Summer Recap - Part 1

I decided to take the summer off from blogging. My main excuse is that since Abby has been walking, I am so tired by the end of the day from chasing after her that I like relaxing in the evenings. Does that sound familiar? Now I'm going to try to be good and get back in the swing of things... since the holiday season is about to be upon us again.

Jason, Abby, and I had a wonderful summer! Abby has been walking well since she was 11 months old and she is learning new words every day.

Summer Highlights:
- We went on Abby's first airplane ride to New Jersey to visit my grandparents
- We went on many beach trips to Matagorda (including for July 4th)
- Abby stayed with her Mimi and Poppa (my parents) while Jason and I went to Hawaii
- Jason's sister Becky had a new baby, Julia. She is precious!!!
- Jason got a promotion at work
- I was moved to another team at work.
- We had lots of fun playing and watching Abby learn.

Abby's milestones:
- Abby started a new class at school (new teachers and kids) last week. It has been difficult for her to adjust (she misses her old friends and teachers), but every day it gets easier to leave her.
- Abby has learned the different parts of her body and can point to them: nose, ears, eyes, mouth, head, hair, hands, feet, and belly button.
- Abby knows many of the animal sounds: Cow, Sheep, Horse, Pig, Duck, Dog, and Cat.
- She knows many people's names and uses them when she sees them: Abby (she usually says this when she looks in the mirror or at a picture), Momma, Daddy, Mimi, Poppa (my dad and Jason's dad), Nanna (Jason's Mom), and Hannah.
- Other words that Abby can say in context: shoes, socks, hat, duck, ball, bubble, wawa (water), cookie, cheese, fish, blue (used for blue berries and the color), night night, bye bye, hi, baby, and up (when she wants to get up from her high chair).
- Abby has started eating with a fork and a spoon. This video was the first time that she ate pudding. Note: It is a long video.



My next task is to go through all of the vacation pictures and other summer pictures and post them on Shutterfly. I will post my favorites on the part 2 of the Summer Recap.

Happy Birthday Abby!

One year stats:

Height: 30 7/8 inches (70th percentile)
Weight: 17 lbs 15 ounces (5th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 1/4 inches

One Year Old

Abby turned one year old yesterday! I can't believe how fast time flys!! Her class had a party for her on her birthday and then we will be having a family birthday party on Saturday to celebrate.

The last month has been wonderful as Abby is now walking. She is all over the place, which means that mommy doesn't have time to put a blog entry together unless she is sleeping. We have her one year old doctor's appointment today and I took the morning off so that I could update this (and she is napping). :)

Here are my favorite pictures, videos, and stories from the last month. All of our pictures from the month are posted on our Shutterfly account. I do plan to put together a looking back post that will talk about some of the most memorable stories and pictures from her first year (hopefully sometime this month).

This first video was taken yesterday. She has pretty much mastered the walking thing by now. An earlier video below will show all the falling that happened in the beginning of her transition to toddlerhood.

Memorial Day weekend, we were invited to spend some time with Stacey, Ron, Raegan, and Stacey's parents at their lake house. We had a wonderful time playing with Raegan's toys and riding on their boat.




We had a few fun nights hanging out with our friends Jimmy, Rochelle, Austin, Bella, and Mia.



A few nights we hung out with our friends Dan and Nae. Abby always had a ton of fun playing with Dan!!

We went to Port Aransas for a long weekend with Steven, Angela, and Dylan. Abby wasn't so sure about the beach at first, but once we put water shoes on her... she was fine. She does not like the feel of sand at all... on her hands or feet. Just like her daddy!





Now that she is walking, I had to put her in a dress! Before she was walking, she could only wear dresses that wouldn't get in the way of her crawling, which was very few. Below is her first dress to school picture... and the video I was telling you about above. This was taken about 2 weeks ago... her walking has improved tremendously!!


We have a mini grand piano in Abby's room which she plays on every day. My favorite part is watching her sit on her stool. She will stand all the way up on it and then move her legs around until she is sitting down. One evening right after her bath, I put her diaper on and was getting her PJs ready when she went to play the piano with no clothes on. I yelled for Jason to get the camera... and we got these cute pics!

Bows in her Hair

Abby's hair is long enough now for bows!!!

Catch Up

There are too many things that have happened since my last blog to mention them all. I will list a few and share my favorite pictures from the month of April and early May.

We had a wonderful Easter with Kim's parents and grandmother.


Ben and Bridget's wedding was beautiful!!


We celebrated Mia's 4th birthday.


Abby started standing by herself and took her first steps. Stay tuned for videos...


We took cute boat pictures.


We went to the International Festival in downtown Houston.





Houston flooded and Abby was out of school for a few days. During those days we did a bunch of playing with Hannah and dancing.



Abby got a really cute house that she plays with every day now.

So Big!

Abby's favorite book is called "So Big" and its main character is Elmo. Elmo is so big... just like Abby.

Abby eats big girl food: chicken, rice, beans, carrots, bananas, yougart, etc.

Abby flirts with boys.


Abby is interested in history.


Abby likes hanging out with her girlfriends.




Abby makes sure that Hannah does her business.



Abby cruises around the furniture.

Abby stands up as much as she can.


Abby walks around with her friends.


Abby drinks from a straw.


PS: When she is tired she knows to take a nap. This was taken 5-minutes after the Drinking from a Straw video.

9 Months Old

Abby's 9 Month Stats:

Height: 28 inches (75 percentile)
Weight: 16 pounds 4 ounces (10 percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 inches (25 percentile)

For dinner, our family went to the Kemah Boardwalk... we had a great time!