Fun-Filled Few Weeks

Well we've been pretty busy the past few weeks and I'm just now getting the time to post some pictures.  It was Doug's birthday on the 14th.  Addison and I got up early and made breakfast for Doug and I also slaved all day on making one of his favorites, lasagna ;-)  We ended the day with singing Happy Birthday and enjoyed some cake and ice cream.  Doug said it was his best birthday yet!

We decided to make our first trip to Monkey Joe's.  I have heard that it's a lot of fun, so we thought we would give it a try.  Conner and Collin came along as well and I'm really glad they did because I don't think Addison would have had as much fun as she did without them there.  All three of them had a great time!

My Mom had some bleacher seats to the Cardinal game this past Thursday.  It was a day game and it just worked out that I was off on Thursday instead of Friday.  We went early and ate at Caleco's for lunch.  Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it rained for awhile so we eventually gave up and headed home.  Mom and I didn't anticipate staying very long with the 1yr olds, but it would have been nice for them to see some baseball.  Oh well!

On Saturday we had the Muehlhauser Family reunion at Dad and Cyndi's.  It was pretty cool in the morning but by the afternoon the sun came out and it ended up being a great day!  The crowd seems to get smaller each year, but we are so glad we got to visit with those that were able to make it.

Today we went over to Saint Louis to visit my Grandpa Real at the hospital.  He had an accident two weeks ago and broke his hip and elbow.  He's seems to be doing well considering.  Unfortunately he has 3-4 more weeks to go in the hospital.  We're praying he recovers quickly and returns home soon.  Addison got to visit with Aunt Gina and Marcia while Doug and I visited with Grandpa.  She was sleeping when we left her with them and they were so surprised that when she woke up she didn't cry.  She had them walking laps around the floor when we came out - typical Addison!  On the way home we stopped by The Taste of St. Louis to get some great food.  We listened to a Jamaican band play while we walked the street of food picking out what we were going to eat.  We tried getting Addison to eat a burger, but she would only eat the sweet potato fries.  Then we got her a cheese pizza, thinking for sure she would eat that...no dice.  I had to get a Ben & Jerry's waffle cone and of course she wanted some of that!  I unfortunately did not have my camera with me so there's no evidence of this little adventure.

Enjoy the pics!

Daddy's 34th birthday.

I was feeding him some cake.

And of course I had to try some myself!

My new expression, we call it the O Face.

We went to Monkey Joe's for the first time!

I loved this 3 and under play area.

Conner went down a HUGE slide.

The jump house.

Attempting to walk across, it was a challenge!

Collin went down a big slide as well!

 Collin was driving me home.

He's kind of a crazy driver, I think I might have to teach him a few things!

We ended the night with a mohawk-of-a-time bath!

Taking the Metro to the Cardinal game!

Yummy rolls at Caleco's for lunch.

It was raining, so we just played in the kids area for a bit.

Fred Bird!

Chillin in the baseball glove.

How do I swing this thing?

Everyone pile in to the baseball cap!

All ready for the Muehlhauser family reunion!

It's hard to get me to look at the camera and smile now-a-days.

Love ya Aunt Janel!

Playing washers with Katie.

She was my buddy all day following me around.

Papa Mike feeding me some yummy pie!

The Muehlhauser Crew.



Night-Night!

Addison has always been a great sleeper.  I think she started sleeping through the night at 1 month.  She usually goes down around 8:00pm and gets up anywhere from 5:30am-6:30am.  Every once in awhile she'll sleep until 7:00.  Most of the early rising is our doing since she has to be up at 6:00am during the week. 

Addison usually goes down easily most nights.  A long time ago I adopted the "Baby Whisperer" approach, it's a balance between the Ferber Method and the Sears Method.  I usually sit with her in the glider and read a book which is the indicator that it's time to wind down for sleep.  Then I would stand next to her crib and turn on her mobile and rock her for just a minute.  That step is long gone because now she just reaches straight for her crib, no cuddling or rocking.  I lay her down and wait until she gets all situated before I walk out.  She usually has to have a blanket and her puppy.  She moves completely against the back side of the crib and rolls around a few times to find her comfortable spot.  It's so funny to watch!

Every once in awhile she'll cry after I leave the room.  I let her go for about 5 minutes and return to her room to rub her back and reassure her.  Once she settles down, I leave again.  If she cries again, I let her go a little longer.  Most of the time I only have to go in there once.  Now all of this is if Doug is NOT around because he completely disagrees with it.  He thinks that I shouldn't let her cry but should rock her to sleep.  So if he's in the house at the time then he usually steps in and rocks her.  There goes the consistency!  Hearing her cry is not easy for me to listen to either, but I know it's best for her and she's not going to cry that long or cry every night.  Like I said, she goes down perfectly 4 out of 5 times - isn't that proof enough that what I'm doing works?!?  Guess not.  Oh well, it's just the difference in how we were raised.

Well, the whole reason for this long descriptive post was just to tell you about a cute new thing Addison has starting doing at bedtime!  Once I lay her down in her crib, she'll get comfortable and then wave bye-bye - like ok I'm good, you can leave now.  It cracks me up.  Doug just put her down tonight and told me she did the same thing to him!  What a cutie...

Luitjohan Family Reunion - 9/11/11

We had Doug's Mom's family reunion yesterday at St. Rose Park.  The Luitjohan family is just as large as the Vasquez family - his Grandma Clara is one of 13.  It was a beautiful day and Addison got to spend some quality time with her cousins.  The park had a great playground and Addison was in heaven.  Here are some pictures!

Uncle Bruce helping me on the slide.

Zachary and Anna showing me how to drive.

The train of lawn mowers!

Loving the ride...

Anna and Adam keeping me company.

Park Fun

I work a compressed work week so that I can have every Friday off.  In the beginning of the summer, I had big ideas of doing fun things with Addison on some of those Fridays.  Well, here we are the end of the summer and I can only think of one time we actually did something fun.  I feel so guilty because Fridays end up being my catch-up day - cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc. - nothing fun for me or Addison.  So one recent Friday after the house was cleaned, I had to take the recyclables into town and thought that's it, we're going to the park and having fun the rest of the afternoon.  I have to learn that I can't get everything done.  I just need to leave the dishes and laundry, they'll be there when I return.

Here are the pictures from our fun afternoon at the park...

Miss Independent has to do it all on her own.