Leaves

Last week when Jenn and I were both off we raked up enough leaves in the front yard one day so that Abbi could play in them. Its not that she asked to play in them, but we were hoping that she might enjoy it. She played for about 5 minutes or so and then her interest seemed to wain so we went inside to do other things. But speaking of interest in things, yesterday while we were watching the football games, Abbi spent at least 30 minutes, I'd say maybe 45 playing with some Mr. Potato Head toys. We have this huge collection of stuff someone gave Jenn and Abbi just sat and played on her own, completely content for a very long time!

Toys

The last few days I've been able to spend quite a bit of time with Abbi, and now that Jenn is off from work until Monday we'll all be spending a good bit of time together as a family. Yesterday we spent time together playing with Abbi's DUPLO LEGOs. I bought them for her quite a while ago and she wasn't to interested in them then, but as she's getting older her interest does seem to be increasing which is fun to watch.

Playing with Max

Saturday morning Abbi was playing in her tent and apparently Max was playing wit her. I wasn't able to see any of this first hand because I was thankfully sleeping away upstairs. But also thankfully, Jenn took a few shots of them. Apparently Max was going in and out of the tent with Abbi. I'm sure it was a sight to see!

Big Drink

Abbi's having a bit of a rough week. She's been recovering from the laser treatment last week, and then two days ago she started showing signs of a cold. By yesterday morning she was in full blown cold mode with a runny nose and congestion. So that's still going on today and probably through the weekend. Nothing a little childrens Tylenol can't help fix, but its still hard to see her not so happy.

As for this picture, the other day at Chick-Fil-A Abbi decided to help herself to some of Jenn's tea. Its cute to see such little hands grab on and hold onto a huge-o cup.

Eating Breakfast

Each morning Abbi devours something. A banana, cheese stick, cereal or in this case, blueberries. She loves foot and loves her fruits too. She was chilling on our bed eating her blueberries this morning while I finished getting dressed. She sat patiently eating and when she was done, she made sure I knew and we headed downstairs get on with our day.

Reading

Jenn works with Abbi each night on reading books. I remember when she first started reading they were often upside down and she didn't look at the books very long. Now she has a concept of what the proper way up is and she actually seems to take a few moments to take in the content on each page. Here you can see her looking at one of her books before bed.

16 Months

This time, I'm much closer to the 13th than I have been in the past! Abbi turned 16 months old this past Saturday and just like every other months, she just keeps getting bigger and smarter.

I think the biggest difference for Abbi this past month is her speech development. We've put a larger focus on it for her and she's reacted positively to it. I posted earlier this month she's learned to say "uh-oh" most of the time with proper context and this past weekend she really developed the word "no", unfortunately. She's also got a form of "sock" that she says, and she has her own word for Max, we're just not entirely sure what it is. So she's making good progress, and hopefully she'll get more recognizable words out as we go along.

In other motor development, she's been very interested in coloring the past month. With Jenn's help she's learned how to color pretty well, and it looks like she favors her right hand. She can hold big or small crayons and color on paper, and just about anything else. One big hurdle right now is to get her to color ONLY on paper.

In addition to learning new things, we've had to step up the commitment to timeouts for her. She's still hitting and of course getting into more and more things she shouldn't. She takes the timeout well, usually just standing in the corner patiently waiting to be told she's done. She always shows remorse when she comes out of timeout, so I do believe it is having some positive effect.

I think that about sums Abbi up at this point. She still runs around, everywhere, and loves the dog to death. The other day at dinner she decided to sit on him and see what he would do. He let her sit on him for about 30 seconds before he decided he'd had enough. Its just like the e-trade commercial, only I support her riding the dog.

Shopping

Yesterday Abbi had another laser treatment that went pretty well. This time she does seem to have a bit of swelling, which I'm sure by tomorrow or Sunday will go away. This morning she's already looking better than yesterday which is really good.

As for the treatment, this time when we got in the room she started to cry. We're not sure if she knew where she was or if it was all of the new people kinda in her face. Its also a pretty small room. Once they got her in position, she calmed down a tad, and during the actual procedure (again, its about 30-60 seconds total) she was quiet. Jenn was able to stand next to her head and help her along as well.

Hopefully we'll continue to see improvement for her. I spoke to the doctor before she began and asked her to specifically target the portion of her birthmark closer to her mouth in the hopes of lightening that some as well. It seems they usually start closer to the ear and don't get as much near her mouth, so hopefully this will work well.

And finally, enjoy this picture of Abbi pushing her shopping cart around our living room!

New Faces

About a week or two ago Jenn taught Abbi how to make this face. So now whenever something happens this is the face she makes. It tends to go along with her saying uh-oh these days.

Playtime

Abbi has this tent. She loves it. I'm not sure why, but she loves it. The other night she was playing in it and running back and forth between being inside the tent and over to the stairs. She would go into her tent for a minute or so and then emerge with this huge smile on her face and go through her routine all over again. She's really an awesome little girl!

Uh-Oh

This past weekend Abbi discovered how to say "Uh-Oh". Its clearly her new favorite phrase/word. She says it well and usually with context. However, she is prone to saying it at random as well. So thankfully we're now able to add another word to her list of words. She also getting pretty good at a rendition of "mine" as well as "ock" for sock. There's also some form of "look" coming out in the form of "ook", we think.

Exploration

Abbi definitely has an independent streak in her. When we went to the farm she went off looking around touching things. There are times when she doesn't want anyone, she wants it to be just her in her own way. And then there are times when she isn't satisfied unless someone (usually Jenn) is holding her. Ahhhhh kids.

Standoff

This picture implies that Abbi and Audrey were having some kind of standoff about the balloon last weekend. In fact they were just getting ready to chase each other up and down the hallway. Abbi was chasing after Audrey who was running around wild with happiness about her balloon.

Playing and Climbing

Abbi really seems to like the outdoor playset that Jenn picked out for her. She's playing on it quite a bit, and I'm sure once the lull of late fall and winter ends, she'll be very anxious to get out there and play on it some more.

I realize that I haven't really shared much in detail about Abbi in the recent weeks and its not that I don't want to share, its just that she is progressing like normal. Each day we work on new words with her, and try to reinforce the words that she already kinda knows. We're struggling to get her to consistently say the same things, but there are things she can easily say like ma or mama, da and dada, doggie, look and I'm sure a few others I can't quite think of.

Dressed Up

Jenn commented to me on Sunday as we headed home from church that she enjoys getting Abbi dressed up for church each week, something fun about having a little girl. She definitely looked very pretty on Sunday, pretty enough for me to take a picture of her! Here you can see her standing outside the building smiling at someone, not me of course, but at least she's smiling.

Cinderella

Abbi was Cinderella for Halloween. Saturday we went to a kids party at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace. The hookup was a connection with Jake's parents who live up there. Abbi seemed to enjoy herself and after the party, Audrey and Abbi had a ton of fun running around the house together playing!