I feel like Addison only just turned 7 months, but that's because I literally only got around to writing her 7 month update the other day - haha! December has been a crazy one! 8 months! These monthly elephant stickers we have reused from when Ella was a baby. I had the full set of them, with the exception of the 8 months one which was missing. I remember at the time when she was newborn finding out it was missing and thinking well that's ages away, I won't have to worry about that for now - thinking that I would re order a new 8 month sticker nearer to the time, and then what do you know? It just snuck up on me out of nowhere! so a print job and some pritt pads saved the day!
I loved this snap of her now that she is sitting up all independently! She also discovered this month that kicking her feet and gathering up the blanket between them is really fun - which made for a tricky photo taking situation!
She also discovered that her monthly sticker is not fixed, and so spent almost the whole duration of the photo shoot desperately trying to rip it off - she succeeded at the end (paper is one of her very favourite things to try and access, it is something we deny her because obviously she just eats it until it disintegrates!!) and so it makes me think that this is probably why there was no 8 month sticker from Ella's time. She probably destroyed it at that age too!
So 8 months brought a lot of firsts! First Christmas!! most importantly, so there was a lot of festive fun throughout December, and a lot of festive outfits! Your Mama was loving it!
We went for our annual Christmas day out in Edinburgh, it was a bitterly cold day and I had wrapped you in a million layers and had you in the sling so sadly you always seem to miss out on the pics! but I did snap this one when we sat down for lunch in Leith - had to capture these girls in their Christmas clothes. Your big sis went on lots of rides at the Christmas market, we looked at some decorations and then went to the cinema to see the Grinch. Another first for you. I wasn't sure how you would behave - but of course you were as happy as can be, why was I even worried? You are such a chill baby! You look like you were trying to scoff some of Dad's popcorn in the pic below:
and then after all the excitement of the big screen wore off - you were quite mesmerised for a good while, you zonked out and fell asleep for the rest of the film.
We finally got you your own Christmas decoration for the tree! Ella has about 6 or 7 from her first Christmas, but of course poor second child syndrome you weren't going to have any - so I was really glad when this showed up just a few days before Christmas! You are now official on the tree!
I don't know where this hat came from, but we have been embracing it all December long!
Granny sent you this gorgeous little knitted reindeer pinafore dress, which was perfect timing so you wore it to your first Christmas party at Toddlers:
You met Santa for the first time! Again, I wasn't sure which way it was going to go - but you loved him! You turned around and realised you were sitting on someone strange's lap and you just gave him the biggest smile and reached up to touch his beard!
We all had to sing Jingle Bells as we waited for him to arrive, and for some reason you covered both your ears up! So I guess you were a fan of Santa, but not our singing!
I also got you a little set of festive bows, and this holly one was my fave!
Check out your baby blues!
Another day, another party, another festive outfit! (thanks to our friends Charli & Hayden!) We went to a Christmas special with Pooee and her puppets with Addison's birthday twin baby Archie and his big sister Flora and my friend Lauren. I think Addison's face above says it all!
There was singing, a dance party to S Club 7! and lots of festive themed puppet shows, and even a secret santa exchange too for all the babies. It was a lot of fun, and we've signed up for a block of these classes starting next week so I'm excited for that to begin!
and then of course it was on to the big event! We headed to the Lake District on Christmas Eve where we had rented an awesome Air b'n'b to have a Jones family Christmas!
Here were all the cousins right after they had set out their treats for Santa - cookies and carrots, and hung their stockings.
We were all joking that it was going to be an early start - Mel said hers would definitely be first. Ellis was so excited about opening his advent calendar on December 1st that he woke at 4am, so imagine what time he would be waking on actual Christmas Day...but surprisingly the first one awake was the one who had no clue what day it even was - Addison!
She woke at about 6am because her sleeping had gone from bad to worse in the 2 week period over Christmas and New Year. SO many wakings, and having to stay up half the night to rock her back to sleep, and then she was waking up at 5.45 like clockwork every day! I think her other cousins only stirred some time around 7.30 so pretty late actually!
Here she is feasting on one of her stocking presents - a chewy bath toy!
Daddy helped her to open her main Santa presents.
She was most impressed with this drum! and loves to go to town on it - it lights up when you hit it, along with playing music, and you can also spin it too!
Granny designated herself as Addi's feeder for the week at all mealtimes, which meant I actually got to eat my food hot! moms are the best!
I love this pic of our main Christmas Day lunch, because Addison having finished her butternut and parsnip puree is trying to reach out in envy at our meals 'hey, wait, I want the good stuff too'!
She also discovered celebrations, and seemed to instinctively know they were the good stuff! She loved the rustle the wrappers made!
I had to snap a pic of the girls in this cute sleigh my dad painted for the kids! It was a big hit!
On boxing day we headed for a beach walk, just 10 mins from where our barn was.
We had the beach to ourselves and it was actually a super mild day. Addi loved watching the cousins run around and go crazy!
She certainly wasn't short of attention on our trip, and between her doting cousins, adoring aunties and her lovely Granny she was always in demand! Everyone loved how happy she is, how much she sucks her fingers, and how she just goes with the flow with whatever is going on around her.
It was nice for everyone to get their fix before we all had to go our separate ways again!
On our final day in the Lakes, we did a roadtrip through a few gorgeous little places on the way back up to Scotland to make the most of our time there.
First stop was the super cute town of Ambleside. We ate at the cutest place for lunch called the Apple Pie Bakery, and had some epic homemade apple pie milkshakes!
We also went on a big walk around Rydal Water. It was everything that I had hoped for! Unfortunately the majority of our week had been grey and overcast so I was delighted that some blue sky and sun broke out for us! We only ended up getting the Air b'n'b because our family is so big we no longer fit at my parents house, but it was actually super fun to do so because it made it feel like a mini holiday too! and adventuring just makes my heart happy - especially when it's in places we've never been before! Actually apparently my first ever family holiday was to the Lake District when I was a baby so it was fun that it is one of Addi's earliest holidays too!
One day I had come in from doing something outside (I think we were putting our Christmas lights up on the house actually) and found Ella had written this note and drawn this little picture for Addi all by herself! 'I lu yoo so must, fom Ella B'!! It melted my heart. She really does have so much love for that little sister of hers.
and I just love seeing the two of them together...
I am so so glad I got 2 girls! It was secretly, or not so secretly, what my heart desired!
I mean, I've been waiting my whole life for matching outfit ops like this!!
It just never gets old, and I think Ella loves it even more than me - if that's possible, and is constantly requesting/demanding that they need to match!!
Everything is more fun when they're together!
Usually Ella creeps into Addi's room whilst I'm giving her a final feed before bed, and gives Addi a little kiss on the cheek and a snuggle goodnight. The other night Addi heard Ella talking as she came up the stairs, but then Ella went straight to her room...and Addi kept popping off and whipping her head back and wouldn't feed properly, and I'm sure it's because she was looking for Ella and wanted her goodnight kiss! Eventually I had to shout for Ella to come through so she did and gave Addi a kiss and snuggle and then Addi happily went right back to her feed and stayed there until she was done this time. It was the cutest!
They make all my days more awesome, even the sleep deprived ones!
Ringing in the new year with her little bestie! I can't wait to see what 2019 has in store!
The start of January consisted of a few walks to blow away the cobwebs,
and lots of Daddy and his girls adventures whilst I got my bake on at home boringly. I apparently missed an epic swimming trip to the pool in Berwick where Addi was crazy for the water, I can't wait when we can make a return trip and I can join in on the fun!
We did make it to the playpark in Hawick one day altogether, and Addi and Ella had a go on the joint swing which was cute. Here she is sitting up again!
She learnt to sit up officially, all on her own, probably just the other day (actually it was probably the 9th - her exact 8 month anniversary!)
This is how delighted Ella was about it - always her biggest cheerleader!
We packed away her playmat that she used to lie on, and set up a new station in the lounge with her bumbo and lots of her new Christmas toys.
She loves to sit there and just explore and play with all the different things. This little ocean scene was another fave prezzie from her Auntie Alli. It plays music and when you push the button down the whole scene rotates in the fish bowl - it's pretty cool, currently Addison just loves to put that blue button on top in her mouth! but I'm sure in time she will come to use it properly, haha!
I'm also not sure how long we have left with the Bumbo, her most recent fave thing to do is to throw her arms back like this and it's like she's trying to make her escape!
We have been trying to give her more solid foods, and not just purees but it's been a bit hit and miss. This was her first toast adventure. It ended up in 2 million pieces all over the tray, her bib, her face, the floor...and yet I'm not actually sure any of it got digested!!
The same happens when you give her sticks of cucumber - which Ella used to love at this age! Addison just lobs them all off her highchair on to the floor, but when you break it into tiny bite size pieces and feed it to her then she's quite happy to eat it. I think she enjoys being fed too much to try and feed herself! She also tried fish for the first time which she really didn't seem keen on - cue some of the funniest faces she has made thus far, but she's had a it a few more times since and is coming around to it now.
Her hair is getting so long that Byron has to blow dry it after bath time now! I love how cute it looks, but how it goes right back to crazy hair the very next morning!!
See what I mean?! Haha! I took this picture to show how much she loves brushing her teeth, because really she gets so excited about it! yet here she is looking rather confused about why I deemed this moment Insta worthy! I promise she's usually happier about the situation!
One of her other favourite things to do is to pretend to drive the car - or just to hold the steering wheel and touch any other buttons/controls she can get her hands on! which proves problematic when I try and give her a feed in the drivers seat of the car, and all she's interested in is trying to get her hands on the steering wheel!
Another thing she does when she feeds is play with my hair, it seems like a bit of a comfort thing. She loves to wrap it around her fingers, in and out, but sometimes she does it so tightly that I can see its about to cut off her circulation!! and once I had only realised after I had laid her down asleep for her nap, so I had to try and unwrap that tightly bound hair from around her little fingers like a ninja so she didn't wake up!
She still spends 80% of her day sucking away on those fingers! I love how when she picks the middle two, it's like she's saying 'rock on'!!
She is a big fan of Milo, and is always interested in what he's doing. She loves to give a big grab of his fur, but here they look like they're just having a little chinwag! and check out how she's reaching for his paw - too cute!
and that about sums it up! Well done if you made it to the end of this post. I felt like not too much had happened this month, but turns out I was wrong! I have to finish out with this photo because it's my fave I took this month! I feel like it just sums up her little personality so well! full of joy, and light just shines from within her! We're so lucky she's ours!
9 months we're ready for you!
