Friday, December 30, 2011

My person philosophy, so long as I make this post within the month in which it belongs, I'm okay! So here it is, my update on Abbi for 29 months, or 2.5 years.

We had one holiday (Thanksgiving) and a big vacation (Disney) happen during the past month. Thanksgiving was good for Abbi because she got to spend some quality time with my parents, as well as time with her cousins. Its always nice to see her play with them. Especially Attila. They play really well together, and really seem to enjoy one another's company.

Obviously the big even over the past month was our trip to Disney. It was so amazing to see Abbi's face and watch the pure joy she expressed as she got the opportunity to meet the different princesses. The same goes for watching her meet Mickey and Minnie. It was pure joy on her part. I can't really imagine what it would be like to meet something from TV and believe that its really them, like she probably did.

She did fantastic on the plane, on the bus ride to Disney, on the bus rides to the parks, sleeping in the hotel. I mean she was fantastic. I'm sure we had some bumps in behavior, but on the whole, she was a fantastic little girl, and I know Jenn and I had a good time with her because she had such a good time.

As for Abbi every other day. She still as sweet as can be. When I get home each night she's happy to see me, and after dinner she wants her Daddy time. So we play, usually rough since Jenn can't do that at 7 months pregnant. I enjoy our time together, and I really think Abbi does too. I can't wait to spend more with her!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I spent a good bit of time leading up to Christmas putting together this table for Abbi. Its a basic IKEA table that I painted and changed somewhat. The standard top I painted with chalkboard paint, then I took 1/4" plywood and created two more "tops" for it. One is LEGO that you see her with here, and the other is dry erase. As you can see from her smile, she loved the table, and I can't wait to play with her at it.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Here's a cute picture of my little girl. Not much else to say I suppose. I took this picture after the stunt show at Hollywood Studios. I'm confident we bribed her to get this shot, but regardless, she looks cute and has a great smile on her face!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The first day in Disney World Jenn decided to let Abbi pick out a temporary tattoo. After much deliberation on Abbi's part, she decided on a baby Sleeping Beauty one. She loved it. She talked about it during the day, and the next and the next. It was a good icebreaker for her and the actual Sleeping Beauty princess she met the next day as well. What I found really "funny" was the stuff written around the choices stating it was good for a week. Not really. By about 2 days later, it was seriously faded and a good bit gone. Abbi didn't care though.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Our first day in Disney World we went to Hollywood Studios and after getting sunscreened up, Abbi was taking a look at the map. I love this picture. It conveys they she has some kind of idea what she is looking at it, and I just love it.

Friday, December 16, 2011

The last princess we met was Snow White. The other three are all indoors in this "princess room" that you wait to get into and then you can see all three one at a time and then you're done. Its really nice to only have to wait in a single line to see three people. Once we were finished with them, we headed outside and noticed Snow White who Abbi was very interested in meeting as well.

Once we finished waiting in line, about 15 minutes in this case, Snow White came over to Abbi and took her hand and walked her over under the tree she was hanging out underneath. Abbi took her hand and walked with her no problem, it was really cute. Snow White talked to her and gave her a hug, which now that I'm thinking about it, all the other princesses did as well, I just didn't photograph that aspect. Abbi really seemed to enjoy meeting the princesses, and I know she's excited for me to print her up some photos to play with.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Last in line to be met was Cinderella. Abbi talks about Cinderella but I don't know if she's ever actually seen any portion of the movie, but she's got paper dolls and stickers and princess books that talk about her, so she clearly knows who she is. The woman portraying Cinderella, just like the other women was very nice to Abbi and again got down close to the ground and talked with her and tried to make her feel comfortable. This is the only princess she actually smiled with too.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Today we've got Belle. She's from Beauty and the Beast in case anyone out there didn't know. She is Abbi's favorite princess by far (even though she opted for a different tattoo). She was super excited to meet her, but very nervous to actually get close to her. This Belle got down on the floor to her level and talked with her and tried to make her feel comfortable which was really nice to see. The reason her mouth is open here is because she's exclaiming that she's meeting Belle. I'd prefer a picture of her talking to me than not smiling or crying and such.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

So the next few days I'm gonna share pictures of Abbi and the princesses she was able to meet last week, and maybe give a little more insight into each one and Abbi's experience.

So first off was Sleeping Beauty. She had it easy with Abbi. The day before Abbi got a temporary tattoo on her hand of "Baby Sleeping Beauty" and so that was an easy starting point for her to work with. With that as an in, Abbi was a little more open to her and willing to be photographed with her without Jenn next to her. Abbi didn't really smile in any of the pictures, but thats not the point. She's still talking about meeting them, and thankfully unlike last time at Disney, this Sleeping Beauty was very nice.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

When we were visiting my parents last week, my mom gave Abbi some jewelry that her sister had sent to her to give to Abbi. As you can see here, she loved the necklaces and bracelets, and rings. So much so she had to wear them all at once. She did after a while decide that Jenn should be wearing the silver portion of the jewelry, so she shared that part of her stuff.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Last Friday for Thanksgiving we went down to see my parents and after dinner, my dad wanted to show Abbi some lawn decorations that they had put up. Abbi was definitely interested in seeing them, but not so interested in posing next to them. I managed to snap this picture off before she started to stand behind the figured and hide her head between them. I found it particularly funny to watch, and she of course had fun playing hide and seek.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The biggest development for Abbi in the past month, especially a parents perspective is that we're "done" with the laser treatments for Abbi's birthmark. I remember the first day she was alive in the hospital and the nurse came in to talk to us about our options and how to move forward. I'm very thankful that we live close enough to a fantastic hospital like Johns Hopkins that was able to treat her and work with us to reduce the presence of her birthmark. Even though its always there, after almost 2 and half years it is a lot harder to see at times and I'm incredibly thankful for it.

Abbi is also old enough now that I'm pretty sure she understands that we won't be going back to the doctor anytime soon. She at least seems to understand, and be happy about that fact.

This past month we got to celebrate another Halloween with Abbi and now that she's older that means more that she can do. This year she got to decorate and help carve our her first pumpkin. Once I cut out the top of the pumpkin, Jenn and Abbi were going to clean out the insides. In a classic face of "no!" Abbi was grossed out by the pumpkin insides and wanted nothing to do with cleaning them out. She did however thoroughly enjoy putting her stickers on her own personal pumpkin.

Also, with it getting into the holiday season (especially since its taken me an extra 10 days to write this), Abbi is very aware Santa now. Being the twisted person I am, I like to tell her things like "Santa will eat your brains" and such, to which she doesn't understand, but still tells me "no". When asked what she wants for Christmas, she goes on a long story about Mickey, Minnie, Goffy, Donald and so on, and usually repeats herself a few times. She's even a little afraid of Santa coming to our house and leaving presents. And I'm not entirely sure why, because I haven't made any jokes about that...

Just like the other months, she keeps growing and getting bigger and smarter. Some days she's got this nasty little attitude and others she's the sweetest kid you'll ever see. I love her the same both days, I just hope for less attitude and more sweet as we go along!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

I post pictures of these two somewhat frequently it seems. Probably because they get photographed together pretty frequently. Regardless, here's a shot of Abbi and Attila that I took Saturday at Brandon's championship football game. If you're curious, Brandon's team lost :(

Friday, November 18, 2011

The other night (last Sunday I think), Abbi helped me print out a set of pictures of Jenn's students to be hung up on her bulletin board. Abbi played with the pictures, sorting them and laying them out over the next two days. Once the pictures were at school permanently, Abbi decided to get out her cards and do the same thing. Here she's in the process of cleaning up her cards after having spread them out all over the floor. With the student cards she impressed us, because without our suggestion she chose to sort the boys from the girls. And on top of that, she gave me the boys and Jenn the girls. I love my little girl!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Yesterday while we were watching the Ravens game, Abbi decided that she wanted some paper so she could draw/write for a while. I thought she looked really cute hunkered over the paper working so intently on writing things down. Just prior to this I had traced around her hand to draw a turkey, so I think she was mimicking that behavior and making her own again.

Friday, November 11, 2011

I know I've said this before, but pictures like this make me glad that we have friends like Ange and Jake, and I hope that as the girls grow up they'll continue to be good friends a have a lot of fun together, just like they did last week on Halloween.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Last Thursday, a week ago today, Abbi had her "final" laser treatment to try and lighten/remove her port wine stain birthmark. I'd like to think that we've had really good success over the past 2 years with her treatments. She went a total of 11 times for treatment, plus our initial visit when she was just a few months old. Its crazy to me now to think about how long ago it was, and all the emotions that Jenn and I felt when we first took her into the see the doctor.

The doctor that we saw each time was amazing. She was always very caring and took time for both us and especially Abbi. There's not much you can do to calm down a 2 year old, but they did the best they could and they always made sure to help accommodate Jenn and I as well.

Abbi did about as well as usual this last trip. She's fine in the waiting room, but once she heads back to the actual treatment facility she realizes what's up and get upset and starts to cry. Then of course she absolutely hates being strapped down, which I know has always been the hardest part for Jenn to watch. We've clearly had success in removing the part of her birthmark that ran up the center of her forehead and there's been significant lightening on her cheek.

Moving forward, we just kinda keep a watch on it and if we think she needs to go back, take her back and let the doctors take a look at it. They recommended that we bring her back in before she starts school if we don't end up bringing her in before then. It has certainly been an emotional process over the past 2 years with Abbi, but I know I speak for both Jenn and I when I say that I'm glad we did it. I'm also very thankful to have such great doctors nearby and so readily accessible to us.

As for this picture, as you can see, with or without birthmarks, she's a smiler. She loves to smile and does so all the time. I can only hope that as she grows up she continues to have such a happy personality.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

In addition to carving our family pumpkin, Abbi got to decorate her own little pumpkin. At a recent birthday party she got stickers to decorate the pumpkin and we put them to good use on hers this year. She really seemed to enjoy putting all the little stickers on the pumpkin and in her words, giving it a "scary face".

Monday, October 31, 2011

Yesterday was Abbi's first foray into carving a pumpkin and the case of this picuture, her first experience with the inside of a pumpkin. As Jenn was cleaning it out so it could be carved she asked Abbi if she wanted to help pull the guts out. No interest from Abbi, and as you can see, she was actually quite disgusted by the thought of it.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I took this picture specifically to highlight Abbi's little braided ponytails. I'm not sure if they are any kind of specific braiding, or just braided in general. Regardless of my understand of this, I do know she looked super cute. And I like this view of her with the pumpkin in her hands. She had fun looking for a pumpkin among all the choices. She understood clearly when we told her she needed to pick one that she could cary herself, which she did.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

I love this picture of Abbi. When we were cleaning up the trailer before heading home after vacation she was in the bedroom finding different things to play with, this was one of them. She on her own put it up to her nose and made this incredibly cute face. These day (and then too) Abbi has really started to develop quite a vivid imagination about things. I commented to Jenn on the way home Sunday that Abbi was talking up a storm, and it happened to be to herself. Just having her own little conversation.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Jenn loves to buy Abbi two piece bathing suits. Each year we've gone to the beach, Jenn has made sure to have one ready for Abbi and this past summer was no exception. Here you can see our little cutie smiling away in her little two piece. Also notice the heart tattoo on her arm.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Abbi LOVED Frontier Town this past summer. I mean she LOVED it! That was the day that we devoted to her enjoyment, not that the other days weren't for the entire family to enjoy, but our trip to Frontier Town was really for Abbi. She spent the majority of her day playing in the 18 in. deep pool area that is enormous. She could go down water slides, jump off things into the water, and just lounge around if she felt like it. There's also a lazy river that we navigated a few times, but since its just sitting and floating its not the height of fun for a 2 year old. And as you can see by her smile, she had a great time.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Another month gone by and my little girl is that much bigger. This past month we had the opportunity to take Abbi to her first amusement park, and she had a fantastic time. She was slow to get started, very cautious about the rides but once she rode her first one she couldn't wait to get on all the others that were nearby. It was really cute to watch and fun to see the amusement park experience through Abbi's eyes.

As Abbi gets older, its interesting to me to see her establish opinions and routines for things. She definitely has learned behavior from Jenn and I, but at the same time, there are things that she does, that are all her. When she says bye to people, she runs up and gives them hugs around their legs and says bye, very clearly. We didn't teach her this, its just what she does. She's also a fantastic mix of both Jenn and I. She has her calm, contemplative states sometimes, which are very Jenn-like, and then she's got other moments where she is just wild. Very Drew-like. She'll run around the house for 5-10 minutes straight, just running end to end, and we wonder where all the energy comes from.

She's also become a little repeater factory. Almost anything she hears she tries to repeat it back. I shared a video the other day showing her saying the word paradiddle. She's still saying it, even though she has no clue what it means.

As for development, she's finally nailing down some colors. She's got orange, pink, green and purple all down. If you show her something that is one of those colors, she can recognize it and tell you that's what it is. She's got her numbers, up to 12 now, but she still hates 8. I'm not entirely sure why. She's tons of fun to play with, and I find myself truly enjoying the time I get to spend with her each night, doing something with her. If its playing LEGO's with her, eating pretend waffles, her helping me build a 6ft. storage rack, racing around the house, or her just sitting on my lap playing a game on the iPhone. I enjoy my time with my little girl.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Here's another picture of Abbi related to her new baby brother. Before opening the bag of Hershey kisses to photograph them, I had Abbi hold up the bag, and what I love about this picture is her smile and the words "its a boy" written on the bag. She of course loved being photographed and eating the candy!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Last night Abbi, Jenn and I were playing in the office and I asked Abbi if she could repeat the word "paradiddles". Its a percussion term for one of the basic rudiments. She repeated it back to me fantastically and then proceeded to say it numerous times. I was incredibly proud as you can imagine, so I had to get a video of her. This is her rendition of paradiddles using plastic frying pans.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Despite the fact that we are trying to educate Abbi with regards to the sex of the coming baby, she still refers to the baby as her "Baby Brudder-Si-ter" all the time. I took this picture of Abbi after we were finished with the sonogram two weeks back, and from that point have been trying to tell Abbi that he's just her Baby Brother, not sister too.

Friday, October 7, 2011

After we finished up one of the rides at Hershey Park, Jenn and I headed over to the get some lemonade. This lemonade stand happened to also sell cotton candy. Once Abbi saw it she decided she had to have it. So I told the attendant that I wanted some and he asked what color. Abbi was saying blue, but once he saw she was a girl, he offered her to choose between pink or blue. She choose pink. As soon as she had it in her hands, she started to wail because she actually wanted the blue one. So a quick switch and she was elated, and had a blue mouth, as you can see.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The other night while Jenn and I were working in the office to get it cleaned up Abbi pulled out the drum pad and started playing. She's really quite good, especially for her age and the weight of the sticks. I really hope that as she gets older she'll want to get involved in music, and hopefully she'll want to be a percussionist. There aren't enough girl percussionists in high schools these days.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

This post title is apparently Abbi's new name. We've been working with her on her last name and tonight she decided that her name was Abbi Wheel. So there you have it, introducing for the first time....Abbi Wheel. At Hershey on Saturday, Abbi had her first chance to ride the Ferris Wheel. She was a little apprehensive at first, but by the time she actually got into the car, she was fine. She loved the ride. As you can see here in the picture she was clearly happy. She talked about seeing her wheel all week and when asked what her favorite part about Hershey Park was, it was of course - the wheel.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Not that Abbi knows the difference between the Redskins and the Ravens, but she's my little buddy. I also have a #47 jersey and happened to be wearing it the same night Abbi wore her jersey. She seemed to understand that we had matching jerseys on, and she liked that. I liked that she was supporting the skins for once, and not just the Ravens. At this particular point she was playing around in the kitchen in one of the cabinets, not for any particular reason, other than she felt like it.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sunday the Ravens had a late game. The Redskins didn't get a chance to loose until Monday night, so I had some spare time. Abbi and I went out to wash the car. She didn't really last long with me before she was enthralled with the puddle at the bottom of our driveway. Once she was into the puddle, there was no getting her out. She proceeded to play in the puddle and subsequent spray from the hose the entire time I washed the car. I took this cute picture of her at an earlier point, before she was completely soaked.

Monday, September 26, 2011

I finally got around to finishing the edits on Abbi's two year pictures. Its been a long process, mostly because I haven't been able to dedicate the time necessary to getting through all the pictures of her that I took. We went out in two different sessions to get pictures of her back in early July. One evening we took her out by the water near our old townhouse and took some pictures of her at the beach. This is one of those pictures. What I love here is her smile and of course the pig tails.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

This past month we had a development with Abbi that Jenn and I hadn't really dealt with before. A sick little girl. Abbi spent the better part of a week sick. She had a high fever for a day or so, and then that translated into sluggish behavior and just overall quietness. You know when Abbi doesn't feel good because she gets really quiet and lethargic, and for almost a week thats all we had. Thankfully though, that is past and she's back and better than ever.

Abbi's continued to make strides in her speech and memory. She typically uses 5-6 word phrases as this point, and sometimes rattles off huge long thoughts that make you wonder where its all coming from. Just like before, her memory is amazing. She's been coming up to me in the evening and saying "sing my song for me daddy". I have a song that I'll for her that she likes to dance around to. She'll clap her hangs, stomp her feet, spin around, and jump. All kinds of fantastic kid things.

The other big moment of this past month was Abbi's transition into a big girl bed. Jenn and I decided that she was ready for the upgrade so we moved her into a full size bed. She certainly seems to sleep better with the new bed too. She's always been a big mover and roller, and now with more space she seems to sleep better. That's not to say she doesn't still join us at night, but its less often.

And then finally, not so much an Abbi only development, now that we've had another month in our new house as a family, its awesome to see Abbi have a large amount of space to play and grow up. I'm incredibly happy that she'll have the space to grow and a place to call her own from now on.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Friday we all went to an Orioles game and of course that meant a few pictures. I took this one of Jenn and Abbi later on in the game once they had both put on their Ravens sweatshirts.

Monday, September 12, 2011

A couple of weeks back when the hurricane hit, we got Abbi in her rain coat and headed over to the townhouse to make some last minute wind preparations. She loved wearing her raincoat as you can see here. She didn't actually head out in the rain with this on, we instead wore our matching Niagara Falls ponchos for that, but she does love her raincoat.

Friday, September 2, 2011

This is one of the cutest pictures of Abbi from her birthday party. I was sitting quite a few feet away from her as she opened up her presents, and at one point towards the end, she looked up at me and smiled real big like this. Perfect picture!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Abbi loves her slip and slides or as she calls "sip and side". At her birthday party we set up a pair of them so that the kids could enjoy themsleves and get nice and wet. What I found interesting about Abbi was that she didn't really do to much with them until a lot of the kid had left (after opening presents and eating cake). Then she was all about playing on it with Audrey and Anna.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The other day Abbi and I were playing together after dinner and I asked her if she could mimic a facial expression. As you can see below she was easily able to recreate the expression and then add to it some of her own personality!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Sunday morning after the hurricane rains had passed but the winds were still wiping around we went outside to assess the damages and I took this picture of Jenn and Abbi. Sometimes, like this picture, Abbi actually smiles when you ask her to, and she of course looks super cute at it! You can also see her wearing one of her favorite shirts, her "Oriole" shirt.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Sunday after church I wanted to get a picture of Abbi in her dress since she looked super cute. I wasn't having much luck getting one of her while she was wandering around the yard, so I got her up in one of the patio chairs we have. She loved that and I was able to get a nice smile out her.

Monday, August 22, 2011

After Abbi finished opening up her birthday presents we headed into the kitchen for some cake, obviously. We got Abbi a little ice cream cake for her birthday and then made cupcakes for her party. Since it was "her" cake, we let her have at it after she blew out the candle!

Friday, August 19, 2011

I've finally gotten around to posting some of the picture of Abbi and her birthday. I've started by posting pictures of her from her actual birthday when she opened the presents that we got for her. One of which was this Belle shirt that she loved that day, and has loved wearing it since.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Abbi loves the new house. We love that she gets to have her own room that has some good size to it too! The other night Jenn and Abbi were in her room putting things away and Abbi put 4 different hats on her head at once. She of course found me to show me her success and I of course took a picture to preserve the moment!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

So with Abbi turning two, I'm still going to write about her from my perspective each month, but I'm no longer going to count the months, I'm moving more towards a decimal system, so this month, she's now 2.1 years old. I realize she's not actually 1/10 of a year older, my system will go up to 2.11.

So, with that - she's still a ton of fun. I think each month she gets more and more fun. This past month we had the opportunity to take Abbi to the beach again and over the course of the week she got more and more brave and had a fantastic time out on the beach. She was fun to watch, play with and especially take out in the water. Its fun watching her experience new things that are old to Jenn and I.

Last month I commented that she's like a sponge, well now she's like an even bigger sponge. She's graduated way past 2-3 word sentences and will now often rattle out 4-12 word sentences. Complete phrases. Her memory is amazing too. She remembers vividly our trips to baseball games, me skydiving, a friends pool party 2 months ago. Its absolutely amazing.

I thought that when kids were this young they weren't very smart. I was wrong. She constantly amazes me and makes me an extremely proud father. She's very loving and recently we seem to have had a breakthrough with some of her more violent lashing out moments. Which is always good.

Today was Jenn's first day back at work as well so it starts another year of day-care for Abbi. I haven't mentioned before, but one of Jenn's summer goals was potty training Abbi and she was very successful. I'm wary of talking much about Abbi and this only because stuff on the internet lives forever. So I'll say in short, she's good to on all fronts and learned it incredibly quick. We're very proud of her!

Monday, August 15, 2011

When we were at the beach I woke up one morning to Abbi telling me over and over that it was going to be a "shopping day". So that evening after the beach we cleaned up and headed out to go shopping. She had her own little purse with money of her own to spend. Very cute.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Down at the beach Abbi wore this hat that Jake and Ange got for her from Sesame Place when the visited recently. She wore the hat our to dinner and "shopping" but before we headed out she was playing with me by hiding her face under the hat and I was going over and moving it back up. This is the resultant smile I got from that playing.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Last week when we were refrigerator shopping, Abbi and Jenn wandered off to look at the lawnmowers at Sears while I talked to a salesperson. Once I was done I came over to see her sitting on one, and so of course I had to get her picture. This one is for you dad.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Recently Abbi has started calling Max, Maxy as Jenn and I often call him. I suppose it just took her time to realize how we referred to him. I took this picture yesterday of the two of them lounging on the floor together, Abbi eating some pretzels.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

This is a picture of Abbi and Audrey playing in a chair together. At the time they were rocking in the chair and kicking their feet furiously all while eating cheese wheels. I'm really glad our good friends have a daughter that's close enough in age that her and Abbi can play together. They really seem to enjoy one another's company and I hope as they grow up they can stay good friends.

Monday, July 18, 2011

This pictures a little old, its from back in April when we visited Philadelphia. I was wandering around and Jenn and Abbi stayed back in the car. I looked back and this is what I saw. Jenn had opened up the moonroof on the car and there was Abbi, sticking her body out enjoying herself!