Baby, It's Cold Outside

Oh, Abigail at seven months, how I love thee! Thank you for renewing my faith in enjoying motherhood. Things were a little rough at six months, but now that all of us are sleeping again, life has returned to wonderful.

The number one best thing about this month: starting solid foods. It just might be in the top ten highlights of my life. It’s that good. 

During meals she sometimes looks surprised, sometimes looks betrayed, but always she looks messy.

Abby's evil twin brother, Count Peasley, occasionally makes appearances during meals

 Abby is busy, busy, into everything this month. There are just so many things to learn! But don’t you worry about it, ‘cause she’s going to practice and practice and practice until she gets it right.

Is it just me, or is the sippy cup bigger than her head?

I never understood before that as a mother you worry about everything. And I mean everything:  Is Abby too cold? Too hot? Too hungry? Too full? Maybe she's starving. Let's try another bite. Oh no! Now I've taught her to overeat and she's going to be an obese adult. She looks sleepy. Abby are you sleepy? I don't think you're sleepy enough to go to sleep yet. Will you go to sleep if I put you to bed now? Let's try to stay up a few more minutes. Ack! I waited too long! And now you're going to sleep fitfully because you're too tired.

I mean, it's just ridiculous.

One of my worries of this past month was that I wasn't providing the right types of toys to develop Abby's fine motor skills (gosh, I know, that sounds soooo stupid in retrospect. See above two paragraphs.) A few days later, Abby developed this game of playing with the tendons in my hand while she's nursing. She catches them between her thumb and forefinger and moves them back and forth, back and forth. It is torture for me. She loves it.

I don't worry about her fine motor skills anymore.

Ain't nothing cuter than a bear cub in her first snow storm

Snow angel!

Abby is probably the loudest baby in existence. Usually it's fun. She laughs out loud a lot, babbles all day long (her favorites right now are ba-ba-ba-ba, ga-ga-ga-ga, and mmmmmmmm), and sings along when I'm singing. But when she gets tired, she lets out the most horrible, high-pitched screech you'll ever hear. It's worse than nails on a chalkboard. And she does it over and over and over and over and over again until she falls asleep. Luckily, we're sleeping more (see opening paragraph), so this is happening less and less. But there were a few weeks in there when my eye was permanently twitching.

On the other hand, Abby has become strangely quiet in public. Gone are the days when she smiles and talks to strangers, now she just stares them down. Someone recently said to me, "My gosh, look at those eyes! It's like she's looking straight into my soul!"

A few weeks ago, someone commented, "You are just so lucky. She's so serene and calm." It happened to be after a night when Abby had never (and I mean that literally) gone to bed. Either Jacob or I had been up with her all night long. I almost broke out into hysterical laughter. Serene? Calm? Yes. That is exactly how I would describe her. (not)

Most people comment on how pretty she is. I'm getting used to people doing double-takes when they see her. People are constantly admiring her huge eyes, her chubby cheeks, and her tiny nose. I try to not be insulted when people look at us in astonishment and say, "Is that your daughter?" Ha! I know, amazing, right?

She still rolls everywhere, but she's getting increasingly fast and clever. A few weeks ago Jacob left the living room and walked to the bathroom - Abby was right on his heels the entire way. She zips all around the apartment, and I try desperately to keep up and keep her out of trouble. Sometimes I leave her on the floor in her room after I change her diaper. I can see into her room while I wash my hands in the bathroom. She is very good at wedging herself into small spaces, and I'll think to myself, "Oh, good. It should take her at least five minutes to figure out how to get out of there. Maybe I can tidy up a little." Then I look up fifteen seconds later, and not only is she free, she's already on the other side of the room and into something new. She wants to explore every little nook. She sure is a curious little thing.

Superbaby to the rescue!

But mostly, time is just passing so very, very quickly. I know I say that all the time, but it is so hard to get a grip on. A couple of weeks ago I said to Jacob, "Remember when Abby was a newborn and she squeaked instead of crying?" And he said no. I could have cried. There are so many small things like that happening everyday that I want to hang on to, but I ultimately know I will forget. That's difficult for me to accept. I sometimes think of how, just a few generations ago, people didn't have cameras and computers; they couldn't snap a photo and quickly type up a few words to help them remember one of those treasured moments. I guess that's why this blog means so much to me. I'm sure it's tedious to hear so much about my baby, but...I just need it so badly. I wish it were enough.

One small, treasured moment: how cute Abby was this morning watching me tidy up around the apartment

My sweet, beautiful Abigail, you are most wonderful. I love watching you grow and am excited to see you get older, but I wish I could keep you at seven months for a little longer. You are absolutely perfect.

Seven months old

Bringing Up Baby

Yikes. I am behind. I am so very, very behind. But at least Abigail is still cute.

Today Abby turned seven months old. Today is also the day I remind myself that I never completed a six month post. Shucks. Let's catch up, shall we?

In November we took a trip to Utah/Colorado to visit Jacob's family for Thanksgiving. It was a lovely trip, maybe even more so than usual because of the abundance of babies. Jacob's sister had her first baby eleven days after Abby was born (and her name is Aubrey...Abby and Aubrey...so cute, it kills me every time), and this was the first time they got to meet each other.

Abby was totally smitten and immediately instituted an "anywhere you go, I will follow" policy. Not sure Aubrey was so keen on that idea.

And if that wasn't enough, Jacob also has two cousins who had babies within a couple months of Abby's birthday. It was a very baby-licious holiday.

It was very eye-opening for me, too. I haven't had much exposure to babies, and suddenly having three other wee ones around to compare Abby to was interesting. She does a lot of things that I just assumed were things that all babies did, but I realize now that they are actually signs of her personality.

Uncle Philip's amazing multi-tasking skills: holding two babies AND playing a video game.

For example, one morning all the women (and babies) in the family got together for Book Club. Three babies were all on the floor together (one was in a bedroom taking a nap). Two of them were lying passively on their backs, quietly observing and taking everything in. Then there's Abby, holding onto her feet and rocking from one side to the other while sing/babbling the entire time. "Yes, that's my child being ridiculously cute and making an absurd amount of noise."

I've said for months that Abby is very mellow, but now having actually been around mellow babies, I have to take that back. Let's say instead that she is very good-natured. Probably about 90% of the time she is joyful and laughing. She has the best smile. It lights up the room. People are drawn to her because she is just so dazzlingly happy. But make no mistake: when she's sad, she's going to let you know about it, and there's usually not a lot of warning. Life is either the very best it could possibly be, or the world is collapsing and she is going to scream at you until you do something about it. There isn't a lot of in-between.

So yeah...not so mellow. But she's pretty darn perfect for our family. We're crazy about her.

We came home with a baby whose sleep schedule was totally ruined. For about five weeks I didn't get more than three hours of sleep in any given night (and that, my friends, is why I'm so far behind with blogging). We had a few miserable weeks of all three of us being extremely grumpy. You can imagine that is exactly how I wanted to spend the Christmas season (Merry Christmas?!? Bah, humbug!) But we're over that now. Abby is finally back to sleeping through the night, and I am back to ignoring my conscience telling me that it would be smart to go to bed when she does.

Abby with Grandpapa and meeting her great-Grandpa for the first time

So here we are, unbelievingly - over halfway through the first year of Abigail's life. I am every-bit as awed by her as I was the day I met her. I still can't believe I get to be her mother.

As if any of us needed proof that baby girls in poofy dresses are the sweetest things in the world

Six months old