Cherry Blossoms

I was determined that we would see the Cherry Blossoms this year, so of course we did!

Abby and I met up with Daddy at work on Friday and headed out on the Metro. It was our first metro trip with the little one and it went fairly well. Of course the one thing mommy forgot on the hottest day of the year so far....a hat for the baby! Not a stellar mom moment. But we did have sunscreen and lots of water. So we faired okay.

 We have arrived, getting everything adjusted and lotioned up! 

 Thirsty, thirsty, it was hot! 

 My favorite two people!

 This was Abby's first trip downtown

 So pretty! 

 Someone was very tired but there was just toooo much going on for her to fall asleep. 

If we had sat for a while she may have fallen asleep but we didn't want to risk a screaming baby on the metro so we made it a short trip. 

What's new this week.....hmm...Abby has a cold and so does mom! Hopefully we will be over it soon. 

Abby is sleeping through the night which is amazing. I told Matt the other day that I guess it's time to start on number two since I always said not until number 1 sleeps through the night! Haha...yea, I'm still not ready for #2 just yet. 

With spring has come a little spring cleaning. I cleaned out abby's closet and we only have 4 big boxes of clothes....thats not toooooo much right? Well, let's hope someone else in the family has a girl cause we have lots of clothes! 

Abby had her first juice box today. Only took 2 tries to get the straw thing down. Only took mom 2 fails to remember Abby can't hold the juice box without squeezing it! oops! 

We are working on lots of words. Matt and I are pretty sure when she is pointing at things she is saying "that?" and wants to know what it is. She LOVES music. If we are in a restaurant she is dancing in her high chair listening to the music. If you turn music on at home she starts dancing. It's so stinking cute. 

The main highlight of the week has been the sleeping but I think the talking is just around the corner. Once that starts, oh boy! Her "personality" (read temper) has really started to come out this week too. If you take something she wants....well, she let's you know.  You can usually re-direct her pretty quickly but oh my! She was walking around for a minute with her hand on her hip today! I don't know if mom can handle the hand on the hip, really, it's just too much for me! 

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone got to see the Cherry Blossoms! It was crowded but nice to venture out and know we can survive!! 

CELEBRATIONS IN MARCH!!

Well, I mentioned in the last post that I thought we might try to work on bedtime. Abigail had become accustomed to going to bed for somewhere between 1-3 hours and then waking up and refusing to go back to sleep in her own bed. Which meant she came and slept with mommy and daddy. While there were days this worked just fine it was becoming more the norm that it was not. Abby commanded more space in the bed than Matt and I had and we were getting uncomfortable.

So, I bit the bullet. I am not a fan of the cry it out method but many, many people have been encouraging me to do so. So I figured we would at least give it a try. Here's how I thought it would go....put abby to bed and she wakes up and screams screams screams, check on her and repeat ALL NIGHT. I had no hope that this would work or that I would be able to handle the screaming. Well, somehow it WORKED!!!

The first two nights were rough. She woke up every 2  hours and had a crying fest. The first night there was a stint that went on for over an hour, of course we were checking on her every few minutes. By night 3 it was down to she would wake up and cry for a minute or two and go back to sleep. We wouldn't have even made it to her room yet and she would be back asleep.

Last night was the icing on the cake. I sat with her, rocked her, we listened to her favorite pink floyd music and she was pretty much asleep. I laid her down and of course she woke up and sat straight up, looked at me and didn't make a sound. I told her good night, kissed her and said I love you and she laid down and went to sleep. There were no tears at all. THEN, as if it could get any better!?!? This morning (and this has happened two mornings in a row) she has woken up and just stayed content in her crib until we come and and get her.

I know this won't last forever but I am celebrating one day at a time! Last night I told Matt we were going to have to relearn what to do with our evenings! Since with this change I also have instituted a firm 8:30 bedtime. Before this we would let her stay up until 9:30 so that hopefully she would be more tired and stay asleep longer.....yes, I know, not the right logic.

Along with that celebration I am also celebrating the end of the breastfeeding year! On many of the mommy sites I read they award you silver, bronze, and "golden boobies" depending on how long you make it. I earned my golden ones for sure. Breastfeeding was probably the most difficult thing we faced during this first year. Abby didn't have a good latch and with me going back to work it was too hard for her to get adjusted to both so we eventually went to just bottles which meant I got to pump.....A LOT. There were many, many times when I was ready to give it up but I can be pretty tough when it comes to a challenge. So, we pulled through but let me tell you I was thrilled to slowly end that process and I am ready to pack it all away.....until next time. Though we will hope next time goes a little better!

So what is my reward for my golden boobies you ask?!!? Great question! My reward was being able to take some Nyquil the past 2 nights to help with this crappy cold I got from my daughter. I am also rewarding myself with a hair treatment next week that has lots of fun chemicals so breastfeeding would not really the best thing to be doing.

Abigail is now 1 year old. The milestones that we have reached are too many to recount here. A few of the important ones are too fun to skip

Abby began to walk at 9.5 months! 

Abby has 9 teeth....including a MOLAR coming in. 

I just realized this morning that she can walk backwards! 

Abby loves to climb the stairs, tho just the other day she decided she really likes to walk up the stairs like a big person. So she holds your hand and walks up the stairs, you would think she would stop in between each step to get her balance and go for the next one but nope she just keeps going. 

He vocabulary is really growing. She is not saying many words yet. Her favorite words right now are kitty and Jack. But the amount of words she knows is amazing. You can say let's go upstairs and change your diaper and she runs for the stairs. You can ask her to find your phone that she took from you a few minutes before and she goes and gets the phone. You can tell her to give Jack a hug (or whoever) and she goes over and gives them a hug! By far my favorite! She is starting to learn to give kisses. 

We went to our 1 year visit on friday and all is well. We weighed in at 18.1 lbs. and our height is 29.25 inches. This puts us somewhere in the 5-10 percentile for weight and about 50 percentile for height. As the doctor says, she is growing on her curve. We got 3 shots at our doctors visit. Poor thing. But she bounces back as usual. 

Abby's sleeping habits are, well, for the birds! She is such a busy body that her daytime naps can be hit or miss and nighttime is.....usually a miss. She has been giving Daddy a hard time about putting her to bed but she will usually go to sleep for mommy pretty well. Sadly, she sleeps for a few hours and then its time to get up and move to mom & dad's bed. We have tried a few times to then move her back to her bed but it doesn't always work. I am convinced that if she had a toddler bed and we could lay down with her for a few minutes things would be much better. I just don't think we are ready for a toddler bed just yet. Most nights she sleeps fairly well in our bed. She had even been sleeping through the night once there. She had almost completely stopped eating at night, which was a huge help. But the past 2 nights we have had a bit of regression probably because of the new tooth coming in and the shots. Sooo, we'll see. I hate to hear her cry so the crying it out has not been for me. Everyone is telling me to do it but I just don't know if I can. I might have to move out for 3 days and let Matt do it. 

Here are some pics of Abby and her new toys!  

 Mommy & Daddy got abby a really cool trike for her birthday. We can control it now, but when she is big enough, she can peddle it. 

 Comes complete with a phone! 

 she loves playing in the yard with Jack

 We tried to get her to wear her sunglasses....

 She didn't want anything to do with it 

 until it was her idea

 Hi, mommy! 

 Abby petting Jack

 The two of them were quite tired after a little playtime outside. 

 Jack has finally completely gotten over his fear of Abby. She literally crawls all over him now. 

 This was what she did when we told her to "give jack a hug" 

 is that not the cutest thing ever! 

 she discovered the pictures of herself the other day.

 playing with my new blocks

 "helping" mommy with the thank you cards

 Giving jack another hug

 HEY! That's my bed! 

 guess as long as its soft, it works for Abby

Riding on her new car. Oh, it took her less than 3 days to figure out she can get on and off the thing by herself. She's still a bit to short to get it moving on her own but she knows how to lift her leg over to get on, no problem. 

AMAZING!! :-)