Dear Addison - 13 Months

Dear Addison,

Your 13th month was full of wonder and learning. You are learning new skills flat tack and playing with toys has jumped to a new level. You have discovered your Tupperware shape sorter and try to put them in the holes, you love your Russian nesting dolls and pull them apart, put them back together and stack them inside each other.

You are at a bit of a clingy stage at the moment. Mum and Dad are safe and whenever you lose sight of them the tears start. Sometimes if you are hanging with someone else the smallest thing will trigger the tears and you cannot be consoled without one of us. Food doesn't even work!
The times that you are upset, we can usually calm you down with: stories, food, bubbles, bouncing you up and down, singing or your favourite toys.

You have started becoming very fond of some of your toys. Dolly gets cuddles and kisses and you will try to feed her your food or brush her hair. A couple of little stuffed animals get cuddles too and you will go and find them if we ask you to. So clever!

 Your fine motor skills are getting better too, you have done your first few drawings with crayon which have been proudly hung on the fridge. You also discovered peas as a snack and will pick them out of a container or out of our hands one by one. Or off the floor as the case may be.

First Masterpiece

You love beads, necklaces and hats and will often be seen with one or both on. You can put a necklace on by yourself which is adorable. You also love magnets and you will sit at my feet while I am in the kitchen pulling the magnets off the fridge and putting them back on.

You enjoy pushing along a trolley or walker but get a bit scared sometimes when Mum tries to turn it around for you. Walking is still a way off but you are very competent at crawling, climbing and walking/running around furniture. You haven't quite figured out that you can let go and balance yourself, which is the next step. But for now you are happy that you can get around the house.

Magnet fun

Scooting around in your winter woolies made by Grandma!

Teething is still an ongoing battle, your molars made a big push but didn't cut and your four eye teeth all of a sudden made a push too, the two top ones have cut.

You love books. You now sit still on our knees and have short books read to you. You love books you can interact with - touch and feel and lift the flaps. We read three or four books at night before you go to bed but quite often during the day you will bring some over to me to read.

You are learning to copy more and more sounds, you can now say 'bird' 'woof woof' and 'bath' as well as 'mum' and 'dad'. Lots of babble comes out of your mouth and you are trying so hard to communicate with us. In your cot you have lots of little chats with your soft toys too.

The weather is getting colder now as winter sets in. We have a wood fire most nights and some days. You have been pretty good at staying away from the fire guard. Long may that last!

Hanging with your 3 month old cousin

Clapping rocks in Kaikoura

Sunset in Nelson

Watching the meercats

We took a big trip this month - Dad had to work in Nelson for a week and we were allowed to go with him! Despite my reservations you were so flexible - sleeping most of the way there (7hrs) with a snack stop in the middle. You settled into your portacot fine and had day naps without much fuss. Even night times went smoothly! You got a bit sick of being cooped up in the hotel room though so we tried to get out lots and explore the fine op shops of Nelson. We went to your first animal park and you patted the nose of a goat before he tried to steal the bag of food from your hand and you got a fright!

We have also been going to a few weekly activities - Baby Time at the library, Mainly Music and we have been to Tumble Time a couple of times too. You love the music and songs and like having space to crawl and explore different places. 

Your smile lights up the room and you giggle away if you find something funny. You will blow a kiss and wave at almost everyone. You are a delight Addison. Love you to bits!
xx

Dear Addison - 12 Months

Dear Addison,

This was the month you turned ONE! A whole year since you entered this world and how much you have grown!

This month was a huge month for you in terms of learning skills, and I have a feeling that each month you are going to overwhelm us with what you have learned to do.

Crawling finally happened at 12.5 months. There wasn't any hands-and-knees-rocking, you just got the strength to lift your tummy off the ground and off you went! Like you knew all along but just didn't want to. It took a few days before you realised you could explore more than just the lounge and you tentatively made your way around the house - first stop: cat food. That was quickly moved to a harder to reach area. Now you follow us around the house like a little dog.

We have had the pleasure of introducing our old friends to Christchurch as they have just moved here. They have a 2.5 year old daughter and you adore her! She calls you 'Assanyn' and you try to copy everything she does. You favourite game together is Chase - where she runs around the house and you crawl after her giggling like mad. She does a high pitched squeal/giggle and you have copied that too which is currently adorable!

Your motor skills have been developing super fast too. You have mastered clapping, waving and hi-5s. Quite often I am out walking with you and notice people waving, and you are just sitting in your pram waving away with a big cheesy grin. What a charmer! 

One of your favourite things to do is swing. We have a swing at home that we really should use more often. You love to have the biggest push we can manage and sit there giggling away until you stop, then grizzle until we push you again. Another favourite is hi-fiving at the apex of the swing. Who needs two hands to hold on!


Teething has begun again, all four of your first set of molars are bulging at the seams but so far none have cut. You aren't doing too well with these big beasties and fair enough! You have been waking up in pain so there has been lots of Bonjela and Pamol and Teething Powder. Poor girl, it can't be much fun!

Food is another of your favourite things. You try almost everything we offer you, even if you don't eat it again for a while. Your current wins are: Weet-bix with stewed apple, feijoas, smoothies, raisins, chicken, kumara chips and anything sweet. You recently learned how to dip your food. We squirt some tomato/bbq sauce on the tray and you dip your food into it. We get some very odd food+dip combos but we just leave you to it.

Your twelfth month has been amazing. We are getting a sneak peek into the little girl you are becoming and we love it. I see a beautiful, sensitive and strong soul with a big heart and even bigger smile.
Love you to bits xx

That Time I made 1.5m of Fabric Stretch to 4 Garments

disclaimer* Toddlers move FAST! So hard to get a non-blurry decent photo.

A while ago I bought the cutest pink and white woodland fleece from Spotlight on the clearance rack for some stupid cheap price (coz that's how I roll). I bought 1.5 meters of it and I'm kicking myself for not getting more!

I had initially seamed the edges and made a cot blanket out of it but I have a big puffy duvet that always ends up on top so it was a waste of beautiful fabric!

I was trawling the internet for some free children's sewing patterns and stumbled across a Raglan Sweatshirt Pattern in 12 month size! 

Coincidentally this coincided with a trip to an op shop that resulted in the purchase of a couple of meters of aqua polar fleece and some pink and blue ribbing for a whopping $2.

I originally planned on making an all-over pink hoodie and an all blue one but I figured why not mix it up!

The result was two amazing hoodies, one for Addison and one for her friend.

I figured I still had enough pink fabric left to make another sweatshirt without the hood. I found some black fleece (old trackpants) and ta-da!

Finally with the last remaining scraps of pink fabric I cut out some trackpants. Sadly there is hardly any stretch in the fleece so they are pretty tight and restricting but I still managed to get a tracksuit photo! Work it!

I am in love with this pattern, I might have to try and stockpile more sweatshirting fabric to make matching family ones for us all (Dave will flat out refuse though - I just know it!).

It feels good to sew again.
xx

Dear Addison - 11 Months

Dear Addison,

Your 11th month was so jam-packed that I'm writing this a whole month late! So forgive me if there are more photos than words this time!

11 months for you still held no crawling, some of your little friends were taking their first steps about now but you were super happy to hang out in your spot and use you go-go-gadget arms to reach whatever you needed. You became very clever at slowly stepping around furniture but you hadn't quite mastered the pulling yourself up or getting back down part. You favourite place was to be standing up leaning on the coffee table/trunk playing with your toys.

Your teeth situation was nice and placid this month, you had 8 teeth and you were happy! You eat a LOT of food and a snack bag began to be needed anytime we went out to keep you happy.

 You had your first Easter this year - you were born Easter weekend last year but it doesn't count. We traveled down to Timaru to have a reunion of our friends from our time living in Invercargill. 10 Adults and 3 children plus 2 cooking (Not me!) It was amazing and crazy but still so much fun and I am so glad that even though we seem to make friends that you only see every few years - it feels like no time has passed when you catch up.

A dear friend made you an Easter bunny toy and set up an Easter egg hunt for us to do and you got your very own Easter egg! It was your first taste of chocolate and you practically inhaled it! You even chewed it through the foil, like you knew the deliciousness that lay inside. 

Park trips were on the agenda and the swing is a firm favourite. We have one at our house and you will spend a good 20 minutes in there just swinging away with a grin on your face. You like big pushes!

Timaru - Down at Caroline Bay

Learning to smile like Daddy

Swinging

First See-saw

Easter egg chomping

Much better Easter egg chomping

 Your baby cousin came round a couple of time to hang out and you were so fascinated and excited to see a baby. You still can't control your excitement and ended up doing a bit of arm flailing close to his face so you were moved to a safer distance. It won't be long until you two are causing havoc together!

Focused on baby cousin

Excited to hang with baby Cousin!

There was a bit of excitement this month because your 1st birthday was creeping up super fast. You had both sets of grandparents and Uncle Dan down so we spent lots of time together before the big party!

You are so charming, little lady. You have a smile for most people and capture their hearts so fast. Love you to the moon and back!

Addison's 1st Birthday Carnival

Addison's 1st birthday has come and gone so quickly I feel like I already need to start thinking about her next birthday!
When thinking about Addison's party, Dave and I were on the fence with what to do. Do we just have family or do we invite all the people who have been involved in her first year? Do we hire somewhere? Um we have no money for a huge party, what can we do to still have a great day?

We decided on going all out on the people front, I think around 35 people were invited and maybe 30 showed up (including a few littlies). We decided to risk the weather and have it in our backyard (so risky for April!) and Dave mentioned a carnival/picnic type theme.

So I whipped up a few invites and asked people to bring a plate of food to share. We borrowed an amazing gazebo from a friend and jazzed it up with streamers and balloons, We used items lying in our yard (an old door, a pallet, a broken wooden ladder) to paint and turn into simple carnival games and bought some lollies to play 'Guess How Many In The Jar'. That was pretty much all we needed to have an awesome afternoon of party fun!

We put out all the chairs we could find and spread some picnic rugs on the ground with toys lying around for the under 1s. The food tables were chocka and it was a grazing style lunch.

The birthday girl managed to nap right before her party so she lasted most of the afternoon without any tears. I made a felt crown for her and made a banner that said 'ONE' that I attached under her high chair. We put her in the chair for most of the time because with so many people around, our delicate little girl would be easily overwhelmed. Food is a great distraction.

I tried to say a little speech about how much I appreciated everyone coming and having input into Addison's life over the past year but I ended up in tears and Dave refused to take over so I managed to get everyone singing Happy Birthday to distract from me crying (smooth Amy). We blew out her candle and offered her a smash cake.

A smash cake is a bit of a trend at the moment - you put a cake in front of a baby and take a video/photos of the child *hopefully* getting really messy into their first taste of delicious icing and cake.

Our child decided that having a huge cake in front of her was a bit overwhelming and after a bit of consideration she picked at the icing ever-so-slightly and proceeded to lick her fingers and that was basically the end of it. She loved the icing but didn't quite get the smash concept so I told the other children that were eying up the cake to dig in, which they did with much delight.

We then opened up the presents - Addison was so spoiled (THANK YOU!!) - and then we ate food and socialised for the rest of the afternoon. I had so much fun and was in my delegating element for set-up and pack-down.

It was a perfect day and I am so thankful for all the people involved in Addison's life (whether you made it to the party or not!) and I know that she will grow up feeling loved and part of a community where she has her own special part to play.

XXX

Ball Throw - knock down as many as you can!

Winner takes all!

Ring Toss - there were nails in the door and we used glow stick bracelets to throw

Drinks Station (chilly bin full of ice + soft drinks)

The cake for the grown ups - Banana Cake with Lemon Buttercream

Addison's Smash Cake - also Banana Cake with Lemon Buttercream. Both cakes made and iced by me :)

Streamers and balloons inside the Gazebo

Classic Addison

Birthday Throne

Before the food arrived!

Cake Smash*