The Handley Family: Weekly Update

Week of January 4, 2012

Addie's weekly photo

Cooper's Weekly photo

On New Years Eve (during the day), we had a pretty good snow fall. It was at least enough that Addie was able to bundle up in her snow pants and play outside with Blake and AV. To ring in the new year, we kept things pretty low key (as we have since becoming parents). We invited Uncle Dillon (and family), and Nana over for appetizers and watched some New Years Celebrations on TV. Of course the kids didn't last until midnight and our guests all left by 10 pm (worn out), but Mama and Dada stayed up long enough to see the ball drop and then went to bed.

All about Addie

Thomas Creations: We've had a Thomas the Train set for quite a while but I exchange out toys from the toy room and bring them upstairs to her toys bins in the living room so we can keep the kids from getting tired of their toys too quick. Lately, Addison's favorite thing is to make elaborate train track layouts. We will use blocks, pillows.... whatever we can to make bridges and tunnels for Thomas to go over and through. She gets the biggest kick out of it!

New buddy: Addie got a new Woody doll (from Toy Story) for Christmas and he is her new favorite buddy. She will invite Woody to meals, play, bedtime, potty time... whenever!

Door Handles: We've been pretty fortunate that Addison never really caught on to opening and closing doors in the house.... until now. It's helped us keep her in/out of rooms when we needed to. Although she still doesn't completely have the hang of it, she has opened a few doors in the last week just simply by being very persistent about trying to turn the handle. She will still stay in her bed for nap time/bedtime and won't attempt to open her door until dada or mama open it for her.

Potty Training: We still do diaper at bed/nap time, but no longer need one during the day while Addie is awake. An accident is pretty rare and is usually more of a "piddle" than an all out soak. This week we have only had ONE accident! :)

New Phrases:
"I'll go ask dada"- If she asks mama for something and I don't give her the answer she wants, she will tell me she's going to ask dada.
"Hey I've got an idea"- A pretty random phrase, but she will get really excited and say she has an idea for something. Usually it phases into gibberish, but very cute to hear! :)

All about Cooper

Shy: If Cooper feels like being shy to a stranger, he will put his forearm against his forehead and try to hide his face. Usually it still includes a smile or some sort of grin. Overall, I try to discourage shyness with the kids because I want to keep them outgoing but I know that some shyness can actually be healthy for a child's personality.... and cute! ha ha

Growling when eating - I'm not sure where this comes from but it's a mixture of a grunt and growl and usually between bites. Quite funny to hear while feeding him.

Gasping for air: Cooper does this randomly but most of all when he is playing or when he is excited about something. The first few times he did it, I was beside myself because I had no idea what was going on. As time has passed though, I've realized that it's just his way of releasing energy. Gotta keep an eye on this boy!!

Hates to be alone: I can't say he's like this 100% of the time, but he does get in moods where he does not want to be left alone. Mainly, if we are in the room with him for a while and then all of the sudden leave, he will whine and cry for us to come back.... ESPECIALLY if he's sleepy. There are times though that he has no problem with independent play.

Crawling More: Every day, Cooper gets better at crawling. Now that he's so much more mobile, he's starting to get into things. He has messed with the tree before, but he gets to it faster and it's usually the first thing he heads for. I've finally started testing out the words "no-no" to see if he will catch on. It doesn't seem to phase him yet though. Usually he will look at me and smile or laugh. Something we definitely need to work on!!

More photos from the week:

Her first big snow of the year