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