My sweet cheeks!

Seriously, who could resist this girl?! Fresh out of the bath and oh-so cute!!

I'm in trouble...

Thursday night Jordan came home and got to stay for a whole three nights!! He actually just left to return to Camp Clark (in Nevada) and oh boy am I in trouble. We learned a lot this weekend...
* Abigail has a sweet tooth, like her mama. She had some cheesecake (Jello no-bake kind) and loved it! Her normal "new food face" is kinda scrunched up, but not this time! Oh no! It was a big smile with cherries on her lips.

* Abigail loves her dada. Yes, we all knew this before, and what kid doesn't love their daddy, right? But, oh wow! Dada has a majic touch in so many areas and this afternoon as Jordan was getting ready to leave, she knew it and the grouch came out. Which leads me to...

* Abigail throws tantrums!! Already. This is not good, but completely hilarious. She will be crawling, or cruising (see below) or playing and something makes her mad and watch out!! She throws herself on the floor and puts her head on her little arm and cries. About two seconds later she'll peak to see if you're paying attention to her and either stop, or carry on a couple more seconds. I'm going to try to get a video next time. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for you) these tantrums only last a few seconds.

* Cruising and pulling up. These are her favorite things at the moment.

* Falling. Due to the above... she still doesn't have great ballance, and we have hard wood floors. This equals a disaster, but at least she's tough!

* Every time Jordan leaves it's a little bit harder... one would think it would get easier, or at least since I know I'll see him again I wouldn't cry. But, I do. I'm a girl. A girl who is completely in love with her boy and can't see spending a whole year without him. Once we get our routine down it gets a bit easier, or at least doesn't hurt so much, but every time we see him again it tears open the wound and makes it hard all over again.

* Here are some pictures from our weekend...

Look carefully... she gave herself a pink highlighter mustache!

Eating raviolis

Falling asleep in daddy's arms

Swinging at the park

Walking across the really cool stepping stones (Antioch Park rocks!)

Recent happenings...

So Abby and I have been truckin' on and are doing quite well, if I do say so myself! Last Friday Aunt Renie babysat Abigail because Miss Pam had the day off to get her kids ready for back-to-school. I think they both had a great time! Early in the day Renie texted me to tell me Abby fell and had a bruise. I texted back saying it wasn't the first, nor would it be the last. I think Renie felt worse about it than Abby did, but it is a pretty good one.


Saturday my parents came down and brought a friend of the family. Before Jordan left he worked hard to get the gate side of our fence fixed, but didn't quite get it finished, so my dad and Josh finished it up with a little help from Wayne. Allison and Tim spent the morning and early afternoon at Schlitterbahn and then came over to help and visit. About 2 Jordan called and said he'd have the night off, starting at 5, if I wanted to come down. I jumped in the car, after packing a small bag and lots of encouraging words from my parents, and went to visit him. We went to dinner and had a couple drinks with the guys he's going to spend the next year with and really had a great evening.

Sunday morning bright and early (yes, 7am is bright and early on a Sunday!) I hopped in the car and drove back. Everyone went out for breakfast when I got home and the boys finished up their second project - fixing my stair rail and putting in a "pretty" post.

All in all it was a great weekend! Here are some pictures:

Abigail using Renie's Tiffany's bracelet as a teether (expensive taste already)

Abigail and Rhiannon

Such a smiley girl!

After some cookie

The fence in progress...

The last week and other random pictures

Jordan left on Monday... we made it an entire work week and weekend! We did it! And, we can do it! Abigail and I both had our whiny moments, and for those of you on facebook you may have read about my heartbreak. Tuesday morning I woke to Abigail's happy voice on the baby monitor chatting away to herself. I went into her room to find her standing in her crib (by now this is a normal, daily occurance). She got so excited to see me, but kept peeking around me to see out the door... the month before he left Jordan had been getting Abigail ready in the morning, or at least coming in to help me... when he didn't come in that morning she started fussing. It seriously broke my heart. We've also had some small things happen that let me know she realizes he isn't here. I think right now that's the hard part for me (at this moment!).

The first time she stood in her crib! Yea baby girl!

Always so happy!

Coloring... or eating crayons, whichever!

What looks!?

Yummy, meat sticks!

This is how she likes to eat...

And, go for walks!

Night, night!

Waving bye to Jordan...

Playing with Daddy before he left (she was eating his dog tags)

Giving mommy kisses!

Oatmeal... she hit the bowl Sunday morning and it went all over her tray.
She and I laughed and she just used her hands to finish!

Lookin back...

Abigail is 9 months old and looking back it's hard to believe that a year ago she wasn't in our lives, not technically. I seriously don't know what I did with all of my "free" time back then! She definitely keeps us on our toes. Thursday morning Jordan and I went into Abigail's room and, surprise! she was standing! Yea baby girl! I was pretty excited, but I also know that now nap time is 10x harder than ever before! I took the bumper out of her crib Thursday morning because I really didn't want to see her crawling out anytime soon!

Friday morning Abigail was sitting up in her crib when I went in to get her (this was a first, also). I took the day off on Friday to hang out with Jordan and we went and got the massages that a friend had given us a gift certificate for last October (right before Abigail was born). Well when we picked Abby up from daycare (the first time we'd ever picked her up together) Pam told us that she took a couple of steps!! Apparently she walked from the ottoman to the couch (probably 3 steps) with out help! Oh my gosh!! I can't believe she is that big! She hasn't taken any steps at home yet, but has been pulling up on everything.

Her favorite things to do right now are:
Pull up on Mommy and Daddy
Say "Dada" (still no mama)
Climb over any and everything
Follow mama everywhere in her walker
Wave bye-bye and hello
Point
Put circle "blocks" in the shape sorter (correctly)
Take baths (daddy usually does this, so we'll see if she like "mama baths" as well)

Foods she loves:
Puffs
Meat sticks
Yo-baby Yogurt
Oatmeal ~ regular "big people" oatmeal (1/2 sugar) - apples & cinnamon and maple & brown sugar
Mixed vegetables
Sweet potatoes
Spaghetti (3rd foods, haven't tried the real stuff, yet)

Today Abby had her first bloody nose. Yes, bloody nose. She was helping mommy fold clothes and I let her play in the clothes basket. As you previously read, she loves to pull up on everything. Well she decided she wanted to stand and stood up and over the basket went. Face first she fell. It probably wouldn't have been so horrible, but since we have hard wood floors, it was bad. I cried and Jordan came to the rescue. He checked her all out and, of course she was crying, but she was fine. We held her and bounced her she seemed fine. Next thing I know there is a little bit of blood running out of her nose. I was horrified that I let this happen to her (yes, this is what I've been thinking all day). I know that she is going to take 100 more spills in her life time and probably have many more bloody noses, but it still broke my heart.