Months 9 & 10

(These posts are way, way, way late. Yay for catching-up on blogging during naptime!!)

9 Months Old

Accomplishments: Addie started sleeping through the night and taking regular naps again. Yippee! She also became much better at pulling herself up to a standing position. She waved goodbye for the first time when Alex left for school one day and it was the cutest thing! Her  bottom two teeth finally came in and her smile is so cute.

Foods She Liked/Didn't Like: Same as last month. We got more adventurous at the end of this month and tried egg yolk and cheese, both of which she loved!

Discoveries: The swing! While we had to bundle up to go outside, Addie loved walking over to the park and being pushed on the swings. Also, moving boxes were THE things to play with. I quickly decided it was pointless to pack until about a week before we moved out of our apartment since she would take any chance she got to pull everything out of the boxes. 

Likes and Dislikes: Addie and Alex are the best of buddies. She is so happy whenever he gets home for the day and never wants to leave his side. It is rather cute :) Addie also loved going on walks (when the weather was actually warm), reading books, blowing raspberries, and grabbing Daddy's water bottle that had a straw and trying to drink from it. We got a jumperoo this month and at first she liked it, but then would get upset whenever I tried to put her in it. She definitely preferred playing on the floor and being able to move wherever she wanted to. 

Special Memories: When Addie was having a combination of a meltdown and laughing episode at dinner and Alex called her a nutty girl and then proceeded to do this weird thai-chi-hand-movement/breathing thing to calm her down (apparently the apple does not fall far from the nutty tree...), giving kisses and hugs, wide-mouthed smiles (see the pictures above), writing postcards to cousins and doing painted handprints on them, when she tried to eat her sock that she had pulled off at dinner, taking naps in my arms at Church. 

10 Months Old

Accomplishments: Learning to put herself back to sleep when she woke up early in the morning-a real treat for me! She also would let go of what she was holding onto and would free stand for a couple of seconds. 

Foods She Liked/Didn't Like: Addie loved bread and tortillas. She did not like pureed baby food as much and wanted to be more independent and eat finger foods whenever she could.  

Discoveries: She started paying more attention when we would read books and would point at the pictures and on rare occasions even kiss her books! She also realized that her catch-all bib could be manipulated so she would tilt it up and then open her mouth and pour all the food that was in it into her mouth! She also discovered that Mom is pretty fun to snuggle with :)

Likes and Dislikes: Addie LOVES Bathtime! We started bathing her every night before bed as she was getting a lot messier during the day with eating more solids. This girl is hands-down her happiest in the bath! She has these bath flutes/recorders that you fill up with water and then blow into to play music. She got it right away and would play these flutes during the full duration of her bath. It was HILARIOUS to watch (especially the faces she would make while playing them)! She also loved going to library time and watching other kids. She will light up whenever she sees other babies and is a little social butterfly. She did not like sitting on the grass!

Special Memories: The rare moments where she wouldn't squirm and sit still on my lap, when she peed on me both before and after a bath and then refused to let me clean her up and scurried all over the floor with her nakey bottom in the air, moving into our new apartment and painting it while trying to juggle naps and playtime, seeing other kids at the mall play place, watching her sleep. 

Imitation

Our goofy daughter has been making these very silly faces lately and I could not pin down where she would have picked it up from. I quickly put two and two together at dinner when I witnessed this-

(sorry for the camera work that pans too fast & is a bit shaky- I was trying to capture the both of them!)

Spring?!

This winter season has been record-breaking in Michigan. We have had soooo much snow and it has been dreadfully cold. There were inklings of spring weather, meaning it warmed up and then snowed a foot or two a couple of days later (I wish this was an exaggeration), but the last few days have been just warm enough that all the snow and ice have melted. I definitely do not want to jinx it but I think spring might have finally arrived! I sure hope so because we have major cabin fever in our house. Also, Addie looks super adorable in sun hats and I want to be able to put them to use...

Canada Trip

In February Addie and I went to Canada to visit my family while Alex was busy traveling to conferences and competitions for school. We were able to be there for 2 weeks and did lots of fun things including:

• dancing to Katy Perry at breakfast
• having bath time in the kitchen sink
• going to Church in my home ward
• eating nachos and watching a "Walk to Remember" with my parents
• playgroup with other babies 
• eating lunch with Grampie at the high school
• eating Wacky Cake cupcakes, Aero and Caramilk chocolate bars
• going to Library Time
• running into friends at Wal-Mart 
• going on walks and thankfully not getting blown away by the infamous Pincher Creek wind!
• pushing Addie in the stroller in the Church gym with Dad and Addie laughing soooo much
• Tim Horton's hot chocolate & Timbits
• Lindsay coming for a surprise visit!
• playing the piano with Addie
• visiting elderly residents at the retirement home
• the McDonald's chicken nugget meal fiasco
• taking photo booth pictures with Lindsay and listening to old CD's we had around the house
• going to Waterton Lakes National Park and seeing extended family
• chicken on a stick at the Claresholm 7-11 
• going swimming in the pool at the hotel in Calgary
• taking the C-train to downtown Calgary and seeing some of my old high school teachers
• shopping
• talks with my Mom
• seeing an indoor garden

Thanks Nani and Grampie for letting us come visit you!

Months 7 & 8

7 Months Old

Accomplishments: Addie slept through the night for the first time on January 17th! She can also sit up on her own without any help.

Foods She Liked/Didn't Like: She liked sweet potatoes, pears, applesauce, butternut squash and rice cereal. She was unsure of carrots and peaches.
Discoveries: Adelaide LOVED to play peek-a-boo with us and laughed every time we played. She got so close to crawling but was not quite there yet so scooted backwards instead.
Special Memories: Walking outside when the weather was actually nice, playing in her toy box, baby time at the library and her being fascinated with the lady who plays the guitar, snuggling more, panting while she ate baby food, the one time we pretended the leather recliner was a slide, putting her entire pacifier in her mouth.

*****

8 Months Old

Accomplishments: She started crawling but got frustrated easily and refused to do it most times. She pulled herself up from a sitting to standing position for the first time. She is getting so big! She also cut her first teeth- the two on the bottom.

Foods She Liked/Didn't Like: The same as last month plus Cheerios, prunes, Puffs, and started to like peaches. She is such a good eater! She still wasn't too sure about carrots and didn't like avocado the first time she tried it, but then loved it the second time. 

Discoveries: She is very curious and loved to touch and put everything in her mouth this month. Most of the day was spent chewing on whatever she was holding.

Special Memories: Addie laughed every time I blew my nose, the trip to Canada to see Nani and Grampie (we also got to see Auntie Lindsay too!) laughing at her Peter Rabbit stuffed toy on the airplane ride, having baths in the sink, going swimming for the first time, playing with a friend's dog, being so happy to see Daddy again that Adelaide gave him a nosebleed by putting her finger up his nose (also, she chews on his nose. Addie is fascinated with Alex's face and will always try to eat it/claw at it)

Chewing from Aggen Family on Vimeo.

Early Crawling from Aggen Family on Vimeo.

Crawling, Standing, Waving, Oh My!

We are officially mobile in our house (and waving goodbye too) !
Check it out:

On the Move 1 from Aggen Family on Vimeo.

On The Move 2 from The Aggen Family on Vimeo.

Our Little Valentine

2014 Resolutions

HIS

Write in a journal

Read The Book of Mormon once

Get to the Detroit Temple

Get a job at OCI in August (On-Campus Interviews)

Baby-proof our home

HERS

Get healthy (exercise, eat healthier, stress less, etc.)

Read The Book of Mormon twice

Enjoy having one child

Write in my journal

Learn how to make a fancy dessert

NIÑAS

Crawl

Walk

Talk

Eat solid foods

Give kisses of own free will

(Instead of Mommy & Daddy pretending that she 

is giving us kisses when she slobbers on our face)

When the Family Gets Together...

December was a month long visit with family and we loved it! 

At the beginning of December my sister Lindsay came to visit us and she could not have come at a better time. Alex was busy with finals the week she was here so I was not completely lonely and had someone to hang out with during the day! Plus, when the Sheen sisters get together it is always a fun and crazy time. Here is what we did:

• Church and Institute class
• Opening early Christmas presents
• Tour of campus (we walked mostly around the Law quad and visited the stadium)
• Baby playgroup at the library
• Visiting the Teddy Bear Factory in Chelsea
• Buffalo Wild Wings for Boneless Wing Tuesday!
• Going to the mall
• Farmer's Market in Kerrytown
• Visiting Hell, MI
• The Great Ice Cream Tour of 2013 (we hit up 3 ice cream shops in one day...whaaa?)
• TMAZ Tacos
• Christmas light display at the fairgrounds in Jackson
• Wasem Fruit Farm for doughnuts and cider (a bit of a fiasco when they said they only took cash and we had to drive all over the countryside to find an ATM...)
• Making chocolate covered pretzels
• Lindsay babysitting for us so we could have date night

We love Auntie Lindsay!

Momma and Addie in front of the sign

Isn't she the cutest lil devil?

Stop #1: Culver's for a Chocolate Strawberry Concrete Mixer

Stop #2: Washtenaw Dairy for Caramel Pretzel
Ice Cream

We were a little wired when we got to Ben & Jerry's...

Stop #3: Double Chocolate Brownie for Linds and
Raspberry Chocolate for me!

Sisters in the kitchen

The second half of December was spent in Kansas with the Aggens! We had lots of fun being with Yia-Yia, Grandpa, Uncle Tim, and the Bergmans. Our time there was filled with:

• Eating lots of yummy food (thanks Yia-Yia!)
• Playing games
• Seeing Frozen (loved that movie!)
• Acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day celebrations
• Playing with nieces and nephews
• Going to Kaleidoscope and Ice Skating at Crown Center
• Shopping
• Watching 'Thoroughly Modern Millie'
• Having a temple date night
• Eating BBQ at Jack Stack
• Getting a massage

Addie and Mommy

Christmas Eve baby 

The sleepy star in the Nativity

Christmas morning opening a present from Santa

Our little model

The bow boy- an Aggen tradition!

Our family on Christmas morning (we were a little tired!)

Months 5 & 6

5 MONTHS

Sleeping Pattern: Addie woke up every 3 hours during this month. Practically on the dot. I was absolutely exhausted and so we tried the Ferber method of sleep training, where you let them cry it out for an allotted time before going in to comfort them but not pick them up. She was a determined little lady though and it seemed like it was working for about a week, and then she went back to her old habits and fought us pretty hard so we decided we would try again later. We also moved her to her pack-and-play again to see if that would help. And naps? Naps were completely non-existent unless in arms. Whoever coined the phrase "sleeping like a baby" clearly never met my child :)

Eating Habits: She nursed every. 3. hours. this month. (To match her sleep schedule, of course!) She also tried rice cereal for the first time on November 12 and LOVED it. She especially wanted to hold the spoon and loved sticking her hands in her mouth to play with it. We caught it on camera and just had to share it since she is so darn cute!

.

Accomplishments: Addie rolled every which way this month, and would often do it with purpose. Once Alex and I were sharing ice cream out of a colorful bowl and she kept reaching for it so we did a little experiment and put her on the ground and the bowl about 3 feet away and sure enough she rolled end-over-end towards it and was so pleased with herself!

Discoveries: Toes were a great thing to suck on this month according to Miss Adelaide. She was also discovering more noises she could make and switched from screeching like a pterodactyl to doing "soft coos" instead.

Memories: When she had a poo-splosion and it was alllll over-running down her leg, in her belly button, and we go to open up the diaper and there is a single poo spot in her diaper. We still don't know how she managed that but it happened again a few days later! She would also cry one minute and then be giggly and happy the next. Going to the library to get books and then her wanting to hold them, when she gave me a kiss right on the lips back, Thanksgiving with our Ann Arbor friends, and when we would put her on the ground for tummy time and she would lift her arms up in the air thinking that would make her go forward...

6 MONTHS

Weight: 15 lbs 1.6 oz (29th percentile)

Height: 26 1/4 " (53rd percentile)

Head Circumference: 41.7 cm (33rd percentile)

Sleeping Patterns: She is sleeping better in the pack-n-play and actually started taking some naps during the day this month that were not in our arms-YAY! We also saw some longer stretches of sleep, but her schedule is so erratic that I never know when she is going to wake up. 

Eating Habits: Addie ate her first "real" solid food on her 6 month birthday. It was apple sauce and she loved, loved, loved it! She also cut back a bit on nursing (so I think we may have went through a stinker of a growth spurt last month!) and now is doing about every 4 hours. 

Accomplishments: She pushes herself all the way up on her arms and is starting to rock back and forth a bit on her knees. She also sat up on Christmas Eve!

Discoveries: Addie now does some really great belly laughs which come out especially when we play peek-a-boo around the corners in our house. She also is more ticklish! (see video below) She is starting to track where we go as well, which can be a bit of a hassle sometimes when we set her down on the ground as she wants to be held and walked around everywhere!

(side note-same pj's in two videos? definitely did not plan that one! haha)

Memories: She got sick for the first time-there is nothing sadder than a coughing, snotty-nosed baby. Auntie Lindsay coming to visit us in Michigan, when she listened to me sing one night before bed, Christmas in Kansas and meeting Mississippi cousins for the first time, opening presents, and looking at Christmas lights.