Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was rough for Abbey, which therefor made it rough for me! She was definitely having an "off" day. The previous couple days she had been fighting a pretty high fever (up to 103.6) but with no other symptoms. Her Uncle Steve & Aunt Tracy hosted Thanksgiving dinner at their house in Ft. Worth so that's where we headed. Most of the day I spent soothing her crankiness/crying. She wanted no one else to hold her and of course her family really wanted to. I think the stimulation/amount of people in the house was also causing her anxiety. Anyways, the food was good but hopefully she will enjoy herself a little more next year! Here are a couple pictures:
As soon as we got there:

With her brother & cousins:

How most of the day really was:

Abbey got her two front teeth!

Abbey officially has two teeth now! The bottom two came in. In all honestly I didn't even notice until my mother in law told me. And that is a GOOD thing! Her gums did not swell up even close to how Dylan's did and she never really drooled (he was a huge drooler). She was however, waking up multiple times in the night. Now we know why! It's a good thing she's starting to get her teeth because she is a big eater. We really bypassed the puree phase pretty quickly. Between feeding myself and getting Dylan to sit in his chair at mealtime I honestly think she was just loosing her patience with being fed. She wants to feed herself! Which for me, is great! She she is eating all sorts of finger foods and I am amazed at how well she chews them/spits them out if she cant swallow. These days she is eating avocado, scrambled egg yolks, pancakes, zucchini fries (baked), diced squash, bananas, pasta, etc. As soon as I can get a photo of her teeth I'll post it!

Playgroup Fun!

We love our lil playgroup that we made friends with back when Dylan was about 4 months old! It's a group of about 8 moms (we've dwindled down some) and we all have 2 yr olds and 6mo-1 yr olds! It's so crazy to see how our group has grown! Here is a photo of back when Dylan was a baby and then a picture of Abbey with the second round of babies! It's so cute watching all the toddlers and their siblings these days! And of course, sooo nice to have other mommy friends to relate to on things and hang out with!
Abbey is second from the right (their in order of age):

Dylan is last one of the right (in order of age):

Happy 1/2 YR Birthday Abbey!

How is this possible, 6 months already?!?! We love this little girl so much! She is growing way too fast and it's amazing how our little family functions like a machine these days! We all have our part and have so much fun together. We are pretty much in a solid routine these days. At her 6 month check up she weighed 15 lbs (30th percentile) and measured 26 3/4 in long (75th percentile).
As for how she is doing in general, she is great! She sits up unassisted extremely well these days. She scoots around and crawls backwards but not forward yet. Honestly, I think she just likes sitting up by herself more than being on her belly now! She also has grown into the Jumperoo and really likes it! Since this, she has become less interested in being in the swing and she is getting too big for the bouncy seat!
She eats two solid meals a day (purees) and still nursing most of the time, with the exception of 1-2 bottles of formula a day (for convenience). Unfortunately, she is still waking in the middle of the night to nurse but oh well. She goes to bed around 8PM and wakes up around 7AM and takes two short naps in the morning/early afternoon and a long late afternoon nap. Overall she is an extremely happy smiley baby and loves to laugh. She still has stranger anxiety and prefers her mommy to hold her most of the time. She can also get very overwhelmed/over stimulated by loud places/people. She is amazing with her hands, passing things back and forth between them and pinching things. She LOVES anything with tags. That's the first thing she looks for, and studies them very hard! Anyways, here are her pics! Enjoy the series of Dylan getting his photo taken, escaping the photo, then stealing Abbey's sticker and the big ol grin on his face!

November Fun!

Here are some photos from the busy month of November!

Bathtime!

Abbey's First Camping Trip!

Abbey went on her first camping trip the first weekend in November. We drove down to the hill country right outside of Austin. Abbey did great! She was great in the car (slept the WHOLE time on the way home) and enjoyed being outside and spending time with the Halliday family! The first night we were camping it was pretty cold outside, but the second night was perfect weather. She really liked the nature hike we took and watching her brother and his two cousins play in the dirt the whole time! She normally wont let anyone but her mommy hold her, but this weekend she actually let her Maw Maw, Pops, Aunt Tracy and Uncle Steve hold her a lot!
Maw Maw & Abbey:

Mommy & Abbey:

Pops & Abbey:

All bundled up to sleep:

Nature Walk:

The boys (covered in dirt!):