Belated 14 Months

I’m quite a bit late, but Abby’s been doing so much that I had to post an update.

We’ve taught to her to wave bye. We’ll wave and say “Bye Bye!” and she waves back and says “Da Da!” in the same sing-songy voice. She associates Damon going to the garage with him going to work, so whenever she sees him going that way, she’ll wave bye. If we don’t notice when she’s waving at us, her “Da’s” become more insistent until we realize what she’s doing. Also, I can tell her we’re going bye-bye, and she walks to the laundry room to the door leading to the garage.

Speaking of “Da,” everything is still “da.” She has learned that Damon is “dada” and I’m not, though. She just hasn’t figured out what to call me. Sure, I’ll get excited “DA’s!” when I come into a room, but she’s not calling me “da” you know. She points at everything and asks “da?” I interpret it as “what’s that?” so I always tell her the name of what she’s pointing at. This is how we spend most of our days.

She’s also discovered the pictures on the table in our entryway. If she’s on her tippy-toes, she can reach them enough to push them out of her reach. I’ve been explaining to her that those aren’t toys, then I’ll pick her up and tell her who is in every picture. When we get to one with her in it, I’ll tickle her belly. She loves it.

She’s learned “hi” in the last couple of days. She has an old cell phone of mine that she loves to put up to her ear and talk like she sees us do. Whenever she does that, I’ll say “hi!” over and over, and now she’s started saying it too.

She’s trying to eat with utensils. Several weeks ago, she kept pointing at my fork while we were eating dinner, so I got her one too. After a few tries, she managed to stab one of her ravioli. Once it was on the fork, she didn’t know what to do with it, so she just pulled it off with the other hand. Eventually, she figured out that she could put the fork in her mouth with the ravioli on it to eat it. We were amazed! She hasn’t done it very often since. Yesterday, I was feeding her yogurt and had given her a spoon to play with. Every so often, I’d put a little on her spoon but she didn’t know what to do with it. I put a little on her tray, and she managed to scoop a little with the spoon and get it in her mouth. Of course, she used her other hand to really make a mess of things first.


She loves to give hugs. She’s not that big on kisses, but she’s constantly running into our arms and giving us a hug. She even pats my back like I do to her. When she gives me a hug, I’ll say “Awwww!” and she repeats it. That’s the best part of our days. There’s nothing better than Abby hugs.

You want pictures? I got pictures!

When we were at the airport a couple weeks ago, we ended up waiting an hour-and-a-half for our luggage to come through baggage claim (and our flight only took 1hr. 45 minutes!). Abby was getting very restless in the stroller, so we took her out and she had a blast pushing it around baggage claim. She'd never gotten to push it herself before. It was all fun and games until she started climbing into the seat. Then we had to fold it up so she wouldn't get hurt and the meltdown began. Who could blame her? We were on the verge of a meltdown ourselves.











Look at her strut! All she needs is a paint can in each hand and the Bee Gees playing "Staying Alive" in the background.








She points at everything and says, "Duh?" now.


A couple days ago, she suddenly saw her dancing Po in a whole new light, and has been carrying it around ever since. It's gone everywhere with us. She'll hug it and pat it on the back like I do when she hugs me. If she drops it in a different room, I'll ask her, "Where's Po?" and she takes me to find it. When she does, she points excitedly and says "Da! Da!"








Busted!

Help Wanted

About a month ago, I went to the doctor for a complete physical because I hadn't had one since high school. It turns out I'm not the picture of health I thought I was, but that's a whole other post. When the doctor was looking me over, she noticed a couple moles on my back that should be checked out, and handed me a dermatologist's card. I went the following week, and the doctor thought the two moles should be removed. It was a simple procedure that didn't even require stitches. Afterward, I remember thinking about how good I felt. Until a couple hours later when the anesthesea wore off while we were in Target. I was so sore for about a week after.

Last week, the doctor himself called, never a good sign, to give me the results from the pathologist's report. Both moles were "atyipical," but they'd removed all the bad stuff from one of them. The pathologist thought it would be "prudent" to take more from the other side just to be sure they got it all. I'm thinking it's going to be another no big deal thing like the last time. Nope.

I got there yesterday, and they were all business. The nurse had me sit in the chair right away and sign some form. Then she explained what was going to happen and that I'd be needing stitches on the inside and outside. They were going in that deep. She also told me that I wasn't to bend, lift, or twist in any way that could possibly pull the stitches because it's on my left side almost to my shoulder blade. Do you have any idea how difficult that is with a toddler! They even had a receptionist help me get Abby into the car because they didn't want me getting her in and out of the carseat. They kept asking if there was anyone at home then to help me get her out. Um, no. Damon was getting off work in an hour-and-a-half, and we were to pick him up because my little Tercel finally died, so we ended up driving around until it was time.

So far, it hasn't really been all that bad. When I've had to pick up Abby, I'm careful to use my knees (like I should be doing anyway), and use mostly my right side. I'm sure I'll be sending an SOS when Abby and I get a serious case of cabin fever. It's going to be a long 10 days.

Surprise! I'm sick too!

Just when Abby was starting to feel better and get her 14-month-old energy back, I got hit with her cold. Hard! This was the worst cold I've had in a very long time. Seriously. I don't remember the last time I was that sick. Damon took one look at me Friday, and decided to stay home from work. Bless him! I spent most of Friday and Saturday in bed while Damon did a fantastic job with Abby. I feel much better today, but I still sound like I've been smoking 2-packs-a-day for the last 40 years.

After lying in bed for two days, I went a little stir crazy yesterday. I went on a little baking bender to clean out the pantry of leftover Christmas baking ingredients. I made almond bark-covered pretzels for Damon, then I decided to make some cupcakes out of a box of chocolate cake mix and a can of white frosting. The expiration date on the cake mix box caught my eye while I was opening it. It expired in June 2004! After thinking about it for a while, I remember buying the mix for some recipe way back when. The sad thing is that the box moved with us to Spokane, and we moved here AFTER it had already expired! It turned out to be a good thing, though, because I had all the ingredients to go ahead and make them from scratch instead, so I got to clean out even more of our pantry. I even decorated them with some leftover Christmas sprinkles. All we need is a tree and some presents, and we're ready to do Christmas all over again!

Jake, I'll post pictures soon. I haven't really taken many lately, but I do have a few on the camera from a couple of weeks ago. I know it's the pictures that are important, so I'd better post them before I'm lynched.

Abby has her first full-blown cold. It's not surprising with all the traveling we did last week. The poor thing is just miserable. I took her to the doctor yesterday, and she has the beginnings of an ear infection in her right ear, so she's now on amoxicillin. Apparently, she has her mother's love of the yummy pink stuff because she sucked her first dose down like it was going out of style. When it was all gone she looked at the bottle like "GIVE ME MORE!!"

She looks awful. Her nose is running like a leaky faucet, and she's drooling like crazy because she can only breathe through her mouth. Even her eyes are soaked with tears. Her whole face is puffy and blotchy. When she coughs, she lets out this sad little cry because it hurts so much. It breaks my heart every time I hear it. She's had it since Monday, so hopefully this is the worst of it.

I wrote this post yesterday, but blogger wouldn't let me post it. She looks so much better this morning. She's still not 100 percent, but she's definitely on the mend. Yesterday was definitely the worst day.

What a Week!

We've had an extremely busy couple of weeks. First, Damon was offered a position in Colorado within his company. This is the company's second largest facility out of about 400, so it's a huge step up for him. We knew this would happen eventually because this facility was poorly run before his company took over last year, so Damon was asked to go out there 4 times last year to help out. We hadn't really considered it an option before, though. They made Damon an offer we couldn't pass up without considering, though. We were blown away by their offer. The original plan was to go out there last Monday, so Damon could talk to his boss who was out there fixing things, and for me to check out the area and see if it would be a place we'd be happy at. Plans changed, though, because the state is required to do an annual inspection of his current property, and they're due any day. The inspection lasts about 3 days, so if they don't come by early Wednesday, chances are very good they won't be coming that week.

It turned out to be a good thing, though, because I got the call on Sunday that my Gumma, who's been battling cancer for the last couple of years, was losing the fight. So Abby and I hopped on a plane early Monday morning to say goodbye. Unfortunately, my Gumpa called me while I was checking in at the airport that she'd died that morning, so I didn't make it. Someday soon, I'll write up a post about just how much she meant to me, but I'm not ready for that yet.

Abby and I got back from California late Wednesday morning, and the three of us flew to Colorado Thursday morning. We just got back yesterday. The property is beautiful (and huge!) in a beautiful setting in the foothills of the mountains. There are several small houses on the property, so we'd get to live in one of those until we find a house. That would be so much better than the small apartment we were in here. That was my biggest reservation about the move. I kept picturing trying to live in this teeny apartment with Abby. She'd go crazy. The houses are so nice that we're talking seriously about building a house since we'd be able to live there for free as long as we need to. That's always been a dream of Damon's, and we're not planning on moving again, so this would be the best time to do it.

We have so much to do before we move. They're going to want Damon out there very soon, so we're going to be moving quickly. At least Damon's company will pay for movers to come in and pack us and move us out there, so that will be one huge headache we won't have to deal with. It's still going to be very stressful, though.

Bathtime Fun

She loves playing with her new potty. She won't sit on it for long though.



Wearing one of my headbands that I use while putting on makeup. She loves wearing it!



It took her a few weeks in the tub by herself to be comfortable enough to sit down.