit on his own, he's kind of perfecting the "lean my torso way over my legs and it's kind of like sitting" position.  If you lean him against anything to prop him upright he immediately topples forward in a effort to sit up on his own.

Rolling from back to front without any problems and occasionally gets from belly to back somehow (I think just momentum from the back to front), he was practically rolling across my moms floor the other day.  He only tolerates his belly for about 3-5 minutes before he starts to cry, the kid has hated tummy time since birth!

Making all kinds of noise, mostly squawks and babbles, no mommy yet, or "add-a-sin" like his sisters trying to teach him. ;)

This month we took the kids on a  trip to an indoor water park, they loved it.  Alex seemed to love kicking his little legs in the water and the 85degree sauna that they kept the place.  He also got to experience his first Airshow which he was awesome for the whole time.  I'm telling you this kid is a dream when it comes to his ability to go with the flow. (99% of the time at least!)

Alex seems to be a blanket lover, he rubs his face all over them and falls asleep happily when he can have one in his face (just like momma).  He's also a huge Addison lover.  For as much as she smothers the living daylights out of him, he lights right up when shes in the room, or when she talks to him (smothers).  That sibling bond is pretty awesome.