Addison Ad-Lib

It has been a very very busy week. First of all...I turned 8 months old. That's not the best part though. I learned to do a lot of stuff. I can wave now. Mom and dad think it's the coolest thing. I also learned to walk in my walker. It is so neat! I can get around the house and chase the cat and follow mommy. I love it! I also have a tooth. I think I'll have another really soon, but for now it's just one. Yesterday mommy walked in my room to get me and I was sitting up in my crib all by myself. She was so happy to see me up...but then she spent a lot of time taking my crib apart. When she put me back in that night, it was bigger...or at least it seemed bigger. I used to be able to look over the side, now I have to hold on to the bars and stand up. But hey, I love standing up. I want to do it all the time. I like standing a whole lot more than trying to crawl. I'm just not sure what to do with my knees. I'm pretty sure that my feet belong on the floor instead.
I'm having the best summer ever because my grandma is out of school and I get to see her a bunch. She has all kinds of toys at her house that I get to play with.
Tonight was even exciting for me. I got to watch daddy on a tractor. He and the tractor wrestled with a tree for a long time. If I weren't so hungry, I'd have stuck around a little longer to see who won.
Mommy likes to say, "Thank goodness it's Friday." I think I'm ready for Friday too. I'm working on a few more tricks to wow mommy and daddy. Can't wait to show them some more new stuff next week!

A State of Mourning

My heart is heavy this morning after hearing about 2 college friends who unexpectedly lost their 2 1/2 year old last night. As I heard about the mother refusing to let the hospital take her son away...I thought back to another college friend who lost her 9 year old a little over two months ago. There is always "the next day" - was there sleep at all for the parents? Was there the harsh realization once again of the events of the previous night? Will they relive every morning the realization that their baby is dead. A sentence worse than death...to be a survivor, one left behind. To say that I feel their pain is only a faint hint of what they are truly experiencing. I am angry that things like this happen. I hate the parts of life that just don't make sense..that are unreasonable. And it seems these days that unreasonable events are happening in record numbers. I've seen the gruesome television footage of the protester in Iran who was shot during a peaceful demonstration and died in her father's arms on the street. I think of the older woman visiting her sick husband in the ICU of MCG, here in Augusta, and then being attacked in the bathroom and beaten so badly that she herself was in critical condition in the hospital. Then there's the owner of a meager little Chinese restaurant a few blocks from my house, who was shot in the head one night during a robbery...by some teenagers. His wife and two children had no idea that would be the last they saw him. Some of these events are human's fault, but some of these are not. What is the point of death when it involves a baby, a son , a daughter, a grandmother, a father? I am angry at death today, really angry.
It is the reason I check on my Addison a couple of times before I go to sleep every single night. I am scared that something will happen to her as well. I have always feared it for her - maybe because she was such a miracle in the first place - maybe because I fear the unknown. Our children, our families, our spouses are so important and precious to us. It is not right that they are stolen away so early. Today I am beside myself with grief for all the people who must make it through life having gone through this and I carry a heart full of anger that I have no place to lay.

Land of duh

I have the best blogger subjects in my head while I'm driving around town. I can think of some amazing topics when I'm falling asleep. But when I actually find the time to sit down...nothing. So I'm going to post pictures of Addison. Over the last couple of months, she has learned a few tricks. She clapped, she shook her head "no", she said mama, she puts on a surprise face for fun. She did them all - separately. The week she said mama, she didn't clap and the surprise face happened without her shaking her head. This week however, she has pulled out all the stops and spends her days entertaining whoever will watch with her rotation of skills. Here's some pics.
This just captures how amazingly sweet my baby is.

Addison trying to stand up.

Her surprised face!

G-ma asleep...and Addison asleep. Together.

Daddy and Addison snuggled in the recliner.

Another surprised face (we get a lot of these).

Petting Smokey the cat for the first time (cat's choice of course).