And She's Off!

People told me (and still tell me) how it feels like children grow up in a blink of an eye and I think it is hard to understand it until you are watching your baby/almost toddler walking around and you are hit with the thought that it feels like just yesterday you were pregnant and now this little person, with her unique personality and temperament, is here and such an integral part of your life!  

love.

Abby has such an "Abby G" way of doing things (for lack of a better term).  She is not blindly stubborn, yet she doesn't really let things (like Mom telling her "no") get in her way and when she cannot physically do something, she gets VERY frustrated and fussy.  But I don't see that as a bad thing, I think that her will to reach her objectives is much bigger than her actual body and that is the cause of her frustration right now.  Once she is physically capable of moving and communicating, I think we will see less "tantrums" when she can't get what she wants.  It must be incredibly annoying to know you want something but not be able to communicate your desire or physically get it!  

Abby's all-time favorite spot, the beanbag.  She crawls up there daily, kicking the dogs off, and chillaxing in their place as seen above.  

Abby stood by herself when she was around 7.25 months old and the next week, at 7.5 months old, she took a very shaky first step!  Since then, she has just been working on her confidence to walk.  She has increased her distanced walked step by step and is gaining strength with each try.  Her biggest stretch to date is walking across our living room and into the dining room to be by me in the kitchen!  She still likes to plop down on her booty and revert back to crawling when she realizes she isn't holding on to something or if she looks down.  Aaaand, Rock and I agree: her gait definitely resembles that of a zombie.  A fact that is solidified when she finishes her walk over to us with a big wet kiss [read: bite] to our face [read: skull/brain].  We love it!  (Don't worry, we'll let Abby make fun of the way we walk when we're 90 and she is taking care of us!!)

Here is a video of her walking to her Daddy and saying "dad" (sorry this is the unedited version because the edited version won't load...anyway, if you just want to see her walk, you'll have to skip to the end):

She can also go from sitting to standing, standing to crawling and many mixes therein.  Rock and I absolutely love what we call her "cowgirl" stance which is a very opened-legged stand she does and she often dances whens he does it.  She is such a ham!  

I caught Abby playing with dirty clothes in the laundry room! 

Abby G can say several words now but her most frequent are: Dada, duck duck, dog, hi and least of all Mama...yeah, I know: NOT FAIR!  Oh well, c'est la vie!  She can also wave hi and bye but she only does it on her terms.  For example, yesterday at the grocery store, Abby was waving very emphatically to the ice cream as we walked by but when we were at the check out and an older woman stopped to say hello to her, she had no desire to wave despite my prompting.  But that is just how Abby G works...her way or no way!  

Same day, different locations...you'll notice her bottoms are rarely on properly and that is because she refuses to sit still long enough for me to put them back on after a diaper change.  And yes, she is teething on a carrot and yes, she is the Queen of Lounge

Abby is still in her infant car seat but not for too much longer.  I read on a safety website that they should be in that car seat until they are an inch or less from the top but we'll just play it by ear.  If she looks like she is uncomfortable before that, I will definitely switch her out to her big girl seat!  

Abby crawled away while I was getting ready and I found her reading to herself.  I love it! 

We both are really enjoying the cooler mornings that are allowing us to get out and walk again with some regularity.  When it was high 80s to low 90s by 8 am, it just wasn't fun to walk because we both got so hot and sweaty, but now that is has been mid 70s the last week or so, we definitely get out before 9 to enjoy it and Abby loves looking around at nature.  We saw butterflies, dragonflies and doggies on our last walk and she loved it!  

Silly girl wearing her daddy's hat and sipping on her sippy cup sideways

Yesterday Abby and I were at the mall and I stopped into a children's store that had tons of wacky animal hats.  We tried a bunch on and I got some cute pictures of Abby wearing a mouse hat and a Boston terrier hat.  When I put the mouse hat on her I laughed because she looked so cute and she started giggling at me laughing which made me laugh louder and so on; so there we were, the only customers in the store, laughing our booties off at each other and I am sure the sales associate was a little confused.  But who cares?  We were having FUN! :)  

Mouse hat (sorry it's not a good angle, she was close to me because she was in her wrap)

Laughing at ourselves in the mirror 

She crawled up on the beanbag to mess with her daddy while he was napping...she's a stinker!!  

We are going to make homemade pizza tonight and have family relaxing time because Rock has tomorrow off!  In the mean time, Abby and I are going to play and do some chores. 

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!