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!

Help For Haiti

During the month of April my husband along with several other from our church family will be traveling to Haiti to help with the building of an orphange. I am a bit aprehensive that he'll be gone for so long, but I have faith that God will guide him and use while he's away. He as well as other are looking for sponsors to help with the cost. If anyone who reads this cares to donate you can go to www.atlantaroad.org and donate. The paypal on the website allows you to put your contribution to the work as a whole or to a specific person. We would love to all be worker together in this mission. Whether you can give or not does not matter, but I do ask for prayers for safety and strength for the people who are stepping out, going above and beyond and answering the call of God.

Friday afternoon about 2:00, snow started falling. It was absolutely gorgeous. One of the best parts about the snow was that the school dance that I was scheduled to chaperone was cancelled. Needless to say, I was thrilled about coming home to stay. I enjoyed spending the evening with Charlie and Abigail. Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland.


The view from our deck

An attempt at a family photo taken by Charlie

Abigail and her Daddy

Abigail flying in the snow


Abigail and Mommy

Ferberizing

Well, it's time. After several months of not sleeping, we are officially going to try something new. Abigail's sleeping habits have gotten worse rather than better. This is really starting to wear Mom and Dad down. I know I'm tired when I have to fight to stay awake while reading aloud at school. After getting the go ahead from the Pediatrician, we are going to start trying the Ferber Method. We'll see how it goes... Anyone who reads this and has any ideas or tips please pass them along. I know we are in for a few nights, but hopefully this will help us out in the long run of life. Here goes nothing....

Parental Perspective

Things change when you have a baby. I think most of know this before we have the baby, but we don't know what all that entails. Also, I think it's probably different for each set of parents depending on what life was like before the arrival of the child. Last night we had a "date." This date started with us driving to Wendy's. Abigail fell asleep in the car. Since we have a child that is anti-sleep, this was a big deal. After going through the drive through, we proceeded to drive around for about 30 minutes in order to keep our sweet little one sleeping. We even so far with the driving that I drove circles in the Home Depot parking lot while Charlie ran in to get something. Yes, we are some worn out parents. The date part of this evening was that since it was quiet for a few precious minutes, and we were in the same place, we actually had conversation with our dinner. It was a nice time together. It was the most time we had spent talking to each other in awhile. I love my daughter and love being her mom, but it was wonderful to have just a few minutes to be with my hubby too. It seems to me that it's one those evenings that we are going to look back on years from now and laugh sweetly as we remember the "infant" days that will have passed so quickly. Being a parent certainly does change things. Hopefully it will make us more aware of cherishing small moments and all the "little things" that make life so special.