Abigail at the Zoo!

Last weekend, there was a family festival of some kind that included free admission to our local zoo, so we decided to go check it out. We thought Abigail might be a little young, so trying it out for free seemed like a good idea.  Luckily, she really enjoyed it, watching the animals and the other kids, and we all had a good time.

Abigail spent a lot of time with her serious, watchful face on like this:

She got to see some birds that were interesting:

And we saw lions and giraffes:

There are a bunch of new elephants at the zoo so I was excited to see them, and Abigail seemed interested too:

We all had a good day overall and I think Abigail will like it even more when she gets older!

Abigail: 11 months

Nicknames:  Holding steady, same as last month: sunshine, favorite baby, sweet pea are our current favorites

 Temperament: happy, curious, excited, interested in everything, proud of herself as she figures out new things, only fussy when overly tired

Item/Toy We Love The Most: Abigail's shoes! they let us do lots of big kid things like walks and playing on the playground, plus the stroller and the rubber ducky song

Item/Toy You Love The Most: Abigail really likes things you can push, things that help her stand up, riding around in the snap and go without the infant car seat, and trying to eat boxes, books, tissues, and pieces of the carpet

Things We're Loving Most Right Now: seeing how you problem solve, watching you smile at yourself when you realize you can walk on your own from place to place, your laugh, your sense of humor, your communication skills, your good appetite

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: starting to be an independent walking baby!, eating food, laughing, cuddling, playing 'sharing' games with us, nursing

Eating: We are still on about the same schedule for foods as last month: 4 solid meals and 5 or 6 nursing sessions, which are getting shorter.  Abigail is less interested in her bottle and we have tried faster flow nipples with limited success.  We are giving Abigail more finger foods and table foods, like pizza and stuffed pepper filling and quesadillas, with success, although we still do some purees which are met with a mixed reception.  Abigail is always especially interested in whatever we are eating.

Sleeping:  Abigail has had another fairly good month of sleeping, knock on wood.  We had a few more days for the early wake ups (5:30ish) but then they went away.  In addition, there have been several days where Abigail sleeps straight through from 7-6:15 or so, which has helped me sleep better as well.  She is still often up once a night to eat, though.  She has been going down easy for her first nap at home but fighting the second nap a little more.  There are many days where she only takes one 20-30 minute nap at daycare, but on the days when she takes two, we can tell because she can hold it together a little longer in the evenings. 

Playing:  Abigail became a very fast crawler this month but often crawled as far as she needed to so she could pull up, and then continued cruising. She has been getting a lot braver with walking, and now regularly walks on her own for longer and longer distances, although she can still be cautious at times.  This has made playing fun and different because of her mobility.  She enjoys exploring everything and is interested in checking things out! She loves going outside, going to the playground, and playing peek a boo and sharing games with us.  This is a really fun age.

Growth:  No doctor visit this month but we know Abigail is getting taller because she can reach more things!  She now can stand up on her tiptoes to get things she wants, including off the kitchen table!  She is beginning to strengthen her legs again so we have had less diaper leaks in cloth lately even though we have them on the modified rise still. We are moving in to more 12 month and some 18 month clothes, although the 9 month onesies still fit snugly. 

Abigail continues to chat with us a lot but is not saying any definite words yet.  We enjoy listening to her talk to us and to herself and is usually happy and eager to tell us about things.  She is definitely getting better all the time at understanding us and we know she will be talking herself before we know it!

A comparison:

Walking Baby

Apologies for the blog absence but after being out of town this weekend we had a lot to catch up on and then everyone but me caught a stomach bug.  Abigail had a difficult night last night but appeared much more chipper today, and wandered around the house and happily went with me to the grocery store. Except for having a decreased appetite and taking a super-extended afternoon nap, you could barely tell she was sick.

Her dad, on the other hand, has been in bed most of the day and has been feeling nauseous and feverish on and off.  Fingers crossed that he makes a quick recovery.

In the meantime, I was able to get this video today of Abigail walking in a much more controlled and sustained way than when she first started to move. She is getting more confident all the time and is so excited with her accomplishments as she wanders all over the house.  (I am trying to catch up on work but couldn't resist sharing this.)

Enjoy!

Eating with a fork

In addition to all the good gross motor progress Abigail is making, like getting more confident at walking all the time, she is also doing more with her fine motor skills as well.

Here she is at dinner the other night showing off her ability to feed herself from a fork. We have figured out that a fork sometimes reignites her interest in eating when she has almost decided she is done, which is why she had taken off her bib at this point in the evening.  But she did a good job taking the baby lima beans and feeding herself.

Check it out:

At the playground

As Abigail has gotten older and more confident walking with support, we have started taking her to a playground near our house on the weekends. We typically walk/run to the park with the jogging stroller and then hang out and eat some food with her at the park before returning.  The last few weeks we have ventured over to the big toy and Abigail has had a lot of fun.  She is cautious at first but then gets comfortable and really enjoys playing herself and watching the bigger kids.

Here are some pictures of her in action:
After eating her snack, she took a walk with Dad

Then we tried driving the steering wheels

Then we walked through the tube

Eventually, we made our way to the little stairs up to the big slide and Abigail impressed us by climbing up the steps while using the vertical bars for support. She is so clever!

She does it right at the beginning of the video and then hangs out being pleased with herself.

Abigail still likes watching us go down the slide more than she likes to do it herself at this point but I think she will warm up to that too.

Happy Halloween! (belatedly)

Happy Halloween from our favorite little ladybug!

 

We tried to have an adorable photo shoot in the morning before we headed to daycare but Abigail was not that interested--of course, the one time I wanted her to stand still she was bound and determined to walk around.  Here are a few keepers from our fairly unsuccessful attempt:

We then gave up and headed off to school for a Halloween Parade.  I was able to stay for the first little bit and see the show. The teachers just held the babies and held them up to show off their costumes, but I imagine the older kids actually walked and paraded in some way.

Abigail apparently had a fun day but only took one short nap in the morning, so by the evening we only had a short window of opportunity for Halloween activities.

Abigail was able to watch JP carve our pumpkin:

 

And then Abigail took a brief walk around the complex where we found out we had the only jack-o-lantern in our area.

And then we crashed!  Thanks to my mom for making Abigail such a cute costume for her first halloween!

Explorer baby

Abigail is so curious about everything and now that she is mobile, she likes to act on her curiosity.  Her latest obsession is the fridge. She used to watch us open and close it but now she makes a fast, crawling beeline for it as soon as it is opened when she is in the kitchen.  Sometimes in the morning I let her explore in there for a minute or two so she can explore but not kill our electricity bill. 

Here she is checking things out:

 Then the other day she figured out that she can reach higher by standing on the little shelf:

So far she hasn't tried to eat anything yet, but it is an interesting thing to check out!