weekend get-togethers

Abigail got to hang out with her cousins Emily & Natalie!

Little A, just trying to keep up with the big girls.

You'll note that Tigger comes pretty much everywhere that Abigail goes these days....he enjoyed visiting with A's cousins too!

We also got to see Giovanni and his parents! Abigail now knows lots of older men . . . there's Scotty, Charlie, and now Giovanni! We're sure that this will cause all sorts of trouble in a few years. But for now, A sure does love pushing Giovanni on the rocking chair!

"Hey, what's she doing back there?"

grooming

Mealtime is so messy these days that we spend a lot of non-eating time trying to clean ourselves up. Case in point:

"I thought I could brush that dried hummus right out of my hair...."

"Ah, that's better - barrette to the rescue again!"

"Hmmm....I think I saw someone else who needed to be brushed....Where did he go?"

"Aha! There he is...."

And a little toothbrushing to end the day....

a day in the life

Nothing too exciting happening here, just a busy week chez Abigail. She has been very into dinnertime lately . . . it has been stretching to last about an hour, particularly now that she would like to operate the spoon herself, thank you very much. She still needs to work on the scoop/dip part of spoon eating (she dips it in the bowl, but not deep enough to get any food on, and then takes a big - seemingly enjoyable - bite of invisible food). She definitely knows how to get a loaded spoon to her mouth, and finds this very satisfying. Here's to growing independence! (And to dinner with no pants on . . . darn diaper rash just won't disappear....)

Abigail loves her applesauce.

Sometimes, if she finds something she doesn't want to eat, she drops it to the ground and then leans over staring at it for a while.

Just hanging out.

Multitasking, brushing teeth and sitting on the potty!

walking!

One of our most exciting developments is that Abigail seems to have started to walk more than she crawls. (Though crawling and knee-walking sure continue to be easy and fun ways to get around.)

friends, flowers, books, apples, and more

Abigail likes to lean waaaay back to read books.

Some books are just as good when you read them upside down - you should try!

We spent lots of time outside looking at flowers poking up in the backyard.

Abigail munched on an apple.

Apple by Abigail.

We had a fun brunch with friends . . . and Charlie and Abigail got to hang out! Yay!

A gets to sit all by herself on the piano bench sometimes....

Playing a tune.

1 year checkup

Here's Abigail on her way to her 1-year pediatrician appointment . . . blissfully unaware of the shots to come. Oh, and note that she is facing forward in the car - this is a major improvement - A always got a little grumpy in the rear-facing seat configuration not being able to see all the action.

Here she is calming down in the Ergo after getting sort of hysterical while they were trying to weigh her. So her 1-year weight is a little imprecise, but she's somewhere between 23 and 23.5 lbs. That and her height of 31 inches (she's grown 10 inches since birth!) confirms that she is a big girl, in the 97th percentile for height and 75th-90th for weight and head circumference.

To put things in perspective, here's Abigail at her first visit to the pediatrician.....

Dr. says everything seems to be on track, with only one specific diagnosis: "drama queen". He told us to "send her to Hollywood". Abigail was not in the mood to be poked and prodded and she let us all know!

Tiny little muffin, way back when.

Back at home Abigail made an exciting discovery....mommy's purse and wallet! She thought this was VERY fun.

birthday girl!

Guess who is ONE?! Abigail had a very fun birthday today (and birthday weekend before!).

Earlier today, she enjoyed a birthday snack at her table.

"You mean it's not my birthday tomorrow too??"

We went out to eat...

A little yogurt on the go.

Presents! Lots of new things to play with .. . yay! Note the new tricycle in the background too . . . Abigail thanks her cousins Emily and Natalie very much for passing this nifty item along. We are looking forward to taking it for a spin.

More presents! Abigail is a dainty present unwrapper, in constrast with many other aspects of her behavior which we would not characterize as "dainty".

A birthday bath to wind the day down.

But that wasn't all of the birthday fun . . . .yesterday we had lots of 1 (or so) year old pals and their families over for cupcakes. It was very fun! (So much fun that we forgot to take many pictures...)

"Happy Birthday" was sung many times and Abigail loved it every time.

A little later, she and her pal G sat at the table together.

At one point they called a waiter over to order some food . . . (kidding...but these two little ladies have been to their fair share of restaurants - several times together - so we're sure they'll have the hang of everything soon enough).

Then, Scotty blasted onto the scene and everyone was up and running trying to keep up with him!

Post party, climbing on her rocking chair, a favorite pastime lately.

It's been a big, amazing, fun, fast year for us all! Wow! Here's Abigail contemplating the big-ness of it all.

stripey jammies

When your pjs are this stripey and cute, sometimes you just need to wear them all day long....

Giving us a toothy grin.

The Abigail blur.

"Now that I'm almost 1, I should be able to grab whatever I want off of any surface . .. "

Down on the ground, celebrating with the items she was able to scavenge from table-top.