Entertaining a sick child

So Addie is sick...AGAIN.



Two days after the first day of spring, she comes down with a fever and a lot of snot and coughing. Fun fun! So we were inside a lot (because mother nature doesn't really know that our calendar people has declared it "spring" and it's been a yucky week) and after playing with everything in our house a gazillion times, I decided to get creative. Unfortunately, the queen of the household did not deem my creativity cool enough and I realized I should have stuck to the old standbys. I kept thinking about the Fail Blog the whole time.

We headed out to Target to get some fun new cool stuff-woohoo!

"Hey, Addie! Wanna fingerpaint? You liked it when you were 7 months old. See, mommy is doing it. Wanna try, Addie?"


"You want me to do what now?"

Fingerpainting FAIL.

Instead:
"Hey mom, is that your toothbrush?? I resist brushing my teeth at bedtime when you actually want me to, but woooooo, let's brush my teeth NOW!!!!"


"Hey Addie, look! I took a big box and made you a cool fort. You can crawl into the fort. See, your stuffed monkey is in there, do you want to go in the fort?"

Monkey Fort FAIL

Instead: she colored happily in the "coloring station" (the wagon she got for her birthday and we have yet to bust out because the weather hasn't been consistently good enough). Okay, it's not bad that she was happily coloring, just funny because BEFORE my "let's do new things today" declaration, she wanted nothing to do with coloring.




"Hey, Addie, wanna make homemade playdough? It's SOOO fun. I'll make it pink--wanna touch it? Seriously, it's fun to touch--come on, Addie, I'm a cool mom--I make HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH"

Pile of Pink Playdough FAIL

Instead: "Ooh, mom, can I turn the light switch on and off a gazillion times? Ooohhhh....."

Okay, I did get one new thing that she really liked--a "no-spill bubble tumbler". It's a pretty cool device and she loves it. But we pretty much blow bubbles every day, so it's only "semi new and cool"



And here's a hint--when you don't want to take her out of the house for fear that other children will get whatever bug made your dear one sick, and you can't really go for a walk because it's too cold and you've already been to Target that day--let your kiddo pretend to drive. Seriously, it was TEN WHOLE MINUTES of fun. I got a video on my phone her driving and singing, but sadly, I can't figure out how to post the file. Trust me it's cute--next time you're with me, ask to see it on my phone.

Toddler Driving a car SUCCESS

So luckily, the sun is out today and it's going to be mid-60's. That's a good thing because I'm out of "cool new" ideas.

And I leave you with a classic Addie pic. This girl is such a drama queen--she doesn't just say "NO" when she doesn't want to do something, she closes her eyes, throws her head to the side and purses her lips into a long drawn out "nooooooooooooooooooo"

Horsey rides!

Who needs a gym membership when you can get all the exercise you need playing "Addie horsey"?

Hard working New Jersey trip

We took a quick trip to New Jersey this weekend and boy was Addie busy!

She showed Poppy and Grams how to walk safely through a parking lot.


She helped Grams ring up a few customers at the Booktrader

Then showed the customers how to use the cool baskets

And she kept the store safe by acting as security guard at her favorite little table.

Back at the home front, Daddy worked on teaching her some U2 riffs on the guitar...
...while Poppy taught her some drum rhythms

All that hard work and practice this weekend paid off! Listen to our musical genius ;)

What we've been up to

So you may be curious why the last post had a stick figure picture on it... And why it's been *so* long since the last photograph-filled post (I didn't think it was that long, but the natives were getting restless). Well...dum dum dummmm....the camera was missing. GASP! The very tool we use to capture the life and times of Addie Silvestro...gone. Poof. We checked everywhere, including the "hidey hole" (under the seat of Addie's little push car--we've found our keys and cell phones hidden in there). We were scanning our savings account to see if we could afford a "good" new one in these economic times when...

...it was discovered on a bookshelf behind some books. Phew! We're just grateful it's back and safe in our hands (especially because the last time we both remembered seeing it was when we took it out in the snow..eek!) I started to take more photos on my phone in the interim. It's actually a pretty good camera!

So what's been going on lately?

Well after the sickness lifted, we have just been doing everything and going everywhere.

The weather has been crazy. First we had snow:


(is that a camera down there?)

Then the sun came out and it was in the 70's less than a week later!

(this was from my phone camera--see, it's a good picture, right?)


We've been keeping busy by... reading stories with Uncle Dan's girlfriend Lauren. Addie calls her "Lo" :)



...dressing up and being a girly girl as always--look mom, I'm wearing a necklace!

(psst....check out all this that hair!)

...going to our mom's group every week and getting to play with other kid's toys. Here's Addie cheesin' it for Ellie's mom before climbing on Ellie's horsey (nayyyyyy)

Photo by Arria Ibach Durham

...and coloring. I got these amazing "Crayola Wonders" markers and special coloring book--the colors don't get on skin or furniture, just on the paper--it's great and keeps Addie occupied for hours!


Okay, that was an exxageration, it's more like minutes. Then the caps become more interesting.


And of course we actually have to get things done sometimes, like grocery shopping, running errands, etc. Addie usually behaves well when we're out and about (parenting tip: having snacks on hand always helps distract her from wanting to create general mayhem).

I'll leave you with this picture. I had to get the car serviced and the place we went has a little playroom. Addie walked right in and plopped herself down on the chair to have a snack. Doesn't she look like a big kid? She's no baby anymore!

All better!

Just a quick update--Addie has fully recovered from her stomach bug and is back in full force! Her appetite has been raging lately--gotta get her back to our chubby little girl!

She's now a wee bit spoiled what with being allowed to watch as much TV as she wanted and have whatever she wanted to eat (do you want an apple? No. Crackers? No. Cereal? No....). Let's just say, she's taking full advantage of our prior flexibility and we're working on cracking the whip.

Here's a quick family portrait for your viewing pleasure:

Dr. Pirate Stevo, Chef Monsy and Princess Addie

Sick

As you all know, when Addie was a mere 7 weeks old, she was pretty sick and had to be admitted to the hospital. That ordeal was not a fun one, but thankfully, she's been pretty healthy since then! A case of pink eye that cleared up quickly, a fever one night that was fine in the morning, quite a few runny noses, but nothing that stopped her from being crazy, fiesty Adeline.

Well, despite going all winter without anything serious...she finally got bit by a bug. This weekend she started running a fever, and we thought she was doing better yesterday, but then this morning she woke in a pile of throw-up. Bathtime at 6am= no fun!

Today was strictly a pajama-day--with a lot of TV watching and eating crackers on the couch--two things that are not common in this household. She napped a total of 5 hours today, which on a normal day would make me jump for joy, but when she was awake and clearly not feeling well, there's no way I could rejoice. It's so hard seeing your child less than their usual self.

Here's Addie, sick and mudging on the couch:

Despite all the naps, she went to bed at her normal time and we're hoping that tomorrow she wakes up tomorrow happy and feeling much better. We'll keep you updated!


But onto brighter news: in the last month she has just become such a funny little girl! We taught her to "smile" on command and she'll comply with a huge, cheesy grin, such as:


and:


She's also really into imagination play and dress-up! If you had told me that this happened at just over a year, I wouldn't have believed you. But Addie loves to pretend to cook by stirring a spoon in a pot and shaking a (closed and plastic!) bottle of garlic salt into the pot, then pretending to eat from the spoon.

And pretty much every day, she will come up to us with some random article of clothing and ask us to put it on her by handing it to us and signing "more" (which also apparently means "do it."). And every so often she'll show up in the kitchen with her winter hat on acting as if it were totally normal...hi mom, can I have a snack--yeah I have my winter hat on, so what? It's SNACK time, sheesh.

Her favorite is her daddy's hat (there's that cheesy grin again):

And his winter gloves (note the necklace as well--these are on her a LOT, I'll even forget she's wearing them and zip up her coat and ship her off to a playdate or the store with a big plastic necklace on):


But why stop there? The other day, Addie was still in her PJs after breakfast and saw me folding laundry. She saw her valentines day dress and asked me to put it on her. So we did. Then she found a pair of shorts. Sure, why not? A hat to round out the ensemble?--but of course.

Please, no pictures! Yes, this is what I am wearing to the Oscars, it is an original "TarJay Banana"

She took the hat off to get serious and help Steve ski (skii?) on the Wii

When she's sick and when she's healthy, we are clearly...


...madly in love...


...with our daughter...


I leave you with a video clip with about 2 minutes of tickling/giggling/squealing fun. A lot of this goes on at the Silvestro house.

There's not much more to the video than that, but, really, it doesn't get better than the laughter of a child.

15 months and Valentines Day

Our moms group gets together once a week, usually on Fridays. Jolyn was hosting this week and she had a Valentine's day party. We had a smaller group than normal, but we still had a lot of fun! We tried to do a group picture, but guess who wasn't cooperating?


Here's the back of Addie flanked by Mason (left) and Chase (right)

Here's Addie looking happy and slightly guilty after eating the chocolate off of my chocolate covered strawberry


Then we had a handful of Addie's girlfriends over for brunch this weekend.

Reese, Anne, Addie, and Rowan--um, how cute are these girls???

Anne stealing the show--Tada!

And finally--Addie's 15 month pictures. Since it was Valentine's week, I put her in a red and pink outfit for the photoshoot:




"Be mine!"