Fun with a little blue ball

Abigail and Adam have a special relationship. I love watching him spend time playing with her and making her laugh. Last night Adam 'taught' her to put this little plastic blue ball into a little cup.

This morning, hoping to encourage such learning I tried to play with her in a similar way using a different 'cup.' It worked! Each time she would put the ball into the container I would hoot and holler and wave my arms saying "yay!" She would just laugh and reach to try again. I decided to try and get it on video for all to see. She wasn't quite as excited by the time I got the camera ready since she had done it about ten times.

Here is Adam teachng her last night(sorry it's so dark)


and here is the video from this morning

We're in trouble now......

...or soon will be!

I don't want to mislead anyone by this video, so I will clarify that I sat her right in front of the rail. She still doesn't get from here to there(fine by me, less chasing) but she is showing signs of interest in more physical things!

First the attempts:


So proud:


Practice makes perfect:



Learning that letting go might not be the best idea just yet:

Clapping for bubbles

Sorry the video is a little long. This was the first day of her clapping and I just wanted to watch her do it over and over!

Where did it go?

This is a fun video I captured of Abigail.
It's so amazing and fun watching her figure new things out all the time.
Sorry it's so dark. There wasn't a lot of sunshine this day and I just grabbed the camera and started recording.

My little girl likes peas!

We introduced Abigail to rice cereal at 6 months old. Since that time she has been pretty indifferent about eating it. I started trying to feed her after I nursed her. My intention was that I wouldn't have to worry too much about my milk supply diminishing. After a couple weeks I decided that she just wasn't hungry for it so I tried before I nursed her. We seemed to have a little more success with that but still not the eager eating that I thought would happen. After a few weeks of trying Adam and I decided that maybe another food added to the cereal would make it more appetizing.

Thank you to Frances for gifting us some peas that Teresa wasn't interested in. Abigail seems very fond of them! Since their introduction 5 days ago we have had a great time watching her eating them up like crazy!



She also has NO problem letting us know when she has had her fill!



As a side note if anyone has any thoughs...

Abigail has a runny nose. Today is day three of it. She seems to be a little stuffy and cold-like but overall in good spirits. Do we think this is just some of the yuck that is going around(Adam was under the weather last week) or could this be a reaction to the peas?

Bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles!

Dear Momma,
Please bring bubbles everywhere we go.
Love,
Abigail

Sensational Sunday

Last weekend we attended the 5PM Mass in our new church building at St Mark. We arrived early and walked around the piazza looking for the brick we donated money for in honor of all the guests at our wedding and Abigail's brick that Grammy and Granddad donated money for in honor of, well, Abigail their first grandchild! Here is Abigail wondering why we have her sitting on the dirty ground:


Adam's parents sat with us during Mass which delighted both Abigail and Grammy & Granddad.

Although it doesn't look like it, she was happy :)

After Mass they invited us out to dinner with them at Max and Ermas in Huntersville.
We were happy to accept.
After we ate our suppers Abigail decided that she wanted to be the star of the evening(as if she isn't all the time) and put on quite a show for us. Adam was whistling at her and she found that to be rather hilarious. Here is the end of the laughing fest and a few other clips of her noticing that I was filming her and just general silliness.









It is a truly joyful feeling to see her so happy so often!

Thanks be to God!

Laughter

I remember when Abigail was about 5 weeks old thinking that she didn't like me. I felt as if I was working really hard to keep her happy but wasn't getting any positive responses from her. I was desperate for a smile.
One day that very week it seemed as if she decided that I was OK in her eyes and wanted me to know that. I got the smile I had been praying for and in my elation I even remembered to get the camera! I can proudly say that on May 9th 2009 Abigail legitimately smiled her first of many smiles and I the Mother of the YEAR got it on film! :)

Here is one of the pictures I took:


Now I find myself loving those smiles as a daily occurance. But, me being me, I want more. I'm now on a mission to get laughter. I admit that I don't know the date of her first laugh (somewhere right around 4 months) but I am learning ways to get her to laugh pretty consistantly. She loves to 'scream' in a very high pitch ALL the time :) but I'm getting more and more true laughter each day! I don't know that I have heard a more heartwarming sound in my life. What do you think?



God is GOOD!

P.S. I wonder what I will be looking for next!

Motherhood is SO....

GLAMOROUS!

Reading with Daddy

Adam is working a lot this summer to provide for our family and, since Abigail is sleeping all night like a big girl, he doesn't get to spend a lot of 'face time' with her. The moments that he does have he always makes special. Both for the two of them and for me to watch. This particular scene I came upon compelled me to get the camera and hope that it lasted long enough to capture. It did!

The fruit of the harvest...

I love my husband. One of the many reasons why is that he finds ways to work around the limitations of condo living to create for me things that I never thought we would be able to have. Spread out in the parallel parking space in front of our building, he was able to build a glorious planter box that I thought could only come from a fully stocked garage.




It was my goal and desire to once again plant a few vegetables on our back porch, where there is great morning sun. We purchased three husky red tomato plants and three red bell pepper plants. I planted them in the box, watered them well, and hoped for the best.

Here is a picture of the day I planted them:





May 3, 2009










And from such a humble beginning they began to grow...


This picture was taken one month later on June 2, 2009.














On that day there were signs of the bounty I hoped to have later.

Then Adam and I went away for two weeks to see my parents and my across-the-hall-gal-pal, Jamie, was gracious enough to water my precious plants. She had quite the touch! They thrived!






We arrived home to quite an impressive amount of growth!






I was even able to harvest three tomatoes and there is one pepper very large! The variety of pepper that I chose will ripen all the way to red. I think we will try to hold off on picking it until then!

So much to share!

We just arrived home from a two week visit with my parents. I am overwhelmed by the task of unpacking, organizing and trying to feed us when there is no food in the house. I am consumed by needing to go to the grocery store, needing to pay bills, wanting to download all the pictures we took while away and wanting to blog about several exciting things that are going on. All this while trying to keep some order in Abigail's life. She seems to thrive on that, she slept the whole night every night while we were away. Guess she doesn't mind being a traveler!
To hold us over while I get my thought in(sorta)order here is a video of Abigail and I singing. I have no idea why I sang this song one day. She was upset and it just popped into my head and she stopped crying. Now she 'sings along' sometimes and I think it is just about the best feeling in the world. That and when she stops nursing to smile up at me. I apologize in advance about my lack of singing talent. Abigail doesn't seem to mind.

Lot's of fun things have been happening around here these last few days. Abigail is growing and changing so fast. I find it amazing to see how she changes each and every day. It's so fun to see hew experience things and figure things out for the first time. What a joy it is to be a mom!


Here is a video of her doing some tummy time with the help of her tummy turtle mat and pillow. She has not enjoyed the time that we encourage her to be on her belly but, as she grows stronger, she seems to mind it less and less.


Here is an almost first for her. She held on to a toy once before that we know of, but this was by FAR the best. She grabs and shakes and lets go and grabs again so I know she is getting it!

Grrr.....

I consider myself and animal lover.
Scratch that.
I consider myself and animal liker.

However, I have my limits.

When I first purchased this condo in 2004 I loved learning all the little things there are to learn about owning a home. There is a lot to do to care for a home and keep it looking new. One thing I was actually glad that I didn't have to care for was a yard and exterior.

I was very grateful for the few small plants that I had inside and on the front and back porches. They were enough plants that I could get my hands dirty if I wanted to, but not have to sweat over lots and lots of area. I enjoyed the fact that I had a small wooded area behind me that I could enjoy some nature if I felt the urge.

Then nature decided to get a little too close. If you follow Adam's blog here then you would know about the nest that some local birds decided to build on the back porch. The first time this happened I was thrilled. The thought of watching mother nature do her thing seemed exciting. Then the birds came out of the eggs. Urg. As they were learning to fly they would make short trips from the gutter over my bedroom window to the porch railing and back. They were so loud it would wake me up in the morning. But I ignored it. Then the poop started. The nest was positioned just in the corner so all there droppings would fall right onto the corner of the porch(where it is extra hard to clean).

After enduring this for several seasons I was getting fed up. The clincher was when I saw them starting a nest RIGHT after we had power washed everything on the porches.

This spring Adam made it his mission to remove the start of a new nest and create something that would deter them from nesting there at all. There are plenty of trees right across the parking lot for them to use to nest. Our porch was not going to hinder the bird population in the area.

Well........
I guess I'll be cleaning up bird poop again this year. At least I'm already up early with Abigail in the morning.

Momma's milk and sleeping...

Since we struggled for the first few weeks with a low milk supply I have determined that Abigail spent a lot of that time resisting sleep because her poor little body knew that it needed more food. Now, whether related or not, she does not like to fall asleep on her own. Although my milk is more than plentiful(I think we have more than 35oz in the freezer) and she is getting her fill she still wants to be held and helped to fall asleep. Sometimes it took mommy or daddy's arms AND a pacifier to relax her enough to drift off into slumber, just to awaken mad and not fully rested 20 maybe 30 minutes later. Then all we have is a grumpy baby and tired arms.

Strangely enough, even with all the daytime issues, I could nurse her at bedtime until she fell asleep and then put her in her bassinet. She would wake to eat throughout the night and then go right back down. Stinker.

At two months old she starting sleeping in her own crib at night, but I was still struggling greatly during the day to get her to sleep on her own. Dinners were not getting made by me, the kitchen floor hadn't been swept in Heaven knows how long...... it wasn't good.

Then I decided. I say I decided instead of we decided just because I was the one to say "I'm ready" first, and I am the one who would be most often enforcing the decision during the day when Adam is working. I decided that she was not going to just get it on her own and telling her that it is okay to fall asleep on her own wasn't sinking in. She needed more.

My sister had given me this great book called On Becoming Babywise when I was first pregnant. I read it, dreamt of my baby eating and sleeping by the book(never crying, of course) and promptly put the book away for the next 5 months. After Abigail was born I pulled the book back out(along with three others I was reading) and began reading again. This time because I hadn't slept long enough to have a dream in weeks!

I can't say that I one hundred percent agree with one hundred percent of the book, but I found it to be very easy to read and very encouraging for me as a new mom. It talks mostly about Parent Directed Feeding(PDF). A concept that appealed to me greatly. Basically after the first few weeks(when you should be feeding your baby whenever they appear hungry) you start to use the clock to help create eat/wake/sleep cycles in your baby's day. Teaching their bodies to get full, play, rest and then rise to eat again. Makes sense. Over time you slowly develop a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hour pattern. They talk a lot about how order is good for a baby. Knowing what to expect creates confidence and gives the baby a sense of security. I was on board.

In conjunction with the pattern of daytime activities the book encourages baby to fall sleep on their own with out what they refer to as a prop. Props can include mommy, a swing, a car ride etc. This, I thought, would never jive with my little one.

But I was ready.

The first night took 34 minutes.

After our normal bedtime routine of books prayers and kisses I placed her in her crib, told her I loved her, and left the room. Fifteen minutes of fussing(while Adam and I held each other on the couch) and then I went in. Picked her up, loved on her told her she was safe and sleep is good and put her right back down. Fifteen minutes more(this time I called my sister) and I went back in and did the same. Getting run down emotionally from this process during the third fussing I called my mom. A minute or two into our conversation the little lights on the monitor went dark and there was silence. Eight hours later she woke up asking to eat through the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. The smiles of a well-rested baby.

I won't say it has been easy and there were days that I doubted we were doing the right thing, but seeing her wake up happy after a good nap(even if it took 10 or fifteen minutes to settle herself down to sleep) is the best reassurance we could ask for. She still fusses. Knowing that she is full, clean, dry and tired makes the minutes of fussing bearable. We are learning to read her better and lot let her get over tired before putting her down.

Praise God that she now sleeps during the day! I think she is better for it. FYI, she is still sleeping 8-9 hours at night.

Go Abigail!

Welcome in, World!

It has finally happened. There have been enough "I could blog about this" comments and Adam has said to me enough times, you should start a blog that I could no longer resist. Even if no one ever reads this, here I am.

I will warn you I think I write like I think and talk. Try to follow. Frances, if you read this, I'm sorry. I am sure my style will annoy you and my grammar and spelling will frustrate you, but this is what you get. Your thoughts and prayers matter to me, so stick with me, please! That goes for everyone.

So, now that I'm here I find myself struggling for words.

I remember in school being told when you can't think of anything to write just start writing, and something will get written. Seriously. Public School. Ugh.

So I'll start with what I know...

Abigail is sleeping. Let's take a moment and let that sink in...
Although she is a great sleeper at night(three nights in a row now getting 8-9 hours at a stretch) napping during the day is a little tougher.

I just thought of my first real blog.....maybe public school wasn't as bad as I remember