She Did It, She Did It, Yay She Did It

In our house Dora and Mickey rule the tv, so we can't help but shout, "You Did It, You Did It, Yay You did It", every time Tootie does something new. This week we were able to shout it from the rooftops, because SHE DID IT...STEPS! Finally, she is taking steps towards gaining a tiny little bit of independence.

First she started doing it at school and of course I missed it and then Grant got to see it when he picked her up. Finally on Friday after work I convinced her to show me her new moves. Adelaide still won't get into a standing position on her own without pulling up on something, but if you stand her up and scoot away she will come towards you. Sometimes it's a step or two and others it's more like 5 or 6. She falls a lot, so thank goodness for the padding in the diapers.

Adelaide is so excited that all day Sunday she kept crawling over to us and standing up and letting go to show us her new trick. She can pretty much stand for as long as she can without laughing and then once that starts she falls over. I can't not mention the fact that she learned to get off of one of the couches by herself too. It mostly involves her landing on her rear end, but she's tough.

We were able to get the great event on video, not the best video, but a video none the less. I'm hoping to get it uploaded tonight to share with everyone.

Bye Bye Bobby

Stephenie and I got to say our goodbyes to Bobby Bowden in person on New Years Day. I'm not saying that I'm an FSU fan or even a Bobby fan, but you can't discount the legacy that this man has in college football. Even those that weren't there to cheer on the Noles stood up for Bobby. At the beginning of the game they even let Bobby throw the flaming arrow into the ground instead of the traditional Chief Osceola. A really nice touch if I do say so myself.

Some of you may be wondering how it ended up being Steph and I and not the whole clan or Grant and I, well plain and simple the boys ditched us. We had tickets for everyone to go to the Gator Bowl, but it was on at the same time as the Penn State game, so they stayed at home with Tootie Girl. Their loss, we had fun!

It was fantastic to see the stadium packed which is a rarity if you ever watch the Jags you know that doesn't happen very often. I did get a good laugh, I saw a few people that I knew at the game and at one point the guy sitting next to me asked if I knew everyone in Jacksonville. You should have seen the shock on my face, because I always feel like I don't know anyone here.

Where is your...

When you ask Adelaide where her body parts are, this is what you get...

hair - scratches her head

ears - puts her finger in her right ear

mouth - sticks her finger in her mouth and pulls it out just right so that it makes a popping sound

tummy - lifts up mommy's shirt and taps my tummy

nose - pictures are better than descriptions...she will not be happy about this when she is older.

Coupon Queen

I've been the butt to many jokes referring to coupons, as I have become completely obsessed with saving money on the essentials so I had to laugh when I was looking through pictures and stumbled across this one. My little Coupon Queen in the making.

no update

Week 2 and still no update from the Geneticist on Grant and I's blood test.

I received an email from a good friend this week whose son also has developmental delays and I felt like I was reading Adelaide's story. Luckily for my friend they knew their son had a disorder from birth so they were able to start looking into specialist and treatment much earlier on. I tried to give the few words of wisdom that I had, but I know that I was tired of hearing what everyone had to say too.

No two children are the same, but her story was so similar it made me feel like we weren't the only ones out there struggling with this. Maybe it's my ignorance or a lot of my friends ability to hide their struggles, but for the longest time I felt like everyone else I knew had a perfectly healthy child except us. Not that I would change anything, though my arms do get tired of having to carry Adelaide around all of the time.

Russ's Birthday

This is only a few months late, sort of like 3, but I promised myself and everyone else that I would get this blog updated.

November is a busy month around our house, we have many birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and everything else that you can imagine. The tradition is typically that Russ makes whatever you want for your birthday dinner, though this year I'm thinking that he fell down on the job. Of course the rest of us don't cook so we took him out.

III Forks is a fantastic restaurant that happened to have their by invitation only opening on Russ's birthday weekend, so it was our gift to him. The food was phenomenal, but I don't think we will be going back anytime soon or at least with Adelaide. The food was expensive, but the issue that we have is that it is not baby friendly by any stretch. They did have a highchair, but no changing tables and they wouldn't allow us to bring in our stroller so that she could sleep. Not easy to try and eat your steak while Adelaide is grabbing the fork from your hands and trying to feed herself.

Orlando

not so sure about these dogs, she prefers her Bubba.


No, Daddy did not get conned into this dress, it was $80!


loves Mickey Mouse clubhouse, we watch it every night before bed.


We should have been wearing sunglasses, both of our eyes are closed.

We made fun of Jason about his phone most of the day.

This post is late...of course...but this is one of A's Christmas dresses.

Adelaide wasn't so sure about him...

What happens when some of your closest friends goes to Orlando for the weekend...you join them! One of my besties, Elizabeth, lives in Charlotte but was in Orlando for a work conference and she brought her newly expanded family with her. Adelaide finally got to meet her little buddy, Kyler and Grant got his opportunity to make fun of Elizabeth and I with Jason.

There were many parenting stories to be told since the last time we got to see the McCotter family was in Savannah when Elizabeth was pregnant and Adelaide was learning to crawl.

It was a short weekend, we started out at Kari and Andrews, but they left to go to Tampa for a wedding, so we took over their house for the weekend. Saturday we spent the day at Downtown Disney and at the hotel with our friends. Another road trip on the car and a fun time had by all.

To note, this picture is of Adelaide passed out in Kari's bedroom next to the suitcase. Adelaide got tired of playing with Aunt Kari, so she crawled out of the living room, closed the door to Aunt Kari's room and fell asleep.