Bye-Bye Paci!

 When Addison was about 6 months old we had a visit with her birth family and she received this piggy bank from her biological grandparents.  You can see, at the time it was really more of a chew toy.

Since then, it has sat on her dresser up high out of reach for the most part.  I would occasionally dump some pocket change in there.  Several months ago I started letting her put "monies" into piggy herself.  Usually it was just change from my purse or if there was any loose change lying around.  Most recently I've kept a jar of loose change handy and when Addison does a job for me (like feeding Allie) I'll let her take a couple of "monies" from the jar and put them in her piggy bank.  She's been very interested in opportunities to get money lately.  Not that she had any understanding of what the money was worth...
Yesterday at nap time I offered Addison 3 monies if she would leave her paci on the dresser next to piggy bank.  She seemed very interested until it came time to actually put paci down.  I didn't feel like pushing it so I let her just have it and no monies were exchanged.  Later on at bed time I casually mentioned this little story to David and before we knew it, we were actually following through with the deal, modified to 5 monies for a full night without paci.  We were committed now.  As soon as we closed her bedroom door we knew there was no going back or we would be sending the complete wrong message.  So we forged ahead.

It was a rough few hours with a couple of visits back in her room for another hug and a pep talk.  One time I went in and gave her an "advance" and let her put two monies in her piggy bank, leaving 3 more for the morning.  That made her pretty happy.  It satisfied her for a little while, but the tears came back before long.  In the end, I think she was asleep by about midnight and stayed there until about 8:30 this morning.  That wasn't too horrible....

So when she woke up this morning the first thing she asked for was more money for her piggy bank.  And we gladly obliged! Later this morning, Addison and I dumped the change from her bank and I counted out $15 of quarters and exchanged them for paper money at the First Bank of Mommy.  Then we put them in her doggy purse along with her paci and headed for the Disney Store.  I asked her on the way what she wanted to buy and she said, "More stuffs!"

After several trips around the store, she finally settled on a plush Daisy doll and we threw in a set of Minnie Mouse pajamas as well.  We'd already spoken to the sales ladies about our situation and they were very helpful and made a nice big deal of what a big girl Addison was.  First she got a princess sticker with her name on it.  Then she got a certificate stating her big accomplishment.  In addition to that she got a coloring page and a puzzle (which is too hard for her, but she loves it anyway.)

Lastly, they rang her purchase up and told her the amount that she owed, including the paci.  Proud mommy moment, I could hardly hold back the tears as I watched Addison pull the paci out of her purse and hand it over to the cashier.  Then she reached back in for her money and handed that to her as well.  She was quite excited when the nice lady gave more money back to her to put in her purse!

After the Disney Store I took Addison out for a celebratory lunch at Chick-fil-a and let her play in the play area for a while.  On our drive home she asked about her paci.  I reminded her that we don't have paci anymore (except the 4 or 5 that have been hidden away for a couple of weeks now, but don't tell her that!); we left it at the Disney Store.  She asked about it a couple more times before getting in bed for nap, but in all, went down for her nap rather smoothly.  Sleeping with Daisy instead of her paci.  I'm hoping that the physical act of giving her paci away to purchase a new friend will help her remember that even when she wants it really badly, we no longer have it.  We have Daisy instead.  We'll see.... Bedtime tonight will be telling. Wish us luck!

Chuck E. Cheese

 We are so blessed to have an open adoption with Addison's birthparents.  Even more blessed are we that her birthparents are still together and plan to get married this fall!  While in Rochester we were able to help Nicole celebrate her birthday and what better place to do it than Chuck E. Cheese.  Addison had a blast playing games with Joshy and Nicole, but I think the highlight of her night might have been when Chuck E. came by to say hello.  This girl LOVES any character in costume.  How unusual for a two year old, right?

One of the really cool things about the evening had to do with the manager of Chuck E. Cheese actually.  While they were waiting for us to arrive, Nicole and Josh had shared that they were getting ready to celebrate her birthday with their birth daughter.  It turns out the manager was an adoptive dad who wishes he had an open adoption with his daughter's birth mother, but so far that has not been the case.  He was so fascinated and excited to watch us come together and popped over multiple times throughout the evening to check in on us.  I believe it was him who arranged Chuck E.'s special visit, and he was more than generous when it came time to cash in Addison's tickets.  Apparently they were "out" of the small slinky so she got the giant one instead.  He also slipped a bracelet/ring prize to Nicole for her to give it to Addison.  It was really sweet of him.

In all, it was a fun night and it meant a lot that Nicole would be willing to have her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese for Addison's sake.  By the way, Addison says "Chuggacheese" like it's the sound that a train makes or something.  I think it's pretty cute.  Also, Addison is really into celebrating birthdays lately.  If you have one coming up, she will most certainly say you need a balloon and it will need to be purple with Tinkerbell on it.  So be prepared :-)

Even more fun with the Liddick family!

After our morning at the zoo, we continued venturing east to Altmar to see where Uncle Matt, Aunt Brianne, Brogan and Payton are living these days.  Addison enjoyed playing with Brogan's toys...

 and helped grandma feed baby Payton...

Apparently I caught Payton off guard with my flash.  Get a load of this look!

Then we finished our day together at good old McDonalds.  Addison and Brogan did a little bit of eating...

and a whole lot of playing!

Zoo Day

 While we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa we were able to meet Uncle Matt, Aunt Brianne, Brogan, and Payton for a fun morning at the Syracuse Zoo.  We haven't seen them since Christmas in July last summer, so we were excited to be able to finally meet baby Payton.  Addison talks about him all the time, so it was nice for her to actually see him in person.   It was an absolutely gorgeous day and all of us grown ups got our exercise keeping track of these two toddlers!

 Addison was excited to be able to help feed Baby Payton his bottle.  She's really into dolls right now, so Payton was pretty interesting to her!

 Addison falling in love with gummy worms.

 Payton decided he wanted to lay down to drink his bottle, so feeding him while we walked became a 2 person job.

 This was right before Brogan stuck his head through too far and got stuck.

 This picture captured the brief moment that Brogan and Addison were actually interacting with one another! :-)

New York Road Trip

 Addison and I just returned from a week-long trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Liddick in New York.  David has been in Michigan taking a class for the past week, so we thought it would be the perfect time to get away; especially since we're now a drivable distance to them.  Addison did an incredible job being back-seat passenger all by herself and our drives there and back were both smooth and uneventful.

One of our favorite stops in Rochester is the Strong Museum of Play.  I believe this was Addison's third time there and it's fun to see her enjoy more and more of it each time we go.  While we were there, we also were able to visit the butterfly garden.  We would have liked to spend more time there, but a certain someone was in need of a nap. :-)

We had a lot of fun doing other great things on our visit, but I'll tell about those in separate posts.  For now, enjoy these pictures from our day!