Twelve Months

Where oh where did the time go?  My sweet baby girl is one!  She is still my long and lean girl.   She is 17 lbs 4 oz and 30 1/2 inches long.  At Hannah's appointment last month, my doctor said I could let Abigail have a little bit of whole milk even though she wasn't quite one yet.  She likes it and is enjoying drinking more now that she is officially one.  Speaking of drinking, Abigail really likes her sippy cup.  She can hold it and put it in her mouth, but she needs help tipping back to actually get anything to drink.  She seemed to catch on faster than Hannah did though. 

Abigail FINALLY has a tooth.  It's on the bottom left side, but the other side is still swollen.  Hopefully it won't take as long to break through as the first one did.  Now that Abigail is doing better at chewing food (teeth help), I've let her try a few more things off my plate.  She's tried chicken, turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, bbq pork, cornbread, and ice cream.

 Abigail is pulling up on anything and everything.  She will also cruise, although we don't have much furniture that allows for that.  And if you hold her hands she will take several steps across the room.  Thankfully she is still happy to crawl on her own to get around.  I predict she will be walking earlier than Hannah who waited until 18 months.


Our house is never quiet unless the girls are sleeping.  Hannah is constantly talking either to us or her toys.  Abigail babbles all the time too.  Her newest word is "uh oh" and she loves to drop things so she can say it.  The other day Abigail was playing and babbling to herself.  I heard mostly her own language and then "qua qua."  Abigail must have been talking about the duck Hannah was playing with.  =) Abigail understands a lot too.  If she's feeling cooperative she will go get a toy you ask her for.  She loves sing with me and play Pat-a-Cake.  She will clap her hands and try to roll them, all with a big smile on her face.

This final monkey photo was QUITE the challenge.  We've had lots of cold, cloudy weather so the light was not ideal for taking pictures.  And then Abigail did not want to sit still and give us any sweet smiles.  We tried 2 different times and took TONS of shots.  My mom decided to make a composite of several shots so you can see her personality.  These make me laugh!!


Last weekend was busy so we will celebrate Abigail's (and my) birthday this Saturday.  Just a small family affair.  We are planning to do a smash cake soon as well.  We never did one with Hannah because she only touched things with one finger and didn't want to be dirty.  Abigail is in to everything so hopefully we'll get some cute photos.  Stay tuned!

Ten Months

As Abigail is getting bigger, it's fun to watch how her personality differs from Hannah.  When Hannah was little she had to be in the same room as us.  Abigail likes to be close to a certain extent as well.  But, lately she has started crawling in the playroom and playing by herself.  She will play for quite a while before she starts to complain.  Of course I can see into the playroom from the living room, but that's something Hannah never would have done.  Hannah was also terrified of the vacuum cleaner and Abigail thinks it a toy.  She follows me around from room to room like a puppy dog.  =)  And she babbles to herself while she plays.  Wish I understood her language!

Abigail has started signing "more" and "all done."  She still LOVES to eat and starts asking for "more" before she chews the food in her mouth.  Silly girl!  She can also lift her arms up if you say "SO BIG!"  I've shown her the signs for a few other things, but she hasn't signed any of them yet.  Hannah was just over a year before she started picking up lots of new signs.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this photo my mom took.  She's wanted to put Abigail in her vintage coke box for a while and we finally had time to do it.  Abigail loves to play with plastic bottles, but she usually just gets and empty one.  We gave her a full bottle of coke and it was too heavy for her to pick up and chew on.  You can't see it, but she's rolling it around in the box.  LOL!

We took both girls to 2 fall festival/trunk or treat events over the last few weeks.  One at our church and another at a local church not far from our house.  Abigail looked SUPER cute in her costume, but wasn't sure what to make of the event itself.  She happily rode in the stroller and looked at all the people.  And she danced to the music too!  My parents and sister got to join us at one festival which was fun.  Abigail liked the buttons on Aunt Kara's coat.  =)


 

 Abigail is really enjoying getting to eat finger foods.  She loves cheerios, rice puffs, and bread.  She also eats small pieces of cheese, but they are harder to pick up.  She seems to enjoy yogurt as well.  I think that's all the new foods we've tried lately.

This month's monkey photo actually wasn't impossible to take.  LOVE this hat.  You may remember it from Abigail's newborn photo session.  We actually have it in two sizes because it's so cute!

Eight Months

Thought I'd start with monkey photo this time.  Sweet girl is almost as tall as monkey is.  Not very smiley this month, but she is definitely showing some personality in this photo.  =)

 "Little missy" took off about 2 weeks after I wrote last month's post.  She is thoroughly enjoying her new freedom.  She loves crawling all over the floor, exploring, and trying to get whatever Hannah is playing with.  We do have 2 small steps in our house, one down into the living room and another into the play room, and she those can frustrate her.  She can actually go up the step sometimes if she has the right motivation, but she has no idea how to get down. =} She seems more determined than Hannah was.  If Hannah wanted to play with a cord or the TV she was usually pretty easy to distract.  I have to chase and redirect Abigail MANY times before she will decide to play with something else.  Sill girl!
 



Abigail still loves to eat.  She is now eating 3 solid meals of two ounces every day in addition to nursing 4 times.  The new foods we tried this month were:  bananas, pears, apples, peaches, and green beans (not a fan).  Interesting fact:  Hannah never liked pureed green beans either.  However, Hannah LOVES to pick them up and eat them now.  I will probably hold off giving them to Abigail again until she has teeth to chew with.  We have also let Abigail chase a few rice puffs around her tray.  She seems to like them, but has a hard time picking them up.  We'll introduce more finger foods next month.

Still no teeth!  Abigail has days where she is super grumpy and will refuse solid food.  Very unlike her.  I think her gums are swollen and they hurt, even though no teeth have broken through.  Hopefully they come in soon, so she can feel better.  She is usually a very happy girl.  And sometimes she poses for the camera!



Nathan and I plan to teach Abigail sign language just like we did with Hannah.  It was so nice to be able to communicate and once Hannah started talking her vocabulary took off because she knew so many words.  I have just started introducing a few signs to Abigail.  We'll see how long it takes her to pick up words.  Hannah of course loves to copy me.  She hardly ever signs now, but will still use "please" occasionally.

Seven Months

Abigail desperately wants to go somewhere, but just hasn't figured it out yet.  She can lift up all the way on her toes, but is still working on getting up onto her knees.  She scoots around in a circle on her tummy very quickly.  I predict she will crawl before Hannah did (who was 9 months).  Abigail is doing really well on her sitting though.  She can sit for at least 20 minutes before she topples over.

It's really interesting to watch the differences in the girls' personalities.  Hannah LOVES food now, but when she was little, she wasn't excited even though she did eat.  Abigail on the other hand has ALWAYS loved her food.  She makes "mmm" "umm" "num" and other enjoyment noises while nursing and eating solid food.  =)  She is still enjoying cereal, but really likes her veggies.  We've tried sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, and peas.  In case you were wondering I have decided to make my own baby food again like I did with Hannah.  Most foods are not that hard and it saves SO much money.  There are a few things like pears that are more difficult to make really smooth, so I will probably buy those.



Now that she is eating more solid food we adjusted her schedule slightly.  She is now awake for 2 hours and then naps for 2 hours.  That means nursing every 4 hours instead of every 3 and two long naps.  She will also go down for a shot nap during the dinner hour as long as we are home.  And she still sleeps about 10 hours at night.  =)  No teeth yet, but she's had a slight runny nose and her bottom gums seem swollen.  We still get lots of smiles and giggles from Abigail.  And here's one of her new favorite faces.



Abigail may also be more active than Hannah.  When playing on her tummy she kicks her legs when she gets excited and if she's sitting up she flaps her arms.  Hannah loves to jump and run now but she was very laid back when she was younger.  Abigail's newest trick is growling.  She puts a toy in her mouth, chews on it, and makes growling noises.  Not sure why she's making that noise, but it's funny to watch.  She still "talks" all the time too.  Her favorite happy playing sound is "da da da" and then when she gets frustrated she starts saying "ma ma ma."  Wonder if it's her way of trying to get my attention.

Last but not least...a monkey photo!  =)

Nine Months

Sorry this is a little late. We had issues taking our monkey photo this month. Hannah suddenly developed a fear of the monkey. She would take one look at him and CRY!
We spent all of last week playing with the monkey and reminding Hannah that he wasn't scary. Not sure where her fear came from, but glad she's likes her "friend" again. Note to self...spend time each week with the monkey so as not to repeat this experience. =)

Hannah also had her nine month check up last week. She is still on the small side (only 5th percentile for weight) but overall healthy. She is 15 pounds 11 ounces and 27 inches long. We just recently grew into size 6 month clothes. =) I was a small baby so I'm not worried and if she weighs less then she's lighter to carry!

We've added a few new pureed food this month: apples and peaches. Hannah is also enjoying finger food: cheerios, cheese, bread, puffs(gerber puffed rice cereal), blueberries (don't seem to like them), and grapes (still not sure about these either). We just recently finished off our frozen pureed carrots and peas so I plan to steam more and cut them small for her to feed herself.

Last but not least....the successful monkey photo:

Eight Months

Yet another month has flown by. Here's what we've been up to...



We've done lots of swimming at Grammy and G-Pa's, of course who doesn't want to be in the pool when it's almost 100 or above outside. Hannah is doing really well in the water. She likes to splash, ride in her ducky boat (a present from Grammy) and I've actually dunked her twice. That always surprises her, but she hasn't cried. =) We even invited several mommy friends and their little ones to come swimming. It was lots of fun! Here's Hannah and her friend Pete checking each other out.


My grandma also came to visit for a few days. She lives in Arizona so this was her first time meet Hannah. We enjoyed spending time with her and hope to see her again soon. We made sure to take a four generation photo while GG was here.


Hannah is still not crawling yet, but she does enjoy scooting around on the floor. She's really good at going in a circle and backwards. She REALLY wants to go forward and gets frustrated when she can't. We've tried lots of new food in the last month too: peas, green beans, carrots, pears, bananas, avocados, yogurt, and we'll try peaches this week. She's enjoying everything she tries and I'm still liking making baby food.

Hannah has 2 bottom teeth that are big enough to see when she smiles. And I think she's working on another one because she hasn't quite been herself for the last week. We head back to the doctor in 3 weeks for another check up (and more shots). Stay tuned for the latest stats.

Seven Months

Wow! I can't believe another month has gone by. It really feels like just yesterday Hannah was still in my tummy and I couldn't wait to meet her. =) This is such a fun age...it seems like Hannah is learning or discovering something almost every day.

She is doing really well on eating her solid food. She's tried rice cereal, oatmeal, and butternut squash and we're going to try sweet potatoes today. I have several friends who have chosen to make their own baby food so I thought I'd give it a try too. I've only done two veggies so far, but it's not hard and DEFINITELY cheaper.

Hannah now has one tooth. She ran a low grade fever, had a runny nose, and was kinda whiny for about a week, but she was a trooper. Thankfully she still slept well! I would also call her a "sitter" now. She stays upright for a LONG time before she topples over. She enjoys rolling and scooting around on the floor too. She's not crawling yet, but I think she wants to go somewhere. Then I get to chase her around the house...fun!

I guess that's about all the news for now. Here's this month's monkey photo. What a cutie!!