Okie Dokie

So I am a little late posting Abbie's 10 month update - but hey, I've had the week off work and I have managed to stay much more busy taking care of the little pooh than when I am working full-time outside of the house! It's been fabulous though - Eaton made us take a week off unpaid, and even though the $$ part kind of stinks, it was worth it. The good news is that for now, our plant in Asheville is doing well - it was just a company-wide thing and our plant was not exempt. But I feel like my job is pretty secure for the time being, and for that I am thankful.

So Abbie is the cutest thing ever. She is seriously talking non-stop - NON-STOP!!

She says Dada, Mama, Baba (f0r Brandy) uh-oh anytime something drops, and she is imitating sounds and noises we make. She has conversations w/ us all the time now, and Wes says she sounds like a Chinese ambassador. She has the sweetest little voice though.

She is not walking yet, but her little legs are getting stronger. She is waving bye-bye, blowing kisses, giving us kisses and hugs, pointing at everything....

Her eating habits are changing. She is no longer interested in baby food/cereal/oatmeal. She is eating yogurt, and that's about the only thing in the puree form that she will do. She likes mac-n-cheese, bananas, peaches, pears, toast (but not wheat toast much to my dismay), Kraft singles. And that's about it so far. I am always trying to get her to eat new things, but she shakes her head and waves her hand in front of her face. Oh, and she has learned to spit food back out of her mouth. Fun stuff. Oh yea, and this little girl would live on Puffs if I let her. She is also drinking out of a sippy cup very well. I tried a little juice but she seems to enjoy water more than anything. No complaints here.

Sleeping - well, we are still working on that. She is taking better naps though.

For some reason 10 months seems like a really big milestone - maybe it's the double digits??!!

Sleep Like a Baby???!!!

Ha! Since I have had Abbie this phrase has cracked me up. Every time someone says it, I say DON’T say that! It’s ridiculous! Babies don’t sleep - or at least, not that good like the saying implies! I have to face the fact, I have not been given a baby that sleeps really good. Sure, she’s gone through some phases where she has, but they haven’t lasted long and I am just learning to accept that! It’s really ok – I mean, I have a beautiful, healthy child and she makes life worth living. And I have gotten used to about 6 hours of sleep a night, much to my surprise. Now all of a sudden though she is not taking naps! I truly hope for her sake that this is a short-lived stage, as most things seem to be. And honestly, even if she sleeps one hour at a time, it’s better than nothing. She will sleep in the car – like for a couple hours. AND she will sleep in the bed with me if I lay down with her during the day. But obviously neither one of these situations can happen all the time, and so she sometimes she just doesn’t sleep. My grandmother keeps telling me she doesn't want to miss anything. So today as I wrote this, I found some pictures of this little girl when she did sleep – everywhere, anywhere, on her own, for at least an hour at a time. Of course she was so little and everything was different then. It so crazy to see these pictures, really. I just can’t believe she was ever this tiny!!



In other Abbie news, her 9-month check up was last week. She weighed in at 16 lbs, 14.5 oz and was 27” long. Her hemoglobin (iron) was 12, which Dr. Morgan was so happy with! She is also, just in the last week, blowing kisses, imitating us when we blow kisses by saying “mmm-wah” like you would when you blow a kiss, eating cereal bars and some other "adult" foods, drinking from a sippy cup, and SO much more!

Check out this video of her – it’s SO cute!! I have no idea where she gets these moves from – must be her Daddy!! ( :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADVleamcPWc

Growing so fast!!

Here I am again - another month has passed, and I am still not believing our little girl is growing up so fast before our eyes. Abbie is 9 months old today, and she is a true joy to us. Wes said it best tonight - each day she is doing something different, and her personality is developing more and more! We just love her. Even through the teething...she now has her two bottom teeth!...and the coughing, sniffling, etc, that has come with winter, we have endured and just had a great time watching her grow and change with each day. She is definitely a social butterfly. She will stare someone down, strangers usually, until they acknowledge her. Today at Ruby Tuesday's she was waving to everyone, whether they were looking at her or not. And she would just wave and stare until they did! She makes her presence known. Everyone that knows her loves her, I mean really, how could you not, but people fall in love with her quickly. She has become a hit in the church nursery, and she loves it. And at her sitters, Pam's, she is a favorite among all the other kids and their parents! Although she is very social, she is usually very good at self entertaining for a little while too. She loves to play in her room with her toys, in the bathtub, in her pack n play, and in the exersaucer. She has stolen our hearts, and we never could have imagined the joy this child could bring us!

"Dada Mama"

Yep, she’s saying it. And meaning it too, I think.

Last week, I was in her room with her and Wes walked in. She immediately started saying “Dada, Dada!” It was so sweet!

Then yesterday morning Wes had her in bed with him and I was in the bathroom getting ready, with the door shut. I could hear her out there, saying “Mama, Mama!” over and over and when I came out she was looking towards the bathroom door.

Sweet little girl. It melts my heart to hear those words.
I feel like I’ve been slacking on pictures and posts lately, but a facebook (or, as my grandmother calls it “Spacebook”) addiction seems to be taking up too much of my attention in the evenings…

Progress!

I don't have any pictures, but just wanted to share two exciting things tonight -

1) I can actually feel Abbie's first tooth! Can't see it yet, but it's definitely there. I'll keep you posted!

2) Tonight I put Abbie down and about an hour later she woke up. I was able to go in, give her the pacifier, and she went right back to sleep. This was the first time I have not had to pick her up and rock her back to sleep!

That's it. Just a little update from me. Muah!

Bye Bye Month 7!!!

Today Abbie is 8 months old. I must admit that month 7 has not been the easiest on us. Don’t get me wrong – Abbie is still a GREAT baby with a wonderful demeanor. We just love her personality. She is not afraid of other people that she doesn’t know. She smiles at everyone and stares at other children constantly when we are out. She doesn’t miss a thing, ever. But the challenge lies with the sleep. My friend Elisa said the other day “It’s about progress, not perfection.” I am trying to remind myself of this statement! Really though, just when I think I am going to have a breakdown, we have a good night and it brings back my faith that we can do this!! I suppose I should elaborate a little more. You see, before our trip to Florida over Christmas, Abbie was sleeping well in her crib and things were good. Then we were gone for over a week, and I guess it is taking her some time to get used to being home again, and being at her sitter’s again. All last week was pretty bad – she was not going down easily at all and was basically wailing for a long time (even while we held her and rocked her). We were asking ourselves – do her teeth hurt? Does her belly hurt? Is she having separation anxiety? And on and on…She was not taking good naps at her sitters, and I was still trying to keep her up until 8 at night. Then I came to a realization, with the help of friends and more importantly prayer, that maybe she was not getting enough sleep, and that is why it was so hard to get her to settle in at night. So over the weekend she took LONG naps because we were travelling, and I swear she slept so good at night. I was relieved. Last night was a little trying again. I tried putting her down around 7, because she seemed very tired again, but she woke up for about an hour at 1 and had a hard time getting back to sleep. So I think the formula for good sleep at night is good naps during the day, and unfortunately I can’t always control what happens at her sitter’s house. I can try to emphasize to her sitter the importance of naps, but I know sometimes Abbie doesn’t want to sleep because there is too much going on. And she is the youngest, which means she is the one who needs the most sleep. So we’ll see how things go over the next month. Of course I am still not completely convinced I have all the answers…Sheesh, you’d think by now I’d have all of this figured out, but that’s just not the way it goes!

So here is what Abbie is up to these days:

Crawling very fast and getting into everything – she loves power cords, cups, water bottles, and cell phones still. She will grunt real loud if she sees something she wants. It’s hilarious. She is a baby on the go, from the moment she gets up to the moment she goes to sleep.

She is starting to cruise now – meaning she stands up and takes steps while holding on to furniture.

She raises her hands high in the air when you say “how big is Abbie” and we say “SO big!” Now I know I said she was doing this previously, but I think I was a little premature. Now she is really doing it!

She can wave bye-bye sometimes, and it sounds like she is trying to say it.

She is saying dadadadadadada over and over. Every now and then I think she says mamamama but it’s mainly when she’s fussing.

She has no teeth yet! This is another sleep problem we think, because there have been some nights where it seems like she is having teething pain. She just started smacking her lips and chewing on her tongue again this week, and she is drooling like a St. Bernard – ok, not that bad, but I am just trying to make a point here.

She is still eating 3 good meals a day in addition to her nursing/bottles, and she just cut out her noon time milk feeding. She loves all the fruits, and orange veggies – carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash. We give her Yo-Baby and applesauce too. And I just bought some of those teething biscuits from Earth Fare, and she loves them. Oh yea, and so does Brandy : )

She is so sweet when she babbles, but sometimes she gets REALLY loud. We’ll be in a restaurant, and, as our friends that were with us this weekend can attest, she’ll just start babbling at the top of her lungs. I always turn beet red and just laugh. I mean, what can you do?! This is usually a sign that she is about to crash.

Let me end this post by saying that Wes and I are truly blessed to have a wonderful child that God has given us to raise. While this gig is the hardest thing we’ll ever do, we wouldn’t have it any other way. She lights up our life!

Happy Tuesday!