10 Months

Abby turned 10 months old last week.  Once again, she has had a very big month and has changed in so many ways.  Here is what she has been up to.

• At her 9.5 month check up, she weighed 15 lbs and 13.5 oz.  Her length was 26 inches.
• She got her first tooth.  It first appeared on February 7 and is the bottom right one.  She had some trouble sleeping for a couple nights with it and had a low-grade fever.  It looks like the left one is about to pop up as well (March 1).
• On Valentine's day I went to get her after a nap and was surprised to see her standing up!  We lowered the crib to the lowest level and she is still able to stand up, but won't tip herself out.
• She loves to stand and walk as we hold her hands.  As we were trying to get her to crawl by putting toys far away, she would actually act like she wanted to stand and would then walk to the toy rather than crawling to get there.
• She finally started to crawl on her 10 month b-day.  For several weeks she had been rocking back and forth but just would not crawl.  She was a pro from the very beginning, it was like she had been doing it for ages.  I guess she just wanted to get it down before she actually tried it.  Or maybe she had been doing it in her crib for weeks.  She increases her distance every day and will even come find me in the kitchen when she is in the living room.
• She pulls herself up on her toy box and a weighted laundry basket.  Our couches are too tall for her to reach.  She is starting to "cruise" a little but I wouldn't say that she has mastered it.  She is pretty daring though, she lets go with both hands a lot, which often ends badly.
• She still loves to dance and has some new moves.  She prefers to stand now and bend her knees (see video from last post).  She also occasionally does a little shoulder move and she waves her hands about as well.  She likes to stand by the stereo and turn the volume up and down.
• She LOVES this baby animal calendar that we have hanging up in our kitchen.  When she spots it she reaches for it and we have to take her over and show her all of the animals and make the sounds.  I have to say, I have improved on my sounds with all the practice.
• She has made huge improvements on her laugh.  If you have met Abby you know that she has a huge smile.  As my mom says, "Abby always smiles with her entire face."  However, laughing has not been her strong point.  But she has quite the giggle lately, and we have a lot of fun tickling her.
• She loves to eat paper.  If she can get her hands on some she immediately takes a bite out of it.
• She loves to take everything out of my diaper bag as well as her toy boxes.  She makes a mess, but it keeps her busy in church, so I'm okay with it.  
• She loves kids.  She had a blast watching and playing with her cousins when we visited them.  She also loves to watch kids at church.  
• She is pretty good at waving "hi," especially to her dad when he comes home from school.
• She had some interesting medical "issues" this month.  One day her forehead got red and swollen and she also developed a hoarse voice.  We were a bit concerned that it had something to do with the wheat cereal I had just started her on.  I mentioned it to her doc at her well check and she had us do a blood test, which came out negative.  But since wheat is so universal, she still had her do a skin test.  She was tested for all of the things babies typically react to and had no reactions.  Hallelujah! 

Here are a ton of pics of her!

This is her crawling for the very first time.  Luckily, I happened to be taking pictures when she did it!

More of crawling.

She loves to pick up tiny things off the floor.  We now have to be more diligent with our vacuuming.

Her scrunchy face, which she frequently does.

Talents

Abby is growing up quickly, and she has developed some new talents.  We just wanted to showcase those talents a bit.

14 Days of Valentine's

I just realized I never posted everything I did for Landon for the 14 Days of Valentine's.  Here's a rundown.

Day 1:  One Jones Cream Soda
Day 2:  "A Table for Two."  I gave him an invitation for dinner out on V-Day with a babysitter included.  We went to Shoots in Provo and celebrated Chinese New Year as well.  Thanks for babysitting, Aunt Mandy!
Day 3:  "The Three of Us."  A picture of our family framed.
Day 4:  "Four Cheese Mac 'n Cheese."  I went out of town that day, so it was a box of mac that he could have for a meal while I was gone.  It didn't really have four kinds of cheese in it, but that's okay.
Day 5:  Five edited movies he had been wanting.
Day 6:  Six snacks that he likes.
Day 7:  Treat of his choice at 7:00.  He chose root beer floats and I insisted we do it with A&W from the tap.  They were good.
Day 8:  Eight photos I had edited from our wedding.
Day 9:  I gave him a note saying I would play his new Killer Bunnies game with him at 9:00. 
Day 10:  "Ten Things I Love About You."  A note with ten things I love about him.
Day 11:  "Eleven minutes of back scratches."
Day 12:  "12 Songs that Will Always Remind Me of You."  I also provided a written explanation of the memories associated with each song.

1. "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez
2. "Morning Yearning" by Ben Harper
3. "Consequence" by The Notwist
4. "Walk Away" by Ben Harper
5. "What Sarah Said" by Death Cab for Cutie
6. "Janet" by The Format
7. "Eyes" by Rogue Wave
8. "Gotta Have You" by The Weepies
9. "Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John
10. "Wrapped in My Memory" by Shawn Smith
11. "Little Cream Soda" by The White Stripes
12. "Hero" by Regina Spektor

Day 13:  "Thirteen ingredient breakfast."  Including an omelet (3 eggs, 2 cheeses, milk, hot sauce), maple roasted bacon (2 slices and maple syrup, which tasted absolutely fabulous), heart-shaped toast (bread and butter), and apple juice to drink.

Day 14:  "14 Clue Landon & Katherine Crossword Puzzle."  I made a crossword puzzle where the clues and answers had to do with things from our relationship; dates we'd gone on, jokes we have, gifts we've given, etc.  It was fun to put together and Landon got all the answers correct.  And we went out to dinner, of course. 

Here is our sweet Abby on Valentine's Day!

Happy February!

Landon came home to this cute little guy today.  I got the idea to do a "14 Days of Valentine's" from some blog (I can't remember which one, sorry).  Basically, you just give your sweetheart a little something each day leading to Valentine's Day.  When I found this amazing bag in a dollar bin at Target, I knew it was the perfect vehicle for my gifts. 

Today he gave Landon one (since it's the 1st) bottle of Jones Soda's cream soda.  Landon loves them and they are significant to our relationship.  During the complicated stage before we started dating Landon would buy them and the fortunes under the caps were always giving him positive reinforcement about me (or so he believed).  I guess they were right though, he finally did snatch me up!

Stay tuned for the next 13 days!

9 Months

Abigail is 9 months today!  Can you believe I'm actually posting on time?  Abby has changed so much this month.  Here's what she has been up to.

• She loves to dance (see yesterday's post).
• She isn't crawling yet, but she rolls around everywhere and is starting rock on her hands and knees.
• She loves to read books and turns the pages very well.  She and I sit and read books several times a day and she never gets tired of them.
• She stands while leaning her back against the couch.  She did it for about 8 minutes one day without even flinching.
• She loves any variety of the game peek-a-boo: person leaving the room and then appearing, covering her face with a blanket and she rips it off, covering our faces, etc.
• She is really figuring out how to use her toys.  She loves her stack of cups and loves to knock over towers we build.  I often put just one cup inside of another and she will immediately take the cup back out.  She is very consistent with that, it's pretty cute.  It's like a bug she has to fix (she must get that from her dad).  She also pats her drum and can make her zoo toy make noises.
• Recently she has changed her schedule a bit.  She sleeps from 8:00 to 8:00 (practically on the dot) and then takes longer naps (over 30 min) in the afternoon.  We will see how long she sticks with it.
• She loves to eat!  In the past month she has started eating three meals and it seems every day she wants larger amounts.  I'm not sure how long I will be able to keep up with making all her food.
• She says "b," "d," and "p" sounds.  She says "di di di" the most.  She says "mmm" when she's mad or hungry... I keep waiting for her to say "ma ma" or something close to it. 
• She is starting to learn how to clap.  She waves one hand all over the place and is starting to bring it to the other hand more each day.  She mostly does it with fists at this point, but I'm sure she will figure it out in no time.
• She loves all electronics.  I'm thinking the computer might be the best motivator for her to crawl.  She also loves my phone and the tv.  Sometimes she will just lounge and watch a good portion of a movie with us, especially if it is animated.  
• No teeth yet, but everyone always asks if she is because she chews on everything.  I say, "Who knows, she has been doing this since she was 4 months old."  Maybe one day they will pop up.

Here are more of her official 9 month pictures!  She wasn't particularly smiley today for her photo shoot, but I still think they turned out great.

"got canned heat in my heels tonight, baby!"

Name that lyric...

Abby has a new talent that cracks us up.  She dances!  Whenever we turn music on or if music starts up on the tv, she starts boppin'.  At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but she has proven to us over and over again that it is definitely on purpose.

She will do it to pretty much any music but we have mostly been listening to her Beatles' cd that Uncle Will gave her for Christmas and The White Stripes.  I thought she might like the simple, yet strong rhythms of the drums.  She often moves to the correct beat, which I think is amazing.

Today at church we had our primary program.  When the kids starting singing, "I am a Child of God," she started dancing.  It was pretty hilarious.  Throughout the rest of the meeting, whenever the piano would start up, she would too.  The organ didn't seem to phase her as much.

Here's a cute video of her dancing to The White Stripes.





She's a fun kid!

P.S.  The song lyric is "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai.
P.P.S. I thought that song was fun before Napolean Dynomite.

Christmas 2010

We went to Boise for Christmas and had a great time.  All of my siblings and their families were there, which was fun and likely the last time that will happen.  Here are some pictures and descriptions of some of the fun things we did. 

Abby met Santa

Allie and Santa

We went downtown to a model train exhibit.  Jack loved it!

Jack

Abby at the trains, with her "Cousin Eddie hat."

Hanging out at Annie and Dave's

Swimming at the YMCA

Me, Abby, Ellen, and Tonja

She had so much fun swimming!

Ellen & Tonja at Grandma's on Christmas Eve

Abby in her Christmas Eve get-up

Grandma with the four new babies.  Fabulous photo.

Annie's four generation pic

Mike's

Rob's

Ours

Santa Ellen

Heath, Emily, and Mike

Stockings

The loot

So happy when she finally woke up on Christmas

The drum was a hit

Christmas Allie

Annie and Audrey on Christmas

A common occurence

candid Christmas

Jack with his new jammies

Jack got a sweet truck that Grandpa made

My dad and Jack

"This mess is a place!"

Christmas wore the babies out

Delicious Christmas dinner

Grandparents with all the babies

All the grandkids.  All the babies were crying.

A photo shoot with Heath in Sunday best.

It was a little too close to bed time

Baby Rides!

Triplets

We did many things not pictured as well.  Watched a lot of movies and The Office, ate a lot of good food, shopping, played Rock Band, and did a lot of hanging out.  It was a great Christmas!