Make It Stop!

This is what our 10-Day forecast looks like. We're expected to get another 4-8 inches of snow tomorrow! I'm definitely going to shop online for a snowsuit since we're never going to be able to leave the house again! At least this way, we'll be able to go outside instead of sitting around looking at the pretty snow through the window.

Help!! So, I'm shopping around for a snowsuit for Abby, but I'm stuck on size. According to sizing charts, 12-18 months is 29.5-32" and 22.5-25.5lbs. Abby's already pushing 32 inches, but she's still on the low-end for their weight scales. Do I go up to the 24-month size that's 32-34", but 26-29lbs? Or should I get the 18-month size? The places I've looked say not to buy bigger because they've already factored in shrinkage.

Hamming it up for the camera

Clapping








She gets so excited every time she tries to walk.


This is her "look at me, I'm cute!" pose.

NO MORE SNOW!!

The development we live in used to be farmland. In order to get to our house, you have to travel about a mile through this backroad, and then another mile on the main street through the development. Both of these roads are hilly and curvy. It's not a major climb, but it definitely makes for good walks. Unfortunately, neither of these roads are well-maintained during snowy weather. Damon saw a sand truck in our neighborhood Monday morning, but he hasn't seen anything since. It looks like they did finally plow some time in the night. It's been snowing since Sunday night, and we're supposed to get another couple of inches tomorrow. The Sheriff's office reported that there have been 210 accidents as of last night in the Spokane Valley area (and outskirts) alone, so Abby and I aren't going anywhere. We've been stuck in the house for days! We're going stir crazy.

I went out to our deck just now to take some pictures, and this is what I found when I opened the door.


According to our patio table, we've gotten this much snow.





Ok, I'm done whining now. Because we're sort of out in the middle of nowhere, we see a lot of deer this time of year. Last year, when my mom and sisters were here after Abby was born, we saw 5 deer run across our backyard. They met up with a bunch more on the street. We counted about a dozen of them. I'd never seen that many in one place like that. One evening last week, Abby and I were playing in the basement when suddenly there was a deer right outside the window! He saw us and leisurely moved on our lawn where he ate our grass before prancing away. Abby so enjoyed watching him out the window. Then, last night Damon was checking to make sure the house was locked up for the night when he looked out at the snow through that window in the front door. There was a deer right in front of that light post in our front yard eating one of our bushes.

Speaking of animals, Abby wants a dog. It started over the long weekend when we watched a little of the dog show. She was mesmerized by all the dogs on tv. Now, she gets so excited whenever she sees a dog on television.

Let It Snow!

We got our first real snowfall of the season overnight. We've had a couple of nights in the past week where it has snowed, but not enough to stick. They're calling for another 2-4 inches tonight and tomorrow. I need to get Abby a snow suit! I haven't been able to find one in her size.








Our house. It's actually bigger than it looks from the front. I couldn't get a good picture of the back, though.


In Abby news, I forgot to mention that she can clap now. One morning last week, after a round of paddy-cake, she kept clapping! If we start clapping, she'll do it too. She loves it when we clap when she's trying to walk. She always looks back to Damon like "you'd better clap too!"

She can also climb the stairs. I discovered this today when she spit up as we were going down the stairs to the basement. We went back up, got stuff to clean it up, and I set her at the bottom of the stairs so I could see her. She got so upset that she followed me up the stairs. I only let her get up the first couple before I got behind her, but once I was close she didn't want to do it anymore. Later, when we were going back upstairs, I used my phone to entice her and she made it all the way up by herself!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, I'll be cooking the turkey. I've never cooked a turkey before since Damon can. He makes a terrific turkey, but this year he's working, so it's up to me. I feel like such a grown-up!

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Thanks to Martha Stewart my bird came out beautifully. I wish I would've taken a picture; it was that pretty. My giblet gravy, on the other hand, was delicious, but I used too much flour so it was too thick and there wasn't much. Oh well, it was definitely tasty.

Abby's this close to be a full-fledged walker! She walked a few feet without falling tonight. Several times! We kept getting her up to do it again, and she happily complied. She was so excited every time.

Abby's favorite thing to do is to pull things off shelves. In the basement, she attacks the books and movies in our bookcases. In the kitchen, I can open the pantry for her and she'll happily pull everything she can reach out and toss it on the floor. She can only reach the shelf with the boxed food, so it's a good way to keep her busy while I cook. She doesn't even look at the stuff as she dumps it until she's decided she's had enough. Once she's made a big enough mess, she'll sit down in the middle of it and play with her bounty. Today, she found the cabinet where we keep her bottles and stuff.

I took Abby to the mall today to get her picture taken with Santa. I dressed her up in her Christmas dress, and we set off for the mall. She was in a great mood the whole time. That is, until we tried to take her picture. She was fine at first. She stared at Santa and poked at his beard. Then we directed her attention to the camera. They got one shot of her looking like a deer caught in the headlights before she started screaming. Out of nowhere, her lower lip came out, and a second later she was bawling. I tried sitting next to her, but she kept trying to come into my lap instead. When I held her, she would try to get as far away from him as possible, then she'd look back at him and scream some more. She hasn't had any problems with strangers for a long time. She was held by the women taking our pictures at Sears with no problems at all. She even has a thing for old men. I've noticed that she tends to laugh and engage older men more than any other type of adult whenever we're out. It's just Santa that she's scared of. I do wish they would've taken a picture of her crying, but they didn't. I would've definitely bought that picture. Oh well. We'll try again some other day.

While at the mall, we checked to see if our pictures were in, and they were. Yay!

Feels Like Home

Over the weekend, Damon and I did something we'd never done together before. It only took us a year in this house to get to it. We finally hung pictures in our house. Jake's hung a couple of things for us while here (thanks Jake! We really appreciate your help), but this was different. It felt so good to do it ourselves. Neither one of us are handy at all, so we've always been apprehensive about doing even something simple like this. This was no simple project either. We didn't just hang one picture; we hung four. Together. On one wall. It took planning and forethought. And some luck. We are picture hanging masters! We're finally making our house a home.

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Abby's going through a weird food phase. She hasn't really become pickier, she just doesn't seem to want to eat as much. Where before she would easily eat a whole waffle and a banana for breakfast, now most of the waffle ends up on the floor. She looks us straight in the eye as she drops her food on the floor too. It's like she's daring us to stop her. She thinks it's hilarious when we clean it up too. She starts dropping her food when she's full, but it takes a lot less food to get her full these days.

There are only two foods that she'll let me spoon-feed her: yogurt and oatmeal. Both have to be of the adult variety, and the oatmeal has to be the old-fashioned kind, not the quick-cooking kind. Over the weekend, I tried to feed her some of my burrito, but she refused to let me get anywhere near her mouth with. Instead, I put some of the filling on her high chair tray, and she devoured it! It had shredded beef, chunky refried black beans, rice, chunky pico de gallo, mild salsa, guacamole (something I never liked until I was pregnant), cheese, lettuce, and sour cream. Abby loved it all. That's my girl!

11 Months

November already? Where has this year gone?! I’m having a hard time believing Thanksgiving is next week already. My baby’s going to be a year old next month. We tried to weigh Abby last night, but she’s so squirmy now that it was difficult to get a good weight. She seems to be about 22lbs. now. We didn’t even try to measure her since she won’t sit still. Whenever we carry her, she twists her body and lunges forward. It worries me since she’s so heavy when she gets squirmy, it’s difficult to hold on to her. She is always on the move and now she doesn’t even want to stop long enough to be carried.

She also learned a new skill yesterday. She can now climb onto the coffee table without using anything to step on. She’s been trying since we moved the cushion from the front of the coffee table, but she would just get frustrated. Yesterday, it finally clicked for her. She grabbed the other end of the table (the side that’s pressed against the couch), and used her upper body to pull herself up. She’s become a pro at it now. I was trying to take pictures of her getting up there last night, but every time I had the camera ready she was already up on the table.












She’s also gotten pretty good with the sippy cup, as long she’s reclined. She struggles to tip the cup back enough to get a drink when she’s sitting upright. Even reclined, she still only takes a couple of drinks at a time before moving on to something else. We’re not ready to switch completely from bottle to cup, but we’re working on it.









She’s not walking any more than 4-5 steps at a time yet, but she works on it all the time. She can stand for a long time now before squatting down to crawl. She’s constantly walking along the furniture, and she can easily let go and take the couple of steps from piece to another. She loves pushing her little walker toy around. She can walk easily with its help. She also likes to push her high chair around the kitchen.

"Is It Bathtime Yet?"

She looks more like me than we thought.

Damon at 11 months.


Abby at almost 11 months.


Me (and my mom) at a year.

Sears Pictures

These are the poses that we decided to keep. The quality's not the best to keep people from printing them off directly from the Sears website, but you get the idea.

Sunrise, Sunrise

The only advantage to Abby being an early riser is that I get to witness some truly spectacular sunrises.

Who Needs Expensive Toys?

When there's fun to be had with a coffee table and a spoon from Dairy Queen!