Bedtime

OK, so here's the story in a nutshell. I bring home a crying baby after running some errands this evening. Hurry up and get her changed for bed. Start warming her bottle since she is *so* exhausted. Give her the bottle, burp her and place her in bed with her blankie and lovey. All within about 15 minutes of her usual bedtime. But, she had a shorter than usual afternoon nap so going down a few minutes early must be what she needs, right? I kiss her goodnight and then walk quietly out the door.

And then....it starts. The fussing and crying, completely foreign to our usually easygoing baby at bedtime. She must be overtired, right? Of course. So, I let the crying continue for 20 minutes, cringing as it gradually gets louder and more pronounced. It is not stopping this time, which, as I said, is quite unusal for our girl. Oh no, maybe she is hurt or sick?! So I rush down the hall, throw open the door to find....

Alright, so I was duped again by the lightweight wearing pink! But what a nice demeanor to see her in instead of the blood-curdling-screaming mess she was only a few minutes earlier. I guess she just wanted to see me (her favorite person, I'll state- I have no shame :)) one last time tonight before entering La La Land. Yes, that's definitely the case since all it took was a rub of her back for her to lay back down on her tummy, stick her thumb in her mouth, put a corner of her lovey into her hand, and start to nod off.

Ah, the joys of motherhood are never-ending! Sleep well, Little Miss :)

Stealin'

Ha ha, I got your puppets from you, Brother!

So happy with her new "find" ...

...that she has to test it out (in her mouth, naturally!) :)

Playing

Just hanging out playing while Mommy gets dressed this morning....

...and it took only 5 minutes before the boys discovered that we were "missing" and came out of the playroom to find us. Obviously, the baby play mat is much more exciting than any other toy we own :)

Swings!

Today was the first nice day in about a week and since Andrew had physical therapy on his shoulder after work, I decided to take the kids for a late-afternoon trip to one of our favorite parks and have a late dinner afterwards. Nate and Abby spent almost the entire time on the swings so yes, we monololized both baby swings for over an hour (nobody was waiting for them). Abby had a fun time in general and Nate loved being pushed "super fast," as he calls it.

Rub-a-dub-dub...three in the tub!

Yes, three in the tub tonight for bathtime...sort of. Well, the real story is that the boys stole the princess' bath timeslot and she didn't like that notion one bit. So, we improvised and decided to take the boys' bath by storm by showing up completely nude with her pink towel, shampoo and lotion, and was ready to jump right in! So, with Daddy's help (aka his hands holding on to her for dear life), Miss Abby joined the two mad scientists in the tub for the first time tonight. Not too bad, if you ask me, given the chaotic state of the tub during bathtime at our house. Luckily it wasn't bath art night or she would have probably been doodled all over :)

Nate decided he'd help wash the shampoo out of her hair (Ben looks like he is getting some ideas of his own by just watching!).


Cheese! Abby has clean hair and has managed to survive Tsunami Nate.

Moving closer to her biggest brother, Benjamin, who she knows will protect her from the storm. He tells her that she is his favorite girl at least 3 times a day :). If you look closely, she has a small Mona Lisa smile. Maybe bathing with these two guys isn't so bad at all! Well, we'll wait a few more months until she is a bit more stable sitting up in water before she takes the plunge (ha ha!). She's a little too young for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride every other night at this age but it was fun to get a trial run, wasn't it? :)

Abby's First Tea Party

As I prepared for our end of the year tea party that we are doing tomorrow morning for our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting of the year, Abby also discovered her own personal tea pot, teacups and plate of treats. Thanks, Aunt Cinty, for the fun stuff, which she is now big enough to use :). She's so curious about everything around her now and just loves to sit up and play with toys lately. So, today was the first time I really sat her in the playroom to actually, well, play! And she loved it. The boys kept trying to drive their Geotrax trains through her setup but she didn't let that put a damper on her afternoon tea. Here's our girl, getting so big!

Sitting Up During Bathtime

Now that Abby sits up on her own, I took away the newborn sling and had her sit upright in her tub this morning for bathtime. Wow, did she like this! She had toys and everything to play with and loved splashing her feet :)

Cake Decorating: Course 1

Something I have always wanted to do ever since I worked in the bakery in high school and over college breaks, is to take professional cake decorating classes. Well, I decided to go for it and signed up for the first Wilton class at a local Michael's Arts and Crafts store. There are at least three more courses to take there and the instructor also teaches private lessons at a local bakery and also in a community college. So, I am going to continue taking these courses to build my skills since it is something I really enjoy.

The instructor is Amy Recinos, owner of Amy's Creative Cakes - http://www.amyscreativecakes.com/ - and she is wonderfully talented. Check out her web site for some amazing cake designs, some of them are unreal!

My first course ended last night and I created three cakes in it. We learned borders, leaves, various flowers, characters, writing, and other techniques. Only a handful of the techniques are shown on the cakes and only 2 types of flowers. The last cake shown - the rainbow - was the first one we did and was pretty basic but a lot of fun. I brought it into Benjamin's preschool class at Indian Valley Nursery School (IVNS) the week that they were studying clouds and rain. What perfect timing...and what a hit Benjamin was with his teachers and classmates :)

Violets, roses, leaves and a shell border:

A cluster of roses, a bow, different leaves, cursive writing and a shell border:

Star tip, clouds and printing.

Abigail's 6-Month Pediatrician Appointment

Abigail had her six-month appointment at the pediatrician this morning. I can't believe she is in the second half of her first year already! :) She really is doing well and starting to get into things now that she is becoming more mobile. She's like a little person now - laughing, "talking," rolling all over the place, trying to crawl, watching everything around her. She has been eating solid foods for about a month now and is just waiting to get her hands on finger foods...but first we have to wait for some teeth to pop through :). She lunges towards our plates at mealtime and tries to grab cereal, pasta, anything she can!

Our biggest concern from the 4-month check-up was her tiny head (4th percentile). They wanted to monitor her to make sure it is continuing to grow. And, thank God, this is no longer a concern since she grew close to 1.5" and is now in the 25th percentile. The doctor said that she is meeting all of her milestones and likely just has a smaller head. This doesn't surprise me, actually, since my head is oval-shaped, my mom has a small head and Andrew's mom also had a long, thin face. I think she is taking after the rest of the women!

Our biggest "concern" now is that Abigail has a bit of eczema on her arms and legs but it has been here since before she started food and is not exacerbated by a change in diet. So, we will keep an eye on it and in the meantime, apply lots of lotion. She is fair and likely will outgrow the eczema for the most part.

Here are the stats for our tiny little girl. What a peanut!

Height: 25-1/4 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs. 6 oz. (12th percentile)
Head circumference: 16.5" (25th percentile)

She had 4 immunizations today and is now peacefully napping as a result. Ahh, I love days that they get the shots. My kids are always sleepy from them instead of cranky, as some kids get. Until the 9-month check-up...

My Temporary Job

As I sit down to writethis, I realize that I don't have any photos taken of Andrew within the past week since his shoulder surgery. But, yes, after several months of discomfort and limited movement of his right shoulder, he went in for an arthoscopic surgery last Friday morning and is now in an immobilizer for 4 weeks with physical therapy after that to get his shoulder up and running again. They discovered that he had only 1 of the 3 ligaments he should have had in his shoulder and that he also had a bad bone spur. They "created" 2 ligaments for him and took care of the bone spur. The doctor believes that he never even had those two ligaments and cannot believe that he got by for so long without them! We are praying for a fast recovery for Andrew and for his shoulder to be fully restored!

In the meantime, Andrew is not able to do many of his regular tasks around the house so I have been helping him out. Here's today's lesson for me: Tractor 101. Look at me going all rugged farm woman on you as I mowed the lawn!

Pigtails!

Today we broke out the baby elastics, some bows that haven't been worn yet and did some pigtails. What a big girl Abby looks like!

Nate!

Awwww....little Natey :) Our favorite 2 year old guy!

Birdfeeders

A few days ago, I made some bird feeders with the kids out of pinecones, peanut butter and birdseed. They love to watch all of the wildlife in our yard so I figured some birdfeeders would be a fun thing for them to monitor each day. We've hung them outside in our tree and watch each time we pass by to see if the birds have stopped in for a bite.

Spreading peanut butter on pinecones is serious business :)

But rolling the pinecones in birdseed is the most fun!

Ta-da! Our finished masterpieces. Each boy got to come with me into the craft room and pick out a piece of colored ribbon to hang his birdfeeder from. So that was also a highlight...getting to use Mommy's craft supplies!! :)