Slide

Abby went down a big kid slide at the playground today all by herself. I'm really enjoying watching her learn to do new things, but I miss my little baby who just loved to be held and snuggle. Now all she wants to do is big kid things. She had a really good time at the playgroup we joined. She got to blow some bubbles (she is not quite ready to do the whole bubble wand thing - she just sticks it into her mouth). She mostly love going down the slide and back up the steps to the slide all by herself. It was a slide designed for little people like her, so it didn't involve any dangerous climbing and wasn't very steep. She had a blast.

Abby is currently cracking me up by feeding her baby fake food. The baby has one of Abby's bib spread over it and Abby says "more" after each bite she gives the doll from the little spoon. It is too precious! She has a very active imagination these days. And she is getting very good at saying "more". Maybe that wasn't the best word to teach her.

Just Another Terrific Tuesday

Abby tried on her outfit from India today. She is still a little to small to wear it, but we still had a little princess party in it. As you can see our stairs are all wood now and they look pretty good. They could use some sanding and staining, but for having been covered with nasty carpet they didn't turn out too bad.
This is Abby pretending that she can't hear me telling her to get down from the shelf. She's figured out that she can climb onto almost everything in the living room and she has been taking advantage of that ability to the greatest extent possible. She's also been on top of the couches, cedar chest, and fireplace surround. We need to work on teaching Abigail that climbing is fun, but is not an indoor activity.
This is Abby's dishwasher box house. She's been having a fun time playing in the box with her chair. We cut two windows into the sides and she loves peeking out of them.
Abby has moved on to a new favorite doll. For a very long time, JoJo the water baby was her favorite, but now she especially loves playing with "Uncle Nate" the doll from Mildred. Nate comes with us all over the house and he even gets to wear his clothes, unlike JoJo.
Someone was having a great time with my sunglasses, right before she broke them into 3 pieces. Guess I can justify buying a new pair now. She thought she was hot stuff in my glasses.

401st Post

Abby has been extra funny this weekend. She is really, really working hard at being the world's best doll mommy. We have been doing extra feeding, pushing in strollers, and we even got out some of Abby's baby toys - the bouncy seat and play mat - for her dolls to use. She is so much fun to watch. I don't know many other 13 month old little girls who love to play dolls and actually take care of them. She really has a great time doing it.

We had snow over the weekend. Luckily none of it stayed on the ground - it just blew around and was pretty. But, even if it was pretty there is no excuse for snow in May. And yesterday was beautiful, but we only got up to 45 degrees, so we couldn't even get outside and enjoy the sunshine. Thankfully today is a new day, and one that is supposed to get into the 60's. And this weekend when we head down to see Great Grandma Lorraine and Great Grandpa Harley is may even get into the 80's. That is sounding like my kind of weather.

And now... back to work on the doll afghan for Abby's babies. I am using up as much scrap yarn as I can. This doll blanket is knitted from Great Grandma Jennie's basic dishcloth pattern, so Abby and Maize shouldn't be able to snag it up and ruin it. We will have to see though... those two play kind of rough sometimes.

Dislocation

Abby must have punched me in the mouth while we were taking our nap yesterday because my jaw has been dislocated ever since. The jaw dislocation unfortunately isn't a new phenomenon for me - the first time it happened was about 7 weeks into pregnancy and it has happened regularly since then. It just normally is something that Steve can ease back into place. Unfortunately that wasn't the case this time, so I am on a soft food diet and waiting to see if it can resolve itself in the next few days. Plus, when Steve did try to manipulate my jaw back into place last night it sent Abby into hysterics - she must have thought her dad was trying to kill me or something because she wouldn't even look at him for a good 10 minutes without crying.

Abby and I thought about watching the Spartans last night, but we were too tired and fell asleep before halftime. According to SportsCenter we probably didn't miss a whole lot. They still had a good season, so Grandpa Harley and our other Spartan family and friends can at least be happy about how far they got. Unfortunately our Maize and Blue didn't do quite as well, but we are still very proud of their performance.

Today we have the big job of deciding what outfits Abby should take to Hastings to celebrate Easter and her first birthday, which is a week from tomorrow. She has grown up so fast! And she has so many cute outfits to choose from - this is going to be one tough decision. And now, back to playing dolls - Abby is at this moment trying to swaddle them to put them to sleep in the bouncy seat. She is going to be a wonderful babysitter someday.

The Girl Who Loved Her Dolls

These are from yesterday and too cute! We spent most of the day caring for 9 of Abby's favorite dolls. They even got to play with Abby's toys.

Orange You Glad I Didn't Eat the Peel?

Abby found some tangerines today that we got in our Saturday delivery of Angel Food. She is super smart and right away knew that the tangerine was one of her favorite foods (she loves, loves, loves citrus fruits). She did all of this finding while I was busy chopping peppers and onions for a pot of chili. I was very surprised when I had a little tug on my pant leg and saw that Abby had chewed through the tangerine peel and had gotten part of the fruit in the process. What a little smarty pants. I peeled the tangerine for her and she gobbled it right up. But not before I got a picture of her damage.

We are still working on focusing with the camera for an awesome coming around the door photo. I'm still not sure what the deal is, but the camera always seems to focus on something other than sweet Abby. At least I keep getting her to do the posing - one of these times the camera is going to get the focus right and we are going to have a home run.

Other than eating tangerines, peel and all, and walking through the doors, Abby is becoming a walking machine. She has almost totally forsaken crawling and just cruises around here like she owns the place. She is really steady for only having a few weeks under her belt. She is also becoming quite the mommy to her dolls. Yesterday she was sharing her sippy cup with her dolls during the day. When we went upstairs to get ready for bed she insisted on going up the stairs all by herself and did so one handed so that she could bring JoJo up with her. I tried to get her to give me the doll so that she could crawl up with both hands, but she would have none of it. Today she fed part of her snack to her dolls, and also part to her best buddy Maize. She is growing up and learning a lot. And with only 15 days or so until her birthday, she is leaving babyhood behind for girliness.

Super Sleeper

Abby is going to win a big prize tonight for her great sleeping skills. She may have to have some ice cream or another special treat. She fell asleep at 6:45 last night and didn't wake up until 6:30 am. Then the little bug chugged two 5 ounce bottles and went back to sleep until 9 a.m. By my calculations that is about 14 hours of sleep. She must be about to grow a whole foot or something.

Here's a picture of Abby enjoying the 75 degree weather from last week. Unfortunately we are not enjoying such great weather today. But the icky gray weather and rain is helping to melt all our snow, so we will just think of how great the end result is going to be. And yes, we still have snow. At least 2 feet in some places. We have some places that are bare, but we have a lot more that are covered in snow.

We have been busy playing dolls today. Abby willingly gave up one of her old, small sized bottles so that she can feed her many, many hungry babies. It took us a long time this morning to make sure that we got all the babies fed. Now we just have to figure out what we are going to feed Steve when he gets home. It would be a shame for us to feed all those babies and not feed Abby's daddy.

Abby's New Doll

Abby already has 9 baby dolls and 2 barbies! She got her newest addition to the doll collection over the weekend. Her new baby can moves its head and arms and also makes baby noises (it has a motion detector in its forehead). We have had a good time playing with the new baby in Abby's growing family. Now we just have to come up with some names for the babies. So far we have Kitty the barbie (since it is a ballerina like our babysitter), Penny the Bitty Baby, Jo the water baby (it could be a boy or a girl, so we picked a name that could be unisex), and Natalie the Cabbage Patch Doll (thankfully those come pre-named). Now we just need 6 more doll names and also a name for a very fancy looking barbie. That is a lot of naming!

Abby really loves dolls. Her face lights right up when she see them. Sometimes she gets to take a doll into her big girl bed for a nap, which usually results in a shorter nap. She will start to wake up and rather than going back to sleep she finds that baby doll and starts playing with it. Pretty soon she will be cooking in her play kitchen and feeding her babies.