We've got a walker!

After taking her first steps about three week ago, Abby seemed to take a break from the whole walking thing.  She would take one or two steps here and there but that's it. We figured she must have decided to take her own sweet time.

Then yesterday, all of a sudden, she just took off. And this time it wasn't a handful of steps, but across the room walking!

Look at her go!

First Mother's Day

I absolutely love being a mom to Abby and it was so nice to be celebrated as a mom yesterday.  Eric, the amazing husband he is, took over all the cooking for the day and was just so sweet, letting me relax the whole day.  He surprised me with a super pretty necklace and earring set - it was like a birthday all over again!  Abby was an amazing baby all day, well except for the sudden, though brief crazy panic-like screaming fit she had in the afternoon.  She's done that once before and I really don't know what she needs or what is wrong when she does that!

Other than that, it was was a wonderful first Mother's Day.

Thanks to all the wonderful mothers and women in my life!

Abigail - 11 months

Dearest Abby,

What a fun month this has been!  You have grown so much these last few weeks, its incredible to me. 

You are so fun to watch, play with and spend time with. I am so lucky to be your mamma.

The biggest development this month was by far you taking your very first steps.  It blew me away to see you do that on your own. You still seem more content to hold onto mom's finger than to strike out on your own, which makes sense since you can sure cover a lot more ground that way. The most steps you have taken at one time are just a handful, less than ten.  You are standing on your own a lot more, though. 

Really its no surprise you have started walking, with all the practice we put in!  Besides the laps done at our apartment, we spend plenty of time walking outside.  You love to go on long walks with mom, no stroller or ergo, just you and me walking. By long walks, I mean maybe a couple blocks, but it sure takes awhile.  Speaking of the Ergo, you aren't as big of a fan of being carried. You want to be out on your own feet now.  Though you have certainly warmed up to being in the stroller.  On these long walks you have to stop at every plant to touch the leaves and flowers, along with frequent stops to pick up rocks or other items to carry with you on your walk.  

Another fun first for you was learning to clap.  We have been trying to get you to clap for a while now.  You seemed close because you could hold two small toys in your hands and bang them together, and you like to hit your hands up and down on things.  But just this last Sunday during breakfast, you suddenly realized that you could clap.  Now you do it all the time!  And you are combining your new skills by standing up and clapping! I love how happy it makes you!

This happiness has (finally!) extended to your bath time.  I think we can officially say that you now like bath time.  It has taken 11 months, but the past week you have been splashing away and so excited to play with your toys.  Now the challenge is to keep you from standing up in the tub!

You are definitely the mobile baby now, and it is reflected in the state our house is in after just a short time of you being awake.  Your new favorite game is making messes, then more messes, and then some more. Pulling things out of dresser drawers, cabinets, or bins and flinging them as far as you can are the principal components of this game of yours. We have luckily only had one dish casualty so far when Mom realized a second too late that it probably wasn't a good idea for you to be in the cabinet that had our ceramic bowls...

You want to explore everything and get so mad now when we try to take anything away.  You are like a dog in the way you scavenge the floor for anything to put in your mouth.  I can't seem to sweep frequently enough to keep you from finding little treats.  

Speaking of eating, you sure love to eat. You like pretty much everything, but your favorites would probably be banana, tofu, sweet potato, and cheerios. More than once I have found you sitting on the floor with the contents of the diaper bag around you with the bag of cheerios in your mouth, sucking and biting on the bag. You also like to steal other babies cheerios at church.  I think we've finally gotten our routine of eating and nursing pretty much down so that the timing works well while still following your cues. We are still really liking doing the baby led weaning and the plan is to follow it through all the way, to let you wean yourself off of breastfeeding. I am continually grateful that we have been able to have this breastfeeding experience. So grateful. 

Some other things you love are your books, your cloth blocks, playing with your little ball toy thing, and dancing. You love going to the zoo now and especially like seeing the fish and orangutans.  You finally started to smile when we put you in the swing at the park, though we will have to work on the slide.  You weren't so sure about that one when I helped you go down the little one. You love to play peek-a-boo and sometimes you like to hide your own face and pop out.  So adorable. 

You are such an amazing, wonderful little girl.  You bring so much joy into our lives.  We love you so very much!

Love,

Your Mamma

 

  

  

  

Birthdays

We celebrated my birthday last Friday!  I turned 28 this year which according to my little sister, is 'old.' I don't feel old though, so we will just forget that.

I love birthdays and really any holiday, and this was definitely a fun one. Thanks to my super sweet husband. In the days leading up to my birthday he kept telling me that Abby was planning my birthday so I was excited to see what she had come up with. :) Eric took over cooking for the day, starting with cutting a mango for our morning yogurt.  Abby and I then spent part of the day at the zoo with our friend Sam and the other part of the day was spent by Abby sleeping an extra long nap (2 1/2 hours!!), which was definitely a good birthday present.

Eric came home a little early from work, shut me out of the kitchen, and cooked up a storm.  It was smelling amazing, but he wouldn't tell me what he was making.

He surprised me with a completely Indonesian meal.  I have never even made anything Indonesian (don't ask me why) so it was definitely a treat.  And it was delicious!  

After dinner we left Abby asleep with a babysitter (yay!) and went dancing at Balboa Park.  It was a ballroom dancing lesson/dance which we have done once before and really enjoyed.  It was so nice to be out on our own like that.  

We came home too tired to make the Indonesian dessert Eric had planned so we shelved that for another night and enjoyed the yummy cake our babysitter and good friend Sam had brought over for me.  

Yay for birthdays!

Our attempt at making martabak manis (a sweet thick pancake-like dessert with chocolate and peanuts) a couple days later.  Didn't quite turn out... but still so fun!  And brought back memories!

(me celebrating my last birthday in Indonesia, with martabak manis) 

Video - Abby taking steps

Finally got a couple decent videos of Abby walking.  She took a break after her first steps last Saturday and we didn't see any more until Friday.  But we have convinced her to do some more for us.  So fun!

When you're low on shampoo...

I did it. I cut my hair all off. Well, it feels like I did.  I finally worked up the courage to cut my hair and donate it.  I tried back in September and chickened out at the salon, but today I went through with it! And it wasn't as traumatic as I thought it would be. Still getting used to it, but I don't think it looks too bad. Abby didn't run away from me when she saw me, so that's good too. 

What do you think?

Before

 After

Our first garden

I guess, it's actually our second attempt at a garden.  But that first time was such a failure it can hardly be counted.  We had decided to be super ambitious and grow everything from seed.  Yeah, never even saw a sprout. This time we decided to start small and easy.  We got four already growing little herb starters and pots. Abby and I put it all together yesterday.  She thought it was great because of all the dirt and I had quite a hard time keeping her from ripping our plants apart. She didn't seem to understand that Mommy wanted this garden to last more than one day!

So we'll see how well my little helper and I will be able to keep this little herb garden alive.  I guess either way, we will just have fun with it!