Grandparents Visit and Fun At the Pool

Grandmama and grandaddy made another trip to Nashville. We had a great weekend. Grandmama and grandaddy saw Abigail walk on her own for the first time. She's been walking for almost a month now, and they were dying to see it with their own eyes! We had fun swinging, blowing bubbles, reading, playing on the playground and swimming! Grandmama and grandaddy watched Abigail's 2nd swim lesson and took some really great pics from the sidelines, and splashed around afterwards!

Second swim lesson

Practicing with Daddy - holding onto the wall!

Swimming is fun!

Pausing for a snack. . . 

Fun with buckets!

A Trip To the Laundromat - Did We Go Back In Time?

Abigail and I spent a little time in the laundromat this morning. Her pink floor rug in her room has been long overdue for a wash, and I had been putting this off. My mom told me this morning that she bought a red rug for Abigail's room and has hinted that it might be time to change the color scheme/set up in Abigail's room. I'm actually still quite happy with the pink and green in Abigail's room, so I thought. . . OK, it's time to get this done. Desperate times call for desperate measures! (ha ha, j/k mom ;o)  )  I asked our dry-cleaners about the rug, and they said they would ship it to a specialist in Atlanta, and it would take two weeks. I wanted it done by this Friday when my parents come into town, so I thought, I'll do this myself. So, off we went to a what I knew was a do it yourself laundromat, but was in a nice part of town, right by Vanderbilt, so I thought it would be pretty nice. It turned out to be much more "old-school" that I had expected. This was such an interesting and odd experience, and felt like a blast into the past. I can't even remember when I was even in one of these places. When did I ever not have a washer or dryer? My freshman year in college? Even then I just used the wash area in the dorm down the hall. As I write the word "laundromat" I wonder if that is even the right word to use to describe one of these places where you go in and put quarters into machines and sit and wait while your clothes spin round and round. Do people even use quarters anymore? I really thought that there would be a credit card option, but sure enough, there was not! Fortunately I had cash. We changed my $5 bill into quarters, and Abigail watched as the change machine spit out 20. Then we used the vending type machine on the wall to pick which detergent we wanted, and dumped it into the top of the machine.Then the nice lady (who was previously sitting behind the counter smoking INSIDE) helped us stuff Abigail's pink floor rug into the commercial-sized washer. We dropped in quarter after quarter, and once we'd put in enough to add up to $4.75, it started up! All in all, this experience was not all that foreign, however I did feel like I had flashed back to the 80s or something. There was a sign that said "Free Wi-Fi" and the Olympics were on the flat screen TV mounted on the wall, but aside from those two things, you would have thought it was 1983. 

When I saw this Ms. Pac-Man game, I was convinced we had gone back in time. We dropped 25 cents in and played. My three lives went quickly. . . it's been quite a while since I've used a joystick!

A Few Uh-ohs

Abigail has been doing much better with eating IN GENERAL, however lately she throws her sippy cup, plate, or bowl (as you see here) overboard when she is finished with her meal. Although this was a pretty impressive launch into the kitchen, I tried to reinforce that this is still a "no-no". 

The bowl-throwing was after breakfast. After lunch, she threw a few pieces of grapes on the floor.

I didn't see them, stepped on one, slid a little, and I almost fell flat on the floor. 

Clearly food and utensil throwing has got to stop!

She got her hand stuck in her shape sorter. 

This game is more fun and works much better when shapes are put inside. 

Not little hands, Miss Abigail!

Pigtails!

Mommy is thrilled that Abigail now has enough hair to put in pigtails! 

Double bows! What could be better?

Big Scare!

The other day Abigail fell off the changing table.

Thankfully, right into my arms. I was standing right there by the changing table, bending over putting an extra change of clothes in her diaper bag. I leaned back up and about halfway between the top of the changing table and the floor, I caught my baby. Very scary!

From now on I'll be keeping at least one hand on Miss squirmy wormy at all times, and getting her off the changing table ASAP!

15 Month Well Exam

And very well she is! Other than a little rash on her bottom, she checked out just perfectly! She enjoyed reading books with daddy before the doctor came in. Doc was very impressed with how verbal she is!

Here are her stats:

Wt: 23lb 7oz (55th%ile)

Ht: 32 in (90th%ile)

HC: 18&3/4 (92nd%ile)

We had to get a pic by the funny looking mirror on our way out. This mirror was here when daddy came to this clinic when he was a little boy!

Rainy Day Fun!

Galoshes and books - necessities for a rainy day.

And a sun hat. . .We opted for a hat instead of the plastic box she was trying to put on her head.

Today she was REALLY into her "Where is Spot?" book. I think she read it about 8 times with Rich and me, then some on her own. She loves flipping up the flap on each page and saying "no" (he's not in there!)

Abigail had a blast splashing around on our front porch. 

Mommy got out the frog umbrella and played too!

She can walk!

She has taken a few steps. She still prefers to walk holding our hands or crawl. But this is progress! We are proud of our girl!

Zoo!

Here are a few pics from our first trip to the zoo!

14 months:

I guess I better go ahead and post this 14 month update since there seems to be something new each day to the point that my original list that I hadn't posted yet is beginning to be old news! Today Abigail learned to say "please", which comes out more like "pa pa peees", and she also took a few steps on her own! The monthly pics are becoming harder and harder to take. . . she is a busy busy little girl! Even with a book as a prop, it is very difficult to get this little girl to sit still! 

 At 14 months she can say:
mama
dada
mimi
papa
nana (Aunt Nan)
dojo (Uncle Joel/Uncle JoJo)
bubble
(book, bird, bunny, & ball are all "ba")
night night
uh oh
bye bye
bow
"no no"  (6/14/12)
diaper and apple are recent new words-Rich thinks her "diaper" sounds like "bubble". I think it sounds more like "piper".
She signs "more", "eat", & "all done"

One of her favorite phrases is "da-pa-tah", but we're not quite sure what this means.

She knows what horse, monkey, cat, and fish say. Well, for fish, she just makes a fishy face. She can also recognize and find various animals in her picture books. She knows her body parts too: hair, eyes, nose, mouth, arm, hands leg, foot, toes. She can point them out on her self, and on mommy and daddy. She also hums the tune to twinkle twinkle (or ABCs) to herself. She can do the motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and can do pat-a-cake.

I personally feel that since she is so verbal right now, that is the main reason that she is not quite walking yet. She is getting really good with her walker and can stop on a dime, turn, and practically run with the thing, but walk on her own? Nope. She's not ready. She has taken one or two steps on her own when she was holding something in each hand and wasn't thinking about it. Today at school, they said that she took a few steps on her own. I think any day now she's going to take off running!

Drinking hands free

Why use your hands when you can set your cup on the floor and bend over to drink out of it?

Memorial Day Poolside

Memorial Day was a lot of fun! It was Abigail's first time in the pool. We set up her little pool and water table in the back yard and let Abigail have at it! I was really pushing the pool, but she much preferred the water table. Although it was 80+ degrees at 10:00 in the morning, we didn't let the water in the pool warm up before putting her in, so I think the cold water was part of the reason Abigail kept wanting to get out of the pool and stand at the water table. Despite the cold water, she did plenty of exploring and learning. I think you can tell by these smiles that she had a great time!

scooping water. . . 

This girl takes her water play seriously.

He is the World's Greatest Dad!

Abigail couldn't resist a visit to her new play set. She loves going down the slide with daddy.

She also likes climbing up!

That evening we went to Mimi and Papa's house and had BBQ. Abigail has been working on eating more table food, but you wouldn't know it that night! She refused to have anything except veggie straws.

Here is Abigail with Aunt Nan and Uncle Joel, "NaNa" and "DoJo". She is getting so much better at saying MiMi, Papa, Aunt Nan and Uncle Joel! We practiced a lot this weekend. She did call Papa "PeePee" which Rich and I found quite hilarious. I wonder how she'll do saying "Grandmama and Grandaddy", that will surely be a mouthful!

Abigail and Mimi did have a special moment when she sat on Mimi's lap and played piano on Mimi's grand!

Two Sweaty Boys and One Happy Girl

Daddy and Uncle Joel spent most of Sunday transporting this play set from one backyard to another, and it turned out to be quite the daunting task. One of Rich's co-workers offered us this playset if we were willing to get it out of her yard. So, at the end of the day we had two very sweaty boys, and one very happy girl!

Uncle Joel is playing peek-a-boo!

Abigail was eager to check it out!

Big Girl Day

Working on some bread and cheese. Surely when those top four teeth come in, this will get easier!

Today is "Big Girl Day". No more rice cereal and baby food, time to move on to whole milk in sippy cups and real table food! This is what mommy sent to school for lunch today.

Abigail also rode in her big girl car seat for the first time today. This will provide her with much needed room. She has been pulling down the shade on her first car seat and propping her feet up on it. Clearly, it's time to move up.

As soon as she's walking on her own she'll be moving up to the Junior Toddlers Class at school. This could be in a matter of weeks! What a big girl!

Water Table Fun!

I had to post this video from Abigail's birthday of the girls playing at the water table. They are each in their own little world. Emmaline on the left is focused on her red boat, Abigail is tapping her blue boat on the side of the table, and cutest of all is Caroline on the far right having a little water snack! What a great gift! Thanks Katie Maechler for the recommendation!

Abigail Grows Up in One Day!

Or maybe in the past few. . . Today was an especially big day for Abigail! She is growing up so fast, learning and doing several new things each day. Here are some interesting things/new accomplishments since she has turned one:
-she can feed herself a few bites with her spoon
-she has started pouting (I am not super thrilled about this one)
-she thinks "no" is funny, and responds with "BA!" and smiles
-SHE HAS LEARNED HOW TO SCREAM!
-said "naa no" (for "night night")
-she loves to turn on lights, and will reach for the doorknob when coming in and out of rooms
-and she can ride her horse all by herself! She is really enjoying her new horse, and her "horse sounds" is just precious. Watch this video and I'm sure you'll agree!

 Today she: -said "bye bye"  and reached up to try to open the door for mama when she came home from work! When daddy asked her if she wanted to ride horse, she crawled over to her room because she knew that's where horse stays!

This was the first time Abigail really rode horse all on her own, so I was so nervous the whole time filming that she was going to fall off!

Abigail's First Birthday

Abigail had a wonderful First Birthday! We celebrated Saturday, April 14th with family and two little friends and their parents. Abigail wanted to invite the two little girls that she was baptized with, Emmaline and Caroline. It had been a long time since we had a play date with all three girls, so we told her, "Of course, they can come!" I must say, she was a very good sport, but unfortunately, the birthday girl was not 100%. . . she had a fever two days before her party and had developed a pretty nasty rash on her bottom that was clearly different from diaper rash. We took her to the doctor Sunday after her birthday and she was diagnosed with impetigo, and started on antibiotics. We are still seeing spots! I must say, nearly a full week later, her skin is finally starting to clear up.

                  Here is the spread.

The very yummy cake, designed (not made by) mommy - white cake with buttercream icing, with a layer of strawberries inside - it was a big hit!

And here is Abigail's smash cake which went virtually untouched. Even when we put puffs in the icing and tried to get her to dig them out, she still was not into it! It didn't help that I accidentally popped her in the face with the string of her birthday hat. . . Ah well, cake is in the freezer for a rainy day! Abigail received two big gifts from Mommy and Daddy, who just could not resist. The first was her very own stuffed rocking horse, complete with "real horse sounds", which a few days later, she now tries to imitate! She is also able to ride the horse all by herself now, which will be talked about later in the post "Abigail Grows Up in One Day"

Here are some pictures from the birthday weekend!

11 Months Old

 Props are often required to help us try and get a good pic. they are not always successful.

Finally! We got her looking straight at the camera AND smiling!

At 11 Months, Abigail is a lot of fun. She is very busy and all over the place as you can see in the above pics! She crawls very fast and is walking well while holding onto our hands or a walking toy. She also likes to push the laundry basket around the house. She is getting better and better at turning! Also as of yesterday, April 7th, she can stand along for a few seconds!

--She is also saying "uh oh", baby, mama, dada, and other various precious babbling.
--She can also follow simple commands such as drop this, point to mommy's nose, or clap your hands.
--After her bath she likes to hold the brush and brush our hair and has even started to brush her own hair.
--She loves to read.
--She likes to help clean up her tray after she eats.
--She can hold a banana on her own and take a bite.
--She squeals with delight whenever she sees our kitty, Sophie
--She likes to point at things.
--Weighs 21lbs 6oz and is quite tall I'm sure since her pants are quickly becoming capris!

We can't wait to celebrate this precious girl's FIRST Birthday next weekend!

Mommy is Funny

Check out this video! You will be cracking up! Abigail was. If anyone ever tries to tell me that I am not funny, I am going to show them this video. I'm not sure if Abigail was just in a really good mood, or if I caught her at just the right time or what, but as you can see here, she is having a blast!! I was playing peekaboo and jumping out from behind the wall.