Bye Bye Bottle!

Lots have things have happened since our last post, but since I still have a bit of homework to do I'll keep this short and sweet.

I survived the big presentation my partner and I had to give at the Illinois reading Conference. Despite having a cold and a fever that day it actually wasn't as bad as I had anticipated...go figure! We ended up having a packed room and about 70 people come in to hear us speak about our research in my classroom that focused on using technology in the classroom to motivate readers and writers..OK I won't bore you with any details....just know that it went well and I didn't pass out when all of those people kept filing in (although I came close!) I also want to thank all of my family and friends for giving me so much support during all of the preparation for this conference. It helped to know that you all had confidence in me!

OK..now on to the good stuff--ADDY!

Hmm, where should I start? So much has happened in the past few weeks. The biggest Addy news is that she is officially BOTTLE FREE. We had taken a few of her bottles throughout the day away, but last Saturday we decided to just try to get her to quit cold turkey. Addy did great. She has taken to the full time sippy beautifully and there's no turning back now. Old Dr. Brown is gone for good--packed away in our "baby" storage area. Oh how wonderful it is to not have to wash and transport bottles! We are very proud of our little girl.

As a little reward for giving up the bottle, we gave Adalyn her very first Oreo and she loved it!

After getting her one year pictures taken it seems as though Adalyn has taken it upon herself to get a bump and/or bruise on every part of her little body, especially her face. She is a true roughneck and takes many tumbles throughout the course of the day. I'm sure that this is just the beginning of many interesting "boo boos" to come. Sometimes I think I take them much harder than she does.

Addy has had a cold for a few weeks now. During the past week she started to develop a cough that sounded like it was settling in her chest and was waking her up through the night. We decided to take her to the doctor on Friday and he gave us an antibiotic to help clear it up. Hopefully it will do the trick and our little girl can sleep soundly through the night again.

This past Saturday we went to Addy's very first Easter egg hunt, which was at the zoo. It was certainly interesting to say the least. Addy participated in the zero to 3 hunt, which really isn't a hunt at all! It was basically a circular area of the zoo in which everyone surrounded with their little ones and waited as the toddlers were tortured by having to look (but don't touch) at the hundreds of plastic goody filled eggs in front of them. Needless to say...the event didn't go as I had envisioned, but nothing really does with a one year old! I was most amazed at the crazy parents that accompanied some of the toddlers. There was one mom next to me that ran around holding her child's basket and picking up as many eggs as she could while her child wasn't anywhere near her. Derek and I certainly weren't prepared for this craziness! After all of the hunts were held, there was an "All Age" hunt that everyone could participate in, so we also let Addy hunt in that one. I took it upon myself to protect Addy from being trampled by the big kids, although I think she could have held her own! Basically I walked around with her and handed eggs to her and then she put them in the basket. After all of the kids went through their eggs and the area was empty, a few empty ones remained. Adalyn had a great time going around picking up the empty ones. She didn't even care if they had both halves. I think that this may be the beginning of a new game at our house. She has been carrying her basket full of eggs around everywhere today!!

We are looking forward to Easter break, as we are preparing to make the trip to Indiana. Hopefully this week will fly by!