Huntsville Trip

We finally took a little summer vacation. A weekend trip to Huntsville to visit friends. Abigail had a great time with Grace (almost 5) and Jackson (2&1/2). We enjoyed hanging out with friends, playing on the swings & in the sprinkler, going on walks, grilling out, going out to eat, visiting the Botanical Gardens, and Abigail LOVED playing in the Woolsey's big fun playroom. Thanks Woolsey family for a great visit!

Here are some pics from our visit to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens

Headed into the Children's Garden

Getting lost in the flower maze

Daddy and Abigail in the butterfly garden

There was a scarecrow contest going on at the gardens. Families and companies designed scarecrows with different themes. Abigail LOVED the Elmo scarecrow. We had to go back a 2nd time after the butterfly garden to see Elmo again. 

Walking around the gardens. . .the perfect time to work on Touchdown!--just in time for football season.

We are out of this world!

First Authors

Most Wednesdays, we attend story time at the library where MiMi (far right) has a children's program. How cool is it that your grandmother is a Children's Librarian? We love it when Mimi does the program, but sometimes she has guests. Wednesday, Abigail got to meet her first real authors and illustrators of this book, Herman's Journey, a true story about a caterpillar going on a trip with them and turning into a butterfly along the way. Thanks Mimi for buying us the book and the fun caterpillar finger puppet!

*(actually. . . these are the 2nd authors that Abigail has met, because she has obviously met Grandmama who has written her own book. So, these are her first children's book authors.) 

This is often what Abigail does during story time. . . wander around! She often has her own agenda for the morning. Snacks are often required to keep her sitting still for 2-5 minutes at a time. Ah well, I think (hope!) this is within the range of normal for 16 months. . .  

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16 Months

At 16 months (+3 weeks, she'll be 17 months next week), Abigail is truly a joy. She is constantly learning and there is never a dull moment. She never ceases to amaze us with new words and actions that she learns after only a few trials. We could really teach this kid anything. Her mimicry is stellar. She loves to walk very fast to the point that she is practically running, and at times will not sit in your lap for very long before squirming out and getting into the next thing. She has learned the word "no", and she knows what a "no-no" is, however at times she chooses to do things that are no-nos, like pour her milk out onto her tray, and throw her bowl or plate on the floor. She does not do this often, but I fear there may be more of this in the future. We have done a one minute time out here and there, but not often enough to really have a system down. She is a good eater, and I no longer have my anxiety that she's going to be an extremely picky like her father was. She still signs some, but is adding in words with her signs, and usually says "more" instead of signing it. We were impressed that she quickly picked up the signs for "Grandmama" and Grandaddy", since she can't say these words yet. She often signs "all done". After she's all done with her dinner, she'll wave her hands over mommy and daddy's plates if we haven't quite finished eating as if to say to us, "hurry up and get all done!" She can say "Abby", but is still working on Abigail. She likes to listen to songs in the car, and likes to have the ABCs sung to her and will try to sing along. Daddy has taught her the hand motion for "touchdown", just in time for football season, and she can also do hand bumps and give high five and hugs. Sometimes, if we're lucky we'll get night night kisses. She used to always give us kisses before bed, but lately, she has become a little stingy with kisses. Sometimes she is so eager to get in the bed, that she doesn't seem to have time for this! She sleeps very well, 12+ hours each night plus one 2 hour nap at home (sometimes more!) and usually naps 1 to 1&1/2 hours on her cot at school. She likes to say, "night night" whenever we're finished reading a book. She loves to blow bubbles and get the mail. She loves to dance (more like bounce), and we are working on jumping with help from mommy. She will point out a baby whenever she sees one, and will say hi to just about anyone.

I am baffled when they tell me that she does not talk that much at school because she is very verbal at home.
Here is our word list so far: Maybe we are being generous. . . she really is generally only saying the first syllable or so of these words, (i.e. ba, ma, da, etc.), but there are some words like mommy, daddy, hi, bye, bow, bubble, bible, knee, & baby that she says very distinctly. Thanks Eric Carle and Bright Baby books for helping us learn animals and colors!

Mama / Mommy
Dada / Daddy
Mimi
Papa
Nana (Aunt Nan)
Jojo (Uncle Joel)
Doe (Uncle Dale)
Lala (Aunt Lauren)
(Signs grandmama and grandaddy)
More
Milk (ma)
Mail (also ma)
Ball 
Bee
Baby
Bow
Weee (as in what you say when you go swinging)
Apple (papple)
Pear
Uh oh
Night night
Bye bye
Hi
Book
MINE - I cannot believe she has learned this word - we are in for it now!!!!
Water (wa-wor)
Rain & Cheese - she can say these but doesn't say them often
Oh no! (This is our favorite phrase right now)
Yay!
Abby
Bath (also ba)
Bag (also ba)
Boo boo
Knee
Shoe
Dog (da)
Please (pee, or bee)
Bible
Bubble
Poo poo
Pee pee
Diaper (pie-per)
Potty ? (she says Baa-ti, and we are not sure exactly what this is)
Choo Choo (does accompanying hand motion-learned this when she saw trolleys in downtown Memphis)

Animal sounds:
Neigh
Meow (again this is ma; whenever she sees a cat, she says, "ma")
Woof woof
Moo moo
Baa baa
Ssssssss (for snake)
Whoo Whoo (for owl)
Roar roar (Raa raa for lion and bear)
Ooo ooo ooo (for monkey)
Fish (she makes a fish face-also thinks turtles are fish)
Oink oink (usually this is just "uhh, uhh" but one time she said "ainey ainey" for oink oink!)
And did you know that a duck says "ma, ma, ma, ma, ma"?

Colors: just getting started! Usually blue is her first guess
Purple
Blue
Yellow (yay-yo)

We love you Abigail!

Abigail's First 5K!

Bright and early this morning, we headed downtown for the "Titans Back to Football 5K". We were already excited about football season (some of us more than others), but this was a very fun event to get things started. It was great running onto the field to end the race. When we first signed up, Rich and I were planning on running on our own. We were thrilled to find out that strollers were allowed, 

so Abigail could join us and have her first 5K!

 Here we are at the start line

We are headed up over the Cumberland River towards downtown - first big hill! 

Down the back stretch. I didn't mind taking the stroller on the downhill.

Running with Daddy

We got to run through the players field entrance tunnel.

Here we are headed out towards the finish line on the field! 

Here she is wandering around after the race.

After the race, Abigail enjoyed pushing the stroller. 

She likes that there is a spot on the stroller that she can push, just on her level. 

Rich loves the Titans! 

Family pic on the field after the race. 

My makeshift Jake Locker jersey. From the front it looks totally legit. 

I thought "1ST 5K" was fitting for Abigail's jersey. 

 On the field with Daddy

I think Rich will be teaching this little girl a lot about football. 

Cheerleaders cheered us on at the start and finish line, 

and we got to grab a quick pic with a few of them.

Since we had the stroller, we were given a special exit off the field, headed right towards the locker room! 

Headed out after a great race, Go Titans!

She Can Say Her Name!

She has got Abby down. At one point she says, "Abby-aaahhh",

then "Abby-gaaa", which is so close to Abigail!

Bye Bye Swing Set

All our hopes, dreams, and future fun times on this swing set,
dashed in the night by this large falling tree. 

Abigail assessed the damage. She stared for a long long time and then simply said . . . . . 

"uh oh".

Our Growing Girl

I was told today by her teachers that Abigail is really into exploring and becoming much more adventurous. During outdoor playtime at school, she went out of her comfort zone of the area around the swings, and ventured over to the big kid area with the slide. And, she ate salad?!?!? This was hard for me to believe since she has never eaten salad at home, but apparently if you cover it with honey mustard, anything goes.
Today she also said, "Yay!", and showed her teachers that she knows what a train/trolley says, "choo choo!" They have not been lucky enough to see hand motions yet, but I'm sure she'll show them soon. Choo choo comes from her visit to Memphis where she saw trolleys downtown. She also tried to jump in the kitchen today! This might have been encouraged by mommy who still had "Jump Your Jiggles Out" or some other nursery rhyme stuck in my head from the ride home. She also thought it was hilarious to hold her hands together and move them around in a circle in front of her like some 80s style dance, and when I copied this, she just lost it! We love you sweet girl!

Playground Fun

Here are a few pics from the playground close to our house. Abigail went down the slide for the first time!

Uh oh. . . Wrong way Abigail!

There we go.

Grandmama and Grandaddy loved catching Abigail at the end of the slide!

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!