Monkey's Big Ultrasound

Matt couldn't be at the big ultrasound in August, so I asked the tech to keep the gender a secret and write it down on a piece of paper. That night, Matt, Abby, and I went to Olive Garden and opened the envelope. Then we got to tell Abby she is going to have a baby BROTHER! We are so excited about getting ready for a Sandlin boy - he will be the perfect addition to our little family!

Here are some shots from the big reveal. I tried to get Matt to let me post the money-shot, but he argues that the longer we can keep Monkey from exposing himself to the masses, the better!

(These are from 19 weeks:)

Grow, Monkey, Grow!

23 Weeks pregnant:

Me and my Boo-Bear (23 Weeks):

27 Weeks pregnant:

After realizing I am entering 3rd Trimester...already....

Happy Birthday, Gummybear!

Abby turned one at the end of August and we had a Ladybug party for her at the local park. It was so much fun and turned into an all-day event! She had such a great time eating her first bites of cake, playing with her cousins and friends, and opening her presents. Here are some pictures from the big day:


Cousins!!

Thinking about eating the cake off my daddy's fingers...

Cheesing it up for the camera:

4 Generations!

I love my Granny!

My first taste of cake!

Hey...What's going on??

Abby's 1st birthday cake - made by her Aunt Cheryl!

Abby and Kat:

Becca looking pretty as always:

Raine and Jake playing at the park:

Rebecca and Baby Ian - our Babytime friends!

Abby and her Mimi:

Gigi and Grandy soaking in the day:

The two lovebirds:

Caroline - Pretty in Pink:


Me and my grandparents!

Mary June and Brittany:

What do you mean Birthdays only come once a year??!

Mother of the Year

So I'm usually very attentive and all, but since Abby has started crawling, she's been getting into a bit more mischief than usual. Take today for example:

While I was getting ready in the master bathroom this morning, Abby was sitting on the floor and playing with my hair brush. She likes to watch me dry my hair every morning before we head out to our "schools". I suddenly realized I had not heard from her in a minute or two (she's always holding conversations with inanimate objects. It's really quite darling) and looked around to find her standing up, gripping the toilet seat, and trying to peer inside the bowl. Eww. BUT it did lead to a "teachable moment" - that's teacher-speak for a chance to dazzle her with information she never asked for. Our teachable moment consisted of "what a potty is for" (with full demonstration of the flush feature) and how we "wash, wash, wash our hands" after touching the potty.

Later, we were in the kitchen making our lunches when Abby crawled over to the cat food bowl. She looked up at me and said "uh uhh uh uh" (which is what I always say to her when she gets too close to the animal food). I smiled and nodded and said "That's RIGHT! Going near the cat food is a no-no!". I smiled at my genious child and she smiled back...right before putting a fistfull of cat kibble in her mouth.

Blessed...not stressed!

We have had a great last few weeks of summer, and now we're heading into the final countdown before Abby turns ONE. Yes, I'm holding back tears as I write that. It seems like just last week we were bringing her home for the first time after all the weeks of back and forth to the nicu. She was so tiny she fit in the palm of Matt's hand and we just all laid on the bed when we got her home and looked over at each other like "now what??" And now here we are at 11 months old and 18 lbs. She may be a tiny thing, but she makes up for it with fiestiness! It seems like Abby learns how to do something new everyday - just yesterday she came home from "school" and she was pointing for the first time. Pointing at EVERYTHING - and babbling on and on to let me know what it was she was pointing at.

Abby had a great playdate with Corbin and Ian a few weeks ago. Ian was sleeping when I remembered I brought my camera, so here are some shots of Abby and her "best friend":

Here they are trying to start their own band "The Tiny Teethers". Abby has agreed to be lead singer if Corbin does all the dancing:






Corbin and Cathy - this was just too cute not to add:

Forever Friends:

We crashed Mimi and Papa's anniversary dinner - and Gigi and Grandy decided to join us too! Here we are at Frank's Italian Restaurant:

I got to spend some much needed girl-time celebrating with my friend Kristin at her baby shower. Here are Kristin, her sister Kelly, and their mother. Can you tell Mrs. Ross is excited to be getting two grandchildren this fall?

There are four people in this picture :)

Abigail learned to crawl last month and now she is a mobile machine! She spends her days moving from one room to another and chasing around the animals:

Here she is on her first day of "school"! She was so excited to go and play with the other babies...until she realized mommy was not going to be there the whole time.

Cutest face on earth:

Helloooo Baby Bump!

And Hellooooo Second Trimester! Nice to see you again. Now lets talk about an end to this morning sickness...

Ch-ch-ch-changes

There are so many changes going on in the Sandlin house right now. It seems like everytime I turn around Abby is doing something new! She has now outgrown all of her 6 and 9 month clothing and is officially in 12 month outfits. She has become so vocal and opinionated and a little more indepeendent in her play. AND...on top of it all... Abigail is starting to CRAWL! She's getting up on her little knees to pull up in her crib and making her way across the living room floor faster and faster each day. I anxiously awaited this day for the past several months, and now that it's here, I'm finding it a little nerve-wracking! Time to babyproof - quick!

Abby has been going through some other changes recently too. She's starting to stay with people other than mommy for short amounts of time - and it seems like she's gotten over most of her stranger anxiety (for now). This is great, since one of the BIG changes this fall will be me starting back to teaching high school European history part time, so she will be at a daycare nearby for about 4 hours a day. Honestly, I think she's going to love it. She adores going to Babytime at the library and seeing the other babies play, so I think it's going to be like one long Babytime for her! The good news is that my teaching schedule is from about noon to four, so we will still get to do fun things like Babytime in the morning.

Another change is that I will be teaching Western Civilization at Gordon College on Monday nights, so Abby will get some extra Daddy time in on those evenings. Matt has always been really involved in her bedtime routine and reading her book every night, but now he'll get to do the whole thing by himself one night a week.

In other news, Monkey has undergone a few changes too since we saw him/her last! Last Wednesday was my 12 week ob appointment and then my specialist appointment. I was a little concerned at the OB office when they couldn't find a hearbeat with the doppler, but when we went in for the ultrasound, there Monkey was - dancing away! This baby seems to be a lot more active in-utero than Abigail was - but maybe it just wanted to make sure we knew it was still there! Everything looked great. The legs were crossed, so the tech couldn't give us any early gender guesses, but I have the anatomy ultrasound scheduled for August 18th, so hopefully we'll know whether to start thinking pink or blue! The heartrate was 178, which still has me thinking girl, but I had a dream a few weeks ago that Monkey is a boy - so we'll just patiently wait until August.

And here's Monkey's latest close-up. S/he is looking much more baby-like these days! Sorry for the horrible quality of a picture of a picture.