Here comes Santa Claus

After several well-meaning people recently asked Addy "Are you looking forward to Santa coming?" and Addy gave them a look of "Are you crazy?! No, I'm not looking forward to facing Santa again! He's scary!!" I realized that maybe we had committed a parenting blunder of omission by not telling her about the whole Santa=presents aspect. Oops. So we went to the bookstore this afternoon and got a copy of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." She'll probably have the poem memorized by Tuesday.

Pronouns are tricky

We're working on grammar things with Addy this week: "I" vs "you," declarative vs interrogative sentences, and using "please" to ask for things (yes, "please" technically isn't grammar, but we're working on it none the less). Of course, her tendency to say "You want to watch the Curious George movie?" (instead of "May I please watch the Curious George movie?") might just be her way of trying to convince us that watching the movie was our idea in the first place.

Growing like a weed

Nora had a check-up this morning; she's up to almost 10 pounds already! She's looking more and more like a baby instead of a newborn lately, and has started cooing (a welcome addition to the crying and grunting noises that she's been making so far).

Addy also had a doctor's appointment today: the eye doctor. Her pediatrician wanted to get a baseline exam done since she has two parents with glasses and her Spina Bifida puts her at risk for having astigmatisms. The poor dear had to have her eyes dilated for the eye exam and is still kind of a bug-eyed hot mess four hours later. But she passed the test and doesn't need glasses or anything (not yet at least).

Big day of clinic

Continuing with our month of medical visits, today was Spina Bifida clinic. Addy had great reports from all the doctors today (yay!), so we'll see them all again in another year. Nora also got high praise for being super cute, today.

More walking progress

Addy took her first real forward steps in the gait trainer today--hooray!

We started with using snaps (little, plastic, 5-pronged toys that snap together) as "bait" so she would use her legs to move forward about a foot or so, and then let her toss them into an empty box. By this evening she was moving about 6 feet at a time and was throwing a small basketball into a mini hoop. So so so proud of her!!

She's on a roll

As follow-up to the lunch conversation, there were two more entertaining Addy-isms today. She told me this afternoon "I want watch George and the elephant movie. Okay. Let's do this." Then at dinner she told Derek that she needed goldfish crackers and a knife.

True southern style

I was trying to convince Addy to eat some chicken tenders for lunch.

Me: Let's have chicken and dip it in ketchup and applesauce!

Addy: [ignores me]

Me: Or maybe put some cheese on the chicken?

Addy: Mmmm, how 'bout cheese on crackers.

Me: No, how 'bout cheese on chicken with ketchup and applesauce.

Addy: Mmmm, how 'bout cheese on butter.