I did it!

Abigail is saying many two or three word sentences! Like,
"I did it!"
"Made it!"
"Next to me." (as in sit next to me!)
"No more."
And, it's not a sentence but fart and burp have come into her vocabulary! Farting and burping too! We're so proud.

She saw a Hershey's kiss and said "drey" as in dreidel--pretty clever, huh? "Nora"--for Menorah! Everyday is something new--she's amazing!

Words, words, words

"Tick-tock, tick-tock," starts Abigail and then we finish with "I'm a little coo-coo clock, tick-tock, tick-tock, now I'm striking one o'clock!" It's a song she learned in swim class and jumps into the water when the clock strikes whatever o'clock. But even when she's landside, she still likes the song. Though, "Taxi" is still a huge favorite.

Aba and yes, even Abbi, are names Abigail has referred to herself as. Aba is fine we suppose but she still very much is not an Abbi in our eyes. Occasionally we are now Poppy and Mommy, though Papa and Mama are still used quite frequently. She has so many new words but "No," is definitely a favorite, "more" is a close second. But "happy!" has been coming into play, just in time for Thanksgiving! "Push," "pull," "stroller," "leaves," and "touch," which she uses when she wants to touch just about everything she comes into contact with (including the ceiling when she says how "tall" she is!). She knows a lot of her body parts: "tooshie," "cheeks," "chin," "toes," "two," (the answer to the question: how many hands do you have?). She's starting to recognize when she "poops" and "pees." So much so that we're reading up on potty training and already have a little toilet she likes to sit on. Woo-hoo! She says, "bow," when she wants her hair out of her face or she wants to have clip bow placed on her "nose," "toes," or "finger." She loves to stir a cup and say "tea!" And when her food is too hot, she blows it cool.

She loves so many books now, Bear Snores On, being a fave right now. A bear (a word she says too) hibernates while friends have a snuggly, warm party. "Cuddled in a heap, with his eyes shut tight..." and Abigail closes her eyes tight! While she still loves to be read to, she's very content to sit by her bookshelf and read.

She loves knocking on her tray or on doors and saying "door," or even "open" when she's had enough of something and she's ready to go. (very subtle)

She says "A," "O," "D," and "J" and likes when we write it with the jumbo crayons she likes to draw with.

She says "cheese stick" and has a special dance for it. She still loves to dance any chance she gets. "Dance" and "music" being some other high frequency words. Cars blaring their music--dance on the street. Music at the playground--bounce (another word she can say) up and down. She's constantly on the move, still rearranging furniture and now being able to say, "chair."

Any time we pass a subway station she says, "down." She loves taking the train too, she applauds when one glides into a station. She knows and says that Mama goes "down" to go to work. Even refers to it when she reads Pigeon Loves Things that Go, there's a train page and she says "Down. Mama."

Need a "tissue?" She's got you covered.

She's starting to get a hang of the idea that when she points to herself she says "me" instead of "you," a very tricky concept.

If she's a picture of a caterpillar anywhere she immediately says "pop!" in reference The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

And Papa's face is "scratchy," in case you were wondering. She got that word from Pat the Bunny.


She's met mama's pals Cuddles and Sweet Patch (attempting to say both names). And she named her baby giraffe LuLu and the big giraffe is LuLu's "Mama!"

She loves looking up to see a "cloud," perhaps a "plane," a twinkling "star" and the "moon."

Some seasonal words: "witch," "pumpkin," and "turkey." We have no doubt the word latkes will be on their way shortly.

Oooh and "challah!" is not only fun to eat but fun to say as well!

We are constantly amazed by her and how fast she's growing. We don't have a baby anymore.

Yellow

Our little lady loves to say colors.  Yellow and purple were her first ones but now bown (brown), reed red, geen (green), have all come into the mix.  Yellow is by far her favorite--and was a bee for Halloween.

She loves singing "Taxi," a song she learned at Music for Aardvarks.  She loves to sing it and dance a choreographed arm movement she's created.  Her hand is held out and she dips up and down.  It's quite adorable.

Each day she's learning new things and saying new words.  Time is just flying.

Abigail Ettinger, Artist

Now on exhibit on Abigail's bedroom wall.  Original drawing by the young Brooklyn artist, Abigail Ettinger - mixed colored crayons on yellow construction paper.

Abigail seems very proud of her latest creation.  Jonathan held down the paper while Abigail chose each crayon to draw with, one by one, or sometimes five by five.  The drawing was finished when Abigail raised her arms and said "Done."

She loves to see her original creation hanging on her wall, and today placed another drawing on the shelf beneath this one while proudly looking up at this drawing.  We're pretty proud too!

Quite good for an 18-month old.

We've had quite the roller coaster ride since we last posted.  Amanda is back at school teaching Kindergarten, Jonathan is home watching our girl.  Our lives were tossed up in the air and rearranged into a new normal.  Then, Amanda's Grandma passed away, something we did not expect to happen as rapidly as it did, and we had to change yet again.  Her death is a huge loss to our family but, of course, life goes on.  Grandma's spirit lives on.  Always.

Abigail continues to amaze us everyday.  Today she pointed to and said, "tooshie."  She knows where her tooshie is!  She likes to read along to books she loves.  Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? is one of her favorites.  She says buzz, buzz; she ticks and tocks like a clock, and hoos like an owl.  There's another book too, Moo, Baa, La, La, La, that she will quote from all day long.  If you hear her saying, "lalala," she wants you to continue with rest of the story which is "No, no, you say that isn't right.  The pigs say day oink all day and night."  Then she looks very pleased with herself.

Here's a video of her running at the Botanic Garden...afternoon out with Papa. 

Even though Abigail's hair is long enough for some pixie-like pigtails, there's still nothing better than seeing her curls bounce as she runs across the playground, laughing away.  It makes life good.

"Yellow" and "purple" are colors she most certainly recognizes and says.  We point out each car and notice its color as we stroll past them on the street.  Seeing a yellow car: priceless.

The end of summer

Best pick in town:

Jonathan and Amanda are the bookends to summer--Jonathan's birthday falls on or around Memorial Day and Amanda's on Labor Day.  This year both were on the Monday of the those long weekends so, it made it a particularly exciting summer.  And now as this hot, sticky season comes to a close, we've uploaded pictures of the summer that was.  (Check them out, to the right)

The hot weather waved in pigtails for Abigail, berry and peach picking on Mama's birthday, writing (and smelling) with great big crayons, a trip to the Museum of Moving Image, dancing at a parade, blowing kisses (she's got the first part down--bringing her hand to her mouth but hasn't yet extended her hand out to send the kiss but, the sentiment is there) and plenty of PEEK-A-BOO time.

She still has a great love of flowers and is simply amazed at the world around her.  "Ooo" and "Mmmm" and "Ahhh" have become everyday expressions in her excitement of living each day to the fullest.  It's a joy to see her find wonder in water, going up and down again and again (while saying "updownupdownupdownupdown") and to just be in her jubilant presence. (even with her cold!)

Lu La, Lu La

Abigail loves to be sung to. She also loves to sing, "lu, la, lu, la" or "da, do," it's such a joyful melody to hear. She's just so happy to be alive when she does it, and makes all around her pretty happy too.

She's very into saying "more" and "up, up, up." Sometimes these are very obvious what she wants their outcome to mean, like if she's eating raspberries and has run out, she wants more of the fruit. However, sometimes she says "more" and we haven't even done anything yet and it is very unclear as to what "more" should be done. Once at the beginning of the bath she started to say more, so I put in more soap to make bubbles. "More." Sprinkle in a few more toys. "More"--and then she proceeds to reach for Mama's shoulder and push her closer to the water, asking her to blow more bubbles in the water, making a funny sound and getting very wet--just like Mama had done the night before. But how was Mama supposed to know more meant, "get your face in the water and blow!"--lots of guess work these days!

Another piece of detective work--"baffalo"--doesn't always mean babbaloo like we thought it did. She says it all the time, hmmmm.

She has turned into a hide and seek machine--we hide and she comes and finds us. A knee slapping good time.

She now likes to take the measuring cup out of Daphne's bin and feed the pup one kernel at a time. She's so considerate.

Sweet 16 months...where is the time going?

Lots of the time when she walks she does so on tippy toes--so her nickname: Twinkle Toes.

Somersault!

Our little lady did an incredible somersault on our big bed this evening! Actually about 5 of them, but one was dead-on: head tucked under and tumbled straight forward! No photo evidence but Grandma was there to witness it too. Abigail looked EXTREMELY proud of herself and as soon as she was done said, "more!" Did someone say, "gymnastics class?"

Disneyland

We had a terrific (albeit demanding) time in California!

We first spent some time in Hollywood with Nicole and her very wonderful dog Diggy. Abigail didn't quite get the whole time change thing and woke up the first few mornings at 2 or 3:30--she was just excited to start her vacation. Begrudgingly-bleary-eyed, we did too.

Though we did have a wonderful time exploring all the sights and sounds that Disneyland had to offer, it was watching Abigail walk back into our home that made it all worth it. She was in awe of seeing a monkey that hangs on our wall still there, she was thrilled to see all her old toys and took a stroll around the house saying, "da, do, da" pointing at everything with such glee.

Yay for vacations, double yay for the familiar.

Oh, something really cute: both of us heard Abigail saying, "buffalo," again and again. We couldn't figure out why this was now in her vocabulary. She saw a buffalo in books and possibly at the Bronx Zoo but, really, why would she be saying it again and again. Then Jonathan realized: she saying "babbaloo." (which we mentioned in a past post she loves to do on her belly, drum or anywhere else she can pound!)

Coney Island

Aunt Judie's birthday gift to Abigail was a trip to Coney Island!
And boy did we experience it. We ate hot dogs, fries, fried shrimp (some of us) and strolled the boardwalk. Abigail loved meandering between all the people, all the sounds, dancing along the way and saying, "hello!" We have no pictures of the time spent schmoozing on the boardwalk because it was just too busy and exciting but we got a few good ones of before and after none the less. It was hot as blazes so we were there for a short time, but a memorable one for sure.

So much to do

We looked at a picture we took of Abigail a year ago, when she had just begun to smile and now, she's nothing but smiles. We have one happy girl:


We visit the Botanic Garden probably two times a week, which such a wonderful place for her to really begin her life as a walker. She loves to walk through the garden, pushing her stroller and admire all the beauftiful flowers around her.

While we read Barnyard Dance, she loves to clap her hands just like they say in the book to do. She sits on our rocking chair, using the armrests as her desk, to read books on her own.

And she LOVES banging on a drum or anything else really, while someone says "BABALOO!" Hysterical.

We visited the Van Saun Park zoo in NJ--the same zoo Papa went to when he was a boy!

It's fun being one!

TODDLER!

We have a full time walker now. Or, should we say, a full fledged ToDdLeR. She's all over the place. She meanders in her step and gait, in her direction and her outlook on life. She could walk straight but why would she?! It's fantastic to watch. Particularly because she looks so pleased with herself.

She loves flowers. Loves them. We are so lucky to live a place where anywhere you look, you're going to find them. Plus we live by the Botanic Garden which we just visited today (we do at least once a week) and her interest turned to the big boulders and rocks around the garden. We turned them into drums and she had the biggest giggle while doing so. The water fountain in the Discovery Garden was pretty hysterical too. She thought it was so funny to drink from the stream.

She's growing into one terrific little girl.

Blackberry to Ball, our girl is talking!

Blackberry! Abigail's first three syllable word. She loves seeing it, she loves squishing it in her hand, she loves eating it. Why wouldn't she learn to say it?!

Turtle--another fantastic word to say.

We took her to the Prospect Park Zoo a few weeks back. She stood before a massive black cow and what was her exclamation upon being in front of this animal? BALL!! Check it out:
See that big silver ball? Abigail sure did.

We took her to the Bronx Zoo a couple of days later. The fauna and flora were her favorite things to see there:But not only is she talking up a storm, she's walking. She still likes to hold onto a hand every now and then, but more and more she wants to walk (and dance) independently:

Papa, Mama, blue, spoon, flower, yellow...what do all these things have in common? Words now in Abigail's lexicon!

She recognizes a flower on her shirt and then in her book!

Plus she gives lots of hugs to her stuffed animals. And sure enough when we read the book, Hug, by Jez Alborough, in the middle of the story she took the book and hugged it. So adorable.

As someone in our building told us, "Abigail Rose sure is growing."

Hummmmmmmmmm

Abigail likes to hum to herself. While she's walking around (with or without assistance) or eating (though Jonathan was delighted to hear her say "yum" while she was eating something he cooked for her) or really just any part of the day she is content. The sound just makes the world seem right.

When she stands on her own to challenge herself to walk one step forward and then go down to the floor for safety she has a very proud look that she's done such a daring feat.

She tried scallops and mussels--eh! She still loves her carbs and especially her fruit. Plums now are a big hit.

In other words, she's having a grand ol' time being one:


And congratulations to Papa for a terrific gala last night!

Gimme Three Steps...

Gimme Three Steps, Gimme Three Steps Miss, and you'll walk right to your Mama.

Abigail took three steps this evening, going from Papa to Mama. Her first real unsupported steps too, and we were both here to see it. She was even more proud of her accomplishment than we were, if that was at all possible.

Hooray, Walker!

A Budding Independence

Our little lady loves to dance, especially to Michael Jackson and The Jackson Five. But she keeps to her own rhythm too, even when there's no music. She bounced up and down when we put her on a bouncy horse at the Underhill Playground. She was pushed on a tricycle too--she loved it!

She's also trying to do many things for herself. While on her changing table she reached for her shoe and tried to put it on her foot, she maneuvers her walker now to get it out of the way of any obstructions and can pull herself into a standing position on a stool that stands in front of her crib.

She recognizes and anticipates the page in the book, Spring is Here, that has a dog on it. She points to it saying, "da!"

She likes to leans in for Eskimo kisses--which she thinks are hysterical.

She visited Mama's school and was the belle of the ball. She walked up and down the halls (holding Mama's hands), entering classrooms, saying hello to the students, she's ready for school already. (not yet little lady!)

Happy, happy birthday Daphne!

Our puppy dog is 3 years old today!

She had the best chicken and rice dinner of her life and a delicious bath too! Happy birthday baby! We love you!!!!!!!!! (even Fink)

Hello second year of fun...

Our little one year old has been living it up! We've had two birthday shin-digs and Passover! And if that weren't enough...


She ate her birthday cake (so-so), mashed potatoes (yum!), beets (yum, yum!), matzah (uh-huh), peanut butter (pass-for now), and she's been swimming, splashing and laughing up a storm in the big tub. No longer a little, ity-bity sink tub, but the real deal bathroom tub. She has a glorious time each night laying back and letting her hair float while she moves her head from side to side. Never has a better time been had!

She's now been riding on top of mama and papa's shoulders in a new back pack carrier--none of us are quite sure how we feel about it. It's a new experience for sure.

She loves twiddling her fingers in front of her face--it's like she's been wearing mittens this whole time and now she sees the individualized digits.

We've gone out to eat at a couple of restaurants that have had crayons to color with. While Abigail likes to hold them and put them in her mouth, she also happens to think that when papa or mama make big swirls or lines, showing her how to use a crayon, she thinks it's hilarious that such a thing could happen.

She loves when someone holds her hands above her head and together walk around. She is thrilled her body can do this. She also pushes off a wall and stands for long periods of time; the time increases each and every day. Today she even pushed herself up from a sitting position to stand for about 20 seconds! When she sat down again, she definitely had a proud look on her face.

There's so much to be excited about!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL!

Here's our one year old:
We went out to eat at Cheryl's, a comfy local restaurant, and then played around in the NY City Explorers playspace. She crawled through a tunnel for the first time!

And we got a nice family photo there:


It's been a wonderful year! Looking forward to this new one!

A year ago

A year ago today Amanda felt something. She wasn't sure what the sensation was, but, in the 40 or so weeks of being pregnant, she knew something new was happening. We went to our midwife, Elizabeth, around 5pm, and the prognosis from that was, "you're not going over your due date." (which happened to be Tax Day). Elizabeth was so right. Around 9pm Amanda went into serious labor, which surprised us both, "aren't contractions supposed to be slow at first?!" And we were off to the birthing center around 1am with our doula. Amanda arrived 9cm dilated, though Abigail decided to go back up at some point but, then, she arrived into the world at 8:15 in the morning! But that's tomorrow. Today, let's just relish in the fact that our girl is healthy on this last day of her first year of life.

Snapping

Abigail has been trying to snap her fingers after seeing her Papa do so. Her "snap" is her opening and closing her hands quickly with a big smile on her face. It is SO cute.

Abigail is resting and recovering well. Thank you for all the love we've been receiving from so many of you.

Abigail's a Trooper

We woke up this morning at 4:30am to take Abigail to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. Abigail wore her striped PJs, of course...very stylish.

Dr. Brian and Abigail met up in surgery at 7:30am, and were done in just 45 minutes. Recovery went a little slower, but Abigail was a real trooper. We got home around noon, and we've all been trying to sleep. Abigail's eyes are sore, but she's doing just fine, and even managing to muster up a giggle or too.

It's been a day and a half but things are good. We're looking forward to a wonderful day with better vision tomorrow.

One Day, One Week Away

We are one day away from Abigail's eye surgery. Her ophthalmologist, Dr. Brian, has said, "for her first birthday I'm giving her a new way of seeing the world." Isn't that lovely? Dr. Brian said too that the day after this surgery other children have begun to walk. We can't wait to see what new things will develop for Abigail!

And guess who will turn 1 in 1 week?!

Da! Watermelon! Yay!

Abigail is calling Daphne, "Da," now. She looks for Da to give her food, to pass her, her bone (which she sounds like beau) and when she's crawling over to her dogbed to hang out with her. It's very sweet. And yes, Abigail still loves to hang with Fink too.

Watermelon! Abigail has had pieces of watermelon before and thought nothing of it. However, now that Aunt Alyssa brought over a baby watermelon, Abigail thinks eating it off the rind is the greatest gift on the planet!

She's also recently tried perogies--YUM!

Abigail may not get the concept of sucking up from a straw, but she gets slurping up spaghetti!

(which we think in the scheme of things, is the more fun skill to have).

She also loves to lean up against furniture, the wall, the AC, whatever, and pick up one leg as if she's a flamingo--she's going to be one amazing climber. Once she figures out that whole balance thang. She continues to push on stools or boxes to create her own walker--brilliant!

And books, well, they're her fav. One in particular, Farm Friends, keeps us all laughing! A page from this classic book: (picture of a donkey) "How does the donkey say, 'Come meet my Pa?' Hee-Haw!"

When life gives you lemons...

...eat 'em!
That's right our girl LOVES to eat a lemon. And we mean loves!!! And clementines too. We have a citrus loving girl.

Abigail also attended a group 1st birthday party in Fort Greene. She met lots of other soon to be, or just turned one year olds; you'll see her in her party dress in our latest album.

Another new word: "water" which sounds like "ada." Nice, huh?

She loves a series of touch and feel books, and holds them out to us to read again and again.

And the best thing: she is constantly laughing. It's good to be 11 months, 2 weeks!

On the Move (physically, vocally...she's a wonder!)

Abigail turned 11 months yesterday. Wait, let's take a moment to take that in...Okay, let's jump in and talk about all the great things she's accomplishing now!


She is becoming more and more daring. She lets go of whatever she's leaning on and stands for a split second, sometimes 2. She pushes chairs around so that she can walk from dining area into the living room. She crawls with even more vigor now!

She's becoming more and more engrossed while listening and looking at pictures in a book. She goes to her bookshelf every morning to hear at least 2 books, and she is constantly going to the book bin in the living room. Such an academic.

She's saying the word, "bottle," which we were quite impressed with because we hardly used the word up until this point. We had referred to it as milk mostly. So, she's only heard the word consistently for a few weeks now and she's already picked up those sounds--she's so expressive!

We look forward to the warmer weather so she can get out and explore the world even more.

New words and sounds

Abigail started signing the word, "more" when asking for more food to eat--very exciting! She's even saying the word. It sounds like "more" but she articulates the "r" sound very softly. She's also saying, "ball," the "l" sound also is very soft.

We bought her a stuffed lioness, Nala, from the The Lion King, back in Florida when we saw her eyes light up when seeing and touching her. She still adores her. We've also introduced her to a teddy bear and a stuffed doll--all these pals are referred to as Nala as well. Interesting, isn't it?

One other sound she's been testing out is the blowing kisses sound. When she reaches out for you or you plant a kiss on her, she says, "MMMMMM-wah!"

She's also very interested in the toilet. She loves to crawl into the bathroom, pull herself up and stand, proudly, before the throne. We used to close the bathroom door because of Fink and her escapades, but now it's closed because of our little lady.

Plus, she's showing she understands the concept of, in and out. She takes a ball and puts it in the green jug, and then out:
It's an astonishing thing to watch her blossom right before our eyes.

She also throws her hands up when you ask her, "how big is Abigail?" Her response is,"So big!" So, she's getting the "up" concept, not so much the "down." That's because her whole existence is for Up, Up, Up! Stand up, climb up, reach up, hands up!

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Abigail just started clapping yesterday. And (rightfully) feels it is necessary to clap her hands if you start singing the famous jingle to her:

She also loves saying, "uh-oh" when she drops food or, just because it's fun to say.

But she may love eating macaroni and cheese more than saying, "uh-oh." Maybe.

Abigail has had a huge growth burst. She stands leaning her belly, not her hands, against things; she even will stand not holding onto anything for about half a second. But we know she's testing to see what her body can do. And her gestures--like waving to people when entering an elevator or laughing as a form of entertainment for herself, she's just bigger, and, dare we say, less baby-like and more child-like. Hard to believe but true.

Some other firsts

February is proving to be a time for a lot of firsts:

Abigail brushes her teeth now!

Which she really needed to learn to do since, she tried blackberries today!

She also loves to eat beef, barley and mushroom soup! Yay for all the new things she's trying and discovered again like, avocado and bananas--she took a hiatus from these delectables, but now eats them with vigor. She's also intereacting more with other babies her age--patting tushies, staring and noticing more of her peers.

And, here's a movie of her crawling, a bit. She's a bit camera shy when it comes to crawling, but this movie will give you a little taste of her new found mobility:

Abigail is growing incredibly fast and we're enjoying every moment with her but, also counting down to her first birthday which we're in shock is coming up so soon. Don't you just love her?!

10 months

It's hard to believe but today is Abigail's 10th month of life! Time is just flying now. And so is she. For about a week and a half now (since 2/3), she has been full on crawling. No more commando crawling for her, she's on all fours and scooting fast. It has been amazing to see her GO! Amazing for Fink too.

"Bye, bye," are her first words. She waves and says "bye, bye," when Papa leaves for work. She says "dada," when she's interacting with Daphne often so we're thinking those sounds are intended to mean her. She says "nanana," often as well but we haven't quite figured out what she's trying to tell us yet.

And eating! She loves to eat with her fork--turkey meatballs, rotini, macaroni and cheese, cheddar and swiss, blueberries cut in half, chopped up chicken with tomato sauce, cheerios, edamame, and PEAS! She's always loved pureed peas and now that she's got the real deal, she's quite pleased with herself to shove them in. She also loves to dangle her hand down and have her Dada pal lick (and tickle) it, much to the delight of both of them.

We're all recovering from a bad case of stomach flu (check picture in the previous post--we think it's the cause of the bad tummies). It slowed us down but now we're all basically recuperated. Thank goodness.

Happy 10 months!!

Children's Museum and such

Children's Museum=fun, fun, fun! Abigail loved looking and licking a few tanks there:



She's also very interested in feeding herself. She rarely wants Mama or Papa to do it. She's a hands on kind of girl. She's also an excellent napper (check out that hair!):

So many adventures even though we've been spending a lot of time indoors. She's lifting herself more and more by using drawers, stools, chairs; she's ready to just go up and up!

Back from Florida

Back to the cold! We were just swimming in an outdoor pool only to come back to some bone chilling weather here in Brooklyn! Brrrr!!

We are happy to report that our girl enjoying the pool once again. Guess warm water helps! So, we're on the look out for some warm pools in the neighborhood so we can continue that love of water.

Abigail made some huge leaps and bounds while in Florida. (Oh and the plane rides were fantastic--she's a great traveller!) She walked around a coffee table, she thoroughly enjoyed swinging in a playground, she made a few attempts to crawl rather than scoot on the ground, she warmed up quickly to her grandparents and Grand-Mumsie, and she once again fell asleep on her Papa's chest (that hasn't happened in a LONG while and made the trip for Jonathan), while we walked around the beautiful Captiva island beach.

We came home to find our poor Daphne's eye swollen--it's better now for sure, but she needs a vacation.

Just about 9 months

We celebrated Chanukah again this past weekend in NJ. Abigail now has her Papa's hat from when he was a boy:


Oh, and she is very amused by catalogues:


And is an excellent teacher:

(nice pants, right?!)

Tomorrow she will be 9 months. Yesterday, we went in for her ninth month check-up: she's a happy, healthy, girl (and ready for stage 3 foods; things with a bit more chunks!)

We're so proud of all her accomplishments, and can't wait to see what she'll do next!

Abigail loves Fink and Daphne

Click here to view this photo book larger

New year, new teeth, new day every day

Our girl now has three teeth--all on the bottom. And she's looking to chew on anything. Crib, table, bags, paper, actually the only thing she hasn't tried chewing on is Fink or Daphne, but that's because they're just too fast. But watch out, we predict Abigail will be walking (running) really soon! She could stand for hours, and practice, here and there, how to sit too.


Abigail is extremely curious about our blinds--she loves to feel them, hear them rock back and forth, have them open and shut, having the sun shine and have it go dark...it's all so mesmerizing to her. We're in awe of her and her wonderment of the world. It really is a brand new day, each and every day with her.