Hit the Road, Jack....

We took full advantage of the warmer weather today. I simply think we are a warm weather family. We all go into a bit of seasonal depression when the cold hits. We went on a picnic and little "hike" in the wooded area of a new subdivision (no houses yet so it was perfect). Abby Kate loved it so much. She sobbed when we put her back in the truck. Daddy rode 4-wheelers and after he returned home, he let AK ride a little, which she loved.
We went on a walk with our friend Rachel and Adi and then Miss AK refused to go in....we must have walked around outside our house for 2 hours. We finally came inside about 5:30, much to her protest. Bring on SUMMER!

Fun Weekend Pics

We had a fun weekend. Celebrated Uncle Hal and Sweetie's birthdays. We surprised Hunk in Stillwater with his best friends and their wives before the OSU/Texas Tech game on Saturday. Super fun! The second picture cracks me up. We were singing "This Little Light of Mine" and the finger held up was her "light." Though every time I would say, "where is your light?" she would look up at the lights in our kitchen. Quite literal.

Fun Pics!

We were just being super silly today and thought I would share the pics. The last one is of her reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear which has become a new favorite. She so loves it! Today I started quoting it and she walked over to her toy bin, took it out, and wanted me to read it. I love that she is understanding things now! She even says "Baaa" when we get to the black sheep. So fun!

Nursery

I had a friend recently ask me to add pictures of Abby Kate's room to her blog. It seems weird that so many of my friends and family have never seen her room. So here it is! If you are a blogging friend, add pictures of your own nursery. It is super fun to see each others homes!

Books

Okay, this might just be my favorite picture ever. It is my 2 favorite people, participating in my favorite earthly thing ever. I will tell you, watching your child's personality, likes and dislikes emerge is both fascinating and at times frightening. But I will tell you, this new "favorite" of my daughter has brought more delight to my heart than I can tell you. As silly as it sounds, the written word has taken me to places I will never go in the flesh. It has challenged and stretched my imagination to the limits. It has encouraged and inspired me more than anything else on the earth. It bonds me more quickly to other readers than anything amount of time or experiences. As I faced a cancer scare earlier in the year, it caused me to reflect and journal a lot....leading me to write Bobby a list of things a father might not think to do and things I wanted Abby Kate to learn if I was not around to teach her. One of the most important things to me is fostering a love for reading in our children. My Mom was great at that. I would go to her countless times in a day, asking for ideas to break through my boredom and she always challenged me to go curl up with a book. Thanks Momma.
So thus to the point....Abby Kate has loved reading, particularly a book called Miss Spider's Tea Party since she was terribly young....I think because the cadence of the language is so beautiful, the pictures colorful...but lately, she is loving ALL her books. She will sit for long periods of time (a feat in and of itself) thumbing through the pages. But my most favorite, the part that causes my spirit to scream with thankfulness is this... she comes toddling over, places a book in my hand, signs "more" and then climbs into my lap, leans back against my chest where I can smell her sweet hair and feel each sweet breath and I know... there is nothing the written word has never done more for me than this....

Pearls...

Her Daddy says it is because she was born on Pearl Harbor Day, but who knows...she enthusiastically signs "more" (still her sign when she wants something, I really need to get on teaching her new signs) when she is in our bathroom, wanting some time with my jewelry. She ALWAYS goes for these pearls, will promptly put them around her neck, and then spend the rest of the afternoon walking around with them on until I take them off, much to her protest, for bedtime...

Messy?

When left to her own devices, this is what we get....Oh my.

Laughter....

Dancing!

Sleepy Girl....

I know I have been doing a lot of video lately. I really just realized. I guess I figure 4D is better than 2D right? AK has had a hard past few days with naps. She woke up too early today too and is still wiped out. This was her watching Veggie Tales. Check out Snuggle Bunny as the pillow...that is no way to treat a friend :). Oh be still my heart!

The New Old Face....

This is the face you see any time you look at Abby Kate when she is happy. It is hard to keep a straight face. Any stranger (and there is no such word to her) gets this face in exchange of a tiny bit of attention (yes, even a glance). There is usually so much laughter from the stranger that it is hard to be worried about this child that would be perfect kidnap material (she knows no fear). You can reference this face from this past August here http://sweetabbykate.blogspot.com/2006/08/nose_22.html to see this face has been a favorite before....it has just resurfaced. We also had a ball on our vacation. You can see pics here http://breatheholyonthisrust.blogspot.com/2007/01/oh-sweet-vacation.html

These Boots Are Made for Walkin'....

Night Night!

Okay, you know a child is really sleep trained when she walks in her room, frantically signing "more" (which is her sign for anything she wants) and climbs up on her crib crying until I put her in where she promptly pops in her paci and tucks snuggle bunny under her arm, and lays her head down. Hmmmm.....don't you wish we adults could get nap time that easily!

Update

Thank you all so much for your phone calls, emails and prayers. Abby Kate is feeling SO much better as of this morning. She slept all night for the first time in 10 days last night so I think it made us all feel better :).
We also wanted to share a video of her feeding herself. She is very much into doing it herself. I am worried with her being this young and already wanting to do it herself what picking out clothes, doing her hair and deciding what to have for meals will be like in the future! Love you all dearly....
http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i311/snqualls/?action=view&current=DSCN1032.flv

Please pray....

This is just a quick post to ask for your prayers. We went back to the pedi today and Abby Kate has RSV (a respiratory virus). She also has a severe ear infection and a yeast infection from the antibiotics. She is a sick baby. She got a shot of antibiotics today, which he said should help her start feeling better almost instantly, and a medicine for her yeast infection. She is sleeping wonderfully right now, something she hasn't been getting much of....
As for the RSV, he said it usually goes away on its own or she will have to be hospitalized. This is not typical of children over 1 though. We are just believing she will be better soon. He said it could take up to another 7 days though. This is something else that is hard....Bobby and I leave Thursday morning for Lake Tahoe (my Christmas/birthday present) and will be gone 5 days. It is the first time I have been away from her for more than 1 night and far enough away I cannot get to her. I am not a crazy mother that thinks my child cannot live without me (she has shown her independent nature all along) but you know how it is when you are sick. She will be staying with my Mom and Dad who I trust implicitly but it would be hard to leave her if she was still sick. Thank you all so much for praying and checking on us up to this point. We continue to covet your prayers....

One, Two...

Here is a little video of Abby Kate's newest trick!
http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i311/snqualls/?action=view&current=DSCN1025.flv

Watching Veggie Tales

Check out the tiptoes....talk about loving a show. I have to constantly go and sit her back from the TV. Thought this was pretty smart...using the VCR tapes for leverage. At least they are still good for something right?

Our Icy Prision

Well, we are still sick. Still stuck inside. It started icing about 10am on Friday and did not stop until last night. I read somewhere today that we got 6-8 inches of ICE! You can see the picture of our backyard (check out the huge dog bowl in the yard almost covered...that can give you an idea). The crazy thing is it LOOKS like snow but is pure, solid ice. So needless to say, a sick baby+huge ice storm=a stir crazy Momma dying for a Sonic diet coke. Anyway, the last picture of her looks so sad I couldn't resist. Those flushed checks, covers, and runny nose. Bless her sweet heart!

Our sick baby

I hope there are still a few people that check this tonight. Abby Kate woke up this morning coughing. I took her to the doctor and found out she has croup. He gave her a shot but she has been pretty miserable today. PLEASE pray for her. Praise the sweet Lord this is the first time she has been really sick but it is heartbreaking to me. I am also praying so hard we don't lose power. Please pray for that as well. I do not want to have to help a sick baby and worry about the cold, ect....Love you all!

Abby Kate and Friends

This is Abby Kate and her buddy Everett. He is the son of one of my best friends from college, Kizzy. They had SO much fun playing Wednesday! He is 2 months younger than AK but we live about 2 miles apart (they live in the same neighborhood as Hal and Ashley) so they will probably be in school together. LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing them play!

And this is Abby Kate and Adison. Adi is the daughter of one of my best friends from childhood, Rachel. We grew up across the street from one another. Basically, we are family. We learned to ride bikes together, sing Oak Ridge Boys at the top of our lungs, ect. I have so many pictures of Rachel and I at this exact age. If I can figure out how to scan them in, I will post them later. I LOVE getting to see my child play with my friend's children. Abby Kate and Adi are 2 months apart as well! WE LOVE OUR FRIENDS!

The Paci Bandit

I heard a clatter and arose to see what was the matter....my child is in the new stage of pulling any and everything down and playing with it. In this case, it lasted 30 minutes while she tried each paci in her mouth...

I am now finding pacis tucked away in places I did not know existed. My little girl is afraid of the paci depression I guess. Or is a closet horder. Either way, weird habit for a 13 month old no?

Update on the nap situation...we are back to 2. Tried it one day...miserable sums it up. We are now waiting as long as we can.

Day at the Aquarium

Our season passes to the aquarium are SUCH a great investment! We haven't been in a while and we are in the middle of trying to go to one nap...nightmare. Anyway, she LOVED the fish. She seriously stood there and looked and talked to the fish for about 20 minutes.
As for the nap business (this is more for my record than anything but if you want to read about it, please stay with me)...This morning, she went down at 9 as usual, talked until 10:30 and then slept until almost 12 (thus the trip to the aquarium...I was trying to find something to entertain us). Up to this point, she woke up at 7 or 7:30, went down for her am nap at 9, slept until 10:30 or 11, went back down for pm nap at 1:30 and slept until 3 or 3:30 and then bedtime is still 7. Over the past 2 weeks, she would go a couple of days and take monster am AND pm naps (I now think it was a result of a growth spurt) and then go a couple of days only taking one good am OR pm nap. She is still sleeping 12-13 hours at night. If any of you have pearls of wisdom in how to move to one nap, please post them! I have been holding on to both for dear life but know she really is ready...I love her am nap as it is my time to take a shower and do my quiet time. Oh well. As it stands, I am going to start tomorrow trying to push her nap time. Hopefully she can make it until about 12:30 and then can take a good afternoon nap. At least that is my overall goal. To get her back to going down for a her one nap at 12:30 or 1. It will help that we have Little Gym to push us both tomorrow! I am sure it will take many days or weeks to get us to a consistent schedule again. She is pretty great about telling me when she is ready to go to sleep. We shall see! Thanks for reading and for any input you may have!

Her throne

This is her new chair Sweetie and Poppy got her for Christmas. She loves sitting in it! She watched cartoons in it for a full 20 minutes without moving this morning! It helps that it is covered in the same fabric as her sheets. She has loved textures since birth. She also has an Elmo chair that Neannie and Pop got her that giggles. She loves it too but it tips over when she tries to sit in it so she mostly just tries and tries to make it giggle and shake!

Hair

This just cracked me up. She so has my hair. Stick straight and has a million cowlicks (not sure how you spell that but I think that way is best even if it is not right). I misplaced her brush over the holidays so went days without one and this effect was even after wetting it! She's a rock star!

Walking!

Just wanted you all to see Abby Kate walking. You can get to the video from here http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i311/snqualls/?action=view&current=DSCN0956.flv

Sorry it is sideways. I did not know you could not flip it like a picture!

Enjoying Spaghetti!

For those of you that know me, you know I ADORE Italian food. I sometimes think I was born in the wrong country. My family tells the story that my first solid food was spaghetti from Pete's Place....our family's all time favorite restaurant in Krebs, Oklahoma. We have been eating there forever. The owner was an Italian immigrant and it has been past down to family members. We all love it. I made spaghetti last night and let AK have a taste and she just kept wanting more. I was afraid for her stomach with all the garlic and herbs but she is my girl. She ate a ton and LOVED every minute of it!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to post once more before Christmas. We truly pray you will all do as Abby Kate is doing in the first picture and look up this Christmas. Our Pastor a couple of weeks ago talked about how Christmas is one of two times a year that the supernatural world collided. We pray you will all put JESUS in the center of your holidays and that your time with your families will be blessed. We love you all!

She knows the GOOD stuff!

I promise I washed this out first! I am simply addicted to Sonic's Diet Cokes. They are the highlight of any day I can afford one. My husband thinks it is a huge waste of money but what does he know....he has about 50 knives....
Well, we have a walker! She took about 7 steps today. She is still a little shaky but is doing it!

I am the best present EVER!

This child never ceases to crack me up. She just keeps getting funnier and chatty-er (I know this is not a word :)) but thought I would share these fun pics. She has been taking steps these past few days so we may have a walker soon!

My First Birthday

Well, our precious girl is now one! We had such a fun birthday with our families this weekend. She got tons of fun presents and ADORED the attention. I was shocked at how much she loved everyone looking at her! I did a montage for her birthday and would love for you all to see it if you have 7 minutes to spare. Thank you all for checking this blog and watching her grow. We have LOVED this first year and here is to many more....

This is her montage address

http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=40367&CID=58846

I'm One!

I will have many more pictures after tomorrow. We are having a small family birthday party and I will post the 12 month update and pics as well. However, yesterday, her true birthday was so fun! We sang Happy Birthday when we went in to get her up and she just jumped up and down and "sang" along. We had pancakes for breakfast (a first for her) and she gobbled them right up! We had a pretty low key day, stayed in our pjs and just played (it was about 21 degrees here yesterday). We put on Christmas music and danced and danced. This child LOVES to dance (it is hysterical). Anyway, I was changing her diaper and said "Abby Kate, are you one?" and she held up one finger. I thought it was a fluke but then asked her 3 other times and she did it again. I finally got it on video (sort of)...she got really excited and jumped up and down so you can't see the one finger too well but it is on her left hand. Thought I would post it anyway. Love you all and thanks for all the birthday wishes for her! http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i311/snqualls/?action=view&current=DSCN0891.flv

Making her first snow angel!

Playing in the snow!