This blog was started in 2009 at the begining of my journey to motherhood. It was a testament to the journey my husband I were taking to create a life. It has become Abbey's Story. My hope is that someday she will be able to read this and know that she has brought a joy to this world, the likes of which her father and I could never have known.
For all my friends who pick on me for being so pro-active, Janey on the spot and all that about pictures and updates of my kid...here's the pictures of Abbey with the Easter Bunny...and yes people, Easter was last month...see I'm not the perfect Mom after all ;-) better late than never right?
So I have to admit that had it not been for daycare Abbey may not have gotten to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap this year. After taking her to see Santa I had one of those "hair on the back of my neck standing on end, something doesn't feel right" kind of moments. What if this person that I'm handing my kid to is some kind of creep? I know, I'm sure these people are screened but seriously it got me thinking...what if Easter Bunnies were in short supply? What if all the "good ones" were booked? What if the one that I took her to see was the last minute fill in for a sick Easter Bunny? Is it wrong to want to ask the Easter Bunny for their driver's license, resume and immunization record? I'm letting you touch my kid for god sake...and in a lot of cases I'm paying you to do so...again, creepy.
Thankfully daycare provided the Easter Bunny for Abbey's first Easter and the Bunny was her Infant-I teacher...and I can breathe again...
I'm a little concerned that I have these thoughts about this stuff, what am I going to do when she decides that boys aren't yucky? Thankfully I have some time before that occurs, not to prepare but rather to buy a gun.
Little Miss has recently decided that her bedtime should be 8:00pm instead of her usual 7:00pm which has her Daddy and I scratching our heads, wondering when we lost control over the schedule keeping. I'm sure she's been in control since the day she came into this world but Michael and I were in the "ignorance is bliss" category up until very recently. This new 8pm bedtime has been going on for the past week now and instead of fighting it, trying to get her to bed at 7pm and watch her climb the rails and bang her head in hopes we'll come get her out, we've decided to just go with it. It gives us more time with her to read and play games in the evening which is nice...(while still leaving a couple hours for Mommy-Daddy time - thank you Abbey).
Armed with this new found hour and an iPad, we have now begun a nightly music class prior to her already scheduled reading comprehension :-) Nothing like getting started early right? This poor kid is going to be happy to go to school so she can get a break!! I promise we won't be like those parents screaming at their kids from the bench to run faster or do better but we will definitely try to introduce her to everything this life has to offer and let her choose what makes her happy...then we'll simply cheer from the cheap seats!
Enjoy Abbey's first iPad sponsored music concert. I certainly enjoyed watching my two musically inclined loved ones make happy, if not harmonized, music together!
I don't think I'll ever tire of watching my husband with his little girl...Sunday it was the Daddy's turn to jump into the freezing cold pool with their little princesses in tow. I must say they handled it like the men they are - not one complaint about the temperature of the water, not a single break down about feeling fat in their swimsuits, or even a comment about getting their hair wet and what the chlorine would do to their color...leave it to the Dad's to be calm, cool and collected!
Besides not having all the ma'ma drama, there's just something so much cuter about Daddy's and their daughters than Mommy's and daughters...at least from my perspective. I know I've said it before but it bears repeating - there is nothing sexier (in my opinion) than a strong, attractive man, completely in love with his baby girl!
(Sorry Abbey, I'm sure this blog will have you completely traumatized by the age of 18...Dad will write you a check for therapy.)
So here's to all the Dad's out there - strong, amazing, loving, compassionate, and in love with their kids! The following are a few video clips capturing my husband and his girl, as well as a friend of ours and his daughter, enjoying daddy-daughter swim class (sorry for lumping you in Brian).
Class Begins
The Boys with their little Princesses
"The Wheels on The Bus"...Grandpa Jim - this may help you with the words for next time :-)
How is it that kids instinctively know exactly what constitutes "expensive/don't touch" stuff that they can't help but touch? So much for a safe and happy home...with little Miss on the move nothing is safe! Next weekend will be spent in large part "Abbey Proofing" the house. For now we're using rubber band, chewing gum and some bailing twine to keep little fingers out of places little people shouldn't be. I did say I couldn't wait till she could crawl right?
I went onto the money sucking baby site today (dba Babies R Us) to see what kinds of gadgets there are to help place our possessions on baby lock down... I think it may be easier to place Abbey in a big bubble until she's got the walking, talking, hands to yourself behaviors that keep us all out of harms way under control. Although there are those "adults" in the world who have yet to mastered those skills!
It's a good thing she's so stinkin cute!
As I've said plenty of times before, raising a child requires a lot of crap! There are things we are given, things we ask for and shit we just accumulate for babies. Some things are nice to have, some things aren't necessary, some things are just a waste of money...but then some things fall into the can't live without, would like to kiss the person who created it, gotta have it, I don't care how much it costs, category - the jumperoo was one of those items.
This past week we had to say good bye to our friend the jumperoo, it was sad to see him go - his primary colors added a certain gene se qua to the ambiance of our living room. So with a heavy heart we disassembled the miniature kiddie carnival ride that had been taking up enough relestate in our living room to add an additional love seat to our existing furniture, boxed it up and stowed it away in the garage to pass it along to another couple in dire need of a baby holding contraption for their house.
I was so excited by the amount of space and clear view out the french doors into our back yard that I was motivated to clean the floor where many an item had found their final resting place under the jumperoo as well as clean the window where hand prints, nose prints and snot from projectile sneezing had collected.
After enjoying the spaciousness and cleanliness of the living room minus the jumperoo, we quickly started to long for those primary colors and more importantly for a contraption that would keep our little Miss contained and entertained while Mommy & Daddy had five minutes of adult time each evening. So with wallet open wide we ventured to the dreaded baby store to purchase yet another wonderful invention...what I refer to as the "equalizer"... I believe most parents know it as the exersaucer.
I call it the equalizer because now little Miss and BonBon are "equals" - when the dog runs, Abbey can chase; when the dog tries to lick her she can't reach her face; when Abbey has treats, the dog can help herself...they are in fact now equals.
This moving version of a stationary jumperoo is fantastic. Since little Miss crawls at high speed these days, this device keeps her up, away from all the dangers that our house holds and she's out of the reach of the dogs tongue which means all is right with the world.
On Easter morning, with the hint of spring finally in the upstate air, we ventured outside, mainly because between the baby dropping food on the floor combined with the long cold winter, our dog looks like a stuffed sausage and we humans are like wilting flowers dying for a few rays of sun. So with sweat shirts on and the exersaucer on the deck we enjoyed the few moments of warm morning sun and the fresh air while watching little Miss tear it up around the deck.
So without further ado, here's little Miss in her new mobile exersaucer...we said goodbye to one old friend and hello to a brand new world!
