I'm 33 today

Some things I'd like to do today:

eat ice cream
get a pedicure
fun dinner out with the family - maybe with some live music
go see a movie - I haven't seen a movie in a theater in years!
eat these cupcakes

Morgan at 18 months

22 pounds, 25th percentile
31.5 inches, 50-75th percentile
head is 18 inches, 50th percentile

In other words, she's perfectly on target! :)

She says:
Mama
Dada
Addy
Riley
Sadie
Nama (grandma)
Num num num
baby
shoe
hi
bye
thank you (tee you)
meow (cat)
hee haw (donkey or horse)
puppy
uh oh
oh no
NO!
MINE!
up

And she repeats a lot of what we say so I think lots more words are coming soon!

Her favorite things to do are puzzles - especially animal puzzles - and read books! She also LOVES to wear other people's shoes. She is always walking around in either my flip flops or a pair of Addy's shoes.

She had her first vaccination today - the Hib shot. Handled it like a champ and I'll probably take her back in a couple months to get another one. Ideally I'd like her to be caught up by the time she's 3 1/2 in case I put her in preschool. If not, I'll catch her up when she's 4. I just wanted her to be past this 18 month mark.

Addy's first day

Addy's first day of kindergarten was a success. Although I asked her if anyone in her class cried and she said "no, only me". Figures! Apparently she spilled her milk at lunch. Oh well.

Here she is with her new backpack

Mitch walked her in to school (I had a sleeping Riley and Morgan in the car)
She has been so excited to ride on a school bus for so long. I was going to pick her up her first day but she wanted to ride the bus so I figured why not. She's the first one on (6:20!) and the last one off but she loves it!

trip highlights

We are back! That drive is long. And sleeping in a hotel that has 2 double beds for 5 people is not fun. Especially when one person does not sleep so well. But anyway, we made it back home safely.

The computer at my parent's house is slow and I didn't feel like doing a bunch of individual posts so I'll just do one big one now that I'm home.

This is one of the big reasons I love going up to my parent's house. It is as peaceful as it looks in this picture. The lake level was LOW this year and they had lots of beach so we made a campfire and roasted marshmallows.
Yum!


We went to the wildlife park one day and all thought this turtle was fake until it moved. Pretty peacock
Mitch and Addy fed the bears
I used to love buffalo and I have no idea why. They are so ugly.

There was a nest of bald eagles on my parents lake so I took the camera out there but of course they flew away when I got close so here is the nest. :) Addy fished with her new Barbie pole, but didn't catch anything
My parents house isn't the easiest for Riley to walk in but she sure did have fun walking outside when we went to town one day. She needed a little help stepping over the cracks in the sidewalk though. For some reason she stopped at every one.
Addy enjoyed her big bag of candy from Dan's Minocqua Fudge

Addy went to Vacation Bible School at my old church. Here she is showing off her butterfly mask she made with silly Uncle Bryan Sadie had fun jumping in the water after tennis balls, as usual
Eventually we all made it into the water but Addy was the only one who swam every day. The weather just hasn't been hot enough to warm up the water this year.
The last couple days were spent at Mitch's parents house with all the cousins. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of them all playing together! I got the camera out once but Addy was too busy pouting about not being able to take off her lifejacket in the water so I only took this one lonely picture of Morgan in the boat.

Our trip was shorter than usual this year but it was hard since we had just moved. Hopefully next summer we'll be able to spend our usual 3 or so weeks up North!

a picture of me!

I got my hair cut this morning. I think I'm going to like it! I couldn't find a "before" picture but she probably cut about 5 inches off and majorly thinned it out. I think it'll be much nicer to deal with in the Mississippi heat!

my little swimmer

Addy started her first round of swimming lessons ever last week. I can not get over how good she's doing! Here was the girl that would never step foot in the water without her floaty, and who was too scared to put her face in the water to blow bubbles just 2 weeks ago. She's now jumping into the water and swimming back to the wall all by herself!

I am so proud of her! One thing having a child with disabilities has taught me is to really appreciate my kids' accomplishments. I got teary eyed watching her swim!

This picture is sort of hard to see but she's the girl on the left with her face in the water swimming to her instructor. Yesterday she swam almost the entire width of the pool with no help.

At the end of the lesson the kids are encouraged to go down the waterslides. Last week Addy wouldn't even attempt it. Monday she went down for the first time, after a little hesitation and last night she went right down and didn't even need her instructor to catch her!

We'll finish up this week of lessons and then do 2 more weeks after we get back from vacation. Maybe next summer we'll get to go to Noah's Ark in Wisconsin!

Morgan

Is 16 months old now so I think she deserves a post about her!

• she has curly brown hair - different from her blonde sisters! Looking back I realize that Addy's hair was quite curly at this age too, but she was definitely blonde. Riley too, although Riley had straight hair.
• She says "ball" for sure. Just in the last week or two she started saying "hi", "bye-bye" (with a wave) and "uh oh" appropriately. She's been saying hi and bye-bye for a while but often not when she's "supposed" to. She also says "mama" and "dada" but it doesn't always seem like the words are directed at us.
• while she doesn't say their names yet if you ask her where Addy, Riley or Sadie are she'll look towards them so we know she understands at least.
• when she wants food it's "mooo?" like she's saying more. She is getting better about food, I'd say within the last 3 weeks really. She pretty much went from eating almost nothing, maybe a taste of yogurt here, a lick of ice cream there, to eating lots of cereal and especially Pirate's Booty in a sitting. She even eats ham! And we almost have to give her her own bowl of ice cream now. :) Still not drinking anything but mama's milk but hopefully that'll come. Once in a while she takes sips of water. Oh and she loves shredded cheese! My Wisconsin roots coming out in her. :)
• she loves carrying a purse and pretends to talk on the phone all the time which is so cute!
• she started walking at 11 months (or was it 10? poor 3rd child). I think she was standing on her own at 10 months, walking closer to 11. Anyway, she now runs, jumps (sometimes off the couch, oops) climbs.
• She just got her 9th tooth! She's had the same 8 for months so she was due.
• Her sleeping is hiddeous, especially lately. Maybe more teeth are on the way. She still sleeps with mom and dad. One of these days we'll get her in the crib. She screams bloody murder when I put her in it for naps so I figure I'll work on those first.
• She is an absolute joy and makes me laugh constantly. Even when she sprawls herself on the floor and throws one of her many temper tantrums. I just can't imagine life without her!

Part of me wishes she'd stay this age forever and part of me wishes she'd just hurry the next 2-3 months along. This is about the age Riley started turning into herself and regressing. We didn't really notice it until she was about 18 months so I figure once Morgan passes that mark I'll stop watching her so closely all the time. I know I could get her tested and know but I really don't want to wonder if that phone call is coming, or if the letter from the genetics department is in the mail. Plus I think it would be worse for me to watch her grow and develop only to know it'll be taken away. I just want to enjoy her. And I do!