8 Months Old!

Wow! Addison is 8 Months Old.

Her two bottom teeth can now be easily seen. She scoots and pulls her self all around the room. Her new thing is hiding underneath and in things. She has found her way into one of the cubbyholes in her bookcase and she loves to sit under the desk in the office by our feet.

School Pictures - Christmas Themed

Addison's school had Christmas pictures taken. They dressed all the girls up in Christmas gowns and the little boys in Christmas pajamas. Isn't she cute! We will bring a few home for the family.

Space Shuttle Flyby

Space Shuttle Endeavour flew over our house yesterday, while mounted on a modified Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft! After landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Nov. 30, Endeavour was on its cross-country journey back to the Kennedy Space Center. Changing weather conditions altered the shuttle carrier aircraft's flight path and it had to land in Louisianna, but finnaly arrived at KSC this afternoon.

First School Pictures!

Addison's first school pictures finally came in. These were taken back on October 16th (at 6 months). They only sold them in this collage fashion. So we bought one and scanned it. I can't believe how outrageously priced they were...25 dollars a sheet (8x10)! We will bring it electronically when we come to visit for Christmas. You should be able to double click on the picture, save it as a .jpeg, and have it be of print quality.

Addison had to go to the doctors last week to have them look at some really dry skin patches on her back that we have been treating for a couple weeks. It turns out Addison has eczema and we were given some extremely strong creams to spot treat her back. It doesn't seem to bother her, but it has to be uncomfortable. We went on her 7 month birthday and they weighed her. She is now 17 pounds 5 ounces. She cut her second bottom tooth that same day. Here are a couple pictures from the last week or so and another movie of her jumping around in her exersaucer. I also uploaded a short clip of Addison playing peek-a-boo; one of her favorite things. We we were finally able to get a good shot of Addison's new tooth. See the last picture. Good catch Daddy!








Love,

7 Months Old!

Addison will be 7 months old tomorrow. She is growing so fast. Addison is exploring like crazy and testing everything. Guess what she has learned to do in the last week with her exer-saucer? It is really funny to watch when she gets going.

I will try and post some more pictures soon. I hope all is going well.

Love,

6 1/2 months old!

Hello everyone,

In just six and a half weeks we will be coming to visit our family and friends in Michigan. I can't wait for them to meet Addison. We are doing pretty well. I am getting ready for the next space shuttle launch coming up on Friday. Tim has been really busy at work and is currently working on sprucing up the lightning.

Addison is on the verge of officially crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth teasing us. I am trying to catch a good video of this to load to the site. It seems as soon as we get the camera out she stops, but here was our latest attempt.


She does get around buy swiveling around on her hands and sliding herself backwards and forwards when on her stomach. She has been sitting up now by herself for about a month. She slowly leans forward, backward, or to the side to get herself from a sitting position down to a lying position. A couple of times she has been able to get to a sitting position by herself, but most of the time she still needs us to give her a little nudge.

The big news is... this past Monday, Addison cut her first tooth! It is not showing enough for a good picture yet, but stay tuned. Last night Addison tried sweet potatoes for the first time. She seemed to like it. Now her diet consist of breast milk, rice cereal, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Every 5 days we are going to add a new food. So by the time we come to visit at Christmas she should be able to eat a wide variety of foods.

Here are some pictures of Addison earlier in the week watching mommy and daddy finish getting ready for work in the morning.





Here is one of Addison and Grandma Debbie when she came to visit just before Halloween.


Here is one of Addison and Tim at the Wings Over Houston Airshow.


Just a few more pictures I thought were cute.



I hope all is well. Love,

6 Months Old!

Addison had her 6month well baby check up this past Monday.

Addison is feeling a lot better. We had to take her to the doctors last week. She was diagnosed with a double ear infections and bronchitis. She was very congested and had a hard time eating so I think her weight dropped a little from what is was a couple weeks ago. Here are the statistics:

Height: 26.50 inches, 67^th percentile
Weight: 16.32 pounds, 47^th percentile
Head: 16.25 inches, 12^th percentile

5 1/2 Months: Introducing Solids

Hi Everyone,

Things are going well here in Houston. The weather is finally cooling down with lower humidity and highs at about 85 and lows at about 60. It makes for an enjoyable evening stroller ride. This weekend Addison had her first taste of rice cereal. She did a really good job of swallowing most of it. She was so excited to get to sit in her high chair and eat.

She cleaned up pretty well!

Addison can now sit on her own unsupported. Sometimes she reaches for things that are a little to far and she falls, but she is learning how to lay down and then reach for it. She turns herself around and spins on her stomach. It is really fun to watch her go after her toys. We are starting to think about moving some of the entertainment equipment to the game room. Here are a couple shots of Addison before school, waiting for us to gather up all our stuff to head out the door.


Hope all is well,

Love,

5 Months Old!

Hi Everyone,

Today is Addison's 5 Month old Birthday!
Here are some pictures of Addison helping to clean her room while we were vacuuming her floor.

Here she is cooling off against the leather couch while the power was out from Hurricane Ike.
Here Addison is playing with her toys while we made dinner.

Addison Says Hi!

Here is a short clip of Addison telling us about her day just after we gave her a bath last night.

4 Months Old!

Hello Everyone,

Wow! Time is flying by so fast. Addison had her 4 month well baby visit this afternoon. It was delayed a week because the doctor had to have emergency surgery. Addison is doing really well. Here are the statistics:

Height: 24.75 inches, 55^th percentile
Weight: 15.00 pounds, 68^th percentile
Head: 15.75 inches, 14^th percentile

Addison has doubled her birth weight which is really good. The Doc said they usually hope to see babies double their birth weight by six months. Her head is an inch larger in diameter and she is 1 1/2 inches taller than at 2 months old. She now eats only four times a day (breast milk only) and sleeps about 8-10 hours in her own room at night.

In the last few weeks Addison has started to really laugh. The simplest things give her the giggles. She can now reach her feet and holds them often when we are changing her, in the car seat, and playing on the play mat. She is about half an inch from getting them in her mouth. I bet in the next week or so she will be sucking on her toes! Addison also has a unique way of moving around. She lifts her feet and throws them and then turns on her side and curls or stretches to reach things. It is quite amusing to watch. The other morning I went to get her out of bed and she was lying horizontally (short end to short end) across the crib. She has squirmed about 5 feet across her bedroom floor, before yelling in frustration for us to help her. She can roll pretty well from her back to her tummy, but has not mastered the tummy to back roll yet. We are working on that with plenty of tummy time. She still loves to be in the sitting up position so she can see what is going on around her.

Addison has mastered the art of cause and effect. She knows that if she shakes certain rattles they will make noise and if she pulls or pushes on a toy a certain way it will play music or vibrate. We have been putting her in her exer-saucer and she loves it. She can watch me and Daddy and play with her toys at the same time. The mosquitoes are really bad this time of year, but we still try to get in a short stroller ride in the evenings. Before bed every night we read stories together in her room. She actually seems to be listening and tries to help turn the page even if I haven’t quite finished.

Addison is looking forward to meeting Grandpa Bill for the first time. He is flying in on Thursday and staying for a long holiday weekend.

I hope all is going well. Have a safe and relaxing weekend.

Love,

3 1/2 Months Old!

Hello Everyone,

Below are short videos of Addison taking a swim with her Dad after preparing the backyard for tropical storm Edouard. The Hodge Family's first Tropical Storm. This is also the first time we have used the video feature on the camera.

Here are some additional pictures of Addison.

Mom giving her a bath to wash the daycare teachers perfume off.

Daddy holding her while mom grabs the towel.

Getting ready to go to school.She is always so happy and ready to talk in the mornings.

Hope all is well,

Love,

3 Months Old!

Hello Everyone,

Addison had her first day of school at Primrose last Friday. Here she is all ready to go; relaxing on the couch in her new outfit.

I thought she looked a little nervous in this one or maybe she was just trying to make the same face I was.
Addison has been doing well in daycare. Her daily reports say she is happy and friendly. One of the new things she has started doing is gurgling when she is talking to us. She puts everything in her mouth (creating a lot of extra saliva). I think she tried to talk to us with that extra drool and liked the sound that came out, so she gurgles all the time now. She also rolls to her side and pushes against things to go after specific toys. She still likes to be in a supported sitting up position.
Addison really loves sucking her thumbs when she can (yes both, even at the same time). We have tried to take her thumbs out when we are playing, reading, or talking to her. Sometimes, when she is falling asleep, we replace her thumb with a pacifier and here is what happens. I thought it was so funny. Her thumb was turning purple it was stuck so tight.

We took her to the park to take some 3 month birthday photos. I think a few of them turned out all right. We took the pictures at sunset (cutting it close to her bedtime) because it was so hot earlier that day. The mosquitoes were starting to come out so we were rushing a bit.
Hope all is well.

Love,

Happy 4th of July!

Hello Everyone,

Addison enjoyed her first Fourth of July. She had an early morning swim with Grandma and Grandpa Babst in her red polka-dot bikini from Great Aunt Cindy. Click here to see more pictures of the swim.

She tried to stay up to see the fireworks, but fell asleep just before they began. Click here to see more picture of her hanging out with the family in her forth of July outfit from Grandma Debbie.
Addison took her first trip down to Galveston Island with her Grandma and Grandpa Babst, Aunt Michelle, and Mommy. We enjoyed a seafood lunch at Willie G's on the harbor side of the Island and then stopped to dip our toes in the Gulf of Mexico. Addison loved to squeeze her toes down into the wet sand. Click here to see more pictures.The night before the family was heading back to Michigan, Addison took one last after dinner swim with her Aunt Michelle and Daddy. Click here to see more pictures.

We really enjoyed having the family visit. I know Addison loved having more than just Mom and Dad to play with. Click here to see more pictures of Addison hanging out with her Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle.
Addison will be starting daycare next Friday July 18th and I will be returning to work full time. We are spending the next week preparing ourselves for the schedule of daycare/work. I hope everyone is doing well. I will post again after Addison's first day of Day Care / my first day of work /Addison's 3 Month Birthday!

Love,