Two days of celebrations. Abby feasted Thursday. . .mostly on cheese. And she slept through the entire dinner on Friday. You know, the dinner which I, her Mama, cooked. And yes, I made her wear a tutu. She was probably getting back at me by avoiding my pride and joy turkey and trimmings. Ho hum. Here are the pictures.
Is that baby picking her nose?!
Hmm. . .now that finger is in her mouth.
Loves the cheese and crackers. . .so my kid.
Looking guilty eating more cheese. . .definitely my kid.
Uncle Bill has the magic touch.
Yay, another day of the tutu!
Following Callie.
Callie sporting a paper turkey headdress.
Fabulous first Thanksgiving!
Abby is looking and behaving like a little girl and less like a baby every day. It's wild how fast she's growing. And it's bittersweet for me, the mom.
At ten months, Abby. . .
- has one big tooth that she knows how to use well
- cruises around the coffee table and is so proud of herself for doing it
- stands at her toy piano and plays like Elton John
- raises her hands when prompted with "How big is Abby?"
- waves hello and goodbye
- loves to hang upside on Greg's lap - guess it's the blood rushing to the head?
- can flip herself over backwards from Greg's lap while he holds her hands - budding gymnist?
- follows her cousin Callie around like she's the bee's knees
- loves her swim class
- is learning stuff at her swim class, like holding onto the side of the pool and gathering pool toys into a pile
- still considers frozen yogurt her favorite food
- crawls on all fours
- crab crawls with one knee and one foot
- switches between sitting and crawling like a pro
- holds onto the coffee table and does squats. . .up and down. . .up and down
- despises diaper changes
- does not want to lay on her back unless in the pool or as part of a tickling session
- squeals with delight when her tummy is tickled
- makes all kinds of noises that sometimes sound like real words, but most likely it's my imagination
- is able to find the itty-bittiest bit of dirt/garbage/hair on the floor after vacuuming the room three times.
FYI, this photo session was an aerobic event for me. Abby would NOT stay still. Not one second. And I couldn't find the monthly-picture bear, of course. And Abby cried after five minutes.
Found a new app for my phone: Fotofunia. The name says it all, doesn't it?
If I were to categorize the way in which we introduce Abby to food, it would fall in the Baby-led Weaning camp. For those not hip to the parenting lingo, this is essentially giving the baby bits of mushy food to eat or large pieces of non-mushy food to suck on. The baby is allowed to explore the smell, taste and texture on her own. Contrast this with spoon-feeding the kid homemade or store-bought purees.
Abby's eating behavior wasn't entirely my choice. I tried baby food. She never liked purees. And, except for a few foods (yogurt, regular and the frozen kind, along with ice cream and whipped cream - God, we're setting ourselves up for years of cavities and sugar highs, aren't we?) Abby abhors being spoon fed. She wants to hold the spoon herself. So, in general, she gets bits of whatever Greg and I are eating.
During a recent dinner, Abby snubbed her nose at all the veggies and wouldn't even touch the starches. But when we gave her the bone of a turkey wing (stripped of all chokeable parts, of course), she went to town. No vegetarians in this house!
Over the weekend we had a Family Day.
I love Family Days. My other half loves playing golf on the weekends. So we compromised. I said I wanted a Family Day of hiking, and he said "Yes, Dear."
We went to a local Nature Center and roamed around the woods for a while. When I'm in the forest I imagine that at any moment little forest fairies could pop out from behind the trees and sprinkle their fairy dust. Everyone imagines that when in the woods, right?
Abby was in her element. OK, I'm assuming that was the case. She road on Greg's back and didn't make a peep the entire time.
The only downside was when Greg insisted on crossing a two foot meter wide pool of water. I jumped, slipped on the mud and now have a bruise the size of a lemon grapefruit on my leg. Good times.
My little Forest Fairy and Wishing-He-Was-Golfing Proud Papa. . .
I've hit an all time low. I ate food crumbs out of my baby's carseat after taking her out of it.
Let me explain.
No. There is too much.
Let me sum up.
I love love LOVE pumpkin. Pies, cakes, muffins, soup, butter, seeds. I love the taste, smell, color and shape. Pumpkin can be sweet or it can be savory.
It's the ultimate squash.
So, it's no wonder that I'm a regular customer at Dunkin' Donuts during the fall when pumpkin-flavored coffee is available. Yes, I know it's full of sugar. But I figure the calories don't count as much because it's in a hot beverage. Like hot chocolate. Calorie free.
Recently, Abby and I hit the DD drive-thru while we were out and about. I ordered my coffee. And then it happened. . .
"Hi, I'll have a medium coffee, half regular, half decaf with pumpkin spice and extra milk. . .and-a-pumpkin-donut."
The words flowed from my mouth before I could stop them. I came to terms with my order and rationalized that this would be the one pumpkin donut during the festive fall season.
I ate my donut and gave Abby a small piece. I didn't want to share it, but she was a little fussy and we still had a 30-minute drive. I savored every bite and was truly sad when there was no more.
Thirty minutes later, I pulled into a parking space and took Abby out of her carseat.
There they were: pumpkin donut crumbs, just lying there. How could Abby had let these tasty morsels go to waste?!
Without thinking I quickly gobbled them up and then looked around to make certain no one had seen me. I mean, how do I explain THAT?
What can I say? I love pumpkin.
(I have since bought pumpkin-flavored creamer to use at home and, thus, avoid DD stops.)
Attention Abby-watchers! We have one ongoing story and two new developments to report.
1) Abby continues to pull herself up on every piece of furniture, person and large toy available. Should we run a contest for who can predict the date she takes her first steps?
2) Abby opened her first greeting card. . .with her. . .
3) Tooth! On October 26th Abby cut her first tooth. Lower front. I have tried endlessly to get a shot of that chomper. Alas, no success. So here's a picture of her in fall outerwear to ease any disappointment.
Mmm. . .tasty yolk.
Happy Halloween!
