8 Months

Yes, as has become typical with these posts, Abby is, in fact, 9 months old now.  And yes, I am just now getting around to doing her 8 month post.  I know, I know.  I'm sure she'll hate me forever once she's old enough to know how post-dated her monthly update posts were.  She'll live.  I'm certain of it.

Anyway.  Abby at 8 months.  It wasn't a terribly exciting month, but we had a few "firsts."  Abby caught her first real cold.  Emma got it first, passed it to Abby, and then to me.  It was pretty rough.  Low-grade fever, congestion, runny nose and NO sleep.  The best part is that she had just really started to sleep through the night with some regularity when the shit hit the fan.  It took an act of God to get her sleeping again, but I'm happy to report that she's back on track now.

She wants to be put DOWN all of the time!!  She will arch her back, wrestle, fling herself backward, and do the worm in order to get you to put her in the floor to play.  Once in the floor, she gets up on all fours and rocks backwards, or just commando crawls to whatever she wants.  And she's FAST!  What she lacks in size, she makes up for in speed.  She's hell on wheels and you can't turn your back for a second.  Her favorite mission in life?  To get into Emma's potty.  And she's stealthy about it.  Little stink.

As much as she wants to get down to play, she also adores me holding her.  I think she'd be content to ride around on my hip for about 95% of the day.  She doesn't like being sat in her exersaucer or her swing for more than a few seconds, and she's the first one to let you know how displeased she is with the situation.  I told my mom, when she's grown up and has had one baby, I'm going to get her back for this.  I'm going to wait until that baby is about 18 months old - you know, REALLY good and busy, and I'm going to buy her a monkey.  Not just any monkey.  One that wears diapers and screams when you put it down.  And one that smears food all over its face while you feed it, and fights like a cage fighter when you try to get him dressed.  I'm going to make her carry that monkey around all day while she chases her other child around.  And I'm going to laugh.  Really hard.  :)

She's also eating like a horse.  Brad wants to come to her next check up so that he can find out where her hollow leg is.  Seriously.  She eats like it's her job.  WAY more than Emma ever did, and Emma outweighed her by about half.  She eats 4-5 ounces of fruits/veggies with oatmeal mixed in at each of her 3 meals.  She also eats a ton of Gerber puffs, Baby Mum Mums (her personal favorite), and other finger foods.  She nurses about 5 times a day.  She likes rice, cut up cooked veggies or fruit, and rice cakes.  She's a hawg.  Not a "hog."  A HAWG!


The funniest part is that she's still a peanut.  There are a couple of tiny leg rolls, but she's still SO skinny and small.  My aunt Claire says she'll fool you because she looks like such a tiny baby, but she ISN'T!  She's got a lot of personality and if the food's not coming fast enough, you'd better cover your ears.  

She is in 6 month clothes.  She can wear 6-9 months, but 3-6 still fits comfortably.  She's in a size 2 diaper (but she's still in a size small diaper cover).  Not sure what she weighs, but I'd be willing to bet it's not even 16lbs.

She loves her big sister, but big sister is rough when they play, so she's a little scared at times!  So is her mommy.  Emma wants to roll around and rough house with her, but is still learning that she's small and easily hurt.  


She has recently decided that it's hysterical when someone pretends to gag.  She's got the best laugh ever.  

She adores the remote control, just like her big sister did.


She still looks just like her mama, and more and more like her Grandpa every day.  Every now and then I take a picture and look back at it and my breath is just sucked away - she looks SO much like him.  That has been such a blessing for me because I am so devastated that he never got to meet her on this side of heaven.  I just know he would adore her so much.  


This month has not been particularly busy, but Abby's been busy growing like a little weed.  How on earth has it nearly been a year??  I'm planning a joint party for Abby's first and Emma's third birthdays.  SO hard to believe time has flown that fast.

Potty Training!

I haven't written about this yet, for fear of jinxing it.  Hell, I'm scared to say anything even NOW!  Emma is pretty much potty trained!  This is week 3 or 4, though I can't remember exactly.


We bought her a potty about a year ago, knowing that we'd need it "someday."  We tried twice, (once for a good 3 days, once for about a day) and were pretty unsuccessful.  She didn't seem to have the awareness that she was going at all, and would get VERY upset if she saw her prize (usually an M&M) and didn't get it.  She just wasn't ready.


And then one day, she was.  I changed a particularly nasty diaper and, whilst trying not to gag, said to her, "You know what?  We're done with this.  You're a big girl and you can use the potty now."  I put a pair of the itty bittiest panties you've ever seen (either princess, Yo Gabba, or Minnie Mouse) on her, and she did it.  I don't even think she had 1 accident that first day.  She was SO proud of herself!!  She's only had a handful of accidents at all and the ones that she has had,  have been because she was distracted.  She's clearly still learning to listen to her body.


I can't tell you how proud I am of her.  She figured it out almost instantly and there's been no turning back.  Her potty sings to her as soon as she goes, and she's thrilled with the sense of control it gives her.  She isn't trip trained - in fact, she will almost ALWAYS say "no" when you ask if she needs to go.  She knows when she needs to, and either tells me or just goes and sits.  She's such a big girl.  She also uses a toilet seat reducer ring on our toilet, though the little potty seems to have a bigger draw for her when we're home.


She has pooped several times on the potty, and has only had 1 of "those" accidents.  She often waits until after naptime and goes in her diaper before I get her up.  She's still diapered for nap and overnight, as those diapers are SOAKED when she wakes.  


I thought I'd go ahead and add a picture of her "doing the deed," as I'm sure she'll appreciate me for it someday.  HA!  Emma, if you're reading this as an adult, be sure that I wiped your little butt and washed your diapers enough times over the course of your 2.5 years to earn the right to post as many pictures of you sitting on the potty as I want to.  And I DO want to.  I will, however, spare you the picture of the first time she pooped on the potty.  Nobody wants to see that.

7 Months

I'll admit it.  I'm a horrible mother.  My last post was when Abby was 6 months old, and she's now 8 months old.  In my own defense, life FLIES these days!!  I usually don't get around to taking her monthly photos until the very end of the month anyway, but this last month just completely snuck by me.

I'll add in some fuzzy phone pictures (just about all I have this month!) and hope it suffices.

So what was Abby up to at 7 months?  A lot!  

She is sitting up pretty well, but has decided it's pretty pointless because she can now get up on all 4s and rock!  She seems to think I'm going to allow this, but she's mistaken.  She's been forbidden to become mobile until she turns 3.  Or maybe 4.  We haven't decided yet.

She's eating like a COW.  Seriously.  She eats a minimum of 4 ounces of baby food (around 2 jars, if she were eating processed baby food) and has come to discover the joy that IS "puffs."  She also loves Baby Mum Mums, which I have decided are God's gift to mothers.

She is still spitting up MUCH less than she was, now that she's on Zantac.  We are loving it.  

I'm not sure what she weighs, but I imagine she's still in the 14lb. area.  My joke these days is that with Emma, we played "count the rolls."  With Abby, we play "count the wrinkles."

She is finally in size 2 diapers, though she's still cloth diapered all the time.  We haven't bought a single new diaper.  She's in all of Emma's old ones.  Talk about saving money!

She wears 6 month, or 6-9 month clothes.  Technically, she still fits in 3 month and 3-6 month, but I have a TON of Emma's clothes to go through with her.  Emma's first winter, she was in 6-9 or 9 month clothes.  Abby's a full size below, at least.  As luck would have it, Emma literally had more clothes during that season than any other, and more than she could ever wear.  I've pulled out several outfits with tags still on them, so they're new to Abby!  I had 2 Rubbermaid boxes of 6-9 month clothes.  Ridiculous.

She had her first diaper rash this month and it was BAD.  We think it may have been from too much yogurt.  Still not sure.  A friend recommended Calmoseptine cream, which was a godsend.  We also did lots of nekkid time and some soaks in baking soda baths, as you can see.  

I re-discovered, during that rash, the biggest reason I hate disposable diapers.  In one day, she had 3 diaper explosions.  RIDICULOUS.  Had she been in cloth, none of them would have occurred.  Not to mention, I wouldn't have spent $10 on a stupid pack of diapers.  

She's still swaddled to sleep, and shows no signs of breaking loose.  We have tried to leave 1 arm out a few times, and it was a nightmare.  Just not worth it.  Emma proved to us, she won't go to preschool in a swaddle blanket.

She has been a pretty good sleeper at night, but naps have been shot to hell.  For some reason, she has decided that she only needs 1-1.5 hour naps in the afternoon, and no evening catnap anymore.  Mommy knows that she really needs more like 2-2.5 hour naps.

She ADORES her sister.  Emma can make her laugh harder than anyone else.  The love is so mutual these days.  Emma adores Abby and CONSTANTLY wants me to hold Abby up so she can dance with her.  She also likes to tell me where to "put" Abby.  

They take "sister baths" pretty frequently now, and both love it.  

I'm sure no one will be interested in this, but I thought I'd mention it for my own memory's sake.  Abby is a poop machine.  She spent the first half of her life maybe going once every 2 weeks, if we were lucky.  Now, it's a minimum of 4 times a day.  Seriously!  

She's coming into her own, so to speak.  She's got quite a personality, and it's pretty funny!  She tells you what she wants and when she wants it.  She DOESN'T wait well.  If she sees me getting her food ready, she starts complaining about how long I'm taking with it.  She's a mess.

She loves her food.  She particularly enjoys avocado, sweet potato, and pears.  She also loves peas, butternut (or acorn) squash, peaches, applesauce, bananas, prunes, and carrots.  All of those are mixed with baby oatmeal in order to thicken them.  She tolerates green beans.

She had her first REAL solid food this month - pizza crust.  She insisted that she needed it, and I was tired of listening to her yell about it, to be honest.  Second-child syndrome.  I don't think I ever would have handed Emma something like that to make her stop yelling.  Got to be honest!  She thought she had died and gone to heaven.

Month 8 update coming soon!!  :)

6 Months

Time is flying by, as it always seems to be these days.  Abby's already 7 months, and her little 6 month photo shoot wasn't completed until a few days before.  At least she was technically still 6 months old, right?  :)  Please excuse the lack of variety in the pictures.  I remembered that we had forgotten to take them one afternoon when I was out somewhere with Emma, so I asked Brad to take the photos for me.  He used his own new camera and forgot to take of the time/date stamp, so they all had a huge neon label on them.  He also "experimented" with some camera settings, so they were also all blurry.  Ick.

She's such a sweet heart.  She brings the brightest little light to our family, and it's hard to imagine life before her.  She makes all 3 of us smile each day and is just so much fun.  Her big sister still adores her and makes her laugh harder than anyone else.  Emma adores trying to hold Abby's hands and "dancing" with her.  She does little dances and funny voices to make her laugh, which makes us all crack up.


She has started to say her first word this month!  Brad got her to say "Mama" one time, and she hasn't stopped since!  She is sparing with it, but it's the sweetest sound ever.

She's grown so much since last month.  At her last appointment she was 13lbs. 4oz. (2nd percentile) and 25.25 inches long (9th percentile).  She's a peanut, and probably will stay that way from the looks of it.  In comparison, at Emma's 6 month appointment, she was 16lbs 10oz and 26 inches long.  A big difference!


She wears 6 month clothing, or 3-6 month.  She can still fit into her 3 month stuff though!  She looks so funny to me with things like her sippy cup because she looks like she should be too small to do things like drinking from a cup.  

She loves to eat, and has started to eat 3 solid meals a day (in addition to still nursing about 6 times a day).  She loves just about everything we feed her, but her favorite is prunes.  So far she's tried pears, apples, prunes, bananas, avocados, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, and peas.  She has also recently started eating yogurt, which is quickly becoming a favorite.


She wears size 1 diapers still, believe it or not.  She is cloth diapered full time, but had a brief time in disposable diapers this month when she got her first diaper rash.  Pretty sure the yogurt was the culprit, but it cleared up within a day or 2.  Gotta love some purple Desitin!


She is rolling all over the place, and really starting to sit up as well.  She started Zantac a couple of weeks ago.  With it, she now sometimes goes all day without spitting up.  Then again, there are days that it doesn't seem to help at all.  Not sure what the deal is.  We gave it to her for a day or 2 with her spitting it ALL out before realizing that it tasted vile.  Actually, Brad tasted it and said it was the worst thing ever.  I took it to CVS and had them flavor it.  They said that the flavor was so bad, the only flavor they had that would touch it was grape.  Can you imagine?  She does much better with the grape flavoring, though she still hates it.

She's happy nearly all the time, and is a great sleeper.  She's still swaddled, and shows no signs of being ready to stop.  By this point, Emma was breaking out of it on a daily basis - not Dabbs!  She takes 2 good, long naps a day, and one cat nap around 5:30.  She's good about letting me wake her up from naps, unlike her sister was, so she's on a good schedule.  Her naps are from 10:00-11:30, 1:00-3:00 (or until she wakes up) and 5:30-6:15.  Bedtime is between 8:00-9 and she sleeps until around 9:00 the next morning.  We started some sleep training this month, and she has had several nights of sleeping through the night, though she sometimes needs the passy put back in once or so.  


She's our little monkey and we adore her!!

Christmas Party

Every year, since I was a kid, I've gone to the Christmas party that my mom's job puts on.  Santa is there, there are lots of crafts to do, and music.  It's just fun!  Emma's first year, we got the BEST pictures of her with Santa.  She was about Abby's age and just mesmerized.  The next year, she was 1.5 and terrified.  I was curious about how this year's experience would be.


A few weeks beforehand, she had talked nonstop about Santa.  She begged to go see him, so we loaded up one afternoon and hit the mall.  I wanted her to see him from a distance and get comfortable with the idea that he wasn't a very scary guy.  It turned out that he was walking around the mall and we got to visit him up close.  Emma was in the stroller and felt pretty safe.  She talked to him all about the Mickey Mouse in a store window, and presents.  He gave her a high five and called her by name (tripped her OUT!).  I was figuring the Santa visit at the Lekotek party would be just as awesome.  Wrong.


She had fun making reindeer food, crafts, singing music, running around.  Then it came time to see the fat man.  She saw him from a distance and wasn't very happy.  I decided it would be best to get some pictures with just Abby first because we stood the best chance of getting cute pictures without her sister, in case she screamed.  I was right.  

Cute Abby pictures, and then I tried to get Emma to sit on my lap next to Santa.  Freak out.  As you can see, it wasn't pretty.  I wonder how next year will go??

Christmas

This Christmas was a bittersweet one.  Emma was REALLY into all things "Christmas."  She adored driving around and looking at lights, Christmas music, baking, making an Advent calendar snowman, and decorating the house.  However, always near the forefront of my mind was the missing piece.  Christmas was Dad's favorite holiday and he LOVED to give gifts.  He was famous for asking my input for all of Mom's gifts, and then, after all of the gifts were opened, sneaking somewhere and pulling out her "big" gift.  It was always a complete surprise.  He also always tucked an envelope for each of us (Brad too, once he was in the picture) with some spending cash on the tree. 


There are so many traditions that I want to keep and continue with my family.  There are also a lot of new ones to be made, and we got a good start this year!  Our favorite was Stone Mountain.  They had a TON of lights and decorations, Santa, a Snow Angel, lots of stuff to do, and a special Christmas train ride (our favorite).  Several times we piled in the car, hot chocolate in hand, with Christmas tunes on the radio and checked out light displays that we had heard about or remembered from our own childhoods.  We also made reindeer food, and cookies for Santa on our new special Santa plate.

We baked a lot, and made fudge.  We decorated the house, though there were several decorations (particularly my beloved Rudolph houses) that we chose not to put out because someone (I won't mention a name) likes to sneak off and play with things she shouldn't.  I got Emma her own tree this year.  She chose purple.  She had her own unbreakable ornaments on it to mess with as she pleased.  It REALLY helped keep her grubby little hands off of the big tree!


On Christmas eve we woke up early to go to breakfast with Grandpops for his birthday.  Afterwards we all came home and took a nap to prepare for the festivities.  We got dressed and headed to the children's mass at church.  As I was taking a few photos outside before church, our neighborhood Santa and Mrs. Claus came by on the back of a pickup truck.  He drives around and visits the children of the neighborhood on Christmas eve.  Emma is NOT a big Santa fan, though she talks a good game.  He came over and offered her a candy cane.  She decided it MIGHT be worth it, and met him halfway to get the candy.  The poor little thing shook like a leaf the whole time.

After he left we went to church.  Both girls made it through the whole thing!  Emma took one little break to walk around with Daddy, and Abby fell asleep less than halfway through  in my arms, but they made it like angels!  We had Waffle House for supper (my mom and dad's tradition) and then went to bed early.  Mimi and Bailey spent the night and got to be there first thing for Christmas morning.

Abby woke up first, and we had to wake Emma up around 8:45 after I just couldn't wait anymore!  They were both so excited!  Santa brought Emma an easel and lots of art supplies, a picnic table, 2 Gabba pillow friends to complete her set, a princess castle tent, and a few random toys.  Abby got lots of little toys, some bibs, and teethers.  She needs them - we think she's cutting her first tooth!

We played a lot and exchanged our own gifts before breakfast.  Lunch was not too much later, and then we all took a nap.  We got up and ready and went to Brad's parents' house for Christmas dinner.  I completely forgot to bring my camera, but will add some pictures once I get a copy.  The girls were spoiled ROTTEN this year!  We think we may begin an "each of you gets __ gifts" from us next year.  It would be different if Santa and mom and dad were the only gift givers, but both grandparents outdo Santa every year!

We had an excellent Christmas and made it through with no tears.  It was nice for it to be completely different than every other year.  Though my Dad's presence was sorely and noticeably missed, it was nice to have new traditions and new plans so that it was bearable.  


We're enjoying our decorations too much to take them down just yet, but I want to get it done before Brad goes back to work.  Isn't un-decorating just the worst?

First Solid Food

So it's out of order.  Sue me.  ;)

We fed Abby her first solid food (baby oatmeal) when she was about 5 1/2 months old.  She wasn't so sure she liked it, but it ended up well!  

The faces speak for themselves.

Is it just me, or is she seriously not one of the 2 cutest babies EVER????