Jabber, Jabber, Jabber

Since I do not post regular updates on Addison I thought I would do a random one on the topic of her verbal development. We are definitely in a second round of verbal explosions here in the Grant Gang home. Addison can say almost any word you ask her to, including some more complicated ones (backpack, sticker, strawberry, goldfish etc.). This week she has also started putting THREE words together; I cannot believe she is growing up so fast. Her pronunciation is getting clearer and more precise with each passing day too. It is simply amazing to watch the development every single day. Her verbal skills will no doubt come in handy when Manna arrives.

So what else does this mean? Well, it means she is starting to drop a few of her signs simply because she can say the words. The sign language is still handy and used almost a million times a day, but she uses a few less frequently (finished and dog signs seem to be fading). When she is sleepy or does not feel well, she opts for the signs more. Secondly, it means sometimes she gets frustrated when she cannot say the sentence or express herself verbally; this is when I encourage her to sign. Lastly, it means sometimes she simply talks your ear off!!!

Here are a few of our favorite two and three sentences right now:

• "Up Above The World" and "How I Wonder" from 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'
• "Rock the Baby"
• "All Better"
• "All Done"
• "Truck Go By"
• "Play Music Please"
• "More Music Please"
• "Dick Fall Down" and "Oh Mother" from her Dick and Jane books
• "Daddy's Home"
• "Bye Bye ___ (fill in the blank with truck, flower, baby, daddy, mommy, bush, ect. just about anything)
• "Get Down"
• "Change Diaper"
• "Bless You Mommy"
• Every couple of letters in the ABC's
• She can sing parts of many songs, some words are clear, some are mumbled.

Gardening in the Big City

Who knew you could grow vegetables in the big city!!?? Check out the squash from our garden below. We have about 4 others coming up too. Also in our garden: oregano, basil, bell peppers and cilantro. The herbs have all done great but we are still waiting on the peppers to do something other than get tall!!

Mock Pox

Quite often I wonder if I have any motherly instincts or if there are just certain things I am supposed to know. Addison was sick all week and as this week's events came to a close I found myself scratching my head wondering if I am just not a good "sherlock homles" of my daughters ailments. Little did I know, we were experiencing the "Mock Pox" (that's what I have dubbed them)!!! Here were the symptoms this week:

• Monday: Ate breakfast; rest of the day, totally no appetite. She is normally a good eater and it took a ton of convincing to get her to heat 1/4-1/2 her normal amounts of food.
• Tuesday: Ate breakfast oatmeal fine. Rest of the day, would cry after 3 bites of each food. Starting to get very clingy to me.
• Wednesday: Fever as high as 101.6. Not hungry all day; she would take a few bites and then fuss. Since she wanted more to drink AND nothing to eat AND had a fever I begin to suspect teething (which she should NOT be getting teeth soon). Very sensitive, cried off and on all day, clingy and whinny. She usually doesn't cry more than 5 minutes TOTAL a day, so any crying is unusual.
• Thursday: Fever held steady at 100, so low grade. NO appetite at all until dinner. Whew, finally!! Mood did not improve from Wednesday.
• Friday: Fever within normal range. Mood WORSE; cried from the time she woke up until her morning nap. NOT like Addison. At 10:30 am I notice some bumps/rash on her neck and assume its just splotchy from crying since it was JUST her neck. When I woke her up at noon, the red dots had spread all over her stomach, back and were making their way to her face. Finally made a doctor's appointment for 1:20 pm that day. She ate lunch fairly well and seemed a little better but was still sensitive/clingy/grumpy.

The saddest thing---she was signing and saying "hurt" all week but we did not know WHAT hurt.

Backing up in time...on July 1 she received her chicken pox vaccination (required in schools here) along with several others. Would you have suspected a reaction to a vaccination after those symptoms???? It was TWO WEEKS LATER before symptoms appeared. I am accustom to a funky Addison 3-5 days after shots, but I never would have anticipated two weeks. Am I crazy? Should I have caught this?? For those of you with a medical background, I expect you to know these things, but the rest of us? Should we know?

As soon as the doctor saw her rash she knew exactly what it was---Chicken Pox Vaccine reaction. They checked her out to be sure, but it was most assuredly a reaction. They were glad we brought her in so they could document her reaction.

She was/is not contagious and is acting better (still not normal). This afternoon her rash looked 100 times better. Friday it looked JUST like chicken pox without the scabs!! We should be on the down hill now. Below is a picture from TODAY; its not very good but you can see some of the rash. It looks way better there than Friday.

SO glad she is feeling more like herself. It is so sad when they are under the weather!

Cow Appreciation Day

Unbeknownst to me today was cow appreciation day at Chick-Fil-A. If you dressed up as a cow you got a FREE MEAL. WOW, what a great deal!! What does this mean? COMPLETE CHAOS at one of the very rare free standing Chick-Fil-A's within an hour of D.C. I have never seen so many cow dressed people packed into a tiny fast food joint!

For several days now, my friend Melissa (along with her 2 year old Elle) and I had planned to have lunch and play at the indoor play place at Chick-Fil-A. They have NEVER been to a CFA before, WOW so it was imperative I take her as soon as possible. It is about a 30 minute drive to CFA and so we really have to plan the outing.

First of all, both the girls thought it was SO fun having a pal in the back seat to ride with, they were giggling and holding hands the whole drive there. We knew we were in for some fun!

We arrived at CFA only to see a line a mile long, no parking AND two guys dressed in cow suits. After much debate we decided to endure the crowd since we had driven so far. We HIKED from a far away land parking spot (remember, I have to carry Addison not to mention baby manna attached to me!) and got lucky enough to find a table right when we walked in.

Addison devoured FIVE nuggets and an entire fruit cup PLUS some of her friends fries then.....the cows came inside!!!! I have never seen her get so excited about something in her entire life. She was saying "hi moo, hi moo" over and over again and giggling until she about fell over! She blew them kisses, waved wildly---anything to get their attention. Her friend was AS excited.

Finally we took them over to the cows. Addison was scared when we got up close at first, but after giving them a good ole fashioned high five, she was in HEAVEN. She snuggled up to his nose, gave him a kiss, gave high fives and "pounds", blew kisses and even petted them. She giggled the entire time. She was so sad when they had to leave!!!

All in all, it was worth the chaos (and the incredibly short afternoon nap now) to see the complete JOY on Elle and Addison's face. Priceless.

Being a stay at home mom is not easy or all fun and games, but moments like this make the challenges of staying at home with her all worth it. I love my little girl!!

The Cows entering the restaurant.

Watching the Cows enter!

This was just the beginning of her excitement...wished I had remembered to use my video camera function on my phone too!

Not so sure of Mr. Cow yet

Posing with the cow

I sacrificed my pride to get a picture of her with this cow, blah, I look TERRIBLE!

In the play place after the Cows had to, as I explained it, take a nap :)

24 Weeks, 6 Days with our Corn Crop

Almost 25 weeks which means not too long before we will start taking your wages on the gender, arrival date and weight! YAY!

24 Weeks with Addison

24 Weeks with Manna

I think we need to change Manna's nickname to Movin' Manna...whew! I thought Addison was a mover, but no sir. Not compared to Manna. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the moving though, no complaints; it reminds me Manna is doing superbly.

Next up---Glucose Screening Test next month.

Doctor/Midwife visit: I had a regular doctor visit Tuesday. Everything measured well and the heartbeat was normal--150's. My blood pressure was a bit high FOR ME (anything about 115 is high for me but amazing for most people), but I had just had coffee and finished sweating to death. I took my own pressure about 15 minutes later and it was 114 over 65, back to its low self. The midwife was not the least bit concerned about my blood pressure given how active I am until I said I had coffee. She gave me a lecture about caffeine withdrawals in the baby and the baby being jittery when it is born. She asked about my caffeine intake with Addison to which I responded "I had more" and Addison was not jittery in the least, in fact---she was quite the opposite. I only have one cup of half caf a day or two on a special occasion; and sometimes I have none. Every medical practitioner has their own opinion on this topic; my doctor in Birmingham told me if a cup or two of coffee keeps me sane---do it in moderation!!! She thought it was fine. So, I will cut back when I can but otherwise, I am not worried. There are worse things I could do i.e. eat sugar all the time, NOT get regular heart elevating exercise, NOT do prenatal yoga to prepare my body for labor, eat too little, eat too much, eat fast foods, the list goes on. We pick our battles :)

The midwife reviewed some of my labor information from Addison's delivery and after we chatted I said "I am hoping for another big baby, God willing, even if I labor for 36 hours again it is worth it". She said in all her years of medical practice she has never heard anyone say they want a big baby, so I was happy to be her first. Call me crazy.

Lil info on Manna at 24 weeks: Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree".

How am I feeling: Oh fantastic!!!! I am 2 miles walking about times a week and trying to fit in the prenatal yoga as much as possible too. Being pregnant is such an honor and a blessing. I do actually enjoy it. Oh sure there are days that I am tired or my back hurts but overall---wow. I am blessed.

Prayer this week: Thank you Father for every tiny movement you bless us with, it gives us such blessed reassurance that baby Manna is doing well. Please help us to not take a single moment of this pregnancy (or baby) for granted. Help us take every moment captive to you. We give you all the glory and honor for this special child. We do ask you to please continue to keep Manna healthy and strong and we acknowledge that you, and you alone, are responsible for his/her safety thus far---thank you. Prepare hour hearts, minds, home and, in my case, body for Manna's arrival. I pray a special blessing over our "Blessing" Addison, prepare her for the transitions to come. Give us the knowledge and wisdom on how to prepare her.