A White Christmas

What a Christmas! We've had more snow in the past 3 days than we've ever had at this time of year, and it's beautiful - big, fat, fluffy flakes of snow covering everything and putting you right into the holiday spirit. Gramma Pam is in town for the week and has experienced her first white Christmas ever...and she survived. :)

Addison had a wonderful time today. The morning started with her coming into the living room to see her Pottery Barn retro pink kitchen set and opening gifts that went along with that (play dishes, play food, a tea kettle and toaster) and opening her stocking. She went down for a nap before DJ's parents (Ba and Nana) arrived, but woke up just in time to eat a delicious brunch of roasted vegtable quiche with gruyere cheese, homemade Belgian waffles with fresh whipped cream and berries, fresh squeezed OJ and crispy bacon...well, she didn't have any bacon, but everything else she loved. Then it was time for more gifts and play. It was a long day of fun, and now it's time for a little dinner, a bath and bedtime.

Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful gifts and Merry Christmas to all!

Sledding on Christmas Eve Day

Christmas Eve at Ba and Nana's

First things first on a snowy Christmas morning! Luckily our neighbot came over and bailed DJ out with the snow blower.

Presents!

The table is set for brunch!

She's Walking!!

Addison is a quick study. Within two weeks of her first real attempt at truly walking (see last post), our little peanut has gained the confidence she needed in order to take some long-awaited steps on her own. She's so proud of herself, and we are even more proud. She's getting better every day. Go Addison!

Our budding photographer

She loves, loves, LOVES Elmo

Chicken Little Takes a Step

Well, our little chicken is still a chicken, but she had a mini-breakthrough on the walking front on Saturday night at our neighbor's Christmas party. The moment we walk into one of the neighborhood functions Addison is immediately swept away from us by either a.) an overzealous mother who misses those baby years b.) a bigger kid who wants to prove she can be a babysitter c.) a younger kid who wants to prove she's not lowest on the totem pole by showing she can be a big sister or d.) a dad of a bigger kid now and again, but that never lasts too long! So although Addison will rarely walk for us, the kids got her going and she actually stood in the middle of the floor for a good 60 seconds, on her own, and upon realizing how excited everyone around her was, started clapping for herself, then proceeded to take a couple of steps before crumbling to the ground. We were all going wild, because everyone knows she isn't walking yet. It was a tiny victory, but progress nonetheless. Baby steps...no pun intended. We caught one of the less exciting attempts on our camera.

Oh, and by the way, I'm not sending out holiday cards this year. I know, boo on me, what a horrible mother, blah, blah blah, but I just can't muster the time, energy or money that it would take to create the cards I would really like to send, and then address them all and send them out. I'll start saving for next year, promise! Give me a break, I'm pregnant! Only one more month until we find out what little Barat #2 is!

Addison's first picture! She really snapped this herself - Delaney was teaching her to use the camera

The camera face

Thanksgiving weekend

It's only Saturday, but it's been a nice, relaxing holiday weekend already. Logan ended up coming into town to see his dad and sister, so we've had an extra kid around too! He's at the age where he's a really big help around the house with the regular stuff, as well as with Addison. I'm a horrible photographer, so I don't have any really great pictures to share this week. I promise I'll get more!

Thursday was spent decorating the tree and livng room. What a relief to have all of that done, and it looks great! This is my favorite time of year when it comes to how my living room looks. As Addison entered the room, she started screaming "yites!", which means lights. We told her right away that she couldn't touch the ornaments, so although she'll sidle up really close to the tree and stare, she's been great about not touching. You can tell she's dying to grab one of the glass balls, so we'll see how long the obedience lasts! Thanksgiving was spent at DJ's parents house, where we had NOT a turkey (Judith isn't a big fan of turkey), but a roast with all the delicious fixings, including a pumkin caramel pie that Judith made from scratch, pumpin and all! Judith's half-sister Heather and her husband and two daughters were also there, so it was nice to see everyone and for the kids to play together.

I ended up going into work on Friday while Addison stayed with Grandma, and Dana, DJ and Logan played pool. I left work pretty early and hit the stores for some quick Christmas shopping. Today we all went to the gym and are currently hanging out at home while Addison naps. She's been in a little pain today with her teeth, we think, but she's holding up well. Her newest thing is reaching up for you and saying "hug?"....it's the cutest thing ever! She also knows her animal sounds down pat, and all the basic body parts too, which she likes to say all in a row, as in "eyesnosemouth" while pointing at each. Toes and teeth are also favorites. Her play is becoming more imagianitive too - you can watch her pretending to stir pots, drink from cups, answer the phone, etc. She's become quite a dancer too..loves to boogie to the beat! A ham basically. Almost a year and 1/2 old! 17 months in just a few days.

Eating pancakes last weekend - yum!

Our neighbor, Delaney, comes over to hang out and practice her babysirtting skills with Addison. She just turned 11 and plans to get "certified" as a babysitter this year. She knows it will be a while before she'd be able to stay with Addison alone. :)

Thanksgiving at Nana's

A preview of some Christmas house shots

What's new and exciting in the Barat world? A toddler getting molars...

Poor Addison is experiencing the worst of the teething journey - cutting her molars. It seems so unfair that these poor little babies endure over a year of teething pain, but the molars are by FAR the biggest beast. We had always heard that it seems like babies develop colds overnight (fever, runny nose, cough, etc.) when the worst of teething sets in, and now we know it's true. Addison has been feeling under the weather lately and has been swallowing so much gunk that she's had to sleep upright in her carseat in the crib for the past 3 nights. It's funny though, becasue we think she actually prefers it - sleeps just fine all through the night. She's been in pretty good spirits considering the situation, but we're going to run to the pediatrician tomorrow to check things out just in case.

Other than that, all is well here. We've been experiencing warmer than normal weather, but it's still not warm to me. Oooh, 50 degrees during the day, how wonderful! ;)

Here she is, ready for bed in the carseat. She's holding her "Quatchi" doll tight! Grant and Stacy brought this for Addison from their visit to Vancouver - he's one of the mascots for the 2010 Winter Olymics and Addison loves him!

Hanging at the park with her buds last weekend

The "syide" (that means slide) is her favorite

We have a new ritual in the morning - even though Addison eats breakfast when she gets over the Brenda's, she insists on sharing our cereal with us while we readh her stories. How can you resist when she says in the cutest voice, kind of like a question.."Seeri?" That means cereal :)

Remember the adorable "camera face" Addison debuted a few weeks back? Well, this is her new camera face. Whenever you take the camera out to snap a photo she immediately makes her way over and starts grabbing for it. I liked the first camera face better!

Happy Halloween!

I love when Halloween falls on a Saturday. Plenty of time to get ready, have some fun, then sleep in the next day and we did just that. Addison was a "Lil' Leopard", as the costume was labeled, and we thought it would be perfect for walking around in the cold evening for trick or treating. Our crazy neighbors the Zemans had their annual Halloween party which started at 4pm. I don't think I've ever seen so many kids in costume in one place at the same time! After eating and drinking until we were full to the gills, we headed out for some trick or treating around the neighborhood. Although Addison didn't collect any candy, she had a great time watching all the kids run around and pointing out all the pumpkins. We visited all the neighbors we wanted to see, then headed back to the Zeman's for more fun. Addison partied it up, went to bed late and slept in until 8am. Heaven! We went to an early breakfast then picked up leaves all afternoon.

The Lil' Leopard - ready to party!

Cole was Vanilla Ice - loved it!

The whole crew

Time to go home!

Fall leaves

Fall in Minnesota

Finally, some classic Fall weather this weekend! No snow, rain or ice, just cool crisp air and bright sunshine. We took advantage of this treat by heading to Minnetonka Orchards, about 20 minutes from our house. You may remember some photos on the blog from this place around this time last year. http://addisonbarat.blogspot.com/2008/10/minnetonka-apple-orchard.html. We took Addison when she was just 3 months old, but I have to say this year was much more fun for all of us. The farm is owned by 2 brothers who turn their property into a Fall Wonderland each year, fun for kids and adults alike. We started and ended in the pumpkin patch (we'll carve pumpkins NEXT weekend!), and visited the corn maze, apple orchards, animal barn and took a tractor ride through the trees in between. Of course we also had to make a stop at the hot apple cider and homemade cinnamon-sugar donut shack as well! Addison was in heaven...

Other fun updates include Addison learning to use her fork and spoon (she uses the utensils I used as a toddler), and her new obsession with "mugging" for the camera each time the thing is pointed at her - it's hilarious! See directly below for an immediate example. Scroll down to the bottom for more laughs.

This is her happy face - before we left the house

This is the happy face when we reached the pumpkin patch

Not so sure about the creepy corn maze

Tractor ride - I wish I had my camera DURING the ride, we went through a forest of beautiful golden-leafed trees

The silly billy goats

Apple time!

Let's hope she makes progress on the apple growth chart next year ;)

Kissing daddy through the shower door

Addison's camera face

I can use my fork!