2 Year Old!...

Ryan Addison

October 21, 2009  9:49 am

9 pounds 9 ounces  21 inches

                                              Here she was...and here she is.  Two years later

How about a few more then and nows

Mommy and Ryan 

then...

and now.

(please excuse the mouth full of candy, it is her birthday)

Ryan with mommy and daddy

then...

and now.

Big Brother AJ and his new baby sister

then...

and now.

We decided to forego a party this year.  There has been a lot going on and I think we all appreciated a quiet evening of a halfway healthy dinner, birthday cake (aka sugar), new toys and staying up past normal bedtimes.  Ryan's birthday fell on Friday so I didn't feel guilty about letting them stay up, especially since Momah and Daddy got home late and we couldn't start the festivities without them!  

We killed a little time taking mommy/baby pics and making silly faces.  AJ was practicing his spiderman web shooting skills. 

Daddy and Momah got home and ate dinner.  Momah even brought goodie bags for the party kids.  :) 

Mommy took her pic that everyone makes fun of her for, the neatly arranged, pre-opening, gift pic.

And when no one was looking Ryan dove right in.  So daddy had to wait to finish his dinner while the kids opened everything.  And by 'kids' I mean mommy and by 'everything' I mean I opened the stuff she was ignoring and showed it to her.  She did enjoy ripping the paper though, what kid doesn't...?

Then of course, CAKE!  I cheated a little bit this year and didn't go all out with my crazy, handmade, sculpted creations.  Do you think it will scar her for life...yeah me neither.  Not when I made these sugar laden works of art.  She's two and they like crap they aren't supposed to eat and what other time of the year can you put candy corn pumpkins and marshmallow ghosts on a birthday cake?  Never.

She is sneaking candy corns off of the cake while we are singing to her.  After this pic she stole a pumpkin off of the number '2'.

This was her special cupcake since it had two ghosts on it.

She liked it.

They were feeding Ryan's new baby

After cake, the festivities continued with more picture taking, playing house, wrestling and a drink.  Yes, just one.  Not a few, not even a whole round, just one drink sipped by one person.  We are party animals!

something got in the way of the flash but otherwise a cute pic

Momah and AJ playing 'alligators and fighting'  AJ's own creation

Jared and Jasey (with the drink!) chatting in the kitchen

in her new jammies, playing mommy

I see you

I wasn't sure how much she would like the babies and stuff, but she loves them!

(and she finally has toys of her own!)

It was a wonderful day.  I still can't believe that my little baby girl is two.  I know such a typical mommy thing to say right?  But it's true.  When AJ was this age I couldn't even imagine when he turned 5 and now that's right around the corner (oh crap).  I know in no time Ryan will be the one that will be starting Kindergarten in less than a year and amazing me even more than she does now with the things that she is learning.  At the doctor for her 2 year visit they were asking all the normal developmental questions.  Two of them were "does she have a vocabulary of at least 20 to 50 words?" and "does she string two word sentences together?"  I almost laughed.  This girl learns 20 new words a day, she has a vocab of 10 to 20 words in two different languages (sign and chinese) and she strings 5 to 8 word sentences together, sometimes more!  I'm not trying to say hey look at my little girl she is so smart.  I understand that those are the standards, kids excel at different things and develope at different rates.  There are definitely areas that I know she is just average at the moment, even if I only compare her to AJ.  But she is a talker and those were two questions that she had no trouble passing with flying colors.  So two years later...

Ryan Addison

October 21, 2011

27 pounds 5 ounces

34.5 inches

And so you don't forget the cuteness that is Ryan, I leave you with this...

and this...

and this...

 cheeeeeeese!

Happy Birthday Pretty!  We love you!

 Today I am thankful for having two great kids that listen (most of the time), play nicely together (most of the time), and love each other (all the time!)  I am thankful that they are happy and healthy and know that we love them more than anything.

50...

Ok, so, of course I really wanted to write this post because it is super awesome, I feel great and I am very proud of myself.  (It goes without saying that I am also very proud of mom and Jasey but I don't see it as my privilege to write about their accomplishments)  To write this post I knew that I had to show who I was only a few short months ago.  How can you do justice to yourself if you aren't willing to share everything?  I wasn't sure which I would have more of a personal issue with, telling the numbers or posting the picture.  Oddly enough I think it's posting the picture, even though anyone could have seen me any old time while I was as big as I was, to post it now is a bit embarrassing to me.  Not that I am completely ok with writing down my numbers either but, gotta share it all, right?  I have no problem saying "I've lost 50 pounds" but to actually see it, ugh, totally different.  Oh well, even if I don't have to share, I'm going to anyway.

I'm gonna go a little 'Joy Fit Club' for a minute.  I of course knew I was getting a lot bigger then I used to be but I had been able to kind of brush it off.  I was getting older and didn't dance anymore, I'd just had a baby.  Then about 4 months after Ryan was born I was still thinking well I just had another baby, I have time, then I saw a video of myself.  Well at first I didn't know it was me, it wasn't until I recognized my shirt that I realized that I was looking at myself.  That was a horrid feeling, and you would think that something like that would really whip me into shape, well it kinda did.  I of course convinced myself it was still early, I still had a lot of pain and swelling from my c-section.  Which was all true, but not to the point that I gave myself credit for.  I started walking and could tell I was losing some weight but I wasn't really concerned about it and have no clue what I weighed at that point.  I thought for sure that I would do something soon, then a whole freaking year went by.

You know that thing where if you ask someone to draw a picture of themselves most everyone will draw themselves at least 10 pounds heavier then they really are?  It's how they see themselves.  Yeah, I was the complete opposite, it's like I was in denial, I still had a vision in my head of the young dancing, cheerleading Andrea.  Every picture of the late 20's and 30 year old, post babies Andrea shocked the crap out of me.  Although all the pictures had me knowing I had to do something I kept telling myself oh it's not too bad I could be this or that, it could always be worse.  One of those things was the number on the scale.  I am a 'oh it's just a number' person, so I figured as long as my number still had a '1' in front of it I was ok and it wouldn't be hard to bring the two numbers that followed it down.  Then within about a 6 week time period my number continued to climb and next thing I knew...

I weighed 216 pounds and had to go buy myself a pair of size 18 pants, every shirt I owned had an XL on the tag and some of those were still a little uncomfortable.  It's hard to find pictures of myself even now, because I'm always the one taking them but here you go (it took a lot to put this up and I'm still doubting my decision)

I couldn't believe it 216 pounds!  I couldn't pretend anymore, not when Ryan was 18 months old, I was far from being considered postpartum.  The first thing I changed was simple I stopped snacking out of boredom and instead had a glass of water.  I drank a lot of water anyway but a little more isn't going to hurt you.  Even though I was eating pretty healthy snacks, it was still extra food that I didn't need.  Just with that small change in about a months time I had lost almost 10 pounds.  Then mom, Jasey and I as a trio decided to make a change, so we all started out on our endeavor together.  We compared numbers almost every morning, congratulating and encouraging each other.  Six months later we are all healthier, happier and much smaller.  This is the most recent picture I could find of myself and it's from over a month ago.

And because I like this picture so much, here it is again  :)

When these pictures were taken I had lost around 40 pounds and I am down another 10 pounds since then.

So my latest count (so you don't have to do that math) I weigh 166 pounds, I am now buying size 10 pants and am making a collection of shirts with an 'M' on the tag.

I have thought about a tummy tuck many times since I still have some unpleasant stuff from the c-sections and I believe I would be down another pants size maybe even 2 if I did get one.  But it's money, another surgery and a big risk so I'm still up in the air about it.  I am much smaller than I was before I got pregnant with either of the kids and I am also (and I think this is super cool)  20 pounds under what I was when Jasey and I got married!

For the record mom has lost 30 pounds and Jasey has lost 60 pounds.  Together we have lost a total of 140 pounds, an entire person!  They both look great and I am so proud of them!

I didn't start out with any goals and I still don't have any.  I wouldn't mind losing some more but if I stay where I am for a little while I am very happy with that.  It would be nice to give my clothing a little chance to wear in a bit before I have to go buy more, again.

So there you have it the old me and new me and the brave me behind the scenes still not sure if I should kick myself for posting that picture.  If I get a better more recent picture of myself I'll be sure to share it with you.




 - Today I am thankful for the lovely weather we have been having the past few days, the windows and doors are open and the A/Cs have been off!  Also for the rain we are supposed to get because I know the garden would really enjoy it!  -

Nickels...

As I was finishing the lawn yesterday and blowing off the driveway, I heard a little tinkle over the blower and looked down to see a penny, it made me smile a little but I decided to pass it by and continue working.  Not 10 seconds later and about 5 feet away I then see a nickel on the ground.  Again I pass it by and continue working, only to shift my eyes again and see a dime on the ground less than 2 feet from the nickel.  At this I laugh right out loud and say "Ok, ok, you have my attention."  I bend down and start to pick up the coins, finding two more pennies in the process.

You are probably thinking, "What's the big deal about finding 18 cents in your driveway while mowing the lawn?"  To answer that question we have to go back more than 15 years.  When Jasey was 15 his grandfather in London passed away.  Not long after that odd little things started happening around the house to Jasey and his parents.  One of the most notorious was nickels showing up out of nowhere.  I don't mean there would be a random nickel on the counter, I mean a nickel falling to the floor out of a towel half way through you drying off with it.  Crazy right?

It was usually nickels but it would deviate to other coins at times.  So this went on for a few years and then Jasey's dad got sick and passed away.  Nickels started showing up more frequently and to other people, myself included.  The first few that showed up for me I mostly thought 'how sweet'.  It was before Jasey and I were married, heck it was before we had split up and got back together, so I thought it was just a happy coincidence (though Jasey does not believe in coincidence).  After we got back together they became a bit more frequent and oddly enough Jasey and I would both have a nickel story from within a few days of each other.

One time when Jasey was still at his old office, we did yard work on the weekends, so we were there working.  (We never wanted to be wasting our weekend doing this but that day was  particularly crappy and we had to force ourselves to go.)  I passed by the front door and there was a dime on the ground.  I smiled picked it up and kept working, a few minutes later I passed the same exact spot and there was another dime, I picked it up and kept going.  Now I'm doing things like sweeping and blowing off the sidewalks, I'm very thorough, the sidewalk was spotless and nobody had walked by.  I kid you not I walked past a few minutes later and there was another dime in the same spot.  I picked it up and went an told Jasey about it we both had a little 'huh?' moment and were quiet, then smiled and went back to work.  I walked past the spot a few more times but there was nothing else, then about 20 minutes later I was passing by and there was a dollar bill on the ground!  I picked it up but never saw anything there again, that day or ever.  But every time I passed that spot I thought about it.

So these sorts of things happened over the years, we never searched for random coins or nickels they would just always kind of appear.  We didn't expect them on big days like our wedding day or when the kids were born, but they would show up around those times, like an early wedding gift or a belated birthday card.  No matter when they show up they make you smile all the same.

This past year in May marked 13 years since JC passed away.  (A side note:  May 2008 was 10 years since he passed and on the exact date is the day that AJ started walking.  How cool is that?!)  So this year, on the day JC passed 13 year later, Jasey and myself both had multiple experiences with random nickels.  It was a particularly low point for the both of us.  We were fast approaching the one year mark of living with mom and being out of work.  Our money was running out and everything was just closing in fast.  We were both cranky and down and having trouble picking ourselves back up even though we needed to.  Enter the nickels.  That day, Jasey had one jump out of his wallet even though he doesn't carry around cash and had on pants that were just washed so there was nothing in the pockets.  He also had one jump out of his lap when he got out of the car, again where did it come from?  That same day I had one fall from a towel that I had taken out of the dryer and already begun to fold.  Another one fell from a roll of tape as I was walking across the kitchen, and I can tell you it was not attached to the sticky part of the tape when I picked it up.  Later that same day as I went to do more laundry there was a dime sitting on the ground in front of the dryer, it was not there earlier when i had picked up the nickel and I was the only one home.  We exchanged stories that night and talked about the possibilities.  For the next week or so I had 4 more random nickels show up.

It happened a couple more times over the next 2 months, each time just when Jasey and I were starting to feel frustrated and hopeless again we would each have a separate nickel story, usually on the same day.  Then, Jasey got a job!  The nickels haven't stopped but they aren't as frequent as they were becoming.

 We went to DC for Stacey and Don's wedding over Labor Day weekend.  We got there a couple days early and had a day to go be tourists in DC with the kids.  As we were heading to the Smithsonian, there on the ground was a heads up penny, we pointed it out to AJ and had him pick it up and put it in his pocket.  The rest of our time there, right up until we were walking through the airport to come home, AJ found 4 more pennies on the ground.  I made sure to save two of them and put them in each of the kids wallets.

I never met Jasey's grandfather but we were both Aquarius and he is AJ's namesake so even though I always assume that it is JC sending them and not Jasey's grandfather, I guess there isn't really anyway to tell.  It's been almost a joke over the years but every time one shows up Jasey and I tell each other and then wonder what it is JC, or Tony, is trying to tell us.  It could be 'Congratulations', 'I'm so proud', 'I love you' or 'Don't worry, it will all work out'.  Whatever it is, it's nice to know that someone is out there looking out for us, they love us unconditionally and they would do anything to let us know.  Even throw nickels at us.

DC...

Over Labor Day Weekend Jasey, myself and the kids hopped on a plane and headed to DC for the weekend.  I posted the one picture of the 4 of us about a week ago all dressed up pretty, it was a good picture and we don't get gussied up very often so I had to share it.  But that picture didn't do justice to the rest of our weekend.  Site seeing, spending time with family or the beautiful bride we were there to celebrate (Don was very pretty too :)  So I will share all that now.

We left Thursday after Jasey got home from work.  It was the first time flying for both AJ and Ryan.  I was fairly certain that they would both do just fine and I was right.  Ryan sat in the middle on the flight there and could see over AJ so they could both look out the window.  I had plenty to keep them occupied and the trip went smoothly.  On the way back they both had a window seat which was nice.  They also both fell asleep immediately after take off which was even nicer.  

Friday we spent the day walking around DC.  We took the Metro to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and let the kids lead the way.  They had a great time.

Then we walked across the street and let them run on the Mall so that mommy could get some more touristy pictures.  The Capital and the Washington Monument

Last year for Memorial Day AJ learned about Arlington National Cemetery or as he calls it "the place where all the soldiers are buried".  So we hoped back on the Metro and headed to Arlington.  It was the first time Jasey and I had been there also.  It was pretty late in the day so we didn't go see all the tombs, this was about as far as we made it.  We didn't want the kids to have a breakdown in the middle of the cemetery so we took some photos and headed out.

Saturday we packed up and headed out to Stevensville, MD to where the wedding was going to be held.  That night was the rehearsal dinner at a place called The Jetty.  It was a very laid back place, sand on the ground, beer flowing and even this cool old boat filled with sand for the kids to play in, AJ and Ryan were there all night.

Then we had a feast of Maryland Crabs, mmmm.  This whole tray was for the four of us, that's a lot of crabs, but a woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do.  :)  Ryan even liked playing with them, that's my girl!

Stacey and Don, the Bride and Groom

Don, Stacey, Me, AJ, Ryan, Jasey, Jodie, Dan, Lyla

AJ striking a pose

Sunday arrived and we had the afternoon to fill, we ended up walking around the local outlet mall and then trying out a local place that was serving brunch.  Then we just let the kids relax and take a bit of a nap before we got ready for the wedding.  We are an exciting bunch, I know.  The wedding was held at a place called the Silver Swan.  We had directions and also Jodie and Dan's GPS but we ended up having a heck of a time finding the place.  We drove around in circles a couple times before taking a different turn and there it was.  As we pulled up the valet guy says "first of all, let me congratulate you on finding the place."  At least we weren't the only ones having trouble.  The wedding was wonderful and of course the bride was absolutely gorgeous.  AJ and Ryan were a bit antsy in the beginning but they both had a great time dancing, playing, coloring and even watching a movie in the kids area, awesome.  They were completely exhausted by the time we left which was before the night was over and of course we didn't make it to the after party :( but tired babies beat trump everything else.

We had an amazing weekend, it was so wonderful to see Stacey, Don, Jodie, Dan and Lyla and for such a fun reason!  Congrats to the newlyweds!

You can check out all of the wedding photos on the family site '2011' then 'weekend in DC' and 'DC wedding'  web.me.com/campbell4158