Me and My Shadow

Last week Abby noticed something on the wall.  I assumed that she found a dirty spot from a spill or a dog toy or something.  Instead, it was her own shadow!

She "followed" the shadow along the wall, and got a little concerned when she walked toward the hallway and it disappeared.  It was adorable!  I tried to get video of it, but as usual she stopped doing it when I was prepared for it!

Instead of posting such a cute video, here is a cute picture of both Abby and her shadow. 

Abby's Big Bump

(a gentle nudge from Carol reminded me that I haven't updated Abby's blog in weeks - sorry!  Remember that you can keep up with a picture a day at http://www.flickr.com/photos/armonroe)

For example about the wonder of posting a picture-a-day is that you would have seen this "pretty" bump over the weekend instead of waiting for today:




To start - she's fine. She was almost immediately fine.  But here's what happened:

We went up to Clark's Elliok Farm which is a petting zoo, Enchanted Forest, playground and working farm.  I think they even had a corn maze, but Abby's too young to enjoy such a treat.

This was our first organized trip of the year for our Church's Parents of Young Children group and we were meeting three other families.  We made a decision to arrive a bit early just in case one of the families got there early.  After killing time in the car and having some animal crackers, we made our way inside to play on their big playground. 

They have an awesome pirate ship with a plank, fire pole, and a really fun, really fast slide.  She went down the slide a few times with no problems.  I put her up on the other side of the ship to let her have a little more fun, and while she was trying to get to Anny on the other side she tripped over her own feet and landed face first into a corner of the wood.  Not good.

I have never seen a bruise swell that much that fast!  I sent Anny over to get ice while Abby wimpered a little in my arms.  To be honest, it pained Abby more to be pinned down and have ice applied than it did to get such a bump!  We probably would have taken her to the hospital had it not been for the voice of experience around us saying that they had seen the same thing.  I'm glad we decided to stay. 

She was fine within a few minutes and we made our way around the farm to see a lot of animals and attractions.  It was a perfect fall day - warm in the sun but still a nice bit of chill in the air.  Everyone had a great time and we got to hear about a couple of other petting-farm type of places that are a little closer to home. We might get to another one before it get's too cold!

Abby even tried to pick her own pumpkin!

Back to the Teething

We had a few nights of peaceful slumber - but then we discovered two more molars coming in on the bottom.  Bad sign.  Abby does not do well with teething.  It's hard for us because when she does not sleep, we do not sleep.  Often when she wakes up, she's in such pain that she wakes up screaming.  Very few things will soothe her, so she get's a lot of extra cuddle time.

When she's awake enough to provide some real relief she has two things that work - and neither are teethers approved by any company.  We've discovered that she has no use for the teething rings that you can buy in the store.  What works for us is frozen banana spears and frozen blueberries.  The real key for us is to balance the two because of what each does to Abby's digestion.  (I'll let you take that and run with it)

The real problem with the timing is that we had finally gotten into a good routine for sleeping overnight.  That's not to say that she didn't wake up at all, but when she woke up it was momentary and she got herself back to sleep.  There were literally two nights where all three of us slept through the night.  It was bliss.  We know that this too shall pass, but it's hard to keep that in mind at 2:30 in the morning!

So - if you see us around and we look like we're dead tired and dragging one foot behind the other - know that all is well in our house, but we're just a bit tired.