Every Little Girl's Dream

At the ripe old age of one, Abby has fulfilled every little girl's dream: owning a pony! Ok, ok, it is not a REAL pony, so I guess she can still dream. But hey, her plush Radio Flyer rock and jump pony will do for now! Aunt Wendy and Uncle Scooby gave Abby this for her birthday and I just got around to putting it together for her... I have to say that this looks like it will be a lasting relationship...

Abby's First Year

Walking

As was stated last night: Abby passed out before we could get through the birthday festivities! And so, the fun continued this morning! First thing we did was eat some breakfast, then the following took place:

Once she dug into the cake, she really enjoyed herself! I hope that she has this much fun on Saturday too :)

In other news: We have a walker!!!! Although the journey to walking started months ago with pulling up, it feels as though it was just yesterday that she started her life as a vertical being! Here is a little video of this month's hard work:

I guess walking was her birthday present to herself!

T minus 6 Days

I'm back! We have been busy little beavers over here getting ready for the birthday extravaganza! I am SLOWLY coming to terms with the fact that in less than one week I will have a one year old! Hang in there with me, I'm sure I will get there at some point.



Today was a BIG day for Abby and Gramps....as Gramps has been waiting Abby's whole life for this "first"! Take a peek:

That's right, Abby had her first bite of pizza today and it was with Gramps! Let me give you a bit of background on the topic: For one of my baby showers, the guests were to give books instead of cards and seeing how Gramps loves pizza (and knows that it will soon be one of Abby's favorite things to eat with him) so much searched for the perfect book and found one about making pizza with Grampa...it was the cutest thing and just the perfect gift from Gramps. And with today's first, a new ritual was born! I'm sure Abby will have her fair share of pizza at Gramps and Grandma D's house :)

Abby also got to meet some of my family for the first time today: My Uncle Denny, Aunt Carol and cousin Sara, who is in town from California along with her son Shalin. The last time I saw Sara I was 41 week preggers...my how things have changed! It was great to spend some time with them--Thank you Sara for making time to see all of us!

T minus 13 Days

Ladies and gentlemen, we have steps!!!!!! I am completely amazed at just how fast this is happening, but I also kind of knew it wouldn't take much after she decided that she wanted to walk. All day today Abby moved about the house with speed and a lack of fear. It was as if she owned the place (well, she kind of does but that is a given). She grew more and more confident in her diving steps and seemed to be covering greater distances with them.



Abby was in rare form for most of the afternoon, probably because she pretty much refused to sleep for more than 20 minutes at any given time. So, off to Gramps and Grandma D's we went (it is about a 40 minute drive and Mommy was hoping that she would sleep for most of that)! Gramps did his best to entertain Abby...he even busted out a little Mario Kart on the Wii. Too funny :) Afterwards, Abby decided to warm up her walking skills with a lot of cruising and standing. She stood for a long, long time a couple of times...we found that as long as she had something in her had to distract her she would stand. Then after dinner, she really got moving!



Here is how it went: Gramps was sitting on one side of the living room and I was on the other. Abby was over with Gramps playing with her pinwheel (I think it was) and I asked her to share it with Mommy. At first she just held it out then I asked her to "come here". She slowly took one small step away from Gramps, then another. Now she was past her reach of Gramps but not yet within my reach. She paused at this point but then continued. Next came step three and then step four!!! That's right, four steps in a row! There was no denying this one or explaining it away :)



I wish I could say that I have it on video, but you know---Murphy's law! I have been trying for the past few days to get Abby's diving steps on video, but have not had much luck due to the baby that resides inside the camera. (Let me help you: I let Abby watch some of the video of her on the camera a few times and now whenever she hears the camera turn on she gets excited and wants to see the baby.) I continued to try today at Gramps' house this evening, but had given up right before dinner...we tried go get a repeat, but you know that that NEVER happens! I promise to post walking video as soon as I get some. This will have to do for now!!!

Forward Movement!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a crawler!!!

We knew this was coming sooner or later...Abby has been up on all four for awhile now and just needed to figure out what to do to move forward. Yesterday she made her first forward movement and today she seemed to be becoming an old pro at it:

Crawling is not the only new skill that Abby has developed this week. Abby signed her first sign today while playing on the floor with me and her Aunt Wendy. Abby clearly signed "milk" then tried helping herself to the stash. Wendy and I laughed and agreed that she wasn't waving bye-bye that time.

Swim class brought another first today too. Abby has really warmed up to swimming, she only cried for a minute or two then started splashing away. When the time came for the little swimmers to go under water, Michael decided that today would be a good day to try. He had Abby jump from the edge of the pool into the water and...woosh, under she went. When she popped up she looked at Michael with wide eyes at first, not too sure of what just happened, then finally burst into tears. No worries, she was quickly distracted by the other swimmers and stopped crying.

Abby never ceases to amaze me and weeks like this just make me smile! I love being a mom and experiencing these things with my daughter!

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

Michael LOVES to swim. Every time we go to a hotel, he makes sure to pack his swim trunks, just in case. Every summer (and winter too) he talks about how great it would be to have a pool the proceeds to plan where he wold to put it. When we found out that we were going to have a baby, he talked about taking swim classes with our little Peanut and just how much fun that was going to be.

Well, that day has come! Today, Daddy and Abby's took their first swim class together! So off the the high school we went. We got there a little early and had to wait for the previous class to finish before they could get in. Abby was VERY interested in what was happening in the pool. She seemed to be watching every kid in the pool, not sure what to think.

Here she is in her cozy robe checking things out:

Abby waiting and wondering:

Then it was time for them to get in. They started by sitting on the edge and Daddy poured small cups full of water onto her legs. Daddy said the water was rather cold. This wasn't going to be as warm and cozy as the tub! Abby didn't seem to mind the water from the cup; she was still pretty busy checking out the other kids. Next, Daddy got in with Abby...

I wish I could say that she had a blast at her first swim class, but this photo pretty much sums it up:

We have devised a new plan for the next class: Dip Abby in up to her neck for 30 seconds as soon as they get in. We are hoping that this will get her used to the water temp and that way she can enjoy her time splashing around instead of working at keeping her arms out of the water. Wish us luck! Hopefully, by the end of the summer we can call Abby our Little Fishy :)

This Just In...

Just this very minute Abby rolled from her back to her front for the very first time! Well the first time that either Mommy or Daddy saw it happen...she did it with such ease I would have to guess that she has done this more than once in her crib or on the floor while I unload the dishwasher or fold a load of laundry upstairs.

Oh, there she goes again! Since starting this post she has managed to roll herself over to the T.V. stand and is playing with the doors...funny, I have been wanting her to roll from back to front for MONTHS now, but I'm not quite sure why not that our days of immobility are over!

Looks like it is time to start thinking about baby proofing the house as crawling is next!

Here is a little video of her third official roll from her back to her belly, enjoy!

Bigger and Better

Big changes have come to the Johnson household since getting back from a little vaca. in Florida:

Abby is now eating cereal (the video is a little long, sorry)...

Abby is sleeping unburritoed...

Abby is using the next size binky... which is the last size they make. This makes me a bit sad for some reason. I guess I better stock up on then when I find them on sale!

Five Months Old

Abby turned 5 months today and I can't believe how fast her little life is flying by! In less than one month, she will be 1/2 of a year old....how is this so? I guess I will deal with that when the time comes.

Here is Abby and Peanut on her 5 month birthday:

That's right--Abby learned to sit up this past month as well as finding the letter "B". Here is a little video of her new skills:

Other accomplishments of this past month that I did not get a chance to blog about:

*Laughing out loud--I came home for work and Abby and Gramps greeted me at the door. Abby gave me a big smile along with a verbalized laugh!! Usually she would just give a "huh" and a smile, but this time it was a full laugh!

*Her second cold/case of the Snarphs--Christmas Eve came with the gift of a cold, the snarphs, and cough. The cough has managed to hang around and now we think it is part of the teething process

*Digression--her great sleep habits have gone by the wayside due to the cough as has her ability to roll over...so sad!!! She is back to her newborn schedule of feeding every 2/12 to 3 1/2 hours because her cough wakes her up and then she realizes that she is hungry and won't go back to sleep w/o feeding (and sometimes coughing til she pukes). During all of this, we laid off of tummy time due to the drainage and she has since forgot how to roll over. Oh well, it will come back sooner than later.

Little Jumper

We first put Abby in her jumper in late November and not much happened. Actually, she was still so wobbly in the seat that we had to pad her with little blankets so that she wouldn't flop around too much. Needless to say, she didn't jump at that point. Partially because her little legs were too short and uncoordinated, but mostly because she still had to learn what to do. Really, it was just for a change of scenery at that point.

It is amazing how fast babies learn! We found the prefect box to put under her feet so she didn't just dangle there and slowly she caught on to the fun that could be had. The last two weeks have been filled with jumping and talking. Here is a little video from January 2nd, one of her first times of really jumping:

For Christmas Grandma D got Abby a walker that looks like a car--a pink convertable actually--and doubles as a jumper as well. She loves to sit in that and honk the horn. I'm sure it won't be long before she is crusing around the house in that!

Christmas Update

Well, the festivities have come to an end and I must say that we had a fabulous time! Our Christmas started at my Dad's house on the 23rd for a visit with Grandma D's son Dan.

Abby meeting Uncle Dan and Amber for the first time

Abby in some of her Christmas attire

Gramps got Abby a Santa suit--we enjoyed our early visit with little Santa!
Amber's dog, Bear, has a suit of his own! So fun!!

Next came our Christmas Eve visit at the Johnson's. We kept it simple and had yummy pizza and salad from Benito's. This was a great idea because we had more time to visit and less clean up...I think we are on to something here! Anyway, here are some pics of the evening:

Abby and Nana

Here is a picture of Chrissy and Mark's kids:

Julia, Gracie, Connor and Brendan

Abby was in the middle of a 2 hour nap, we got lucky!

Chrissy opening gifts for her newest addition, due in May.

They just found out on the 23rd that they are having a girl--finally!! CONGRATULATIONS Chrissy!!!

The news of a girl is starting to set in...so exciting!

Opening Abby's gifts:

With a little help from her cousins :)

We had hoped to make it to the 6:30 Christmas Eve Mass, but Abby slept too long. So, we decided to go to the 10:00 Mass thinking Abby would sleep through it since it would be way past her bed time. Boy, were we oh-so-wrong. I hung out in the hall for the last half...maybe next year we will make it through it!

Here is Abby with our friend Erin before Mass started.

Needless to say, Abby was super sleepy and we had a bit of a rough night. She has started to come down with another cold and was a bit "Snarphy" so I suctioned her nose after feeding her...BIG mistake, Huge. When I laid her down, boogers shifted and she started to gag. Next thing I know there is a stream of vomit spewing from her mouth, across her mattress and down the side of the crib and her cute Christmas sleepsack. Most of you realize how hard it is to change crib sheets so you completely understand having Abby sleep in our bed for the night.

Christmas morning was the best! Abby slept in til 10 which gave me time to shower and make breakfast before our festivities began. Since we have our own kids now we decided that we will be staying home on Christmas Day. I took full advantage of this and bought all of us new PJs to hang out in for the day, which was great. I think we are going to make this a little family tradition!

Abby and Daddy in their PJs in front of the big tree

Since we are staying home on Christmas Day, we decided that part of our new tradition would be inviting our parents over for a visit if they would like. Both our parents decided to take us up on the offer, though the Johnson's were not able to make it because MJ's dad wasn't feeling so well. My dad and Dara came over about 11:00 and much to our surprise, they were not alone:

Here are some of the pics from our visit with Santa:

Truly Priceless!!

Since my mom is in Virgina, we Skyped her and chatted for about an hour. I love the Internet and modern technology--it makes keeping our long distance family informed so easy and fun. Sometimes it is like Grandmama is right here with us!

Well, our Christmas fun continued on the 26th with a family visit to my Dad's house. Dara made a great turkey dinner with all the fix'ins as well as Christmas cookies and chocolate pie. Yummm!!

Here is Peanut in the reindeer outfit from Aunt Wendy. So cute!

Abby and Aunt Wendy:

Gramps got Abby a GIANT stuffed caterpillar who he named Sir Webster of Oxford (Webster because he has the alphabet running down his back). Webster is about 8 feet long, super fluffy and very colorful.

Abby loves Sir Webster already!

Our Family

(Sir Webster is in there too!!)

Santa was a very busy man this year! He managed to have time to show up to this Christmas celebrations as well! And yes, his reindeer were there too! I think my brother and sister enjoyed the visit as much as we did the day before!

One Last Grab at Santa's Beard:

All in all this was a PERFECT Christmas! It was great to be able to share Abby's first Christmas with our entire family so they could be part of the memory and joy that this special day brought (and I'm happy to share it with you as well). I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas tool!

Thanksgiving 2009

It is hard to believe that one year ago MJ and I realized that our Journey to parenthood had begun! Amazing how fast that went.

Our first Thanksgiving as a family was a great one! The festivities started bright and early with Michael heading off for the Turkey Trot and Abby and I heading out to Great Grandma Davis's house for a visit with her and Grandma Kat. It is always a pleasure spending time with them and I'm so happy that Abby gets to see Grandma Kat this much already. Since Grandma Kat lives just out side of Vegas, I wasn't sure how much Abby would get to see her, but this is 2 times in less than 2 months--Not Bad!!! Next, we met MJ at the house and headed over to his parents' house for Turkey Dinner. Grandpa Wally was there and was funny as ever :) Michale's mom did a great job cooking dinner--it was a pleasure to eat a delicious dinner without having to do all the hard work!!

The fun continued the next night at our house when my family came over for pizza and games! My brother and his girlfriend won Clue then she took first in Monopoly too! Hey, I came in a close second...Abby had a great time visiting with everyone--Grandma D and Gramps couldn't get enough as usual :) They are so stinking cute with her! Though seeing my sis with Abby is amazing and my brother...who would have thought he would love her that much! I am so lucky to have such a loving family!


Saturday, we headed to Fun Town for our second-annual-post-Turkey-Day-chicken-dinner-at-the-Muth...Frankenmuth that is. We start out by shopping at Birch Run then meet up with our friends Paul and Aimee for the oh-so delicious chicken dinner. After dinner we head over to Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store. We picked out our Santa of the year and ordered Abby's ornaments! I can't wait to get them and hang them on the tree.

Mommy, Daddy and Abby with the Nutcrackers outside the Bavarian Inn

Abby with Paul and Aimee

Outside of the Christmas Wonderland

Our Santa for 2009

Sunday kicked off our Christmas celebration--we started putting up our trees. Yes, plural. MJ has a tree with all kinds of "fun" ornaments and I have the serious, themed tree. I'm sure the kids will like Daddy's tree more than Mommy's, but that is ok--I love my tree. I went with the red tree this year. It looks good already and it is only half done!


Here is a little video of weekend highlights. It's a bit cheesy, but fun. Enjoy.

As Thanksgiving passes I feel the need to mention all the blessing in my life. There are so many things I am thankful for this year:

*Our healthy, happy baby who has brought more joy than I could have ever imagined

*My wonderful husband who loves and supports me through all the challenges that parenthood (not to mention life in general) presents

*Our families who love Abby almost as much as we do

*My two understanding, fat cats who still love me even though I spend less time with them than I used to

*My job and the opportunity to be at home with Abby 4 full days a week

*My good, old Jeep who keeps on trucking even though it has 133,000+ miles on it

*A home full of love and memories

*All my friends who continue to be a part of my life--no matter how crazy or busy things get

*My overall good health

*A gracious God who keeps granting me blessing after blessing

*And much, much more.

Hope your Thanksgiving was a perfect as ours!

Two Months

Happy Two Months Abby!

It is truly amazing how fast time goes! I can't believe that just two months ago today our life as parents began--sometimes it seems like Abby was born just yesterday and other times it seems like she has always been a part of our life. We are still learning the ins and outs of being Mommy and Daddy but are taking time to enjoy the little things.

Here is a little video of Abby telling stories, enjoy!

Introducing Our Dancing Peanut!

Peanut has been on the move practicing her water ballet moves for a while now. Though, in the last few weeks I am starting to think she is going to prefer for something more aggressive. Take a look: