Addison is 2!!!! family, friends, and a growing belly!

We have had a busy, but wonderful last couple of weeks!  Addison and mommy left for North Carolina on August 22.......we enjoyed a relaxing night at Nana and Papa's house in Raleigh (Addison took to them right away, entertaining them with her giggles, words and new tricks!).....then we headed to the beach the next morning.  We spent four days and nights with mommy's best friends from UNC and their children.  It was a crazy household, and not exactly relaxing....but surely enjoyable!  I love catching up with all of my amazing college girlfriends and it was such a treat to meet the new little ones (3 new babies this year).  Addison LOVED the beach and the water....absolutely no fear (which made mommy nervous!)!  She would sprint full force right in to the water and the waves...no hesitation and only big smiles and giggles when she would get knocked by a wave!  It was quite entertaining!  She loved to be buried in the sand, search for shells, and chase the birds down the beach! Sunday, daddy and his brother joined us at the beach for a relaxing afternoon...Addison was so exited to see daddy!  We met Adam's new fiance', Jamie, that night, and enjoyed a fun dinner with them.  We spent the next week in Raleigh with Nana and Papa!  Addison loved the new kid's swing in their backyard, chasing "Maxie" around the house, enjoying the rides at Pullen Park, meeting new friends (The Graven family and Stephenson family), celebrating her second birthday a little early with Nana and Papa, and spending time with the family!  It was a wonderful, relaxing stay!  The next weekend, we traveled to Asheville for a wedding in the mountains!  It was a great time catching up with many of Noah's best friends from college, and getting to celebrate the special bride and groom, Nick and Alexis!  We flew back to Minneapolis on Labor Day evening.......that's when the chaos began.....we decided it was a brilliant idea to board a two and a half hour flight with only 2 water diapers in our diaper bag, and no wipes!  Parent mistake of the year!!!!!  Addison soaked through the two diapers within about the first hour of the flight, and Noah and I smelled of urine the rest of the flight!  Gross!  We were so embarrassed and so mad at ourselves for actually thinking that this plan would work.  When we finally landed in Minneapolis, I had to find another mom in the airport and beg her for a diaper....thank goodness she was kind enough to loan me one!  :-) Lesson learned!

After a long day back at work on Tuesday....Noah and I made it home and Opa and Jojo arrived!  We got to enjoy them from Tuesday evening-Monday morning!  Addison offered them hugs immediately on arrival and called them by name (the beauty of skype!) They helped us to celebrate Addison's birthday with a trek to Choo Choo Bob's, presents, lunch out, eating a special macaroni and cheese dinner and ice cream cake, and playing in the park on September 6!  We can't believe our little girl is 2!!!!!  We celebrated again on Saturday morning (8th) with 7 of Addison's little friends and their parents.  We had a choo-choo themed brunch!  Addison had a wonderful time playing with her friends, and received so many thoughtful gifts!  She has been greatly entertained at home this week with all of her new goodies!  Thank goodness Opa and Jojo were here to offer extra hands, as the preparation is definitely more difficult when 29 weeks pregnant and trying to chase a toddler! :-)  We greatly enjoyed their visit, and look forward to them returning again in mid-October!  Opa and Jojo are now both officially retired, so we expect to see much more of them!!!

After our stay in NC and our visit from Opa and Jojo, Addison was desperate for some return to normalcy and extra sleep!  She finally made up for this exhaustion the last two days and slept ~12 hours each night, followed by long naps during the day!  She is back to her usual self again! :-)

Yesterday was Addie's 2 year check up at the pediatrician, and we received great news......our little girl is growing!!! :-)  She is now 33.5 inches long, and 26 pounds 3 ounces!  She has made it to the 40th percentile for height and weight, and still is right above average for head size!  Although she will always be "our little peanut", she sure is moving up that growth curve!  She checked out perfectly healthy, and walked away with only a prick to the finger (she didn't even flinch...no tears!!!) and a flu mist in the nose!  She was super excited to receive TWO stickers for being such a good girl!

 first pigtails!!!! :-)

 Our future TARHEEL!!!

 at Nick and Alexis' wedding!

 Amazing picture of Addison and all of her friends at the birthday party!!!

 Yum, yum!

 present time!

As for peanut #2 on the way........not much new news.........other than mommy's belly is HUGE and I am almost 30 weeks (this Saturday)!  I have developed some intermittent R sided sciatica that is super irritating....but other than that feeling pretty good.  My appetite is just now starting to slow down a little (as I don't think there is a ton of room left in there) :-).  As for weight, I've gained about 26 pounds.....so right on my way to a close finish to what I was with Addison (around 33 lbs).  I'm still doing the elliptical machine 3-4 x/week and walking outside.  Work has just begun to get a little more difficult with the increased belly size and some undesirable round ligament pain after so many hours on my feet....but I'll hang in there as long as I can!  :-)  Baby girl sounds healthy and is measuring right on track for a November arrival! We are so EXCITED!!!!