Catching up

 

I feel like I’ve hardly taken any pictures of Abbie lately.  It’s hard to get a decent picture of her because she’s such a little busy body and she’s ALWAYS on the move.  So most of the pictures I take are blurry.  And it’s been crappy weather here lately which equals no natural light coming in the windows, which means that I have to use my flash, which means I can’t take rapid fire photos.  I’d love to get an external flash for my camera but they’re like $200 so I need to save up first.

I can’t believe how much Abbie is talking lately.  Mark just left a little over a week ago and I feel like she’s changed so much in the past week!  Friends here have told me numerous times they can’t believe how much she’s changed since we got here.  I took her to a party last weekend and one of our friends didn’t even know who she was because she’d changed so much.  I look back on pictures from a month or two ago and she looks different and acts completely different.  She’s really turning into a goofy little girl now and she’s not at all a baby.

Overall, Abbie and I have been having fun together while Mark’s been gone.  She’s screaming a lot less lately because she’s able to talk now and she’ll tell you what she wants.  I have fun with her when we run around doing our errands and it’s not such a chore to have her along.  I usually just stick her in the Ergo on my back and away we go.  Gives me good exercise and she likes being up high where she can see everything.  Usually she’s a pretty happy girl, but occasionally she has her moments.  The following pictures were taken about 10 seconds apart.

I’ve started giving her a cup at meals now with water in it and letting her figure out how to use it.  She actually does really well with it and I was surprised.  I still give her bottles during her nap and at bedtime.  Her bottle is her one comfort thing.  She’s never really used a pacifier, she doesn’t suck her thumb, she doesn’t drag around a blanket, but she likes her bottle.  I feel with Mark being gone as much as he’s going to be, I don’t want to take away the one thing that comforts her, so I’m going to hold off on weaning her from the bottle.  She only gets 2-3 a day and the rest of her liquids come from sippies or cups so I’m not going to push it at this point.  I’m sure she’s not going to go to high school with a bottle tucked into her backpack so I’m not too worried about it. 

Luckily Abbie has been sleeping REALLY well for me since Mark’s been gone.  (I’m probably jinxing myself here…)  She goes to bed around 8pm every night and is up at 8:30am every morning and takes a 1.5-3 hour nap around 2pm.  She hasn’t given me any issues when I put her to bed and she hasn’t been waking up screaming either.  It helps that she’s not currently teething, I think.  I’m praying our good sleeping streak continues!!

I’m just excited for Mark to get home so he can see how much she’s changed!