Baby boy

Because of what happened while I was pregnant with Addie, we now get to have ultrasounds every four weeks and see how our little guy is growing, and to be sure there is still enough amniotic fluid. So, yesterday I had an ultrasound (28 weeks along) and everything looked great. Our little boy is growing right on track and they guestimated that he weighed 2 lbs. 6 oz. The doctor said they like the fluid level to be at a 10 and I am at an 11, so that is great news. Last time I had an ultrasound, our boy was head down, but this time, he was breech. No big deal, since it is still early, plus I am having a c-section anyways. At our next appointment (in 2 weeks), we should find out the date of our scheduled c-setion...assuming we make it until then! An interesting thing we have noticed in our ultrasounds is that this little boy has had at least one, if not both, arms up around his head every time we have seen him. Addie was the same way-even after she was born. We could never swaddle her arms down in a blanket because she would wiggle her arms out and lay them over her head, or on her face. It's funny to be able to see little similarities like that even before officially meeting our son. Below are a couple pictures we got of our him, though neither of them are great. Apparently, he doesn't like to show his face off very much, but here is the best we could see.

For those of you not so great at understanding what you are seeing when looking at an ultrasound picture, this one is a profile of the face, though you can really only see his nose and a little of his mouth. He is laying with his head on the left side of the picture and his nose is pointed up. Notice also, his arm is up with a hand resting right above his forehead.

This picture is looking straight at baby boy's face. You can see the eye sockets and faintly see his nose and mouth. Those are also two hands right below his face, looking like he is ready to fight somebody!

Kisses for Daddy

Daddy has always loved getting kisses from Addie and she has really caught on-she might actually enjoy giving them as much as Daddy enjoys receiving them! Just the other day, Daddy was pretending to sleep on the floor and for some reason, Addie immediately went over to him and gave him a kiss to wake him up. This is something Bob has done with our neices and nephews before, but never with Addie, and we were both shocked to see that she stopped whatever she was doing to go give him a kiss!

A visit from...

Aunt Melinda, Olivia, and Logan! Last week, they decided to come up for a few days to hang out and play. Addie had a good time with her two cousins and hope they will come back and visit again (though their not sleeping may keep their mom from wanting a repeat visit anytime soon).

Aunt Melinda reading to Addie-one of Addie's favorite things to do.
Happy baby Logan (6 months old)! Addie was very interested in Logan-I guess she hasn't been around a lot of babies before. She really liked touching him-especially his hair (the little that he has left) and face.

Getting ready for bed. Daddy was getting Addie ready for bed and Olivia crawled right up into his lap next to Addie. She then started stroking Addie's hair while Bob read the bedtime story-unfortunately, I didn't get that on camera.

The next few pictures were all an attempt to get a good shot of Addie and Olivia together-preferably smiling as well as looking at the camera. Easier said than done with these one and two-year-olds.

We recently turned Addie's carseat around and she seems to be enjoying the new views. I turned around the other day and she had taken both shoes and socks off, and was chewing on her big toe. Crazy kid!

She also kicks her feet while in the car a lot, which is why these pictures have her feet in the air.

She's a natural

After Addie started "dancing" a couple weeks ago, Bob and I were discussing where she may have learned to do such a thing. Since the two of us have never danced in front of her (or any other time, really), we decided it must be something that is instinctive-not learned, which I think is pretty interesting. However, even more interesting is another instinct Addie has shown to have. As you will see in the video below, Addie has soccer instincts. Some of you may question as to whether or not she has been taught, but I promise I have never actually shown her to kick a ball-that was all her idea! A week or so ago, I was making dinner and noticed Addie in the other room, dribbling a ball. Of course, as soon as I got the camera, she stopped, but she has done it several times since. This morning, we went outside and as soon as I got a ball out (it's a basketball, but whatever) she was kicking and chasing...until she got distracted by something else-like dandelions. She is a natural!

Addie has started jabbering quite a bit, but most of the time it is nonsense. There are a few distinct words and sounds she is good at, though. "Da-da" is definitely her favorite. The only time she says "Ma-ma" is when she is sad and wants something from me (and she sounds very Italian when she says it). Another favorite is "uh-oh", but most of the time when she says it, she says "uh" 3 different times until she gets the sound she wants, then says "oh." It's pretty funny. I managed to get her saying uh-oh a couple times in this video, but she decided to say it correctly, so maybe she's getting better at it. She definitely knows what "uh-oh" means and uses it in the correct context often, but I guess it's so fun to say that she says it lots of other times as well.

Addie is also very into dogs. Anytime she sees a dog (or is looking somewhere she has seen a dog before-like our neighbor's back yard) she stares and "barks" (you will hear in the video that it is nowhere close to a bark, but it is what she does every time she sees a dog). She also gets very excited...until she gets real close to the dog, then she gets shy. Once the dog walks away, she starts "barking" again. Again, it's pretty funny. Unfortunately, from what we can tell, she is allergic to dogs. She has broken out 2 different times when she has been very close to a dog (touched it) so that is really too bad. Enjoy the video!

Waterfalls

We have lived in the Asheville area for about 2 months now and decided last weekend to go out exploring a little bit. We know the area has lots of cool outdoorsy things to do and wanted to see what we could find. Brevard is a town not too far from where we are (about 20-30 minutes away) and it is known for the waterfalls it has in the area. We found a place called the "Pisgah Forest" where there is a road following a river through a forest. There are lots of places to pull off the road and hike to a waterfall, so we tried it out. The first waterfall we went to is supposedly one of the most photographed waterfalls in America. It was about 65 feet high and I think Addie was a little intimidated by it-she just had never seen anything like it before. It was right off the road, so no need to hike, which may have played a factor into why so many people have taken pictures of it, though it is a really cool waterfall. From there, we drove to another spot and hiked to a waterfall. It was supposedly a 1 mile roundtrip hike, but somehow that half mile to the waterfall seemed much longer! I guess we're pretty out of shape...and I don't think Bob realized his 4-year-old Crocs would not be the best hiking shoes while carrying his 20-lb. daughter. But, we made it and had a good time. Enjoy some of our pictures from the adventure:

Our little boy

It seems like ever since we found out we were pregnant this time around, we have not given this baby as much attention (granted, he is still in the womb) as our first unborn baby. So, I thought I would post a picture of him on the blog for the first time. I realize our blog is called "Addie May" and that is something that will need to change in a few months, but for now, I can still post a picture of Addie's baby brother on "her" blog. I had an ultrasound last Thursday-at 24 weeks. From here on out, I will be having ultrasounds once a month so the doctor can check the growth of the baby as well as the fluid level, in hopes that we can avoid what happened last time (an emergency c-section due to low fluid and a small baby). So, here is one of the better pictures we have of our little guy. If you can't tell, this is a picture of his face (there is a bubble floating just above his eye):