We’re all doing fine! Very busy preparing to move back into the house this week! Abby is showing me I need to do some serious child proofing with her inquisitive nature and newly developed two-footed mobility!
Lately, she’s been into see-food. If she see’s it, she’s eating it. Oh my! I guess the hunger strike is over and we’re back to eating & food exploration. Just in time for Christmas treats!
She’s very much in love with her blanket as you can see by watching this little clip of one evening’s play time with Grandpa:
The end is near. Of our major house project, that is.
How close? I still really don’t know – I’m a broken record now and instead of saying “only a couple more months”, I’ll say “only a couple more weeks”!
As soon as the HVAC guys are done cutting holes in the ceiling and making a mess everywhere, I’m going in for some serious cleaning as we’re getting close to move-in date!! Cleaning could start this weekend or next, depending on how much they get done this week. We still need paint, finishing touches inside and more importantly, a banister to keep us all from our death. It’s been a long journey (going on 7 months) but I can see the light at the end of this tunnel, finally.
I am very excited to get back nearly 2 hours of extra commuting we do each day and being back with all my kitchen toys. Speaking of kitchen, I’m going to have to baby-proof the kitchen fast! One of Abby’s favorite things to do is to open & close cabinets & drawers.
What.. you thought I’d write her 1 year post on time? Ha! I’m the Queen of late now.
By The Numbers
25 & 6 ….. pounds & ounces, which makes her total gain of 17+ pounds since she was born.
33 ….. inches in length, 14 inches of growth for the year 8 9 ….. number of sharp teeth she has
2 ….. number of oh so chunky thighs she still has
Abby’s growth was fast and furious for awhile and though she’s barely on the charts for all of these dimensions, she’s proportionate. Her rolls make me feel more at ease when she goes through bouts of not wanting food. As we say, “she’s got reserves”.
Talks Constantly.
Abby’s first word was “uh-oh”, but also says “Da-Da”, “Ma-Ma”, “Dat?” (That? as in, What is that?), “Khru-Khru” (cracker), “Hi” and “Yah”. She signs milk, more, all done and water. We haven’t taught her other signs yet, but we need to as I find myself frustrated more and more not knowing what she’s wanting. She’s generally good at pointing at things, but perhaps she’s wanting things she cannot see.
She’s walking!
In the past 2 weeks, Abby has been taking more and more steps on her own. She can’t stand up without using something (or someone) to pull herself up, but once she’s up, she willingly walks across a room. She is a bit of a perfectionist and takes her time and makes a cognitive effort to maintain balance.
Drinks from a glass.
Abby absolutely loves to drink from a regular glass and is getting very good at keeping the water in her mouth. I found that a baby food jar also makes a great cup for her and she’s getting better at learning how to regulate the flow of liquid herself. Her pincer grasp is quite good and just recently started using a spoon to dip in her food and bring it to her mouth. Though the spoon often ends up in sound experiments on the table (food everywhere), she is enjoying her new found independence at the dinner table.
She is a flirt!
Abby is known to be a very affectionate baby and gives kisses to everyone. Perhaps this is why we’ve all suffered through so many colds and illnesses in the past 6 weeks. How can you say no? She attracts audiences everywhere we go. I catch her trying to make eye contact with strangers at the grocery store so she can flirt and laugh with them. Usually she succeeds in making complete strangers laugh. I absolutely love this about her and she clearly gets this trait from her father.
Adores her stuffed animals.
She is also very affectionate with her Cat in the Hat, Monkey, and Puppy dog, hugging and kissing them whenever she reunites with the gang. She’s warming up to a new addition of a Dolly, but Dolly has not earned top spot yet. Did I mention what happened to puppy? Puppy has a barking mechanism, but Puppy somehow found its way into the washing machine. Though cleaner, he came out sans bark. Until one day, Puppy found his bark again, but this time at will. He barks randomly during the day and without warning. It’s quite hilarious and we love him for it.
Mommy Monster.
The mommy monster comes out to play every night. Mommy monster plays hide & seek, peek-a-boo, raspberries on the belly and other general ruckus. She recognizes the Mommy Monster just by a glance and maybe a grunt but that’s all it takes to send this kid crawling with fervor and belly laughing for more.
I’m in Love.
I cannot believe how much all of us have changed in just 12 months. How helpless and utterly dependent she was of us just a year ago and how mostly (and still) clueless I am. She’s becoming a little person and quite a sweet, charming and funny one at that. She still loves to snuggle with me and as long as I can get in my daily hugs, kisses, tickles, and laughs – I’ll be one happy mommy.
Only one month late getting this post together… but in enough time before my big post tomorrow!!
What I remember of month 11 was this: our first real vacation as a family and TEETHING! Good lord, she has 8 teeth now. Three decided to come in all together and I remember it not being a very fun time for anyone. The last straggler finally made it’s way through and balanced her out.
But back to what I really remember from last month: VACATION!!!!
We had a great opportunity to house sit for friends who are renting a house in Arroyo Grande, which is a 15 minute drive from San Luis Obispo. This happens to be one of my favorite places in California! We spent the week exploring, visiting with friends and having a grand old time.
We took Abby to Pismo beach for her first taste of sand and sea water,
to the famous farmer’s market,
waiting for farmer's market
and to her first Cal Poly Football game. She made it to half time before passing out. She enjoyed watching the marching band and flirting with all the people who would pay attention to her.
We played at a very fun beach park,
and went to an Apple Farm!
But the fun didn’t end there. After we returned home, Auntie Liz came for a visit! She brought our new baby nephew, Aiden, with her so I could squeeze his cute cheeks! We went out to brunch Saturday morning and had a great time catching up.
We went to a friend’s baby shower that Sunday and had a great visit with everyone there. Abby wore her first dress, and likely the last time she’ll wear that one in particular as now it’s finally feeling like winter weather around here.
I was very sad to drop Auntie & Aiden off at the airport come that Monday morning, but we hope to see everyone again very soon.
I am 2 months late to this post and it’s a bit challenging to remember what Abby was like just 2 months ago, she changes that fast! I learned my lesson. But, better late than never, right?
Hubby and I took a week off in September and had ourselves a staycation. We visited with all our friends and had a great time around the Bay. We started out by joining our friends at the Kings Mountain Art & Wine festival. It was a great jaunt in the woods and just what we needed. We got up extra early to enjoy the pancake breakfast. I look forward to doing it again next year.
On Labor Day, we found ourselves at Golden Gate Park for a fabulous picnic with friends. Abby was the only baby there, so she LOVED all the attention she received. Afterwards, we stopped by to visit with Hubby’s family who live in San Francisco. Needless to say, it was a big day and she crashed on the ride home.
The Tuesday after Labor Day, we made our way down to Monterey to visit the Aquarium! It was Abby’s first time visiting so she was wide-eyed and very excited to take it all in. I enjoyed watching the Mola Mola and looking for the baby Great White Shark with her. She kept going, and going, and going, until she could go no more and fell asleep on Hubby’s shoulder.
The rest of the week I enjoyed a bit of time to myself while she went to daycare. I played at the gym, had lunch, and in general – relaxed. Hubby worked on the house, and beyond that, I just have no memory!
4 ……… The number of teeth my sweet child has.
23.5 …. The number of pounds she weighs.
30 ……. The number of inches she is tall.
1 ……… The number of new cousins added to the mix.
It’s been a busy month for everyone, Abby included! We welcomed a new cousin, Aiden Thomas, to the family in late July. I’m afraid Abby is the lone girl in a sea of boy cousins (4 now). I suppose it’s just preparing her for the harsh realities of the professional world in that it’s still dominated by boys.
Grandma and Grandpa left us for a week to go cuddle with our new family member. While they were gone, Abby hit some pretty big milestones!
Abby had been trying to figure out how to crawl but often got frustrated doing so. If I were around, she’d punt and ask for hands to be walked around instead of going on her hands and knees. We decided that perhaps it was time she spend time at daycare around kids who could crawl as that might demonstrate the mechanics needed. Turns out, we were right! Within a day of having her visit the “mobile” room, she was crawling on her own, with minimal frustration! She still loves to be ‘walked’, but will get around on her own now if that isn’t an option.
Abby 9 months, Photo by Rachel Fox
The sparks were flying in her brain in the past week! Abby learned how to wave to people but especially enjoys waving to herself in the mirror. Sippy cup? Eating puffs on her own? check, and check.
We’ve been going to the pool & various parks on the weekends. She really enjoys playing in the water, drinking pool water and watching other kids swim. Abby loves to swing at parks and is often her reward for sitting in the jogging stroller while we go for a run. Her personality is emerging and she is an easily pleased ham.
Abby 9 Months, Photo by Rachel Fox
She loves to sing to herself, conduct sound experiments by clanging 2 objects together and test out her vocal volume, especially while eating lunch at Whole Foods. While on the changing table last night, she flashed me a toothy smile and squinted her eyes. I don’t know why she did it, but it was quite adorable, made me laugh and forget about the poopy mess I was cleaning up.
I’m still behind on Abby’s monthly updates. Well, I had time, but I procrastinated because I don’t have many photos and it’s making me feel like a horrible mother. Such is life! But, I can tell you what Abby has been up to.
For the 4th of July we made the trek down to Cayucos to visit the Kormans on their ranch “Korlandia”. They throw a fantastic ‘Happy Birthday America’ party each year and this was the second year we’ve attended. It was great to see them as well as other friends who attend.
San Simeon
On our way there, we stopped by San Simeon to visit the Elephant Seals. Abby seemed to enjoy looking at the seals, or she was just thrilled to be liberated from her car seat after sitting for 3.5 hours. She did really great on the car ride both ways, but seems to max out at 3 hours.
Being a holiday weekend, Abby of course was teething. This time, however, it wasn’t as traumatic as the first tooth. In fact, I didn’t even notice her second tooth had popped up until a 9 year old at the party informed me about it. I was shocked! Since then, her upper left front tooth pushed through so she has 3 teeth now. I suspect the 4th won’t be hiding for much longer.
Abby still doesn’t roll over and she dislikes being on her tummy but is getting braver about lunging for things out of her reach which does land her on all 4′s. She’s beginning to connect that to get places on her own this is what is required. However, Abby still loves to stand and walk with assistance and is getting better at moving her legs. She figured out how to pull herself up on things, so this will get interesting, fast.
She recently began blowing raspberries with her bottom lip, and if you say “mama?” she responds with a firm “dada”. Abby has been into trying to make a “gheee” sound, which is quite hard. I thought she was signing “more” one day, but then realized she was just trying to clap. The next day, she figured out that she just needed to uncurl her fingers and now is an expert at clapping her hands together. She acknowledges her understanding of “all done”, but that’s about it. We’ll keep trying and working with other key signs.
When it comes to eating and drinking, sippy cups are apparently for babies and only a real cup will do for my little girl! If you give her a cup made of glass, she won’t drink from it now as much as she will tap and scrape her teeth on the side. It makes a horrible nails on chalkboard sound – so I try to avoid this. Ensuring she keeps her awesome rolls, she goes through a jar of baby food in a day. Well, more like for lunch. We tried cheerios the other day, but she’s not ready as it made her gag and un-eat everything.
She and grass are starting to become better friends, she’s now at the “tolerating” phase. Pretty soon I think she’ll be at the “enjoyment” phase.
Not as late on posting Abby’s 7 month update as I was for her 6 month. Maybe I’ll make it on time next month!
7 Months
One of Abby’s favorite things to do these days is to stand. Not roll over, not play on her belly, but stand. She does require assistance doing this and hasn’t figured out that she can pull herself up using things other than our hands which is fine with me!
Grass!
Abby is becoming more and more expressive and inquisitive. Continues to say “Da”, shakes her head back and forth (like saying NO), and purses her lips to blows raspberries. While taking the photo above, she pulled the blanket towards her to reveal the grass underneath, reached out for it but wasn’t too sure about it. Then she realized she was sitting and not standing so asked for help by holding out her hands and grabbing for mine to pull up.
Drink!
The biggest milestone so far was getting her first tooth! Over Memorial Day Weekend Abby was sick and especially fussy. She had a mild fever and was waking up every 2 hours at night to be comforted. I wasn’t sure if she was reacting to her cold or if she was actually teething. But a few days later, we got confirmation as her first bottom tooth broke through! She got over her cold and returned to her sleep schedule (thank god!).
She loves to do what you’re doing, especially if I’m drinking from a glass. So we’ve been practicing drinking water from a big girl cup. I think she likes the feel and the sound her tooth makes on the glass.
Bubbles!
Abby has been having many new adventures while we temporarily bunk with Grandma & Grandpa. We’ve been having warm weather so they busted out the bubbles, which were a big hit!
Abby turned the 6 month mark earlier this month! A huge milestone – a Half Year of making it on her own outside the womb. I think she’s doing pretty well judging by the picture above. She’s happy, healthy, and developing a bit of her personality: goofball!
At her 6 month service appointment she weighed in at 21 pounds and was 27 1/2 inches in height! Up 2 pounds from last month and grew 2 inches since her 4 month checkup. She’s pretty much off the charts for height & weight – our little overachiever.
Developmentally Abby has perfected sitting by herself. In fact, she dislikes lying on her back and prefers sitting or standing. The problem she has is that she still doesn’t roll over, so when she does find herself on her belly, she’s not sure how to flip over. She also can’t get to a sitting position without assistance.
Her communication skills are expanding as well, she says “Da and Ta” sounds and reaches out for you when she wants to be held. She grunts, screeches, cracks herself up and loves to be startled with “Boo” – no peeking necessary.
Abby has shown that she has an interest in big people food – she grabbed an apple out of my hand which I was eating and shoved it in her mouth and began sucking on it. So we’ve begun exploring the world of food slowly. She has so far tried and liked banana, apple, and sweet potato. We know she likes something when she grabs the spoon and feeds herself. The only thing she hasn’t liked so far is Oatmeal. She wasn’t a fan the first time, but we’ll try again later.
No teeth yet – but I’m sure it won’t be long. But for now, I am still enjoying her adorable toothless grin.
We recently temporarily moved in with Grandma & Grandpa R so we’re adjusting to a few new routines and commutes. So far she’s taking it fairly well as evident by her ability to sleep through the night. Well, except for the nights when she’s super hungry and wakes up for extra feedings.
Abby’s 6 month pictures were taken by our friend Rachel at Phoenix Feather Photography. The entire set can be viewed here. They’re all so cute, it was hard to pick my favorites to post here.
I’ve been a bad blogger lately! My excuse? Getting out there and living life to the fullest. Boy have we been having so much fun lately! Where do I begin?
Easter
Easter Sunday found us with lovely weather and an impromptu picnic with some very lovely ladies and gents. K & E are twins, 3 weeks older than Abby. They are very adorable girls and we love hanging out with them. I don’t know how their momma does it!
Easter Picnic
Abby also received a very fun Easter card from her Grandma & Grandpa J – it was a very popular toy for awhile. Here is some video of Abby opening her Easter Card. And for those of you watching at home, the punch line is “dye”.
Wildflower
WIldflower is always the first weekend of May and is a triathlon event. Hubby races the Olympic distance and this was his 13th year doing so. I sat this year out again having recently performed my own marathon of sorts, I was in no shape to swim, bike, or run. But taking Abby on her first camping trip? No problem! Ha.
Camping At Wildflower
This was easy car camping by my measure and with Brian off volunteering or racing I was left to hang out and take care of Abby by myself. I felt like I ran two marathons that weekend. Between managing to pump in the tent, feeding myself and making sure Abby avoided as many conflicts with gravity as best I could, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. The car was packed to the brim, half of it was for Abby. I was pretty impressed that we squeezed it all in.
Waiting to Cheer for Daddy!
We did have a good time with little incidents. A toy fell down a hill side onto the course, but a nice man braved picking it up for us. Abby did miss seeing hubby ride up and down the hill, both times she fell asleep right before he passed by. She did watch his awesome finish on foot, though he didn’t see us he heard us cheering!
Hanging out at Camp
Next year, however, Abby will be staying home with Grandma & Grandpa because a) that was a lot of work and b) mama wants to race again. That course is mine!
Phoenix & Mother’s Day Weekend
The weekend after Wildflower Abby and I took another “first” and ventured out to Phoenix, Arizona on an airplane to visit my best friend from college. It was just the two of us, so once again it turned into a weekend of a lot of work for me, but I had a blast. It wasn’t as hard as camping, but it was hard in different ways. I also learned a lot about Abby this past weekend.
Abby and Kelly
For start, it’s true what they say about growth spurts coming in 3′s and 6′s. Abby hit her 6 month mark and a growth spurt came along with it. She was waking up at 4am for an extra feeding prior to us leaving but that continued on our trip. A big lesson I learned was to never leave home without the sleep sack. I didn’t realize how critical it was to Abby’s sleep regiment – I thought it was just for warmth and in Arizona, we’d be plenty warm without it. Luckily a borrowed sleep sack was obtained after 2 restless nights of sleep.
Abby & Jimmy
The other thing I learned was about Abby’s nap habits outside of day care. At home, she’s usually put in a swing or a stroller for a nap which means one thing, constant motion. Except when motion isn’t a part of the nap option does this become area issue. I’ve got to figure out how to break Abby of this nap routine with us – I know she does it at day care. She’ll soon outgrow the swing and not to mention motion won’t always be possible as I proved this past weekend.
Weekend highlights included a trip to the Phoenix Zoo! Abby slept through most of it, but woke up in time to see an Elephant. Though I don’t really think she “saw” the Elephant. It was Mother’s Day weekend while we were out there, something I didn’t realize when booking the trip. Kelly’s husband Jimmy was so good to us, he made us pancakes for breakfast and got me a card. It was so sweet and made my first Mother’s Day very memorable. We had dinner with my Arizona family and it was so much fun catching up with them after all these years. I enjoyed meeting Kelly’s son, Logan – he is quite adorable and such a good little boy. He shared so well with Abby and after a day of being around her I think he became a fan of miss cheeks.
Abby & Logan
We stopped by to visit Abby’s Great Grandfather & his lovely wife Pat before we left town. It was fun to be able to show them how much Abby has grown since they first met her at 3 weeks of age. Being back in Arizona brought back a bunch of fun memories of my time in college. I can’t believe it’s been nearly 9 years since I was there. How time has flown by!
Abby with Great Grandpa
Abby did amazingly well on the plane ride there, on the way back was a different story. She was likely super tired on the way home and cried her little heart out for the first 20 minutes of our first flight. It didn’t help that I was a bit stressed over a flight delay. Luckily we were at the airport early enough that I could quickly react to the situation and get us on a different flight getting home at our original time. There was limited food and mama bear wasn’t having any of the 2 hour delay! But nonetheless, we were the “screaming baby” people. I tried every trick I had with me, but nothing but holding her tight, rocking her and letting her cry herself to sleep worked. The second leg went much smoother – there was still a few minutes of crying before she passed out again.
Make-up Mother’s Day
To make up for me not being here on Mother’s Day, hubby re-enacted the special day complete with letting me sleep in, fresh squeezed O.J. with oranges from our backyard and a pancake breakfast. It was amazing, all of it – but especially the sleeping in part. Hello pillow!
The Rest of May
What’s next you asked? Well… funny you should ask. May wouldn’t be complete without more insanity to top off the past few weekends of adventures. We’re moving out of our house this weekend. And once again, I find myself the single parent. Hubby is off on a photography job this weekend, but luckily I’ve recruited amazing support from Grandma and Grandpa R to help us make the move to their house while our big house remodel kicks off. I’ll post about that later as it deserves a paragraph or ten.
To end our adventure seeking month, we will have a visit from Grandma & Grandpa J, who I bet are eager to see Abby again as it’s been awhile. I’m sure her squishable cheeks and rolls will be in fine form for our family’s visit. Stay tuned for more stories!
