9 Months Old!

Just chillin' in my new baby pool:

It looks like I'm a nekkid baby in this picture. Teeheehee.

Mommy, I LOVE my new baby pool!

Can you see the itty bitty hairs growin' out my head?!

Abby's 9 month appointment was yesterday and she did fabulously! She was in a great mood and showed off all of her latest "tricks" to Dr. Cheeks (love that doctor) and didn't even cry when they did the finger prick to test her iron.

Here are her 9 month stats:

Height: 26inches - 9th percentile

Weight: 16lbs 14.5oz - 10th percentile

Head: 42.5cm - 12th percentile

Dr. Cheeks said Abby should start on more finger-foods, so she got to have some little pieces of cheese yesterday! She loved it - of course, who doesn't love cheese?? I think a person who doesn't love cheese is a person not to be trusted. But anyways...

After the appointment, we bought a brand new straw-sippy-cup to celebrate and Ab by proceeded to chew on the straw all afternoon and then complain that she couldn't get any out to drink. We also bought a new baby pool and had some sunshine fun.

I can't get her to do them on camera, but here's the new stuff Abby's been up to:

• Clapping her hands- sometimes on demand
• Army crawling backwards (a little)
• Rolling from back to belly
• Rolling from belly to back
• Spinning while on her belly to get a toy
• Trying to pull up
• Saying Dadadadadad when she's mad
• Trying to cruise from one place to another
• Taking HIGH steps
• Eating finger foods
• Laughing like crazy when you play peek-a-boo
• Making little excited grunts when you ask her "are you hungry?" or "would you like some milk/a bottle?"
• Sleeping from 8:30pm - 7am
• Sitting up really well and hardly ever falling over
• Getting little toys out of a box
• Picking up puffs with her thumb and finger
• Riding in a shopping cart
• Sitting in a highchair
• Growing the longest, prettiest eyelashes you've ever seen!
• Growing more tufts of curly brown/blonde/sometimes strawberry hair
• Being the love of her parents' lives

This past month we visited a specialist to see if Abby needed a helmet for a few weeks to help with a little bit of assymetry in her skull. (Insert baby in a helmet jokes here) The scan showed that she does not, but did reveal that she has a triangular forehead that needs to be looked at by a neurosurgeon. That appointment is in late June, and I'm really hopeful that it will turn out to be nothing and that we will never have to go back up to Scottish Rite again. And so that's what the itty bitty bebe has been up to this month!

Island Life!

Posted by Abigail

As you may have heard, I had a lot of fun on our vacation to see the ocean. Here's a run-down of our time spent outside the pool!

Lets start with the most important part - vacation food!

Daddy fell in love with a little ice cream shop near the pier called Two Scoops. I begged for a bite, but I was told I'd have to wait until next year. That didn't stop me from trying! What's a girl gotta do to get some chocolate around here!?

Mommy tried to take a self-portrait picture of us. I Enough with the paparazzi!

Mommy and Daddy shared an ice cream. That looks like more than 2 scoops to me!

Daddy's Sicilian pizza - he thought he could eat it all by himself...

Mommy's lasagna. She said it was good, although not as good as the kind she makes.

Here I am getting some pleasure reading done:

I love to read!

"Jammajammajammajammma...it's Pajama Time!"

Sometimes I read with Mommy:

Mommy likes to clog up the camera card with silly self-pictures to annoy Daddy:

Mommy and Daddy on vacation!

I like to laugh a lot:

Mommy and I watching Daddy cook-out on the grill:

Mommy and Daddy's picnic. All I got was sweet potatoes and milk!

A funny bird I saw on the pier. I tried to talk to him, but he flew away:

In my fancy jogging stroller - ready to stroll the island! (And we did stroll - all 6 miles of it. Mommy has the blisters to prove it. She says you shouldn't wear sandals when hiking - don't forget it!)

I still had to get in some tummy time - even on vacation. Look how strong I am!

Considering making a fast break out of my pack and play...

Oh, HI MOMMY! Me?? Why, I'm not doing anything...

Vacations make me sooooo sleepy!

Swim, swim swim!

As much as Abby didn't really care for the ocean, she LOVED the heated pool! She spent most early morning and evenings splashing around in the water and watching the big kids play. She also found the pool's accoustics EXCELLENT for squealing contests with mommy. Abby in her canopied floaty - a really good idea to protect her bald little head from the Florida sun (considering she decided hats are evil this past week):

All that sunshine made for a super-sleepy baby!

Swimming with Daddy:

Scenic view of the pool:

Abby really enjoyed putting her hands and face in the water. She also was an excellent kicker!

Our little olympic-gold-medalist-in-the-making:

Beach Baby

On Saturday, we left Georgia and headed down to Anna Maria island in the Gulf for a week of relaxing and fun in the sun. This was Abby's first trip to the beach, and besides teething and dealing with a stuffy nose, she's really excited to be here!

Abby in her swim suit right before she saw the ocean for the first time:

Sooooo excited about the ocean! Lets gooooooo already!

Wait!! You want me to put my FEET in the wet stuff?! I'd rather pick them up...

I'm still not so sure about this. Why does the water keep trying to get me?!

Sunset on the beach. We're staying in a condo unit owned by Matt's company and rented out to employees year-round. We even have our own private beach and housekeeping every day - I feel spoiled :)

The beach outside of our condo on the north side of the island has very few tourists, except for the birds and lizards. The tiny lizards are EVERYWHERE and are a little camera-shy (read: too fast for Matt to capture on film)

Taking an 8 month old to the beach has been a VERY different experience than vacations in the past, but we've had a good time showing her island life. Abby has enjoyed the heated pool much more than the ocean - but that's a post for another naptime. Now it's time to suit up and head outside into the sunset.

Diaper changes were a whole lot easier before...

1. Abigail learned to roll.

2. she decided her undiapered area was an interesting place to grab - poopy or not.

3. she became aware enough to see her bottle sitting on the other side of the room -and aware enough to realize it was not in her mouth.

4. she learned that coughing causes her to toot - which she finds HILARIOUS just as mommy removes her diaper.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm raising a baby girl or a frat boy.