a gushy mom blog

All right. I have wanted to do this for a few weeks, but have sustained until now. I am going to spend this blog going on and on about all the awesome things Abigail does. This disclaimer means that if you aren't up for reading gushy parent talk you should close this window now and walk away.

Abigail will be one on September 2 (next Wednesday). Even though I have been involved in probably somewhere close to a hundred kids first year of life, I am still always amazed when I look back at how much has changed. Abigail was born and could do nothing for herself. She cried, took nourishment, excreted waste, and slept. We loved it; have lots of pictures of those days of a snoozy baby and parent on the couch together.

Somewhere over the next few months she started to roll from belly to back and gained a more stable neck (she was never very floppy like some babies are). She started to smile at us and make noises other than cries. She stopped getting swaddled to sleep and began sucking her thumb.

Between four and eight months she started to roll the other way (and wake up screaming because she was on her belly) eat "solids" sit alone, laugh out loud, play with toys, and make lots more noises. By the end of this period she was sleeping 12 hours at night, taking two daytime naps of a couple hours, and we were settling in to life with a child.

The last four months have been huge. She can crawl at the speed of light, eat toilet paper, along with actual solid food, clap, say words, stand, take off her diaper in her bed, eat grass, give kisses, make animal noises, wave, do numerous signs, and has teeth.

So I'll brag a little more because her vocabulary is amazing to me. Some kids are walking at this age and this is the question everyone ask when I'm out with her "does she walk yet." No, but she can tell me what she wants/needs using words and signs without whining or throwing a fit. So here is a list of what I can remember right now that she can say: mama, dada, dog (dawdawdawdawdaw), nigh nigh, all done, more, tree, milk and drink. Pretty great huh. The signs are even more impressive: more, please, thank you, no thank you, all done, up please, bird, music, fan, eat, drink, book, train, bye bye, brush teeth, amen and down please. I think this is it. We are working on bed/nigh nigh, but she still waves for this (although I still know what she wants). She also can make the sound of a pig (our favorite), dog, duck, and cat. I mean seriously, who cares if she can walk yet?

It is amazing how a year ago I was scrambling around when she would cry trying to figure out what she wanted. The other night at supper she made a pig noise and did the sign for book. She wanted to read "The Very Busy Spider." This is amazing to me. On the other hand Jason was cutting up strawberries one evening and she wanted some so she signed, "more, thank you, book." Which were all done frantically because she wanted some strawberries and didn't know why she had to wait!! I guess it counts because we still knew what she wanted, and she made us laugh.

Some of our other favorite things about her are how snugly she is. She likes to be held, and give hugs and kisses; big open mouth slobbery kisses that somehow get some teeth in them too! She tries to share her food and toys, she can drink out of a big girl cup all by herself (not a sippy, a real cup), she knows that not obeying "no touch" will get her a hand spank and indicates this by putting one hand on top of the other when someone says "no touch." She knows that if I tell her no fits she should stop fighting me (usually on the diaper change). She knows where the dogs cages are and crawls to them to yell dawdawdaw, make a barking noise and give them big open mouth kisses. She loves to brush her teeth, and will request her toothbrush by crawling to the bathroom door and signing toothbrush a few times a day (and I oblige because it's a good thing to do). She has to kiss the picture of tummy mommy and sister Sarah before bed every night. When Jason gets home from work and she sees him walking up she SCREAMS in excitement (which makes his day, and I love as well). She doesn't respond to the people in the store who want her to wave, talk, or blow kisses to them (I know this sounds mean, but I like this about her personality). She loves music, playing "drums," shaking percussion instruments, and playing the piano. My favorite thing of all though is that she is our daughter and we get the opportunity to parent this amazing, intelligent, beautiful, little being.

Done going on and on,