That's What She Said

After weeks of dada's and gog's (dog), Abby finally said her first mama today! Yeah!!! She also learned nana (for Hannah) and some other fun mumblings that sound wordish, but probably aren't. We have lots of unpacking and cleaning up to do after being gone for Thanksgiving, but we had a great time, so it was well worth it. Unfortunately we had so much fun that I didn't even take one picture with my camera. Bad mom... I know.

Anyway, back to working, we'll break down the weekend's events later!

Leaving...

We are going to be leaving sometime in the next couple hours for Hastings and there is still quite a bit to do, but I needed a little sit down break. Abby finally cried herself to sleep an hour ago, since she would not go to sleep for nap time in any of the conventional ways. She was really tired, but wanted to watch my every move since I was doing different things today.

And so, we are almost ready to hit the road. I had a video of Abby's room to post, but I can't find the cord to link the camera and the computer and I don't want to waste a lot of time looking for it. So it will have to wait. On the bright side, Abby and I found the best sale ever! We visited the fudge shop and they had a 75% off sale, plus salt water taffy for $1 per bag. Talk about a bargain! For $12 we got 6 bars of fudge and 2 bags of taffy. Over the summer the same amount would have bought us about 2 bars of fudge. It is going to be a very yummy thanksgiving, that is if the fudge makes it south of the Mackinaw Bridge ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I don't think I really need to tell you all what I am thankful for, but just in case you are wondering here's the short list:

1. A very healthy, happy baby girl (Abigail)

2. A wonderful husband who works hard so I can stay home

3. Not being pregnant and not having diabetes anymore! (I loved the end result, but the whole pregnancy thing stinks)

4. A wonderful family and extended family who make a super support system

5. A free, democractic country, even if I don't agree with some of our leaders, it is good to know that democracy rules here. Thanks to Joe and all the other soldiers who work hard to keep our country free.

New Room!

Abby has a new bedroom! We will try to load up a video tour later. Steve and I decided that the 10 degree temperature difference between our upstairs and downstairs was fine for two well insulated adults, but that Abigail had better live downstairs. So now Abby has her own playroom and bedroom downstairs and the extra bed is sharing a room with our exercise equipment.

The new room did not make Abby happy enough to sleep in her own bed all night. She has a little congestion and a runny nose, so she was up in the night to have a bottle, a snuggle, and some vicks vapor rub for babies. But other than that little incident we'd have to say that Abby loves her new room.

Yesterday Abby started working really hard at learning to crawl. She now flips herself from sitting to a crawling position, but then she stalls out again and lands on her belly. One of these times she is going to get the hang of it and will be off like lightning after Maize.

Sunday Funday

Abby has been in a much better mood today and we are really thankful for that. She now has her second tooth, so I'm sure that alleviates a lot of the discomfort and whining. She was probably also sad about Michigan's loss, but we will never know.

Abby tried out a new version of riding in the shopping cart today. Instead of sitting up in the seat she decided to lay down where our groceries normally go. It was a very relaxing ride for her. By the time we checked out she was almost asleep.

And now... back to laundry so I can have clean clothes to pack for our trip south for Thanksgiving!

Dogs Can Fetch

Abby has been playing a lot of fetch with Maize lately. She really loves to watch the dog run. We thought you would enjoy it.

We have 11.5 inches of snow now, and I doubt it will melt, so I'm sure it is only up from here. And to clarify for Grandpa Steve the 2nd turkey (the one in the oven) came from my mom's freezer and made good dinner. We are not adding a second child anytime soon - I refuse to have two in diapers, one is enough to keep up with.

Abby is tired from staying up until midnight last night and getting up at 4:30 this morning, so I think we will be up in bed soon. Hopefully old man winter doesn't dump more snow on us while we sleep. We are going to run out of places to shovel it into!

Two Turkeys

We have one turkey cooking in the oven and another cute one who is finally taking her nap. Abby and her dad enjoyed their usual lunch date today and watched the Michigan/UCLA basketball highlights on SportsCenter. Abby wishes her dad would have stayed up with her to watch Michigan win, but they both slept through it, so all they have is the highlight reel.

Tomorrow Abby is going to experience her first Michigan/Ohio State football game. Unfortunately Michigan will probably lose and she will be watching the game in the home of an Ohio State fan, so she will not be able to yell at the t.v. and throw toys at it. Bummer...

If anyone has a pattern for an easy dog sweater to knit or crochet please let us know, poor Maize is freezing to death when we put her outside. Even her paws are getting frostbit and then we have to watch her limp around until they warm up. Abby doesn't like that, so I am trying to crochet up a dog sweater with some scrap yarn. We'll see how this works.

Abby would like to remind you all of her favorite two words during football season "Go Blue"... Have a wonderful weekend :-)

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!