My Funny Valentine (Picture Heavy)
Happy Vday to those who celebrate. We had a beautiful day with beautiful weather and beautiful family memories. Can’t much beat that sort of love.Dalton baked a double-layer cake with strawberry homemade frosting that was to die for. Teegan baked us all heart-shaped cookies. I am so lucky to have such loving boys who think of everyone on Valentine’s Day!
My loving baby girl, on the other hand, held out all her love for her gymnastics coach. She woke up this morning with a wild sassy streak. I’m pretty sure I am TOTALLY screwed. She is not even 2 and already so testy and naughty, on purpose. Of course I totally laugh at her but sometimes you either laugh or you cry, right? I chose laughter.
Today Addison was carrying around some chicken for lunch while our dog, Lilo, was stalking her. This is a nasty little circular problem we have - the baby feeds the dog, the dog stalks the baby, the baby hates the stalking and screams. I told her to take her chicken to the table and eat it. Her response totally knocked me off my chair:
“I trying” she said while taking deliberately minuscule ridiculously slow overly exaggerated “difficult” steps toward the table. “I trying! I trying!” she said over and over while intentionally going as slow and laboriously as possible. I have been a parent long enough to know I am in BIG trouble when this girl turns 3.
At naptime, she went through her regular routine stall tactics and that was fine. But then she just was NOT tired. I was getting more and more frustrated and finally put her in her crib which she was overjoyed about: clue number one ten that your kid is not tired yet. I went downstairs and didn’t hear anything for awhile. Then I heard weird banging. As I got closer to the baby monitor I realized it was Addy in her crib, vigorously jumping jumping jumping up and down having a total blast on her built-in trampoline! How did I realize this? Because she was saying, over and over, “I jumping! I jumping!”. That was clue number 11.
Tonight after cake she had frosting all over her hands. She ran over to me, quite intentionally, and wiped her hands all over my pants and then RAN away as fast as she could. I screamed something about being attacked and I guess it must have worked because she guiltily came back and wiped my pants off with her shirt. haha. Guilt-parenting: it starts so early!
And all I wanted today was a picture of her in her cutie Valentine’s Day outfit. She has a new fun habit of running around like a lightening bolt whenever I get the camera out. She will NOT hold still, stop, run, nothing. So all I have are whirlwind pictures of Addy for about a week now. I can tell she gets MUCH joy out of this running bit - she knows it drives me nuts.
Finally she calmed down, intentionally walked to the table, grabbed a big bite of waffle and left it sticking out of her mouth as she walked around the room posing for the camera. Seriously - the girl has intent bubbling over! She is something else.
And as I went through the pictures from the last few days, tonight, I noticed another fun trend: countless pictures had Addy’s feet sticking straight up in front of the lens. Its apparently her version of “talk to the hand”. Seriously days and days worth of pictures are just like this.
What happened to my cute, sweet, laid back baby?
Thankfully we did fit in a quick trip to the park so I got some photos there but they were all action shots, of course.
(”I sliding!”)
(I found my brothers!)
(Hey! Teegan!)
(”Teeeeeegaaaaaaan!”)
(”Sliding with my Daddy”)
And one last note: Valentine’s Day appears to be a HUGE deal around these parts. In Michigan it was a holiday no one really celebrated. Here its serious business. There are booths capitalizing with drive-thru flower stops, and word to the wise: if you should decide to go out to dinner with your family ’round these parts on Valentine’s Day, it would be best to steer WAY clear of, say, Olive Garden:
February 14th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
*L* It certainly looks and sounds like you have your hands full with that one. I think she has been too spoiled by all the attention she gets from her big brothers!
February 14th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
A~ and I always joke that Olive Garden hires people just to stand outside and loiter so that it ALWAYS looks busy. Addy is just too cute in her outfit! And Tony in his too! hahaha just kidding!
February 14th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Awh, your little girl is growing up! Love the outfit!
February 14th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
ok I was laughing again! The outfit is cute!
February 15th, 2008 at 3:29 am
That cannot be Addy–I can’t believe how big she is getting! She looks so cute in her outfit–and the sassiness–I am already seeing signs of that. Let me know what works for you, LOL!
February 15th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Okay, so this is a perfect example of Addy and Lucy looking identical to me. And now I know, they act exactly alike. We really are in trouble with these two!!! Happy Valentines Day. Sending lots of love.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Addy and Lucy do look so much alike! I love the outfit, and I sympathize with the mischieviousness (though you are right, better to laugh than cry, or yell — I had to remind my husband of that the other night after we told Tank Boy he could go down after bed time to get a quick drink and five minutes later, when we realized he hadn’t come back, we found him on the floor with a pan of brownies stuffing the choclate gooey goodness into his mouth as fast has he could!).
February 15th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Man, she’s cute!! That nose is just the cutest little thing!
Love the outfit and I can’t believe how much of a big kid she looks like in the top photo. Scary how fast these monsters are growing up on us. Happy Valentines Day. Addy sounds like such a fun kid!
February 15th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Are those hand-made leggings addy has on, or store bought? ADORABLE!
February 15th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
They are hand-made. I actually made them last year. Here is a pic of her in them from a year ago:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/addymai/327553655/in/set-72157594394741958/
She gets TONS of use out of them, they are so great for potty training!
February 16th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Rule of toddler: anything open must be closed. anything closed must be opened. anythng that angries the parents, pets, siblings, etc. must be done.
February 16th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I’ve said it before, but I’m seriously seeing so much of Addy in Petunia. If you’re in trouble, then I fully believe I am, too. Yikes! I believe that’s why God made our girls so darn cute. I honestly think that sometimes that’s the only thing that saves them from us when they’re not on their best behavior! LOL Addy looks gorgeous, even if she refused to pose for the camera.
February 16th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
She is getting so big!! Brenden keeps asking when we are going to see you. I wanna come minus kids…..LOL Don’t tell Brenden though
February 17th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Your cute, sweet, laid back baby decided she was going to stay in Michigan and leave her evil-but-equally-if-not-more-cute twin sister in her place. Either that or she could have eaten a magical bean that grew out of her stomach and out of her mouth because it was actually a jack-and-the-beanstalk that survives on gastric enzymes and she decided to plant herself in Michigan and leave her evil-but-equall-if-not-more-cute twin sister in her place. OR she got eaten by aliens who decided to leave a robot replica of her on earth but forgot to install Windows 95 “cute-sweet-laidback-baby 3.0.
February 17th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
She could just beturning two. I know ou dont know me, but I follow your blog regularly.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Oh I LOVE her outfit!! Are those Babylegs she’s wearing?! I love them! I wanted to get my girls some but I seriously doubt I could get them to stay on.
And we’re getting the same attitude here at 3 and a half. It’s infuriating some days when they laugh AT you because they’re doing something they shouldn’t be! And then there are the days where you smile and your heart melts because they’re so darned cute!! LOL