First Official Camera Steps

Abby has taken steps by herself for a couple of days, but not when I have had the camera out and ready. So last night we were doing the classic walk-between-Mom-and-Dad game and I caught her on our camera. I think she's pretty cute!

Abby has begun standing up in her crib, as you will see in the picture a couple posts ago. So she started crying in the middle of the night and it took a couple minutes for me to register, "Go see what's wrong." By the time I got to her room, her cry had escalated to terrified screams. It turns out that she was standing in the middle of her bed with one arm holding onto one side and the other arm on the opposite side of the crib. It was dark, but I felt tears on her face (she usually just gets plain old mad and doesn't have tears so I knew it was serious). It took her a while to calm down and stop shaking. I'm sure she was just freaked out because she had no clue what was going on. I was laughing so hard and had to go share the funny Abby moment with Roy. We both laughed so hard, while Abby was still recovering. Man, we're mean parents! We laugh when she gets scared!

On another note, we were able to watch the BYU-USU game last night. It was a little bit of heaven for Roy. Living in VA is not really conducive to a BYU fan who likes to watch the games since not too many games are broadcast. It was really fun to watch the game. BYU was so fun--seeing the game and some of the commercials about BYU made me miss it a little. So many fond memories!

Ready, Set, GROW!

Abby has the go-ahead from her doctor to eat table foods (yeah for all of us!). I have some ideas, but I was hoping some of you might be able to offer some creative suggestions or ideas of what your kids have enjoyed. We've done lots of fresh fruit and veggies, grilled cheese, toast, and graham crackers. Any other ideas? Thanks!

A Picture's Worth 1000 Words

Abby's Update

Abby had her 9-month doctor appointment this afternoon. Luckily, it was a no-shot appointment, but as the picture below shows, she did have some blood drawn. They had to try twice so both her arms were bandaged up. She fought the two nurses and her two parents. We were all sweaty by the end of it! She is still in the 90-99 percentile for everything and is on track for everything else. We're very proud of her! :)

So when we got to the doctor's office, Abby decided she should have a poopy diaper. The nurse told me to strip her to her diaper and I told her that I would change her diaper and then meet her out at the scale. She brought in a bag for me to wrap the diaper in. It was a red bio-hazard bag. I thought it was very fitting!

This picture is not high quality, but I was really taking it to show off her battle wounded elbows.

In other news, we had Abby's 1-year-old friend over for a little bit today. The girls were playing on the outside of the exersaucer when Abby's friend took off running into the other room. Abby let go of the exersaucer, took two steps, realized what she was doing and then fell down to her bum. So I guess we can count those as Abby's first steps. Too bad I wasn't prepared with the camera--it was one of those classic firsts that I missed out on catching on film.

Fun Time

Last week, Abby’s friend Claire, who is 13 months, came over for a lot of the day. In a moment of triumph, Michelle had both girls down for naps for 1-1/2 hours and got to clean up the huge mess created by the storm of babies. By the end of the day, Michelle’s back was aching because Abby and Claire developed some sort of odd version of chase-the-baby. Neither one really had the tag part of the game down, but we somehow worked out a system of switching back and forth between chaser and chasee. It was hilarious to hear all three girls screaming. It’s a wonder Roy got any studying done that afternoon!

New Tricks

Although I don't really expect lots of people to view these videos, I know the family will love them. And, besides, Abby is pretty stinking cute so watching two 30-second videos would probably do everyone some good. I heard yesterday that laughing 15 minutes a day relieves stress, helps you burn calories, and just makes you feel better. While these videos may not make you laugh right out loud, you'll at least get a good smile on your face!

The first video is Abby, my dancing queen. Just last week we noticed that she would sway to music. She has a couple of toys that play music and she'll dance away. Since they are now the favorite toys, we have burned through all our batteries. But never fear, Abby still dances when she plays with the toy, even if the toy is silent! Just like most kids when the camera comes out, Abby does not demonstrate her full dancing ability on this video. She was a little distracted. She usually goes full force. Last week we were at the Dollar Tree (love that store!) and she danced while sitting in the shopping cart. She was going so hard I thought for sure she was going to be a little sore the next day.

Our second movie is the second skill of the week. We spent all day Saturday with cousin Zachary, who loves to clap. On Saturday night, Abby started clapping. We are very proud. As you can tell from the amount of drool on her shirt, Abby is working on tooth #6. She is growing up fast! Mom, I'm sort of expecting you to tear up at this video. :)

In other news:

• Roy's sister and family in Houston, TX survived Hurricane Ike. We wish we could have had them survive it out here with us, but hopefully we'll see them soon. Abby would love to meet her cousins!
• My mom went to the BYU-UCLA football game and I will brag that BYU won 59-0. Roy vicariously enjoyed the game through my mom's text messaging and the occasional online checking he got to do. Thanks, Mom!
• Abby has her first more-major ouchie. Let me just say that it was on Roy's watch! She almost always has fingernail-gouge marks on her face (and yes, I do cut her nails), but she managed to tip over and hit her face just right this time. Her eyebrow is a little swollen and bruised and she has a red mark on her cheek. We are affectionately calling her Scarface now.
• I am babysitting a friend's daughter today who is 13 months old. It was a little crazy to juggle the two girls who were, of course, hungry at the same time, wanting to play when they were sitting in the high chair and the other girl was playing, wanting to read just with me and not share a lap with anyone else, and both decided they were completely exhausted and needed naps RIGHT NOW. Both were in bed having been read a book and rocked for a couple minutes, but I will brag that Abby fell asleep first. Good girl!
• We went to nephew Zachary's 2nd birthday party this weekend. It was farm-themed and so fun! It made me start thinking of Abby's 1st birthday and how we should celebrate. Stay tuned for some fun ideas.

That has been our crazy and fun week. It's so fun to be a mom!

Put in My Place

Roy and I were recently asked to teach the 6-turning-7 year olds at church. We started last Sunday. So we are standing out in the hallway with our class of 6 kids waiting for our classroom to become available and I said, "You guys are so lucky. You have the coolest teachers in the whole world teaching your class!" Of the three kids that were actually listening to me, here were the responses:

1. "Huh?"
2. "Hahaha (real laughter)! You guys think you're the coolest teachers in the world (laughing continues)!"
3. "No. You guys aren't the coolest teachers in the world. The coolest teachers in the world were our teachers last week."