Four years

Four years ago (June 27th 2009) I married the most wonderful man.  It was the best decision of my life - and surprisingly the easiest one for a pair of terrible decision makers! It felt right pretty much from the very start.

(Not the best pictures, these were our self-portraits that we took during our 'date' after Abby went to bed last night)

We have had an amazing fourth year together, with a baby, new job for Eric, and lots of hard and fun times. Here's to year 5!

Abby's first birthday!

Our Abby girl is one!  We had a lot of fun celebrating this amazing little girl.  

The Saturday before her birthday we had a group birthday party with our playgroup friends.  The babies were all born within about a month of each other (except for little Riley who was born in September), so we celebrated everyone's birthday at once.  

The mammas and their babies. 

We had tons of food, the babies got to run around and play, we got to chat with the other parents - it was great. The party was a pool party and Abby went swimming for the first time. You can tell from her face that she thought it was just okay.  That was how she looked pretty much the whole time. The other babies were laughing and splashing but Abby only cracked a couple smiles the whole time. 

Noel made this great watermelon 'cake' for the kids.  I loved it.  So did Abby, she couldn't stay away from it.  She devoured quite a bit of that pretty cake! I will definitely do this type of idea for other birthdays, I think it's so fun!

We had some real cake for the babies to dive into as well.  Well, sort of real. These mammas had their different requirements and I had to try to fit that all into a cupcake and still make it taste good.  So we had some sugar free (all fruit sweetened), egg-free, dairy free cupcakes. These requirements were also for the frosting - it was a sweet potato, fruit puree, cocoa frosting. Interesting is all I have to say.  Quite the experiment.  Didn't really taste like a cupcake but it wasn't bad.  And the babies all loved it!

Abby and Brooke sharing their cupcakes.  By share I mean Abby walked off with Brooke's cupcake.

All the babies.  Abby is obviously not too happy about this photo shoot. 

Riley, Sebastian, Brooke, Abby, William

 Still not happy.  But pretty cute.

On her actual birthday, we kept it a simple day with just us. Abby and I went to the beach to play in the sand, something she loves to do.  Since she hates the water right now, I got to keep her in her pretty birthday dress the whole time. :)

Abby unwrapping her first birthday present.  She got her very first set of beach toys! 

Isn't she beautiful!?

Watching a helicopter go by.

Just being cute.

After the beach and a nap, Abby got some quality rock time.  Another favorite past-time of hers.

Then played with lots of birthday balloons.  She had fun with them, but didn't get as excited as I thought she would.  I guess we'll try again next year. 

She got a bottle of bubbles for her birthday so she played bubbles with Daddy

After her birthday dinner of sweet potato curry, it was cake time.  Now, I spent way too much time analyzing how I felt about the whole birthday cake thing. I really cringed at the idea of giving my baby girl a sugar filled, butter filled non-nutritious glob of cake just because that is the tradition, when she has been perfectly content up to this point not having sweets. But at the same time, I don't want to completely forbid sweets as she grows up because I want her to learn that there are no 'bad' foods and it's ok to have sweets in balance.  But she is so little, why should I have to give her something like that now? Eric can tell you that I went back and forth on this a lot.  He got a little sick of it, I think. I was just about to make a watermelon cake but he finally piped in and said that we didn't make a cake for either of our birthdays (this is true) so we should have a cake for Abby's.  So I consented.  But I still couldn't bring myself to make a completely unhealthy cake.  I made a banana blueberry cake with a cream cheese whipped cream frosting.  The only sugar was a little in the frosting (the cake had a lot of bananas to sweeten it).  And it was yummy!  Tasted more like banana bread than cake, but it was good. 

But, of course, I really shouldn't have stressed so much.  Why?  Abby didn't eat a bite of cake.  She tasted some frosting and then handed her cake to me.  Oh well. 

I also made a berry frozen yogurt which she liked much better.  See how happy she is after eating her yogurt!

And now she is one!  What a fun day we had with her!  

Abby - 12 month stats

Here is how Abby weighed in at her 12 month check-up on Monday:

Weight: 18 lb 12 oz (10th percentile)
Length: 29 3/4 inches (75th percentile)
Head circumference: 17 3/4 inches (50th percentile)

Pretty much the same she has been - long and lean. I've been meaning to gather up all of her numbers from her doctors visits and chart them, just for fun.  Now that I've got a whole years worth of data, I'll have to actually do it!

The doctor said that it looks like some of her top teeth are coming in soon.  About time!  She got her two bottom teeth on Christmas and hasn't had anything else since. So maybe we'll be seeing some soon!

Abigail - One Year!

June 7, 2013

Dearest Abby,

This might be a hard letter for me to write, little Abigail.  I sure am having a hard time realizing that my baby girl is one year old.  It's a bittersweet day for me.  I love seeing you grow and each new day is more fun than the last, but at the same time I just want to grab you and keep you like you are.  Or go back to those first days and just hold my newborn baby again.  I have been thinking a lot this week about what each of this days was like last year.  The last day before you were born, my feelings when my water broke and I realized you were so close to being here.  The moment when you came out and I held you for the very first time.  That was such a beautiful day Abby, one I will always cherish.

Then I think of the year that has passed.  Those first weeks (that turned into months) that were so very difficult. The breastfeeding nightmare we went through (and conquered!!). Then you first smiled, and laughed and I realized that you weren't always going to be crying and screaming at us. Each milestone you achieved as we watched in awe.  It's so incredible that this little girl running around is the same little baby that I held in my arms 12 months ago.



This last month has been such a fun one.  One of the best yet, that is for sure. Your biggest accomplishment is that you are a walker, of course!  You took your first steps April 27 (when you were still 10 months) and then took your sweet time until May 23rd when you just took off! It sure surprised me to see you go from a couple steps here and there to going straight across the room.  You absolutely love this new found ability.  You walk around and around the house and love when we go places where you have more room to practice.  Your balance is incredible - you hardly seem to fall at all now.  When we go places (like story time at the library, or other group gatherings) you love walking around and up to each person to check them out. You really love being around people and get so excited when we go places.

You have started another cute thing.  When you are sitting on the ground you will every now and then do what your Daddy calls the 'bum swivel' where you use your legs to turn yourself around. Sometimes it is to reach something easier, other times you just do it because you can.

You went into a pool for the first time this month, at our playgroup group birthday party.  I wasn't sure how you would react since you have had a not so happy relationship with water.  But you did pretty good!  You weren't as excited and happy as your other friends, but you were calm and even cracked a couple smiles!  You still hate the ocean water, though.  I take you down each time we go to the beach to see if you will warm up to it, but you seem to be even worse now than before and start freaking out before we actually get to the water.  We haven't even been able to go walking on the wet sand recently because you get so upset.  So we spend all our beach trips in the sand, which you do love.

You are very much more stubborn now than before, I think.  You definitely get upset more easily if we take something away from you, go one direction when you wanted to go the other, or if I even just hand you to Dad.  He is sure looking forward to when you act a little more like you actually like him, Abby!

Sleep has gotten a bit more difficult again. You are fighting nap times more often, you sure make it known that you would rather keep playing.  It's gotten to where we have to sing and rock you almost asleep in order to put you down without you going into panic screaming mode. You have also started a not much appreciated habit of waking up earlier in the mornings.  5:30 seems to be a favorite time now.  I think maybe it's because it's getting lighter earlier now?  Our room definitely does not stay dark in the mornings. So we need to figure out a way to fix that.  Because that is sure earlier than your parents want to be awake!


You are much more independent now.  You especially love to sit on your own and read all your books.  It's adorable how much you love your books. You want to try to do things on your own, like walking without Mom's finger when we go on walks, or wanting to try going up or down stairs on your own.

You have started handing things to people.  Sometimes you will even do it when when ask you to. This is a very useful skill, Abby, keep it up. You also think its funny to offer something, then pull away at the last second. Little tease! Though sometimes you just do it without necessarily thinking its funny...

For a while now you have loved emptying things out of any container or space possible - toy bins, diaper bag, shoe basket, cupboards, etc.  But this last month you acquired a new skill - putting things inside!  You seem to have an understanding now that things belong places. For example, if you take the bottle of hand sanitizer out of the pocket in the diaper bag, you will put it back inside.  And then repeat this over and over.  I first noticed this when you were playing with a shape sorting toy where the different shaped blocks fit into spaces on a little wooden truck/wagon thing.  You already loved taking them off over and over when I would put them on. Then one day you started putting the shapes back on!  Not in the right spaces, but back on. Wow.  My little girl is so smart!

Oh, Abby, what an amazing little girl you are.  I love your cuddles and hugs and smiles.  I love sitting and reading books with you while you snuggle up next to me.  I love exploring with you - finding all the best rocks and flowers to smell outside.  I love watching you get so excited each day to just be alive.








I love you.  Everything about you. Happy birthday my baby girl.

Love,
Your Mamma

  

Abby takes a walk at the park

Abby gets better every day at walking.  It is amazing how quickly she has picked it up.  She definitely prefers walking to crawling now and she sure can get around fast!