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.