Friday, April 30, 2010

Two weeks ago we celebrated with Jake and Ange the 2nd birthday of their daughter Audrey. One of the toys that she got was this stand and sit and talks a lot Elmo thing. After Audrey had torn through her presents in a very entertaining fashion, Audrey and Abbi sat down to watch Elmo and listen to what he had to say. It was pretty cute to watch.

Sleep Update - she slept from 8pm - 7am without interruption. It was a good night!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

She's now one of those kids. She gets into the cabinets and drawers and everything else. Here you see her working to empty out one of the drawers in our pantry. She isn't able to open that door on her own, but given the opportunity she strikes. Similarly she goes for it all if she sees the refrigerator door open. She also likes to empty out in the bathroom, kitchen sink, and Jenn's purse.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

So...she doesn't really say da da as well as we would like. But you were probably thinking I was going to say she does based on the title, right? Regardless, here's a picture of me and Abbi that Jenn took over the weekend.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Its official. She speaks. Last night she uttered over and over again "ma ma". We've thought for a while she was saying "heeeey da da", but while we thought she was saying that, we're sure she is saying "ma ma". So, April 26, 2010 goes down as when Abbi spoke her first word. Ma Ma.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Just like every other Sunday Abbi was dressed very nicely yesterday for Church. This is one of her newer outfits purchased with my parents a few weeks back. She looked pretty cute so we had to be sure and get a picture of her.

In parent related news, we're exhausted. Abbi has been really unpredictable the last few nights. Last night she was up at 4 am screaming, and then again at 6:30. We're not entirely sure whats up with her, we keep thinking its that she's not getting enough food. We're working to switch her from her jar baby food/cereal into eating what we eat, but its hard knowing exactly how much to give her. So we're working at it, and working through the growing pains.

Friday, April 23, 2010

There isn't much different going on with Abbi this week. She is recovering well from last week's laser treatment and otherwise she's doing pretty good. We've gone back to giving her a bottle at night because she was starting to wake up early and in the middle of the night, so in order to avoid this, we're back to the bottle at night. However, we are working to eliminate the bottle in the middle of the day, slowly working her towards 3 "real" meals a day and away from bottles.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I posted a few weeks back a picture of Abbi and Belle, the chick from Sleeping Beauty. Today I've got a picture of her with Cinderella. The chick from Cinderella.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

This video is from Monday evening. We were waiting for small group to get started and Abbi was crawling around the house like usual so I got out the video camera. I clipped the beginning of the video out because its just her playing with something. I have it start just before she notices me and decided to wave at me then crawl towards me.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

This kid is already obsessed with the bathroom. She loves to be in there. She's enthralled with the toilet, water going down the toilet, toilet paper, the drawers in the vanity, and she loves to make out with herself in the mirror on the shower door. Its nuts. I love the perspective in this picture. I usually try to zoom in, get down to Abbi's level and such, but for this picture I intentionally didn't. I wanted to capture the distance between me and her as I look down at her.

Monday, April 19, 2010

While in Disney and whenever we walk with Abbi these days she loves to put her arms out and enjoy the ride, its very cute to watch.

There have been a few new developments in Abbi-land over the weekend that I'd like to share. The first one is very exciting in that she can now crawl all the way up the stairs. I watched her go all the way up 12 steps, alone, on Saturday night. I was incredibly proud of her. Then yesterday I watched her without fear crawl down the landing at Grandmom's house. Amazing little kid!

Also - on Friday we took Abbi for her third laser treatment. The treatment itself I think went well. She's already healing very well from it and I'm hoping that based on the look of the treatment that we will see some measured progress in the removal/reduction of the birthmark.

What didn't go so well was the experience. The past two times we've seen a Dr. Putgen, however she had a baby in March so this time we saw Dr. Cohen. He's the head of the office that runs this laser setup and as such I was kind of excited to see him. He was incredibly nice, however there were about 5 additional people in the room as medical students and assistant technicians. In the past there has only been the nurse and 1 doctor.

So with all the other people it felt really hectic, and rushed. Dr. Cohen was extremely nice and patient with us to answer questions and get to know Abbi a bit. But the doctor that did her actual treatment wasn't so nice and didn't really seem to be as knowledgeable as Jenn and I would have liked. Overall things went well, but we're looking forward to June when we can go back and see Dr. Putgen.

Like I said before though, she's healing well, and as always she took it in stride. She cried while she was being held down, but once it was over she was fine. She did take a nice long nap that afternoon though! So we're 3 down, and somewhere between 5 and 12 more visits. Personally, I don't think it will take 12. The birthmark has faded tremendously on its own and with the treatment its getting better. So I'm hoping for only like 5 more visits...

Friday, April 16, 2010

Last Sunday we finally got to see baby Dorsey. Since Anna was born last October we haven't had the opportunity to catch up with the Dorsey's and see Anna. So last Sunday we finally caught up. We had a great time, that of course needed to include photographing our children together.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

I love how this picture turned out. I took it two nights ago when we took Abbi's 9 month pictures and it turned out great!

Yesterday Abbi went to the doctor for her 9 month checkup. She's doing great and progressing as expected. She weighs 19 lbs 6 oz. putting her in the 55th percentile for weight. She is 29 inches long putting her in the 95th percentile for height. She's a tall little girl!

She got a shot and didn't cry which Jenn was proud of her for. Also when the doc was checking her out, stranger danger didn't creep in. She just smiled away at the doctor while she checked her out, which is awesome. Hopefully Abbi will continue to have this kind of demeanor. She's good and healthy so we'll keep plugging away towards the 1 year mark!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

She's coming. In the last month she's only gained more confidence and speed while crawling. She can go up and down single steps, like our landing or from one room into another at grandmoms house. She's 9 months old and quickly approaching a year. It really feels like yesterday that I wrote about her being 8 months or 6 months or 2 months old.

The other day we watched her stand up on her own for about 3 seconds before she fell down. So this kid is definitely working her way towards walking. She walks around the furniture with assistance and stands up really well. I have no doubt she'll be walking by the time we have her first birthday party, and I'm sure it will be sooner than that!

I wrote last month she was working on her 6th tooth, well that ones out and now she's working on 7. She's been chomping with those 6 for quite a while and she has a ferocious bite to go with them too. Since she's teething again she's been chomping on anything she can from furniture to shopping carts. She doesn't care, anything to soothe the pain she's goes for it.

Abbi will be going to the doctor today for her 9 month checkup and shots so we'll get to see how much she's grown. We're also getting ready to move her into a new car seat because if she doesn't weight 22 lbs today, she will soon at which point we'll need to transition her to a new car seat for her safety.

As she gets older there seem to be more times when we can actually connect with each other. As much as a 28 year old man can connect with a 9 month old child of course. The other day we were sitting out side together and she was content to sit with me for a few minutes and even give me some hugs, which was pretty awesome. She's very loving and has been accused by a few little boys of being too affectionate. Hopefully this comes to a quick end :)

She's growing up quick. Every kid does. I love her tremendous ammounts and even when I'm tired or worn out, its always fun to play with her and watch her laugh and learn. She's an amazing kid who's getting all kinds of love from her mom and me. And speaking of her mom, Jenn is the most amazing mom Abbi could have ever hoped for. When I've run out of patience, Jenn's got another 8 hours worth to give Abbi. She's amazing.

As you can see in the picture, its also becoming much more difficult to photograph her with a prop. She also likes eating paper, something Jenn hates, and I of course laugh at her amazing show of She-Ra like strength. Below you can see her mid-destruction of the paper card denoting her current age.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Today Abbi is 9 months old. Tonight we'll take pictures of her celebrating this fact and tomorrow I'll write down my thoughts about her to go with a picture from tonight. For today, take a look at this. Here she is sitting in a chair at Minnie's house at the Magic Kingdom in Disney. The chair is huge to begin with, then put an 8 month old in it, and it looks even bigger. Or she looks smaller. I'm not sure which. I do know she looks cute though.

Monday, April 12, 2010

When we went on the cruise we bought Abbi a little stuffed elephant that is made to look like it was made out of towels, like the towel animals on the cruise ship. Its made of terry cloth to further the effect. Abbi has never really cared for this stuffed toy like some of her others.

This new toy, Minnie that we got her in Disney World she really seems to like. She likes to chew on all different portions of her and hold her as you can see here. There are many habits that Abbi never developed like sucking her thumb or a pacifier. But she is starting to develop an affinity for her Minni and her ravens blanket especially.

Friday, April 9, 2010

She's pretty much giving the same blank stare in this picture she was in yesterday's picture, but hey - Jenn is smiling. And the picture was taken at Epcot!

There have been a couple of changes the last few days with Abbi by the way. The last two nights, she has gone to bed a little earlier than before, she's been asleep by 9 the last two nights. She also hasn't had her bedtime bottle. She just hasn't wanted it. The first night we expected she would wake up hungry and she never did. Same thing last night.

Also, we're confident that she's starting to teeth again. She's cranky, real chewy, and drooling a good bit again. My parents got her a teething toy that vibrates when she bites on it, that seemed to sooth her somewhat last night. So, Jenn and I are thinking our little girl will have 7-8 teeth sometime soon!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

It's been a while since I've posted a picture of Abbi and I, so I figured today was as good of a day as any. Jenn took this picture the first night we were in Florida. While we were shopping around at one point I was holding Abbi and Jenn took this picture of us. I think Abbi has a real cute look on her face, so I figured I'd share.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

This kid is everywhere. Very little time goes by before either Jenn or I are getting up to help her, move her, or take something out of her hand. She loves to have both hands full of things, and she loves tings that crinkle and makes sounds. Stuff like the plastic wrapper to a ream of paper for example.

She didn't really crawl around on the grass over the weekend looking for eggs though. This was more of a situation where she was placed very near the egg and then coaxed into picking it up. She liked putting them in her mouth if nothing else, so that was fun. I know Jenn and I are both looking forward to next year when she will be able to run around and pick up whatever she wants!


Tuesday, April 6, 2010

We decided not to buy Abbi any Mickey or Minnie ears while we were in Disney. Since none of them fit her head, we decided that when we return in the future she can pick our her own and enjoy them then. Lucky for her though, this little jacket she wore in Disney came with its own set of ears, so she was good to go either way!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Yesterday Abbi was able to participate in two different egg hunts. There was one at our church after the service and then at the in-laws we had another egg hunt. We hid eggs for the boys to find and Abbi participated a little too. She seemed to enjoy picking up and putting the eggs in her mouth.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Because of the sun, and well her baby skin, we felt the need for Abbi to wear a hat to protect her head. She on the other hand, felt that it was a game. There were periods of time where it seemed she didn't care about the hat, and she would leave it on her head. Others though she would take it off immediately or wait for us to leave her alone, then she'd take it off and play with it. Here you see her with it on surprisingly with Jenn making her laugh about something.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Abbi had her picture taken with three different princesses while we were in the Magic Kingdom. One of them was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Abbi didn't really smile to much at the opportunity to meet the different characters, but it was fun for us to have her meet them and get her picture with them. She may not remember, but we will, and I of course have picture for her to look back on.