Abigail is (gulp) 11 months old!

Sending us kisses!




Can we say crazy?! It's not even funny how fast her first year has gone by. She's going to be ONE YEAR OLD next month and I'm such a mix of emotions. But all that aside, I am filled with total joy when I see her sweet face and hear her adorable voice. She definitely fills our hearts :)

Abigail had a really rough time with her upper teeth coming through (had the worst diaper rash ever!) From what we can tell she has her two front teeth and one incisor. She also now has 4 bottom teeth. Aside from the horrific rash, teething could've been a lot worse. At least she sleeps and eats just fine! She still has a great routine. Bottle in the morning, breakfast about an hour later. She takes a nice morning nap then has another bottle. Light lunch/snack then good afternoon nap. Has a light snack, a good dinner, and another bottle before bed. Bedtime is between 7-8. She goes down wide awake and sleeps all night :) She loves to sleep in on the weekends!

She's cruising everywhere! One of her favorite things to do is stand next to the ottoman in Grandma's living room. Grandpa hides and comes stomping in to get her. She books it around the ottoman, laughing and squealing like crazy, it's hilarious! She's cruising along walls and the kitchen cabinets. She loves her push toys and does well walking with those. She's recently been getting up on her knees and scooting forward (very funny to watch!) When you tell her to blow kisses, she makes a kissing sound. She is so smart! She tries to put her own shoes on and if you give her a brush she'll try to brush her hair :) BTW- I'm totally in love with her hair- it's getting so long and curly! Her bangs drive us crazy so I've been pulling them back with an elastic. I think we may have to get those cut!

She is VERY loud. Taking her out can be a challenge if our timing is off with naps/feedings. I feel like Audrey was a lot more laid back and quiet at this age. At restaurants and in the grocery store she's ok for a few minutes, but then she constantly needs something- a snack, a drink, attention, etc. She will absolutely not smile for strangers...she has a pretty stone-cold face most of the time, lol. She's in her big girl car seat now (rear facing) and doing well. If she gets fussy usually I give her a book or a toy and she settles down.


We saw Cinderella at the dinner theater and all she wanted was me and some snacks!

She says "Uh-oh" when she drops something, "Mama" when she's upset and wants me, "Da" when she sees Chris, and I swear she's looked at Eddie at least once and said "Dog." :)


She LOVES her "Da"!

She adores Audrey! Usually they play separately (I really want Abigail to learn how to entertain herself like Audrey did!) But when they do play together it's overwhelmingly adorable!





It seems that Audrey has gotten over her aversion to being touched by Abigail. She begged to have Abby join her in the car!


Audrey thinks it's funny to hold Abby's pant legs as she tries to crawl, lol. Abby tolerates it for awhile! I love how she gets something in each hand and crawls. That has to be uncomfortable!

"Help me."



I see slumber parties in their future :)

Some extra pictures from today's shoot (can't leave out sweet Audrey Cate!):



::heart melting::

As sad as I am to watch my baby grow up so fast, I am just loving each and every moment of seeing her learn new things. I so wish we could have 10 more sweet girls! Life surely doesn't get better than this. I truly feel that these past 4 years have been the best of my life. I love being a mom!

First Day of Spring

Beautiful weather, extra daylight and new dresses inspired me to snap pictures of my little loves on Tuesday afternoon:

March Madness

It's mid-March and there's just so much going on. This past week alone has been such a roller coaster ride of emotions. On Sunday Zoe went into diabetic shock and died late that night. We buried her right away and we were just devastated. We told Audrey on Monday as we were eating dinner. We were very honest with her, telling her that Zoe was old and sick, died and went to Heaven with other doggies. That she would not be coming back, it's just Eddie at the house now. She got a really sad look on her face and said, "Oh, dear." Then she offered me a chip :) I thought that was that, but then a couple days later she asked where Zoe was. I repeated to her what we had said, but then she said, "Maybe tomorrow." So then I really had to emphasize that Zoe was in Heaven and not ever coming back. She then said, "Will Heaven make Zoe feel better?" WOW...it was very hard not to cry as I told her, "Yes, Heaven makes everyone feel better."

My knees have been hurting since I started running a month ago. I really thought I had started off slow, with mostly walking (Couch to 5k.) Then I began having having awful pain in both knees. With acetaminophen and icy hot the pain was bearable but as soon as everything wore off I'd be in terrible pain again. They were also tender to the touch, so kneeling down was painful as well. I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday and sure enough, they're sprained. I was given a rx for steroids and percocet. I really hope I''m better soon- this pain seriously sucks!

My birthday was Thursday (31!) AND it was Gator Week! Our theme was Super Heroes. The kids were so cute and we all had fun dressing up for each day (Orange Day, Crazy hat/hair Day, Mix Match Day, Cape Day, then Super Gator Pride Day.) My brother Craig came to talk to the 3rd grade classes about safety and what being a hero is all about. He did such a great job and the kids loved him. They made him thank you cards and OMG they were hilarious!



Despite my knee pain I was a Gator Rapper for Friday's lunch...I made sure I was iced-up and ready to go for each performance! I just hope I don't pay for it all weekend :(


I took pictures of all my little super heroes, then they made me do it!




I super love my school :)
(Thanks to Mrs. Johns for these!)


Chris had to work late on my birthday so we celebrated last Saturday at Bonefish. Unfortunately Audrey wasn't feeling well. She started complaining at dance class about having a tummy ache, but then she later said she was feeling better. Then she fell asleep on the way home (not normal for her) and just wanted to veg out on the couch when we got there. She took a nap and woke up feeling fine. But when we met Chris at the restaurant she was awfully quiet as we waited to be seated (and she's never quiet, lol.) Through most of dinner she didn't want anything to eat and towards the end she said, "I don't feel good" and started to get whiny. Just looking at her we could tell she was feeling bad and she felt awfully warm. So we went home and straight to bed she went. She did have a 100 degree fever that lasted through Sunday morning but with Tylenol she kicked it by the afternoon. We're celebrating with the rest of my family this weekend and hopefully everyone will be well :)

The girls are great. Audrey is so funny and I just love having conversations with her and watching her play. She is hot and cold towards Abigail. One minute she's tickling her feet and hugging on her, the next she's barricading herself into the corner by the couch so that Abigail doesn't mess up her cookies that she made, lol.



I'm starting to see the beginnings of sibling fights. We'll be in the car and Abigail will start making crazy noises that annoy Audrey. Audrey will either a) mimic her or b) say, "Stop, pleeeeeease stop Abby!!" HAHA. I try to explain that Abby is just learning how to talk (she says "Uh-oh" and "Dada" and "Momma") but sometimes Audrey just gets annoyed. Oh well!

Abigail has the best expressions. I just love her sweet face!

She still walks on her knees when she pushes this toy because it's so fast...but she actually walks and pushes her play table (and she's starting to cruise along the furniture!)


Loves trying to get into the cabinets


She does so great in the cart when we're shopping


Totes relaxed :)




Audrey said she wanted to get in and read Abby a book. As soon as she was in she gave Abby the book and said, "Here, read this book Abby." BAHAHA


How cute are these?!


Abby has been getting as much use out of the play kitchen as Audrey!


Looking back to see if I'm watching :)


Trying to find an alternate path into Audrey's "house"




Audrey went to great lengths for this roadblock...

We're all crazy busy and I'm getting so excited for a full work day in April (a real true workday!) and then Spring Break. We all need it after such a lame winter. I won circus tickets on the radio (what what!!) and I'm hoping the girls love it. I'm so thrilled that we have more light in the evenings. As soon as my old lady knees feel better I'm taking the girls on walks and bike rides when we get home :)

Abigail is 10 months old!

Audrey loved picking the little flowers :)


Sweet!





BAHAHAHAHA

Double digits...wow! I cannot stress enough how fast this is going by. I'm sad...I really miss the quiet, cuddly newborn days. Abigail is all over the place and less and less like a baby each day. As I type this I have another window up for Evite (party save-the-date), Pinterest (party planning), and yet another for Shutterfly (birthday invitations). Sigh.

She's a crazy-fast crawler. She's pulling up on everything now. For the longest time she would pull up but not be able to get herself back down. In fact, we had to stop putting socks on her (and footed PJs) because her feet would slide apart and she'd be doing the splits, lol. I love to walk into her room and find her standing, just grinning from ear to ear! I had a dream the other night that she let go of the table and started walking around. I remember being so happy but thinking, "Hey, when did you take your first steps?!" Another sign that this is happening way too fast :(


Crazy hair!


That's better!



`

Her hair is getting so long! It's starting to curl up in the back :)

She's cutting more teeth, I think on the top. She will absolutely not let us check so it's very hard to tell. For the past week she's had an awful diaper rash. I went to pick up the prescription diaper cream the pedi called in and it was $300! Needless to say we tried Triple Paste instead. That didn't rally work so the pedi called in a different ointment that we mixed with Desitin. It's lightening up a bit, but her bum is so red and every time she poops it seems to get worse. I'm going to take her to the dr if it doesn't get better in a few days. During diaper changes she grabs at it and I know it has to hurt :(

She mimics us if we make a sound such as blowing raspberries, sticking out our tongue, or making popping sounds. She says lots of consonant-sounds. She claps a lot and is waving again. She has the sweetest laugh and brightest smile. She's a lot less clingy, unless she tired or hungry she does great playing by herself. She loves all the toys Audrey used to play with- blocks, books, pretty much anything!


Her eating and sleeping habits haven't changed. She sleeps like it's her job! Loves to sleep in on the weekend and takes wonderful naps. Both girls are flexible enough that I can usually get them to take a nap at the same time in the afternoon (so nice when that happens!)

I ordered Audrey a new car seat so that Abigail could have the Coccoro. I'm waiting on the 2nd new car seat to arrive for Christopher's truck. Even though she's in her infant carrier, I've been taking her out of it when we go to dance and grocery shopping so she can get used to being "free." One good thing about having such a mild winter :) It's been pretty easy getting around with 2 by myself. Audrey likes to push Abigail in the stroller which is great because I can keep ahold of them both at the same time.


Watching dance class from the stroller


Grocery shopping (I need to find our shopping cart cover!!)


First time in a high chair

Our darling girl is getting so big and it's been so incredible to go through these milestones again. I just wish it wasn't happening so fast! I wonder when she'll take those first steps? Audrey was just shy of being 11 months in this video. I really cannot wait until Summer when I get to enjoy her all day, everyday!