9 Months Old!

Here's another good picture from Abby's sled ride the other day. It has been too cold to do more than dash outside into a pre-heated car the last couple days.

I was trying hard today to decide which was harder - the first nine months of Abby's life, carrying her around inside and depriving myself of sugar and caffeine and cold medicine, or the second nine months. They both have been new and exciting times with lots to remember. But I think in the end the rewards from Abby after birth outweigh any of the things that have made it challenging at times.

Two nights ago Abby and I were looking at a book with pictures of our family in it. I asked her to point to Mommy and she did. She also found Daddy and Maize. She is still working on learning the rest of the family. Right now Uncle Dan is her favorite one to find in the pictures - maybe because he is so much taller than all the rest of us! She is getting to be the smartest kid on the block. She sometimes uses words to get the message across, like today when she said "up" after she was finished eating her breakfast (she wanted me to pick her up out of her high chair) and last night when she told Steve "hug" so she could have a hug from her daddy. Slowly we are working on new words, but sweet, shy Abigail won't preform her words in front of other people yet. She also wouldn't climb the stairs yesterday when I was watching her. I figured it would be better for her to learn to do it with some supervision, since we are going to have stairs and she is going to have to use them if she wants a bath. We will have to keep working on that one.

Stay warm! We are enjoying lovely sun with our sub-zero arctic temperatures, so at least it looks beautiful outdoors. But we do have a lake effect snow advisory for 5 to 8 inches by tomorrow morning - YIKES!!!