Abby's Newest Mark of Achievement

Okay, please don't criticize our parenting because of this blog post.  Things happen to toddlers are part of growing up. That being said, I introduce you to Abby's newest "mark" of achievement: The Black Eye:

On Wednesday evening the three of us were playing a fun game of Hide-and-Seek between getting home and dinner time, and in typical fashion, it was an accidental game of H&S.  I came into the kitchen to stop some whining by Abby, then ran up the hall to get away from the situation.  You know, fix things, make people laugh, run away.

Abby and Anny, though, took that to mean that it was time to chase Daddy, who was really just trying to find a little moment to use the potty.  I did the hallway loop, then through the dining room into the bathroom.  Anny and Abby followed, but stopped at the crossroads of our house - the top of the stairs.  Anny went up the hall, I didn't move.  Abby must have spun in place, because the next thing I hear is Anny gasping at the idea that our Abby was falling down the stairs!!

Here cheek got black immediately, so we tried to put ice on it, and forced it on for a couple of minutes.  Then we resorted to our normal calm-down activity - Sesame Street.  She sat quietly and would let us look at it, but not touch it.  Not surprising.  We were concerned about two things - that she damaged her eye or that she broke her orbital bone.  Anny felt around the bone and could not find any concern, but the eye seemed harder.  She was answering the "how many fingers" and "what is this sign" but we could not be sure if she was using her hurt side or the other one.  Finally I just asked "hey Abby, does your eye hurt?"  She's smart enough that she looked at me and said "no, Daddy.  My cheek hurts."  There, our concern was lessened - she could identify it for us.  Phew.

On Thursday morning when getting her dressed, Abby looked at me very seriously and said "Daddy, next time I go down the stairs, I want to go on my feet!"  I looked at Anny and whispered "I guess she is implying 'and not on my face!' when she says that!"

On Friday Abby had a previously scheduled pediatrician appointment and he gladly looked around both the outside and inside of her eye.  He assured us that she is fine, but reminded us that we are very lucky that no more damage was done.  Lucky indeed.

We got lots of questions, and honestly I fear Child Protective Services.  Our kid has a black eye and our excuse is she fell down the stairs?  That's likely, right?  Lucky for us, she's very vocal and can tell everyone herself if they ask!

*You can find the concept for the photo HERE.  Abby would not look sad for me, but instead looked like she would mock someone into actually fighting her!

All is Well

Just a quick follow-up post to let everyone know that Abby is back to her normal self this morning and we gave the daycare the all clear to let her play as normal again. 

The rest of our weekend, after Friday's ER visit, was quite eventful and Abby progressed steadily throughout the duration.  On Saturday morning she had a pronounced limp, on Saturday evening she was walking fine, though slowly.  By Sunday she was asking to jump.  We decided to keep her from doing that on Sunday and yesterday.

Thanks to everyone for the emails, texts and phone calls.  Abby is loved and she knows it!

200th Post!

This is the 200th post on Abby's blog! She's grown a lot (since we started when Anny was only a few weeks pregnant!)

I start this post by saying: Abby is okay.

That being said - today was an exciting day as Abby had her first visit to the Emergency Room.  She has a sprained left leg (knee).

I got a call at 11:30 saying that she had jumped funny in their Activity Room from a play structure.  I can't describe it, but it's normally a very safe activity and they play on it regularly.  She hit the floor with her foot in an awkward position, got up and walked away.  About a minute later she refuse to put any weight on it.

We decided to go ahead and let her have lunch to see if it would go away, assuming she had just twister her ankle a little bit and it would not last long at all.  I got a call again when lunch was done that she would still not put any weight on her left leg.  I left work and tried to get Anny on the phone.  One we connected we decided that the best route would be the ER.  Better safe than sorry.

I got to school and Abby would not budge from Ms Denyse's lap.  We tried to get her to walk to me, and she would not have any of it.  (Amusing side note: she wet through her diaper and they had to change her clothes.  The only thing they had was a one piece PJ set without feet.  From the fall.  It was hillarious and I will load a picture of it soon!)  I got her stuff together, grabbed a snack for her and we headed up to Howard General.

She went to sleep.

I managed to keep her asleep in the stroller for quite a while longer, until the doctor needed to see her put weight on it.  He gave it a once over and said it was probably a knee issue more than her foot or ankle.  Then he called for an X-Ray.  Yeah, that was the most miserable thing I've ever experienced with Abby.  She was being held down by me AND a technician and it still took a long time to get her leg and foot into position.  Five times.  Not fun.

After reviewing the X-Ray the doctor confirmed that her left leg is sprained.  Our orders are as follows:

• limit activity (she's 22 months old!  Really?  Limit her?  Wow.)
• Use child strenght Motrin for discomfort
• Keep her off of the playground for five days
• If there is no improvement by Tuesday, call Dr Tang, an orthopedist.

There you have - we're home and she's happily having her afternoon snack.  She still will not walk, but she has put a little more weight on it a couple of times.  Should be an interesting weekend!

Our Trip to St Louis, V1

Friends, I have been negligent in my blogging again, but have all intentions of making it up over the next few days! I refuse to do a step-by-step of our trip to see the family in St Louis, but I will touch on highlights. I think I will break it into categories:

1 - OUR Kiddo
2 - The Kiddos Together
3 - Parents

Today is dedicated to OUR Kiddo!

We decided to fly out late on Thursday and return mid-day Monday, mostly for Abby's sake. We ended up doing a LOT of walking around the airport, and stopped for some dinner. It was actually an ideal place for her to practice walking great distances while safely in the sight of her parents.

Once we got on the plane we grabbed two as close to the front as we could that were together. Ended up sitting next to a very nice woman who slept for most of the trip. It's always awkward to be the person bringing a baby/child onto a plane. I am always looking over my shoulder, wanting to apologize in advance. Turns out that on the flight out, we didn't have to apologize for much! Abby was a little fussy because she was being cramped, but went to sleep before we were out of Maryland airspace and slept until after we landed.

Once we landed, though, things changed. I can imagine that it's a little intimidating, though, to fall asleep in a cramped plane and wake up to a big cousin poking your leg! Abby was a trooper, and then she really woke up. And stayed up. For many hours. New Rule: Do not let Abby nap at 5:30, even if it's on a plane.

Over the weekend she was great with her cousins, but that's for the next post. :o) (Yes, just to build anticipation...)

On Monday we flew back, this time planning on landing before dinner, so that we could try to get Abby back into her "normal" of the Eastern time zone. She fell asleep between lunch and the airport. We let her sleep as long as she wanted to, which was pretty amazing. We checked in, still asleep. We got through security, including a very thorough check of both Anny and Abby because the buckles on her overalls set off the metal detector. Still asleep. She finally woke up when we found a place to sit down.

She was great in the airport again. I think that she has some extroversion in her system. Abby knows how to work a room already, and she sure did work the airport! I think she went out of her way to make eye contact with everyone at Gate 4. It's really neat to see people gabbing on their cell phones, irate about something at the office just stop and smile. The scary thing is that it looks like she understands that, so she will work to make that happen. Very cute.

On the plane we managed to get the inside seats on the front row, sitting next to a woman who had just met her 7 month old grandson for the first time. It was a great situation for us. Whenever Abby was on the floor our "friend" would put her leg out so that Abby could not get to the aisle. Brilliant. Abby also began the flight on a good note with the flight attendant by clapping for him whenever he was on the loudspeaker. It was even cuter when they welcomed "ladies, gentlemen, and Abby to flight...." She heard her name again, so she got excited again.

We tried to occupy her, and had success at it. It helped us that we didn't play all of our cards at once. We started with her book. Moved on to playing with a water bottle. Then snacks came. Then she pooped, so it was a lot of fun to distract until we got through the (very light) turbulence. After a clean diaper I showed her the clouds out the window, and when that got old I showed her that the windows could be closed. We had two windows, so it was twice the fun!

Abby fell asleep during the descent, but we knew better than to let her sleep this time! As soon as we got to the carpet inside BWI I began to gently wake her up. By the time we got to the baggage carousel she was awake and chipper again, walking all over the place with Mama. When my brother and his wife got there, Abby was in even more heaven. (They were life and money savers by picking us up from the airport, so we bought them dinner.)

GREAT trip from Abby's perspective. I'm looking forward to our next trip out, which will be at Christmas time.

Next post will be about all three of the girls. If you're itching for pictures, check them out HERE!

Nana & Grampa's Visit

Abby's Nana and Grampa have just spent a few days with us. Since they live in Casper, Wyoming (insert joke here about more cattle than people in the state of Wyoming), this is the first time they have made the 2000 mile drive although they have made several visits by plane. The excuse for the trip was that Grampa had built a toy "box" which is too big to ship or carry on a plane! And they took the time to tour a few of the Great Lakes along the way.

In the time they were here, Abby went from taking a few occasional steps by herself to walking all over the house alone. She still takes advantage of an adult's finger for an extended walk-about-the-house, but we officially have a toddler.

We visited the Baltimore Aquarium, saw the Capitals Hockey team practice, and had lunch with Great Aunt Jackie and Great Uncle Bill. Most importantly Abby played with Nana and Grampa - a lot - I only wish we had taken pictures so I could put them here.

On Thursday we fly to St. Louis where we will meet up with Nana and Grampa at Uncle Paul and Aunt Sarahlynn's house - it made their departure this morning a little easier. We can't wait to swing in Cousin Ellie and Cousin Ada's swings and visit the Magic House. Maybe we'll take pictures so I can post them...

Stroller Strides

Sometime early in the year I read or heard about these fitness classes, Stroller Strides, and found that we do have some offered nearby. So near the end of the school year, I contacted the instructors for more information and finally, last Thursday, Abby and I attended our free first class.

Abby loved watching me sweat and I haven't had sore muscles like this since college. They offered a special for teachers, so I signed up right away. Here's to being a buff mama by the end of summer!

Quick Post

Quick post on two things that have happened in the last couple of days, some good, some bad:

Good:
Abby got up the gusto to do some more walking on her own. She made a game out of it and got really excited. Very cute.
Anny and Abby went up to Baltimore with a friend and had a great time! (I don't know if Anny will post about it, but Stephanie did HERE.)

The Not-So-Good:
Abby pooped in the tub. It was funny, and my brother and S-I-L were over which kind of made it funnier. Lucky for us it was at the end of her bath, so I scooped her out and Anny got bleach doody duty.

The Just Plain Bad:
As I've mentioned, Abby is still co-sleeping with us. We're working toward transitioning her to her own crib again by the end of summer, but we're not there yet. Until last night, we have had no problems outside of her twisting and kicking me in my sleep. Last night, though, was bad. Abby sleeps in between us. Last night she got fussy and ended up on my side of the bed at some point. (You can see where this is going) At 1:00 on the dot, I was awakened by BOOM and crying.

Yep, Father-of-the-year candidate Rob Monroe let his only child fall out of bed in the middle of the night. But I think I'll stop writing that speech now.

She was fine and went right back to sleep. Between us.

Tonight we pick up the efforts to get her into her own, caged protected bed.

Abby's First Birthday Party!

Saturday was Abby's big day, in more ways than we could have thought! We had a really good turnout for her birthday party, but her day started way before 2:00.

When Abby first woke up it was way too early - 5 am. I swooped her up and rocked her back to sleep for the next hour and a half so that we had a bit of a head start on sleep for the day. We headed off to the Farmer's Market where she was the center of attention in her new Red Wagon!
On the way home from the grocery store she fell back asleep, it was about 9:15 by then. Instead of letting her get a 30 minute nap in her crib, I once again rocked her to the tune of another hour. All of this forced/extra sleep was in anticipation of an afternoon of missed naps and great excitement. Turns our our gamble was worth it!

Abby was showered with gifts and attention and loved every minute of it! She got to play with her friends Evan and Luke and had one more trick up her sleeve for the day......

Once about half of the crowd had left Abby WALKED!!!! Anny was in a chair and I was on the couch and Abby went back and forth with no help several times! Yes, all apologies to my wife, but Abby is the kind of child to wait for a crowd to blow our minds!

There are no pictures or video of the walking, but there are plenty of the party and day. Here's a slide show of the day:

Pushing Too Hard?

I'm trying to be the best dad that I can be, you know that, right? I just want to be sure that you do.

I think that my silly expectations are impeding Abby's growth already. I remember in the weeks before Abby crawled I began to get excited about the fact that shew as not yet there. So very close, but she could just not get it. I tried and tried, holding her little belly up and moving her knees for her. Turns out that she got it when she was darned well ready.

Now we are at the stage where she is So ready to walk, and I think I'm doing it again. She will walk for a mile as long as there is something to hold on to. It could be a finger, a chair or even just the lightest touch of her hand on a pant leg. She has a push-behind walker toy here, and uses the one at church. She can practically run with those things.

I have to try really hard not to make her stand up and practically push her, in a literal sense, to take a few steps. I know that I'm asking for more trouble than it's worth by thinking that she should be walking, but it's just that she's SO close that it seems obvious that she should be walking today. Or yesterday.

One of the other Abigail's at school has already taken a few steps, and I think that I'm wanting our Abby to be as competitive. I know that I should not push that on her. Right?

Am I crazy for giving a little push? I try not to be obsessive about it, but I can just see it so clearly.

I Will NOT Apologize

I know that posting is scarce on this blog, and it's with good reason:

Abby is awesome!

I can not tell you how happy we are to have her in our life.

So, what's new with Abby?

She can squat and stand, and go between the two, without holding onto something!
Her vocabulary is not yet into words, but she sure is loud and emphatic. Over the weekend it was really fun to have her growling at customers at Target.
She is more gentle on the dog than on her parents sometimes. Okay, a lot of times.
She has learned lots of signs, and can be helpful in telling us what she wants. Our favorite right now is "Bath" because she gets super-excited. "Please" is downright adorable.

We have taken pictures, and I hope to get them off of the camera today or tomorrow.

Cute story from this weekend:
On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and she fell asleep in Anny's arms. By the time she woke up, she ended up sleeping for two full hours. Not the norm for her morning nap. She did not show any signs of being tired as we went shopping for plants to put in the garden we're working on. (pictures of that soon, too)

Turns out that she fell asleep between the garden center and Potbelly's, a total of maybe two miles. We picked her up, assuming that she would bounce right up like normal. We were wrong. Anny went to the counter to order, while I sat Abby on my lap while she woke up a little more. But she didn't! She folded over in half, face on feet, completely asleep. A-dorable.

(A couple of minutes later she popped right up, bright eyed and ready for her black beans and Cheerios's dinner. She did go to bed a little early that evening.....)

Some Brief Updates

On the Food front:
We tried egg yolk yesterday. That did not go over great, but she didn't gag like she did on Asparagus.
Her top two front teeth are through the gums, but barely. This creates many screaming fits.

On the Signing front:
Abby has picked up "Milk" and "Food" a few weeks ago. She now knows what each means, and is very adamant about being sure she gets what she's after.
We started giving her baths three weeks ago. We found it easier before that to pull her into the shower with one of us, but have decided that a bath fits better into a standard routine. Two weeks ago we found the sign for "Bath" and began using it. After one week, she has gotten that one down too!

On the Mobility front:
She has mastered crawling - and sometimes crawls too fast for the dog to get away!
She has mastered pulling herself up onto furniture and railings.
She is beginning to "cruise" things too. Last night it was a chair at Jae and Nadia's house. I think we're close to walking

On the Cute Picture front:

Yummy Yummy, What's that in Your Tummy?

It's........

Dog Food!

I'm sure that I'm a bad father for putting this on the internet, but Abby got her first taste of dog food on Saturday. We always assume that Rusty (dog) finishes his food, mostly because he's begging for more within seconds. Abby enjoys the sound of her fingernails on the metal dish.

We heard fingernails in the dish and happiness.
Then we hear nothing. Calm.
Calm seems to breed worry at this stage (for the rest of her existence?)
Anny got up from the living room to see Abby chewing on something....something from Rusty's bowl.
By the time we got to her she had swallowed.

Just.
Gross.

9 Month Stats & Easter

27 1/2 inches long (or tall if she's standing with help!)
20 lbs. (still, probably because she's crawling so much and pulling up on things)

Except for the-cough-that-won't-go-away, she is healthy and happy. No shots this time, but we do have to take her for blood tests (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!)

On another note, I'm remembering Easter last year (needless to say it was a couple weeks later, but it is what triggered memories). Rob convinced me to to let him paint my very big and still growing belly as an Easter egg. This year we have the cutest Easter dress picked out and will surely have photos up next week of adorable Abby!

So many changes and happiness in the last year!

How Does She Know?

How does she know where the dog's water is?
How does she know where the swiffer is?
How does she know where where the dust bunnies hide?
How does she know where to grab the dog's tail so that he can drag her around?

Okay, that last one was hillarious to see!

I refuse to believe that any place can be baby-proofed, and I believe that now more than ever. You can do your best to make sure that things are less hazardous, but unless we put her in a rubber room with plush toys, she will find something to get into!

So, we have already baby-protected 90% of the living room. Now that she can crawl, she's no longer interested in the living room, she has moved on to the kitchen. Yesterday we bought the latches for the cabinets, but only after deciding which ones to lock. We both believe that exploration is the key to learning and that we can not and should not lock everything away.

In our continued baby-protection process, I'm curious to hear what other parents have forgotten until your child brought it to your attention. (i.e. the dog food)

Also - what did you do with your dog food? Right now I'm thinking that we will just put his bowl down for food time and pick it up off of the floor when he's done.

Please leave a comment!

More Crawling = More Crying

As mentioned earlier this week, Abby is officially a crawler. This has brought about some good things, and some things we are learning to deal with, too.

One great thing is that Abby can come to one of us when she wants to be picked up, rather than just sit and whine. If she wants to sit just to whine, that's okay. If she wants to be picked up, she has to make the effort.

We are getting used to more bumps and bruises, and more actual tears. I absolutely love her pouty face, so I'm actually okay with an occasional head knock.

More Photos Here

She learned quickly to be mobile off of the carpet, where the real fun is. She's smashed her face on the floor several times, the TV cabinet once, and got a good one from the changing table on Sunday right before church. Yeah, Anny was already there so I walk in with a baby that looks all abused. Real fun like.

This morning I put her on the kitchen floor so that I could grab her coat. In the two seconds I was in the hall, she took a look around, and somehow picked the dog dish as a target! How do they know immediately where the water (i.e. drowning hazard) and dog food go? I dragged her back to the middle of the floor from there pretty quickly.

Defining a Good Father?

Abby is home sick again today, so I'm home again today. Luckly we found a pharmacy that could order the prescription and it will be in later this morning.

She has made forward progress a few bits at a time, but we're not quite ready to call it crawling. I'll borrow the work video camera later this week when she'll hopefully be on the move.

Since I'm home, I'm watching some mindless TV in between other things. (Cleaning out the shop is high priority, but I can only do it for so long at a time before I go crazy. There is a lot of sorting to get done.

Scott Baio was just on Live with Regis and Kelly. (Okay, I'll admit that I like the show out of the other junk on morning TV. You caught me.) I don't remember Scott Baio from his days on TV, and that is okay with me. I know what he has done recently on VH1, though I will also admit to NOT having seen any of that.

Kelly asked Scott's wife if he was a good dad, and he immediately came out with what seems to be the deciding factor on daddy-hood:
"Yeah, I changed a diaper this morning."

Is that what fatherhood is about? Are we really so stuck in dad's are good at being dad's if they change poopy diapers? Am I some sort of super-dad because I do a lot more than that!

I wash the diapers, too. I don't just "changed one this morning" but rather am often the primary diaper changer. Anny will not dispute this. There was a ten day span in October that Anny did not see a poopy diaper!

To me there is a lot more to being a good dad, some of which I do and some I don't. That's okay, by the way.

I see these things as just as important:
Getting up in the night with your screaming baby.
Getting on the floor and encourage development.
Keeping your child at the center of every decision you make.

This is a very short list, and know that there are things that are more important. For me the standards will change as Abby continues to grow.

It really RE-HEALLY bothers me when the standard seems to be diapers. I hope for the sake of the Baio family he was just giving a standard answer and that behind the scenes he is better than that.

Our First Parent-Teacher Conference

Oh no! Was Abby a bad girl so we had to talk with the teacher about her behavior?

Nope. The daycare that Abby is in does three Parent-Teacher Conferences a year with each child and their parents. November got away from them, and from us for that matter, so we didn't do them at that time. The others are in February (last Thursday) and May (end of year).

We sat with the head teacher to talk about all of the things on the developmental checklist for her age that she has mastered, which is everything. We also talked about the things on the checklist for the next older group (8-12 months), and she has gotten some of those things down, but certainly not everything. We'll get there.

One weird thing was to hear that we would set goals for Abby for the coming months. I was relieved to hear we are setting goals for Abby's care, not for Abby.

Our goals are:

• Increase opportunities for fine and gross motor development
• Continue to nurture trusting relationships with caregivers
• Stimulate verbal and nonverbal language development (talking, reading, singing, signing)
• Provide ample time and opportunity to explore her environment in a safe manner
• Encourage self-regulation and self-soothing techniques
• Encourage independence and age-appropriate problem solving techniques
• Introduce sippy cup (bought this weekend) and encourage self-feeding; introduce finger foods (which we did this weekend!)

We started her on half-cheerios this weekend! She's still not completely sure about it, but we'll get there. She is not spitting them at us, so we call that the right path. She has tried to chew, but since she only has two teeth, it is a lot more gumming than biting. More than a few have ended up on her onesie or bib. (Should just be bib, but Daddy didn't know that Cheerios actually do have color in them - dark brown - when it lands on a white undershirt...)

Abby is also getting closer and closer to crawling. Last night at church she made about 9 inches of forward progress! She has mastered getting on her hands and knees, but has been pushing backwards across the carpet and hardwood floors. We have begun to close the baby gate already, just in case. We're going to see the family in St Louis this weekend. Hopefully Abby's cousin Ada, six months older, who has recently been moving toward walking from crawling, can be convinced to crawl a bit as a teaching tool for Abby! She learned a lot from a couple of hours with Chase, so four full days should get some good learning time!

Abby went Friday and participated in another study at UMD, but I will let Anny post about it.