Ten Months!

I cannot believe our little miss Addalyn Jane is already 10 months old...seriously, this year is flying by. You'll notice more animals have been added to her monthly bear picture. That is because, sitting by the big bear all by herself is scary right now...so I put some familiar stuffed animals and of course her 'bear/blanket' by her so she'll sit by it without crying!!

She's getting to be such a big girl - she now crawls all over the place, which I've mentioned briefly before.

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She is really good at eating, accept, now that we are on mainly finger foods, she tends to try and by-pass the veggies on her tray. When we spoon-feed her, she'll eat ANYTHING pretty much...but not when she gets to pick and choose (and she much prefers to pick and choose rather than have us feed her). She LOOOVES her fruits - I'd say mandarin oranges and peaches are her favorites!

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She says "uh-oh" with the right context. Sometimes though, she's a little stinker and says "Uh-oh" right BEFORE she proceeds with dropping her sippy or some food on the floor (ON PURPOSE). Seriously, what a stinker. Ha ha!

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She also says mama a lot, but I'm not convinced she's saying it to me yet. We have a baby Elmo book "So Big" where on one pages it says:

Baby Elmo says mamama!

Baby Elmo says dadadada!

Baby Elmo sings lalalala!

Baby Elmo laughs hahaha!

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If you give her the opportunity, she will repeat all four of those, which is super cute. Her "lalala's" always have her sticking her tongue completely out of her mouth and she bobs her head up and down when she laughs "hahaha". Very Fun.

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She has added clapping to her 'talents', and does the motions for "So Big" & "Touchdown" (same motion)...but she only does the motions when she wants to, sometimes she gives me a look that seems to say, "Uh, mom, I'm really not in the mood". She has this one ball popper toy that Aaron taught her how to push the button to make music and push the balls out --- she immediately starts clapping when she pushes the button, or looks around to see if someone else will clap for her - and always has a very "I'm proud of myself" look on her face when she does it :)

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This is definitely a very fun stage, as she starts showing off more of her personality and interacting more. And, it is very fun to play with her right now because she is amused almost 99% of the time!

I LOVE this girl!

Crawling around and playing peek-a-boo with mommy!

Free shipping for anyone who wants this cute little girl (but you can only have her temporarily, mommy & daddy can only stand to be away for about 1 night these days...if at all!)

Oh, how I LOOOOOVE my bear/blankie. It comforts me when I'm sick, or when I'm tired...or really, it just always comforts me :)

Daddy reading Addalyn's "Baby Elmo is So Big" book...I'd say it is one of our favorites!

First Easter!

We celebrated Easter over a few days. My mom and dad had their Easter gathering on Palm Sunday. We started the day out with brunch, then an Easter Egg Hunt, played outside, and then we dyed Easter Eggs :) Well, Addy napped while I dyed eggs with my family...but I made all of them for her! We ended the day with some Easter gifts from G & G Tarara, a quick supper and headed home.

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Easter @ Grandma and Grandpa Tarara's

Finding some Easter Eggs

We just found a few of the little ones and let the older kids get the rest...Addy really liked shaking the eggs!

Then we played on the swing! Check out how she is holding on to the eggs still!

Swinging is really fun!!

Dying Easter Eggs!

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On Easter Sunday, we started off with going to Easter mass. Addalyn was very good in church, seriously -- an angel :) Then we came home and checked out our Easter baskets before we left for Minneapolis to see Jean and Paul.

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Addy & her loot! She got some toys, a swimsuit, cover-up, sandals & sun hat, and a book titled "What is Easter" - which talks about how there is all kinds of fun stuff with Easter, but tells the story of Jesus and what Easter is really all about!

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Addy & her sun-hat & swimsuit!

When we arrived at Jean's house - we had an Easter egg hunt with Mira & Serafina, opened Easter gifts from Jean & Paul (grandma and grandpa Bertucci!), and then had lunch and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. It was a great day!

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Daddy helping Addalyn hunt for some eggs!

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Opening her gift from grandma and grandpa Bertucci

Melting Pot

Quick Update! Addy started crawling on 3.23 :) Jessica (daycare) called me at work to tell me that Addalyn had just crawled. I was so excited I started crying at my desk at work...what a sap, ha ha! She's been showing off her skills since!

My post about Addalyn only being Irish from Aaron sparked up some conversation, so Aaron and I decided to call our moms and confirm what our heritage was (moms are good at knowing those things!!)...It turns out Addy got some Irish from both of us!! I knew mine pretty well, because both of my grandpas are 100% Polish, and my grandma Supalla was 100% German, so it was all up to my grandma Tarara to make things difficult in figuring out my heritage. Aaron on the other hand - is a lot of things (and I'm not sure what he got from the Graham side, and what from the Anderson's)..........well, combining the two makes Addalyn a MELTING POT! She is:

1/8 German
1/8 French
5/16 Polish
1/16 Swedish
1/16 Norwegian
1/16 Scottish
5/32 English
3/32 Irish

We'll make it easy on all of us...

...She's 1/2 Yooper

...and 100% OURS :)

And this goofy girl in the picture, is clearly showing off her Yooper side......CLEARLY! Eh??!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Addy is like 1/16 Irish I think (all due to Aaron) --- enough to have her dress up in green for the day!!

(Clapping Here) --- Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How cute is this picture????

9 Months and Growing :)

9 month stats:

Weight - 19.6 lbs (64%)

Height - 28.3 inches (73%)

Head - 17.8 inches (82%)

Our little girl is 9 months...crazy! For some reason, that seems old to me, like you may as well round it to 1 year. But, I'm not quite ready to start referring to her age in years (although I HAVE started to think about ideas for her b-day, and I have the cutest theme in mind!!)!!

Little miss Addalyn still isn't interested in crawling, however, she has made huge progress in this area and Jessica (daycare) and Aaron think it is a matter of days/weeks. I am not getting my hopes up...because she also just learned that she can roll to wherever she wants to be. The little stinker.

I will be honest and say that I have been VERY nervous about the fact she isn't crawling. Aaron tells me that I shouldn't worry - and my response is, I'm the mom - I'm SUPPOSED to worry! (right??!!) I sorta expected it by this age, so I was worried that there might be something wrong. But after talking to several people and doing my own research, I have learned that there is no need for concern. I do know that some kids never crawl -- but I have also heard that is not very good for eye coordination, so I hope she does crawl for a little bit, even if it is like a week!

She is starting to pull herself up on furniture, and she loves to stand! She's definitely starting to figure things out...the other day she was awake from her nap but happy, so I just waited a bit. When I went in there, she had figured out how to sit up on her own, which she hasn't done since she doesn't crawl --- and she had a toy in her hand that is usually on the opposite end of her crib. The interesting thing was she was in the center of the crib, not near the edge.

Addy still only has her 2 bottom teeth. She does REALLY well with eating with just those 2 teeth. We discovered this weekend that she LOVES blueberry waffles!! :) She pretty much enjoys anything you put in front of her (EXCEPT the jarred stage 2 meets...that are ground up). She gags at those and looks at you like "really, you want me to eat THAT??". I don't blame her...they don't look or smell very appealing!

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She is very vocal, as I mentioned at 8 months. Says da, ga, ba, ma sounds and mumbles lots more. She has the cutest little wave goodbye, and the tiniest little giggle. I have no idea how to explain it -- but it is definitely her daddy's giggle. I've tried to get it on video, but everytime that thing comes around she stops doing ANYTHING exciting and just stares at the camera with amazement...so a lot of our videos are of her staring at us as we sound really silly trying to get her to do her fun new things!!

My new cheesy grin I do for mommy when the camera is around...and my 2 bottom teeth!

I love playing on daddy's shoulders!

Addy LOVES mirrors!

The first thing she does in her excersaucer is check herself out in the mirror!

Addy also LOVES shoes...everytime you try to put them on her feet...she wants to play with them instead. Yep, DEFINITELY MY GIRL! She also has a good collection of shoes for a 9 month old...don't worry though, most of these are hand-me downs so I didn't go buy all these shoes for her!! These are the ones she wears most often and are always hanging out by the stairs for when we want to go somewhere.

She has small feet so far -- still fits in a size 2, although she's getting close to moving to a 3.

Winter Wonderland :)

We took advantage of the nice snowy weather a few times this winter. Our niece Brooklynn and nephew Hunter had a combined birthday party at the end of January at my mom and dad's house. You guys saw the ice skating rink they have in an earlier blog post - but they also have a good hill to sled on, and lots of snowmobiles, so it was the perfect place to have such an event!

Aaron was working on our basement during the day, but Addy and I spent some time outside. We used a sleigh that my mom has...and it is REALLY old (an awesome antique)! Over 100 years probably - my grandpa said that he can remember his mom pushing his brother in the sleigh when he was a child...and I'm not sure if that was the first generation of my family that used the sleigh. It's pretty cool!

I bundled Addy up and pushed her around in that for a bit...

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The antique sleigh :)

Then we had my dad pull us in the cutter behind the snowmobile. She was not happy at first, but then Addy settled in and just enjoyed the ride!

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A few weekends ago we also went to my parents cabin. My parents are finishing the basement of the cabin - with all the grandkids coming along, we have outgrown comfortable sleeping arrangements! So, we all went there and helped them stain the basement walls and trim...and then enjoyed some R&R. I have some other pics from the cabin that might get in another post - but here is Addy enjoying the winter wonderland we live in again!

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Mommy and Addy in the cutter (I had Aaron get off of the sled to take this picture so you could get an idea of what it was...)

Going on the lake!! See her little smile? She was enjoying herself!

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Daddy and Addy outside after the snowmobile ride!

My New Ride!

A few weeks ago we switched Addy from her infant carseat to a convertable one. It's nice and not nice all at the same time...if she falls asleep, we can't just carry her in anymore - and I worry more about her being cold because I can't bundle her up with blankets before we head outside. But, all in all she seems to like it!!!

Playing with the carseat before daddy put it in mommy's car

Here we go! My first time riding in my new seat! I love her look here, I feel like she's smiling all cheesy as to say "Seriously mom, you're taking a picture of this!!????" (and yeah...she's right...sorta silly to take a picture of this. But this is the first of many rediculous pictures I'll take to document her growing up! -- isn't that what mom's are for??)