Swinging, Sliding, Bubbles and Ice Cream!

What a great weekend! It was the first weekend in a long while where our little family of 3 could spend so much time together (family of 4, if you include our furry baby). We shared the weekend doing new things with Abigail, so I took some pictures to mark the occasion and to share.

Friday morning Abby and I took Robby to work just so we could get out the house. When we picked him on that evening, we had to exit off the interstate and tend to a SCREAMING baby in the backseat. I honestly think she is getting more and more uncomfortable in her carseat - she's almost at the weight limit - that, combined with teething = quite a fuss. After we gave her a doll and calmed her down, we just sporadically decided to go eat at Chili's, which was just a 1/4 mile down the road. It was the best, most relaxed meal the three of us have shared in a while! I don't know what made it so good and enjoyable, but just remembering it now kindles warmth in my heart. We got the three courses for two people for $2o meal, which I must say, is quite a bargain. Normally, we will just skip the dessert, but since it was included we chose Chocolate Molten Cake (yum, yum) which has vanilla ice cream on it. We were at one of those two person booths (with a highchair) so of course Abigail could reach any and every thing on the table. We shared her first real ice cream with her.

She would make this face every time after giving her a bite of ice cream - she didn't like how cold it was at first. By the time she ate it, she was smiling and opening right up for the next bite, but I couldn't get any of that on camera. So, even though you can't tell how much she loved it by this picture, take my word - she LOVES ice cream!

On Saturday, after a long day of umpiring for Robby and laundry for me, plus a short jaunt to the mall to get Colby a birthday present for his upcoming party (SIX already?), we gave Abigail a bath to help her unwind. A surprise for her --- it was her first BUBBLE bath!

She is a big fan of the bubbles!

>

Finally -- some hair! Look at that curl in the back!

Since a "cold" front came in early this morning, the temperature stayed below 95 degrees today! When it isn't so blistering hot outside, we like to take Chance and Abby out for what we call a "Family Walk." The length of it depends on the weather and how tired we are, but since all was well today, we walked to the park. I put Abby in her first big girl swing (still the "baby" swing - I call it the big girl swing because it's not like her Graco infant swing that we have here), and I also slid down the slide with her. The first slide I took her on was the little bitty slide (it was made for adults to slide with their babies, just not very high). Since we were up and down the slide so fast, Robby didn't get any good pics even though we did it three times. After that, we switched and I took the pics. :)

Swinging - we didn't get too high at first.

Trying to make it go.

My precious sweetheart!

Daddy pushing her a little higher!

After she liked the itty bitty slide with me, Robby took her on the twisty slide.

She loved the last one, so now he wanted to take her on the "Megatron" twisty slide.


Ready?

Daddy loved it; not so sure about Abby.

Chance met a friend while we were there, too.

The medium slide. The last one before we left. It's funny how the moving objects (R&A) are in focus, and all of the still objects are blurry. My camera is amazing!

Over all, she loved it and we will be making many more park trips!

The Silver Lining

Day three drop off at daycare went much smoother. There were no tears all day, and we got there just in time for "music time." Abby got a drum to bang on, so she was occupied from the start. I think that had a lot to do with it. It was nice to leave and know that she was happy and content.

Now that my three days of meetings are over, I will have the rest of this week off and then all of next week, then I start back to work full time, which means that she will be at daycare full time. I hope that the week break doesn't put us back at square one on August 3rd. If it does, at least I know that it will get better. :)

After I picked her up, we went over to my aunt's house for a cookout. My cousins from Colorado were visiting, and it was their first time to meet Abigail. I was so ticked that I forgot my camera! There were a total of 12 of us there, and we had a good time! My little cousins Katy -14, Connor-11, Megan-10 and Brandon-7 were excellent with Abby. She really took to Megan!

Daycare is Killing Me!

This morning when I dropped off Abigail at daycare (my schedule got rearranged at yesterday's meeting and I have to go in for two more days of meetings), she started crying and reaching for me and saying, "Mama, mama, mama!". It broke my heart to leave the classroom with her so upset.

I knew that this would happen, especially since we have spent nearly the entire summer together 24/7, but that doesn't make it any easier. She's at the separation anxiety stage in her development, and we've been together quite a lot recently, but after picking her up crying yesterday and then leaving her crying today, I almost couldn't handle it! My brain was saying that she will be fine, it is normal, but my heart was telling me to run back in there and scoop her up!

I somehow managed to leave the building and go to work, but today I DID stop by during my lunch break unexpectedly to peek in on her and see what she was doing when the daycare didn't know I was coming by. She was sitting in the floor playing with another baby and smiling. The teacher said that she only cried for a little bit after I left (probably less than I did, ha!) and has been fine ever since. It was easier for me to go back to work this afternoon, but I still rushed out and raced over there to pick her up. This afternoon, she was happy to see me again, but no tears. She even waved bye-bye to the teacher and to her new friend, Logan B., who also waved bye-bye to her. (Okay, so that was cute.)

Whew, I certainly hope the worst of it is over.

Mommy on Alert!

Today was Abigail's first day of daycare. It really wasn't supposed to be until August 3rd, but I had a meeting at the ed center and didn't want to take Abigail, so I dropped her in for half a day so it wouldn't be a complete shock when she started staying there 8 hrs/day. (Yes, I ALREADY feel guilty about leaving her that long - or on some days longer, I am sure.)

First of all, it was such a challenge to even get out the door with all that stuff. Taking her to daycare is going to add about 15 minutes to my morning routine - 15 minutes I don't have. I guess that means I'll be getting up earlier. (Oh joy.) I dropped her off, went to my (short) meeting, then drove around and looked at houses, then worked on Abigail's first birthday party; I actually got a lot done! In between the looking for houses and the birthday party planning, I thought about stopping in on her at the daycare and just "peeking in" to see how she was doing, but I didn't. I called; they said she was fine, so I decided not to disturb her.

BUT, when I went to pick her up a little after lunch, I could hear her crying the moment I walked into the day care (okay, okay, so the infant room is near the entrance to the building -- so not the point!). I ran over, put on those little bootie things to cover my feet (policy for the infant room since the babies are on the floor) and ran in. As soon as she saw me, she literally started laughing and giggling and talking. She was INCREDIBLY happy.

As happy as I was to see her happy to see me, I was also a little concerned that she may have been unhappy all day. I'm going to be watching VERY closely these first few weeks. So what if they think I am a helicopter parent. It's my baby girl, and I will do everything I can to make sure she is safe and happy!

Getting Handsy

Breakin' in her boots.

Smiling at Daddy.

Happy girl. Look at those teeth!

Waving bye-bye!

Over the past nine days or so, Abigail has really been practicing clapping. At first, it started out as a one-armed clap (aka "knee-slapper"), then it developed into a move-the-right-arm-while-the-left-arm-stays-still clap, and now she can fully clap! It still reverts to the old claps every once in a while, but for the most part, she's got it down (except it doesn't make a sound - it's more like a fist clap)! She claps when we sing "pat-a-cake" and occasionally she'll do it when we say, "Yay, Abby!"

Also, and this is a REALLY new development, she started waving bye-bye. Normally when we leave or go anywhere I will wave her hand for her and say, "Bye-bye," but today when Robby left and he said it, she waved back! It wasn't the typical toddler move your fingers back and forth like you're grabbing something kind of wave - it was more of a bird flap move your whole arm kind of wave. No matter how she does it, we love it! Robby was so excited to see her new trick!

Girls Can Wear Blue, Too!

Why is it that whenever I put Abigail in a blue outfit everyone calls her a "he" or says, "How old is your boy?" She's a girl! Today she was wearing a blue DRESS but that didn't matter. This happens every time she is in a blue outfit and I leave the bow at home. I very clearly remember the first time it happened; Robby and I were taking her for her 2 month doctor checkup and she was wearing a warm blue (like a robin's egg blue - with flowers on it!) footsie outfit. On our way to the doctor, we stopped for a quick bite to eat; it was her first time out without a bow or hat and someone sure did call her a boy. Because of that, she hardly ever wears "boy colors" out in public without a bow on her head.

As a side note, Robby just finished a gender and society class and one of the heated debates in that class was whether or not parents would buy "opposite gender" toys for their boy/girl; ie would the parents buy a girl a truck and a boy a Barbie. Buy is the keyword here, because more parents would allow their child to briefly play with the opposite gender toy than would actually purchase one if the child requested one. When he discussed this, I asked him his answer, and he said that there's no problem letting Abigail play with "boy" toys because there's less of a stigma. Then I said, well what about if we have a boy? His response surprised me - he said that until the boy is about 3 1/2 he would actually buy his son a Barbie if our son wanted one (after that, he said no way because he doesn't want his son to get made fun of)! Holy cow. I'm not sure even I would buy a boy a Barbie/doll in general - ever - regardless if they are 3 or younger! I've read the research when I was in school about play development, and Robby, through his class, was able to remind me of all the data (and give the new statistics), but geeze... All I can say is that I love Robby being in school! :)

You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country...

New Overalls - If you look closely you can see her new pink cowgirl boots, too! (They're not on her feet yet.)

Yesterday Abigail and I went on a search for her first birthday outfit. Her birthday theme will be ladybugs, and I want her to have a cute ladybug outfit; I know Gymboree carries a ladybug line, so I went there, but they aren't doing ladybugs this fall. Instead, they recommended that I go to the outlet mall because the outlet store carries last year's line at a discount. When I got there, they still had summer ladybugs out and the fall back-to-school line, and they won't put out the winter line (the specific ladybugs for which I am looking - I saw the outfit last year - I should have bought it then!) until October or November. Oh no! I hope that it's out before November 7th (her birthday party date).

However, they did have some cute clothes there. I bought her overalls (seen in the picture above) and pink cowgirl boots for when she goes to the farm to see the donkeys. She is adorable in overalls! Plus, they have a built in toy. I love it when I can find stuff that combines function + entertainment. One other shirt I got her is for her first day of "school," on August 3rd. It says "Smarty Pants." :)