It was by chance that I happened to get this picture, but afterward Jenn commented that she often does this at home. She'll have her drink on the floor and instead of picking it up for a drink, she'll just bend down an drink it this way. It must be nice to be flexible!

Bending Over

Over the weekend we dealt with a short bout of Abbi sickness. Lucky for us it wasn't to bad, and she recovered quickly. Friday she was out with a fever pretty much all day. Cranky that night, and sluggish. Then Saturday, about mid-day her fever broke and she started to pep back up. Like most kids I'm sure, she lost her appetite with the fever and was very sleepy.

But, once the fever was gone, she was back to her usual rambunctious self, running around the house tearing through things. I liked this picture here because of the way the breeze was blowing her hair around, she just looks cute.

Windblown

Abbi is a walking champ now. She still trying to figure out how to run/walk fast, which is what you see her doing here. Its also why her head is down. We figure since she's trying to go faster, she wants to be more sure of her footing, so she keeps her head down a bit. I love how she looks here. Her arms in stride, her feet too, and of course, she's smiling!

Walking

Have I mentioned before that Abbi likes to eat? Man does she like to eat! And she can put it away too! She's working on a McDonalds hashbrown here. We went to McDonalds for breakfast on my birthday and I was able to get this shot of her eating.

Hashbrowns

In each hand she has dog treats. She getting a new one from me, and at the same time giving one to Max. So look close, you can see Max on the right side here (since he's a black lab its a little hard), but he's there taking the treat.

Abbi and Max are starting to get along better. I think its safe to say Max still doesn't care for her to much, but Abbi loves him. She's been regularly feeding him from the table, as we expected and so hopefully he'll grow more fond of her over time. For now though, I think he misses it being just Jenn, him and I.

Treat Feeder

At Quiet Waters park I wanted to take the opportunity to try and get a few shots of Abbi in a setting that's not our normal in the house photographs. I'm very happy to have gotten a shot of her with such a cute smile on her face.

This morning Jenn got her dressed, in pants since its a bit chilly today, and did her hair up in a ponytail (which only lasted about 5 minutes from the wrath of Abbi). With her pants, and shoes and ponytail, man she looked like a big kid. I can't say "old" because, well shes tiny. But she certainly looked like a big kid. She's amazingly smart, which shes showing us each day with all the things she does. Jenn had a long day yesterday to start the school year, so Abbi and I helped her out with a back rub, and Abbi actually did a little to help!

Smiles

Over the weekend the family took a trip to a local park, as Abbi was quickly walking around everywhere, she thankfully took a few breaks to enjoy some nice cold water. Now that she can walk, she loves to move and seems to get bored quickly if she's left in one place, so she's pretty much always on the move!

A Cool Drink

How about a picture of Abbi from March. She was so little back then, and still didn't have much hair compared to today. It was tons of fun taking her to Disney, even if she didn't actually "experience" very much of it. There's not a whole lot new going on with her at the moment, she's just growing, learning and practicing everything she can!

At Disney

Like I posted on my blog, its my birthday. So I went to the gallery of pictures from last year to find one for this year. Here's a picture of me and Abbi at the Orioles game last year. She was so tiny and quiet. I kinda miss the quiet times, but I wouldn't trade where she's at now for anything!

A Year Ago

I realize this picture is off center, but I still love the smile on Abbi's face. Therefore, I had to share it!

Big Smile

I'm a few days late on this, but not much has changed in the last 4 days!

Abbi is now in her second year of life and she continues to amaze both Jenn and I. I'm not sure where to start with her, so how about teeth and food. This kid still eats like a beast. She's an awesome eater. She's got all 4 molars, and she's finally getting that last front tooth in the front bottom row of 4. So she's basically got 12 teeth at this point.

She's at this really cool stage now where she can watch and learn, then mimic you. She'll do the twist, jump, spin, clap, clean her hands, blow her nose, all sorts of stuff. A few days ago I was painting and she wanted to help. So she painted a small area and then grabbed her own brush and pretended to paint in the air. She's awesome!

Abbi has also started to develop quite a little personality. And part of it, she's developed her own sense of defiance (just like me) that is starting to show. We'll ask her not to do something and she'll think about it and then maybe do it or not do it. I'm confident she understands not to do it, but is instead deciding to do what she wants. The worst part is that if you scold her or tell her no, within in 2/3 seconds she's smiling ear to ear at you. She's to cute to actually be upset with.

So there you have it. She's another month older. Another month smarter. The summer was amazing for both Jenn and Abbi, and now there both back to the routine of school. Abbi's back to the daycare rotation, and Jenn at work. It was really nice to see Jenn spend so much time with Abbi over summer and just get to be her mom.

I'm not entirely sure how to wrap this up, so let me say this - I love my little girl!

13 Months

Saturday my parents visited so that my mom and I could have celebratory birthday lunch together (our birthdays are this week). Of course mixed in with lunch and time afterward was tons of time with Abbi. I was finally able to get a decent picture of Abbi and then this time. At her party she was so tired and burnt out all she did was scream. This is a vast improvement!

Grandparents

One of Jenn's friends gave us this onesie as a gift and the other day Abbi was wearing it so of course we had to get some pictures. We'll do our best to raise Abbi to be a good football fan, and not a junky fair weather fan. Since we're raising her in Baltimore, I've relented and agreed to let Jenn push the Ravens as her primary team, so long as she still respects my Redskins.

Ravenmaniac

I don't know what it is about Abbi and her personality but she attracts the boys. Already. While playing in the pool at Frontier Town Abbi made friends with a few boys. Its not like they were 2 or 3 years old, no they were 7! She's ridiculous, but we love her!

Abbi's Boys

I love this picture of Jenn and Abbi. I have no idea what they were looking at when I took this picture, but they were both clearly engaged in looking at something off in the distance.

Looking

At Ange and Jakes house Audrey has a little play house set in the back yard, when we were visiting this past weekend the girls got some good play time out there, resulting in this cute little picture!

Playing House

So here's Abbi doing a little choreography of all the things she's been learning over the summer. She does the twist, jumps, claps her hands, then cleans/dusts them off. Definitely cute!

Video: Abbi Doing Stuff

While at the beach Jake and I set up a little kiddie pool for the girls to play in. Once we got our chairs and stuff setup, we'd spend 5 minutes or so getting the little pool filled up with ocean water. Abbi wasn't all that interested in playing in the pool, no where near as interested as Audrey, who one day never got out.

Although, Abbi did play in it some, with and without Audrey. Abbi seemed a bit more interested in playing in the sand than playing in the water this year. But, here's a picture of her enjoying both, sand and the pool!

Pool Fun

Let me take a few minutes to share about Abbi. Over the past few weeks we've noticed that she's really starting to remember things and repeat them when asked to do so. She can do the twist for you, jump, clap and shake her hands (as if she's holding something). She's also getting really good at communicating to us what it is that she'd like to do.

Last night after dinner she clearly indicated to me that she wanted to go out back to explore around. She came over to me, tugged on my shorts to get my attention and then walked over to the door. Had I picked her up, she would have put out her hand and pointed to where she wanted to go. Its really cute and awesome to be able to communicate with her. She still can't communicate with words, but she's definitely learning to communicate her needs to us in ways other than screaming and crying!

As for this picture, this was taken in Sunsations after she dropped the umbrella stand.

Talents

I gotta admit, I love the pictures of both Audrey and Abbi. Here they were both coloring together with Angela's help. I don't think Abbi did a whole lot of coloring, but hey - at least she was trying.

Coloring

Since we went on vacation with the Sofinowskis there are plenty of pictures of both Abbi and Audrey together. Here is a shot of them enjoying the wading pool together on the beach!

Friends

We've been on vacation, but now we're back and I'm back to posting. While on vacation, Abbi got her first taste of ponytails. Here is one such shot!

Ponytails