Child's Pose

Sitting in a sweater knitted for her by her Grandma, Abby's reaching.... reaching.... trying to get the ducky (bpa free!) that eludes her grasp. Instead of shoving herself forward on to her tummy (heaven forbid!) she puts her head down. A girls gotta rest, you know.

Sit Up Britain

Okay, that's just a line from Bridget Jones Diary - Britain has nothing to do with it.  I don't know why I've never done it before, but today I sat Abby up in her crib. A whole new world unfolded to her -- fun in a safe environment! We haven't had to lower her mattress just yet (I know, this happens for many of you at the 4 month mark!) but I will do it with pleasure when she learns to pull herself up. I'm noticing this week just how little she cares about crawling. She'd much rather roll around and have help standing. She's knee deep in separation anxiety now which really helps me get stuff down around here.  Well, at least, most nights, she's sleeping through the night! Here's the little troublemaker post nap... sitting up!

The Wreckage

How do you parents of kids in the 8-12 month old stage do it? I met with my lactation consultant today (aka : a food goddess) just to make sure we are on track with Abby's eating. She was the one who got us through those long months before surgery when Abby wasn't gaining and then during surgery....and since. I love her. And when I say that I love her I mean that I truly love her. Like I love... chocolate. She is an encourager, she makes things manageable and best of all, she can see right through Abby. She knows she's a pistol. Her skills continue to amaze me. I know it's simply that she's studied babies for year and years so she knows exactly what to expect...but how does she know FOR SURE that when she comes at Abby with a spoon full of mango that she's going to "go for the spoon" with her right hand and then try to shove the spoon in her mouth, mango flying, and then gnaw on it -- all in the name of "working on her skills"? Every prediction she made came true. She then went on to tell me that letting Abby play with the spoon is what we want. After cleaning up after her, I'm sure it might be what my lactation consultant wants, but it's a huge mess. Huge. That girl has an arm. Here is a picture of part of the wreckage. The other part weighs 13 pounds and was covered as well. Can you see that there were five spoons used? Yeah. Five.

3 meals a day plus nursing. Is there time for anything else? Like answering the phone or eating, for that matter? At 9:30 last night after I did the last set of dishes, (mind you, these were mostly Abby's dishes from dinner) I sat down, made a quick call and promptly realized it was time for bed. How are all of you doing this with ease and grace?! Please tell me it gets easier...

Abby lost a touch of weight this week seeing that she started sleeping through the night and knocked out two feedings cold turkey. Sheesh! Just when we get the sleeping worked out, the weight gets affected. Ah, well, she can gain that Freshman 15 when she goes to college. There will be plenty of time for that.

Oatios

Caught on film -- Abby putting her first Oatio in her mouth (see it dangling from her finger?). Success! I'm paranoid that she's going to choke but it's her new favorite thing to do. And I've been meaning to show you a new scar picture -- here it is, at 3.5 months post surgery.

Nieporte Christmas

And to represent the Nieporte side of Christmas....

The first ever Nieporte Christmas Family Photo!

Hallelujah!

Today is a red letter day. Our girl slept through the night without eating. I haven't known a full night of sleep in 8 months! Good job, Abigail... she just needed the opportunity to learn how to do it. Maybe it's the new "blabla" mobile that did it.

Nap Strike

Hi. My name is Abby. I finally weigh over 13 pounds, I finally slept the entire night in my crib .... and I'm on a nap strike. Yep. Driving my parents batty.

Pema & Abigail Take Huntington

I'm so glad my acupuncturist and I became pals. Truly. Abby and Pema are just weeks apart (although they look, in size, as if they are at least 4 months apart) and it's fun to see them interact. While Pema is ahead of Abby in most respects, Abby still wins in the "I can hear everything" category with those precious ears. After Pema's mom told me that Pema "loves foliage" we had to check out Huntington together here in Pasadena. It was nice and warm yesterday and after both of the girls synchronized their naps (both in their ergos on their mommys) the girls did some serious lawn mowing as we were leaving on the front grass. It was like we were at Disneyland. They were stoked. And, after some serious hand-de-grassing, we all headed home, tired and so happy.

Grace & Abby's matchy-match day

This is grace.

She is a miracle baby - given 1% chance of being born healthy. And, here she is - happy and healthy as can be. She and Abby got to wear matching onesies (thanks Auntie Tam!) so we decided to take some pictures.

Grace and her "baby doll" Abby

Grace giving kisses

Abby leading the way with "legs up, everybody!" (love the socks thrown over to the side in a fit of "i want to eat my feet!")

Hand-holders, watching the clouds roll by....

Thanks for the awesome day, Gracie. You were gentle and sweet with "Baby Abby." We are loving that Swine Flu season has died down a bit around here and we can enjoy these little outings without so much concern about germs.

Abby sits!

and falls!

Never hurts to fall within reach of one of her favs....the doggie.

The difference...

between 2009 and 2010. In just 4 short days (Dec 31 to Jan 3) the girl went from overwhelmed to lovin' it. This second video doesn't do it justice -- she's crazy on the thing now. I mean, come on...it's been another 4 days. This gives me some more hands free time too!

1/2 Christmas Recap

I'm waiting to get some pics from the Nieporte side of the family... in the meantime, here is the recap from Abby's first rockin' Christmas in "Sacraminty" (as it's known around here). She had fun with cousin Katy, got to open a few gifts that instantly went into her mouth and was even "Santa's little helper", thanks to a onesie from Grandma N!

First Parade

Abby has had a great 2010 so far -- she's sitting up without help (although she does tumble over quite a bit still) and is grabbing at everything in sight. She's finally weighing over 12 1/2 pounds. When I don't eat cauliflower soup, she's not that gassy anymore. We're still working on her sleep situation -- when we were gone for the holidays she took great naps but now that we're home they are mediocre again. This sleep business is hard work! She went to her first Rose Parade on New Years Day -- here she is with her Daddy with the float in the background. She's eating two small meals per day and seems to be changing every day now.