8 months old

Show-y turned 8 months old on Christmas Eve, the 24th.

How in the world can my baby girl be 8 months old? I feel like I keep saying this and thinking this with all three of our lovely ladies as they continue to grow right before our eyes. It's crazy how quickly time flies! My hope is that we're shaping incredible memories for the three of them, just as we have for ourselves of them growing up with us.

Abrie has become a little parakeet this past week. She says "Momma" so distinctly!!! I am beyond excited, as "Da Da" was always first with both Madison and Faith. I was chump change in their vocabularies. But, my Beeba girl is my little buddy. She adores her Momma, as I adore her! Of course, Daddy is her best friend and she just loves him. He makes her smile quicker than anybody I have ever seen. But, I still love that she calls for me all the time. It's precious! And, she also says something that sounds like "dob dob dob dub dub dub" all day long. Maddie and Faith love this.

She's nursing 3x a day, but a lot of the times only twice a day. She's loving all the Gerber snacks, and still trying to make heads out of her sippie cup. Some days she has it figured out, and other days she can't get it. She's climbing a few stairs at a time, standing up on everything, and cruising everywhere- and has been for 2 weeks or so.

I love my girl!

High chair and low mattress

Abrie FINALLY has a high chair of her own!!

It's ridiculous how long it has taken us to get a new one for her. I threw ours away when we were leaving the apartment because I figured we would just wait until she was sitting upright and then get her a new one-- since ours was so crusty anyway. Bad idea. I've been putting it off and putting it off, but the poor baby needed her own high chair. I'd been so stubborn about finding one for dirt cheap or even for free off of craigslist or at our consignment shop, but to no avail. We finally decided to get the cheapest one at Target, and we really like it. Not to mention, Abrie LOVES it and she looks so darn adorable in it! She loves eating her 'appeteasers' (her fruit and veggie puffs, and her new thing-- the little crunchers that Faith always found irresistible.. Abrie does too!). I had to do a double take tonight while getting dinner ready because it just seems surreal to me to see my little baby in her high chair.

We also took her crib mattress down this afternoon. The little girl is standing up in her crib (and on everything else) now, and it worries me to think that she could do a flip out and over the side of the crib. I ended up moving the crib altogether too to the other side of her room, because it was right by an electrical socket in its original spot. And, with the mattress down at the level of the socket, I knew this would be too much of an appeal to our little Breeze. The girl is quite interested in sockets... and everything else that she shouldn't be into these days!!!

Our baby will officially be a BIG cousin already by tonight or tomorrow. Her little cousin, Molly, is scheduled to be here very soon. AND, Abrie's going to be a big cousin for the 2nd time in just a few more months too. 'Tiny Guy' is scheduled to be born right around her first birthday!! I can't believe that my baby girl is already a big girl cousin.

Show-y

New Show-y things:

Dan and I laugh at how much this girl eats. It's baffling to us as to where both she and big sis, Faith put all of their food. Abrie is just as petite (well, a little longer height-wise) as her Beebster sister, and yet she has the appetite of a horse. She's still nursing three times a day-- morning, afternoon, and night but she wants to eat everything and anything. She is 50/50 about her Gerber jars-- some days she doesn't mind them, and other days she could do without them. But, if we give her a little bite of meatloaf, meatballs, sandwich, yogurt, etc etc etc.. boy, is she in heaven! The girl can "chew" too just like her older sisters. She still doesn't even have a nubbin of a tooth, and yet gums everything like a champ just like my other two late-teethers. I need to get her one of those mesh suckers to put whole fruits and stuff in because I think she would just go to town with that!

Boy, is she Momma and Daddy crazed. She's in the stage where she does NOT.NOT.NOT want to be separated from us. She crawls to us constantly, and wants to be with us at all times. She just loves Dan. It's precious. And, she just loves her Momma!

She's crawling around like crazy. She loves to crawl towards the Christmas tree and sit there and bat at it. She also is wanting to pull herself up to toys and in her crib.

She puts out her little arms for us to pick her up which is priceless. And, she "waves" to us all the time when we tell her to say 'Hi!' Not to mention, the girl is constantly smiling when she's with us. Of course, the second she is around someone she doesn't know she becomes leery Abrielle. She just loves her family!

Little patient

Baby girl's got herself a case of croup.

I took her in to the doctor today, and they prescribed her Prednisone (steroid) to help open up her airways. She's taken the first dose today before bed, and she'll take 2 doses a day for 3 days.

Seriously, aside from the "boogedy boogs" (which are in abundance! I don't think I've ever seen so many boogs before in my life) and the cough from time to time, she is a happy little Beeba Show. Well, and I should not forget the lack of naps. She has not taken a good nap since about Monday. But, that's not stopping our ShowCase.

Her favorite toys these days are a closed tube of Aveeno butt rash cream and her wipes. She will sit there and "squawk" in delight at these things forever and happily amuse herself. She also is hilarious in the bathtub these days. She's finally decided to let loose and splash (or, "sploosh" as Maddie and Faith call it-- and they think she is so much fun in the tub with them!) everything and anything, and just loves playing in the water. I think I'm going to have to bring back the glory of sink baths to show Abrie's big sissy's how much fun they used to have playing in the sink. My only fear is that they'll want to get in there with her too, and they definitely don't fit!

7 months old

Baby girl is 7 months old today.

Ridonkulous (as the pigeons from "Bolt" like to say).

Our girl is a small tank. The girl can eat. And, I mean EAT. She loves, love, loves, loves food! She doesn't have much of a taste for the baby jars. Nope. She wants our food! Maddie and Faith were always very content with their baby jars up until about 8-9 months or so, but Abrie would much rather have tastes of ours. She loved the little bit of shrimp corn chowder that I let her have last night.

She likes to sit up in her crib now and "fool around" instead of taking a nap right away. I walk in to check on her, and there she is sitting there and playing with her stuffed animals. Of course she starts smiling her sneaky smile the second she sees me!

She sticks out her tongue all the time now just like Faith used to do. Maddie thinks this is hilarious when Abrie does this.

She crawls in Maddie and Faith's signature low-crawl. She can cover much larger distances now.

She and Faith are pals. They're hilarious. And, Abrie just loves when Maddie tells her "are you scared of up in the clouds?!" and does a strange voice to it. Maddie had her laughing hysterically the other day at Target while she did that to her.

****

On a sidenote, Maddie and Faith have been asked on three different occasions in the past 2 days, "do you like having a baby brother?" Hahaha. Dan and I have been complimented on our beautiful son, and have been asked how old HE is!

New things

I started thinking that Abrie is getting close to completing her first month of the 2nd 6 months of her first year.

Ridiculously stupid thought, I suppose, but still something that occurred to me and got me so sentimental today!

In the last week or so, she has mastered getting into a sitting position from a crawling position. She is doing log rolls, and she seems interested in trying to pull herself up to a standing position when she's seated. She just loves that IncrediBlock that was Maddie's first Christmas gift. That is her motivating factor in wanting to pull herself up so that she can see it and fiddle with it! And, she just loves these two toys that Donovan and Ella let her borrow. She and Faith play with the dinosaur together all the time. It's quite cute!

The girl also has her sights set on 'big people' food. She insists on sitting on my lap during dinner and "asks" (in her squawking voice) for whatever taste I will allow her to have. It's quite comical.

Just a note from Momma

Abrie,

You just fell asleep in my arms after eating, and I just put you down for the night.

I don't think I'll ever be able to explain to you how much I love your smell. I'll never be able to explain the distinct, and sweet smell that is you. I can't put into words the feeling that it is holding your little hand in mine, and feeling you cling to me.

These little moments that we have together are forever etched in my mind.

I love you,

Momma

Little 'Lumpy' making some moves

Regressions are improving

Baby girl is so busy these days.

She puts all her weight on the palms of her hands when she's on the floor, and pushes up on her legs as if she's trying to stand. Her little butt is in the air, and it's so cute. Faith gets such a kick out of this.

For the past three weeks or so, Abrie's sleep has regressed. It's been getting much better, and she's only waking up now in the nights because she has rolled over and can't get back to sleep. So, I get up about 2-3 times a night to roll her back over to her stomach, and she'll continue sleeping. For awhile though, she was waking up 5-6 times a night and it wasn't a simple cure-all for the times that she would awake. It was back to rocking, patting on the back, and even middle-of-the night feedings.

This of course led to a 2-or-so week-long stint of Abrie being fussy and out of character. She is totally her precious self again, and even when she is fussy, the girl is too darn cute. I swear they are made irresistibly cute for a reason-- you can't ever get mad because they melt your heart with their smiles.

Tiny turkey-o

Abrie had her 6-month well baby appointment on Friday.

At 6 months of age, Madison weighed 18 lbs, 14 1/2 oz and was 26 1/2 inches long. Faith weighed 14 lbs, 12 oz and was 25 inches long. 

.... Abrie weighs 13 lbs, 8 oz and is 25 1/2 inches long.

Our TINY little girl!

She did not even gain a pound in the 2 months since she was last seen at the doctor. I was a little worried, and still am but Dr. Sergi has been their doctor since we moved to Reading and since Faith was a newborn. She told me to not worry at all, that this is just the way she and big sis Faith grow. They are both petite little girls. 

Abrie has never been a good eater. Never. Breastfeeding is a challenge with her, even though she is #3. There are times when she eats so well, and it is a calming and soothing force for her. But, there are other times where she latches on and off and just spews everything and fusses non-stop. 

I think my major thing is to not let myself get sucked up into the worry that I am doing something wrong. There seems to be such a stigma that hovers over the "less than average" sized baby, and Faith and especially Abrie have gotten their share of comments about being smaller. 

I love my darling little Breeze. She is our little snack!

Happy Half-Birthday to my baby girl

Makes me want to just squeeze her

Usually it's stinkin' Daddy that can make the Breeze laugh, but I finally had her going and Dan caught it all!

Becoming mobile!

She's got to mix it up once in awhile!

My Breeze.

Her first three months of life were a breeze. 

These past three months have not been quite as 'breeze-y!' 

I'll take it though. It makes stuff around here more interesting on some days. It adds some spice to our life. Haha. 

Abrie hates, and I mean HATES the car. The second you even put her in her car seat, she starts crying. She has taken to squawking now, and sometimes will serenade Maddie and Faith with some bird-like singing in the back for a little while (which they find incredibly amusing), but that never lasts too long. 

Her afternoon nap has become shorter. I depend on her afternoon nap for my quality time with my big girls. But, Abrie's been leaning towards wanting to cut it a little bit shorter every day. 

Her pacifier habit is a love/hate relationship. She loves those darn things, and will squawk at them when she sees them. But, yet she also pulls them out of her mouth all the time and they are not in the least soothing when she is at her angriest. I love them, and yet I hate them. Yes, they are our crutch when we need some peace. But, I always used them and I'm hoping she will find a long-lost affinity for her blankie and fingers soon just like big sissys. 

In the meantime, the Show is more fun and more sweet than anything else. She's moving around in circles these days on the floor, and still loves her big sisters more than anything. She is in a full force stranger anxiety phase, and her sisters always help her through it. 

Busy, busy little woman

This girl is busy these days.

Between sitting (not quite at a 90 degree angle... more like a 60 degree angle, but hey, it's sitting!), working on crawling, laughing, squawking (oh yeah, we've got ourselves a little parakeet which amuses Maddie and Faith to no end!), and trying to woo Big Bird and Cookie Monster on her walker, our little Show is a busy woman.

And, for the record, all we have to do is say: "Hey Abrie! Kick your feet!" and she smiles immediately!

Smiley 5-month-old

The only way to tell 5-month-old baby girl is sick is by her runny nose.

Other than that, she is all smiles.

Poor baby can barely breathe, and yet still manages to smile throughout the day. It just amazes me. She and I went shopping at Giant this morning while Dan took Maddie and Faith to Five Below to check it out, and I love shopping with her while holding her. I don't know that I would have been able to do that with Maddie or Faith, but Abrie just loves it. She checks out everything and just loves to observe. That is her favorite thing to do. She makes fans everywhere she goes too. It cracks me up because she gets so serious when a stranger approaches her. She wants only her Momma, and doesn't like smiling at strangers. But, she did today and and it was so cute.

In the past two weeks that I haven't been able to update, baby girl has successfully tried squash, peas, green beans, bananas, and today she tried applesauce. The girl loves her foods! Maddie and Faith are her audience whenever she tries a new food, and they wait anxiously to see if their baby sis will be more like Maddie (hated green vegetables) or more like Faith (loved literally everything, including her green vegetables!). She is totally Faith in the food department. She hasn't made a face to anything I've offered her. She eats her new food in the morning, and has her oatmeal after her afternoon nap. She's also becoming increasingly interested in trying to grasp my cup and drink whatever is inside, which I remember both Maddie and Faith did at 5 months. I might try some water in a sippy cup within the next few weeks or so.

Last week before 5 months old

And, in this week:

Our 'Hoot, Hoot' back? Check. (And, I might add... she's "hooting" like crazy these days!)

Carrots? And, successful attempt? Check. And, check.

Sweet Potatoes? Not quite (will start on Sunday), but sisters went all out helping to pick all the rest of the 1st Foods for the next month or so and are so excited to see their Bay Breeze/Beeba Show try them.

Extensive practice on all 4's rocking back and forth in pre-crawling motions? Check. (The girl puts Maddie and Faith to shame with doing everything well before they ever did, which leaves me- good ol' Momma- quite excited, yet sad!).

Hair finally starting to grow back? Check. (My attempts at barrettes still have yet to work, but boy, do we love this fuzzy little head!)

Flirting while supposed to be eating? Check. Check. Check. 

We just love this soon-to-be 5 month old!

Joys of baby laughter

Her laugh had a sound to it today!! 

Dan and I both looked at each other and couldn't believe she laughed out loud with sound today! She's been laughing out loud now for over a month, but today was the first time it had sound to it. It was the most adorable sound ever!

Beeba Show has been not as 'silent' the past two days, and I don't know why I ever start to worry about such crazy things! I swear she's just been honing her skill of wanting to crawl, and maybe it caused a temporary forgetfulness as to her speech. 

"Oat boats"

My happy baby eating her oatmeal for the first time! 

Needless to say, she loved her oatmeal!