…my love has come along. Or perhaps I should say, my love has come home! Derek arrived last saturday and Addie and I could not be more thrilled. Addie still looks at him and says “Dada!!” with a huge smile, happy that he is here for more than simply a short weekend. She has been having a great time following him and imitating him – afterall, Daddy does things differently than Mommy! On Sunday morning, Derek was shaving and Addie was mesmerized, staring up at him and pointing, as if wondering “what are you doing to your face?!?”
What are you doing Dada?
She has been giving him lots of hugs and kisses, and has shown him all her favorite books and toys. Derek now knows that Addie loves her book about Elmo and Ernie counting animals, and that she adores playing mommy to her baby – which unfortunately sometimes involves scolding her baby… (I swear, I have no idea where she picked that up!)
Addie received these super cute boots from her Tante Rika and she has been having fun walking with them! They are quite high on her legs, so she walks slightly like Frankenstein. Here she is strutting her stuff!
I have not done a good job posting belly picks with this pregnancy. In fact, I think the last time I did, I was only 14 weeks! So here it is! I can’t believe there are only 5 weeks left! Yikes! This pregnancy feels like it has flown by!
Addie loves to imitate what I do, which for the most part, works out just fine! For the last few months, I have been baking cookies and other goodies for work as a Sunday project. Addie loves to “help” – holding the mixer with me, pouring chocolate chips in the batter and of course, tasting the goodies before I take them to work. This Christmas, the gift I was hoping for the most were mixing bowls and everyone heard loud and clear! I ended up with 3 different sets, which happen to all be different sizes, so I kept them all! This new acquisition has made so Addie can now actually do some mixing of her own. Today, as I was getting veggies ready for a big pot of soup, I gave her a bowl of cheerios to snack on and then she asked me for a spoon, which I thought was weird since she typically devours them with her fingers. I soon understood that she was trying to “mix” the cheerios, so I gave her a bigger mixing bowl and a wooden spoon. And here’s what happened!
Cute right! I love the way she even gets a little taste as she is mixing!
Tonight marked another first for Miss Addie! I was getting her bath ready and got her undressed in the bathroom. Not too surprisingly, she asked to go “peepee potty” so she sat on her little potty. She then, very nonchalantly, asked me for a piece of toilet paper – this is part of the routine: she sits on the potty, asks for paper to “wipe” though she only throws it in without any wiping, and then stands up, grabs the paper and throws it in the trash can. Tonight, though, after she stood up to retrieve the toilet paper, I noticed it was soaked and that there was actual pee at the bottom of the potty!! I immediately congratulated her and clapped my hands in amazement. She became super excited too and proceeded to sit down again and ask me for more toilet paper, as if that was the part I was excited about! So she had her first actual potty experience, which is hard to believe since I still tend to see her as a 2 month old little munchkin! Here’s to more firsts to come!
So Adelaide is completely obsessed with the toilet! Everytime we “big people” go in there, she begins asking “peepee? poopoo?” and then will wait, listen, and proceed to declare what she thinks is going on! As you can imagine, this is not at all embarrassing in public bathrooms… Though I am in no hurry to get her potty trained, I thought this might be an opportunity to continue getting her excited about the potty and her Beppe bought her a small potty. As soon as we got it home, she sat on it and was telling us “peepee and poopoo” even though she was sitting on it with her diaper! She has spent a lot of time on her new potty and we have tried to teach her some “bathroom appropriate behaviors” such as reading some of her books! It’s super cute! We have settled it in the bathroom right across from the big people toilet and whenever we use the bathroom, she sits on her potty. Hopefully these positive interactions will help us out once we do decide to tackle potty training!
Last week Monday, Derek found out that the company he works for (Service Rock Product) had been bought out by another company (Robertson’s) and that as of last friday (1/15) all employees would be out of a job… Each employee was given the option to turn in an application for a job with Robertson’s and all interviews took place last monday. Derek turned in an application, but on friday, he was told there were no job openings in their IT Department.
The good news (because it’s always important to find the sliver lining, right?) is that Derek will be joining us in New York in the next 2 weeks! He will be taking care of Addie so we will not have to cover the daycare cost. The other positive is that he will definitely be there for the birth, something which we were both quite worried about since it’s hard to predict! He is still looking for a job, in fact, now more than ever, so if you know of any possible leads, please let us know.
The bad news with this corporate take over is that we have lost health insurance and will need to have Derek and Addie added to my health insurance plan. The other really bad news is that my dad Marc also lost his job, which comes at a tough time since my mom had to close down her business in November due to the economy. Hopefully there will be good news in the wings for them as well.
I was so excited to be heading to California to see everyone!! Addie and I took off on Christmas eve early in the morning and the flight was great. Addie was able to sleep on both legs of the flight and was super excited to see Derek! We stopped to have some delicious In-n-Out and then made our way to my parents’ house. We helped finish putting the Christmas decorations out, which was nice since we had none in New York. We were able to keep Addie up until 6:30pm which was great because she did not wake up the next morning until 8am!! In fact, her transition to pacific time was pretty easy this time around.
Christmas morning was magical! Addie got to see all the presents under the tree and she got to spend time with all her aunts and uncles.
Dom and Jaimie
Adelaide and Grand-Papa
Addie opening her first present, a Dora backpack from Mommy and Daddy
Addie and I wearing our matching scarves made by Audrey
Addie giving her new doll her pacifier
Audrey and Addie
Addie jumping on the trampoline with Jaimie
We spent the next few days with family and friends which was great! Addie got to see her cousin Anneke right before New Year’s and had a few playdates with Sophia and Rebecca. Here are some of the highlights from our vacation!
Addie playing the drums with Gen
Daddy kisses at breakfast
Spending time with Grandma Clairot
Cuddles with Sammy
Addie riding in Sammy's old car
Anneke with a ponytail!
Addie with Oma and Opa
Fun with Uncle Will
Anneke and Tante Rika
Opa and Beppe
Sammy feeding Addie breakfast
Audrey, Gen and Addie
Driving the car with Daddy
Addie getting a push from Bella doggie!
Showing off her new tutu - thanks Beppe and Tante Rika!
Camille, James and Sophia, Derek, Addie and I - with the 2 upcoming March babies!
I now I have been horrible at updating the blog over the holidays… I will start with our trip to Montreal the weekend of December 19th. Genevieve flew out so she could help me drive since it is still a 6-7 hour drive, so it was great to see her and it was great seeing everyone’s face in Montreal since they did not know she was coming! She flew in on thursday night and spent the day with Addie on friday. She and Addie met up with me in the city so we could have lunch at my work. Unfortunately, on the subway ride back, Addie got sick all over Gen… I felt so bad! Apparently there was a stomach bug going around at Addie’s daycare and she caught it! The problem was we were planning on heading out to Montreal at 6pm that night but Addie was still quite sick, so we waited until 8:30, when she was finally a bit better. The drive was long, but Addie slept the whole way. We arrived to Mon Oncle Andre’s and Louise’s house at 4:30am and they were so thrilled to see Gen! We went to bed and I got home 3 hours later to get ready for work. I have been doing some consulting work for a company in Montreal and was eager to actually work with them, rather than remotely.
Gen, Addie, Mon Oncle and Louise had a great time. Addie apparently has her Mon Oncle wrapped around her little finger! She is in a “pick-me-up-all-the-time” phase and her mon oncle indulged her in her requests!
After work, we headed to a restaurant to celebrate Patrick’s birthday. It was so good to see everyone!
Sophie and David
Ma Tante Joanne and Bernard
Mon Oncle Andre and Louise
Annie and Patrick
Addie having fun with cousin David
The weekend was bitter sweet. That night, after Patrick’s birthday party, we found out Mamie had a heart attack. She had been in the hospital related to her kidney failure, and luckily, they were able to act quickly. We dropped off Addie with Louise and Gen, mon oncle and I headed straight to the hospital. She was in a good mood (as always!) and was happy to see us. It still had us worried, especially since they did a test which showed her coronaries were mostly blocked, which lead the doctors to do an emergency triple bypass that following monday. Mamie has been recovering and there are good days and bad days. My mom and Claire will be heading out to see her in a few weeks as she transitions from the rehab center to her apartment. If you could keep her in your thoughts and prayers, that would be greatly appreciated.
The other unfortunate piece of the weekend is that I ended up getting Addie’s stomach bug… I was sick all night saturday and was unable to go work on sunday as originally planned. Gen was also feeling under the weather, which made the drive back to NY really tough… To make matters worse, there was a large snow storm in NYC that sunday so once we got in the city, many of the bridges were closed and parking was made really difficult. The next morning, Gen’s flight was set to leave at 11:30am. On her way to the airport, there ended up being a lot more traffic than anticipated and she got to the check in counter 29 minutes before her flight. The retards at US Airways, however, would not let her get on the plane because of their 30 minute policy. She then had to wait in line for several hours to book another flight, which was incredibly difficult so close to Christmas. Luckily, they were able to get her on a flight leaving the next morning, making 2 stops before getting in at LAX. It was really disappointing, but the silver lining was that we got an extra day together to hang out. All and all, it was a very packed weekend with some great highs and unfortunate lows. I am still really happy we got see everyone and that Gen and I had some sister bonding time!
Sorry about the delay in my post as of late. As many of you have come to realize, no news sometimes in the Julie and Addie world means bad news… And you would be right, although this was simply a minor set back. On thursday before Addie and I headed back to California for Thanksgiving, we had an office robbery, and of course, they got into my office. Luckily, they only took my wallet, but as you can imagine, it caused some problems since we were flying out less than 48 hours later! I noticed my wallet was missing when in line at Starbucks, I was unable to pay for my latte – luckily my coworker Emily spotted me some cash. When we got back to the office, another coworker noticed her wallet was missing and that’s when we realized something must have happened. The building security guard remembers a “weird” guy and we have video footage of him walking into both our offices. It was a nuisance having to cancel everything and having to spend the next afternoon at the DMV to get a new driver’s license, but aside from that, it was no big deal.
So Addie and I headed off to California filled with hopes to see family, hang out with friends, but most of all, get lots of hugs with the people we have missed so dearly over the last 4 months. And that worked out fabulously! The plane ride was horrible (no air flow, so it was close to 85F) and Addie was sick most of the trip and uber jetlagged for the first few days, but aside from that, we had an amazing vacation.
I had tried to pack in as many visits with family and friends during that short week which was great, except that I felt I needed a vacation from the vacation once we got back! Here are some pictures from our trip. Thanks everyone for making it such a special holiday! And can’t wait to see everyone at Christmas time!
Walking around with Beppe
Spending time with Oma and Opa
Addie and Oma
Anneke and Adelaide reunited! Such cousin love!
Addie and Rebecca, exhausted after an afternoon of shopping. (Don't worry, Addie was only in the trunk so I could change her diaper)
Family Picture - Addie was not in a cooperative mood...
Derek and I (plus baby boy, growing big everyday!)
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