Six Inches

Of SNOW!!! That's a lot to fall in one day... And it's still snowing too.

Abby wanted to stay up late and party last night, so she slept in until 9 am. I don't like that plan, but she is being a great girl today. And her dad just told us that he got into the course in Portland, so now we get to plan Abby's first trip to Oregon and the West Coast :-)

Oh... and tomorrow I am going to attempt cooking a turkey for the first time tomorrow. Yikes.

6 days until we come south again! Sorry for the scatterbrained post - I am not good when I stay up past midnight.

Snow Angels

Abby and I headed outside to make snow angels today. I"m not sure if she liked the snow or not, but she did have fun watching Maize dash through the snow like a bunny. We took a few more pictures, but in the interest of saving the blog's memory, they are on our flickr page. While Abby napped I tried my hand at snow removal. We don't have a lot of sidewalk or a very long driveway, but moving just the 2 or 3 inches we had was a lot of work. And it's still snowing, so the drive is covered again, but at least Steve will be able to get into the driveway, which had been plowed shut by the city snowplows.

Abby was back to sleeping all night and in her own bed last night. Yay!!! Unfortunately Maize and Steve woke me up anyway, so there was no 8 straight hours for me. Maybe tonight...

Abby and I have been trying other things out to keep ourselves occupied. So far we've taped a bunch of Grandma Mary's home videos onto dvd, made 5 dvd's for Jack of Abby's favorite cartoons, and made 1.5 dishcloths. Abby really loves dishcloths, especially when she is eating.

Tune in tomorrow for the final snow update...

It's Good To Be Cute

If it weren't for Abby's cuteness she'd be in trouble. Abby and I slept a lot of last night on the futon in the living room - that worked out okay until the dog came to check us out and woke Abby up. Now the story of how we got on the futon can be told in the long version or the short version. Here's the short one - crying, whining, finally asleep in her own crib, one hour, screaming, inconsolable, feverish, tired mom, making up the futon. Abigail and I had a talk today about the need to sleep in her own bed tonight OR ELSE...

On a good note, Abby's fever is gone for good, we hope. If it does come back today then the doctor's office wants her to come in and get checked out. I told her that information, so hopefully she will decide to feel better, since she really doesn't like the doctor right now. But for now we have a super happy girl. She was playing peek-a-boo with me earlier (she holds up the blanket, or in this case pants and covers her own face). Right now she is eating her breakfast and watching Sesame Street. Hopefully today will be a good day all day with no fever and lots of naps! Happy Tuesday :-)

Un-Slumber Party

This is the face Abby made when I told her to show me her tooth. We'll have to work on a smile version of "show me your tooth" later. We are much to tired today for learning many tricks after our un-slumber party. After the perfect storm of shots, teething, and a babysitter on Saturday, Abby was a hot mess last night. Mostly hot. Her fever was back and was hotter than before, so when she woke us up at 12:30 we decided she better snuggle with us so we could keep an ear on her and feel her temperature more easily. Nine and a half hours later she was awake and well rested, while I was exhausted from trying not to fall off the edge of the bed and having a little wiggle bug sleeping right next to me. Luckily she is feeling back to normal today, except for being wiggly, which has resulted in a bumped head (again). It's a good thing she is tough, this learning to crawl and stand is dangerous work.

So... for Abby this will be the last un-slumber party for a long while. Next time I am just going to snuggle her on the couch since I didn't get any sleep anyway. Good thing Abby likes to take several naps during the day!

7 Months Old

This is what it looks like when you are 7 months old. Abby had a great 7 month old day today. First she got to have special daddy time, since it was my turn to get the sleep in shift. Then after her naps she got to hang out with her babysitter Kitty while her mom and dad went to see the James Bond movie. After that she got to try eating cheese for the first time. Abby loves cheese. And she also was practicing her words today, especially Daddy and Hey. Someday she is going to just start talking in complete sentences.

Abby heard that her Grandpa Scott got a deer today, so maybe next spring she can try some venison. Yummy!!!

Red Hot

We have an interesting dilemma around here today - our computer's memory is completely full. It must be we have a few to many pictures of Abigail. Luckily we have an external hard drive, so I am moving all the pictures (except the Abby ones) onto it. She is just too cute to kick her pictures off the computer, for now...

Abby didn't do as well with these shots as the last two sets and woke up in the middle of the night a little warm. Her fever has been below 100.5 all day and has responded to tylenol, so we aren't too worried about it. Unfortunately with the fever came the crabbiness we were hoping to avoid. She is really wound up today. It is even more unfortunate because Steve and I were hoping to get away this weekend to see the newest James Bond movie, but with Abby being grouchy and feverish we aren't sure any of our babysitting potentials will want to have the pleasure of her crabby company. Oh well... we can always wait until Thanksgiving weekend when there is bound to be a grandma or two who will watch Abby.

Well... back to purging the unneeded from our computer's small memory so I can continue to upload new photos. Happy Friday!

All Shot Up

Abby had to get 4 shots today and she did not appreciate that one bit! But her dad and I think it is pretty important that she stay healthy, so we let those nurses poke her poor little legs anyway. Now she just has a few more immunizations to get before she gets a break for a few years. She had a flu shot along with her boosters, so we are hoping that she doesn't have to battle the flu this year. That would be no fun.

Since we got home Abby has been taking a nice long nap, leaving me plenty of time to surf the internet for the perfect bread bowl recipe to use for tomorrow night. Now I just have to find the time to make the bread bowls. I've also been enjoying old family videos while I transfer them onto dvds for my mom. So far we've watched Hannah, Nate and Emily's music videos from 1999 and our family vacation to South Dakota. Right now we are watching Medieval Times in Chicago from 1997 - boy do we look young!

Abby is still in the 95th percentile for all her growth (height, weight, head circumference). She was pitching a fit, so I didn't catch exactly what any of those measurements were, but the doctor said she is growing well and making excellent progress on her verbal and motor skills. Like we needed a doctor to tell us that...

Getting Big

Abby is certainly getting bigger. Now that she has her first tooth coming through she got to practice a new bedtime habit - brushing her tooth before she can go to bed. She LOVED it! She kept opening her mouth after Steve thought he was done brushing her teeth so he could do it again. We hope her love of brushing her teeth will continue throughout her lifetime.We took Abby on an adventure to Canada yesterday - not that driving about 2 miles to the mall on the other side of the Saint Mary's River should qualify as an adventure, but we were in a foreign country, so it counts. We decided to do a little Christmas shopping since our dollar was worth $1.19 in Canada, but all we came home with was a metal cheese grater to replace our metal/plastic hybrid that broke on Monday. Not the most exciting trip, or the most productive, but at least we had no waiting at customs on either side of the bridge. We'll just have to keep thinking about Christmas presents for Abby's family...

Tomorrow is Abby's last set of shots for a while, we hope. It is never fun, but she has been pretty good afterward each time, so I'm not too worried. We'll have to see how big our girl has grown in the last few months. She feels like a 30 pound bag of dog food when I am carrying her around, but I'm sure she doesn't weigh quite that much. Happy Wednesday!

It's an... Incisor!

The first tooth is through - it is not all the way in yet, but you can feel the top of it if you allow Abby to gum you. She is going to have to find a new hobby - no more chewing on family members! And she has been remarkably well behaved and not a bit crabby the last few days. We will sign up for more teeth if they come in while she is being a perfect little lady.

Abby had lots of fun with her cousin Jack last week. They are going to have even more fun as they get bigger. Abby gave Jack's cheek a big pinch the other day, just like she gets all the time. It is amazing how kids see us adults do something and try it themselves. It makes me think I have to be very careful about what she sees me do and what she hears me say. Yikes...

Steve is off today, so Abby and I may make him take us over to Canada for something different. We still have a lot to explore over there. But first we'll have to check the exchange rate to see if purchasing things there is as cheap or cheaper than purchasing them here (which was not the case last time we visited). Steve and I may also go pick out some new glasses today - we are both needing new lenses, since our sets are both at least 2 prescriptions ago. We will have to make sure Abby approves of any new glasses so that we can actually wear them.

A Welcome Home Present

We made it home last night to a snow covered driveway, and the snow is still falling. It is so beautiful! Abby and I say bring it on, as long as we can watch it from the warmth of our living room.

We had a wonderful week down visiting in Hastings, but it was really good to be home. In fact, Abby did some of her best smiling and playing last night when she got her toys back. She can be quite a ham. While she was gone Abby reached one (and a half) milestone that we were really looking forward to. We now have a mobile girl, but only in reverse. Abby is a very proficient backwards scooter now and she is trying harder and harder to get going forward. Abby also almost has her first tooth (the lower right central incisor). It is just right there and you can definitely see the edge of it about to come through. Maybe by tomorrow we will no longer be parents to a toothless wonder.

We got to do lots of visiting in Hastings - Abby got to see almost all her grandparents (she only missed out on Grandpa Roy and Great Grandpa Duane who were in Florida and Great Grandpa and Grandma Gamble). She also got to see all her first cousins and her new second cousin Camree Kissinger. It was really fun. And we got to go shopping, to Aunt Emily's basketball game, and to Great Grandma Jennie's flower shop. As you can guess, we were super busy and now Abby and I are both ready to just spend a few days playing barbies and watching Handy Manny.

Abby also learned screaming this past week. Not the crying type of screaming - we are talking more about the Braveheart style shout of defiance. Oh joy... We have a lot more pictures to share, but you'll just have to wait until another day to see a few more.