Sunday, August 9, 2009

Abby's Nicknames

8-9-09
Here are some of Abby's nicknames that me and Andy like to call her.

Nicknames Andy made up:
Abby Mergooshnah
Mergooshnah Goo
Nursey Milk Baby (or just Nursey Milk, or Nursey)
Ab-ohs

Nicknames Audrey made up:
Princess
Sweet Darling
Sweet Daughter

I know we have more nicknames than these for her, but I haven't remembered yet what they are. I will add them later.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Abby says "No, no"

Abby added a new word to her vocabulary this morning when she said, "No, no." It was kind of at a random moment when she was crawling around the house, so I'm not sure what "No-No" she was thinking about.

Andy called on his way home from the dentist this afternoon. I saw that it was him on the caller ID, so I answered the way I usually do when he calls with, "Hi Sweetie." I was holding Abby, and as soon as I said that she ascertained that it was Andy calling so she reached for the phone and said, "Da da"! I was so tickled and surprised that she knew it was Andy, just by the way I answered the phone! I let Andy talk to her for a moment on the phone, before finishing our conversation.

Abby is getting very good at mimicking. On the way to taking Elysia to Burley yesterday (to meet Ken), Elysia was making gibberish noises with her tongue to Abby, like, "Budader, budader." Abby copied her and made a very good impression of Elysia! She's also been copying Andy, saying "Ah!" when he says it, and other sounds, too.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Abby give first real hug

Abby gave me her first real hug yesterday! She has given lots of kisses(slobbery, baby style kisses), and snuggles, but never really squeezed me with her arms when she was snuggling with me. So yesterday I was carrying her and holding her in the front room, and she reached her little arms around me and gave me a real squeezing hug! It was so heart-warming and precious! Abby is such an affectionate little sweetie! She makes me feel very loved.

Abby says "Hello", sings, hides herself, and gets a leg up

7-31-09

Ok, so I haven’t been doing very well keeping up my journal writing lately. I’m going to do better!

Abby is so cute and funny! It seems like she’s always doing something new that is just so sweet and endearing! For example, about a week ago, she started doing this adorable thing whenever she nurses on the right side. Not only will she reach up with her little hand to try to feel around in my mouth (usually I let her), but also she’ll swing up her right leg under my jaw so her pudgy size 4 foot can get as close as possible to my face, too! It’s so funny and sweet! She’ll get into position to nurse (we like the cradle position), swing her right little foot up there (with her left food resting on the arm of the chair, so she’s doing the splits), and latch on to get her yummy mommy’s milk! All with this satisfied look on her face like, “Ahh, this is the good life.” She seems to enjoy it how I stroke her little arm and leg and give her a foot massage while she nurses.

About three days ago, Abby started playing Peek-a-Boo all by herself! While sitting on the floor in the bathroom, next to the bathtub, she pulls the shower curtain around herself, so I can’t see her upper body. “Where’s Abby?” I say. “Where’d she go?” I continue wondering out loud where she went until she pulls the curtain away to uncover herself and smile sweetly up at me. “There she is!” I exclaim enthusiastically. Quickly, she hides herself again to continue the game. She is so smart! I am amazed that she can already hide herself to play Peek-a-boo at 9 months old!

Abby has eight teeth now! The four front bottom, and the four front top. No canines or molars yet.

Last week, Abby said “Hello” very clearly to Papi (Dan Hargrave, my dad) on the phone! He could even understand her without me translating! It was so amazing! She’s already been saying “Hi” very clearly, for quite some time, and now she can say “Hello”, too! Wow! I was so surprised that she could already make the “L” sound so clearly. I guess I shouldn’t be, because she often sings, “La, la, la” in her tiny little soprano voice. It’s so cute when Papa Ken sings with her. He’ll hold her in front of his torso, with her facing around and bounce her up and down while he sings songs that he makes up. She’ll sing right along with her sweet little “Aaaaah”, “La, la” or other baby singing sounds while she waves her hands in the air like she’s conducting music! It’s so dang cute! We should get a video of it.

Abby is getting faster at crawling. We have to be very vigilant when she's exploring because she has a tendency to be interested in all the things she's not supposed to have. For example, she is drawn to paper (she likes the crinkly noise). I sometimes let her play with it as long as I am right there hovering over her to stop her from putting it in her mouth. She also loves to pull on electrical cords and tries to put them in her mouth. This is a big "No-no" of course. I've arranged all the furniture so that the electrical cords are blocked. But we still have a hard time when we use the lap top computer to keep her from grabbing the cord. She also loves plastic bags. Again, I think she likes the feel and sound of the crinkly-ness. She knows garbage cans have plastic bag liners, and will crawl quickly for them, so we have to put garbage cans out of her reach. Whenever she goes to the child watch at the YMCA (while I work out), they have to put the garbage up on the window sill. Everyone at the Y thinks she's so cute! They always greet us with "Hi Abby! Oh she's so cute!" Of course, everywhere we go, strangers always tell us how beautiful and cute she is, but it's just kinda funny being a parent, because people always greet your child, and don't pay much attention to the parent! That's just fine with me, though! I do the same thing! Adorable little babies need the extra attention as they learn to be social! Abby is a very socialable little girl. She usually has a happy little grin for everyone who greets her! Sometimes she waves, too! Once in a while she is shy, which she shows by putting her downy head on my chest, and smiling up shyly at them like, "Hello, I just want to stay with my mommy."

Thursday, June 25, 2009

How to prevent baby pooh leaks

I thought it could possibly help if I share my experience with an explosive pooper. I found that when I tried to go up a size to contain the poop, it actually made it worse, because then the diaper is not tight enough around the legs and waist to contain the poop. This is what I do to contain the poop: First I put her in the right size diaper (not too big or too small) and I use regular Huggies or Kirkland signature. Then the way that I put on the diaper is the most important. I put it on high in the back and lower in the front. This keeps the pooh from leaking out above her butt crack. I snug it around her thighs carefully before I tape it down, and put the diaper on the inside of her thigh rolls. When I tape it down, instead of taping it straight across, I do it slightly downward and make sure I have just the right amount of tension. Then after I get it on, I check the position and tightness of the leg openings. They should be tight enough that both the gusset elastic and leg elastic snap back like a pair of good fitting panties would. This keeps the pooh from leaking out the leg holes. It does make a little bit of a pink mark on the legs after I take off the diaper, but I realized this doesn't hurt her a bit, it's just like if you had snug socks on they would make marks on your legs but still be comfortable.
All this said, sometimes she still poops such a huge amount of runny (exclusively breast fed) pooh at once, that I don't think any diaper could contain it all, and she ends up leaking.
Also, I found that I shouldn't eat prunes or anything like that because if it moves fast through me, it will move fast through her, too, and make her pooh a whole bunch at once!

Huck a what?

It was so funny this monring. I was going downstairs to the storage room to get some more plastic cutlery. This is how the conversation went:
Elysia: What are you doing?
Audrey: Going downstairs to get some knives, spoons, forks...
Elysia: Going to get what?
Audrey: Going to get some cutlery.
Elysia: Going to get huckaberry?
LOL! I don't know how she got "huckaberry" out of "cutlery" and I've never heard of a huckaberry before, but I think it must be like a huckleberry, except instead of eating it, you throw it. Elysia is so funny!

Abby is taking a nap right now, so I am eating lunch and journaling. It's been difficult lately, because she hasn't been napping very long. But so far she's already slept an hour and 20 minutes which is much better than the 40 minute naps she's been taking lately. I'm eating a PB&J sandwich, potato chips, and chocolate milk, which is actually a much healthier like than it sounds like. This is because the sandwich is made with organic PB, 100% whole wheat Orowheat bread, and huckleberry jam (the latter not especially healthy, but still okay). The potato chips are Kettle Chips, lightly salted, which are more natural and healthy than other chips. And the drink is Almond Breeze chocolate almond milk, sweetened with stevia, only 40 calories a cup. So I get to eat my yummy comfort food, and still eat relatively healthily.

I made some banana bread while Abby napped. Nikki and Jason Halverson invited us over to dinner tonight, and I'm going to bring them a loaf. I've been making banana bread a lot lately because it tastes good, and then I can use up the old bananas and don't have to throw them away. A loaf of homemade banana bread also makes a good gift. The last batch, I gave one to our new neighbors: Jerrica and her fiance. She is really nice, and when I went over there, she remembered me because she's actually our dental hygienist at Willamette Dental! Cool! It's a good thing I already made a good impression because I take good care of my teeth. :-P Although I think she would like me even if I didn't because we're both nice people!

Andy's foot is still healing, after breaking it and dislocating it on May first. He's been going to physical therapy every week, and he can hobble along now without the crutches since he wears his walking cast. He's been icing and elevating it every night to help with the swelling, like his physical therapist suggested. It still gets sore, so he can't walk on it very long. He mowed the front lawn a few days ago, which must have looked kinda funny, with him crippling along with the big cast and the lawn mower. I think on his next four days off, I'll get him to watch Abby while I mow the back lawn myself. It is a very huge area to mow with a push mower, we live on half an acre. It would be nice if we had a riding lawn mower. Maybe someday.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Abby first time playing with toilet paper

Abby and I were at the library today, which I believe was her first time at the library. She had fun interacting with some other kids, and crawling around. She reaches out to touch the other kids and says, "Hiya!" So cute! I read her one book, but half way through she decided she wanted to chew on it, so that didn't last very long. I keep telling her, "Books are for looking at and touching, not for chewing," but it hasn't seems to sunk in yet. So I had just finished changing her poopy diaper in the bathroom, when she fussed to let me know she was hungry. So I sat down in the bathroom stall and started to nurse her. She was kicking her feet on the wall like she normally likes to do, while she nurses, and then she noticed she could reach the toilet paper dispenser. So she reached out and grabbed the toilet paper and jerked it around until she pulled off a sheet. She dropped that on the floor and did it again, also dropping the second piece on the floor. She did all this while nursing and kicking the wall with her feet. It was so funny, I just sat there laughing! "You're so funny, Abby!" I told her. She just looked at me and smiled.

Andy's foot is still on the mend.