dating

A huge perk of living overseas with a full time housekeeper/yaya is that Justin and I have had more opportunities to go out alone than we normally would. Every so often we will leave Addie with Cora for a few hours and go to dinner or a movie alone. They are heavenly hours of holding hands and smooching and just being the two of us alone like old times. I don't feel guilty for needing this time alone with my husband. It's completely necessary for us to be good parents.

Yesterday, since Justin had President's Day off, we celebrated by going to the movie Valkyrie (strange rooting for the Nazis). All in all it was an entertaining movie. Justin and I were excited to have a full three hours to ourselves. When we returned home Addie was asleep on the couch with Cora. I transferred her into bed with me where she slept for the next 30 minutes in my arms. As nice as it is to have time to ourselves, it is just as nice to come home to our sweet daughter.

I like to have pictures for my posts and this post really deserves a picture of just Justin and I. I can't recall the last time we had a photo of just the two of us so that's my next mission. When I get one, I'll add it.

Big day

We celebrated our Valentines Day with a first of the morning exchange of Valentines. Some homemade and some brought back from Australia. We had special chocolate chip flower shaped pancakes for breakfast and then walked the farmer's market for lunch. We enjoyed a little pool party with some friends this afternoon and topped off our Valentines Day with a family dinner at a German restaurant for dinner. It was a great family day full of lots of hugs and kisses all around.

The big news is that Addie went pee pee in the potty for the first time this morning. She woke with a dry diaper then sat right on her little potty and started to go. I think the whole experience surprised her a little, especially our excitement and praise. Later in the day she agreed to try to sit on the potty again and go. This time she didn't stay put and ended up with an accident on the floor. For her first day trying we did pretty good. We are so proud of her.

Happy Valentines Day!

After having to sadly cancel our cookie making date with our friends Sunny and Stella I was craving sugar cookies. I made it all from scratch and the butter cream icing turned out delicious (butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla-totally low fat). I tinted it pink for Valentines Day and then sent them with Addie and Cora for snacks during their play date today.

pigtails

Some rare shots of my daughter in pigtails. She never keeps them in long so I thought I'd share. She's taking her baby doll's temperature if you didn't catch that.

a few of her favorite things

Addie has been experiencing big developmental changes the last few weeks. New words are spewing out her mouth every day, she initiates imaginative play with her toys and dolls, and she knows her letters and their sounds. When she sees words on books, signs, t-shirts, really anywhere she points out the letters. Nap time has become a challenge. She used to almost beg me to lay her down at nap time but now she cries and stalls trying to get out of her nap. It's like she's got so much going on in her head she can't possibly rest. It's really amazing to watch and experience. Her personality and likes and dislikes are really starting to blossom. Some of her new favorite words are: sun, bug, bus, star, spicy, sassy, hot, sticker, snake, hand, play, fly, friend, bed, kiss, phone, chocolate, and I'm sure I could go on. Some of her favorite things are puppies, butterflies, stickers, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, dolls, shoes, and cats. She's even catching on to the Disney princesses (both alarming and adorable at the same time). She likes Princess Aurora and the Little Mermaid. She's always really liked her baby dolls and now since Christmas she has a few more. She plays with them and puts them all to sleep, kissing each one. She sings to them and feeds them. It's pretty sweet.

Duplo tower built all by herself.

totally grossed out

I am pretty disgusted right now because I went to make some brown rice for our lunch to go with our leftovers from last night and found the rice to be infested with nasty black bugs. I'm more grossed out that I actually cooked this brown rice and fed it to my family last night for dinner. I am so revolted that I almost lost my appetite for lunch today (almost). Just another fun part about living in the Philippines.

just reading

Addie is definitely ready to begin potty training. She can point out to us that she needs a diaper change after she's done her business and when asked if she wants to sit on the big girl potty she always answers "yes". So far we are taking it really slow. Yesterday she sat on the potty for a little while. She ended up just reading but it's a start.