Happy Memorial Day

Four years ago today, Stu proposed to me in a little parade in Cambridge, NY.

This is us celebrating today, with my family, and Stu's family, and our darling baby girl!

Abby's first time going swimming...

This month for play group we went swimming. I have been dying to take Abbers swimming ever since we got her swinging suit in March. Finally we got to go! We all met up at Cottonwood Heights, but for some reason it was closed until the evening so we drove on over to Murry Rec Center. It was really nice and really warm. Thank goodness. Abby was not sure at first, she just wanted me to hold her, but then she realized she could crawl around and splash.

Enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon

Abby does not like to be in the grass!

The blanket was a little fence, she wouldn't crawl off of it onto the grass.

I'm free!!! If you look really close there is a piece of grass on her bum! Sorry about the baby porn!
She hated the grass until I took her diaper off then she sat right on it???

Abby 9 month photo shoot!

I know that Abby is 10 1/2 months now but it took me forever to scan these in! She was darling during this photo shoot. She loved all the attention. I think the pictures turned out pretty cute.

Diaper Changes!

I dread changing Abby's diapers. Not because they are gross, because the second I lay her down she flips over and crawls away. She loves to be naked! She won't hold still for longer than one second. I undo her diaper and I have to be very careful that the poop doesn't go flying when she quickly rolls over. Trying to put a diaper on while she is crawling or standing can be very difficult. I don't understand why she can't just lay there for one minute, that is all it would take if she would hold still, but instead it take at least five minutes of me chasing her or me being a mean mom and putting my legs on her arms so she can't roll. Then she gets really mad!

Any suggestions?

Where's the baby?

So tonight Stu and I and Grandpa Mark were eating dinner while we watched the basketball game, Abby was just crawling around under the table eating a chip. My phone rang so I left the room for a minute to answer it and when I returned a couple minutes later I said to the two men, "It's too quiet, where is the baby?" Stu looked under the table and said, "I thought she was still under the table." So, we started looking for the Abby. Stu found her in the bathroom VERY QUIETLY playing in the toilet. This was her first time discovering the toilet. YUMMY! I has to wash her hands and arms and wipe down the toilet seat. New adventures everyday!

Enjoying the moments

Abby always sleeps through the night these days, but for some reason last night she decided to wake up at 4:00 a.m. I was not to thrilled about that and it took me a while to decided if I was going to let her cry herself back to sleep or if I was going to go in and rescue her. I finally pulled myself out of bed to go rescue her. By the time I got there she had pulled herself up to standing position, which she has never done in her crib before, usually she pulls down the bumper pads and is kneeling. So I am glad I didn't let her cry because once she gets into the standing position she can get back down. She hasn't figured out how to sit yet. She likes to pull herself up all day long, but then she gets mad after she has been standing for a while and can't get down. Back to my story, so I picked her up, grabbed her blanket and sat in the rocking chair to nurse her. I just sat there rocking with my sweet baby snuggling in next to me. It was quiet no distractions, even though I was dreadfully tired and just sat there enjoying the moment. She fell asleep after about five minutes, but I continued rocking her and thinking, moment like this don't happen very often and they are not going to last much longer. So, I just sat there and enjoyed every minute of it.

Wait for me!

Today I was watching Annie and Eva, while Dan and Michele went to Dan's brother's wedding. Abby just loves kids, the problem is she just thinks she is one of them. She doesn't understand why she can't do everything that the older kids are doing. It is so fun to watch her. Well, while I was tending them, Annie went running through the kitchen and ran up stairs, Eva slowly followed, then trailing behind as fast and she could crawl was Abby. But, when she got to the stairs she pulled herself up to a standing position and just started yelling up the stairs. I think she was trying to say "Hey guys, wait for me," I felt so bad for her she just wanted to go run up those stairs like the other two did. It was pretty cute she just kept screaming and hollering.

Life after Tubes!

It has been a little over a week since Abby had her Tubes placed and cyst removed. Abby is doing great. She has had no problems or infections since her surgery. I am sure that is partly because she has been on two antibiotics. On Wednesday she had the stitches taken out from the cyst that was removed, she was not a fan of that. Dr. Meads did a great job there is very little scaring. The only problem we have had since the tubes being placed is that she can hear really well now. Before she had so much fluid behind her ear drum that her ear drum wasn't vibrating like it should so she couldn't hear all that well. Now she can hear too well. Every night I always go in and check on her before I go to bed or while she is napping to make sure she is covered and now that she can hear so well, she wakes up when I open the door. The door creaks just a little, I don't know if it would wake me up, but it wake her up every dang time! It is so frustrating!

Sunday Swingin'

Last Sunday we spent some time a Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's. Grandma got out her baby swing to see if Abby would like to swing in it... and did she ever. Once we put her in she didn't want to get out. She sat it and swung in daze for at least an hour. You can see by the pictures it was making her a little sleepy.

Two New Teeth!

Two teeth broke through today. They are the upper lateral incisors (the ones next to the middle teeth that have not come in yet). We knew they we coming, but she didn't get a runny nose, cough and an ear infection like she usually does. Thank goodness!

Tubes

Abby all dressed in her hospital gown with the "talking" TV remote.

Abby had a rough day today, but she has been such a trooper. She had tubes placed in her ears and a cyst in front of her right ear removed. We started out the day having to wake her up at 6:00am so we could make it to Riverton Hospital by 6:30. She was not very happy about that, she is not an early riser. After we changed her diaper and went up stairs she was okay and was excited to to Grandpa Mark. Daddy and Grandpa Mark gave her a blessing before we left, it had to be a quick one because she was not to thrilled about having their hands on her head she kept trying to pull them off. We got to the hospital and she was happy to be will Mommy and Daddy even in this unfamiliar place. They got us all registered then took us back to get her weighed (she now weighs 22lbs) then into a room to get her ready and wait for Dr. Meads. She looked pretty cute in her little hospital gown, fuzzy socks and hair net. Dr. Mead came and talked to us then the anesthesiologist came and explained that they would put her to sleep with gas then they would start an IV and intubate her. I am just glad that she is little enough that she did not understand what was going on. She just thought we were hanging out a a new place that had a TV remote the would talk (you know at the hospital how the sound comes out of the remote, she thought that was pretty neat), chill in a comfy night gown and watch Curious George. After the Anesthesiologist talked to us he carried her off. That was the rough part for Mom and Dad. The next thing we knew the doc came in and told us the surgery went well, that her ears had a lot of fluid in them, and that the cyst was lager than her had expected but he was able to remove that successfully. After about 15 minutes they brought Abby back from recovery and she was not a happy camper. She just cried and cried for 30-45 mins. She didn't know what she wanted. I am sure she was starving since she had not eaten since 9:00pm the night before, but she didn't what to nurse. We finally calmed her down and headed home. Of course we has to listen to her favorite Josh Groban the whole way home. She was doing much better when we got home. She had a little snack then took a really good nap. I had to go to work so she has been at home with dad all day. It sound like she is doing well.

Typical hospital gown, opens in the back.

Guys I don't like this hat!

10 months old!

Abby turned ten months old today! Starting her day off with surgery was probably not what she had in mind but it all went well. - More details to come.

(This is mostly for my own record it is probably boring to read)

Things she likes at 10 months...

Her Daddy! She is a daddy's girl!
FOOD: Cinnamon and Maple Little Crunches are her favorite, Soy formula (which we just started giving her every once in a while), meats (ham, chicken, sausage, hamburger), scrambled eggs, Green beans and her favorite are frozen peas (warmed). I can put a huge pile of peas on her tray and she will eat every one of them. She still loves Mexican food (rice and beans) baby food and puffs. When she sees a container of baby food she get so excited and starts freaking out if you don't open it and feed it to her fast enough. She loves the taste of Generic Tylenol, and her Tri-Vi-Sol vitamins.

FOOD SHE DOESN'T LIKE: baby food Peas, and baby food Mixed Vegetable, Vanilla Soy Milk- Hopefully she learns to like something. I can nurse her and feed her formula forever. I think we will try rice milk next. If we give her something she doesn't want to eat she will throw it off the side of her high chair.

SLEEPING: She loves to sleep on her tummy and her right side. She rolls all over in the night. She still likes to be swaddled in her favorite purple blankie. She usually goes to bed between 7 and 8 and will sometimes wake up around 11 for a little nursing time with mommy and then sleeps until 8 or 9. A few times she has slept until 10-10:30. That was really nice! We lowered her crib mattress thinking that she would stand up and fall out, but she still has not stood up in her crib. She doesn't really care about her mobile now, I think it is because she can't kick it on any more. She still usually takes two naps a day one around 11-12 and another between 3-4. They are usually around an hour but sometimes a little shorter or a little longer.

PLAYING: She loves books! She just likes to sit and flip through the pages and talk. It's like she is reading it to me. Every time we change her diaper we give her a book to read to keep her occupied to she doesn't roll around. She also loves her snoopy dog that is always in her car seat. Lately we have had balloons around the house and she loves the balloons. Like most kids she loves looking at the baby in the mirror. Grandma has a floor to ceiling mirror and Abby likes to look at herself and try and touch that other baby. The other day she licked the mirror. It was pretty funny. My mom has these decorative balls that are made out of seeds and every time we go to Grandma Jo's we have to stand at the coffee table and play will the balls.

She is starting to understand what things are now. When we ask her where the balloon is she looks right at it. She waves bye, bye when you are leaving and you say it to her. She knows Mommy and Daddy and I think both Grandmas and Grandpas. I sware she is trying to say some words like dog. Her sounds more like dau, but every time we put her in her car seat we hand her her snoppy dog and say dog and she repeats dau. She loves music! She has started dancing when music is on - just a cute little bounce. She has a cookie jar toy that sings some cheesy little song and she loved to make it sing over and over again.
She is quite the little crawler now and she really likes to stand. She loves to pull her self up to drawers and pull out what is inside. She also loves to help me with the laundry. This involves pulling the clothes out of the laundry basket. She still loved bath time. She could play in the tub for hours. She loved to crawl around and play will toys, but hates to be laying down in the water. Once last thing she really likes going for walks in her stroller and being outside. It is so much fun to see her develop and grow everyday, but she is grown to fast before I know it she will be my little girl and not my baby!

Grandma Cleo's 90th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA CLEO!

May 10th was my Grandma Cleo's 90th Birthday! We had a big party at the Olive Garden with all of the family to Celebrate! It was great that all of her children could make it.


Abby enjoyed the bread sticks!

Shake Your Booty

I took this little clip of Abby on Sunday. I just couldn't resist that cute little bum shake! Stu added the music to spice it up a bit, so make sure your speakers are turned up. Kids are the greatest. Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day!

It has been a wonderful 1st Mother's Day!

Abby and I started off the day by painting both of our toe nails!

Church was great, Stu gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting and did a beautiful job. He always does a great job. I wish I could speak like he does. Now he is making Spinach Ravioli from scratch, for dinner. Mmmm! I am so thankful to be a mother to such a beautiful baby girl!

I love her so, so, so much!

Stu's Ninth Grade Science Project

In Ninth grade Stu planted this little African Violet. In all my years of knowing and caring for this plant it has never bloomed. Well, look at it now, it finally bloomed. It is actually has pretty little flowers. We have a lot of history with this plant. When we lived in the village this poor little plant got some kind of bug. It had little bugs all over it and they were killing it slowly so we cut off a couple of the leaves and planted them in another pot. We called these little transplanted leaves fuzzy. It was so fun to watch them grow. The next picture is what came of those two leaves. They went crazy! The bugs finally vacated the original plant and it turned out to be a pretty little plant.

She's Gone Mobile!

Abby started crawling this week! She still is not very good at it and she would rather be pick up or try and walk. But every once in a while she will crawl a little ways. She is growing up too fast. I can't believe she is almost 10 months old.