Eight Months

I've been terrible at keeping up with the posts here.  Bad mom.  Guilt, guilt, guilt.  My baby daddy, family and good friends agree that I need to prioritize.  

For example, was it necessary to drive 40 minutes round trip to pick up grapes from a Freecycler and then spends hours make homemade grape jelly?  In my mind, absolutely.  Others disagree.  

Did I really need to make kale chips, just because I had kale?  I suppose not.

Meanwhile, I still haven't finished baby-proofing the house and a couple of weeks ago Abby ate cat vomit.  Not that baby-proofing would have prevented this, but you can see where I'm headed.  Land of the overwhelmed mom.  I'm a cliche.  Hence, a lack of posts.

So I'm cheating on this Eight Months entry.  It's actually six days after Abby's eight month mark, but I'm back-dating the post and no one better dare to stop me.

At eight months, Abby. . .

• Can army crawl faster than I can hustle to get a paper towel to clean up the cat vomit
• Babbles when she tastes something she likes
• Loves salty cheeses - feta and Romano - and frozen yogurt
• Rolls around in her sleep
• Pushes herself up on hands and feet and sticks her tush in the air
• Somewhat pulls herself up on furniture 
• Has random screaming sessions of joy
• Quickly mastered the pincher grip and now eats crumbs and fuzz off the floor
• Takes a bath in the big tub
• Laughs when her belly is tickled
• Thinks Mommy and Daddy are jungle gyms
• Resists napping if anything remotely interesting is going on
• Sits in high chairs at restaurants
• Has an Ernie doll and a doll from Ikea named Phyllis - both faces in which she loves to scream
• Is constantly complimented on what a 'good baby' she is in public
• Turns into the devil after 6 pm if she's not near Mommy
• Has the best smile in the universe.

 Abby knocked over Teddy, the size-comparison stuffed animal.  Guess she wanted to be center stage.

 

Lesson

Is my mother teaching her to crawl or to pray to Mecca?  Hmm. . .

 

I Do

This is Amy.

Amy and I met freshmen year of high school.  We were in the same art class and I remember being so envious of her drawing abilities.

Amy was SUPER quiet in school, which was great because I was shy too.  Next to Amy, I felt like Lady Gaga.  We became friends and one day she invited me to her house.  Then I met the REAL Amy.

She's loud and funny and laughs all the time.  She randomly breaks out into song, especially when making cookies.  She's a holiday freak and probably owns DVDs of every Christmas special in existence.

Amy is still bitter that I talked her into enrolling in the same classes as me senior year, which included two AP courses.  We had the same schedule, which was great. . .except that it was a ton of work. . .and I was sick a lot and left her alone.  But she's still my friend.

Amy remembered to send cards on every birthday and holiday, even when I would call her in July to wish her Happy Birthday when she was actually born in August.  Then I would forget in August and apologize in the fall.  But she's still my friend.

Last fall Amy met Katelynn.  Apparently, it was quite the romance, because, Miss Never-misses-any-major-event forgot to show up for my baby shower.  But I'm still her friend.

Within the year Amy and Katelynn moved into the cutest house with their three cats (Poopy, Lefty and Moose) and Coffee, their uber-friendly Rottweiler.  And thanks to the great state of New York, they were married just in time to spend their honeymoon bailing buckets of water out of their basement courtesy of Hurricane Irene.

I'm sure Amy and Katelynn found love and laughter during the storm.  They are crazy about each other.  Here's some wedding shots.

Come on, guys.  Get a room already, will ya?