Standing and Talking!

Addie and Santa

Addie opening a gift from Marian, after visiting Santa.

Molly and Addie bonding.

Nine months old!

Nine months old!

This has been a busy month or so for Addie. She is now standing fairly handily. She took her first step on Thanksgiving, but still prefers crawling as her main form of transportation. She is also starting to parrot things we say. She can definitely say (in a baby sort of way), "done", "more", "bye", "hi", "mama", "dada". She also will mimic things we say that sound like these. We read a book today and I was talking about the ducks in the picture. She said, "Da"...which is also dad and done. So, it's not perfect, but she's getting somewhere!

We are getting geared up for Christmas. It should be a fun one at our house, being Addie's first! Great Great Aunt Marian has already been spoiling her with holiday frocks. She now has two 'casual' dresses for church, and two very special ones for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This child will never want for clothing!

On a family expansion note, we had an appointment with our RE (reproductive endocrinologist, for those of you who are rusty on the infertility speak). We did our FET program start, which consists of a trial transfer, consent signing, and consultation. The trial transfer went well. She gave us the thumbs up to move forward. I had a small fibroid, which I've never had, but it isn't in a spot where it will pose any problems. We are now waiting for the scheduler to call us back to get some dates on the calendar. We should be set for a January or February transfer. I guess that is one way we will be celebrating Addie's first birthday! We are hoping for January because it would be better timing for my work schedule. But, as we know, we are certainly not the ones in charge here. God will definitely let us know what His plans are for us. We are just hoping they don't include twins. I don't know if I could make it through two babies at once. One colicky one almost put me over the edge. Maybe He would have mercy on me, though and at least make them good sleepers??

Halloween Fun and First Real Words!!

Mark and Erin's Night Out

Addie Ready to Trick or Treat

Our Little Ladybug

Posing with her Jack-O-Lantern

The Half-Marathoner...or St. Pauli Girls?

The Inmates

Prison Break!

We had a great week and really enjoyed our Halloween weekend! Addie came home from daycare on her 9-month birthday and showed off her first words! She can wave and say bye-bye, or more like, "Ba, Ba". Now, she doesn't realize it means someone is leaving, but she does the wave and words together. I'm going to count it!

I always thought babies' "firsts" would be easy to identify. I was completely wrong! I swear Addie has been saying, "hi" in response to our greeting since she was a couple months old. Clearly I haven't counted this as her first word. I also think she has imitated other words, but I've never been sure. It's not as easy as I thought!

Halloween was fun! We started it around here on Friday. I first dressed Addie and Molly up like prison inmates and had some fun with them. We had Molly's kennel out, and Adelyn thought it was hilarious to climb in it and play with the doors of it. Molly wasn't as fond of the idea of being in her kennel, but I had her go in for a few minutes so I could get some pictures.

Saturday morning I ran the Monster Dash Half Marathon in full costume. It was too cold for Mark and Addie to watch, so they didn't make it. When I got home, though, we went out for a celebratory lunch at Ike's in downtown Minneapolis! The brought us a complimentary sticky bun the size of our heads!

That evening, we all put on our costumes and greeted trick-or-treaters at the door. They were slow to start and we didn't get as many as we had hoped, but it was fun! Adelyn also trick-or-treated for the first time by hitting out neighbors' house! The Mehlbrech's gave Addie her first M&M's...which we obviously aren't going to feed her! :) We then brought Adelyn trick-or-treating to Grandma and Granddad Lee's house. They watched her while we went out for our own "trick-or-treating"!

Nine Months Today!!

Addie is nine months today! We had her 9-month doctor's appointment last Friday. She weighs 20 pounds, 12 ounces and is 28 and 3/4 inches long. She's in the 85th percentile for weight and 90th for height.

I was glad to see she was still on the charts. She hit a growth spurt a couple of weeks ago and some people were guessing her at close to a year old. Obviously she probably won't be a petite girl given Mark and my stature...but I like to see that she is still on the charts!

On Saturday we visited Aamodt's Apple Farm. Uncle Kris and Aunt Jenny took some photos. The ones above are some of the ones Kris took. So, they are the first round of her 9-month photos!

Try, Try Again

Addie and Tavian Abdel-Khaliq at WI Dells

Addie and Dad at WI Dells
Having a heart-to-heart

Mom and Addie have matching running gear!

The Muckerheide girls, post marathon

Addie cheering at the marathon.

Practicing her cheers the night before.

Silly girl, playing in her bedroom.

Still playing.

Look...one hand! (this is from awhile ago)

My new sweater from Great, Great Aunt Marian (and it almost doesn't fit anymore)

She likes to eat!

Well, I've been trying to upload a video for the past month and a half. It doesn't look like it's going to work. So, I must move on. It was a video of Addie crawling. This is very old news at this point, but I thought it would be fun to have a video of her anyways. Oh well.

She has been very busy. She's an avid crawler, and has been for two and a half months or so. She is also pulling herself up on everything and can balance and move around with just one hand on a surface. We are just waiting for her to truly test her balance and want to stand and walk. We shall see!

Last month we took a road trip to Texas. The family vote is that it was fun, but Texas definitely under delivered. It just wasn't as nice as we had expected.

At the beginning of this month, I ran the Twin Cities Marathon. It was a nice accomplishment to be able to finish one 8 months after having Addie and after a couple years of infertility treatments. The last one I ran was in 2006, at the beginning of our infertility journey. It was emotional to come full circle. I no longer had to look at the babies on the sidelines wishing they were mine. My little girl was at miles 8 and 20 to cheer me on!

Adelyn is loving daycare. She's been there almost three months now. I think she thrives in an environment with other kids. She is never sad when I drop her off!

Addie has started recognizing strangers. She used to go to anyone and smile at EVERYONE. She is now a bit more reserved and it takes her a little to open up. Once she feels comfortable, though, she is all smiles and entertainment!

We have been working on some sign language. At this point, she simply laughs (literally) when we do any signing. She has waved goodbye a couple of times and said "ba, ba", but again, she laughs when we do it to her.

Adelyn also has two teeth. She's had these since the end of August, and we keep waiting for more. She'll have a day or two where her teething symptoms seem to come back, and then nothing happens. Oh well.

We've now switched car seats. She has outgrown her baby carriers. It was a sad moment for me. I had really prepared myself for that to happen at around one year, not 8.5 months. She's just a big girl. I don't have her official stats, but she is close to 22 pounds and seems really long. Most people guess her older than she is. Neither Mark nor I were that size until we were a year old. I guess we really did get the strongest embryo!!

All in all, we are good! Addie is happy and I just wish we could put her on slow motion. Time is just going too fast!

Busy Month!

It has been a big month for Addie's development. Since I last posted, she's learned to sit up, scoot, crawl, pull herself to standing, clap...and she has gotten her first tooth! It's amazing watching her learn, literally, daily.

She also started daycare this month, which she LOVES! She loves playing and watching the other babies and I really think it has helped with her development. As soon as we walk into her room at daycare, it's like I don't exist. She's already too busy to notice that I'm still there or that I'm leaving. It really makes me feel confident leaving her there. I'm pretty sure she likes it as much as she likes being home!

Adelyn is also still full of laughs and smiles. She is just such a happy baby. She really only complains when she is hungry or doesn't feel well. I think we are being repaid for her months of colic. Her tummy is feeling good and it is obvious!

Now, we are just trying to enjoy the last few days of summer. Luckily we have a road trip planned for September through Texas, so we will still have a little heat ahead of us!

Almost Six Months Old!!!

We've had a busy summer, just watching Adelyn grow. She is still full of smiles, especially now that she has mastered sitting. She and Molly have become great buds now that Addie can sit. There is plenty of fur pulling and lots of giggles.

We also took Addie on her first road trip. We hit St. Louis, various parts of Kentucky, a visit with the Indiana family and we even got a Cubs game in! We also gave Addie her first camping experience. It went well. I basically slept with one eye open to catch her before a cry could wake the entire campground, but she did really well.

Other than our road trip, we've just been enjoying the summer one BBQ at time!

Vacation Baby!!

We just got back from a whirl wind road trip. Mark's cousin, Max, graduated from high school in Kentucky. We decided to make a road trip out of our visit for his graduation party! We hit St. Louis first and visited our friends Chris and Amanda Campbell. They have two daughters: Megan, who is two and Adeline (great name) who is about a month younger than Adelyn. We had a blast! We visited all the tourist sites and spent some time around a bonfire in their back yard. They were great hosts.

We then headed to Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois. Our plan was to camp, but we were rained out. We still hit the Southern Illinois wine tour as well as some prime hiking spots, but we ended up at the Holiday Inn.

Next we went into Kentucky to see Mammoth Cave National Park. There we camped, and saw the MAMMOTH Cave the next day. It was amazing!

Then we were on our way to Indianapolis to see Mark's mom's side of the family. We stayed at his aunt and uncle's for three nights. It was nice to have a cozy home base for a few days. Mark's parents and Jenny were also there, so I had my marathon training buddies with whom I take some longer runs. After our Thursday run, we headed up to Chicago for the Cubs vs. White Sox game. It was a really fun game to see obviously because of the rivalry, but it was also a nail biter. The Cubs were down 1-4 in the 8th inning and came back to win 5-4. Craziness ensued on the streets!

Friday we laid low...and after Addie's morning feeding, I was able to sleep in until 10am!! That was a first since she was born. It felt fantastic. Friday night we hung out with the whole Young/Sparrow crew. Adelyn had fun meeting everyone, although she had a bit of a rough evening.

Saturday was the big Grad party so we headed back to Kentucky, or basically the Cincinnati area. Addie then got to meet the Muckerheide side! Sunday we headed back, a twelve-hour drive. Addie did fantastic, but by the time we got home, we were all exhausted!