"Hi"

Addison is picking up new words every week and has quite the repetoire! She can now say "night-night", "no", "dog", "spider", "woof", "this", "that", "sit", "stay", "dadda" and her favorite of all..."hi". I happened to catch a couple of "hi"s on video, so check it out below! Her eye teeth are poping through so there have been a few rough patches with heavy teething in the last couple of weeks - poor thing! Other than that she continues to be a happy, curious, book-loving litte munchkin. We had a wonderful weekend of good weather and good friends, and look forward to the new week ahead!

"Hi"

Being rocked to sleep by daddy during a traumatic teething moment

Hanging out at Lake Harriet

One thing is for certain - Addison is never short of attention; as soon as we step outside the neighbor kids make a bee-line for the baby. This weekend they made an umbrella fort during a quick rain shower

Leo did a dance to Singin' in the Rain!

Flying kites after the rain shower

Addison's big 1st birthday bash!

Saturday, July 11th was Addison's big 1-year birthday party in our back yard and it went off without a hitch! We couldn't have scripted it better ourselves - from the perfect weather, the wonderful friends and neighbors, Addison's fantastic mood all day and even the Zeman's bouncy castle, a huge surprise and big bonus for all the kids!

DJ and I both took Friday off of work, and with Grammie Pam in town, we had some extra help running around that day tying up all the loose ends with the food, party favors, cakes (yes, plural - Addison had her own personal cake, and the rest of us got a sheet cake) and decorations. Saturday morning was perfect and clear and we got an early start in setting everything up. Our yard was slowly transformed into a balloon filled oasis!

We had about 45 guests (adults, kids, babies) who gathered for a casual and festive BBQ, with cake and presents that followed. We were kind of worried that Addison would be overwhelmed by all the excitement and people, but she had an absolute blast! She loved every minute if it and didn't even show signs of wanting to go down for a nap. The sugar from the cake likey helped propel her through the day. All the older kids catered to her, so DJ and I were able to socialize with our guests. The kids had a ball juping in the bouncy castle (we are SO getting one) and recieved gift bags before they left.

All in all it was a great day, and we are so thankful for the friends, family and neighbors who helped us celebrate Addison's big bash. As we look around at all our neighbors' backyards, we can still see random balloons tied here and there on people's decks that the kids took home, a nice reminder of a special day.

Funny moment on Friday at the pediatrician's

for her 12 month check-up - this was right before 4 shots :(

She is doing great!



Addison's first spaghetti dinner. She also switched from

breastmilk to whole milk without a hitch - such a trooper!

An after-bath faux hawk on Friday night

A quiet moment before the guests arrived on Saturday

Everything is set and looking good

Party time!

Presents!

In the bouncy castle

The Target baby buddies

This was after everyone left - we couldn't resist the crown.

Clearly, Addison did not agree!

Shana's visit

Auntie Shana came for a 4th of July weekend visit and we had fun! Addison smiled right off the bat when she saw Shana, which is funny becasue usually she takes a bit to warm up to people. Shana came baring gifts and lots of playtime for Addison. We had fun just being together, going out for lunch, playing at the lake, hanging at Jeff and Natalie's, cooking and sitting out on the patio all night on the 4th of July. This past weekend Addison developed a major obsession with balloons and lights. She can turn lights off and on and gets very excited about it. She points and makes "ooh, ooh" noises at both the balloons and the lights. She has also started attempting to sing along when we do "Itsy Bitsy Spider", it's so cute! You can tell she is trying to say spider, and she does it in a sing-sing voice. I will definitely try to capture that on video. There's been more teething action too, so we suspect the eye-teeth will be popping through pretty soon. She's definitely turing into a little girl, no longer a baby. Amazing, and sort of sad, but SO much fun! I took the day off from work on Monday and just spent the whole day with her. I cherish those rare weekdays together! Wish I could do it every day, especially during this time of rapid growth and change.

Relaxing on Jeff and Natalie's roofdeck lounge


Getting tickled by a plant

In her new jammies from Shana

Addison's first tortilla chip - no salsa!

The big girl car seat

Playing at Lake Calhoun

Shimmying and shaking

Happy Birthday Addison!

We can't believe our baby girl is a year old! July 2nd 2008 easily marks the best day of our lives to date, and we were so excited when we woke up this morning to greet Addison on her first birthday. She slept until 6:45am, so that in itself was a huge treat for us - WE had to wake HER up. We immediately turned on the video camera to capture her first moments as a one-year-old, and took her downstairs to check out our gift to her - her very own play kitchen! She was sleepy, but we think she liked it.

Addison spent the day at Grandma's house and DJ and I headed over there after work for a birthday celebration. Grandma had fun pink decorations up everywhere and balloons with Addison's name on them. Addison feasted on meat loaf, scallop potatoes and broccoli salad. Talk about comfort food! She loved it, couldn't get enough. She topped it off with a strawberry, blueberry and kiwi tort with vanilla ice cream. Her first taste of true, straight-up sugar surely won't be forgotten, but will NOT be a regular occurence. Only special occasions like this one. :) Well, that's the plan anyway...

Auntie Shana comes in later this evening (11:55pm to be exact), so stay tuned for pics from a fun weekend with her. The weather promises to be pleasant. Happy birthday to Addison, and happy 4th of July!

Patty-cake and the new kitchen!

Birthday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's

On her tip-toes pushing her new shopping cart

Grandma/Grandpa Barat's home-made silly birthday card

Fruit tort!

Morning sleepy-head

Kisses from Callie