Recent Pics

My sister recently did this on her blog, so I am totally copying her. It another post to show the grandparents a few recent photographs of Miss Abigail. The picture taking seems to have slacked off some lately. When looking at my camera, I didn't have as many recent one as I thought I would, but here are some for fun.

Just playing around on the floor.

Chillin' in her shades on the first day of spring. Check out those chins.

Abigail tried on Charlie's bandana for Haiti. I think she looks a bit like a pirate.

Abigail loves Johnny jump up. It's nice to have a place to contain her now that she's mobile.

I'm trying to convince her early that helping Mommy with laundry is fun. Maybe she'll want to do it for me later.

Abigail now sleeps in whatever position she chooes. She just looked too sweet to resist here.

We take this photo every month. For the first time she noticed the paper and wanted to eat it.

She also noticed the giraffe.

One of the World's Best Feelings

Abigail is just learning to crawl. Right now it's more of an army crawl, but she's getting there. We are in the stage of getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. She's also doing some "inchworming" as she moves in little bits. We of course place her toys all around the room to entice her to move around and explore. From now on, I guess our house is soing to continually look like her toy box exploded.
Last night we were playing in the floor in her room. She was scootching all over the place. I was laying down on my side with her talking and laughing with her. She moved her little self over to me and pulled herself against me. She even reached up for me. Wow did that feel good. My little girl wanted to be close to me. She chose to come over near to me. I didn't have to pick her up this time and force her to be held. She wanted to be near mommy. I'll have to admit that was one of the greatest feelings I've ever had. I now rank as high with Abigail as her stuffed duck and the Baby Einstein musical toy that lights up. Boy, I must be special!! Anyway, I am loving being Abigail's mom. It's so much fun to watch her grow and change as she learns something new every day. I love being a mom.

Girlfriend Getaway!!!!

This past weekend was my annual college girls weekend. We've been out of college for almost 6 years, so this mean we have now been friends longer outside of college than we were in college. I hope this continues for years to come. One way we try to make sure that stay together is by planning our next weekend before we leave the current one. Our next trip will probably be back in Hot Springs, AR. We are not good communicators. We rarely call or email, only for big life changes, but when we are back together things just fit. It's nice to see the things that don't change as well as the ways we have all grown.

With this group, I feel totally free to be myself. I am accepted and loved just as I am. We are all very different, but somehow it works for us. Yet, through our conversations, I am challenged to grow. This past weekend we discussed faith, church, family, relationships, raising children, you name it. I'm not sure there were many subjects left unmentioned. Throughout all this talking, I was shown new ideas and new thoughts. Also, I realized, I have had some good ideas of my own. One of the best parts of the weekend was having real conversations, the kind that don't happen often. Freedom to share with a challenge to grow.

For our fun, we spent one night at my house then drove to Asheville, NC on Saturday morning. We wandered around the town through the fun shops. We didn't buy much, but enjoyed the browsing. We stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast which was fun. We all got to be in one room. It was nice to not be split up. We ate a delicious dinner at French restaurant. For dessert we braved the cold and walked a few blocks down to a chocolate shoppe.

The only hard part of this weekend was leaving Abigail for the first time. WEll that and my dairy free diet that wouldn't let me enjoy some of the treats around town. Leaving her was hard, but I know that it was good for me. I very much needed this time with my friends. In the grand scheme, it will make me a better mother. As a new mom, I need to be reminded that I am more than a mom. This weekend gave me a chance to show that to myself. A big thanks goes to my wonderful husband for cleaning, fixing us all waffles for breakfast, and keeping the baby by himself. Ahhh the refreshment of a Girlfriend Gettaway!