Addi Says No To Santa And Jesus

(posted by CJ) Sorry for the provocative title, but you will understand in a moment.

First of all, we'll talk about last weekend. Mom came into town and we did some Christmas stuff all day Saturday. We went to First Baptist Church in Pasadena and watched their Singing Christmas Tree, which was amazing. All day long we had been asking Addi questions like, "Do you love Mommy?" or "Where is Nana?" and she had answered however she wanted. Well, in church, she was playing with the program and I just read off the slip of paper you drop in the offering plate. I asked her, "Addi, do you want to take Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?" She looked up at me, and loud enough for everyone to hear and in the same sarcastic tone she uses when I ask her if she wants me to tickle her she said, "Nooooooooo."

Next up was Moody Gardens and the Festival of Lights. I've had more enjoyable kicks to the groin than this "Festival" crap. Seriously, they basically just bought every decoration Lowe's sells for frontyards then made a crappy trail out of them. Of course, just as I had complained for about the twentieth time I noticed that after 45 minutes of the same crappy lights, Addi was still screaming "ohh" and "ahh" to every one of them. She didn't complain a bit and had the time of her life. I really need to look at the world through her eyes more often, its much prettier.

So, today we go to visit Santa. All's well, despite the 45 minute wait in line with the family that's just more than happy to share their life story with me. (Seriously, there's a reason you're called a stranger and I do not want to make idle chit chat. Didn't you see me pretending to make phone calls and talking to nothing, all the while hoping my phone wouldn't ring and allow you to find out to what lengths I had gone to ignore you?) Anyway, we get to Santa and Addi is talking with him, shaking his hand, and showing off her Rudolph shirt, so we figure all is well. Then, we try to put her on his lap. She wasn't having it. After mulitple shots of a 30-year old man shoving a screaming 2-year old onto the leg of a man who had spent far too many hours of his life in this exact predicament, we end up with our Santa picture. So that's why this year, you'll have to look at my ugly mug alongside Addi in the '07 Santa picture.

First Christmas Tree

(posted by CJ) Well, Christmas has officially begun at our house as we put our first tree up for Addi. Her first Christmas was actually last year, but we just never put decorations or anything up. This year we really think she's going to enjoy all the lights and ornaments and such, so we got it all together. She had a blast putting the ornaments on, taking them off, putting them back on, taking them back off, then telling us where to put them.

We are really looking forward to Christmas this year and plan to do it all. We'll take Addi to see Santa, drive her through Windcrest to see the lights, and whatever else we can find for her to enjoy. She's even already watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special thingy they play every year (Kathy will be mad at me for not knowing the actual name). Well, enjoy the video and pictures and we'll see you soon.

Thanksgiving, or Eat All You Can See Day

(posted by Kathy) Well, I think Thanksgiving was a great week. I had a blast seeing all my family and didn't have to worry about being rushed to do anything since we had the whole week. We had been concerned that too many places to go would run us ragged. Addison loved all the playtime she got with everyone. She learned to blow bubbles! She worked out some new moves to The Backyardigans. She climbed Opa's stairs more times than we care to count! We are so proud of her. She is learning to ask for things clearly now, too. I could type about Addi for paragraphs, but back to the holiday. I got to see almost all of Mom's side at the Farm. We ate a whole bunch of food. My chocolate balls were a hit (I think). Peggy's house was great fun! We ate a whole bunch of food. Peggy's potatoes rocked! Blu's house was peaceful. We ate a whole bunch of food. The chili and cornbread was yummy. Our trip home, while being deluged from the heavens, wasn't too bad. I was pleased with how our week went. I could have used an extra day to sleep. If you didn't eat your fill, you always have Christmas to do so.

Addi, however, decided to dive in to cheesecake face first. Why do children get away with just about anything?

Too bad we can't all be kids all the time...

Holidays....woo hoo.

(posted by CJ) Well, here we go again, Holidays 2008. While most of you start thinking of warm, fuzzy memories, family meals, presents, and good times, I'm thinking of driving, eating fast, driving, visiting fast, driving, complaining, driving, guilt trips, and driving. That's what our holidays have been reduced to, especially with Addi now in the mix.

You would think a happy compromise could be reached and people would give Kathy and I the benefit of the doubt that we are doing the best we can to see everyone, but that never happens. If we see Relative A for 2 hours and 42 minutes then Relative B will be pissed that we only saw them for 2 hours and 41 minutes. I swear some of them are keeping little timers in their pockets just to double check. Plus, divorce makes things even better. Do we consider splitting time in half: my side and Kathy's side? Are we supposed to do thirds: my Dad's side, my Mom's side, Kathy's side? I'm starting to think of doing fourths: 1/4 in my living room, 1/4 in my front yard, 1/4 in my dining room, and 1/4 in my back yard.

Should I be this pessimistic even before the holidays get here? Yes, yes I should, because its the same crap from the same people every time, every year. God bless those family members that have gone out of their way to make things easier on us, but they are few and far between it seems. So once more, Kathy and I will be doing the best we can, knowing that we did the best we could, and too bad if anyone thinks otherwise. Hopefully, this will be the holiday season that it all finally works out smoothly, because Addi deserves to enjoy her time with her family and we want her to have that. Here's hoping all of us have a good one, including you if you're reading this!

Bedtime Panic

(posted by Kathy) Earlier this evening CJ was putting Addi to sleep. Typically, each of us have our own routine things we do with her when putting her to bed. Tonight CJ called me into the bedroom in a panic. Addi was sitting in the bed looking at him with her index fingers together begging for him to do what she was expecting. He frantically asked me, "What is "this" (while doing the index finger thing)? She is upset that I don't know what she wants." I realized, I've been singing Itsy Bitsy Spider to her lately. She wanted him to sing it with her, but he didn't understand the signal. I sat on the edge of the bed with them and we sang Itsy Bitsy Spider together. Hand motions and all, because that's the best part of it! We had a great time. After I left them alone again a little while later I heard Indian yodel hollering noises and a lot of laughing. She's a fun kid...

Addi...Overclothing...Backyardigans

(posted by CJ) So here's the latest Addi story.... On Sunday, Addi was just running around the house in a diaper since we weren't going anywhere. We had some clothes we had just pulled out of the dryer and set on the recliner that she noticed. She brought CJ over a pair of shorts and said, "please." CJ put them on her, then she went and grabbed a shirt and again said, "please." Then she went for another pair of shorts, which went on over the first ones, another shirt, etc... Before long, Addi was wearing 6 shirts (one of which was Kathy's), and 4 pairs of shorts. She couldn't put her arms at her side and could barely walk. In her waddling, she just kept falling over. That's our genius daughter.

In other news, she officially loves the Backyardigans. She gets incredibly excited when it comes on and dances wildly to every song. We have a video up on our Google video site of it if you want to see it (or you can check it out below). Otherwise, all is well in our little corner of the world. If you're one of our loved ones that have found this site, please let us know how you're doing.

First Blog

Here's the new blog site. We'll figure out what all we can do on it and get to work soon. Hopefully, we'll tell you what's going on with us and keep giving more great pictures of Addi. Who knows what else we'll do. You'll have to bookmark this site and keep checking back to find out!