A Little Help

You may or may not know that Roy and I both can be stubborn. We both like to think that we use our stubbornness for good, but you are probably better judges of that than we are! Hopefully we form a good opinion of someone/something and stubbornly stick to it or have a good idea and stubbornly stick to it until the task gets completed. Well, it appears that Abby may have received a double-dose of the stubborns from both parents. As stinking cute as she is (I am not even kidding when I tell you that her cuteness has not only literally stopped traffic, but also gotten us out of some otherwise awkward situations), Abby can be stubbornly stubborn. The majority of the time she is so adventurous and outgoing that you would think she was like that all the time. Not the case when it comes to whole milk. I started weaning her about a month ago and so we have been trying to have her drink whole milk. She takes one small sip of it, throws it to the ground, and looks at both of us as if we have tried to poison her. I'll list what we have tried to do to get her to drink whole milk. If you have any additional ideas, please pass them on because we are getting a little worried about her dairy consumption once she is completely done with nursing!

Here's what we've tried:

• various sippy cups and bottles (straws, soft lids, hard lids, and her old bottles)...rejection
• strawberry and chocolate milk (when she rejected the chocolate milk, I began to worry that she got Roy's dessert genes--he eats dessert, but only because I am and require a partner to join in)
• warm, cold, hot and milk
• milk with a meal and milk during the day
• milk while reading, rocking, or watching a movie

So we've done each method for a few days. There are some times that she takes one look at the cup I'm offering and then runs away from me even if she signed or asked for something to drink. She can be such a stinker!

Any suggestions on how to get Abby to drink her milk?

Snow Day!

We had our first stick-to-the-ground snow today for this winter. It's been snowing in our area consistently for the last 5 hours. I only know because Abby woke up way too early and needed to play. She is the weirdest sleeper. But I digress. After watching it snow for a while out the window, Abby brought her coat over to Roy and was anxious to get outside. So we bundled her up (being a paranoid mom, I had her in thermals, a full-body fleece snowsuit, and her winter coat, along with hat and gloves) and headed out. Most of the time she wanted to be carried around, but she did get brave and walk around by herself for a few minutes. She especially liked it when Roy made snowballs and chucked them into the ground. The last picture in the set shows what happened 30 minutes after we got back inside and about 10 minutes into her eating lunch. I guess we had way too much fun!

Bragging Rights

Thanks to Aubrey and Becky and a few websites, I am learning the art of couponing. Although I have lots of learning to do, I'm lucky to have a few people and resources to use. I am still on Cloud Nine about my trip to the grocery store today where I spent $27.56 on 27 items, including, but not limited to, 13 cans of soup and chili, 1 box of cereal, 4 cans of cinnamon rolls (we never buy those, but there are times I crave cinnamon rolls and when I can buy them for a dollar I have hit a weak spot), sour cream, and yogurt. I am really excited about couponing now!

Obsession Confession

Roy and I are obsessed with Abby. In a good way. We very much love her and cannot imagine life without her. We thought it was getting bad this week when we had to look at her picture (the really good one I posted a couple days ago) multiple times between the time she went to bed and when we went to bed. It's just such a good picture and she's so cute! Now that my confession is out, you can all understand if the majority of what I post or talk about is our girl. :)

Abby finally has enough hair to do some cute things with. Although it took multiple wrestling matches and periods of containment, the following result was totally worth it:

I'm Gonna Get You!

One of Abby's favorite non-moving, down-time activities is sitting on my lap watching videos on the computer. She'll even find the laptop, point to it, and start clapping. She persistently points and claps until I consent to sit and watch movies with her. We watch the same handful every day so I have them all memorized. I don't mind the cuddle time at all, it's just that watching the same movies is getting a little old. I thought I'd share one of her favorites with you--the other favorites are her Stoddard cousins from their blog. She laughs and laughs when we play this Abby-Grandma Z video...and it is pretty cute!

Scream Interpretations: At the beginning and at about the 30-second mark in the video, Abby screams her taunting "you can't catch me, Grandma" scream, while she is actually running away and hoping to get caught and tickled. Near the end, when she's holding the door, she is screaming to remind Grandma to GET OUT so she can close the door and begin the game all over again. They played this game for nearly 45 minutes one night during Christmas. They both slept really well that night!

Photo-genetic

Our friend Anne took this great picture of Abby. And I couldn't resist the title--I'm such a nerd!

All Grown Up

Roy had some interviews the last two days and got an internship with the Department of Commerce. So he gets to drop a class and gets credit for working. No paycheck, but he does get 4 credits and an awesome line on his resume. He is so excited. He called me on the way to do all the paperwork and said, "This is so cool!" Abby and I will really miss seeing him since he'll be gone 15 more hours a week, but I suppose this is just the beginning of the end when it comes to real life full-time work! If you want to know what he'll be doing exactly, you'll have to wait for Roy to post (haha, he has only posted once since we started this and that was to announce Abby's birth so you may be waiting a LONG time!), but what I understand from what he's said he'll be working with international law and policy. My husband's growing up! (He is going to either laugh or kill me for saying that!)

Abby had her Alexandria birthday party this weekend and we had a lot of fun. One of her favorite gifts (thank you, Siena) is a baby in a backpack. The baby has long been forgotten, but the backpack....heaven on earth for my little girl! She wears it around quite a bit, but she hasn't figured out how to put it on or take it off by herself. So if you're around Abby and you hear a shriek and wrestling, she is trying to figure out the backpack.

Although the quality of this picture is not incredible, Abby is being her cute self as normal. I put her hair in a ponytail yesterday and she looked so cute! She actually looks a lot like her cousin Holly. The monkey behind her is the joint artistic effort from Roy and I for the "Pin the Banana to the Monkey" game at her party. Look how grown up she looks with that cell phone!

Abby's 1st Birthday

It was fun to be able to spend Abby's 1st birthday in Williamsburg. She had a great day going to the park, playing with cousin Zach and friend Scarlett, and taking a nice long nap. I am grateful she took a nap because it gave me time to make the birthday party dinner and the cakes. I think the cakes turned out pretty nicely. They are nothing to compare to the cake my sister Becky made last week for Holly (wow, does it look awesome!), but not bad for attempt #2 at frosting a cake to look cool. The giraffe is what everyone ate, but the lion is Abby's individual cake (shown also in the video below).

Video Explanation: We stripped Abby down to her diaper hoping she would attack the cake and not destroy her clothes...maybe next year. She scrambles to get away after the song because someone (Roy) brought the candle too close and she was scared of the flame. What the video didn't catch was her complete disgust when Roy tried to offer her a bite of cake. Roy ended up taking a bite, I took a bite, and then Abby was okay with trying. About three bites in, she was done and quite anxious to indulge in a little Cookies 'N Cream ice cream from my plate. All in all, it was a successful first birthday!

Between Christmas and birthday, Abby was totally and completely spoiled! She has so many fun toys now--thanks everyone!

Baby dolls (she kisses and hugs them just before shucking them on the floor or into the stroller, but she loves them and goes to play with them first thing each morning).

Tutu and purse. She is definitely girl!

We haven't gotten a good picture or video yet, but she got WeeSing CDs from my parents. She LOVES them! We have listened to them everyday and she stands in front of the stereo and dances--arms up in the air, feet spread apart, swaying. She is so cute!

Abby, we love you very, very much!

Christmas

We had a very fun Christmas break! We were down in Williamsburg with about half the Zwahlen clan and it was great! Because I am too intimidated to write about everything that happened (and because my mom is quite anxious to see pictures of Abby tonight--but really, who can blame her?), here are our highlights with some text of our Christmas fun!

One of the fun traditions is that each of the grandchildren that is present gets to go build a bear. This was Abby's first Christmas and she built a giraffe (although, to be fair, Baba Z did build her a polar bear last Christmas because she was due right after the holidays). We are still looking for an appropriate name, if anyone has any genious ideas!

Two of the grandbabies and the Zwahlen grandparents.

We missed Santa this year...sad! But we did make up for it

by taking this excellent family portrait!

Abby was very good at opening presents.

All wrapped up in the Christmas blanket from Mor Mor and Far Far.

First taste of chocolate. We have a convert, folks!

Santa brought Abby a slide. She very, very much approves!

She is so dang cute! Look at that smile!

Roy got his much-coveted, anxiously awaited forWii.

Roy had to try on every piece of emergency preparedness equipment from my parents. He looks good, eh?

Eating out. Abby is now interested in coloring. If only we could get her to not color on the menu!

She is just so cute! This is the new ball pit at Grandma and Baba Z's house. We love it!

Stay tuned next time for Abby's 1st Birthday!