flowers and a swim

We had lots of weekend adventures . . . including a visit to an aquatic garden full of lotus flowers in bloom!

Abigail does love to smell flowers. She was busy sniffing away.

Our Abigail enforced early morning wake-up paid off again, getting us to the gardens around 7:30am - a perfect time to enjoy a beautiful, warm-but-not-hot, and not too crowded visit . . . complete with froggies and fishies and bees! What do bees say? "Bzzzzzzzz"

Lotsa flowers.

Wait - is that a really big lotus flower, or is that Abigail???? Little did we know when we dressed A that morning that she would be so well coordinated with her surroundings. Some of the photographers who were using their giant cameras and lenses to take pretty pics of the flowers also snapped some photos of our little Abigail-flower.

When it was time to leave Abigail blew kisses to the flowers.

And on our way to the car, we discovered this cool visitor's center - with velcro animals like ducks and butterflies and frogs to stick to the wall mural! Abigail decided she would be happy to hang out here for a while, especially with such a nice lily pad table and stools to sit on.

But there were more adventures in store! We went swimming!

We went to wish David and Ingrid and family a bon voyage on their move to China, and were lucky to get to go for a swim in their pool. It took Abigail an hour or so to decide that the pool was worth exploring, but once she warmed up to it, she loved it!

She was very splashy.

She looked pretty cute in her new swimsuit from Dee Dee and Pop Pop (thank you!) . . . and hopefully it will get some more use soon...!

fruity fun

If Abigail was in charge (and, ahem, we would be kidding ourselves if we tried to say this wasn't just a little bit true....) she would eat just fruit. Fruit for breakfast, fruit for lunch, fruit for dinner.

Cherries, blueberries, peaches, apples, grapes, plums, raspberries, pears, cranberries, strawberries, watermelon, honeydew, pineapple, nectarines, oranges . . . the list goes on . . . and Abigail loves them all.

"Hey guys - I'm really struggling here to find more cherries in this empty bowl . . . could you help me please?"
(PS - Abigail can now say "help" and it is just about the cutest - and most useful - word she's learned to date!)

Oh, did we forget to mention bananas? (Or "da" as Abigail calls them.) Looking back on it, bananas were probably A's first fruity love.

After an early morning weekend bagel run, Abigail sets off for a jailbird jog down the block.
Pop quiz time! Q: Does Abigail eat bagels? A: No silly! They're not fruit!

Perhaps someday Abigail will love veggies . . . we sure do! And look at this . . . malabar spinach, growing in our own backyard courtesy of Grandma and Grandad! Uncle Dan is harvesting some for our dinner....

Mmmmmm steak salad (with backyard spinach mixed in!) - delish.

visitors!

Uncle Dan and Aunt Anna are in town!

We are having lots of fun - today we went to the zoo! When you have an early riser like Abigail around, this means you get to go to the zoo bright and early, and see all of the animals when they're feeling lively!

Moooooooo.

Mama gorilla with her little gorilla baby...

And two pandas who were tackling each other and hugging and rolling all around . . . very exciting!

frisky frisk

A little afternoon excitement chez nous.



As papa pointed out, "mommy sounds like a birdie" . . . guess that's what happens when mommy begins to think that Abigail might actually give the camera lens a big lick. Depth perception is hard to judge when you're filming and participating in an activity at the same time, okay?

strawberries & kisses

Abigail is very into strawberries these days. They show up at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all times in between. Here's a strawberry snack....

Eating a s-berry while working the pink seersucker overall look . . . that's a lot to do at once people!

Still working on the strawberry.

"Hey look! There's a picture of a strawberry in my book too!"

She is also very into giving kisses (and blowing kisses too) . . . to people, stuffed animals, books, and now photos.

This photo is usually in a little soft kiddie-photo frame, but Abigail insists upon taking it out of the frame to kiss the picture of her with her grandparents....

"Okay...Who else needs a kiss?"

dinner with g

Abigail's buddy Georgia and her parents came over for dinner! It was lots of fun . . . here are the girls, looking festive for the 4th.
Note: See more pictures, and a sweet video of us trying to get A&G to hug on G's blog!

Action shot. G getting up from a tumble and A on her way down.

Abigail was so excited to have a pal over to play that she ran laps around and around the little playhouse.

Georgia and Abigail got hungry before dinner was ready, so they went ahead and kicked things off.

After dinner playtime consisted of push, push, pushing things around . . . hopefully not our friends.

After playtime, Abigail and Georgia shared a BATH! We didn't have our camera with us, but hopefully G's parents captured some good shots. Abigail was slightly perplexed at the idea of a bath with someone else; Georgia was a total bathtime champ.

outings and stats

Abigail sets off for an Ethiopian dinner with her parents.

Would you look at that . . . we've got a restaurant to ourselves again. All the more time for Abigail to charm the waitresses with her smiley ways.

Abigail steered clear of the spicy fare, but she did like the yellow split peas.

Abigail points out lots of things, birdies, airplanes, doggies, etc.

A good shot of the teeth.....only 4 left to go until A has her full set.

And, we forgot to mention Abigail's 15 month doctor's visit.... another traumatic experience again for all involved, what with the shrieks and tantrum-throwing. A's stats: 24 lbs (70th percentile), 32 inches (90th percentile) and head circumference 95th percentile. As the doctor said, "she is a tall girl with a big head!"

Finally, because this information seems to be only documented sporadically on the blog, and more often on little scraps of paper around the house, A's stats from previous visits to the doctor.....:if we find more data, maybe we'll post updates here.
Birth: 21 inches, 7 lbs 13 oz
2 month: 23.5 inches, 10lbs 8 oz
4 month: 26 inches, 13 lbs 11 oz
6 month: 28.5 inches, 17 lbs
9 month: 29.5 inches, 20 lbs 8 oz
12 month: 31 inches, 23 lbs
15 month: 32 inches, 24 lbs

hairdo

Abigail tried out hair binders for the first time.....here she is sporting her new look.

Surprisingly, while she shows no interest in taking her bows out of her hair, she was set on taking the hair binder out......

howl

Here's Abigail, howling like a coyote. The box is much more exciting than the diapers inside.

catching up

"Oh hi guys. I can get up on the couch by myself now." (Bonus - A can get herself down too!)

Some pics from the past few weeks from Grandma and Grandad's camera . . . here's Abigail helping Grandad water the garden in Minnesota.

Abigail is wearing a dress that her grandma wore when she was little!

Back at home, Abigail catches up on her reading with Grandad.

And Grandma too! (A's mommy had a similar word book when she was little that she loved very much.)

Abigail also wore her beautiful sweater that a friend from the Netherlands made for her!

Abigail brings us this sweater and asks us to put it on her....she especially likes the buttons around the collar!