Friday, July 23, 2010

I have no idea how long its going to last, but Abbi has entered into the "baby doll phase". She loves her little dolls and loves to carry one around with her all over the place. She's cute of course, but if you try to take it away from her, she's none to happy about it usually. Jenn seems to think its super cute as well.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

She's officially a little girl now. She's had her first paint job done. The other night Jenn and I worked together to paint Abbi's toenails. She didn't really seem to mind all that much, and once it was done she was definitely intrigued as to what we had done to her. She looks cute walking around with her little feet all painted up.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Continuing on the trend from yesterday, this picture today is of Abbi's birthday cake that we had for Abbi on her actual birthday. Jenn figured that since Abbi didn't have any ice cream during her birthday party she should get her an ice cream cake. Abbi loved the ice cream cake and we thoroughly enjoyed sharing it with her.

And to mom, I will get a picture of Abbi playing with her kitchen real soon.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

This picture isn't really of Abbi, but it is of Abbi's gift from us and her balloons that we had to decorate and celebrate with. In the big box with every ribbon from Saturday's party is her kitchen. Its a little plastic kitchen that is one height now and then when she's taller we can lift it up and it will be come taller and hopefully more fun for her all over again. She did good opening the box and seems to love the kitchen.

Monday, July 19, 2010

On Abbi's actual birthday we of course celebrated with Abbi. This week I'll be sharing pictures from last Tuesday regarding the different aspects of her big day. Since it was her birthday we of course took pictures of her with a card stating the date, and as things have been going recently, it was incredibly hard to get her to sit still and let us take a picture of her with the card.

Of the pictures with the card, I think this one turned out pretty good and actually kinda represents Abbi at this point in her life. She's all over the place these days with her walking and desire for exploration!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Yesterday, Abbi went to the doctor for her one year check up. Here are some of the highlights:


  • She's good and healthy!
  • She's up to 22 lbs now, putting her in the 70th percentile for weight.
  • She's 31.5 inches long, putting her in the 95th percentile for height.
  • No more formula. We're now giving Abbi whole milk for her bottles. Over the next 3 months we'll be weening her off the bottles completely, something I'm definitely looking forward too.
  • She got four shots and seemed to do well after getting them.
  • Her speech is right on track, and she's on the right track!

Oh, and she looks super cute in her chair here!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Since it rained on the day we had Abbi's party, we decided to invite people down again on Sunday to enjoy some time outside with the water inflatables on a day with some sun. So we had a few of Abbi's friends over and we played on the same stuff again Sunday that we did in the rain on Saturday. As you can see, Abbi had a great time!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

I can't believe it. Abbi turns one year old today. I was telling her this morning that maybe it sounds better to be 12 months old. Its a bigger number after all.

This past weekend we had Abbi's party to celebrate her first birthday and hopefully everyone involved had a great time. Even though it rained, we were still able to head outside with the kids and watch them enjoy the water activities. I think Abbi especially likes the slip and slide, given that she's a natural little daredevil.

So much has changed in the year that she's been alive. Yesterday Jenn and I reflected often about where we were in the delivery process throughout the day. Basically all day July 12, 2009 Jenn was in labor. It wasn't until early in the morning that Abbi was finally here. She was from being this tiny little newborn who couldn't do anything, to a little kid who can walk and regularly communicate with us the things that she wants. Its amazing!

She's walking like a champ now, cruising all around the house. I'd say she's down to probably 5% crawling, and thats really more as a last result or use or creative maneuvers, like getting around my legs, or something else in her way. She's into just about everything. Under the cabinets. In the refrigerator. In the trash can. On the sofa. Off the sofa. In a chair. Out of the chair. I mean she's everywhere, all the time. Its really cute to watch her walk around they way she does.

She's getting back to talking again after taking a bit of a break. She's gotta mama, or mom down pretty good. She's got dada down as well. We're confident that she's also picked up wawa to indicate she wants her drink. This morning we were telling her to jump and she was doing her best. She also yells "ma" sometimes at Max, so I think she thinks she's saying his name. They get along well, although I'm still confident Max resents her being there. Hopefully as she gets older and plays with him more, he'll warm up to her.

She's using all those teeth the best she can. She's got 4 up top, 3 on the bottom and one bottom molar. She can eat anything in sight and loves to do so. She is truly as kid just like Jenn and I. We love to eat, and she loves it too. I can't believe the amount of food she's able to put away sometimes.

She's nothing and everything I expected all rolled into one. I never expected that I would love her as much as I do. She's definitely a special little girl to Jenn and I. Its amazing how much things change in just a short year. A year ago we had no kids and were perfectly happy. Today we have Abbi and we're even happier. She brings a new level of enjoyment to our family and certainly to my life. I look forward to the days in the future when she'll want to sit with me to read, play legos, or barbies, or talk about stuff, watch movies, tv, and anything else she wants. But for now, I'm definitely content to enjoy her walking around the house like she owns the joint and helping her learn how to love.

Happy Birthday Abbi. We love you!

Monday, July 12, 2010

We assumed Abbi would devour her birthday cake. We were right. It just took her much longer to get going than we expected. Once everyone moved away from her after singing Happy Birthday, she took more interest in the cake and went at it. I think had we let her sit there until she was done, she would have eaten the entire giant cupcake. Here you can see her covered in frosting, and shoving more into her mouth! There are ton of picture online from the party, check them out here.

Friday, July 9, 2010

A few mornings back Abbi must have been pretty tired. Jenn and I were up and about and she was still snoozin on the bed. I took a couple of pictures of her doing so. I love how calm and relaxed she is. Just peacefully sleeping away, in a bed WAY to big for just her.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

The other night I was taking some pictures of Abbi being Abbi and in between playing with her ball and other things, she saw Max's tattered rope and picked it up. She immediately walked over to Max and offered it to him, which she gladly accepted.

Tug

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Here's a picture of Abbi and Damien enjoying a slide ride together. Damien enjoyed helping Abbi go down the slide, even though she's perfectly capable of riding on her own.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Last week with the boys in town we went to plenty of playgrounds. One we went to had this tic tac toe you can see in the background. I played against Brandon and Damien, beating them both at a game I was confident could only be a draw. Abbi helped out by moving my pieces into place with a little help.

In Abbi news - we're now at less than a week to Abbi's 1 year birthday. Its amazing and her party is even closer. This Saturday we'll be getting together with friends and family to celebrate both her birth and the fact that we've made through a year as new parents. Jenn is hard at work planning and such, and we're both hoping the scheduled rain comes either really early in the day or late in the evening.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Ahhh sunglasses. Abbi has her own, and we've actually gotten her to wear them for like 3 minutes without pulling them off her face. One day (hopefully soon) she'll realize the benefit of them in keep the sun out of her face and won't pull them off so quickly. That however doesn't negative the humor of adult sunglasses on her tiny little face.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Abbi decided that she was going to try and go up the ladder on the playground. She didn't really get much farther than what you see here. It was cute though.

In other news - we have our first negative 'first'. Two of our nephews are staying with us this week and one of them, Damien, is celebrated his 7th birthday yesterday. Grandmom took the boys, Abbi and Jenn out to lunch and then took Damien to Toys R Us to pick out his present. This is where the bad part comes in.

Abbi apparently threw a nice little tantrum in the store, and just wouldn't stop. She didn't want anything in particular, she just didn't want what Jenn was trying to do for her, which at the time was hold her. So she cried and screamed until Jenn put her down to avoid embarrassment. I'm sure this won't be the last, but it is unfortunately the first of many.