It's Good to be Queen

Abby finished up her 5th month birthday by visiting her favorite Sault Ste. Marie restaurant ~ the Burger King two blocks from our house. It's her favorite place to go for dinner because there are lots of windows and two t.v.'s on her 3rd favorite channel (the Fox News Network).

And, Abby's head is finally big enough for her to wear the Burger King crown, so in honor of her 5th month party Abby got to be queen for the night.

Today Abby and I have to head down to the library to return some books, check out some new ones and renew the Lord of the Rings since we are not quite done learning about hobbits. We also have to pack our bags since we did all the laundry yesterday. I think we will have enough to keep us busy!

We did quite a bit of cleaning last night so that we didn't feel quite so cluttered. Abby can now play all over the floor again and was back to practicing her crawling after dinner. She can still only get one end up into the air at a time.

Five Months Old Today!

Abby is celebrating her 5th month in style today. And of course she is doing most of her celebrating with her best friend Maize. First they both slept in extra long today in Mom and Dad's big bed under the warm blankets. But then Maize licked Abby on the foot and everyone woke up.

Abby and Maize also did some lounging and playing on the new futon cover that we put on the futon this morning. We also moved it into the living room for extra seating and so Abby could relax on it and watch her favorite t.v. shows. She also did lots of playing in the exersaucer.

This afternoon Abby is going to accompany me on her first trip to the oil change place so our car is ready to drive to Great Grandma Lorraine's house. We are really excited to visit Grandma and Grandpa and also a lot of our Toledo and Ann Arbor friends!

Another Sweater and Abby's Second

Abby took Steve and I to our local Book World to pick out her very first children's Bible, which is her second Bible. She received a lovely Bible earlier this summer with illustrations by Great Grandma Jennie's neighbor, Nancy Munger Anderson. The first Bible even used Abby's Great Great Grandpa Ira as a model for some of the artwork, so it is a very special gift. But, the first Bible is an NIV and a little too advanced for such a young reader, so Abby requested a Children's Bible so she can have a daily Bible story time. We picked out the DK Children's Illustrated Bible because it had great pictures and lots of extra information along with a good retelling of the Bible stories.



















Abby also got her first homemade sweater - and this one actually fits her (for now). It is a very lovely blue with a yellow ribbon pulled through a line of sticthes to make a belt so she can tie her sweater on. We are looking forward to its debut tomorrow at church. I have some white yarn to make another sweater, but it may be a while before we start making that one. We have some baby afghans to get to work on.

We took Abby for another little walk down to the Soo Locks and around downtown this morning, but there weren't going to be any big boats and we couldn't find anything in the stores we couldn't live without. Now Abby is learning more about football - mostly how not to play it - by watching Michigan play Notre Dame. Abby is getting good at football.

Swinging Good Time

Here's the little swinger in her newly fixed swing. She hardly fits into it anymore. Abby screamed herself to sleep last night, but she's happy this morning so all is good.

We have some cooking to do tonight so we can go to our small group bible study armed with yummy desert for the potluck. We are thinking about chocolate cake.

We have to do a lot of laundry today - it has been over a week since the last giant laundry day. We have lots of folding and sorting and putting away. Lots to do. I better get to it!

A Much Needed Nap

I finally got Abby down for her first nap of the day about 2:30. She had been awake since 8:30 this morning. It was not a good start to our day. I hope she sleeps another couple hours so we don't have crab for dinner. I am planning on steak, but no one in this family enjoys a surf and turf dinner.

As a reward for getting her to sleep I got to finally start the dishes and the laundry that I had planned to do this morning. Ugh. I hate housework. I don't get paid enough to do all this. Tonight we are going to try to seal more windows - we have 3 of the 17 downstairs windows sealed and we still have 10 windows upstairs after that. That's a lot of windows seeping cold air into this old and relatively uninsulated home. Brr...

There are cute pictures of Abby in her baby swing, which we just got fixed after a wire falling loose in the move (3 months ago). The pictures are still on my camera, so I'll have to post them later tonight or tomorrow. You can just imagine loads of Abigail cuteness in a swing with a big smile and a warm sweater.

Taking After Uncle Nate and Uncle Dan

The Heater is ON

Boy was it cold this morning when we got up. Really cold. We would think 65 was great if it was outside and sunny, but it didn't feel so great when you are jumping out of a lukewarm shower. So I turned on the heater, but I set it to 66 for now, so I doubt it will get much warmer. I hope the sun comes out today and warms us up. We are going to have to seal the windows and doors for sure.

Unfortunately, yesterday's Daddy/Daughter evening did not go well. Abby's big day resulted in a very, very, very crabby evening. Poor Steve. He said it finally required a ride all around town to get Abby to stop the screaming. Not just crying - actual red in the face, hyperventilating style screaming. But, she woke up in a good mood today, so hopefully we can maintain the better attitude by staying around here and playing with Abby's best friend Maize.

We moved Abby's booster seat to the table so she could join us at meal time. It really improves the quality of time we get to spend at dinner, since she can play with things (including place mats) and see both Steve and I. We really enjoy our family dinners together.

New Tricks

Here's a great new skill Abby can add to her ever growing resume - the ability to make tooting noises with her mouth. That and soak through about 8 bibs a day doing it. She had a little tooting concert on our whole car ride this afternoon. I was laughing so hard I thought I may need to pull the car over and get a little more composed before I kept going. She is such a character.

We went to the mom's group from our church today - it was a lunch playdate at McDonald's playland. Abby isn't quite big enough for the playland, obviously, but she had a good time watching all the kids running around and enjoyed a bottle while we were there. She is so alert and attentive. Tonight is going to be an Abby and Daddy night while I go to the church building committee meeting (I somehow got volunteered to be on the committee and figured it was a good way to use my legal talents for the benefit of our church). Abby is in a good mood today, so Steve should be all set.

Tomorrow Abby and I are going to try and wash all the windows before we seal them up for the winter. No one wants to spend all winter looking through dirty windows.

Practicing For The Price Is Right

Spin it girl :-)
Thanks to whoever got this good toy (I think it was Aunt Ruth, Sarah, & Debbie). Abby sure loved it when we got it out for the first time yesterday.

Fruit, Fall, and Football

Our fall leaves are starting to appear - I am not sure if I am excited about this or not. I'm sure Abby won't care and Steve is inside all day at work, so it doesn't bother him either. It seems way to early to me for the leaves to be changing - especially since my Asiatic Lilies just started blooming.
Abby tried out bananas for the first time today and decided that she liked them quite a bit. She really gobbled them right down. It is the first fruit we have found that she likes to eat. Hopefully she will learn to like the other fruits too, but for now we are just glad she is a good veggie eater. Abby's been learning a lot about football in the last two days. First she got to watch lots of college football, including Michigan's win. Grandpa Harley even was here to teach her about football, but she mostly spent time warming back up to Grandma Lorraine. Today Abby's dad tried to get her to watch the Detroit Lions, but she decided to take a nap with her mom instead. It was much more exciting.

Tonight this little squirt is going to have her bi-weekly bath. I'm sure that will be a fun treat for her. She was great in church again and has had a fun afternoon, so we should be able to have a nice bath too. Hopefully she won't have a big splash party like last time!