Abby: 11 Months Old!!!

OH my, I cannot believe Abby is 11 months old! Time flies!!! Well trying to get a picture of an 11 month old is a feat in itself, but trying to get her in front of a sign is even more difficult. I really need a straight jacket to try and get some of these pictures.

It is amazing how much Abby has grown and the things she has learned to do even in just the last month.

1. Crawling like a maniac, and pulling up on everything. She was doing this before, she has just improved her speed! :)

2. Furniture surfing - she has just started this in the last few days. Pulls up on something then cruises from one thing to another.

3. Walking behind her little walker - I need to get video of this b/c she is hilarious! She gets so excited, she starts laughing and then ends up falling down. Pretty cute, if I must say so myself.

4. Eating "regular" food - we started this about a month ago and eased our way into it. But she eats 80% table food these days. We are almost off the formula ... yeah!!!

Here she is "helping" me get her food for dinner.

5. Starting to talk - she has 2 pretty regular "words" she is using ... Bye-Bye (with a wave) and Bady (for baby as she points to her own pictures or others of children).

6. The point and grunt move - she has gotten very serious about what she wants, so she points and then uh, uh, uhs until you figure it out. Pretty effective, but can be annoying! :)

7. "Asserting herself" - I am sad to say we are going to have to start discipling her. I knew it would happen eventually, but I so enjoyed not having to discipline. She has started being a little defiant. I tell her not to do something, she looks at me, then does it anyway, I say "no" again and she does it again. I finally have to pick her up and say "no" and remove her from the situation. We have even done a little "time-out" in her bed a few times for a couple of things lately. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I could go on, but won't. Lots of silly, happy times around here!

Easter Fun

We had a great Easter weekend. The weather was beautiful! We went to Oklahoma for the weekend, then came back in time for dinner in Plano. Double the yummy food and double the candy! Yeah!
Abby had lots of fun for her first Easter!

Happy Easter!

Hope each of you had a very happy Easter this year!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

Tonight our class from church had a picnic and Easter egg hunt at the park. We took Grant & Kendal with us because Mel & Chris had dinner plans. It was a fun time! Trying to get 3 kids fed out on a picnic table in the wind was not my favorite part, but we did all get to eat at some point. Then the fun began ... the egg hunt. Na gave Grant a "pep talk" before regarding strategy. Kendal just wanted to open her eggs - she wasn't so much into finding more than one. Grant filled his basket, emptied the contents into my diaper bag (I didn't know this till we were leaving by the way) and then reloaded! He and Nathan together are dangerous! Below are some pictures of the fun evening we had together. The only unfortunate part was the wind and the cold. We all were a little under dressed.

Finally!!!

Ummm, where do I begin? I know you are thinking ... FINALLY she is blogging! We have been super busy... it has been crazy.

9 Months - Abby turned 9 months at the end of January. She is such a good girl, we really enjoy every minute.

10 Months - Abby turned 10 months at the end of February. She is all over the place these days. As you can see I had to tape the sign to her back, because I can no longer get her to sit still for a picture. Wild woman!! She crawls, pulls up, stands up and holds on with one hand then drops down and off she goes again. She loves to get into everything she not suppose to get into ... dog food bowls, doggie door, cabinets, drawers, etc...

We had to put up a baby gate to keep her out of certain areas ... menace! As you can see she doesn't like it ... she goes up to it and bangs on it, trying to push through.

Her new favorite toys ... old Easter eggs I found in the closet.

I love to eat paper or leaves or anything I can find on the floor!

In between January and February we had lots going on. I had a big show for work, so that always takes over our lives for a couple of weeks. Right before that Abby was sick - it lasted about 2 weeks. It started with an ear infection, then she got sick from the antibiotic so the doctor took her off the antibiotic and then she ended up with viral bronchitis. It was not so fun. I was sick during that time and so was Nathan. Ugh, not fun being sick at the same time.

Then last week Na's uncle passed away. Duane had been sick with cancer for a while ... it was still very sad, but we are glad that he isn't suffering any longer. We left last Tuesday to go to the funeral in Kansas. We drove through OK and dropped Abby off at my parent's house, then went on to Kansas for a few days. We are actually still in OK tonight. We will be going home tomorrow, and I am looking forward to getting back to the rountine of life. We have been so busy the last month that I feel like we are "off" our normal schedule. I hope we can get back on track this week.

Wild Woman!

Abby is getting to be quite the "ham." I can see her father's orneriness coming out in her a lot lately! She really is a good baby and fun to be with, but sometimes she is a mess. I have been with her by myself all weekend, because Nathan went with him parents and sister to visit some relatives up in Kansas.

She is almost crawling forward! Yes I said forward. She has mastered crawling backward, rolling around, going from sitting to laying and then back up to sitting ... but has yet to crawl forward. She tries very hard and gets frustrated, but then she'll roll over on her back and laugh and act silly. I anticipate that she will be crawling any day now. Also, now that she is somewhat mobile she no longer has the ability to sit in my lap. She was a total wild woman at church this morning - wiggling all about. I finally had to take her to the nursery and let her play, whereas before she would sleep right through church.

And question for all of you who have gone down this road before ... is it normal that all of a sudden she doesn't want to sleep through the night? What's up with that? Not so much my favorite phase! I am so used to her sleeping good at night for so long that it is whipping me! She wakes up and starts "crawling" around her crib and sitting up whining. I have to go in there put her back on her back cover her with her blanket and then she'll go back to sleep. I guess it is the mobility thing???

Her new thing that she loves to do is scoot/walk around in the walker. Our house is actually perfect for this because we only have carpet in the bedrooms. She has gotten really good at this and chases me and the dogs all over the house. She loves being mobile! And when she tags you or the dogs she thinks this is very funny!

I cannot believe she is going to be 9 months old this week. I can't tell you how this makes me feel a little sad ... I know everyone says it, but where does the time go? Turning 1 is just 3 months away! Yikes!

Today was a beautiful day ... so Abby and I went for a walk around the neighborhood and then came back and did a little swinging in the front yard. She loves to swing and be outside.

Is this normal???

Okay we had to share this video from bathtime the other night. Abby loves bathtime! But Monday night was just over the top ... check her out!