with the good comes the bad...sometimes

well, we just got back from the doctor.

good news first.

addison got her helmet off today! chris took her this morning and was home within an hour. i'm so excited! it's really weird to see her without it on all the time. but i know i'll get used to it. i already put some bows in her hair today. she looked so cute!

on to the not so good news.

last night, we put addison down for the night at 8:30 as usual. we didn't hear a peep from her...until 9:30. i just thought she lost her paci, so i went upstairs to give it to her.

no...

she was standing up, wide awake.

i thought hmmm. maybe she'll go back to sleep.

no...

she was up. i didn't really know what to do. i rocked her, i sang to her. i thought she might be hungry so i gave her a little more food. nothing worked. every time i would put her in bed, she would just scream. chris didn't know what to do either. so around 11:15, we decided to take her for a car ride. that was the only other thing we could think of to do.

and, thankfully, it worked. we drove around for almost an hour to make sure she was out. when we got home, i carefully carried her in and put her in her crib. she stayed asleep. i thought she was going to wake back up at one point, but she didn't. she acted like that on thanksgiving, but i just thought she was excited about everyone being around.

so today, chris took her to her appointment and when he tried to put her down for her nap, she just screamed again. i thought she might have an ear infection, but i didn't know. so i made an appointment for her at her pediatrician this afternoon. the earliest they could get us in was 3:40, which is in the middle of addison's afternoon nap.

she did take a short morning nap, which was really good. we went to the doctor and got called back to a room after just a few minutes. but then we waited in that room for over 30 minutes. addison was getting really fussy and really squirmy.

the doctor that we had the appointment with isn't her normal doctor. dr. w (her normal doctor) wasn't there today. so we saw dr. l today. we have seen her once before, and it didn't go too well. i didn't really want to see her again today, but i really had no choice.

well, needless to say, i don't want to see her again. i don't think she's a bad doctor, but she just isn't really right for me. addison screamed the whole time. seriously, the whole time dr. l was there, addison was screaming. i just wanted to tell her we were done and just leave. at least i know now.

i just feel really sad now. addison doesn't have an ear infection, but dr. l said there might be one coming. she's actually napping now. she screamed for a while, but now she's asleep.

hopefully tonight will be a lot smoother than last night. i guess we'll see. so much for my really exciting day! oh well, addison has her helmet off for good so there's always tomorrow....

the big day...hopefully

tomorrow is the big day. hopefully.

it's addison's (hopefully) last appointment with dr. kelly.

last time she went, he said that the next time he saw her would be the last time. i'm hoping that's true!

chris is taking addison to see dr. kelly in the morning (i can't since i have school). i've gotten pretty excited thinking that today is the last day addison is going to have to wear her helmet. my mom ordered her a ton of hairbands (seriously. a ton. like 1 of each color a ton). i can't wait to see her curly blonde hair every waking moment. running my fingers through it, putting hats, hairbands, and hairbows in her hair. i mean, that's one of the fun things about having a girl, right?

but....

i'm kind of scared that dr. kelly is going to say addison needs to wear her helmet a little longer. so i've mentally prepared myself for that. if she does have to wear it longer, i will be really sad. but i'll get over it. i'm just hoping hoping hoping she gets it off tomorrow.

i guess we'll just have to wait and see!

but, hopefully, today will be the last day i see my little girl with her helmet on.....

*if you follow me on twitter (or don't, but want to know up to date info), i'll be updating the status of her helmet tomorrow. you can click on my left sidebar to follow me!

low country boil

wednesday, i left for school at 8:30, saying bye to just chris and addison.

when i came home at 2:30, i was greeted by 8 new people in the house. chris's dad, rick, and chris's best friend, jason, rode together from georgia and got to the house around 11:30. jason was leaving that afternoon to go back home for thanksgiving, and then was going to come back saturday and ride back to georgia with rick. since jason was only going to be here for a short time, their friend travis (mary's husband) came to the house to see him. mary's 2 brothers were staying with them, so they came with travis. so that was 5 of the 8 new people.

chris's brother, keith, came with his girlfriend, leighann, and their little boy, lane. they came from memphis and got to the house around noon, i think.

so when i got home, there were a ton of people. addison was really tired by the time i got home. i guess playing with lane really wore her out. i put addison down for her nap, and she passed out. she usually has a hard time going down for her afternoon nap, and i was worried that all the people would talk too loud. but she was really tired so it didn't matter.

after she went down, i played with lane. he's 6 months older than addison. he was running around everywhere.

he loved looking at tybee through the door. he would just stand there and laugh.

then we let tybee in the house. and lane loved it. he would chase tybee everywhere. and when tybee would come near lane, lane would just giggle and smile. it was so funny.

chris's dad brought a ton of fresh shrimp with him. they were planning on doing a low country boil for everyone. jason left, but we had a few more people coming for dinner. my mom and dad were going to come, mary was coming after she got off work, and my uncle, aunt, and cousin were all coming too. i think that's it.

we have a fire pit on the deck that we had never used. so we decided that we should use it that night. it was cold outside, but we had so many people that we needed somewhere else to hang out. and since addison was going to go to bed around 9 (we kept her up later so she would be extra tired), we didn't want to be loud in the house.

we went outside before all of the extra guests arrived and took some pictures of the family. this was the first time chris's dad had seen either of his grandkids.

aren't we so cute? addison was wearing her cute little hat. it's really warm too! thanks mary and travis :)

that's chris's dad in the picture. if you couldn't tell. i think they look a lot alike. it's really funny because i think chris and rick look alike, but when i see keith and rick, i think they look alike too. but chris and keith look nothing alike.

rick was all about playing with the babies. and they loved him. he was playing with lane......

.....and then he wanted to play with both of them! it was pretty funny.

mommy and daughter. she never looks at the camera when we take pictures together. it's ok though, because she was smiling at something in this picture!

lane was having fun outside. keith and leighann said he loves being outside. he just ran around the yard. but once the fire was going, we had to keep a close eye on him so he wouldn't get too close.

here's some of the food. there was a ton of food. seriously. but i didn't eat any of it. i'm a super picky eater, and i don't eat shrimp or sausage. i do eat potatoes and corn, but i know i would have been able to taste shrimp and sausage on them. but the food was pretty :)

father and son talking. who knows what they were talking about though.

lane was blowing me a kiss. he's so sweet.

i think he wanted to get in the fridge. he was trying to open in, but he couldn't get a hold of the handles.

everything must have worn lane out. we were all in the living room watching tv and leighann was feeding lane in the kitchen. she came in and told us to come look at him. we peeked over and looked at him. he was sitting there and his head would just fall. he was falling asleep while he was eating. it was the funniest thing ever. addison never does that. so i had to take a picture.

we covered the kitchen table with a bunch of newspaper, and once the food was done, we just put it on the table. everyone just stood around the table and ate.

yes, there was a ton of food. but there wasn't much left over at the end of the night.

addison went to bed around 9 and didn't make a peep. after lane fell asleep in the highchair, leighann took him upstairs. he slept for about an hour, then woke back up again. leighann brought him down and he hung out for a little bit, then leighann went upstairs and fell asleep with him.

i rotated between being inside and outside. it was just really cold outside, so i couldn't stay out there long. keith ran out and got stuff to make smores, so people were hanging out outside making those. after everyone was done eating, we all went outside and talked and hung out. i was really tired, so i ended up going to bed around 10:30 before everyone had left. but then i kept hearing people talking, so i came back downstairs. everyone was leaving then, so i just went to bed after everyone left.

rick, keith, leighann, and lane were all staying with us that night. so keith, rick, and chris stayed up a little bit longer and hung out outside after everyone left. leighann got up at some point and went outside for a bit, but i was asleep by then.

it was a really fun night, and i'm glad we all got to hang out. i'm kind of glad to have an empty house now though. after addison's birthday and the low country boil, i need some relaxing time :)

addison's first birthday party (the good stuff)

i forgot to include a picture of addison's happy birthday banner and of her first birthday cupcake. so here they are!!

chris brought addison down for her grand entrance. she was soooo cute! and so was chris :)

here is addison and my daddy. she loves playing with his glasses. and she just loves playing with him in general.

chris's family was able to come, which was really great. it was good to see all of them. here is addison with chris's step-dad, jerry.

here she is with my aunt mandy.

my friend blair and her son, caden, were able to come to the party. caden is walking and addison would just follow him everywhere. it was pretty funny. she really wanted to play, but he just wanted to explore. it was cute.

addison played with everyone. everyone wanted to hold her. and she really did great. we had a bunch of people over. she took a good morning nap and ate lunch, then everyone arrived!

here she is with mary. mary loves taking pictures with my dads camera. so i gave it to her and let her take a bunch of pictures.

addison tries to climb up the stairs now. she can get up 2, but that's as far as i've let her get. she might be able to go farther, but i don't really want her to. and she definitely doesn't know how to get down.

there's blair with both babies. caden is probably wondering why his mommy is holding a baby that's not him.

here are all of addison's presents. she got a ton of stuff. clothes, toys, everything. she really hit the jackpot!

chris and i got addison a wagon and 2 toys. the wagon is pretty cool. and we got her a little tea set, which talks. and also a penguin bowling set. chris loves penguins, so i thought it would be perfect for both of them.

addison was all into playing with the tissue paper. she actually tried to eat some. surprise surprise.

she got a little bored with opening presents. so she decided to crawl over to the couch and tell everyone hi.

she went to chris after a little bit. i was the one opening presents. it kind of felt like my birthday :)

she got so many cool toys. she got a gum ball machine (not real gum balls. just little rolly balls. it's really cool though!). she also got a drum that, when you hit it, it shows the abcs, or you can just make noise. it's pretty cool. i think i like it more than addison.

addison had a chocolate cupcake for her birthday. she didn't really dig in. i just mushed it down and fed her some.

here is addison with cindi. cindi watches addison while i'm at school.

caden wasn't really into the wagon. addison loved it though. even though caden was crying. she was just smiling. he would cry when he was being taken away from his parents. but once he couldn't see them, he was fine. it was pretty funny.

addison went on a ride after some people left. she loves that thing. she feels like such a big girl in it.

mary helped addison play with her gum ball machine.

here's addison with her cool drum. it was from mary and travis, and they also got her that super cute hat!

here's addison with brittany. i used to work with brittany at t-mobile. we became really good friends. she's moving back to texas next month. i'm going to miss her!

here's addison with faye. and one of her penguin bowling pins. addison decided to give him a kiss. or eat him. i think it's the latter of the two.

the boys hanging out watching football. doing what they do best.

my dad and addison played on the couch for a while. he was showing her how to play with her drum.

my friend krysta and her little girl kynlee weren't able to come to the birthday party. but they did come by that night.

we put both of them in the wagon. they both really liked it. once we took them out, kynlee walked over to it and tried to get back in.

the birthday party was a total success. it was so much fun. i'm so glad i had my mom helping me bake and decorate. we're professional party planners now :)