Today’s the day! Addy-Mai turns 11 months old. She celebrated by waking up with a cold. She has had this immune-system of steel so, really, we have never parented her with a cold. It isn’t fun but she’s a pretty laid-back kid and as long as she’s in my arms, she’s only mildly whiny. She slept a lot today and blew her nose a million times. It’s true, the girl knows how to blow her nose. Isn’t that hilarious? I should take video. She is, in general,

intrigued about how her nose works and now that there is a river of mucous freely flowing, it is all she can do to keep from focusing on her nose 24/7.

11 Months has been good to Addy-Mai. She has really blossomed into a Big Girl. She’s officially a toddler, taking at least a few steps at a time and up to 6 steps to get where she wants to go if the mood strikes. She’s a climber, she can get up onto any chair. She is still working on getting down. I thought she had it nailed the other day and got out the video camera to record the accomplishment only to have her flip out head-first. I caught her and now it is officially added to the ever-growing vault of Nicki’s Video Outtakes.

She’s still a girl who loves her food although we are slowly seeing some preferences - or rather some things she won’t eat. She did not like her brother’s coconut ice cream, of all things. And she wasn’t a fan of the pico I fed her from my plate. Actually she kept eating even that despite literally streams of tears coming down her face from the spice. Is pico spicy? Opps! I gave it to her becuase I can’t stand tomatoes so I didn’t even know! She’s still taking about 3 bottles during the day and anywhere from 2-4 at night for a total of about 20-26 oz of formula. We are going to work on slowly transitioning her to a cup and to rice milk over the course of the next few months.

She is such a happy girl, she loves everyone and everything but especially her siblings. On most days, the only upset noises she makes are when her brothers run off to play, leaving her in the dust. Which brings us to another fun milestone: she has discovered a new emotion - frustration! Frequently she is frustrated by what her body can’t do….as in run and keep up with the neighborhood kids. She will stand in the middle of the room and just cry becuase her body doesn’t walk well yet, much less run. It’s pitiful.

She is starting to talk which is tons of fun. She says Noah, Mama, Dada, Baba, More, Boo, Hello and makes mewing noises at the cat. I think she has a few more noises that we haven’t quite figured out yet but those are the ones I know for sure. She knows a few signs: more, food (feed me), music, come here (or give it to me), byebye. And just recently she has become obsessed with experimenting with her other senses: plugging her ears, covering her eyes, etc.

She is a great balance of all-girl and tom-boy. She loves cars and pushing them around making ‘vroom’ noises. But she also loves to dress up, have her nails cut, wear jewelry and hats and her sunglasses. She is a girl who loves to accessorize while she’s hauling her mack truck! haha

Her hair is slowly but surely getting longer. It doesn’t seem to be growing to me at all but looking at her pictures from Vietnam and comparing them to now, she has grown about 5 inches of hair! It is so wispy and thin that it literally stands straight up all the time, like a mo-hawk. I can put it in a tiny hair-tie and she looks adorable in hats, otherwise it is permanent bed-head!

Addison has four teeth now. The last one just came in two days ago which is good becuase although her brothers think she looks adorable, I think she looks pretty silly with the one big top tooth all by its lonesome. Of course she has already fallen and smacked her tooth - she wouldn’t be a child of mine without tooth trauma! Haha

 This is a hard day for me. Besides it being not the best day in the world thanks to my poor pathetic sicky girl, it is also a reminder that this is it: the last of the pre-toddler monthly reflections. I have really been looking back, with great reflection, on the last five months. And its not just me. Addison’s adoption has profoundly impacted every person in this family for the better. The kids are frequently reminiscing about how it is possible that we have ONLY known this soul for (almost) 5 months when it feels like a lifetime. Addison is such a gift in a way I never ever expected.  I try to picture her as a preschoolers, as a 7 year old, as a preteen and teen, as a grown woman. It is impossible for me to consider yet, at the same time, it feels like I have blinked and she has aged into this toddler. Slow down, baby girl, slow down.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Adoption, Parenting, Photos & Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.