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!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

I can't believe another year has gone by. My little girl is two years old today. She's so much more a little person than she was this time last year. Last year she had just learned how to walk, was working on basic talking skills and looked like a toddler. Now...now she looks like a kid!

She is so active and fun, she certainly keeps Jenn and I busy all the time. With me she gets her rough playtime in. She likes to sit on my lap and jump, use my legs as a balance beam, race me through the house, play in a house fort, chase the dog, help me wash the car and all kinds of other things.

Now that she's able to communicate with us pretty well using words, its even more fun with her. You can actually have a semblance of a conversation with her. She's got a fantastic memory as well. She'll start talking about something and it will take Jenn and I a couple of times before we realize what she's talking about because its from a few weeks back or so. Amazing!

She's extremely loving at this point in her life. I've worked with her for 2 years on hugs and I think the effort is paying off. Often when I ask for a hug she tell me "no", but if I offer one up like a pink one, or a blue one, or a "bone crusher" then she'll often relent and wrap her arms around my neck. She's also pretty helpful around the house, and does fantastic keeping things relatively clean.

Like I said, speech-wise she's doing fantastic. She's reached that "sponge" state and just everything that you say to her she repeats back or at least she tries to repeat it back to you. Its awesome to hear her talk and watch her learn new things and words.

In short, I love my little girl. She amazes me every day and I'm very excited to watch her grow up and become an amazing woman!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

So here she was a year ago. For me, the most striking contrast to now is her hair. The difference of hair for her makes her look completely different from how she does now. This time last year she was already walking, but pretty slow at it. Similar to the "baby" year, I don't particularly miss her toddler year either. I've loved watching her grow up, but at this point, nothing can beat where's she at now. She's been amazing over the last year, which I'll talk more about tomorrow.

Monday, July 11, 2011

This is a multi-part series that I'll wrap up on Wednesday, which of course just happens to coincide with Abbi's second birthday. I thought I would reflect back on how different Abbi is in just two short years. This is a picture from about 10 days after Abbi was born. She is laying on Jenn's shoulder sleeping away. Something she rarely does now, and never willingly volunteers to do. Not like back then. I don't particularly miss these days, but its nice to go back and see what she used to be like. I know Jenn misses the actual "baby" days.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

This one is for my parents. Last year they got her this swimsuit/bodysuit thing that would allow her to float, given that she had any idea what she was doing. Jenn got it out this summer and Abbi HAD to wear it. So this Monday at our friends pool we put her in it to see how she'd do. She liked the suit, but now how she did in the water so it was back to the basic swimsuit for now.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Our weekend looked a lot like this. Abbi spent a good bit of her time wet. I love the camera that I have because it enables me to take pictures like this of Abbi with the water splashed up all around her. This was a couple of weekends back when she was playing in the front yard. I love the smile on her face here.