4th of July

Growing up, my extended family made a huge deal of Independence Day.  We would head over to my Aunt and Uncle’s house, which was within walking distance of the town’s parade route, and spend the day grilling by the pool and visiting with family.  You never knew who might show up for the 4th of July at that big white house, but it was always a good time.  Some of my favorite childhood memories are of July 4th with my cousins, friends and family.

We haven’t really established any 4th of July traditions for our little family yet.  Since moving to Houston, we’ve spent the holiday hanging around the house while I under cook chicken on the grill and give Scott his annual dose of salmonella.  This year, we received an invitation to attend a party on Galveston Island.  I was excited because we’ve never been to Galveston and Scott was thrilled to be spared a bout of food poisoning.

I was a bit nervous about attending this particular gathering because I would be totally out of my comfort zone.  This was a group of Scott’s hockey friends, most of whom I have never met.  It turned out to be a fantastic – though HOT – day.  Everyone was very friendly and even my anti-social little Addison warmed up quickly though I think that had a lot to do with the three dogs running around.

Ollie impostor.

We knew there would be a pool at this home, so we prepared by making sure Addison had the proper flotation devices.  This was Addison’s first time around a big pool and we wanted to make sure that she was safe.  In addition to the pool, the house is flanked by water on two sides.  All of these large bodies of water made us nervous.  Scott did try unsuccessfully to put her in her full life vest once or twice but the arms floaties worked just fine.

As expected, Addie spent most of the afternoon in the pool with her Dad stopping only for diaper checks and sunblock applications.

It was 100 degrees on July 4th.  This is, perhaps, why we’ve been okay with hanging around the house for the past few years.  It was HOT out there.  Being on the water didn’t make a huge difference; 100 degrees is 100 degrees.  We had to coax Addison out of the pool to eat dinner and spend some downtime in the air conditioning.

We left Galveston long before the fireworks began, but we did get home in time to see them from our neighborhood.  Before we left, we trespassed on private property for some photo ops.

We’re both reaching for my hat, though I don’t quite remember why it was suspended in mid-air.

I usually don’t post pictures that are nearly identical , but I’m posting both of these because they make my heart sing.  These two are my whole world.  The only thing missing here is a little black dog in the bottom right corner with his tongue hanging out.  The look on their faces in these photos is exactly the way they look at each other at 5:15 every weekday afternoon.  I can only hope that Addison always smiles this big when she’s in her Daddy’s arms.

 

Resolute

Last week I visited this blog’s home page to look for a post that I had written way back in May.  There was a picture I wanted to see.  I thought I would have to go back pages and pages to dig for it.  I was sad, and a little shocked, to see that post still on the first page.  It spoke to how little I’ve been blogging lately.  Just 2 posts for the entire month of June.  TWO!  Last June I posted more than a dozen.

It’s not that I don’t want to blog.  I have lots of stories to share and hundreds of pictures that are sitting in a folder that I know will never be published.   I started this website to document Addie’s life.  So, I’m sorta like Kate Gosselin but with better hair.  (Hear that TLC?  I’m documenting my kid’s life here, and I will do it for half of what you pay her.  Call me!)

Ahem.

I started this website to document Addie’s life and our journey as parents.  I’m still committed to that, but I’m finding more and more lately that there are some things I don’t want to share with the world; some things I want to keep to myself.  Right now I’m having a hard time finding that balance so instead I write nothing.

Here’s where that changes.  My Independence Day Resolution is to blog at least twice a week for the entire month of July.  I can do that.  It’s only 8 posts in 31 days.  I can’t promise that I’ll have anything profound to say (so nothing new there) but I can promise that I will be here.  I hope you’ll join me.

*This counts as a post.

 

Catching Up

My last post was written on the second day of our trip.  I should have never talked about how well Addison was sleeping because as soon as I hit “publish” on that post and sent those thoughts out into the interwebs Addie decided she wasn’t so crazy about sleeping after all.  In fact, she suddenly needed less and less sleep every day which meant  progressively earlier wake up calls each morning.  I’m using the term “morning” loosely here because by the Friday after that post was written, Addison woke up at 3:40.  That’s AM.  Eastern Time.  Ready to start her day.

Sleep deprivation is a really awful form of torture.  It’s something that new parents are forced into for weeks after a new baby comes home.  It’s something that made the first few months of Addison’s life so difficult.  If I’m ever captured by enemy forces and tortured until I give up some information,  I will politely ask for the water boarding over the sleep deprivation.  It probably wouldn’t be an issue though because I would totally talk.  But Addie wasn’t sleep deprived, she would take long luxurious naps and catch up on sleep every time we got in the car.  Every night I would put her to bed and think, Wow, I should probably get some sleep too. And then I would decided that, No, she was up so early and had such a busy day, she’ll probably sleep ’til noon tomorrow. I guess I’m an optimist and also, I underestimate Addison’s love for late night episodes of Dora.

Addison got very comfortable with waking up in the middle of the night and getting immediate attention.  It’s not that we ignore her in the middle of the night at home, it’s just that at home we’ll usually try to let her work it out on her own for a few minutes before rushing in.  It’s really hard to do that in someone else’s home when people are sleeping peacefully.

Yesterday morning Addison was playing in the living room with Sesame Street on TV in the background.  I was in the kitchen doing dishes and talking on the phone when I realized I hadn’t heard a peep from her in quite some time.  I could see her though, and it looked like she was drawing on her Magna Doodle.  As I got closer I realized that she had passed out in the middle of drawing a circle.  I carried her up to her bed where she slept for over three hours.  THREE HOURS.  That kind of nap is unheard of in this house.  A myth.  Like Bigfoot; you want to believe it exists, other people claim to have seen it but there’s no scientific evidence to support it.  It wasn’t even nap time.  All of the excitement, the late nights and the early mornings, were finally over and she just crashed.  She had a lot of catching up to do.

 

Traveling…again

You may remember that last month I talked about the trip that Addie and I took to New England and how the flight there was an awful experience.  I may have said that I would NEVER EVER EVER fly with her as a lap baby again and our relationship may never be the same because of all of the emotional scarring that occurred at 35,000 feet.  And then I think talked a little bit about how she spent the entire seven days of our trip on a hunger strike in protest of having to sit on my lap for four hours on an airplane.  And she was good at it, that hunger strike.  I think she may have a future in social activism sixteen years from now when she gets to the hippie liberal college of her choosing.

Yesterday Scott and Addie and I flew from Houston to Boston for a visit with my family.  I, apparently, am not one who practices what she preaches or learns from her mistakes.  Addison flew as a lap baby again – on a full flight.  This time she was all happy baby squeals and sleepy smiles.  As I’ve said every time I’ve flown with her over the past 18 months: every flight is a completely different experience.  I truly never know what to expect when getting on a plane with Addison.  There is no magic toy that wards off temper tantrums, there’s no routine to ensure she sleeps or stays calm.  There is nothing.  Just a prayer and maybe a little Benadryl.  I think that having her Daddy in the seat next to her rather than an annoyed hipster who just wants to listen to her (obviously) superior music and catch a nap, made a big difference too.  Addie slept for the first half of the flight and again in the car on the ride home from the airport.

On our last visit when we arrived at my sister’s house Addie hid behind my legs and cried when anyone new walked through the door.  That meant as each of the four children came home from school there was a new round of tears and clinging to my jeans.  And then there was the hunger strike that lasted until she was free to see her Dad and her dog again.  This time around, Addie was holding her cousins hands and bossing them around within ten minutes of us dropping our bags.  Not only did she eat a full chicken dinner last night, she drank all of her milk and slept for eleven hours.  Scott commented yesterday that I must have been making up all of the horror stories from our trip last month.  I don’t know who this child is, but I sure would like to travel with her more often.

 

Baseball

We took Addie to her first baseball game this weekend.  And how better to introduce her to the sport than with a Houston Astros/Pittsburgh Pirates game at Minute Maid Park?  We had great seats for the game which were wholly and completely wasted on Addison.  We were up in the balcony behind home plate in the first row.

This was also Addie’s first introduction to her fear of heights.  Apparently she does take after her Mama.  When we got to our seats Addie spent ten minutes being passed back and forth between me and Scott, gripping our shirts tightly and barely looking over her shoulder at the game below.   She let go long enough only to transfer her grip to the railing and peek over the side.  I decided that this wasn’t much fun for any of us, so I gave Addie some sugar and took her to explore the park.

We spent a lot of time window shopping at the grossly over priced souvenir shops.  Addison was pretty inrtigued with checking out the views of the city from so high up.

Or it could be that she was just really content with her lollipop.  It’s a special treat that she doesn’t get very often and I think she was a little worried that it would disappear.

After Addie finished her calls, we went back into the park, this time forgoing our assigned seats in favor of the empty wheelchair accessible area in our section.  This gave Addie more room to walk around and she wasn’t forced to be so close to the railing.  We were much happier up here and Addie really started to embrace the sport.  Every time the crowd cheered Addie threw up her arms and did a little victory dance.

We made our way downstairs to walk around during the 7th inning and caught a little bit of the game from ground level.  Addison, in the only way she knows how, told us that she had pretty much had enough of this day.  She willingly handed over the last of her lollipop and put her head down on her Dad’s shoulder; the universal signal that it’s time to go.