May Self Portrait(s)

I decided to include two self portraits from this past month, because May is one of my favorite months of the year, and we did a lot.

Number one, I have a lot to celebrate in May.  Mother's Day, my birthday, and our wedding anniversary!!  Ha ha, pricey month for Michael ;)  So we had four date nights in one month, which is unheard of for us these days!  We saw the Broadway show Wicked, we went to the Zac Brown Band concert, and we went out for dinner (alone!) twice.  Ahhh, what a great month. 

Here I am at the Zac Brown concert: 

Look at how close we were!!

But the second reason that I love the month of May is ....it's strawberry picking time!!!  I could eat fresh, sweet strawberries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I honestly went at least once a week to pick a large basket of strawberries.  I ate them on everything: cereal, ice cream, pancakes, waffles.  Or I would just slice them up and eat them plain.  Plus I made strawberry pies, and lots of jars of strawberry jam.  Yup, just call me Suzy Homemaker.  Our season is quite long in comparison to other places (about a month and a half) and I was in heaven the whole time.  Always having plenty of fresh strawberries in the fridge.  I am now finishing my last bunch of them and it makes me sad.  That's it until next year.

This year, when I went picking, I got the pleasure of toting this little lady along with me:

Addy was always a complete mess after we were done, requiring the removal of all clothing and a full wipe down before getting in her car seat to go home.  But we both enjoyed ourselves, and that's all that matters!

So that's what I've been up to in May.  Sad that my favorite month is over, but I am so glad that summer is here!!!!  Bring on the beach!!

Sugar, and Spice, and All Things Nice

I'm sure all of you who read this blog already heard our news, but in September we are having .... another GIRL!!!  I can't even explain how excited I am, and a big part of the excitement is knowing that Addy will be getting a sister!  

I'll tell you, I NEVER thought Mike and I would end up with two girls.  His family (as far as his cousins) consists largely of boys, with his sister being one of the only girls.  I considered myself lucky that we got one girl, but I'm telling you, when I heard the news that this little bean is also a girl, I nearly fell out of my chair.  Mike and I were so sure that it was a boy, and though my initial reaction was complete shock, it was immediately followed with utter happiness.  Another precious girl to love :)  And all that kept flying through my head was, "Addy is going to have a sister!!!  YES!!!"

Having grown up with a sister myself, I know how awesome that bond can be. I wish with everything I have that Addy and this new little nugget have as great of a relationship as my sister and I have always had.

Summer 1989

Now, I know that it's not all wine and roses as far as sisters are concerned.  We fought like no other growing up, and I'm sure I'm in for the same dramatics that my parents endured.  But the bottom line is, when you have a sister, you have a built in best friend for life.  You fight, yes, but you know that no matter what, your sister will be there for you.  Forever and for always.

I have so many great memories growing up, and all of them include my sister.  I am only 2.5 years older than her, so I don't remember life without her.  Just as I know Addy won't remember life without her sister.  It's so crazy to think about, since life is all about her now.  But soon enough, Addy too will have moments like these:

A little look back :)

A partner in cheer

A friend on every holiday

Someone to plot with ;)...

....to have "dance recitals" with...

...to wear fanny packs with.  Ugh.

For some reason we were still wearing matching outfits at this age.  Not to mention that it was the awesome stage of really, really baggy clothes.  That was a rough one ;)

Powder Puff buddies :)

Someone to run with

Always there for each other's big moments...

Love this pic :)

A beach buddy

Who would've thought we'd still run together over ten years later?

And now that I have a child, my sister loves her like no one else could.  I love the bond that Tina and Addy already have :)

Looking back at all of these pictures makes me smile.  How lucky am I to have such an amazing sister?   Our relationship is what made me want another girl so that Addy could grow up with that same unbreakable sisterly bond. 

Now, like I said, I am not unrealistic.  I know that in between these picture perfect moments there was screaming and crying and slamming doors.  But that is all part of the process.  Life is not perfect, and neither is having a sister.  I remember being so annoyed that she always wanted to play with me and my friends.  "Find your own friends!", I would scream. 

But, when I couldn't find any friends, I had a built in buddy to play games with right there at home :)  Any we did plenty of that.  Monopoly marathons that lasted days on end.  Playing Shoreline Properties at the dining room table.  Building a fabric shop in Grandma and Grandpa's basement.

Yes, there was drama.  But I'm telling you, it's everything combined that made our relationship what it is today.  Despite the fact that we live hundreds of miles away, Tina is and always will be my best friend.  She is the one who will tell it to me like it is.  She is my much needed fashion consultant.  She is the one I call first with any news, good or bad.  She is the one I can vent to, or the one I can call for no reason at all.

I love my sister more than words can say, and I will do my absolute best to foster a similarly amazing bond between Addy and her younger sister.  I am so beyond excited to be bringing another little girl into our family.  What a joy and an absolute blessing :)

 

Triple Whammy

This week has been a rough one in the Hetrick house.  Specifically for Addy Marie... and possibly the nerves of Mommy and Daddy.  Let me explain. 

It all started on Monday morning.  Addy had a slight cold (very minor) and we were scheduled to go for her 15 month doctor's appointment.  So off we went.  I told the doctor that she had a cold, but that she was sleeping and eating fine.  He examined her and asked if she ever had a reaction to her vaccines before.  The answer was no.  She always took them like a champ.  Never got a fever, maybe just a little bit cranky.  So with that info in hand we decided to proceed with her vaccines that day.  Oh, and did I mention that she is getting molars too????  Yup.  But we plugged ahead.  The doctor did warn me to expect a small fever this time given the combo of things going on.

So Addy got two shots (was supposed to get three, but they were out of one of them so we have to wait until her 18 month appointment).  It went as expected at the time.  Screaming, following by immediate calming when Mommy picked her up :) 

Mike ended up getting out of work early, and Addy was pleasant and taking it all like a champ, so we decided to head out and pick some strawberries.

When we got home she was exhausted, so off for a nap she went.  Well, when she woke up....BAM!  It hit her.  Mike got her up and said she was burning up.  It was about 5PM at this time and she goes to bed at 7, so I wanted to wait and give her Advil right before bed.  It would be less than 2 hours from then, so no big deal right?

Well, I have never seen my girl look like this before. 

She was so pitiful.  She wouldn't eat dinner, and she just sat there slumped down in her high chair while we ate.  Normally she would never stand for being in that chair without food, but on Monday night she just didn't care.  Then Mike and I took turns snuggling her for the next two hours. 

Poor Baby :(

Look at her face.  I'm sure she is thinking, "Why are you taking pictures of me in this condition?"

Don't mind the drool/snot stain on my shirt.  She was so pitiful :(

For anyone who knows Addy, they know that snuggling for any longer than 0.2 seconds is very uncharacteristic for her.  In general, she is too busy to be bothered with long periods of snuggling.  So we knew she felt awful.  Two hours and she never once tried to get down.  Is it bad that we enjoyed our snuggle time?  We obviously hated that she was sick, but we took full advantage of snuggling with our little munchkin.  It was like everything else in our world stopped for those two hours.  Cleaning and other chores were put on the back burner, and Mike and I did nothing but try to comfort our sick child.  It was bittersweet. 

And you know what?  Despite it all, when Mike or I would walk into the room or talk to her, Addy would look at us and try to smile.  It was the sweetest and most pitiful thing in the world.  She couldn't even lift her head, but she would follow us with her eyes and try to smile at us. 

When we put her to bed that night her temp was 103.5!!!!  We gave her a cool bath and some Infant Advil and put her to bed.  I am so used to Celsius from working in the hospital, so I got out my conversion chart and saw that 103.5 is 39.7 in Celsius.  "Wow!", I thought.  "That is really high."  But we had just medicated her for the first time, so I knew we had to give it a chance to kick in.  So we checked her temp again in an hour or so and it was 102.2.  Then before we went to bed it was 100.9.  So we rested a little bit easier knowing that the medicine was doing its job.  And miraculously, Addy slept fine that night.  Mike wanted to check and make sure she was still breathing before he left for work, and that was an easy job because you could hear her breathing from down the hall.  Poor baby.

This was the first time that Addy was really sick, and definitely her first fever (not bad considering that she is over 15 months old).  As any parent can attest to, it is excruciating knowing that your child is ill and you can't fix it.  My heart was hurting that night and I know that Mike's was too.  It's such a helpless feeling, and all that you want to do is take their pain away, but you can't.  It gives me just the tiniest glimpse of what the parents that I see at my job must be going through, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

I gave Addy Advil around the clock on Tuesday, and as soon as it would wear off, the fever would return.  Then on Wednesday her fever was finally gone (Yay!!!), but she was a miserable mess...all....day.....long.  Luckily Mike unexpectedly got the day off so we could trade off who was taking care of her.  We felt terrible that she didn't feel good, but that doesn't make it much easier to take care of a child who is crying all day, no matter what you do for her.  Hence the comment about our nerves in the beginning of this post.  It was a rough day for us all.  I would go as far as to say it was her crankiest day to date. 

Luckily, Thursday was a much better day and we were back to this:

Eating our food that is ;)  (Don't mind the lovely mixture of avocado and yogurt in her hair.)

Addy has been fever free for three days, her cold is improving, and although I know her teeth are still bothering her, she has been much more pleasant and almost back to her old self.  So much so, that today we decided to head back here:

Yup, things are getting back to normal around here :)  Have a great weekend everyone!

April Self Portrait

Did you all hear that I am a professional photographer now?  Pause while I laugh hysterically.... HA HA HA HA!  OK, so that statement is entirely false, but I was my sister's second shooter for a wedding that she had down here in NC two weeks ago. 

She booked this wedding in the Outer Banks months ago and asked if I would be her second shooter.  I almost laughed in her face.  What did I know about photography?  Nothing.  But she said that if I agreed she would teach me.  So I hesitantly agreed.  It was not that I didn't want to learn about it.  No, photography fascinates me and I'd love to be better at it.  But the idea that a part of some one's wedding day would be in my hands was daunting.  This was not just any old photo shoot.  It was a wedding.  You know, the kind of event where people cherish their photos and show them off forever and ever.  Yeah.  I was slightly nervous.

Luckily Tina and I were together for a lot of March and April, so we had ample teaching time.  Plus, she made me an awesome (5 typed pages!!) cheat sheet, which I love.  I love having something to read when learning new things.  So I learned the basic concepts and got to work.  I took some pics of Tina, but my subject was mostly....guess who?  Addy Marie, of course!  I have to say, that she is not an easy subject to learn on.  Constantly moving, changing directions, never looking at the camera and smiling on command.  I mean, come on Addy, help a momma out!  So it was definitely a challenge trying to take decent pics of Addy, but I felt like it was a good experience.  Then we arranged a photo session with one of my friends and her husband when Tina came down to visit, and I got some practice with them too. 

When the wedding day finally came I felt as ready as I could be at that point.

Then the wedding actually happened.  Wow, it is exhausting and draining being a wedding photographer!  Constantly on the alert for the perfect photo op.  9 hours on your feet.  Lugging a VERY heavy camera around, making your hand cramp up (at least mine did ;)).  Smiling and looking happy and excited at every moment, even if you're thinking, "Crap, did that picture turn out?"  Whew!  But despite all of that, I had a lot of fun that day!  Honestly, it was pretty awesome being such an intrical part of some one's happiest day.  I loved it!

And despite the fact, that I did not leave that wedding feeling entirely confident, I did leave happy :)  Did I mess up a lot of shots?  Yes.  Luckily I was the second shooter.  So Tina inevitably captured amazing photos of all of the things that I messed up.  But it was pretty awesome working with my sister, and working in this environment:

There I am in all of my glory :)

Side note: Closed toed shoes on the beach?  Not a good time.  But we had to be professional, so no flip flops for us.

What a great day and a great weekend.  A two night stay at the beach...with my sister....without a toddler.  Ahhh, it was amazing!

Happy April!

15 months!

Dear Ad,

You are 15 months old now and such a fun little girl!  You love going to the park and seeing other kids, so we have been trying to take you there a lot lately.  Now that you are an expert walker it's a lot easier to go places like the park than it was before.  You also enjoy the nursery at the gym since you can play with other kids there too.  You will be starting pre-school (or so they call it) in September, and I'm sure you'll love it!

Here are your 15 month stats from the doctor's office:

 

Weight: 21lbs 6.5oz (55th percentile)

Length: 31 inches (70th percentile)

Head Circ: 47.5cm (90th percentile)

 

 

You are starting to become more of a picky eater and you have mastered the art of secretly feeding Daisy what you don't want.  We have been going out to eat a lot lately and so you've been eating a lot more junk, but we're going to try to change that and get you back on track with your veggies ;)  You also are becoming Miss Independent and you want to feed yourself everything, even messy things from a spoon and that makes me cringe.  I want to feed it to you to contain the mess, but then again, I know you need to learn to do it yourself.  So mealtime has become a lot messier than it once was.  Sigh.  Mommy hates a mess, but I guess Mommy needs to get over that, huh?

Speaking of a mess....

We went strawberry picking with some of my friends from work on your 15 month birthday and you became a complete disaster.  Here's how it started...

Yup, you decided to lounge out in the strawberry patches!

Which resulted in your butt looking like this...

But you didn't seem to mind.  You just kept on eating...

And posing for the camera :)

Here are some "before" photos.  All nice and clean:

I had to strip you down completely, change your diaper (because the strawberry juice seeped through your pants onto your diaper), and wash you with wipes before I could put you in the car.  Talk about a mess.  But you had fun, so that's all that matters :)  The, once we got home I figured we'd have lasagna for dinner since your cleanliness was already a lost cause for the day. 

Lately you have also been mimicking a lot of words that we say.  And the amount that you are always learning never ceases to amaze me.  You make the noises of dogs, ducks, and cows on command.  You can point to a lot of your body parts, you know where your different articles of clothing go and you like to "help" get dressed, and you know all of your toys by name, as well as multiple other things in the house.  Now when we tell you to go to your high chair to eat, you go there and wait for us to lift you into it.  It's awesome to watch you learn new things!

Giving kisses/blowing kisses has been one of your favorite things to this past month.  You love to give Daddy and me kisses complete with the kissy noise, which makes us laugh, and in turn makes you laugh.  And you blow kisses to anyone and everyone that you meet.  In a restaurant, grocery store, anywhere.  In fact, we were leaving Harris Teeter the other day and when I said, "Say Bye Bye Harris Teeter", you turned around and blew the store a kiss.  It's so precious, and I love it!

Happy 15 month birthday Addy Marie!!  Mommy and Daddy love you to pieces!! 

 

Love,

Mommy

 

Easter 2012

OK, I know I have been a little bit MIA on this blog lately, but we have been crazy busy with traveling over the past few weeks, after which I got sick with some sort of sinus thing (again!!), so I wasn't feeling like getting up early to blog.  I am an early morning blogger, and if I don't get it done before Addy wakes up for the day then it doesn't get done.  So anyway, we are all home and I'm feeling better, so it's time to catch you up on what has been going on with the Hetricks lately.

We traveled up to PA for Easter, and Addy and I ended up being there for over a week, during which we saw both Mike's and my family.  It was really great to be able to see everyone, but now it's also really great to be home.  It's stressful traveling with a small child, making sure you have everything you need for over a week's time, and then hauling it all over the place to visit everyone.  Like I said, I love visiting our families, but it's exhausting, and it always feels nice and relaxing to get home.

Addy and I flew up to PA early and started our trip with my family on the eastern side of PA.

Easter basket time at Grandma D's house:

Addy was (as always) not a fan of wearing a headband.

But we managed to get a few smiles in that headband later in the week.

 

Addy loved that yellow stick for the play xylophone and carried it around everywhere.

Next up was Grandpa and Grandma Hertzler's house.  My stepsister's bridal shower was that weekend, so Tina and I went there while Dad and my grandpa watched Addy for the afternoon. 

Addy's Easter "basket" was a sand bucket, which she loved!  She enjoyed spending her time collecting magnets off of Grandma and Grandpa's fridge and putting them in her bucket.  We may or may not have accidentally pilfered some of those magnets and discovered them later at Aunt Tina's house.  Tina promised to return them to their rightful owner, so hopefully she did her job ;)

Addy got lots of goodies in that bucket, but the book was one of her favorites.

After our time in Allentown, Addy and I headed off to Philly to spend a few days with Aunt Tina and Uncle Jay.  I don't have any pictures from that time, because I was practicing with Tina's camera all week, so I didn't really take any photos on mine.  We spent a lot of time at the park with Addy that week, and she loved it!  Tina put some of the pictures I took on her blog, so you can check them out by clicking the links below.

http://www.tinajayphotography.com/blog/2012/04/puppy-love-2/

http://www.tinajayphotography.com/blog/2012/04/park-time/

After out time in Philly, Addy and I headed west to Hollidaysburg, and Mike met us there.  I took lots and lots of pictures of Addy and Luca that weekend!  Now don't be expecting "Tina" quality photos here, but I tried, and a lot of them are not too bad if I do say so myself ;)  Get ready to be bombarded with toddler pictures!....

Off to the park

Lauren and Luca

How cute is he on that little swing?

Addy's trying out the sliding board

 

Tried to get a pic of all four of them looking at the camera, but that proved to be impossible ;)  This was as close as I could get.

 

Ha ha!  Caught Addy mid-sneeze!

I'm sure our cautious girl is thinking, "Are you guys sure this is safe??"

 

A book in one hand and about to play the piano with the other.  This little girl is in heaven!

 

Reading with Grandma Hetrick

Playing in the backyard :)

Just a little fish face :)

 

Love that smile!

Daddy and Addy :)

Again, looking oh so thrilled to be wearing a headband.  She kept it on for those 0.2 seconds that it took me to snap this photo, and then promptly ripped it off.

During this trip we discovered that Addy loves drinking from a straw, and she does it like a champ!

I loved Luca's Easter outfit!!!!

There's our little Easter princess...all poised for her photo op ;)  Love it!!!!

Ready to get on that swing.  Hair blowing in the wind, grass stain on the stockings :)

Little man had an outfit change...

...and so did the little lady.

Mommy/daughter matching Easter socks :)  Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Hertzler!

Time for an Easter egg hunt!

Chocolate marshmellow peeps....yum!!!

Addy better watch out or Daisy is gonna steal her dollar!  I have a feeling Addy is on the hunt for more Peeps ;)

"This is MY cookie, Daisy!"

Getting sleepy.  It's almost time to pack up and head home to NC.

So that was our Easter trip to PA :)  We had an awesome time, and although we are all glad to be home, we are sad that it'll be a few months until we see everyone again.  Thank goodness for Skype!