Anticipation for Addison (And the new Hogue Blog!)

Our little niece is almost here!

Here are just some thoughts I have for you Sister as you head into the most amazing adventure of motherhood...

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was to listen to yourself. You will know Addison better than anyone else. People will want to give you their advice and their "expertise". You will learn her personality faster than anyone else, and you will know what she needs and when she needs it.

It's okay if you have nights where her tears bring you to tears. It's okay if you need help. It's okay if you need a break.

I know that we've shared with you that the biggest surprise for Matthew and I was how hard a new baby can be on a marriage. So don't worry if it is hard. You both will grow and you both will change, and it will be incredible in the end.

This amazing little miracle is making the two of you a family. :) And we are so excited for you.




On a side note: Carly and Josh have created a blog to keep everyone updated with their lives too! Here is the link, be sure to save it to your favorites to keep updated!

http://the-hogues.blogspot.com/

2nd Birthday and Lessons Learned

Mickey and Minnie Cupcakes

Opening her first present!

Cuddling with Daddy before everyone arrives

The day before her birthday...what a happy girl!

(and a healthy breakfast!) Seriously, I think she could live off of grapes and bananas, but we're not arguing about that!

Sophia's Birthday Banner
***Many Thanks to Sue for the use of her Cricut! :) I LOVE that machine!***

The banner hanging in place. I am SO happy with the way it turned out, just as I had pictured!

The Birthday Girl while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her! She was such a ham, looking and grinning at each person as we sang! :) It was such a nice and laid-back evening, just dinner with the family! LOVED it!


In just the short month that it's been since our last post, Sophia has made some big changes. So here's the catch-up version for you:

Goodbye #1: Binky Bye-Bye
Just after her birthday ( and I mean days...) Sophia got rid of her binky. We thought for sure this would be something that would cause nights, if not weeks, of no sleep in the Taylor home. We thought this would be the ultimate melt-down of melt-downs. But just in Sophia spirit, she took it like a champ.

For weeks Sophia had been into Barney. To the point where Matthew and I know ALL the songs, and if you ask Matthew, he'll tell you he doesn't but he DOES know some of the dance moves too! :) (Sorry to sell you out babe, it just cracks me up!) So we resorted to telling her that "Barney was broken". I'm not sure what that meant in her head, but she processed that to mean that we could not watch Barney. (YAY!!!). So while cooking dinner a few nights after her birthday, I got to thinking about all the strategies I'd heard about for getting rid of the binky. And that's when it hit me. It would break.

(Disclaimer to Sophia: Years from now when you are reading this, you have to understand that your Dad and I were not playing a trick on you, simply making the transition easy for you to understand!)

So that night, while Sophia was in the bath, and cluelessly playing with her Daddy, I "trimmed" the tip off of her binky. Now the theory behind this is that it loses it's suction and doesn't feel the same.



We were fully prepared that she wouldn't be ready to go through the night without it. After bath, we brought her into her room and got her jammies on. After jammies is when she ALWAYS asked for her bink. So she did, and I pulled it from the same shelf we always keep it on. Only this time it was cut. She put it in her mouth and then pulled it out and looked at it. She looked at it for a few moments and then handed it to me, saying "Mommy, here." I asked what was wrong and she tilted her head, furrowed her brows and told me, "Binky broken." At that point we asked her what we do with something that is broken and she told us, "throw away." So we told her that was something she had to do. We set her on the ground and she walked up to the kitchen, opened the trash and threw it away. She started to walk away, but we had her look at it one more time and tell it, "Bye-Bye, Binky." We were a little astonished that it was that easy. How could she be SO attached to it, but simply throw it away?!

We went back to her room to continue the routine of story and bed, and we had some tears. She burrowed her head into Matthew's shoulder for about 10 minutes and all the while we talked about what had happened. That the binky broke and she had to throw it away. After she calmed down she went right to bed, and didn't wake up once. :)

The next two nights she asked for it, and each time we just asked her questions. "What happened to your binky?" "Oh it broke, what did you do with it?" "That's right you had to say 'bye-bye' because it was broken" and that was that. Easy Peasy.

Goodbye #2: Diapers
That's right! We are on to Pull-Ups ladies and gentlemen! :) I think that this is an exciting announcement because it means that our budget is about to get a break! There's really not much to expand on this news, other than the fact that she's working so hard on using the "polly" every time she needs to go. (except for poo...if anyone has tips on how to make her use the potty for poo's, we'll take 'em!)
Sitting here reading this, I'm thinking this might be the strangest request I've ever made!

Hellllloooo Preschool (And a lesson for Mommy & Daddy)
Last week Matthew and I got one of our biggest lessons in parenthood to date. We learned the value of making tough decisions for your child, even if that means putting yourself in situations that you are not comfortable with. Sometimes being a parent means sticking to what you know is best for your child, and following through. Long story short, Sophia is now at a new preschool. And just as all parents can remember the jitters in the stomach feeling they had for their kiddos on the first day of school, we had it this morning. But she did amazing. She played some puzzles with us for a few moments and after kids started arriving she played with them while we talked with the director for a few minutes. When it was time for us to go, she gave us our hugs and kisses and happily went back to playing. We got out the door with no tears. When I went back at the end of the day, she had a fantastic report! So we are confident that despite the stress over the weekend, she is in the right place. She was so happy tonight telling us SO much about her day. I honestly hadn't seen her act this way in a long time. And she happily sang us the whole song of the ABC's! We'd been working on this, it was such an amazing surprise to hear!

For your viewing pleasure: Sophia and the ABC's!