Bye Bye Paci!

*After proof reading this before posting, I just want to add a disclaimer here. I am SO tired and I am pretty sure this post is awfully written. But I'm too tired to care. Goodnight.*

If someone had told me that today would be Addison's last day with her pacifier, I probably would have rolled my eyes at them. As much as I hate the pacifier, she is WAY attached to it, and Mike and I haven't been able to see an end in sight.

But, indeed, today WAS Addison's last day with her pacifier.

Here's how it went down.

Addison had a dentist appointment today- just a regular cleaning/check up. Side note: she did AWESOME! Allowed them to use the actual cleaning tools (last time she only allowed a toothbrush), allowed them to floss and everything! I was so proud of her! So, the dentist noticed that her bite is looking pretty bad, significantly worse than 6 months ago, all thanks to the paci. Dr. Jenny pulled me aside while Addison was getting her treat from the "token tower" to discuss different ways we could phase the pacifier out. Some of the options included: cutting the tip of the pacifier and telling her it's broken, making it taste bad, or cutting cold turkey. When Addison returned with her prize, I told her that Dr. Jenny wanted her to stop using the pacifier. Dr. Jenny said that when Addison would agree to bring her paci to her, she would give her 4 tokens and a Dr. Jenny Rocks t-shirt (all of the staff was wearing this t-shirt today). We said goodbye to Dr. Jenny, and while I was checking out, Addison said, all on her own, "Mommy, can you go to the car and get my paci, I want to give it to the dentist." I explained to her that this meant that she would never see paci again, that this was the deal- Dr. Jenny keeps it forever. She said she understood (how can a 3 year old REALLY understand this) and walked over to Dr. Jenny and handed her her paci. I cried. Yes, I cried. So silly. I was just so amazed at my brave little girl! She LOVES her paci and she was being so brave and strong! I didn't let her see me cry, of course, but it was such a MOMENT for us.

After we left the office, I realized she had one other paci at home, so we decided to take it to Build a Bear and stuff it inside the bear, so that she could sleep with the bear, and the paci would always be safe and with her. I had to run home to grab the pacifier, so of course I grabbed my camera too :-)

Watching the bear get stuffed.

Kissing paci one last time

In goes the pacifier

My big girl with her new bear, who she named Keewa.

So, yes, bedtime was rough, but I am pleased to say that she finally did go to sleep. She did ask for paci a lot, cried a lot, but Mike and I were not going to give in... because we knew we'd have to go through this again and that time she'd know she could get away with fussing and after long enough we'd cave. Nu-uh. Not happening.

Yay Addison! BIG GIRL FINALLY letting go of the pacifier! I'm so thrilled that it's gone!

An Artist and a Songwriter

Grammi had surgery on her knee last Thursday. Mike and I get "Losers of the Year" for not remembering about the surgery until Thursday night. Addison gets "Granddaughter of the Year" for making Grammi this cute get well card:

While she was coloring her flower, Addison was singing a song that was too, I don't know, crazy, not to share. (I wrote the words down as she was singing them):

Heartbreak, what is it?
I don't care
It's just my project
It's just a little accident
It's a nice big door
I know what it is
Silver shoes
A girl who has everything
Is (?) but it's alright
I don't care
I want you more
more more more

Um. Wow. I don't know what to say. I guess she really listens to the words of songs when we listen to "Mommy's music" (KSGR). I mean, I really don't know what else to say!

Except that I plan on making lots of money off of her when she's older and writing Grammy award winning songs.

Randoms

Party on the Stairs!

Last night Addison's friend Kassidy came over to play. (Her mommy came over to play too! We played scrabble and had a nice evening enjoying music, wine, pizza and chocolate chip cookies!) The girls are at the age now where they can go upstairs and play together while we stay downstairs and enjoy adult company. At the end of the night, they decided to bring all of Addy's stuffed animals to the stairs. They are so cute!!


Can you spot the baby in this one??

Rollie Pollie

The Things She Notices...

A conversation in the car on the way home from school this afternoon:

"I love you Addison."

"I love you too."

"Do you know what it means when I say I love you?"

"You give me hugs and kisses! And kisses and hugs!"

"Yes, that is what it means. It also means that I think that you are very special and I want you to always be happy, to never be sad, and I will always take care of you, no matter what."

"Well, when you're a little girl, and I'm a grown up, I'm going to take care of YOU!"

"That's so sweet, Addison. But I won't ever be a little girl again. I'm a grown up."

"Why?" (side note: OMG "Why" is without question the word we hear most of these days)

"Well, because that's the way life works. First you're a baby, then a kid, then a teenager. And then you become a grown up and then you grow old. Like Grandma. And like NaNa and PaPa."

"But mommy, I don't want to have old hands!"

(laughing inside) "Oh, don't worry- you have a long time before you'll have old hands."

Another One...

Had another crazy dream. Except this time, all I remember is this...

Thinking to myself during the dream, "I totally HAVE to blog about this. It's just too crazy not to!"

And that's all I've got. So ANNOYING!

Dina

Pronounced "Die-nuh".

Dina.

Addison has an imaginary friend named Dina. It took me a while to figure out that this "Dina" she kept referring to was her imaginary friend. Probably longer than it should have, but I've been a little tired lately, so that's my excuse.

Addison mostly likes to call Dina on the phone. "Okay, Dina. When you wake up from your nap, you can come over and play" is a line I hear a lot.

I remember my imaginary friend, Shelly. Well I don't remember her, I remember imagining her. She was a very important part of my childhood.

Is it weird that I'm really excited for Addison to have an imaginary friend?

MaryJane's 5th Birthday Party

Addison and MaryJane met at Princess Camp this year, and Addy was SO excited to receive an invitation to her birthday party! MaryJane is one of the SWEETEST kids I've ever taught- I'm always glad to have Addison socializing with nice girls :-) (Believe it or not, at 3, there are already girls displaying "mean girl" qualities. Ridiculous, right?) MaryJane's mom, Katie, also happens to be one of the sweetest people I know, and amazingly strong and awesome to boot. She had twin boys a month before I had Aiden, and handles being a mother of four beautifully. Don't know if I would be able to say the same thing about myself.

So the birthday party was at Sharky's, the same place Addison got her hair cut and nails painted a while back. IT WAS THE CUTEST PARTY EVER. I'm seriously considering stealing this idea for Addy's next birthday.

First, each of the girls got to pick out a beautiful dress and accessories (hats, boas, etc). Addison chose this pink "princess dress" with pink fairy wings.

Then they got to get make up!

Next up, they got their hair done. Addison chose braids. They offered curling, straightening, updo's... SO CUTE!

And then it was time for manicures!

Here's the finished product... Princess Addison! (she insisted on bringing this mermaid to the party. Don't ask me why)


While all of this was going on, Aiden was keeping the mom's entertained. He was passed around from mommy to mommy- and he loved it! I hadn't met any of these moms before, and they were all so nice and super complimentary of how cute Aiden is :-)

Now it was time for the fashion show! They had a little stage, with curtains for the girls to come out of one at a time. They introduced each girl... here was Addison's introduction.

"This is Addison. She's 3 years old. When Addison grows up she wants to be a fairy!"(I couldn't get good pics of this moment because I was holding Aiden)

BUT... a sweet mom videoed all of the girls and emailed me Addison's fashion walk debut!!


Here's MaryJane, the birthday girl!!

I just love this picture. MJ and a friend SO EXCITED about their manicures "backstage" just before the fashion show!

Group Picture.

MJ's birthday cake. Her mom made this. Told you she was amazing.

Addy and MJ eating cake. Happy Birthday, MaryJane!!

Mama's Boy

FOR SURE a Mama's boy.

Work it, Girl!

"Oh, hi there. You see this look I'm giving you? The look of sheer confidence? Mommy thinks I look drunk in this picture, but I don't know what that means. All I know is that I'm posing this way because this Halloween Costume makes me feel SO pretty and sassy. I've only been asking for a Minnie Mouse costume since BEFORE I was Tinkerbell LAST year. It's been a long time coming. I can barely contain myself! And you don't have to tell me- I KNOW I'm cute."

I Had TWO MORE (crazy) Dreams

1. Mike and I took Addison and Aiden to the circus. I made sure there wouldn't be any animals at the circus- circus animals (and zoo animals, for that matter) make me sad. So we were getting ready for the circus at Coach and Tammy Taylor's house from Friday Night Lights.

Hold on. I have to address something. If you don't know who Coach and Tammy Taylor are, YOU HAVE TO GO RENT THE FIRST SEASON OF FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. It's only the best show ever and the Taylors are only the best couple ever. I love that show so much. Oh, and Riggins. Yum. Whatever. Just watch it. You won't be disappointed, I promise.

Ahem. We were at the Taylor's house before the circus. Julie was there and so was an old man who I am assuming was Coach's dad. He was getting on Tammy's nerves and Tammy was doing her I do not appreciate you being here, but I'm always gracious and polite, so you'll just have to deal with some very honest facial expressions followed by a sweet smile. Julie was going to school and gave her parents a hug and a kiss. Their house was a mess like ours. Like, not disgusting, but not super clean. I remember thinking, See- now this is why I like Friday Night Lights. It's so REALISTIC!

Yes, I think I might agree with you that I am a crazy person.

SO. Somehow we ended up at the circus. Mike sat with the kids while I went to get snacks. On the other side of the arena. When I was bringing all the food back, I kept walking right into the spotlight at the exact moment the circus was doing audience participation segments. I'd run out of the spotlight, embarrassed that I looked like a gross lady carrying buckets of junk food. Then a clown grabbed me and made me stay in the spotlight. I don't remember what the point of this was, as all I remember doing is standing there. I finally made it back to our section and had to climb over all kinds of people to get to my seat. I ran into one of my old high school friend's husbands- who I've never met, just seen on facebook. He complimented me and told me that Aiden was adorable. Like I didn't know that ;)

2. I took a dance class at a local studio who we directly compete with. I will not share the name of this studio. Sorry.

I took Aiden with me, and the teacher had her baby there too. She commented that all teachers bring their babies to class with them. I agreed. (Take THAT, you know who, for leaving Dance eMotions because you didn't like that I allowed my staff to bring their babies with them!!)

Wow. Anyway. We had an improv exercise in which we were given a natural disaster that we had to convey in dance movements- and the class had to guess what kind of natural disaster it was. I was given earthquake. I did, what I now in waking moments realize was totally NOT COOL and in fact pretty awful, but in my dream, I was totally confident and thought it was AMAZING. I wish I could show you the dance that I did, because I somehow remember most of it. The class pretty much laughed at me.

And that's all I remember of that dream.

She's a Cow Now

Oh my goodness, could her new class "mascot" be any worse? It's true, Addison is officially one of Ms. Carol's cows. Yuck.

But, as much as I hate the name, Addison loves it, and that's all that matters.

And really, when a cow is this cute, what's there to hate?

Didn't really get a lot out of her about how her day went, hopefully she'll talk more next time.

Seems to me that the day was a success and that she was very happy with her new class! Yay!

I Had A Dream

Aiden and I stayed home sick today :-( I can tell I'm running a fever because I just had THE CRAZIEST dream during a nap. I always dream crazy when I'm sick.

I went to Wiggle World in Dallas by myself. Like as in the theme park that revolves around the Wiggles TV Show. That's not even the weird part.

Before I went to Wiggle World, I checked into my motel. Not HO-tel, MO-tel. This detail is critical. To me, anyway. It was NASTY. And for some reason this didn't bother me in my dream as much as it does now. The bathroom and "office nook" were one area. Like, the chair for the desk was the toilet. I had wine packed in my suitcase and packed it with me as I got ready to go swimming at Wiggle World.

So Wiggle World was a gross water park. Most people I remember from my dream had oversized white t-shirts on over their swim suits. And all of the lifeguards were young- like maybe 11 or 12 years old. I swam in the shallow water for a while and decided to get an inner tube to go on one of the slides. The lifeguard who was working the slide was a guy I went to high school with. I don't know who reads this, so he will remain nameless. If I reveal his identity, he will think I am a total LOON for dreaming about him, seeing how our paths haven't crossed once since HS. Anyway, he helped me get on the water slide. At the end of the slide, there was a girl lifeguard to take my tube. I gave it to her and she saw my bottle of wine. I got in big trouble for having it. (DUH) So I told her she could just keep it. And she did. And drank it right there while still on duty.

I got in my truck (yes, my TRUCK. My OLD, DIRTY, SMELLY-that is a real detail from the dream- TRUCK) and headed back to the motel to get dressed to meet Mike at a showing of The Jersey Boys. I got ready in the bathroom/office and had the tv on in the main room. I overheard a news story about George Clooney that was crazy so I went and sat on the bed to watch.

George Clooney was in another country and was being extradited to the United States for owing lots of money in taxes. There was video footage of him in said other country and he was a mess. A grizzly, old mess. He was with his girlfriend who was wearing an evening gown and looked perfectly put together. Another detail of this news story was that he'd been eating obscene amounts of chocolate during all of this drama.

So, I somehow was ready to meet Mike at this point, so I went to the truck and he was already in it, ready to go to Jersey Boys. He was wearing a pair of khaki shorts that he really does own- they are "house" shorts and have approximately 10 holes in them and are frayed at the bottom. His shirt was old and dirty. I was wearing... wait for it... a black skin tight tube top mini dress.

This is the point in the dream when I woke up. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried, people.

Great Wolf Lodge

The Chronicles of our Labor Day Weekend:

So, we loaded up the car on Friday and headed out the door an hour and a half later than we'd planned. Packing for and traveling with two kids is no joke! The amount of STUFF that we had crammed into our trunk was unreal!

Addison was asking "are we there yet?" before we even made it to the bank down the street. I thought it would be funny to count how many times she asked, but decided that it was NOT FUNNY ANYMORE by the time we got to Georgetown and she'd asked close to 50 times already. No joke.

We arrived at around 5:00 on Friday afternoon and headed straight down to the water park.


At first Addison stayed in the "little kid" part of the park. Here she is on a jet ski. Mike is playing with Jude and Micah.


She knew she was about to have to get out to get ready for dinner and was not very happy about it. She put on a good fake smile for mommy's picture, though.


Aaannnnd, the first the weekend's many meltdowns. She sat on the chair, crying, watching all of the other kids play and swim. I felt kind of mean taking a picture, but it made me laugh.


We all got dressed and headed to dinner. It was a buffet of pretty much everything you could ever imagine. And it cost more than you'd like to imagine. Here are Jude and Micah with their desserts.


Aiden was super happy playing with his feet!


The next day we had plans to meet my Aunt Sharon, her 2 kids (my cousins) and their families, and my Uncle Paul and his kids at the Rainforest Cafe just down the street from the Great Wolf Lodge. So we decided to keep the morning "dry" and hold off on swimming until the afternoon. They have a kids spa at the hotel, so the girls headed down for some pampering.

Their mani/pedi appointments for the day were all booked, all that they had available was facials. Apparently Addison was NOT interested in getting a facial. (I was upstairs with a napping Aiden during all of this). She decided to make an appointment for a mani/pedi for the next day, and just to stand by and observe Abigail's facial.

Check out CUTIE PIE Annalie and her sweet sister Abigail in the background.

BEAUTIFUL Abigail. The "spa" was so cute. Each little girl got to wear a tiara and a robe. They truly made the girls feel special and glamorous!


While the girls got pampered, the boys played in the giant arcade. GaGa got each of the kids a glitter tattoos. Here's Addy's fairy tattoo.


At lunch time we headed out to The Rainforest Cafe to meet my family (on my Dad's side- his brother and sister and their kids and grandkids). The Rainforest Cafe is so cool! Perfect for kids! I didn't get to take any pictures because it's pretty dark inside. It was so nice to see my family and to catch up. It's sad how few and far between our visits are.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. Addison took a short nap, Mike watched the UT Game (Hook 'em!), then it was time to go back down to the water park for more swimming!! This is the only picture we got from that afternoon :-( Aiden dipped his toes in the water!


For dinner on Saturday, we decided to stay in the room. We ate pizza, then snacked on popcorn and ice cream and watched Iron Man 2. Here are a few pictures from the evening.


Sunday morning we had to check out by 11am, but had all day to continue to enjoy the resort. And enjoy, we did. I had an hour long massage. It was heavenly! Then Addison had her mani/pedi appointment. Ridiculously expensive. I don't want to talk about how expensive. Let's just enjoy the memory through pictures.


After a morning of pampering, it was time to go swimming again! And for all of the nail polish to come off of Addison's fingers and toes!

If you ask Addy what her favorite part of the water park was, she'd say the wave pool. (Mike and Addison are tiny specs in the middle of this picture)


She also really liked the lazy river!


Enjoying lunch outside before heading home. She's smiling because she doesn't know we're heading home.


Aiden was so great all weekend. He's getting so big! And is SO HAPPY!


Whew! What a weekend! We are looking forward to going back when the kids are older. There's so much to enjoy, and not enough time or money to do so! And now, after the long weekend, and the amount of time it took me to post this blog, I'm taking a nap!