It’s official: Abi is crawling

Not creeping.  Not scooching.  Not commando-style crawling.  Real crawling.  On Friday, she was hungry and crawled over to where Mommy was standing.  She then waited patiently for Mommy to figure out why she was there.  On Sunday morning, she started moving toward Mommy, and Mommy put out an outstretched hand.  Abi put her hand into Mommy’s hand, and soon found herself in Mommy’s lap.  She then put her hand on Mommy’s boob, to signal that she was hungry.  Do we have the beginning of pointing to indicate wants / needs?

Happy 40th wedding anniversary

to Grandma & Grandpa!

The meaning of birthdays

Abi’s 7th month birthday led Mommy to ponder the meaning of birthdays.  Why do we wish people “happy birthday” on the anniversary of their birth?  Shouldn’t, instead, we wish their mommies “happy birth day” . . .and if the mommy happens to be Grandma Linda, also thank her for making Daddy the wonderful person that he is?  Certainly, it is the mommies who do the hard work on birth days.  (Unless, of course, we are discussing me – in which case I can honestly say “it wasn’t that bad.”)  While some people may argue that birth is traumatic to babies, I am not sure I buy that.  Abi seemed quite content when she was born, and enjoyed holding onto Daddy’s finger.  In any case, I do not know anyone who really remembers their birth, so no one can really dispute me. From now on, I am going to be wishing peoples’ mommies happy birthdays – rather than wishing the person who was born a happy day on the basis that they successfully made another full rotation around the sun.

p.s. if you want to wish Daddy happy birthday for Abigail, your two options are: (a) June 15th – the anniversary of her conception, and (b) March 16th  the day that Abi was born and the anniversary of the day since when Daddy has been getting much, much less sleep than he needs.

At Uncle Alan’s

Mommy was feeling very sick today (nasty cold), so Daddy took Abi to hang out at Uncle Alan’s house

Abi seems to prefer Daddy's blackberry to his iPhone - Daddy is not quite sure why since he is sure that the iPhone is a better phone than his blackberry

Napping during a busy day of playing

Happy Birthday Abi

Abi is 7 months old today.  Happy Birthday Abi!

In other news, Abi is trying hard to stand up on her own (witrhout holding on to anything.)   Daddy thinks she is making some progress.  Right now, she is doing a lot of the “downward facing dog” yoga position.

Mommy & Daddy are both sick now.  Abi seems to be doing fine though.

Abi woke up every 1-2 hours last night`

Mommy & Daddy are tired.  Yawn.

More Abi

Abi will need a haircut soon.

The tissues did not stand a chance against Abi

Abi discovers a zipper on Mommy's sweater

Still enjoying the measuring spoons

Does anyone read this blog?

No one posts comments – which makes me think that no one reads it.  Maybe I’ll stop posting pictures of Abi if there are no readers.

(Note: this blog will be saved for Abi to read when she is older – so please, please post comments for her.  She will really enjoy reading them.)

So impressed with Apple

Mommy has an iPhone.  About three weeks ago, she started having problems with it, and so Abi went with Mommy & Daddy to have it fixed at the Apple store.  (Hey, I had to tie this post to Abi somehow.)  Anyhow, the tech support person told Mommy that there were hardware problems with her iPhone and that she needed to get a new one.  So Mommy paid about $200 and go a new iPhone.  Well, the problems did not go away . . . in fact, they potentially got more serious.  So, the next weekend, Abi went with Mommy & Daddy back to the store.  They were told that the operating system had bugs in it, and that downloading the new version would solve these problems.  Mommy then asked why she was told to buy a new iPhone the week before, since it had the same problems, and could hav been fixed by downloading the updated software.   Well, folks, guess what happened next?  Based on Mommy’s experience at other stores, she would have expected the tech support person to get defensive, to mumble some techno-speek about hardware problems . . . but no.  The tech support person went to get his manager who refunded Mommy’s $200 and let her keep the new iPhone too.  This company understands good customer service & brand loyalty.

Abi is a geek

Daddy takes a weekly Saturday class with Abi.  He pointed out that while other kids crawl to explore or to get to to other babies (to take their toys), Abi is different.  She is much more directed in her crawling (or standing up.)  She generally only crawls to reach a particular target (e.g., a favored toy. an iPhone, a tv remote, a keyboard, a computer wire, measuring spoons). She even uses her xylophone as a stepstool to get to Daddy’s computer equipment.   So there you have it folks, my baby is self-directed, in a geeky (techie) way.

In other news, Mommy noticed tha she seems much more interested in interacting with adults than babies in her classes.  Does this make Abi mature – or just a geeky teacher’s pet?

Finally, Abi has been having a blast playing with everyday objects (measuring spoons, Mommy’s running hat, tissues . . .) she seems to enjoy these more than her own toys . . .

Is Abi teasing us?

The night before last, Abi woke up three times.  Last night, she only woke up once.  So Mommy slept from about 10-12:30 and 1:30-7:30 (Abi was up with Daddy starting around 5AM.)  Wow!  That is a lot of sleep for Mommy.  (The night before, she just got a few 2 hour increments of sleep.)

Is Abi just teasing Mommy with more sleep?  Mommy hopes not, and  has her fingers crossed.

A Grandmotherly Month

Abi is having a grandmotherly month.

Grandma Elmira came to visit.  Abi had a great time.

She then found out that Grandma Linda will come to visit this month too, and was thrilled.

Help! (Part 2)

Falling asleep (literally)

Who is Abi?

I usually do not say much about Abi’s cognitive development.  Here are a few random thoughts:

• Everywhere she goes, she makes friends.  People love looking at her, smiling at her in response to her smiles, etc.  They unfortunately love touching her too – I am really tempted to carry around an insect wacker, and wack strangers who can’t keep their paws to themselves (think cold & flu season, people).
• Abi loves music.  Her particular favorite songs are “The wheels on the bus”, “If you’re happy & you know it”, and she also like the alphabet song.
• She loves to explore, whether it involves trying to climb out of her bathtub or well, see the second post below, she wants to touch and look at everything.  She is a real observer, just like Daddy.
• She can now say “ma ma”.
• She hates wearing socks, and will take off socks within about 15 minutes being dressed in them. Fortunately, we found a solution to this problem (Robeez shoes).
• She loves solid food, and is making great strides in swallowing food in her mouth.  We recently bought a food mill, and so her palate will get some treats.

More innocent days

Where to begin?

Abi has been going through some indications of imminent milestones (e.g., sleeping badly, separation anxiety from me).  Today, while we were together at home, she was unhappy unless I held her – sitting a few feet away from her was not good enough.  I knew that this morning she had just hit a new milestone (sitting up by herself from a supine position) – so I thought I understood  the reason for her particularly clingy behavior – I was wrong.

Here is an unposed picture of what Abi did this evening (note, she did not get any help getting into this position):

Help!