More things to push

When we went to the park on our walk this weekend, we were able to catch Abigail on video pushing our jogging stroller all over the place.  The stroller is almost too fast for her to push in the house since it is almost too fast and there is not that much room, but she loves to push it on the grass, which slows things down, and she has lots of room to continue. 

Here she is in action:

Pumpkin patch (part 2)

We continued our adventures at the farm by actually heading to the pumpkin patch.

The part closest to the entrance was fairly picked over, which is understandable, but we made our way a little bit further and found a nice small pumpkin to take with us:

Abigail was not so sure about it, but she was excited to push the stroller on the way back:

We stopped at a stack of hay bales briefly, and Abigail got to hang out with JP there.

After one more encore trip to the petting zoo, we went and had lunch and sat out and listened to live music while we ate. Abigail and I decided it was a successful day!

We took a few pumpkin photos on the way out:

And Abigail took a well-deserved nap on the ride home:

It was a really fun day!

Pumpkin patch! (part 1)

Last weekend we decided to celebrate fall (well, fall in Arizona, which means highs dropping to the low 80s and coolers mornings) and the fact that JP does not work weekends for 5 straight weeks, and packed ourselves up to visit a farm with a pumpkin patch and fall festival.  We had a blast!

Here are some highlights:

Abigail in her big girl car seat which I have not yet blogged about--here it is! She seems to like it!

 Do I really have to wear my hat, mom?

 

What's a hay maze?

Ooh, chickens!

And a goat! I can really touch the goat?  Abigail really liked the petting zoo!

Look, I'm hanging out with Mom, in front of the camera!

More coming soon...

At the park with Grandma

Now that the weather is getting nicer here, with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s, we have enjoyed taking Abigail on walks on weekend mornings in the jogging stroller.  Sometimes we go over to Sabino and sometimes we walk to the park by our house, but often we take a quick drive up to the river trail near us. We have gotten into the habit of walking a few miles to a little park off the trail, taking a break for a snack and some playtime with Abigail, and then returning back to the car and home.

When my mom was visiting, we made the same trek just the three of us while JP was working.  Here are some highlights of our park time that day:

eating canteloupe with grandma

practicing standing up

 

and being silly with grandma

 Abigail is so much fun!

First bites of brownies

We love to make my favorite brownie recipe for special occasions, and we had them the other weekend when my mom and my uncle billy (her twin) were here.  I managed to not take any pictures of my uncle billy or Abigail's uncle billy, but I did get to capture on film Abigail's first taste of yummy brownies:

She was a pretty big fan!  You can tell by the major lean in to the food pictured above!

Makeshift walker #3

Sometime last week when Abigail was pushing the laundry hamper around, she ran it into the snap and go stroller by the front door. She walked around the perimeter of the hamper and kept going along the basket of the stroller. When she reached the back of the stroller, she was able to hold on to the basket and started pushing the whole thing.  So now we have three unofficial walkers for Abigail to use. We have been very impressed by her problem solving ability to get the stroller moving again after it runs into something.

Sabino Canyon Tram

When Grandma Betty was here last week I played hooky from work one day and we went out to Sabino Canyon.  There is a tram ride that goes up to the top of the canyon on an old construction road. 

Here is Abigail and her Grandma on the tram.

And with me:

I didn't take a lot of pictures on the ride up because we wanted to make sure Abigail didn't go anywhere.  We were originally going to get off and sit at one of the pretty picnic areas and eat a snack with Abigail, then take the next tram back. But it turned out that the trams ran every hour, which seemed like a long stretch for our little one.  So we got to the top and got off very briefly to take a few pictures:

(Abigail was distracted in this picture by the other people who asked us to take their picture, and then all of a sudden it was time to get back on the tram)

We rode back down and had our little snack before heading back to the car.

Abigail really liked the ride and it was great to enjoy a beautiful fall day together!

Eating time!

Here is Abigail at dinner with JP the other night.  Watch them enjoy their meal together!

Another walker

Last night while we were getting dinner ready we got out the stepstool to get something from the back of the fridge.  Abigail of course wandered over to check it out, and she liked playing with it when it was in our room a few weeks ago.  This was the first time it had been on tile instead of carpet and she quickly figured out that she could slide it around.  We were particularly impressed with her problem solving ability to figure out how to navigate when she ran into an obstacle.  Plus she is pretty cute!

Abgail: 10 months old

 Nicknames:  I still call her Sunshine a lot but have added in Sugar Sugar and Favorite Baby. I also do a lot of "big tall standing up baby" and "______(fill in the blank name of food) monster" .  JP is still sticking with Sweet Pea. 

Temperament: sunny most of the time, and seems pleased with how much she is able to do, protesting less than last month, curious, exploring, watchful

Item/Toy We Love The Most: the stroller--we have loved our walks, the rubber ducky song

Item/Toy You Love The Most:  you like to eat anything you can, especially non food items like cardboard boxes, books, and tissues. Also, again this month, anything that will help you stand up! this can be the couches, the coffee table, the dining room chairs, the bookcase, the wall, the footstool in your room, etc., and you have added in the laundry hamper/walker  and anything that you can knock off the coffee table or other surfaces, magazines you can pull off the coffee table and destroy, the rubber ducky song

Things We're Loving Most Right Now: seeing how you problem solve, how you light up when you see us, your laugh, your appetite for foods, your improving communication skills 

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: standing up and cruising and pulling up on everything possible, crawling, eating food and cheerios, laughing, cuddling, picking up little tiny things off the floor, nursing in short bursts

Eating: Abigail continues to explore new solids and is now having solids about 4 times a day--oatmeal at breakfast with me, a lunch and snack at school, and then dinner with us. We are still doing a mix of purees and finger foods. Abigail has been loving watermelon and has been trying things like enchilada filling at lunch with success.  She still loves bananas and carbs. She continues to nurse five or six times a day with exploring breaks during the daytime sessions. 

Sleeping:  The toughest sleep issue this month was when Abigail decided that waking up after 6 am was for wimps and we went from 5:40 to 5:15 to 4:50 over a few days. She would not go back to sleep no matter what we did, so we ended up taking a walk at 5:15 one day just for a change of pace. Then, as randomly as it started, it stopped.  So now we appreciate our 6-6:30 am wake ups!  Abigail continues to go down for the night around 7 and will eat once usually between 1-4 am.  Her naps at home have started to get longer, sometimes over an hour, but then she will sometimes skip the second nap.  She continues to take remarkably short naps at daycare, like one 20 minute nap total for the day, but seems chipper. She sometimes crashes around dinnertime as a result. 

Playing: Right after her 9 month birthday Abigail really put together her crawling skills and has been able to combine them with pulling up, cruising, squatting and all her other gross motor skills to be a moving baby.  Plus, at the end of this month she took her first steps!  She is now standing for longer periods on her own and often claps for herself when she is standing since she is so proud!  It has been great to watch.  Abigail does lots of exploring, continues to like some of the fine motor toys we have, and is often content to play on her own for longer periods.  She loves repetitive games like peekaboo and has started to play peekaboo with us using a blanket or shirt.  Books appear more desirable as things to be chewed than read but she lets me read to her sometimes and still likes to turn the pages. 

Growth:  This is belated but at her 9 month check up Abigail was 28 1/2 inches and 17 lbs 11 oz.  This is about the 70th-something percentile for height and in the 30-somethingth for weight. She was a little anemic so we are trying to work on more iron through oatmeal and some red meat.  We will have her checked again at her twelve month appointment before deciding if she needs vitamins.  Abigail is definitely losing some of her chubbiness due to all her movement and she continues to be a long, lean baby.  We have had to tighten her diaper snaps to avoid leaks although she is still on medium rise.  We are moving into more 12 month sizes although we still use quite a few 9 month outfits--some of the 9m pants are starting to be too short!  

Abigail continues to chat more and babble lots of strings of consonant sounds, but no words yet.  We are still working on "where's dada?" and "where's mama?" and she cooperates when she wants to.  It is so fun to hear her get louder and more opinionated. She loves to chat to herself in the car too.

 

Overall, I think this has been a really great month!  Abigail's demeanor has improved as she is happier and more able to entertain herself and is so excited to test out her new mobility skills. She went from just learning to crawl consistently and quickly at the beginning of the month to taking steps on her own at the end of it!  Her demeanor has been consistently positive overall, but last month we had a few more crying fits when she could not be held or get what she wanted, and luckily those have mostly subsided. She still does not like to lie still on the changing table but she has stopped screaming at the top of her lungs every single time at least.

We are really enjoying her and can't believe she is already in monthly double digits! Who knows what next month will bring?

A comparison:

Banana monster

Abigail still has so much fun with food and I took this (long) silly little video during breakfast the other morning. She had already finished her oatmeal with banana and got to share the rest of the banana with me.  She is so silly!

Hanging Out

Abigail has been having so much fun and seems so pleased with herself now that she is mobile and can get around on her own.  I took some video the other morning of her in her room, expecting her to climb off the floor bed, which she loves to do. She ended up hanging out on the bed but I think it is still cute to see her move and chat.

Enjoy!