Talking and Peeing.

Addison has developed quite the vocabulary. She LOVES to repeat anything and everything you say. So far, though, no bad words. I don't know how that is possible since I can cuss like a sailor, but so far, so good. I was afraid early on that she wasn't talking as much as I thought she should be, but that for sure turned around. It is amazing at all the things she does say. She also knows pretty much every body part, five animals and their sounds, and we are working on colors and the numbers 1-5. My grandma watches her 2-3 times a week and during at least 2 of those times, they have "school time." My grandma will practice either the ABCs, numbers or colors with her. Am I lucky or what?

We also just got her the first DVD of Your Baby Can Read. I have been eying the infomercial since she was born and I would watch it at her 2 AM feeding. When I looked at the price, I was shocked...over $200. At the time, it just didn't work in our budget. Well, this weekend, I was grocery shopping at Wal-mart and since Wal-mart carries EVERYTHING, they just so happened to have it. You could buy it in individual volumes or 3 volumes for $69. Since I wasn't sure how Addison would take it, I thought I would only invest the $25 for one volume right now. I was surprised at how fast the DVD moves. The words are shown very fast - even fast for me and I know the words. But, it seems to keep her interest and she follows along for most of the movie. She actually gets very excited when she watches it and it always smiling at the other kids or laughing at what they are asking her to do. Some of the words are: clap, hi, baby, dog, cat, elephant, arms, arms up, mouth, nose, etc. So nothing too difficult and a good start to some words. The DVD is only about 15-20 minutes long which is good. I plan on having her watch it at least once a day and I don't want to move onto the next volume until we have mastered this one first.

Another new development in our house is the potty. Addison has peed on the potty 3 times now. In addition, we have spent many more hours sitting on the potty with no action. The other night we sat on the potty for over 20 minutes talking and playing but nothing. She even screamed for Donnie to come into the bathroom and sit down with us (I was sitting on the floor next to her). Sometimes, I think she just wants to sit on the potty because she loves to be naked.

Naked - my kid loves to be naked. Her new thing is to take her clothes off during nap time including her diaper. We go into her room to either check on her or get her up and she is butt naked. Surprisingly though, after she takes her diaper off, she never pees in her bed. This just further explains how ready she is to potty train. Sometimes she just insists on not wearing a diaper. It kills me too because I know she wants panties on but I can't risk her peeing her panties when we are out in public. It would just be a mess.

Panties - I need to have a talk with these manufacturers....not every kid that is ready for panties wears a size 2T. My kid is still in 12 months but we have searched and searched and searched for panties and the smallest size we could find is 2T. My kid weighs 21 lbs even and most of these panties start around 28 lbs. At her rate, she won't be reaching 28 until well after she is 2. I'm going to have to get creative with a needle and thread to sew these panties smaller. If not, she will be severely sagging.

Weight - as I said before, she weighs a whopping 21 lbs...hooray! The doctor said even though she is on the growth chart around the 2 percentile, she looks great. We only need her to gain 4 lbs between her first and second birthday and we are already half way there. Finding clothes to fit her is sometimes a challenge though. Any shorts that I buy her are usually 9 months and we still have to wear a belt because they are too big. Length is our only problem. She is such a peanut!

All-in-all, she is progressing great. I really couldn't ask for a better kid. We may have our moments and melt downs from time-to-time, but she really is a great kid. She is so smart and getting smarter everyday. I can't wait to see what comes next. I thought I missed her newborn and baby stage...but this is WAY better.