Back to Work

I started work and Abby started school on Wednesday. It has been both an emotional and physical roller coaster for both of us since then.

School
Dropping Abby off at day care for the first time affected me a lot differently than I thought that it would. I imagined that I would be thinking about work and what was coming next, but I cried the whole way to work and had to sit in the parking garage for a while before I was ready to go in. My work agreed to let me leave early for the first week so I picked her up the first day at 3:30 pm. She had just been put down for a nap. I almost felt guilty taking her home at that point (they said that she hadn't cried the whole day).

The next two days were a lot easier. Abby and I do not have our morning schedule down yet - right now it is dependent on her sleeping schedule, but we are working on it. She has been so tired after day care that she goes to sleep really early and wakes up around 4 - 5 instead of the 6:30 mornings that we used to have.

Abby at school:

We are really happy with her school:


Work
Work is going very well for me. It is almost like I wasn't gone for 3 months. The days pass by very quickly because we have been very busy. I'm actually really happy that this is the case because it would be awful if I was bored and counting down the hours each day until I could pick up Abby.

My company moved office locations while I was away. The new building is really nice, and the best part about it is that it shares a parking garage with a fitness club. I always sign up to go to a gym and will go for a short amount of time until I get lazy and don't want to travel the extra distance to go work out. But, if you have to walk by the entrance of the gym to get to your office every day and to leave every evening... you would feel really guilty not going. So it has worked out perfect for me. I have already been to the club three times since Tuesday. :)

Here is a pic of me on my first day:


Random

Abby went on her first brunch trip with Jason, I, Angela, Steven, and Dylan this week:

Also, Abby and Vincent had their first play date together. Aren't play dates fun!!

Alert

The day that Abby was born, the doctor said "Congratulations you have a daughter... and look at how alert she is." It hasn't stopped since then. I would have to say that "alert" is the most common adjective used to describe Abby. Three people have already called her that this morning - two different ladies in the gym's child care center and the checkout lady at Target. Are most babies not alert? I guess I haven't been around any for a long period of time, besides Abby, so I assumed that they are all curious as to what is going on.

Tomorrow is Abby's first day in day care and my first day back at work. Unfortunately, because of Ike, I didn't get a transition period... but I'm sure that everything will be okay. My work is great and I'm sure that they will understand if I need to leave early every once and awhile to see my daughter.

Saturday Night Live

This is my third post of the day... definitely a record for me. But, there is a an important update: Abby laughed for the first time tonight. Luckily, Jason was with me so we caught it on video.

This happened during the A&M vs. Miami game... so we were sure to be sure she had the right pacifier.


Also, she has been drooling up a storm, so we introduced her to her teething blanket.


James Franco is hosting SNL tonight... Yeah!!!

Catch Up

I'm playing catch up with this stream of conscious list:

Abby is getting really big. I don't have her stats, but trust me. Here are a few of the new things happening for her:

- She grabs at toys and holds on to them during play time.
- She notices her feet and her hands and is caught holding them or staring at them frequently.
- She is starting to suck on her thumb (much to our dismay).
- She starts school (daycare) on Monday.
- She eats 4 ounces of milk at a time and is eating every 2 hours or so.
- She is adaptable. She can sleep anywhere at night (ex. car seat, bouncy chair, etc).
- She has grown too long for her 0 - 3 month clothes and has started wearing her 3 - 6 months clothes (funny that her wardrobe change works well with the season change).
- She has slept the full night (8 hours) twice now (regrettably not two nights in a row)

Abby and I during Ike

I'm really sick of the hurricane coverage on the news. It basically fills up every time slot on the tv all day. It has been doing this for over a week and I know that I should be interested... but I'm not anymore.


Here are a few of our hurricane aftermath pics:
This is our neighbor's house damage.This fallen gutter caused a small leak in our roof (water damage in the kitchen)Front Yard Pic

I found facebook.com for the first time this week. Adrienne has been trying to get me to join for a while now... but I have been stubborn until now. I love it!! I have had a chance to catch up with high school and college friends that I thought I might not ever see or talk to again. I am addicted!! I can't believe that I haven't really heard about facebook until now... everyone is on it... even my mom!

Vincent Lucas

This birth announcement is way overdue. Vincent Lucas was born last Wednesday, September 10, 2008 to Edwin and Kristin. Mom, Dad, and baby were all fine while they stayed in the hospital during the hurricane. The hospital did lose power, but luckily no windows were broken.

Vincent had a hectic first few days. Because Kristin and Edwin did not have power when they were released on Sunday... they went to stay at a hotel in Seguin for a night. Then, they came to stay with us after our power returned.

Vincent is just precious with a full head of hair!!

Here is a hospital pic:


First bath pic (taken at the Allen house):

Ike

Sorry it has been so long since the last post - Hurricane Ike made me take a blogging break.

Things for us got crazy on Thursday... We have a family house in Matagorda, Texas, and a new (for us) boat that is being worked on in Palacious, Texas. Jason and Jimmy went to get the boat on Thursday while I decided to do some last minute grocery shopping (not smart). Randy and Mel had to cut their Disney World trip early in order to come home and remove the majority of our belongings from the Matagorda place. That night we had a hurricane party at Jimmy and Rochelle's - I was the only one drinking Hurricanes.

Friday we sheltered some friends: Dan and Nae. The winds of Ike started early, the lights went out around 2 am, and the winds really picked up to what looked like a hurricane around 3 am. I went to bed at 5 am, not thinking about what the morning would feel like with an infant. At that time there hadn't been any damage to our house or any of my neighbor's houses - that I could tell.

Saturday we surveyed the damage and luckily the only problems that we had with our house was the lack of electricity and a missing gutter that caused a relatively small roof leak in our house. After talking to some of our other friends it looks like not everyone was as lucky. Our next door neighbors lost a side of their house (the siding just peeled up). Marisa and Jason's house have a couple of trees that fell on it(one in the living room and one in the upstairs baby's room/downstairs guest room). Thank God they were out of the house at the time so no one was hurt. Melanie and Matt's house also had a tree come in to stay. :(

Because we didn't want to forge the Houston heat with no air conditioning (for Abby's sake of course), we found shelter at Jason's parents' house in Boling, TX (just south of Houston). His parents were stuck in Florida on the Disney World trip (not a bad place to be stuck) because the airlines canceled all of their flights until Monday. We were grateful for the place to stay!!

We returned home yesterday, after one of our friendly neighbors called to let us know that our power was back on. It is so good to be home. Not everyone has their electricity though... so we had a slumber party with our good friends Kristin, Edwin, and their 7 day old baby Vincent (birth announcement post to follow). It is fun with all of us, so they will be staying with us until the power comes back on.

Thanks to all of the people who called from other cities offering to house us during this storm... we really appreciate it!! Also, thanks to everyone for checking on us... we are fine.

Losing Hair

Abby is losing her hair by the handful right now, literally!! Often, she raises her hands up to her hair and when she brings it back it is full of her hair. I've been told that baby hair falls out... I guess I just thought that since it hadn't fallen out yet that it wouldn't.

Kristin and I went shopping today. Kristin is scheduled to have her baby (Sophia if it is a girl or Vincent if it is a boy) on Wednesday!! Here is a day before the day of birth pictures of her. :)

Caught on Camera

I finally caught Abigail smiling on camera!

Flowers in her Hair

One day I was telling Kristin how I really liked the flower headband that Tori Spelling's daughter, Stella, was wearing on an episode of Tori and Dean. Yesterday, Kristin came over with a few cute headbands that she had made for Abby. Thank you Kristin!!!! You are such a good friend!!!




Abby and I played photo-shoot with her new headband:

Sarah Palin

Did anyone else watch Sarah Palin's speech last night? That speech was probably the first political speech that I have ever been really excited about... I smiled the whole time. I really think that she is great (at least what I know about her so far)!

We went to Grandma's again today for our Thursday visit. They won't be around for next week's visit because they will be in Florida (Disney). We are all hoping that the hurricane on its way decides to miss Florida while they are there.



Here is a cute video of Grandma with Abby:

Dylan

Dylan and Angela came over this morning for breakfast. Dylan was very interested in playing with the baby Abigail. Here are a few cute pictures of them:

Labor Day

Jason and I had a very relaxing Labor Day weekend. Saturday we relaxed all day. Sunday we had Dan and Nae over for dinner. We are very glad that they moved into town because they are a very fun couple!! On Monday we had a terrific dinner at Keith and Lynaia's house. Abigail had a great time with their daughters Bella and Eva.

Monday night, after dinner, Abby decided to sleep all the way through the night for the first time. She slept from 9:45pm until 6am. While she slept, I worried about her through the night... but it is an important step. We will have to see if she starts to sleep through the night every night.