Have I mentioned before that I love my little girl. Because I do. She's the sweetest little girl around. Even when she's not. There's still a little ball of sweet in there just waiting to come out.

Almost as if she was waiting on being three to change, days after turning 3 Abbi starting talking differently and showing us different things. She's really picked up on the pluralization of words, not the proper way, but now she seems to understand the concept of plural when talking, and its of course cute to watch her.

She's starting to sing a lot on her own now too. Before she would sing songs occasionally, but not very often. Things like the ABC's, and she would always demand that you sing with her, but recently she's been branching out ans performing on her own.

She wrapped up her first session of dance class as well, so it was really good to get Abbi involved in a program outside of our family and home. And next month she'll be starting a program for kids 3-5 (I think) at our church as well as starting back up with dance class again. So thats all very exciting for us and her.

Going back to my thoughts though, I love this kid. Its crazy to think about how much one little kid can change your life, your outlook on things, and your attitude, but thats exactly what Abbi has done for me. I look forward all the time to the days in the future when we can sit down and have intelligent conversations with each other, but honestly, right now, I kinda hope she stays just like she is for a very long time. She's incredibly fun to be around, play with and interact with, and while I look forward to more engaging conversations, I'm sure they'll only pale in comparision to the passion she exhibits when talking about Merida or Puss N Boots.

Abbi 3.1 Years

The other day we were outside and Abbi was insisting that Cole sit at the picnic table with her. As you can see he seemed to enjoy his stint at the table. He's really been coming in to his own regarding some personality and interest recently. Its really awesome watch it all happen again. Its also incredibly funny to see Abbi do things to make him laugh, and watch him crack up at them.

At the Table

Jenn and I regularly ask Abbi what she wants to do. Her usual response "Play". I love it in its simplicity. This is a picture of her playing with some of her Duplo before Jenn or I got involved. She put up the additional walls all herself, so I was very proud.

Wanna Play

I really want to explain this picture. I was in front of Cole, talking to him. Jenn went inside the house and then started talking to me so Cole did this fancy roll over maneuver so he could see Jenn. I of course thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Who's There?

I took this picture of Cole last night, and I love it. He sat there like this and looked at me for a good two minutes. He just had this look of complete boredom mixed with complacency. I love it!

Boredom

Last week Abbi wrapped up her first session of dance class. It was a series of 6 sessions, once a week over the summer. Since there was no official "recital" to conclude the summer series, they let the parents attend the last class.

Abbi did fantastic! She did most of the moves, and definitely listened well to her teacher. Jenn and I were both super proud of her, and thought she did an amazing job (although what parent wouldn't feel that way).

Dance Class

Wow. I can't believe how quickly the last 6 months have gone by. I'm about a week late on this post, but its been a busy week.

Now that Cole is 6 months old, the biggest change for him is that he now has teeth. Or tooth to be more specific. One of his two bottom-center teeth has come through. So of course with all that teething, there has been significant pain for him, but he seems to be doing well with it. Just like Abbi did when she was teething.

Cole still sleeps like a champ, and now he's starting to eat like one too. He's always been very regular and reliable with his feedings, and now that we've brought solid foods into the mix, if possible, I think he's even more reliable with it. After mastering multiple tablespoons of cereal, he moved onto bananas and now he's got a few new foods lined up to try (green beans, and avocado to start).

The other development for Cole is that he is now able to sit up on his butt on his own. He's been working on it for a few weeks but he has just now really gotten the hang of sitting there and enjoying life in the upright position.

He's yet to go to the doctor for his 6 month checkup, so no updates yet on his height and weight, but he's gotten bigger, thats for sure!

6 Months

Cole loved the beach. He definitely got some sand in his mouth, no where near the amount Ellie got in hers (but then again she can crawl to the sand to eat it). He enjoyed putting his feet in the sand, and rolling around on the blanket. When we took him down to the water to put his feet in, that he wasn't soon keen on. But we think he had a good first time at the beach.

Beach Boy

While at the trailer Abbi found all kinds of random things to play with. One of them was this brush that she decided was going to be her microphone. I love her imagination!

Microphone

Cole's got a tooth! Tuesday Jenn noticed that Cole's first tooth had finally broken through his gums. Its one of his bottom center teeth. Abbi was very excited for him proclaiming that now "we all have teeth".

Teeth!

One of many pictures of Abbi from our recent OC vacation. One evening we were out on the beach taking pictures and having fun, as well as flying kites, which you can see here Abbi was holding down very well. She had a great time with the kite this year. This year she wanted to hold it and control it unlike last year when she didn't care at all.

Kites

While on vacation we put Cole behind the wheel of the car to see what would happen. Quite awesomely he put his hands on the wheel and pretended to drive. Jenn was able to get this awesome picture of him.

Behind the Wheel