Segway Tour

Like many of you, I get daily emails from Groupon about local deals.  Most of the time, they get deleted at the same time as the other gazillion so-called junk email.  Note to self: unsubscribe to those emails that I'm tired of deleting everyday without looking at.  On this particular day, the groupon caught my eye!  A segway tour of Cincinnati!  I thought that would be a fun thing to do when my parents are in town because 1. We tend to not go anywhere or do anything and this would be a way to get out of the house.  Sometimes it's nice to stay homebound, but when your house is only so big and you only have so many rooms you can go to for privacy, getting out and about sounds nice.  2. I knew none of us have ever rode a segway, so this would a first for all of us!  3. Great way for us to be tourists in Cincinnati and see the sights while the wind blows through the hair.  4. The groupon deal was so good, I couldn't pass it up. 

I chose to do a "sunset tour".  It was fantastic!  The weather was very pleasant, the views were spectacular and the segways themselves were a ton of fun!  It took just a little bit to get used to how they work, but once you figure it out, we were all zooming all over the place!  We stopped at the halfway point and had ice cream - I did not complain one bit about that!  The overall tour was over 3 hours long - money well spent and a good time was had by all. 

Grandma and Grandpa Davis visit

My mom and dad came last week  for several days.  Their visit was multi-purpose.  Of course, they came to visit Brent and I, but more realistic, they came to visit Abby.  They also had a bigger duty: to watch Abby for 48+ hours while Brent and I had a little getaway (you'll learn more about that later). 

(sorry for the out of order pictures - they somehow ended up out of order and despite my tries to put them in order, they get more out of order, so I'm leaving them alone and you're going to have to deal!)

Playing!

9 months

9 months is full of milestones!

• At her 9 month well check up at the doctor's office, Abby weighed 21 pounds, (80th %ile), 28.25 inches long (68th %ile), and 17 inch head circumfrence (22nd %ile).  Her weight for length percentile is 75%. 
• As you can see from the pictures, Abby is much more mobile!  This girl kneels, pulls to stand, beginning to side step along furniture and also beginning to walk behind push toys.  Holy moly! Where did my baby go?! 
• She's eating more soft table food - she's had blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, bread, cheese, banana, mandarin oranges...  She loves to shove her face full of food. 
• She claps!  She will imitate us when we clap for her. 
• She is waving too.  For such a long time, she would move her wrist and now it has finally evolved into a wave.  She's still learning what it means, but will wave back and squeal with delight when we wave in response to her waving. 
• Just recently we walked into Abby's room to find her standing in her crib.  Practicing her new skill in all sorts of places.  Daycare has commented that instead of napping, she is choosing to stand in her crib, despite how tired she is.  That's why we get reports of her napping only 30 minutes.  !!!! 

Crawlling!

A camera mishap as this was to be one cohesive video documenting her first lengthy crawl....ah geez.  Maybe someday I'll get it.  Regardless, we have a crawler ladies and gentlemen! 

Wedding in Ft. Wayne

We had another 'first' this weekend.  We have conquered a wedding with Abby in tow.  Brent's cousin, Jessica Niese, got married in Fort Wayne, Indiana and so we traveled there to celebrate.

I have to say a wedding with a young child is a completely different experience!  On our drive to Fort Wayne with a detour through Lima, which was a 3.5ish hour drive, Abby barely napped. 

I barely saw any of the ceremony as I was entertaining my niece Natalie and then I had to sneak out with Abby to feed her, which I failed to do prior to the ceremony starting.  Luckily, in between the ceremony and reception there was a 2 hour break and so I was hopeful that Abby would take a decent nap.  Normally, I'd be highly annoyed with a break between the ceremony and reception, but in this case, I was very grateful.  Unfortunately, Abby was not going down easily.  Brent was in the hotel lobby having a beverage with family while I stayed in the room with Abby.  I kept texting Brent stressing out that Abby wasn't napping and that she'd be a bear at the reception.  Brent replied with, "Don't worry.  She's Abby".  That immediately calmed down as I knew he was right.  Abby seems to be entertained and distracted with crowds and holds her meltdowns to a smaller crowd.  Soon after she did crash and so did I.  We then had to wake her 20 minutes later to get to the reception. 

At the reception, Abby was a delight.  Not a tear, fuss or holler.  I didn't see much of the traditional dances or hear any of the speeches.  I barely finished a drink.  I did find myself sitting on the floor of the reception area in the corner with Abby and the other kids.  That was a first. 

Around 9:00 or so, I left with Abby to put her to bed since she was up WAY past her bedtime.  Brent stayed and partied it up with the family.  Remember that Abby is able to keep her cool?  She was fine going into the carseat, but once she was in the privacy of just Mom and Dad in the car, she began to wail.  She wailed all the way back to the hotel.  She was quiet as I carried her through the hotel lobby and on the elevator.  Once I put her down in the hotel room, she began to wail again.  Soon after, she was fast asleep in her cozy pack 'n play.  And not long after that, I was asleep too! 

A wedding weekend success!

"Can't turn right"

We joke that Abby doesn't turn right and does a "sit and spin" with her right arm dangling in the air.  We chuckle when we see her doing this. 

Beginning to be mobile...

8 month video

8 months

As if getting a picture of a stationary child is hard enough, but throw in a piece of paper meant to be left alone to be read for a photo and that's darn near impossible!  I managed to get one photo without the paper being crumpled because I don't think Abby realized the paper was there yet.  You can see she has tears in her eyes in the first photo, but I don't remember her crying.  Hmph. 

8 month milestones:

• Began eating breakfast, lunch AND dinner with solid foods.  She hasn't rejected any foods so far and seems to accept any spoon that comes in vicinity to her mouth.  Daycare provides her breakfast and lunch and then we feed her dinner at home.  She still takes 5 liquid feedings too...I feel like she's eating all the time in some way or another!  It's almost time to space out the liquid feedings...
• She's holding the sippy cup by herself all the time now.  Holding the bottle is another story however. 
• She's feeding herself puffs and other finger foods successfully. 
• Moving in and out of sit.  For a long time she would sit and not move from that position.  That made things easy!  If a toy was in her reach, she'd bend over and extend her arms to reach the toy.  If a toy was just out of reach, eh, she decided she didn't need the toy anyway.  We woke up at 4:30 am one night to find her sitting up in her crib.  (It has been a while since being woken up in the middle of the night!)  Luckily, the novelty of that wore off fast and she hasn't woken up again with that skill.  Until next skill...pulling to stand!  So far we've seen her do it a couple of times, so that's next!
• Teething - she's got two teeth sprouting on her bottom gums!  She spiked a fever sprouting those darn things too.  She was pitiful and I ended up staying home with her one weekend while Brent represented us at a family gathering. 
• Abby's "crawl".  Abby has her own unique crawl.  If I could describe it well on here, I would, but I can't.  Only a video of it would be successful.  And I don't have one of those.  Believe me, it's a lopsided crawl, but she gets around now! 
• Because of her newfound mobility, baby gates have gone up!  We have the stairs blocked on all levels. 
• Oh, changing diapers have become a battle!  She immediately wants to roll over...and with a poop smeared tooshie that doesn't make for the best situation.  We try to give her a pacifier or a toy or both to distact her.  Sometimes that works and sometimes that doesn't.  That makes changing her on her seemingly high changing pad more scary and dangerous.  So oftentimes we choose the floor to change diapers.