Good Morning!

Abby generally wakes up pretty happy. She's usually up between 7:30 and 8:30 am. Works our great for me cuz I am really not a crack of dawn kind of person. When she wakes I'll hear her moving around and playing in her crib. I can usually get away with an extra 30 minutes while she entertains herself in her crib. So of course I do! I drift in and out while listening to her play. It has worked out well for us and she let's me know when she is ready to get up and out by calling me.

I have been meaning to video her as I see her first thing in the morning. You can see in the video that she has been up a while as evidenced by all of her crib stuff thrown out of her crib. She loves to jump in her crib and as you can see it's pretty springy;) The "Cheese" that she said this morning when I opened her door with the camera was totally spontaneous on her part:)

I Just Love Her So Much!

Here's my baby looking beautiful in a dress from MeeMa. She still takes my breath away as we approach our soon to be six month together anniversary. It is incredible to me how much I love this little girl! She continues to amaze me more and more each day. Her little spirit grows stronger every day and she is blooming, blooming, blooming. I swear she touches (not physically) everyone she meets. The world as I have known it has grown brighter as I watch it unfold through my daughters eyes.

It has still been so very hot here! Every day is in the upper 90's. My AC is working about half way right now. It was estimated to me that it's repair cost will be around $3000 !! I have all of the ceiling fans going, plus a electric fan in my bedroom and the living area going at all times. I am hoping to nurse it along cuz frankly with daycare fees soon to be coming up I just don't have it.

Abby's speech is exploding lately. Her new thing this week is, "What's that?" and "What?" Plus her gibberish (to me anyway, I'm sure she knows exactly what she is saying) has gotten much more detailed. She will spew out something that I can't make out so I just respond, "Really?" and she answers back a long "Yeeeeaaaaah" it's just too cute.

I only have another week in ICU before I change over to my new position. Little girl will soon have her world changed. I hope she deals okay and I hope I made the right decision in changing my hours from 3 12 hr shifts a week to 5 8 hr ones. I continue to stress about her move to day care too. That is if we ever find one. I can't imagine my baby in a place that is unfamiliar to her with absolutely no one that she knows and loves around.... I know you all have faced these same worries and things have turned out okay. I pray it's that way for us too.

I taught Abby how to give eskimo and butterfly kisses this week . Good stuff :)

We are working on counting now. It goes something like this. (Me) One (Abby) Two (Me) Three (Abby) Six (Me) No Four (Abby) Six (Me moving on) Five (Abby) Six (Me) Seven (Abby) Ayate (Sounding very British LOL) (Me) Nine (Abby) Nine (Me) Ten Yay for ten then we clap and cheer. I will try and get it on video. Too cute!

My baby is growing up way too fast. I will do a then and now post soon. It is incredible how much of a baby she was when I met her and how much of a toddler she is now! I am feeling very emotional lately and this just chokes me up. I know.... I'm a geek!

Catching up with bullets

As promised a catch up picture post. Sorry it's not that exciting. Let's start with this one, I'll call it Miss Innocent. I think she was trying to climb the windowsill. Luckily it's low to the ground.

" Honest Mom, I was just sitting here."

Memorial Day 2008, Reading books with Christopher in what Meema calls the "Abby Suite". (Just noticed that I spelled suite wrong in my last post. My spelling stinks)

Like Father, Like son. Uncle Pete and Joshua.

Bubble mania. This little contraption rocks. It's call Zillions of Bubbles and it really works. Abby loves it too.

Dancing with Sissy through the bubbles.

Bubble DJ.

Another Oldie but a goodie. Abby and her ladybug beads. I got these way back when I first started the adoption process while I was in New Orleans.

At Meemas. Time to use the straps!!! She can't do this in our high chair at home. (Thank Gaud!)

Swinging at Meema's.

Just being Abby :)

My happy little sweetie pie!

Abby and I stayed at Auntie Laurie's for a few days so that Auntie L could babysit while Mommy worked. (Meema and Da were out of town) Abby had a blast playing with her cousins and especially Pete.

Pete was great with Abby and she learned a new phrase. "Get down Pete!!!"

Oh No! Busted again.

Fun with Christopher.

I love her nightie :)

Peek A Boo :)

Playing with Killy's tail.

My Pretty girl!

At Meema's, Have chair will travel.

Snack time.

Checking out Meema's hydrangeas.

I finally heard from HR today. I accepted the job. I start July 6th. I will be making a dollar more an hour too. Hey every bit helps.

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My little condo is draining me. My AC is only half way working and I'm still waiting for an estimate as to how much it will cost to replace a part. Now yesterday no hot water. My water heater seems to have turned it self off???? Hopefully that will be an easy and cheap fix.

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Good lord I am ready for fall. This HOT HOT weather stinks! It's too hot for babies.

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Still no word on day care.......

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I have a constant echo in my condo. What ever I say to Abby she usually repeats the last word I said.

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She still hasn't tried to climb out of the crib but I'm waiting for it.

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Man! We sure Miss Jen and Jainy!!!!

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I am debating cutting Abby's hair. Bangs or not? I can't decide. The bangs she has now are in her eyes. The back is several different lengths and also frizzy. I think the frowziness comes from the way she rolls around in her sleep. I almost took her yesterday but I chickened out.

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Where does the time go anyway?????

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Jump!

Almost a week since my last post? Sorry. I am way behind with pictures. I will try and do some back tracking in the next couple of days. These pictures are taken at my Mom's. She has a Mom in law sweet that we set up camp in when I have to work. The bed is king sized and great for jumping as Abby demonstrates below. It happens every night after bath time. She gets really frisky and hyper and would jump for hours if we let her. Makes it very challenging to get her PJ's on :) Enjoy! Plus I posted an update at the bottom of this post.

Abby is doing great. In fact she is 19 months old today! Can't believe it!! She is still teething something fierce. I think her molars but she won't let me look back there. She has been drooling quite a bit too and chewing on her fingers or anything she can get to. This makes for a couple wake ups at night lately. Usually if she does it more then twice I bring her into my bed. She loves it especially waking up in there. Unfortunately now at bedtime and often nap time she fusses and points to my room when I tell her it's nap time or bed time. I really wouldn't mind her sleeping with me (I know it's better for attachment) but the problem is she thinks it's party time when ever we attempt to start off nap time or bed time in my bed. She gets all excited and jumps (of course), climbs on me, messes with the cat...you get the picture. So I tell her ni night time and we will have to go back to her crib if she doesn't sleep, that doesn't work so we make the move to her room in the end any way. She does this in the middle of the night as well but I can usually turn over on my side and pretend I'm asleep and she will give in.

In other news, It looks like I have a new job. I have been looking because the 12 hour days are hard on us. Day care continues to be an issue and options are limited due to my late shifts. I interviewed for a care coordinator job at my hospital and the manager told me that she would have HR extend me the offer. I'm a little hesitant to post this news because I haven't heard from HR yet since she told me that. The hours are so much better, 8 to 4:30, Mon thru Fri, every 10th weekend on call, and 1 holiday a year. This will be so much better for Abby and I. We will have a set schedule and be able to sleep at home each night. I won't have to worry about dragging her out of bed at dawn since I start an hr later. Should also make my daycare options larger. The best thing is that I will be able to take care of myself now too. Working the long hours left very little time for me and I have suffered as a result but now things should be better. I will miss my ICU job (I have been there 15 years) but it all comes down to what is best for Abby. My ICU manager is letting me stay on the ICU schedule as labor pool so I won't be gone completely.

Little one is up from her nap now :) Look for my catch up posts and pictures soon. Good Times :)

Hot, Hot, Hot

Thought I would post our Adoption Announcement. We used Purple Stork. They were a pleasure to work with and very reasonable. I really like the way they turned out. Believe it or not I just finally finished the last of my thank you notes and adoption announcements this week. I know I suck but I can promise you that they were on my mind every day!!! Time was and still is limited due to this new little person in my life :) :) If I missed anybody please let me know.

It is Hot Hot and Hot this week. The temp has been above 92 most of this week and tomorrow they are forecasting a high of 101! I do not do hot weather well. I'm much more of a winter gal. I'm so glad we were in China in November. I have seen the posts of people there in summer and know that I would have been miserable. Well not totally cuz I would have has Abby but..... I think it was much easier to have no luggage in the winter verses the summer too. Abby and I are just laying low today. I may take her to my pool this evening. It was just too hot for her out there today. My ac is on it's last leg too. I have it set on 60 and it reads 75. They are looking for a new coil for me but due to the age of my unit I may well have to get a new one (ouch).

WOW!

It's been pretty interesting around here this week. It's funny cuz last week I was just telling my sister how great things were going..... This week Miss Abigale has been a pistol! She is giving me a taste (I'm Sure) of what is to come when she turns two. In the last few days she has thrown several fits in public. Yesterday at Kmar*t when I made her sit in the shopping cart after she kept running away from me. By the way, those child safety straps in the carts suck! She can get out of them so easily. Anyhoo....And today I left the park with her kicking and crying cuz she didn't want to leave. I felt horrible for her and was seriously considering taking her back to play some more until she hit me. Yep! It seems this week that my little angel has started hitting. It only happens (NOT EVERY TIME) when I take something from her she shouldn't have or if I don't let her do something she shouldn't be doing then she swats at me. I grab her hands and tell her no hitting and Gentle. Then she will stop or cry.... And her fits, Big Crocodile Tears! They make me feel horrible. The orphanage was right she can be obstinate at times. It doesn't help that she is big time teething right now. Poor little thing is getting Motrin and teething tablets pretty much around the clock.

This is all normal right??? I haven't seen many blog posts from you all that have your kid's home talking about this type of behavior. I'm hoping she's not just mad at me...... The last two nights she has literally crashed in my arms at 9 PM after her bottle (I KNOW,Don't say it) instead of her usual 930 PM bedtime. So maybe she is experiencing a growth spurt too. Another thing she has started doing in the last two days is jabbering something that sounds similar. She does this same type of jabber (sp?) when she either wants something that I won't give her or won't do something that she wants. I don't know what she is saying but it definitely sounds bossy LOL.

The pictures below are of just one of our battles. She wanted a snack but instead of eating it out of the bowl I put it in she insisted on dumping her snack on the floor. When I would pick her snack up and put it back in her bowl, she would promptly dump it right back out on the floor.

Asking for more. Yep using the bowl but she emptied it out on the floor right after I refilled it.

She is so cute, sweet and tiny but she is also mighty.