Addison: May 2009

Our little peanut had her four month check up this week. She also got her next dose of immunizations. It's a pretty stressful event for me. It is one of the moments in parenthood where it feels like you are making the wrong choice, no matter what you choose. Addison had received the first dose of both of these shots at her two month appointment, so I was a little less concerned about an adverse reaction, but it was still there in my head. After her appointment we stopped by Ty and Joi's house and sat out on the porch talking. At one point I looked down at Addison's leg and noticed small red dots on her lower leg. I started getting nervous and wanted everyone to look at it, but Joi reassured me she saw a gnat on her leg earlier.

We did find out that Addison's head has grown quite a bit in the past two months... two inches! I had noticed a few weeks ago that she had a nice sized cranium and I often told her it was because of her very big brain. After the nurse measured her head on Friday, I was a little surprised by the number and brought it up to our doctor. She is completely fine developmentally, but he did say that was a significant increase in size. She is off the chart! He is going to consult with some other doctors and let me know what he finds out this week. Other than that, everything looks normal and she is a healthy little girl... not that little anymore, she weighed in at 14 pounds! She has almost doubled in weight from birth!

This week's "What's New With Addison": Addison has started to laugh when I pretend to nibble on her ribs. She only does it when I nibble on her right side, and not every time, but the ticklish response is starting to kick in.

My cousin Bladen got married this weekend in Charleston, South Carolina so we packed up Addison Friday morning and headed south. Addison doesn’t sleep in the car like she used to, but she is still very pleasant and easily entertained. The drive only took about an hour longer than the directions said it would because of the stops, but we still arrived in Charleston completely exhausted! I tried to get Addison to take a nap before we were to leave her with her very first babysitter.

Addison has been napping so well lately that I was nervous about our weekend away from home with no schedule. I was right to be nervous. She was exhausted, miserable and cried all afternoon. I was worried she was going to scream for the babysitter the whole night. We found our sitter through a nanny service based in Charleston. They provide profiles for all of their nannies so you can learn about their background, education, experience, etc. By the time Karolayne showed up at our room, Addison was completely exhausted and was finally falling asleep in my arms. As I made the switch to Karolayne’s arms, I held my breath waiting for the worst, but she opened her eyes and looked at her for a minute than fell back to sleep.

The rehearsal dinner was oceanfront and beautiful. I drank a glass of wine and enjoyed the salty breeze in between the two dozen times I checked my cell phone. I was determined not to call and check in. I wanted to enjoy my first evening away from Addison and not think about how much I missed her the whole night. We arrived back at our room at 10:45pm. Addison was fast asleep and absolutely adorable. I felt great!

Most of the Smart side of the family got to meet Addison this weekend. Friday, she met her great grandmother. Saturday she met her great aunts, great uncle and most of my cousins and their kids. We strolled around the city market and stopped for some yummy raw oysters. It was really hot out and the restaurant was open air and not much relief from the heat. I had my first experience with a busy restaurant and nursing. I wasn’t prepared. I think she was getting really hot when she was up against me so she did not nurse well. Even though I stressed myself a lot of the time, Addison seemed to enjoy herself. She would nap a little, smile a little, but she was still grumpy from her lack of sleep. Of course, what is most important is that she looked good. Her Grandmother(aka Ganny, Nanna, to be determined) and her aunts and uncles bought her an adorable daisy dress that made her look like a little southern belle. I forgot her matching hat, but she was so cute anyway.

Addison spent two nights with her babysitter. Luke and I loved her and felt completely comfortable leaving Addison with her. Luckily, Addison slept almost the whole time she was there, which I would imagine was kind of boring for her, but made me happy because she was getting plenty of rest. Sunday morning, Mother’s Day, we had a quick breakfast with the family then made the long drive back to Blacksburg.

Addison has started talking this week. It started this past weekend and over the past few days she has been more and more vocal. It is so funny to hear her in the next room telling stories. Sometimes when I feed her she will stop in the middle of eating, look at me and start smiling and talking. It is so adorable I can’t stand it! I feel like bursting into tears every time I hear it.

Yesterday, Addison hung out with her new friend James. James is nine weeks old and came down to Virginia with his parents to visit his grandparents. He is already talking a lot and smiles quite a bit too. We drove out to see him and his parents, Jimmy and Bekah, today. We hung out at Jimmy’s dad’s house which is in the mountains and beautiful. Addison enjoyed lounging by the creek on his property while we took turns paddling around on the stand-up paddle boards. Before we headed back to Blacksburg we got some cute shots of the two little ones side by side.