abigail and eli sittin' in a tree

saturday, we went over to the penner's to watch byu basketball with a few other mba's.  after the game ended, baby spent some quality play time with her bizkids friend, eli.  he is only ten days younger and about 5 ounces bigger, so he's the closest she gets to a real peer.  i snapped a few pictures of them playing with carson's cars and it was so cute to see them really interacting.  absolutely precious.

baby was observant as always.

and we found out eli is quite the bully grabbing everything baby wanted/already had.  you'd think it wouldn't be as funny after the first ten times.  but it was.

so then she would just give him a little slap tap.  just kidding.  there was no slap tapping.  eli just happened to tip over as this picture was being taken.

they have so much in common.  like their taste in cars.  or really, just enjoying tasting cars.

and trucks.  lots of tasting cars and trucks.

but really, aren't they the cutest?  they're both so tiny they almost look normal sized!

and since you know i do not have the ability to stop at six pictures, i'll just let you know that the rest can be seen here on facebook.

they make a cute couple, don't you think?

spoons

i have all new appreciation for this guy. and it may have something to do with this picture. he's so great.

i am ironwoman

or superwoman.  or something like that.

but really all i can think right now is that tonight i was a real person.  my dear christopher invited our sweet friends, dan and daisy, to dinner.  and when they came over our house was spotless top to bottom and dinner was ready and perfect (and not just one of those frozen lasagnas that we always serve when we invite people over for dinner) and my kid and i were both dressed and in a good mood.  i call that a major success.

but really.  want to hear the slightly longer story?  i slept in til 10 today.  when baby woke up at 7:15 this morning i decided that instead of getting up with my child, i'd rather spoon my honey and go back to sleep.  so i gave my kid a pacifier and we all resumed our slumber.  lest you think i starve my child, i will tell you that i did feed her during the night so it's not like she's going forever without food.  well, my phone went off at 9:45 telling me that bizkids music class was in 15 minutes.  hmmm i guess that's not gonna happen today.  when i got out of bed to make sure my kid hadn't suffocated in a crib bumper, i saw a sweet little swaddled babe just hanging out, ever so alertly and silently in her crib.  wet.  very wet.  because her diaper hadn't been changed in 14 something hours and her diapers weigh more than she does.  i marvel at this child.

okay.  all of this is irrelvant.  i'm babbling.  short story: i got off to a slow start and stayed in my pajamas until 2:00 when i finally took a shower.

a short conversation with my honey revealed that he wanted to give them a tour of our apartment since they would be moving into an identical apartment in a month because they're having a baby and will need to make the transition from couples housing to family housing.   also, he had somewhere to be at 3 and wouldn't be home until 15 minutes before our dinner guests.

what?  in the next 4 hours, i have to shower, get ready, make dinner and dessert , and clean our entire apartment?  while taking care of our child?  this was not what i had in mind since the last time dan and daisy came to dinner, i was pregnant and my angel husband told me to take a nap while he cleaned our apartment and made dinner.  then he was the perfect host and then did all of the dishes and cleanup afterwards.  this is not a regular event.  obviously.  since it happened in may and i still remember it like it was yesterday since it was a favorite day of mine.

anyways, all of that is babbling too.  i'm in one of those moods i guess.  so i just mean to say that we got it all done.  christopher made brownies before he left while he watched baby so i could shower.  and baby slept forever while i cleaned the whole apartment and made those chicken enchiladas and then christopher got home at 6:15 and threw together a salad and made rice while i fed baby.  and then i cut up fruit right before we ate and honestly it just couldn't have been more perfect.

so, let this be my bragging moment.  today, i pulled off a bit feat for me.  i was a real person.

ps- i can hear my honey downstairs doing all of our dinner dishes.  music to my ears.

baby's baby blues

i'm not one to notice eye color.  ever.  on anyone.  including myself.  

but i knew my baby had blue eyes.  because it's pretty obvious.  because when i look at her eyes, i see my honey.  and for poor baby daddy, the blue eyes are his only claim to fame.  the rest of the face is mine.

so i feel like it's pretty normal to look at a picture of baby and notice that her eyes are pretty blue.  like in this picture right here.

if you can't really see it, maybe this picture will help you out a bit.

yikes right?  i know it's terribly overexposed because baby lunged at the camera right as i was taking this picture but really, i have not edited this picture one single bit.  absolutely nothing.  straight out of the camera.  pretty amazing right?  i wonder if her eyes will stay that blue.  or even blue at all.

anyone else have that electric slide song stuck in their head right now?  it comes to mind when i look at this picture.  which is unfortunate.  because that song is unfortunate.

oh, and a question for you.  anyone else's kid assume this position as soon as you put them in a bumbo?

what're you supposed to do about this?  it shouldn't bother me but i'm a little particular about how i like things and this doesn't bode well with my ocd tendencies...  

au naturel

who needs blush when you've got rosy cheeks like these?

please. we just use old fashioned beauty sleep.

bored with basketball

baby girl is really into sports.  seriously.  if she has to skip a nap and be awake for four or five hours it can be pretty tricky... unless we're going to some sort of sporting event, in which case she does great.  she'll be happy and alert and a little bundle of fun.  but check out these pictures from the basketball game we went to the other day.  apparently i'm not the only one in our family that thinks basketball is boring.

and this last picture was taken right before we left... to go to stanford - byu mens volleyball... so she has her hood up.  don't you think all hoods should come with animal ears?  i think that would be a fabulous improvement in the world of fashion.

"peas? i love peas!"

i know it looks like we're feeding our child her very own poop (go ahead and thank me for that visual.  you're welcome) but i swear it's just peas in baby food form.  as you can see from the videos, the first few bites were accepted just fine and followed by that i-just-ate-something-disgusting face... the face i make when i drink water.  but she did fine with the next few bites.  and then we called it a day and stuck her in the bath to clean peas out of her nose.  after five days of rice cereal.  it was definitely more fun.

my day today

for lack of anything better to post about, let me tell you what i did today.

8:30 alarm went off.  reset it for 9:00.
9:00 alarm went off.  woke up, but did not get out of bed.  got online looking for something to keep me occupied so i wouldn't have to get out of bed.
9:45 woke up baby.  fed her and got her dressed.  threw in a load of laundry since her diaper leaked on her swaddle blankets.
10:15 got to bizkids play date.  15 minutes late but at least my child isn't wear her pajamas like every other week.  no joke, someone even commented on that today.  "oh abigail you look so cute!  i don't think i've ever seen you wearing something other than pajamas!"  i would have been insulted except that it's true.
11:30 play date breaks up.  so we walk home and i feed my child and change into yoga pants, t-shirt, and flip flops.
12:00 meet up with a few girls to hike the dish (paved hiking trail in the stanford foothills)
12:30 we actually get to the dish and start hiking
12:35 feel like i'm going to die because i'm already tired.  i doubt my ability to go on.  i convince myself that exercise is probably good for me although i wouldn't know for sure because it's never really happened.
2:30 done hiking the dish.  head back to EV and say bye to the girls
3:00 made it home.  remember to switch over the laundry.  finally.  i hope my clothes haven't molded yet.  remember to eat something.  waste time online.  baby wakes up (in her carseat still).  nurse baby.  feed her rice cereal too.  fold laundry and put it away while she's in her jumper.  she can't get enough of that jumper.
4:30 talk to my wonderful blogging sister emmy about her never-the-same-day-twice life.  put baby down for her first and only nap in the crib today.
4:45 say bye to emmy and straighten things up a bit.
5:00 shower
5:30 decide that i don't want to do my hair, get dressed, or wear a single bit of makeup.  waste more time online.
5:45 decide that although i don't actually have to do hair or makeup, the getting dressed part is a necessity... unfortunately.  so i do that.
6:00 wake baby up.  poor kid, she is groggy and confused.  halfway out the door when i realize i should probably bring a bottle for baby since she's currently too add to eat when i'm hanging out with friends.  halfway out of the kitchen when i realize i might need to eat too.  so i grab the package of golden oreos.
6:15 drive 500 feet to pick up amy.  she is happy to see golden oreos.  drive to katie's apartment.
6:30 arrive at katie's.  katie is happy to see golden oreos too.  visit teach katie.
6:45 drive back to EV.
7:00 visit teach brittney.  brittney says today is no sweets day for her.  cover oreos with baby blanket.  remember to give baby a bottle sometime and change a totally full but 100% contained noisily filled diaper.  these still brighten my day.
9:15 realize that my baby has been on perfect behavior but that she's been awake for three hours and is probably not happy about it.  time to play the part of party pooper.
9:30 drive 500 feet and arrive home.
9:45 try to feed baby but she is definitely not interested.  just wants to go to bed.  she coos as i swaddle her up and bounce/burp her.  lay her in bed and she babbles for a few minutes and is asleep after five more.
10:00 straighten up some more, waste time online, stuff face with golden oreos, write this post.
11:00  HONEY'S HOME!!!!  gotta go!!!

sushi? no thanks.

this is baby's solo experience lately of reading a book without eating it.  i guess she's just not that into seafood.

i love skype

what did we do before skype?!?! i love technology.

my life is a happy dream

to steal one from sara snow...

thing i'm thankful for: MLK

solids and sippys

yesterday, we gave baby a few oral firsts.  and of course it was very well documented.  ; )

i hope you enjoyed this.  because baby sure did.

baby is 6 months old

today baby girl turned 6 months old!  it's been awhile since the last update, so let me tell you a few things about her.

i've attempted these sorts of lists in my head before but it is difficult to know what baby likes and what baby doesn't like because honestly, she's pretty content doing just about anything.  but here is what i know to be true.

she LOVES when you blow in her face.  no matter how tired, sad, hungry, or hurt she is, she will stop the fussing/crying and smile... as long as you keep on blowing.  this works indefinitely.  the longest i've done it though is about ten minutes in a grocery store line.  when we were in cancun she absolutely loved being on the beach because all that wind?  it was like having her own personal faceblower.  all. the. time.

baby girl puts EVERYTHING in her mouth to gnaw on.  besides the usual toys and teethers, she has a long list of favorites.  books, blankets, clothes, paper, her hands, her arms, her feet, her fingers, my fingers, honey's fingers, honey's nose/eyes/face, my shoulders, and most definitely, my hair.  actually, i have yet to see anything that she has purposely NOT put in her mouth.  

she loves her jumper.  she has logged many many hours in that jumper and can jump in there for over an hour straight and still show no signs of wanting to get out.  her favorite part of it is the dragonfly toy and the seat.  because they are the only things she can put in her mouth.  when she really gets going and is jumping like crazy, she'll screech and scream because she just can't contain her excitement.  it's hilarious.  

baby is fascinated by my computer.  add "laptop" to the favorite things to gnaw list above.  just kidding.  i don't really let her gnaw on it.  but she sure tries.

she likes to pay attention to what everyone else is paying attention to.  that means the obvious things like a tv or laptop that's on but also includes whoever is talking (in church or any social gathering) or whatever is taking place around her.  at the music class we go to somehow she knows to look at the leader although everyone is doing the same thing as her.  also, it doesn't really work for me to try to read at all while i'm nursing her because she follows my gaze and wants to look at what i'm looking at.  

she has become a very add eater at times.  wonder where that came from.  over this last month, she's finally gotten fast enough to keep up with the milk flow.  finally.  my guess is that it takes her about 3 or four minutes per side.  she still takes a bottle beautifully (normally around 6 ounces) although that's only two or three times a week.

baby still has no teeth and her rampant teething symptoms seem to have taken a hiatus which is fabulous and mysterious.  but, we ask no questions because we are too busy being grateful to postpone teeth and teething.

baby girl can sit up by herself for short periods of time.  i frequently sit her on the bed and she's fine for less than a minute.  she's slow to understand that lunging forward and for other things around her makes her tip over (which she doesn't mind at all).  maybe she thinks i'm slow to understand that sitting her up leads to her falling over.

baby is still very much immobile.  she can roll over both ways but she doesn't do it a ton because she's just really content however she currently is.  i know some babies roll to get from place to place.  not mine.  she shows absolutely no signs of crawling and zero interest in moving at all.  i could not be more thrilled with this.  she is my perfect pet rock.

baby loves to stand.  aside from the balance part, she's been able to stand and hold her weight from a really really early age.  she enjoys doing squats and it can give you quite the workout.  my arms get tired before her legs almost every single time.  if you hold your fingers stationary she can grab them and pull herself up to a standing position.

when we went to cancun three weeks ago, she experienced swimming for the first time and loved kicking her legs in the water.  she was sad to get out of the pool.  she finally mastered the art of sleeping in my arms.  she has to have her arms pinned down and a pacifier in her mouth but she can do it and it has been incredibly useful like on the beach and at church.  she is also still incredibly easy to travel with.

as far as diapering goes, we are officially out of size ones and in to size twos.  this actually only happened two days ago.  as for her clothes, baby is wearing size 3 and 6 month sleepers.  dresses are newborn.  all other clothes are 0-3 months.

baby is still eating about every four hours.  she eats great when i tell her to eat but she won't come knocking at my door if she doesn't get fed.  even in the morning after not eating for 12+ hours, she's happy playing for a long time without food.  so, i definitely still use the timer to make sure she doesn't go too long without eating.

baby girl is still doing three naps a day (wake time is about 2 hours, sometimes a little less), taking a pacifier when we give it to her, double swaddled every time she goes to sleep, and making us work for her laughs.  she is happy 24/7 unless she's hurt (really only happens when she head bangs into my collar bone or gets a face full of scruff when christopher kisses her too aggressively) or really really tired.

to celebrate the day today we all slept in til 9.  baby spent some time in her jumper and hanging out with christopher before taking a nap.  when she woke up, she got her first tastes of rice cereal (which is actually oatmeal cereal but who really says that?  not me) and loved it.  she also had her first experiences with a sippy cup and water as well.  she played in her jumper even more and then hung out with us for a bit before taking a long nap.  when she woke up, she ate, and the three of us caught the second end of the stanford basketball game and then the first half of the stanford byu volleyball match (where we sat in the byu section) before heading back home to eat before bed.  not a typical day at all but you gotta live it up when you're six months old.

i'll add baby's 6 month stats on tuesday after her doctors appointment.  but let it be known, she is chunking up.  especially in her legs and her face.  it's okay baby girl, that's where i chunk up too.  we still love you.

1.18.11 - 6 month appointment

13 lbs 15 ounces  12%

27 inches  89%

hc 41.3 cm  18%

a few thoughts and a couple promises

i am doing a pretty miserable job of posting pictures around here.  BUT i am doing a great job of taking pictures and getting out of the house and doing things.  tomorrow (friday) is baby's last day before turning six months.  my  little girl is growing up.  i hope you read that in a sappy emotional voice.  because you should have.

thank you thank you for your suggestions.  i have read (and absolutely loved) the help and hunger games trilogy and am glad you have too!  i left my cricut in colorado.  i know that makes me a party pooper but i just don't have any space here to use it or store and i think it will be fun to have a new toy in june/july because that never happens since my birthday and christmas are both at the same time and so late in the year.

i went to RS tonight and it was great.  and i was going to leave after it was over but i started talking to the ever entrancing sarah reynolds and one thing lead to another and i ended up talking to a bunch of fabulous church girls for the next half hour.  while i was gone, honey took baby to the stanford basketball game and he sat with a few other husbands.  i asked him if he felt cool that he was the only one of the four of them that brought his baby.

i need to start writing my posts earlier in the day.  it would make for more quality posts but it would also cure my naptime boredom.  i mean, that's why i started posting in the first place.  because if you check my archives... i went from posting about once every three months to posting almost every day.  that's because i quit my job and got a baby and got this influx of free time.

k, well, my sweet husband just whistled at me that he's ready for bed so we're gonna wrap this up and hope for a post with pictures for tomorrow!  woohoo!

ps- he's the reason i'm still a princess.  maybe i'll include that in the post.  but maybe not.  we'll see.

pps- i think half of what i write on here is just dead promises that i'll write something better the next day.  had anyone else caught on to that or just me?  ; )

i'm a princess

tonight i got royal princess treatment.  it was so great that it made me forget all of my cares and worries of late.  i'm floating on a cloud right now.  when i touch down tomorrow i'll update you on life.  like before and after pictures, solid foods, and baby's big six month day on saturday.  it'll be great.

naked baby fro

not the best picture but i like it anyways.  maybe because it accentuates her downy baby fro.

tonight honey stayed home with baby girl while i went out. to be specific, it was to a CA meeting and then to a girls night to watch the bachelor. so my sweet christopher watched her from roughly 5:30 to 11:30. don't worry, it only took me three hours to kick the phantom baby feeling. not sure where i come up with that term but it's what i use to describe how i feel when i go out without my baby but keep checking the backseat for her and everything and keep thinking she's with me.

anyways, the night was fun but i missed her. and i missed my honey. and i missed just being home. anytime til this point in my life i have never wanted to be home when i could be somewhere other than home. honey and i lived in colorado for a year and i think i spent more time at my dear friend carolyn's apartment than i did my own. same story for my in laws and probably even the same story for barb's house. the awake time that i spent in that apartment was about 30 minutes before work and then 30 minutes after work and then 20 minutes before bed. never home.

and now i go days without leaving my home and i like it that way. seriously. but help me out because my apartment is small (and i have no tv just fyi) and i spend much of my day being bored. but obviously i don't love being far from home. have any suggestions for things i can enjoy within the confines of my home? or if you want me to love you forever (or even if you don't), want to send me a book or two to read? one that you reccomend because i find library books are very hit and miss these days. but really, help me out. and don't tell me to start sewing my own baby clothes or take up gourmet cooking. we all know that won't happen.

and i'd have to leave my apartment to buy supplies anyways.

i take that back

apparently i lied.  or jinxed it.  either way, my baby is still difficult to get to laugh.  but i took this short video tonight and now i can replay it as much as i want when my baby insists on doing everything but laughing for me.

i have nothing of value to write right now, but my life coach/blogging sister emmy and i skyped tonight and she was motivational to me as usual.  so motivating that i made myself a sandwich for dinner... while i was skyping with her.  i think it took me somewhere around 30 minutes to make it.  i don't multitask well.  actually, i don't multitask at all.

here is a picture of my avocado and tortilla chips sandwich.  i ate one yesterday too.

quite the accomplishment i know.

here are other things i did today:

two loads of laundry... folded and put away too
played with baby
got dressed
took a plate of delicious treats to my fabulous neighbors
caught up in my love journal
looked at colorado real estate online
took out the recycling

so as you can see, in addition to composing this post, complete with video, there are a number of things i did today to make me so successful.

and i anticipate tomorrow being successful as well.  just so you know.

a picture

one of these days i will write a decent post. not today though. i'm in the process of putting cancun pictures on facebook. don't ask why it's taking so long. i'll blame it on my headache.

ps- we've started scoping out houses online and i'll admit, it's giving me the giggles and butterflies in my stomach. oh so exciting.

the sweetest sound

big breakthrough in the baby laughing department!  as of yesterday, baby consistently cracks up at peek a boo!  at best it is difficult to get her to laugh and most of the time it is just downright impossible.  so this is fabulous news because i'm completely obsessed with her laugh.  i'm pretty sure most every mother is obsessed with their baby's laugh, but just in case that's not a given, i thought i'd mention it anyways.

other good news is that baby went through a time where she used to fuss or cry for a few minutes before settling down to sleep and a few weeks ago she decided to stop it cold turkey.  i know it's not a big deal for your kid to cry for a few minutes at nap time but when baby cries, her big eyes fill up with tears and her lip sticks out about four inches and she makes the mamamama sound.  it's really precious and really sad.  i'm not totally sure on this because it's never happened but i think it would be far less precious and sad if she used the dadadadada sound instead.

so there you go on baby sounds.  now i'm going to go.  church starts in 30 minutes and i need to get ready.

let's start from the beginning... atlanta

i have some catching up to do... picture wise.  i've been making a conscious effort lately to take less pictures.  because when i take a ton of pictures it's too overwhelming to post them on here... or even facebook.  like that time my sweet christopher took me to europe for three weeks... there is no evidence of that... except on my computer.

so, i promise i'll post ALL of the pictures on facebook... and just give you the highlights right here.

starting with.... deliciousness.  first stop varsity.  of course.

baby's second varsity experience.

you thought i was kidding?  i wasn't.

sunday, it snowed.  and it didn't get above freezing til wednesday.

check out that accumulation!

cousin picture with skye after church.  not sure why baby looks so fat in this picture. 

uncle wally/baby matching picture.  we took lots of these.

tuesday night, i helped mom make a million cookies for a cookie exchange

made me feel like a kid again helping mom cut out the shapes and laying them on the cookie sheet.  pure heaven.

and the teething continues.  she looks just like the baby on the box with that one finger stuck in constantly.

the after picture of some organizing.  no wonder i loved tetris so much.  you should have seen the "before."

diana and i spent an hour madly rushing to different post offices trying to mail missionary lisa a package.  apparently i've passed along my hatred of the post office because this is what baby had to say about the experience.

mom and i spent a lot of time working on this puzzle.

a lot.

i had my very own christmas while dad, mom, and buddy documented the occasion.  felt more like my birthday than christmas.

i got this fabulous varsity t-shirt!

baby got this cute outfit for next summer.

monday night, diana, belen, and rachel came over to make smores.

baby girl is now the spit bubble master.

and tuesday, the night before i left, we hung out with the other maycocks and my blogging sister, emmy, came in town.

emmy packed for me because i hate packing.  she's really great.

mother and i finished the puzzle!

and then we had to say goodbye.  

all of the pictures from this atlanta trip can be seen here on facebook.