Busy Baby

Now that Addison is crawling she loves to pull herself up on EVERYTHING! Her toy basket, book box, crib rails, the couch, the closet doors, the washer machine, the dog gate, the kitchen cabinets, the oven drawer, the bar stools, the highchair, the piano bench, the bed, the bookshelves, the stroller, the hamper, the step stools, the dogs, my legs, and even the walls. I love watching how busy she is!  Here is a YouTube video of her exploring part of our house. The squeak is her voice : )

Also, we bought our Christmas tickets yesterday.

We will be in Florida December 18-26.  With no dogs...which will be far less hassle, but is making me sorta sad.

The Ritter Crew

I forgot to mention in the last post that when Andrew picked me up from the airport he had a York Peppermint Patty waiting for me in the car.  When we got home, he had flowers on the counter for me that he self selected. I love him.

On Thursday, the whole Ritter crew came up to Illinois to visit Stephen for family weekend. It was great to see them again! The pictures are not that great, but here they are anyway:

Nana helping Addison walk

Nana reading with Addison

Getting some love from her Uncles

Addison doing her new favorite activity...standing and cruising.

Getting some love from Aunt Donna

On Wednesday, Andrew will fly to Georgia and meet up with Andy to go camping.  Excited for him...he has had the camping bug for a while now! 

About six more weeks until we will be in Florida again.



So much love

Addison was amazing on the plane ride home! She was a wiggle worm, but really did great! Everyone on the plane complimented her behavior and ooh and aahed over how cute she was. We were in Florida for about 5 days.  We really had a great time and enjoyed quality time with family.  I think I can sum up this trip by saying that Addison received so much love! She was constantly surrounded by people who adore her! However, Addison was definitely more aware of her unfamiliar surroundings which meant that she was super clingy at times and didn't sleep as well...that was hard.  On Sunday we had an early Thanksgiving gathering with nearly 30 people at Mom's house. It overwhelmed Addison...I have never seen her cry so much! It broke my heart that she was so stressed out. We made the rest of the week very simple and relaxed and she was more herself--my content, serious baby.  There are already a lot of pictures on Tiffy and Mom's facebook pages, but here are some others:

We spent a lot of time outside! It was so warm!

Addison loves Nana and her jewels!

Addison was truly spoiled! She has new toys, clothes, and even her own bucket swing thanks to her amazing Grandparents!

Uncle Benjamin

Grandpa Barber

We met Carolina for the first time! She is about 5 weeks younger than Addi and so sweet!

All of Addison's grandparents. We do have better pictures than this one, but I thought this should be shared too.

Grammy feeding Addison a frozen strawberry...yum.

Thank you Grammy, PoppyTart, Papa, Nana, Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Tiffy, Uncle Scotty, Uncle Tommy and Heidi, Uncle Benjamin, Uncle Michael, David, Lacey, little James and Carolina, Parker, Great Uncle Joe, Great Grandma, Leigha and Leighton for all the love!

When Addison saw Andrew she gave him a huge smile. They are best buds. When we got home he made her laugh...effortlessly.

8 months old!

Today my little baby is 8 months old! She "helped" me pack today. Really she just unfolded everything and pulled her shoes out (to chew on of course). As excited as I am to go visit family, I am so sad that Addison and her Daddy will be apart. As you will see in this video, they have so much fun together! I will miss him too : )

I think I am as prepared as I can possibly be for the plane ride! Hopefully there will be no diaper explosions, but just in case I packed a change of clothes.

2 more days

Just a few more days until our Florida trip!

I am so excited to play outside with Addison again!  She loves grass!  Drew has big plans while we are gone.  He coordinated a 3 day "Restaurant Extravaganza" and invited a group of friends: Brazilian Steakhouse, Mercadito, and Capital Grille.  He is even going to dress up.  I suggested going to a movie or Second City, but he LOVES food : )

We got a carpet cleaner and cleaned the whole house...Addison is quite the explorer these days.

 say "cheese"

 she likes brushing her own two teeth!

Happy Birthday Aunt Donna and Nanny!

Halloween pictures

Last week we took some Fall/Halloween pictures.  The weather was nice so we jumped the gun!  Here are a few of them:

My little pumpkin! The hat wouldn't stay on her.

We couldn't go to a pumpkin patch (closest one is 30 miles away) so we got one big pumpkin for Addison to play with.  She loved the vine.  Well, until I picked it up by the vine and it ripped off!

Runaway pumpkin!  Taking pictures of a mobile baby is a lot more difficult!

She is loved!

We put the Artic Bundleme on the stroller.  Its getting colder : (

Yesterday Addison got to meet a few of my friends from the EPA.  It was so nice to see them!

Just 6 more days and I will be flying down to Florida!  Drew has plans to go to a fancy steakhouse with some friends while we are gone!

100th blog post

This is my 100th blog post! Crazy! I looked back at some older posts and it is amazing (and sad) to see how Addison has grown. I'm so glad that we have kept up with this blog. It will help me when I finally sit down to work on Addison's baby book! I feel like it has also been a good way to share what new and incredible changes Addison has made with our families and friends. Sometimes I get sad when I think about how little they can see her because of how far we are, but this blog makes it better. Only 10 more days until Addison and I head down to FL for a visit! I miss my family so much!

Now that Addison is crawling, there are so many more play areas for her at the museum! I am so thankful that we live so close and I have a feeling we will be going a lot more as the winter comes.