Model Behavior

Three days in a row with a ponytail in Abby's hair. This is definitely a record and a streak I hope she keeps up. Otherwise she has hair in her eyes all day. She doesn't like ponytails, but I think she is finally figuring out that she can see better when she has them in. And her friends all wear ponytails, so the peer pressure seems to help.
This is the first outfit Abby had on Tuesday morning. It was a perfect storm of not matching. She kept seeing things she liked in her dresser and wanted to combine them. So she had on pink dog pants, a different color pink cupcake shirt, and a hot pink and purple sweater. Luckily I got her to change into the after (below) photo by just trading the sweater for a white dog shirt over the cupcake shirt. She is a very creative dresser.Thanks Aunt Hannah and Aunt Emily for teaching Abby all of her modeling poses. She really loves practicing them.

Our Girl - 28 Weeks

How your baby's growing:

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

from (http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-28-weeks_1117.bc)

Just for fun yesterday I measured around my belly. It was 45 inches. Wow... that is big. At this point in my pregnancy for Abby I was 44 1/4 inches, so I'm not that much bigger than before, but a whole lot more uncomfortable.

Miss Mess

Well... you would think that after yesterday morning's yogurt incident we would be set for the day on gigantic messes. WRONG. Abby had a full glass of milk at the dinner table (with just a touch of chocolate milk that was left from Wendy's the night before). We were trying out the bigger girl sippy cups (you know... the tupperware kind with the snap on lids). Abby learned the hard way that you can't bite down on the lid while simultaneously pulling the cup backwards away from your mouth. We had a light chocolate milk explosion. Everywhere. And then she really needed that bath, which luckily she hadn't taken yet. And I needed to do laundry, again...

We are cleaning and reorganizing our playroom today. Last night Steve and I moved the t.v.'s around, since we've been spending most of our time in the playroom now that the heating in the room works (and since Abby is way into toy time). Now I just need to finish going through the toys and putting them back into their proper bins. And sweep up the floor, which somehow got covered in cherrios. Abby is a neverending supply of messes.

Fancy Salon Treatment

Abby decided to give herself a fancy salon hair treatment today. Unfortunately she decided to try it at McDonald's and used a yogurt parfait for the treatment. And she really got it smashed into her hair very well. She got lots and lots of laughs from the senior citizens who were enjoying breakfast at McDonald's this morning too. So, it suddenly became bath day even though we were a couple days away from our scheduled bathing. And she had to wear the yogurt hairstyle to our Tuesday morning playgroup.

We signed Abby up for another swim class that starts this Saturday. I'm pretty excited to take her and even more excited that AJ and Baby Abby will be joining us at the class. We are hoping that Maddie will also be able to join us. Abby has recently decided that she loves swimming, so it should be a really good experience for us this time, unlike last class where we spent the first week crying and the second week clinging. And... since the class is Saturday mornings Steve will be able to get in on the fun (and save me the joy of wearing my now too short maternity suit into the pool).

Abby's Bedding

Target Website Here:

This is the bedding that Abby will be sporting in her princess room. The comforter is an aqua color (it's brighter in real life) with white flowers and butterflies on it. The dust ruffle has vertical stripes with pink, light green, and aqua. The sheets are white with pink and aqua butterflies. We are really excited for the arrival of the bed frames so we can set up her beautiful room.

Baby Sister's Afghan

The finished product - just need to tie up the loose ends

Edge detail

Center detail

Operation Sleep and Grow

Abby has grown a whole inch since turning 18 months - putting her up to 33 1/2 inches. She is getting pretty tall! We've been keeping track on our old, nasty door to the basement and we wanted to take a measurement yesterday because we are pretty sure she is on the verge of a huge growth explosion. Lately Abby has been sleeping 12 or more hours at night and napping 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours each day. And on top of that she's been putting away food like she has a hollow leg. Steve had to go through the line a second time at Taco Bell on Thursday because Abby finished all her food, tried mine, and was still hungry. She ended up eating two entire cheese roll-ups and about 6 bites of taco.

I, on the other hand, need to be doing more of the sleeping and less of the growing. I'm figuring out today how fun an upset stomach can be with a little person inside wiggling around. And yesterday got to bag up all but 5 pairs of my maternity pants because they were just too uncomfortable in the waistline. It's a very good thing that I just stay home with Abby, who doesn't really care what I am wearing. She's going to be seeing the same things over and over and over for the next 11 weeks.

More Photos

There are more photos from Abby's Christmas and winter fun thus far on walmart.com. Just in case you are interested :-)

21 Months Old!

Abby is celebrating the 21st month of her life today. It's hard to believe we are 3 short months from her 2nd birthday (not to mention the birth of her little sister)! Abby started this morning out with lots of playing and since it is staying just above freezing here today I think we will be doing some snowman making this afternoon. We'll see how Abby likes the snow when we actually play with it.

We tried something new today in Abby's diet - star fruit. Let's just say that most of it ended up on the floor and I'm not sure that any of it got into her belly. She did clean up the clementines and blueberries pretty quickly. Once she decides she wants food she doesn't really mess around too much.

A few funny things from traveling with Abby that I had overlooked mentioning. We left Maize at dog day care, but Abby was asleep when I dropped Maize off and asleep again when I picked her back up. All day long she kept telling me, and anyone else who would listen, that Maize was at the "dog circus" and that Maize was "going in bag." She came up with the dog circus all on her own. She also cracked me up talking about the dental school. We drove by the dental school at the University of Michigan 3 times throughout Wednesday and each time I told her that the building was where daddy learned to fix people's teeth. This fascinated her. She kept telling me that she wanted to fix teeth. And that she was a big girl dentist. And that daddy is a dentist and fixes people's teeth. I think she's been thoroughly indoctrinated in the desire to follow in daddy and Grandpa Scott's footsteps as a dentist. Finally, and worst from a traveling with children perspective, for some reason every movie we put on the portable dvd player while driving home for some reason or another scared Abby. I'm sure it was more a case of pure exhaustion and less a case of Winnie the Pooh becoming scary. We made it about 3 minutes into any given movie before we heard a little voice from the backseat saying "Abby scared. Change movie show. Scared." It made for a very long ride until she finally fell asleep (she also wanted any song on the radio changed immediately and wanted the radio on, but not on at the same time). Luckily after a couple nights in her own bed, Abby is back to her sweet self.

Abby Loves Puppies

It is official - Abby loves puppies. Ever since we left Grandma and Grandpa Hodges' house, Abby has been talking about Grandma's puppies. She was very hesitant around them at first, but by the time we left she was holding (with supervision of course) and petting her new little friends. Fortunately all the friends will be staying at Grandma Mary's house and then hopefully finding homes other than ours. Bulldog puppies are cute, but I'll pass on the full grown version.

Abby had a great time on our most recent travels. She really enjoyed Cabelas. She talked and talked about the deer, fish, bears, and elephant that she saw. There were a few animals she wasn't a big fan of, but for the most part she thought it was a pretty incredible place. And she really, really, really loved swimming at the pool at our hotel. She had a blast. So much fun, in fact, that I came home and looked up when the next toddler swim class is being held. So starting next weekend Abby will be hitting the pool at Lake Superior State University. She is already really excited about it.

We can't sum up our little trip without saying how much we appreciated the ability to leave Maize at a dog daycare while Steve was in his class yesterday and Abby and I were shopping and visiting friends. I would have been one of the type to laugh hysterically at people who use a dog daycare (and still probably would if it were an everyday kind of thing), but for us yesterday it was a life saver. We got to do everything we wanted without the distraction of a dog in the car (and without feeling mean for locking her in the car). If you are ever in the Ann Arbor area with a dog friend, Maize would with out a doubt recommend her new friends at Karla's Bed & Biscuit. We give them 2 paws up!

Now... on to the unpacking and digesting of everything that was in the car... ugh!