Graduation for Brennan!

 
Brennan is officially a preschool graduate!  He attended two years at Wee Care Preschool in Fremont, Ohio, attending 3 full days a week.  He absolutely loved school and did a great job! We're so proud of him!

Watch out kindergarten, here comes Brennan!

11 Months Old!

Our sweet Abigail is 11 months old!

~Abby is on the move!  She crawls very quickly and is beginning to cruise along furniture.
~She is able to stand unassisted for several seconds.  Her face lights up with excitement when she's praised for standing!
~Move over baby food, Miss Abigail wants the real stuff!  While she will still eat pureed food with encouragement, she definitely prefers table food.  She's able to feed herself small bites of food, including noodles and grilled cheese.  She does much better with sippy cups and enjoys drinking water from them.  Abigail also likes to get food out of snack cups.
~Abby loves to swing!  She'll smile from ear to ear and giggle when pushed on the baby swing on our backyard swingset.
~In addition to "bye bye", she has also uttered a few sweet "Ma ma's"!  She will, however, consistently imitate her silly big brothers when they blow raspberries.
~Abigail will shake/nod her head when we say "yes" or "no".
~Forget baby toys, Abigail prefers her brothers' toys
~She's showing interest in climbing stairs and has been able to scale a stair or two!
~Abigail has such a wonderful and happy personality! 

She Speaks!

We've made the call as she's doing it at the appropriate times and far too often to be coincidence!

Abigail's first word: Bye bye!

She even accompanies it with an adorable wave!

9...err...10 Month Stats

Due to rescheduling her 9 month well check, Abigail was 10 months by the time we could get her in for an appointment.  Current stats:

21 lbs  6 oz
29"
17" head circumference

The doctor was pleased with her development and enjoyed her smiles.  He also liked her adorable pig tails!

10 Months!

 

Miss Abigail is 10 months old!

~Abigail has a list of adorable "tricks"!  She raises her hands in the air in response to "How big is Abigail?" ("So big!").  She claps, typically just moving only her right hand.  She'll also clap when asked to say "more" (adaptation of the sign for "more").  Abby also claps when you sing "Patty Cake" to her.  She loves to dance and will move her upper body up and down and/or back and forth when she hears music.
~She loves to eat!  She gets excited when she sees baby food containers or table food that she likes to eat.  She's doing a great job eating puffs, Cheerios and crackers.  Abigail does a great job feeding herself, including picking up small pieces and taking bites from her crackers.  She's also enjoyed a few tator tots.  She's doing well with a sippy cup, but frequently lets the water cascade out of her mouth.
~Abby is a great sleeper!  She takes 2 good naps a day and sleeps through the night.  At home, she nurses before sleeping and typically falls asleep while eating.  She's woken a few times when I lay her down, but will easily put herself back to sleep.  She is put down awake at the babysitter's and heads to dreamland on her own.  She seems to prefer sleeping on her side.  She quietly plays in her bed for a while after waking up.
~Belly laughs still give her the hiccups!
~She likes to play Peek A Boo, including attempting to cover and uncover herself.
~Abigail has such a wonderful personality!  She's such a happy girl.  We frequently get comments from others and the babysitter about her constant happiness!
~She is on the move!  She's a quick crawler and enjoys pulling herself up on everything she can.
~We've had an explosion of teeth!  She now has 8 teeth, 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom.  She cut all 4 top teeth in a matter of about 3 days.  She's a champion teether...only a little bit of extra drool and mouthing of objects.

9 Months!

 Little Miss Abigail is 9 months old! 

~This was a huge month for motor milestones!  She continued to improve her rolling skills.  Then, she mastered going from her belly to sitting.  Next, she quickly figured out how to crawl!  She loves being able to get around on her own.  She's doing a great job crawling on hard surfaces instead of slipping.  She moves the fastest for electronics, puzzle pieces, her brothers' small toys, and Mommy upon her return from work.
~Abigail has decided that baby food isn't so bad after all!  She's much neater when she eats compared to when she would raspberry most bites!  She absolutely loves Cheerios!  She gets very excited when she is offered them.  She does a great job picking one up and feeding herself.  We're working on sippy cups with water.  She gets excited about getting the water, causing most of it to spill out of her mouth.
~She has a hilarious cheesy grin!  She has great facial expressions!
~Abby continues to make improvements with sleeping.  It seems as though she flipped a switch to improved overnight sleeping when we switched the calendar to March! She barely woke up overnight this month!  We're hoping this continues.  She's also making great improvements in naps. We're thinking the trick is the timing of putting her in her bed.  She does best when she's sleepy/sleeping after nursing, but not completely out.  If she's too fast asleep and wakes up during the transfer to her bed, she seems to think that nap time is over.
~Brennan and Gavin adore their baby sister.  They love to make her laugh and smile.  They also enjoy giving her kisses and hugs and talking to her.  It was neat to watch them as we were encouraging Abby to crawl.  Brennan would cheer her on enthusiastically.  Gavin, attempting to help his baby sister, would simply grab the item(s) of encouragement and take it to her rather than making her crawl to retrieve it.
~We switched Abigail from her infant seat to a convertible car seat this evening. We tried to stretch the infant seat, with its warm fleece cover, as far through the cold weather as we could!
~She's growing so quickly!  We recently brought out some of the 18 months clothes! Her 9 month appointment isn't until later in the month, so we don't have her current stats yet.
~Abigail is such a happy, sweet girl! Her smile not only lights up her face but the entire room!
~We are frequently asked if she goes by Abby or Abigail.  We call her both.  She is also called several nick names: Abbers, Abba-Gabba, Abigails, Abi-girl, Aba-dabas...

8 Months!

 Our sweet Abigail is 8 months old!

~Abby has mastered the art of rolling!  She rolls in one fluid motion and with ease.  She also pushes herself up onto her knees or toes, causing her to scoot backwards.  Gone are the days of staying put in one spot!  We suspect that crawling isn't too far away!
~While she's made great improvements in napping in her bed, we had some regression in overnight sleeping.  More often than not, she woke up overnight or early in the morning this month.  It may have been a combination of her first cold which made her congested, or another tooth,  or traveling, or reaching new milestones, or a combination of several variables. 
~Abigail cut her third tooth!  Her beautiful smile proudly shows off her three bottom teeth!
~Overall, Abby has been a bit indifferent about baby food.  She gets a lunch and dinner and doesn't consume much. Instead, she likes to gently spit it back of of her mouth repeatedly.  After successfully eating a rice rusk, including biting off and "chewing" pieces, we decided to introduce small amounts of finger food to see if she was more successful in eating it.  She's had small bits of toast, green beans, and bananas.  She seemed to do well!  Towards the end of the month, she started eating pureed food more successfully, so we'll continue a combination of finger food and pureed food for now.
~In addition to her rolling, Abigail is starting to attempt to pull herself up on things.  For example, when put in Gavin's bed, she attempts to pull herself up to the top of his bed rail to mouth it.  Consequently, her crib mattress has been lowered a notch!
~She's adding new sounds to her gabbing, including "ma-ma", which is Mommy's current favorite.
~Abigail shakes her head back and forth.  While very likely not in response to a question, it's fun to incorporate it into our conversations!  "Are you ready to _____?" ::Abby shakes her head::
~We love her giggles!  She has quite the infectious belly laugh!