iPhone

I was going through my pictures on my phone today and found some that I'd forgotten about.

Addison letting Chase talk on her cell phone.

Her dress is a 6-12 month. She wears it as a shirt/tunic now and wants to wear it every day!

Chase fell asleep in his crib rubbing his eyes. Precious!


We were sitting on the deck and he was squinting so I thought I'd give his eyes a break!

Okay, so since last night, I've realized a few things. #1, I overreacted to Addison's bangs. They really are pretty cute and I might actually like them and #2, apparently she's always had bangs and I didn't know! These pictures were taken on 5/20 while we were outside Children's Hospital waiting for an appointment for Chase.

#3, Her bangs can still be pulled back with a bow (pics taken yesterday evening) so I get the best of both worlds. :)

Bangs

Addison often asks me if we can go get her hair cut. She's definitely a girl that likes to be pampered! I took her to the kiddie spa today, even though she didn't really need it, as a special treat. I made a rash decision to have bangs cut and....okay, she's a cutie no matter what, but....I regret doing it! I thought it would be nice to get the hair out of her face for the summer and the hairdresser went a little crazy cutting them. So, now we have some bangs to grow out!

Awww, I absolutely love her. :)

Training wheels

I keep meaning to post about Addison learning to ride a bike. Last summer, our neighbors gave us one of their girl's old bikes with training wheels. Addison liked to sit on it, but couldn't reach the pedals. This year we bought her (or rather, the Easter Bunny brought her) a princess big wheel type of bike, but she can't reach the pedals on that yet either!

So, last month I went out and bought her a Radio Flyer tricycle. She made a couple feeble attempts at riding it, but wasn't really into it. She really wanted me to get out the purple hand-me-down. To my surprise, her feet reached the pedals and it only took her a few attempts and some support from our next door neighbors (read: Kiernan rides a bike and she figured she should learn, too, so he would want to hang out with her!) before she was sailing off into the wind.

It was officially May 31st when she learned to ride her training wheels. It's so much fun to watch her on her bike. She is so proud of herself and thinks she's a big kid now! She can get going pretty fast, especially downhill, and is doing a good job steering and turning corners. She's taken a couple of little falls, but dusts off her pants and gets right back on!



She learned this trick from Kiernan (a disadvantage to her hanging with the older kids). Right after the picture was taken, both feet were on the seat and she was rolling down the driveway. I just about dropped the camera as I lunged toward her afraid she was going to bite it. Whew!

Exersaucer

Chase has been loving his exersaucer since we introduced him to it a few weeks ago, more so than Addison ever did. But, Chase is usually happy no matter where we put him (swing, bouncer, exersaucer, jumperoo, couch, floor). I think he might have a little more of Dustin's disposition. He's just a laid back, go-with-the-flow type of guy, which is PERFECT for a second child (especially because he doesn't have much of a choice!)

Hummus

Addison loves, and I mean LOVES, her hummus. Today I was taking pictures of Chase and she wanted me to take some of her and her messy hands. I told her that wasn't the only thing that was messy and she said "What, Mommy?" so I had to take some additional pictures to show her. She thought it was quite humorous and didn't want me to stop taking them!







After a little clean-up. Oh, and I promise I do brush her hair and pull it away from her face every once in a while when I find the chance anymore.

Tummy time

Chase getting in some good old quality TT.

Eating his fist because I am making him lay on his tummy instead of feeding him. He is SO patient!

Is there much resemblance between sister and brother? A lot of people think so, but I can't really tell.

Family Reunion

Over the weekend, we headed to a State Park a couple of hours away for a family reunion on my stepfather's side. Family members came from Louisiana, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, and of course Ohio. A total of 57 (36 adults and 21 children) out of a possible 63 relatives showed up for a 90% attendance record! In Uncle Ron's words, "Looking at our geographic diversity, that was quite a feat."

We had a great time hanging out with family, many of whom we met for the first time. Addison had an absolute blast swimming and playing with all of her cousins and even more so, her Gammy and Poppy.

Addison was so excited to get there and couldn't wait to sleep in the lodge! We arrived Saturday morning. Chase slept almost the whole way and Addison sang her songs and asked us a million questions (typical...she doesn't ever stop talking!) about what we would be doing on "vacation".

After saying our hello's to everyone and watching an animal show in the lobby, we headed for the pool. It was already 90 degrees and we needed a refreshing dip!









Aunt Chris and Chase


It was hard to get Addison in from the pool, but it was time for family pictures.

The Deger Clan (we're in the red)

The Phil Deger Clan

Us. :)

Next up was dinner and slide show, after another quick dip in the pool for our little fishy!

Our ice cream lover!

We all took an after dinner walk to the lake (well some ran down a huge hill to get there, which Addison wanted to attempt and I said no to because I saw broken ankles in our future).

Addison saw her first fireflies. She's never been out past dark in the summer before. She loved it!

This picture is out of focus but I thought it was kinda artistic.

Racing Daddy back to the lodge.

Addison slept in Gammy and Poppy's room that night, while Chase, Dustin and I slept in an adjoining room. Addison got 7 hours of sleep (Sorry, Mom and Phil!). Not good when she is used to getting 11 or so! Stay tuned to how this affected her later. :)

Once our room awoke (Thanks Mom and Phil...Dustin's one wish for Father's Day was to sleep in!), we hit up breakfast and then the beach. Chase napped while Addison swam in the lake and played in the sand.

I wasn't successful in building a sand castle with the big green bucket, so Dustin wanted to show me how it was done.

The moment of truth.

Haaaaa Haaaa! Nice job, babe.

Attempt #2.

"BOOYAH!"

3 seconds later.

Phil thought he could do better.

Fail. :)

After the beach, we took another swim, had lunch and hit the road. It was 2pm, which was an hour past when our darlings usually nap so I figured they'd sleep on the way home. We arrived home at 4:30 and they were both still sleeping in their car seats. We left the car on for them and started unloading. Chase finally woke up. At around 5:30, Addison was still asleep, which I didn't think would fare well for bedtime, so I decided to wake her up. I first tried to gently rub her arms and legs and softly talk to her. When that didn't work, I upstrapped her from her car seat just certain that would do the trick. It didn't. So, I carried her upstairs, laid her on her bed, turned on all of her lights and loudly put her clothes away and organized her closet. At 6:30, I decided that I REALLY had to wake her so I climbed into her bed and eventually got her to a coherent state. I had never seen her like that...it was almost scary! She was so exhausted (and we are pretty sure dehydrated). Needless to say, she went back down for the night at 8:30pm!