Standing Up

Our snow is still piling up - the bank along the edge of the driveway is as tall as our garbage can, so you can just imagine trying to back out around banks all that high or higher. We got about 6 inches total (I would guess) out of our latest snow fall. It just keeps mounding up.

Abby is still working on her standing and walking abilities. She has been standing up as much as possible and will take a step or two between things. It won't be long now.

And... we finally got almost a full nights sleep. Almost, because the city felt like plowing our road several times during the middle of the night. But little Abby slept until almost 6 a.m., which was a major improvement over her 2:30 a.m. episode yesterday. Now she will be all ready for her big trip to Hastings, which may be extended from a 3 day stay to a 5 day stay so that I can attend a meeting in Kalamazoo on Tuesday night. I'm sure Abby's grandparents won't mind, but her daddy is really going to miss her!

One Hot Bodysuit

Especially for "Shenekwah" - Abby's Sunday tights made for a great body suit :-)

The Infamous Laundry Theif Stands Again

Busted!

We caught Abby red, or should we say whites, handed pulling all the laundry out of our clean clothes basket. Even more impressive is her standing on her own - she's on her way now!

We have it all on video tape, but Blogger won't upload it for us. We will keep trying, because it is too cute not to share. The little turkey loves to pull clean clothes out of the basket as fast as I can put them in.

After 5 nights in a row of Abby waking up in the middle of the night, we are finally reaching wits ends here. I think the first few nights she didn't feel good, but I have a feeling now she just wants to have a little snuggle and sleep in our bed. Last night I spent over an hour trying to get her back to sleep and in her crib, but she would have none of it. Tonight she may just find herself alone and awake for a while to see if that will help break her of this new and not cool habit. Afterall, moms have got to sleep too!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa Steve Osgood! We wish we could be down to help celebrate Grandpa's birthday, but we will hopefully be down in Hastings this coming weekend, so we can give him a birthday hug and kiss then. Until then, Abby taped a special birthday message for him.

Abby doesn't get to take her morning naps anymore, at least for a day or two while we try to figure out why she keeps waking up at 4 in the morning. We are hoping she is just sleeping too much during the day and not taking the morning nap will solve that problem. She is getting bigger, so we bet she can make it all morning just playing. I, on the other hand, may not be able to make it all morning after being up around 4 a.m. for the last 4 mornings. That is just too early!

Abby has survived one wicked bout of diaper rash. Something she ate yesterday morning must have been a bad idea because it make her little insides sick and she got the worst diaper rash in her short history. It went from nothing at noon to broken skin by 1:30. Luckily our great doctor's office was super helpful and got Abby some prescription diaper rash cream ("Magic Butt Paste"). She is now feeling good again after a whiny afternoon and evening. We are guessing that the yogurt covered cranberries were the culprit, since everything else she ate yesterday was previously eaten and successfully digested. I guess we'll have a whole bag of yogurt covered cranberries up for claims when we come to visit on Friday night.

Ten Months Old

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Abby partied all day yesterday, literally, to celebrate being 10 months old. First she went to church, then to a baby shower, then she had friends over to play Nintendo. And she did all of this with no naps. Not a good plan on her mom or dad's part. But since she is pretty darn cute and generally happy she pulled it off without too much crying or crabbiness.

Abby loves her newest hat, which came from her future Aunt Courtnie's mom and dad. It was very soft and warm. She's been wearing it a lot with her new coat and doesn't care if you don't think red and pink are a good match.

Today is Abby and Mom do laundry day - and boy do we have an abundance to wash again. We also have a ton of dishes to do after the partying yesterday. I can't wait until Abby is big enough to be a helper instead of a distraction or a pulling the clothes back out of the basket non-helper. At least she is the cutest kid on the block while she is preventing me from getting things done.

Abby typed the first part.

Bee Mine

Abby just has one request this Valentine's Day (okay... maybe two or three). Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Play Date

Abby went on her first play date without her mom or dad today. It must have been really, really fun because when I went to pick her up she didn't seem to want to come with me. We are very glad that there are two girls about her age in our small group - it makes going to group fun for us and for her too. She is getting to have a HUGE personality and has got to be close to getting over her stranger anxiety because she spends every moment in public flirting and waving at anyone who will look at her.

Abby and Maize have been having more and more fun together as Abby grows. Abby loves her dog and likes to pet Maize, although sometimes the "pets" are little pinches or pulls on Maize's loose skin. Maize loves to kiss Abby, which seems to be one of Abby's favorite activities as well even though her dad and I don't sanction these activities. Earlier today Maize was doing her crazy dog dance for Abby who was laughing hysterically. We are lucky these too silly girls get along so well.

Abby and I are back to normal after our little bit of something - I still am convinced it was the Subway cookies, which were a little chewy and seemed like they were a bit undercooked. Who knows... Abby also got her 4 tooth, so she may have just been feverish from breaking that big girl tooth through. And now that she has her four front teeth she is a very effective biter. And she is also officially done with any baby food. I tried to give her sweet potatoes last night, which she likes, and she did the same trick that she did with the peas. She wouldn't even eat one little bite. Luckily we have a new couple in our small group with a 5 month old baby who I'm sure will be happy to eat all that extra baby food in a month or two. What a nut...

New Photos!!!

We put Abby's 9 month photos on her Walmart.com page:

http://photos.walmart.com/groups/abbyschristmasalbum

If you haven't used it before, the password is holiday. Print away!

Don't Eat The Cookies

Abby and I both had a rough night last night - I am blaming the cookies from Subway for our discomfort, but I don't know if food poisoning can cause a fever and we both have one of those too. Boo to being sick! And an even bigger boo to thinking it was the cookies - I LOVE cookies, especially the ones at Subway. This is very depressing.

Abby rebounded from her long night very well and cracked me up all morning. We got her blocks out the other day and she has been really, really into playing with them lately. The only problem is one of the things she'd like to do with the blocks is bang them on the t.v. screen, which is a definite no-no, especially since the only other t.v. in the house is about dead. And everyone knows that you can't watch Veggie Tales or Nemo without a t.v.

Here's a little clip of Abby climbing up the entire staircase on Saturday (that's 18 steps in this old house). Unfortunately the light above the stairs was out (blown fuse), so it's a little dark. Little Abby loves climbing the stairs - she heads for them every chance she gets. Our baby gate is quickly becoming a permanent fixture on the staircase. Now that she's mastered going up we need to start working on coming down. That's a tough one.