(relative) independence

Unprecedented Abigail behavior: today, she kept herself occupied for - I am not joking - 45 minutes. All by herself, without mommy inventing a new game every 30 seconds, or reading 2 books at a time, or trying to keep her away from the cat. She just stayed in one room and kept quietly, happily busy!

She was intently focused on filling up her blue Bumbo seat with toys, and then emptying it, and then re-filling it again.

Proof that deep down Abigail does realize that the Bumbo is a chair - for sitting in. She usually grumbles whenever we put her in it, but today she seemed to be finding her own groove with Bumbo.

"Don't bug me, I'm busy."

It's more fun to "sit" in the chair when it is full of toys.

Who knows how long she would have kept playing? But while she was busy, Mommy was able to fix dinner, and at a certain point had to interrupt the independent fun time to get the evening routine underway. Abigail is snoozing peacefully right now.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

mmmm hummus

Abigail would like everyone to know that she LOVES hummus! Preferably served on little bite-sized pieces of toast. YUM.

Our pediatrician's office has mentioned several times in no uncertain terms how much they like young babes to be off the bottle and onto sippy cups by the time they are 1. With this date rapidly approaching, Abigail continues to be slightly puzzled when we pull out the sippy in place of her faithful bottle friend. We had 2 sippy cup successes today though, so that is good!

Same stuff, different vessel.

jeans

Back at home, Abigail tries on her first pair of jeans (in non-overalls form). Still a little too big, but she's a growing girl . . .

forty is fun and frisky

Because Jamie's actual birthday was on our travel day, we celebrated on multiple days (actually, we're still celebrating birthday week!) . . . some photos of our celebratory b-day moments...

Birthday sunrise. Beautiful.

Birthday banana scone. (Note candle, and ignore unfortunate placement of wet diaper.)

Our leisurely birthday beach breakfast went something like . . . bite of scone, chase lovey, take picture, sip of coffee, help Abigail get sand out of mouth, dip in water, bite of scone, more photos... and on and on and on! All of this at 7am mind you!

Abigail found sand to be a good crawling surface.

She discovered some real beach treasures - like this coconut!

Even the sandcastles in Mexico have a Mayan flair.

Papa went for a birthday dip in the ocean.

Abigail enjoyed some lunch.

Delish!

Papa in the pool.

Let's take a closer look.

Abigail sporting a new hairstyle - two barrettes at a time!

Abigail says "Hey, today may be Papa's birthday, but I'm 11 months old today!!"
Abigail helped out with packing her own suitcase. . .
Open, close, open, close.
"Wait, we're going back to cold weather?"

Beautiful coral beaches, we miss you.

snorklers, swimmers, diaperers

If you thought Mexico pictures were finished . . . surprise! Here's some more:
Abigail is all smiles during a diaper change....

Papa went snorkeling!

Mommy and Abigail kept an eye on Papa and the fishies . . . we could see a lot of fish just from shore!Then, with Papa back on land, he and Abigail got situated and sun protected. . .

So they could watch Mommy snorkle!

Then, back home to the diaper changing area, a very fun place to explore . . .

. . . . while wearing no pants.

Back in the pool - Abigail enjoyed her little swim float, and the shallow end was made for her - it was so shallow she could stand, no problemo.

Drying off, post-swim.

mayan valentine

Traveling with an early riser (Abigail) has its perks - we got to see many wonderful sunrises. And although we sort of lost track of the days while we were there and didn't realize it was Valentine's Day until later that evening - we sure had a fun first V-day with our lovey!

We rented bikes to get around the Mayan ruins at Coba . . . this gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "along for the ride". Abigail loved it, and also loved wearing her cool safari bike helmet.

Because of our early start to the day, and speedy bicycle riding, we were the first ones to the temple that morning . . .!

Long way up....

Just like the Mayans.

Abigail was occasionally distracted during the climb by her bike helmet.

A little breakfast with a beautiful view of the tropical forest.

Atop the temple.

And then, once we got back down, Lovey decided she would climb back up!

Cool Mayan tunnel.

And some other ruins - these by the ocean at Tulum . . . very different, but also very beautiful.

And back at our place, the Valentines day tip-off . . . a towel sculpture with tropical flowers. Abigail was a huge fan and wonders why we don't do this at home.

beachy vacation day

Here we are embarking on our morning walk in search of breakfast.

Rewarded with some seriously yummy smoothies at our fave breakfast place - Turtle Bay Bakery & Cafe.

The b-fast scene.

Intrepid Abigail ventures into the sand!

And then into the ocean!

Fun, sandy times.

Abigail's parents each got to do some solo snorkeling - and both were lucky to see some big sea turtles munching on sea grass and swimming around. Abigail decided she'd give it a try - on land.

View from our patio....

A napping in her room.

Feeling refreshed post-nap.

Everything is better when your bum is monogrammed!

With the day winding down, we had dinner out at a restaurant up the coast a little ways from where we were staying....