Although It's Been Said Many Times, Many Ways

Our favorite gift of 2013 

Merry Christmas! With love from Jacob, Rebekah, & Abigail

Go To Sleep

I've been trying to sleep train Abby - specifically, trying to teach her to sleep in her crib during the day. She's good about this at night, but for some reason she just will not sleep by herself during the day. All naps are taken in someone's arms; and, of course, that someone is usually me. Unfortunately, I think I actually taught her this when she was sick (before we figured out the allergies) because she was in so much pain that I would hold and rock and sing to her all day long. Well, she isn't sick anymore, and she isn't in pain anymore, but that sleep habit has been hard to kick.

I love having so much time with her, but my apartment is a disaster. And on many days, I don't eat or get dressed or brush my teeth until around four in the afternoon. Showers are nearly impossible, as is getting dinner cooked. It's just ridiculous. If I could just get her to sleep in her crib during the day, that would give me at least a couple of hours to get something done. Anything. Really.

So far, it's been pretty unsuccessful. That's okay. I knew it would be. I don't really know what I'm doing. We're just trying stuff out to see what works.

Yesterday Abby fell asleep in my arms while I was nursing her. I very gently transferred her to the crib. As expected, her eyes shot open - but, she didn't cry. She yawned. She rubbed her eyes. I thought to myself, She's really tired. She might actually be able to go back to sleep on her own. So I left. I went to the kitchen and made myself some lunch. I sat down at the table. I thought about all the things I could get done. I took one bite of food, then looked up. This was my view:

You probably can't see what I saw. I'll zoom in.

Anything stand out to you? No? Shall we zoom in a little closer?

That little goober. How can I eat with those eyes staring me down?

I couldn't take it. I told myself I should check on her, just to tell her I loved her. I walked into the nursery. She saw me. Her response:

My heart melted. I picked her up. I ate lunch while holding her on my lap. Sleep training fail.

Not even six months old yet, already a master manipulator. Sheesh.

Tidy Up the Nursery

For the last several months I've been telling myself that I needed to blog about something other than Abigail so I could at least pretend that I have a life outside of my baby. That, however, would be untrue. She takes up every minute of my life. So this post, which is still about Abby but in a rather round-about way, is probably the most variety we're going to see for a while.

Today's post is about Abigail's nursery, which I finally put the finishing touches on a couple of weeks ago. I have put an enormous amount of time and work into her room, and I am really excited to show the final product.

So here's the story. 

When we found out we were expecting, we decided that we needed a bigger place and thus moved into our first two-bedroom apartment (really moving up in the world! Haha!) Now I'll be honest here: I have put very little effort over the years into decorating our living spaces because we move so often. I didn't want to buy a bunch of stuff and have to lug it around, plus who knows if you'll like your decor in a new place? So I've diligently resisted. But I was soooo excited to have a baby room to decorate. I immediately started drawing plans.

Unfortunately we moved over Thanksgiving weekend, and it was absolutely nuts. We had three days to completely clean the new apartment (I'll be honest...it was pretty gross. And I was pregnant and crazy and wanted to scrub it down before our stuff touched anything), move everything, and clean out the old apartment, all while trying to also cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner all by ourselves and doing all the dishes resulting therefrom. Because we are idiots. Anyway, because we were on such a time crunch we only unpacked the real essentials and then threw the rest of it in the soon-to-be nursery. And there the boxes sat for months.

Eventually Jacob ignored my persistent, "Someday I'm going to clean out the nursery" whine and just took care of it himself. Thank heavens. That was when the hours of crafting began.

Originally I was thinking of decorating the room in a forest theme. We had a bit of a challenge since we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, so I really tried to make the room gender-neutral. Green seemed like a good color (plus it's my favorite), and I thought I would make it very calm and serene. I drew up my plans with that in mind. But then my mother-in-law sent me these sheets she had made:

...and I had a vision. Because what do those sheets make you think of? Hot air balloons! And what could be cooler for a nursery than hot air balloons?!?!?! So we ditched the forest theme and went for a sky theme instead - hot air balloons, kites, birds, etc. And I decided I didn't care about a color scheme at all except I knew I wanted it to be very bright and playful.

We made the balloons out of papier mache. It took forever, but I'm so glad we made them. Jacob was so excited and wanted to be involved, and we spent many hours together on this project.

Our dining room table looked like this for weeks

It was awesome the day the balloons were hung.

The next big project was the curtains. I knew exactly what I wanted: light blue (like the sky) with appliquéd kites. And that meant making them myself. That caused a few issues since I (1) don't really know how to sew, (2) don't own a sewing machine, (3) had no money to spend on materials, and (4) also didn't know how to appliqué. So I went to the thrift store, bought some old sheets and other fabric scrapes, and sewed by hand. As you can imagine, this took a very long time. And when I got to the appliqué...well, the good ol' internet saved the day. I typed "how to appliqué" into a search engine and found a bunch of very informative blogs. Bless you, Google. It actually was very easy and a lot of fun.

Everything after that was relatively easy. We put up a wall decal we had bought...

Made some pinwheels and quotes for over the crib...

In the middle is the Bountiful temple, where Jacob and I were married. The plaque on the left says, "In the strength of the Lord thou canst do all things. (Alma 20:4)". On the right it says, "Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith. (Thomas S. Monson)". I searched far and wide for quotes that would inspire her, but that would also bring me comfort during long hours of crying in the middle of the night! I loved these.

Made some letters for spelling out her name...

I know you can buy letters from the craft store, but I opted for making my own so I could choose the font I wanted. That was a big, stupid mistake. It took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. But I like the finished product.

And made some butterflies that we put randomly all over the walls.

Again...easily can be bought, but we made our own so we could choose the look we wanted. We found images we liked online and printed them out onto vellum, which we then cut out. Easy. We have eight in all different sizes and colors.

Plus, my mom surprised me with a framed cross-stitch she had designed and made for Abigail. It fit right in! (Thanks, Ma!)

So here is the nursery in all it's glory:

The cherry blossoms are bits of tissue paper glued onto real branches. Fast, easy, and very beautiful.

I'm very pleased! And grateful that it's over. It was a lot of work!

Talking 'Bout My Girl

As mentioned a few days ago, Lady Abingtyn recently reached her five month birthday. She is fantastically fun and an absolute delight.

(Buckle yourselves in, folks. This post is photo-heavy.)

We started the month off with a trip to Virginia so I could attend my best friend's wedding and we could visit with my family. Abby was really excited to see Granny and Poppy again, and to meet her non-Missouri aunts, uncles, and cousins.

But it was exhausting.

Because of the trip, we were a little late getting to her four month doctor's appointment. She is currently at the 47th percentile for weight, 75th for height, and in the 90s for her head circumference. Big head I guess.

This month Abby got her first tooth. Oddly enough, it's her left front canine. Weird. It came in right before Halloween. I think she wanted to dress up as a vampire. Unfortunately for her, I had already made other plans (you know how I am with Halloween...)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Nowadays, Abby is fascinated by watching us eat. We usually sit her on our laps during dinner, from where she diligently studies every action we make. You can see the surprise in her eyes when we eat something crunchy. And the other day I caught her opening her mouth in sync with me every time I opened my mouth to take a bite.

It's probably a sign that we should be starting solids with her, but I keep putting it off. After all the trouble we've had with her allergies, I am terrified of giving her real food. I keep telling myself that maybe it's not such a big deal since we've already worked out her danger foods...but still. I'd like to get her a little closer to six months. We'll see.

So many bubbles

I let Abby play on the floor one day while I prepared dinner. I was listening to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri, a song that easily brings tears to my eyes even in the most mundane circumstances. I peeked out at Abby and found her bathed in sunlight. She was absolutely radiant. And just then the lyrics, "I have loved you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more." I thought I had stumbled into heaven. I ran and grabbed my camera, but by the time I snapped a picture the moment was over. I hope I never forget it. And also, I wish my apartment was cleaner. Don't look too closely.

With glasses and facial hair, Papa's face is infinitely more fun to play with than Mama's.

I tend to hand Abigail off to Jacob the second he gets home from work so I can finish dinner.  It always cracks me up when I'm in a frenzy, frantically trying to get something done, and I happen to look over and see these eyes peeking out at me. I can almost hear her voice - "Mama? You forgot about me! I'm over here! Helllllooooo?!???! Mama!!??!"

I can't say this enough: Abby is just so hilarious. Her newest hobby is babbling to strangers. When we're out in public - say, in the waiting room of the doctor office or at the library - I tend to sit her on my lap. If there is anyone else anywhere close-by, she leans towards them with a very intent look in her eye and stares them down until they acknowledge her. And when she has their attention, she smiles and starts gabbing away. Thankfully, most people think it's cute and will laugh...although Abby did recently annoy a very pregnant woman at the doctor's office. (To which I chuckled. There's just no happiness when you're nine months pregnant.)

Life is so much more fun when Papa is home

One day we came home from running some errands and there was a message on the answering machine. I was holding Abby on my shoulder while I listened to it. She stared in absolute astonishment at the black box on the wall that was talking in a human voice. After a minute, she leaned in real close and I saw that intent look creep into her eye before she started talking to the answering machine. I just about died. I think it was the most darling thing I've ever seen.

This is how we find Abby just about every morning. You'd think she'd be screaming her head off. Usually she just looks at us like, "Oh, hello. I was wondering when you would show up and get me out of this mess."

That face. Seriously. I die.

Happy five months Abigail. Time is flying too fast for this Mama.

Five months old