11 Months Old

Accomplishments: Addie climbed up the stairs for the first time. We did not even realize that she was capable of doing it until she was halfway up! She also finally learned how to clap her hands and whenever we say "Yay!" she starts clapping.

Foods She Liked/Didn't Like:  Addie favorite foods to eat are bread, bananas, cheese, and avacado. Anything else she will eat without too much fuss but she gets very excited when she gets those foods.

Discoveries: Addie loves to imitate the silly faces that her Daddy makes and watching the two of them is hilarious.  She was really giggly this month especially as she got more tired around dinnertime, and discovered that whenever she would laugh we would usually laugh back and so she would keep giggling. 

Likes and Dislikes: Addie loves to go swimming! We are very lucky this summer to have a neighborhood pool close by and we try to go twice a week. Addie loves splashing in the water, but mostly she loves watching the other kids. She also loves going on walks in the stroller and we have lots of great shady paths close to us.

Memories: Having a family picnic and snuggling Addie on the grass afterwards, my 1st Mother's Day and Adelaide being extra sweet, wanting to share a cup of bath water with Daddy and have him drink it too, when Addie tried to knaw on my phone and I would catch her every time and each time she would crack up laughing, when I left her in the living room and went into the kitchen for 10 seconds and when I came back she was gone and I quickly found her crawling behind the narrow space between the couch and the wall, going to the zoo.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo when family came and had a blast! The weather was perfect, and Addie loved seeing all the animals and would point and babble at them! 

The polar bear

I love how they both have a leg propped up!

In "Australia" - that name is familiar!

Bird Exhibit

On the Zoo Bus

Looking at the animals on an African safari

She wasn't too sure about the orangutans ...

On the carousel 

Posing afterwards on the sea otter

5K Training

I signed up to do a 5K this summer, and race day is quickly approaching. Training has been going great, and I am really glad I decided to do this (so far...we'll see how I feel after the race!) I've been wanting to do a 5K for a while but finally went for it when I was researching things to do this summer in Kansas and saw that there was a race in the city we are in. I also came across this information at about 11pm, and decided to sleep on it to see if it still sounded like a good idea the next day! It did and so I decided to register. Now, I am not an athletic person. I was the nerdy asthmatic girl that rejoiced when Phys. Ed. was no longer a required course beyond 10th grade and I could take band and calculus instead :) So I consulted on social media, Pinterest, talked with friends, and found a program that worked with my life and seemed doable. I am using the 'Couch to 5K' training which is a combination of walking and running, and you slowly increase your running time until you are only running on your training days. The picture above is about two weeks old and now I am solely jogging and it is going great! I am no longer exhausted after running, and am getting close to that 3 mile mark. For the next two weeks my goal is to focus more on distance rather than the time run. Also, lucky for me there are many great trails nearby (with lots of hills which I love/hate), and since it has been getting so hot during the day Alex has been awesomely supportive and keeps a listening ear on the baby monitor while I go running once Addie is asleep so I don't take her out in the heat. I'll have to do another post after the 5K is done and let you all know how the experience went!!

And just for fun, I thought I'd include my set list of music that I run to. I am definitely a firm believer that  listening to music makes exercise fun and keeps you motivated when you feel like your legs are about to fall off!

Warm-Up: Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic 

(The only reason why I use this song to warm up is that it is 5 minutes, but can we all just agree that it gets old pretty quick?)

Girls Chase Boys - Ingrid Michaelson (nice and slow to start)

Good Riddance - Green Day

The Middle - Jimmy Eat World

Empire State of Mind (clean version)- JAY Z & Alicia Keys 

Hey Ya - OutKast 

(I hear that this is the perfect running song as it has the magic number of beats per minute that correlate with a natural runnning step yaddayaddayadda...)

Always Be - Jimmy Eat World 

Brave - Sara Barielles

Fire - Ingrid Michaelson

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