Day Care Transitions

Well, week one is over and we all survived the new day care. I wonder how long the transition period will take? She has three very nice teachers whom I like a lot so far. They seem very at ease with the kids and have shown nothing but patience with all of them. There are usually about 10 18-24 month olds in her class each day. A lot of boys. The teachers are glad for the girl power!

Not surprisingly, Abigail knows all of her teachers' and classmates' names already. She knew most of them by the second morning. All of her teachers have told me how smart she is (not that this comes as a surprise us at all!). On Friday she had a particularly difficult morning as I was leaving (lots of "mommy!" screaming) and apparently the teacher tried to distract her with stuffed animals and she named all of them through her whimpering and crying. Poor baby. But smart!

Here is a picture of her from last week before we went to day care. She hadn't slept much all week and so I let her sleep in on Thursday in order to get in some much needed zzzz's. Here she is at breakfast. Not very happy looking, but she sure looks cute in her pigtails! Try to ignore the oatmeal on her face.




Here is Miss Abigail two weeks ago. She saw her boots out in the garage and needed immediately to put them on. She then asked for her coat, grabbed Matthew's hat, baby doll, and ball, and headed outside. In the misty rain. In 70 degree weather! God love her, she is just too cute! And she put that hat on backwards herself. So styling!



We are looking forward to another good week in day care. Hopefully she does even better than week one. My hope is that she sleeps more than an hour each day for nap (or the 30 minutes she got a few days last week). And that she continues to eat well. Wednesday had "green beans x2" on the board at lunch...that's my veggie-loving kid!

On another note, today is Mother's Day and I had such a lovely day with my little family of three. We had nice weather for gardening and playing outside. We grilled out for dinner and had a very tasty meal. I really do love being a mommy. Its hard work....harder than what I thought it would be. But it is so worth it. Abigail is such a wonderfully funny and sweetly affectionate and caring little girl. I am so lucky to be her mommy.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mama-hood ain't so easy sometimes!

I'm beginning to wonder if there is something wrong with me....if maybe I'm not cut out to be a mom. But then I think about all of the times it seems so easy, so innate, so perfectly normal. This whole endeavor is so confusing.

Abigail and I went to church today while Matthew was on military duty. She was so cute in her sundress and bow. She lasted only partway through the service before I had to take her out of the church for some fresh air. She spent the time in the pews playing with a teenager on crutches. She sat on her lap, asked to be held, pointed to her mommy. Exclaimed that the minister was daddy (ummm...no). She was sweet and social, as always. I thought to myself how lucky I am and how I must be doing something right to have such a sweet social butterfly of a child.

We came home. We took a stroller ride (not that I had a choice in the matter....she climbed in and told me to "go"). We ate lunch. She pigged out, which isn't surprising since she just started eating again after a week of a stomach virus. We played with light switches, cleaned a dirty diaper, picked up plastic eggs and put them in the Easter basket which has yet to be put away. We had a nice time.

And then the biting began. Where the heck did this come from? I now have 3 spots on my body where she created a blood blister. Ugh. I think she was just over stimulated. We were having a fun time and she didn't do it in anger. But it still hurt each time. So now what? When I stopped her, then the pinching began.

OK. So I know the moms out there are saying "yeah, that happens" but this is really bumming me out. What in the world am I doing wrong? I put her to bed a few minutes ago and she was screaming and fighting through the whole process. She's finally quiet and my only hope is that she hasn't punctured herself with the toothbrush she insisted on taking in the crib with her. Oh, or that she hasn't decided to eat all of the toddler toothpaste that also went in with her (I can no longer be trusted to do the toothpaste bit....she must do it herself!). Sigh.

I'm glad we got to church. If for no other reason, I needed the confidence builder that I can do those kinds of things on my own with her. Shopping is easy because she's moving, but church is difficult because she has to sit and be quiet. It shouldn't seem so monumental, but she's a busy little girl (ask anyone who is in her music class or in church with her for any length of time!) and she's exhausting. I wish I could bottle that energy and sell it!

Now I just need to feel confident in my ability to get on a plane with her to NJ next week!

Here are a few pictures of her that may show her sweet side (I need a reminder right now!).

Our Snow Bunny

Abigail LOVES the snow! We had a nice-size snow storm on Tuesday this week and Abigail was close to driving me batty as she kept pointing outside and saying "shnoo" (snow) over and over again. I caught her trying to open the front and back doors several times. She also handed me her boots twice and opened the closet and to try to put on her coat. I was so glad when "dada" came home so we could all go outside. And here's how we spent the next 1 hour and 15 minutes:



She had so much fun. The faster we pulled her sled, the happier she became.

Did you notice that she said "ruff ruff" when Suzy (my neighbor) said to watch out for the dog fence wire? So cute! She knows the sounds to dog, cat, rooster ("doo-doo" as in cockadoodledoo), cow, sheep, and a few others. This week she learned to "tweet" for birds. And today we started really concentrating on colors. She seems interested in figuring out which spoons are red, pink, blue, or green.

Abigail is still amazing us every day. I swear she grows half an inch each night! Our pediatrician last month told me that this was his favorite age (about 15 months). I would have to agree. Every day I see that Abigail is so much like her father...funny, loving, daring, enjoys being the center of attention! Lucky her! Lucky me!

First Steps

I was not expecting this little milestone so soon. I figured maybe by Christmas Abigail would take her first steps. She just starting walking around the house holding my hands only a week ago. And it was only yesterday that she had any stamina or interest in doing that for more than 5 steps at a time. I guess she figured out how to put it all together because she's moving right along.

It was just 1 step at first, then 2, then suddenly 3 steps by the end of the evening. She's so proud of herself! Matthew and I looked at each other with shock...can this really be happening already? Wow, they grow up so fast. I guess I always assumed that kids seemed to grow so quickly because I only saw them occasionally....I missed the everyday stuff. But now I realize that the everyday stuff is just as amazingly fast!

The other new thing that I am enjoying is the bedtime routine of reading. We tried to read to her before when she was younger but we never seemed to make it work. And she didn't have any interest in books. But ever since 4 weeks ago, she loves them! She looks at them constantly and will even sit still long enough to finish reading one to her. I know this isn't a big deal, but I was seriously worried about the fact that we hadn't been reading to her enough (ok, I know I am a dork...you can make fun of me like Matthew just did when I told him my fears). So I am happy to report that she loves bedtime books.

My favorite ones to read her are the "I love you" kinds of stories....where you get to tell her over and over again how much you love her. They make me sniffle (again, I am a dork and I am ok with that reality).

She's been doing really great with bedtime (knock on wood), falling asleep so quietly by 7:30-ish and waking up 12 hours later. Its very very rare that she wakes up and needs us to go in to her. And she is down to the last bottle at night. I'm not sure when I will take that away. I realized yesterday that I just need to let go of the stress about what I am "supposed" to do. She let go of the morning bottle without incident and she is doing much better with the sippy cup. So, I need to learn to chill more (what else is new?!).

Here is a picture of Abigail from last weekend, wearing my sunglasses. She loves wearing them all of the time and will now sit in the car seat or in a grocery cart seat with them on forever - seriously, she has no interest in taking them off. Too funny.


Here she is eating spaghetti for the first time a few weeks ago. Ha! What a mess. It reminded me of when my mom put a garbage bag over me to eat spaghetti one time because I never could eat it without getting it all over my shirt. I see my future clearly!


And here are a few pictures from last month when we were raking leaves.

Peek-a-boo!

I love you!

Birthday Girl

Well, I am a little late on this posting as its been a busy few weeks. My baby turned one....I cannot believe this! Abigail celebrated her birthday on the 25th of October with 29 of her closest friends and family (well, we had many who were missing that day so technically it wasn't all of her family). We were fortunate to have 3 of her 4 grandparents there: Nana (my mom), Grandma (Matthew's mom), Grandpa (Matthew's dad)/DeDe (Liz). Pop-pop (my dad) was very busy that day but he was there in spirit.

Lots of our friends helped us celebrate the occasion with lunch and cupcakes. I baked and decorated all day on Saturday. And Abigail got lots of fun toys and clothes. She helped me open a few of the gifts, but she was more fascinated with paper, new toys, and hamming it up to the crowd!

Here are some pictures from her big day.

She is wondering why I am blowing out her candle. She finally learned to do the blowing action last week...too late for the wish-making. I wished something good for her!


She apparently does not like the taste of sugar. Ha! She is clearly not my child!


Opening gifts and reading her new books. We love the floppy ears in the doggie book!


Wow! Blocks! Look what I got!!

Here she is on her ride-on toy. She hopped right on and scooted away...backwards of course! Later on that day she was doing this with a toy cell phone in her hand. Ugh!

Can she be any cuter?!?! Come on people...I don't think so!

This past year has flown by. It makes me sad and happy at the same time. I think about all that she's overcome. Nothing horrible, nothing insurmountable. But still, she had several little things that from the start made life just a little bit harder on her. I have been replaying her birth in my mind over and over again. And I keep thinking how those first few days and weeks were so difficult for her and for me. I tried very hard to savor all of those moments at the time despite the challenges. And I do still remember what it was like to hold her in my arms and feel this amazing sense of awe. I am still in awe! I guess I always will be.

She has grown so fast. Her personality is blooming (it has been for awhile now!) and she is learning to be independent. I love watching her grow and learn new things. Matthew and I play with her every night before bath time and we both watch her in amazement. That hour or so together is so precious to me (and to him, too). These are moments I don't want to lose, to forget, to outgrow.

My newest dilemma is the bottle situation. Apparently I am supposed to force her to use a sippy cup...no more bottles for the "big girl." Uh, really?! Why do I need to force this? Who is this benefiting? Can't I just slowly ween her from this (as prescribed by the pediatrician)? I feel like I just can't give up the morning or night bottle feedings just yet. I like it too much (and I think she likes it, too, of course). I love that bonding time with her. She's my love and those are my love fest times! I know I need to help her move on to a cup, but I really am resisting this. It just seems like it is the official sign that she is not my baby anymore. And I can't handle that thought! I can totally see myself trying to love on her when she is 14 and she is grossed out by it! I'll call her my baby and she'll roll her eyes. I'll tell her stories about her birth and show her pictures from her first year of life and the celebration of that year...she'll say she's bored. Despite that response, I hope that she'll know in her heart that I do love her very much.

It may have taken me a long time to get her into this world and it seemed like an eternity, but I am seeing that the time I have with her goes way too fast. It can all become a blur if I let it. And I choose not to let that happen.

Someone remind me of all of this when she is that 14 year old who rolls her eyes at me!