Baby Jesus

Addison may go to a Jewish school, but she is all into Baby Jesus right now.  We have a kiddie nativity scene that we got out when were putting the Christmas decorations out, so that kind of started the Baby Jesus talk, but on Friday night we went to BUMC's Bethlehem Village and they had a live nativity scene, so now she is trying to dress Ella up as Baby Jesus...I was able to curb that by suggesting she make one of her dolls Baby Jesus.  Even made a manger out of shoe box!  

 Here is Addy with Mary and Jesus in the background.  Addy was quick to pick up on the fact that Baby Jesus was a doll.  And the one below is Addy standing next to Joseph.

 So, first it was wrapping Ella up to look like a swaddled Baby Jesus.  Ella is way past the swaddling stage!

Option B - wrapping up a baby doll.  Mommy and Ella liked this option much better!

Baby needed a manicure

 Addy took this one - apparently Baby Jesus likes to play with rawhide bones!

Happy Hanukkah

Addy has been at Bertha Alyce for three and a half years now and this is by far my favorite Jewish holiday art she has come home with!  I love preschool art and preschool art with pictures is even better.  We can't get her to tell us what she is supposed to be, our best guess is a Maccabee, but the picture is priceless. 

Fun Times on Braeburn

 I have yet to figure out how in the world Dad fell asleep in this position!  If you've sat on this swing, nothing about it is comfortable.  But apparently Ella and Granddad had a lovely nap on the swing yesterday!

 For Meme's birthday Addison decided she needed nail polish and when we went to Target to buy some she was dead set on getting yellow nail polish.  My attempts to get her to go with a red or pink were worthless, so Taxi Cab Yellow it was!  Here they are modeling their new manicures, or if you ask Addison she'd call it a glamicure because that is what they call it on her Strawberry Shortcake show! 

Addy First

 OK, not really a first, but the first in a REALLY long time -- Addy wore jeans!  We were picking out her clothes last night and she announced she wanted to wear jeans.  Fortunately we were able to round some up that fit.  She wore them to school and apparently likes them enough and asked to wear them again tomorrow.  Wow!

Ella Firsts

First tooth is peeking through - front bottom left tooth is just starting to come in.  So far no drama associated with it, so hopefully it doesn't bother her too much. 

And on Monday night Ella officially rolled from her back to her front for the first time.  Well, on Sunday on 2 occasions we found her in her crib on her tummy.  And by found her, I mean she started screaming  and when we went to see what was wrong she was on her tummy.  We think that she was using the crib rails as a bit of leverage though.  But on Monday night it took some coaxing, but she did it a few times with zero assistance.  Then twice tonight.  We are much more excited than Ella about the new development.  Still not a fan of tummy time! 

7 Months

Baby girl is already 7 months!  She is an excellent sitter these days and her new fun trick is clapping.  It is adorable and she is so proud of herself.  She was very quick to learn that she gets lots of attention when she claps, so she's been using it to her advantage - we love it though!  Still no teeth but a whole, whole bunch of drool.  She is working towards crawling, but hopefully it is still a ways away.  She is lunging towards things in front of her and loves for you to grab her hand and help her up to a standing position.  My prediction is that she starts crawling right around Christmas time when we have the tree and presents and all kinds of things that are not good to have out when you have a curious crawler on your hands! 

 As soon as Thanksgiving dinner was put away Addy decided Thanksgiving was over and it was time to decorate for Christmas.  Here is Ella reaching for the singing snowman that she found to be quite interesting.

Another cute pic taken by Addy

 Happy clapper

Poor Ella.  Seems like everything Addy pulls out is apparently meant to be a hat for Ella - in this case it was a Christmas tree that Susan knitted for us last year.  Pretty much anything that is round ends up on Ella's head at some point it seems.  Ella's #1 line of defense at the moment is hair pulling, which we don't encourage, but sometimes you can't really blame her!

November Family Photo Day

These just keep getting better!  We took 10 and this was the best - Addy was way done with pictures at this point and well, Ella is just a slobbery mess.  Note for December, take family photo immediately after changing Ella's outfit. 

29 Again!

Another year on the books for me.  Had a great day sleeping in, hanging out with good friends, napping and of course a Mexican dinner.  Addy decided that we needed to start the day with a candle in my pancakes

At the Mexican restaurant Michael managed to "accidentally" let it slip that it was my birthday so there was singing and a hat.  Thanks sweetie, can't wait to return the favor in June!

Turkey Day

 Aunt Jean and Ella

 Addison had a blast playing with Betsy all day!

 Dinner time!

 Good progress this year - Addison actually ate turkey and a roll, maybe next year she'll eat some of the side dishes. 

Greatest clean up helpers ever!

 Granddad giving Ella her Thanksgiving dinner

 Gearing up for football time.  Dave and Vicki's Saints won, followed by a win for the Aggies.  Great football day for the Denson family!

 On Wednesday, Addison helped Grandma make pies.  She had a great time cooking!

 Addison tasting the pie she made.  She wasn't a fan of the pumpkin pie but definitely enjoyed the chocolate.  And in the bottom right corner you can see Star is trying to get a taste herself.

 Ella had a blast playing with Uncle Tom

Three Generations 

(with 2 girls who were tired of having their picture taken!)

Trotter

 Michael decided to run his first 10k on Thanksgiving Day morning, the Houston Turkey Trot.  Very proud of him for waking up and running 6+ miles before 9:00 in the morning.  His official time was 55:05 minutes and he was 774 out of 2736 runners.  Dad and Dave surprised him by meeting him at the finish line - promise one day the girls and I will be there to cheer you on! 

Fun Time at the Park

Exercise

I guess Addy hears us talk about needing to exercise, but now and again she decided that she needs to get some exercise in. With Daddy she likes to run and has been known to run from our house to the park, pretty much non-stop. We live pretty close to the park, but still an impressive run for a 4 year old.

With me it is exercising with the Wii. She likes to do the running on Wii Fit and she got into the yoga today which was quite entertaining to watch. Here is Addy attempting to do the plank position and lift one arm up.  About 2 seconds after I took the pic she fell over - but she got up and tried again! 

Old Fashioned Camera

At Disney Princess on Ice we got a free disposable camera at the stadium and who would have known how hard it would be to explain how it works to a kiddo who has only used a digital camera with a display screen and not a viewfinder. She was holding it a foot away from her face and I tried to explain how you hold it up to your eye and look through the hole - she kind of got it after playing around with it for a while, but definitely not mastered. And with the disposable cameras there is the whole winding between pics, which was yet another foreign concept.

Princesses on Ice

Addy and I went to Disney Princesses on Ice and Addy had a blast.  Sometime we'll be at the grocery or Target and the checkout person will say hi to her and she'll bust out with "I went to Disney Princesses on Ice."  Fun Mommy, Addy Day with princesses, ice skating, popcorn, and pizza!

Yogurt

We are making some good progress in the world of Ella and solids.  Got off to a rough start, then the stomach bug hit and we took a break, but we are getting in a routine now.  Most importantly we have discovered Ella's favorite food - yogurt.  She loves it and likes fruit mixed in, even when we know she wants a bottle she'll at least humor us and have some yogurt.  Still working on the veggies, but we're getting there.  She seems to like sweet potatoes and squash and corn, basically the orange options.  Not a fan of green beans, although having tasted them myself I can't really blame her.  Definitely would benefit from some salt.  We are also practicing with a sippy cup and so far she likes to chew on it more than drink from it, but we'll get there too.  Ella has the tendency to pull up her bib and start chewing on it, so sometimes we strip down to the diaper just to make things easier! 

You know you eat too much Mexican food when...

You are looking at the full moon with your 4 year old and get into a discussion about the moon and mention that sometimes it isn't a full circle, sometimes it is more of a half circle and the 4 year old says "you mean when it looks like a taco?"  Yep Addy, when it looks like a taco. 

Mom and Dad Night Out

We met our best friends Mark and Melissa for an adults only night at the zoo...Feast with the Beast.  We didn't really know what we were getting into, but we knew there would be food and drinks, so figured it couldn't be too bad.  It was a great time and will definitely be an annual tradition.  Lots of snacking on good food from restaurants around the city, a rockin' concert by the Spin Doctors (remember them from the 90's?!), and great times catching up with our friends who we don't get to see nearly enough since they left Houston! (OK, they just moved to Humble, but still, we don't see them nearly enough!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Despite 1 sick kid, we still managed to have a fun Halloween.  And I finally got both of them in their costumes generally smiling and looking at the camera at the same time!  Addy still loved being Wonder Woman and even agreed to wear the red leggings I had bought since her costume was a little short.  Ella was surprisingly tolerant of the tutu, although she didn't wear it for too long.  Her tummy was still not quite right so she relaxed in her carrier most of the time.  We went to the carnival in Aunt Jean's neighborhood which as a lot of fun again this year and then went to Granddad and Meme's for dinner.  I think that Addison especially liked running to the door at Dad's house and helping give the kiddos candy.

Addison is officially candy crazy!  Not sure we've found a candy she doesn't like.  She has been really good though, she likes to sort through her Halloween basket (for a while she was calling it her Easter basket, but we finally got the holiday correct and we'll just roll with the basket part!) and look at the candy but won't eat any until she is done with her meal and asks permission.  She has also been cleaning her plate - think she is convinced she has to eat every bit of food before she gets the candy, regardless of how big the plate is.  Turns out she likes M and Ms with Aunt Jean and of course Butterfingers with Granddad.  She was very excited when she got a Butterfinger at the carnival and couldn't wait to show Granddad what she got!

Having fun playing at the duck pond with Aunt Jean

Hunting for treasures in the sand

The Sesame Street booth was the favorite again this year!

M and M snack with Aunt Jean.  Addison later apologized for having candy before supper - not sure where this rule follower is coming from, but it is cute!

6 months!

Baby girl turned 6 months old on Saturday!  We actually went to her checkup back on the 15th, so we were a bit early but the doctor's visit confirmed that Ella is growing like a weed.  I keep forgetting to go back and re-measure her b/c they marked her height at 25 inches but she was squirming and grabbing the paper that the nurse was making the marks on so there is no way that is right.  But the scales don't lie and she weighed in at 15 lbs. 1.6 oz.  That is in the 25th percentile.

Although we have no visual confirmation, Michael and I swear she is going to get a tooth any day now.  She is chewing on everything!  Her favorite right now is this rubber giraffe we have - the giraffe hooves are the perfect size right now! 

We are still working on solids.  She apparently eats great at school and doesn't like the rice cereal, but likes the fruit or veggies straight from the jar.  I can't get her to eat well for us at home...and this weekend she came down with a stomach virus that is floating around the school so we are on a solids hiatus right now.  Fortunately it was only really a 24 hour deal and she is much better now.  It was odd, she was her usual happy self and didn't seem to really care after she would throw up on us, no fever.  Nevertheless, we are glad to be done.  It was her first real illness though - not bad going 6 months before getting stick.  And she's already been in school for 2 months.

We won't go back to the doc until 9 months, so more stats to come in 3 months!

Pumpkin Carving

This year at the pumpkin patch Addison picked out one of the cool ones with the "bumps" on it.  Looked cool but was one hard sucker to carve.  Turns out the outer layer was woody like and it took some serious arm muscle from Michael to get through it.  We'll make sure to buy a normal one next year!  Addison decided that she wanted to carve a cat.  I showed her templates of cat carvings from the internet and she didn't like any of them and instead decided Michael was going to draw the cat.  And he did.  Turned out pretty darn good too!