Special Delivery

Notice the air holes and the "Handle with Care" note. . . isn't she adorable?

Funny Conversation

Roy was just on the phone with our niece who just turned 4 and nephew who just turned 7. Our conversations with them are always hilarious, but today's was especially entertaining. Their birthday are just 4 days apart so they get to do fun stuff to celebrate their birthdays. This year they went to NASA to a Star Wars exhibit and to see the rockets. Our nephew told Roy that he had too many people around and that he had to run away from four girls who wanted to kiss him. The horror! Our niece told Roy that she didn't want to go to NASA (she wanted to stay home) and, said in a very solemn and serious voice, that she was afraid of the rockets--they might take her to space!

Visit to the National Zoo

On Monday our big adventure was going to the National Zoo. It was a little chilly, but we wrapped Abby up and she had a blast. She loved being carried around by Far Far and wanted that for several hours. I wonder if his arms got sore like mine do after a long carry...

We took the metro in to DC to go to the zoo. This picture is actually from when we took the metro on Saturday and it was Abby's first metro ride so I had to take a picture. This picture definitely depicts our feelings on taking the metro...it can be a crazy experience!

Back to the zoo: After we got to the zoo, we met a friend who works there. He took us around a little bit and gave Abby a cute Friends of the National Zoo box. When Abby gets up from her nap, we're taking a funny picture of her in her box so, if my idea actually works, I'll post a picture later today. Abby especially enjoyed the rocks and the ground at the zoo. I thought she'd get all excited about the zebras and elephants since she loves her stuffed ones, but the animals were just too far away for her to see. Bummer! For what it's worth, Abby did enjoy the sign at the zebra exhibit!

We cheated and put Abby back in her blessing dress on Monday so we could get a family picture with her all dressed up. So here we are!

Family Time

I thought I would post a few of the pictures of Abby with my dad (her Far Far) and her Uncle Steven (one of the several Uncle Stevens, I might add).

Uncle Steven, Far Far, Mom, and Abby

Abby had a great time with them when they were here last weekend. Unfortunately she was spoiled by always having at least one "backseat buddy" (that term was coined by my sister Cindy) for enough time that now she gets a little upset when she's back there by herself. She hasn't been a fan of the carseat anyway the last couple weeks...something about riding in the back of the car that was stuffed with stuff from our Spring Break in Williamsburg made her mad and she has been quite vocal about her dislike of the carseat ever since. Maybe she was scared of being suffocated by all her toys and laundry! Anyway, she liked the car for the most part while Far Far and Uncle Steven entertained her and now she's back to being mad while we drive. Oh well!

Since I know most of you have been dying to know :), Abby has grown once again and is now wearing 6-9 month stuff and a few 12 month items. Since my brother told me it was rude to say she's growing like a weed, I'm not sure what to say, but she's definitely been busy getting big. She has very strong opinions on how to be held and also when she wants to be held. She's not much of a cuddly baby anymore, unfortunately, but that makes the cuddly times even more special.

Easter, Blessing, Birthday

Yesterday was a VERY busy day, but a very memorable one! Not only was it Easter, but Abby was blessed at church. It was a beautiful morning. Lately Abby has not enjoyed Sacrament Meeting so I was nervous that she would scream during the blessing. She did a very good job. It made me so happy! My mom made her blessing dress and it was beautiful. The hat she is wearing in the picture is the same one I wore when I was blessed.



Grandma Z gave her an Easter dress. It made her look like a little fairy. She is so cute! For her Easter basket, the Easter bunny gave her some puppets. She thinks they are pretty funny. She was grinning and watching those puppets as we showed them to her. We're going to have a whole lot of fun playing with those! Oh, and this is my new haircut!

To top off the day, yesterday was also my birthday. Roy even made a birthday cake for me! It was definitely a birthday I won't ever forget!

We knew that my dad was coming out for Abby's blessing, but we were all surprised with my brother Steven coming too! We spent the weekend exploring all around DC. On Friday, we went to Mount Vernon. Saturday was the National Arboritum. And today we went to the National Zoo. Abby did great on our little adventures (and so did the rest of us). Since she is at the point of wanting to see EVERYTHING we invented a new way to meet that need and make it easier on us. We put her in the bjorn and then zip her up in my jacket. She looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

Major Blowout

Abby had a really wet diaper when she got up this morning so, being the best mom in the world, I changed her. Then she ate and we cut her fingernails. While I was cutting her fingernails, she was farting and grunting, not unusual for her to do shortly after eating. I kept checking to be sure we weren't having any leaking and we were okay. All of the sudden, I noticed that my leg was wet and warm. Sure enough, her diaper had leaked. Granted it was completely filled to the brim, but her onesie was half soaked with poop as were her pajamas. And, for the first time, I had a melon-sized leak through my pants to my leg. Maybe you can't truly consider yourself a mother until your child's poop runs down your leg...

What a Week!

Do you ever have those weeks where you feel like all time escaped from you? That's what this week felt like to us. We came back from Williamsburg on Thursday and all of the sudden it's Monday morning and Spring Break is over. I guess it's good because it means we were busy, but I can't think of what filled all that time, especially since we've had a load of laundry begging to be put away since we got back, the apartment still has not been cleaned, and the box of diapers has not made the trek from the front room to Abby's. I swear we aren't lazy--it's just been one of those weekends where we aren't home long enough to make a dent! It was a fantastic weekend. In fact, we went so hard Friday and Saturday that Abby and I crashed on the couch after church and slept for 2-1/2 hours yesterday. Maybe that's why nothing has gotten done in the apartment... :)

On another note, Abby is getting closer to sleeping through the night. Of the last 9 nights, she's slept 7 of them straight through. It's almost exactly 8 hours after she falls asleep that she wakes up so I try to go to sleep immediately after I put her down so I can get 8 hours too. Obviously I'm still tired since I took such a long nap yesterday!

Next Sunday is Abby's baby blessing. We're so excited to have Far Far come and spoil her for the long weekend. We're excited that his parents, one sister and her family, and his brother and his family can come. To make things even better, we have some good friends coming as well. We are also especially grateful that Roy gets to bless her. I can't wait!

A Striking Resemblance

Roy took this picture of Abby and Baba Z on Sunday. When we were looking at the picture right after, we all suddenly noticed a striking resemblance. It makes sense because Abby looks like Roy and Roy looks like his father. So of course Abby would look like Baba Z. But more than the family resemblance, we LOVE the expression(s) on their faces!

We had fun playing with Grandma and Baba Z. Abby introduced them to her animal friends (the ones she plays with on her bouncy seat), her stick-out-the-tongue game, and her various grunts and talking noises. She was the entertainer for the visit! Below, Abby and Grandma Z hang out on the couch:

Hrgah

I'll keep you guessing until the end of my post about what the title means. :)

One of the fantastic things about having a husband in school is that his Spring Break is also your Spring Break. We decided to come to Williamsburg to spend time with Grandma and Baba Z. Abby got some good cuddling time, talking time, and spent every drop of entertaining her grandparents. Abby pushes herself to the brink of exhaustion having fun. She definitely LOVES her grandparents.

One thing I love about Williamsburg is that there are two (yes, 2) outlet malls here. And the outlets have great stores there. Roy, Abby, and I spent the morning going shopping. Until the last couple minutes of shopping, Abby was in heaven looking at EVERYTHING and trying to charm her way into the hearts of every person in the store. Apparently the new spring color is black (at least at the stores we went to) so there was tons of contrast--a 2 month-old's dream come true.

Well, just in case I haven't bragged enough about our girl, here are a few more things:

• Abby does this cute big smile and then tries to hide her face in her shoulder. It's like she's trying to play shy.
• At church yesterday Abby tried to make friends with the little girl behind us. She was talking like crazy and was leaning over Grandma Z's shoulder trying to get closer and closer. That was really the first time she has shown interest in someone close to her age.
• Abby has a great bouncy seat that she loves. There are three animals on it, but she only likes two of them. She talks to the zebra and sticks her tongue out at the elephant. She always gets so excited and kicks and babbles when she gets in her chair. We think that she knows that when she kicks her animals move and "play" with her.
• Abby loves, loves, loves to talk. When she is really happy, most especially after eating, she likes to say a very special word, with a big grin and a sparkle in her eye--hrgah.

Our Star

So I may have been a bit premature to announce that Abby slept through the night, but I was so excited to get a real night's sleep. For those of you who were a teensy bit jealous, don't worry, because she woke up in the middle of the night again last night.

We think that Abby just keeps getting cuter and cuter. From this set of completely unbiased parents, we bring you our superstar talking:

My Mor Mor, Abby's Bedstemor, plays a game with babies where she touches forehead, eyebrows, nose, lips, chin, and then tickles the baby while saying, "Pantobean, oyastean, nasatip, monalip, hagaflip, tickle-tickle-tickle." It's a great game and Abby has started to really enjoy it. Since we will be living with Mor Mor this summer while in Santa Rosa, I thought I would introduce Abby to the game!

So Exciting It Deserves It's Own Post

For the first time, Abby slept through the night last night. I got 8 hours of sleep straight, with no interruptions for feeding, changing, or going to the bathroom myself. I can't even think of how long it's been since that happened. I am thrilled!