September

From Amber:

September was a very busy month. School started at the end of August for both of us. Even though I'm teaching the same grade, there is always something new going on. The begining of this year has felt more exhausting than any other. And it's not just having Abigail either, although that is part of it as I cannot stay late at work as I used to. The girls I have this year are very different than the ones I taught last year. They are a lot sweeter, and more innocent. More like little girls should be. But they are incredibly low accademically. This is the lowest class I've had in the 6 years I've been in Vegas. It is going to be a trying year.

My mom came to visit us in early September. She stayed for 10 days. She was a great help. She watched Abigail for us while I was at work and Adam at school. Adam used this time to observe OTs so he can finish his application to grad school.

Abby had a good month. Her teething increased, which mostly included more drooling and a need to chew, chew, and chew. She had fun playing with Grandma and missed her when she was gone.

We spent several weekends in September looking at houses with Adam's mom (and mine while she was in town). We would like to move, but it is all very difficult with the housing market the way it is in Las Vegas. This area is one of the worst hit in the country. This means that home prices are very low, but it also means that everything is a short sale or foreclosure. We also cannot sale our condo because it is only worth about $24000, and we owe a lot more than that.

Overall September was a good month. Just very busy and a bit stressful.

September Pictures

Here are some pictures from September. They are in no particular order as Blogger makes it too difficult to move them around.

Adam and Abby playing together at the park.

She really likes to go down the slide with him.

Abby asleep in her swing. She likes to take cat naps in her swing before dinner.

Abby in the swing at the park. We took Abby to the park to swing while my mom was in town.

Abby sitting in her bumbo. She will sit contentedly until she gets tired of holding herself up.

Abby sitting in her 'Grandma' car seat. I don't know why she has such a wide expression.

Abby turns all the way onto her side to play with her little mechanical ball. She's not interested in rolling on to her tummy, but she has been known to roll off her tummy back to her back.

Abby with her mommy. Grandma Castonguay took this picture.

This was so cute since she was smiling, too bad it's blurry from her head movement.

Abby was helping her daddy do the laundry whie Mommy was at work.

Grandma holding Abby during her visit early September.

Abby with her dolly. She hugs the doll and chews on her too.

Family Vacation

We spent a week in Indio California (the Palm Springs Area). Our friends, Amanda and Jeremy, spent Saturday afternoon to Monday evening with us. While they were there we went to the Living Desert, a zoo with animals from African and American deserts. Later in the week we took a drive to Huntington Beach California. Abby got her first taste of the ocean. Throughout the rest of the week we mostly relaxed at the resort and used the pool. We went to a few street bazars and visited a couple of places in the surrounding areas. We never actually went into Palm Springs, but all of the area was pretty much the same. It was very beautiful. Everything was manicured and clean. It was extremely hot though, hotter than vegas even. On Sunday we went to a park to see a Hollocaust memorial, the heat was just too much so we went back to the resort and spent a few hours at the pool. Following are several pictures we took during our trip.

On Saturday morning we went to a street fair at the local college. Apparently it is a big deal during the cooler months. There were not too many people or venders there that day though. We got free snow cones though. Abby had a few pieces of ice and thought they were very cold, but she still ate them.

Here Abby is hanging out with the giraffes. She was very happy to see the animals and had a big grin on her face for a few minutes.

There was a little petting zoo with goats and sheep. We took Abby in there. She liked looking at the animals, but we wouldn't let her touch them because she puts her hands in her mouth. They were very friendly animals. They kept coming up to us and looking at her. Like she was the one on display and they were lucky enough to get to see her.

Adam and Abby are sitting on a statue of a camel outside the camel exhibit.

A close up shot of one of the camels. Our camera has 12X optical zoom, which really allowed us to get close pictures of several of the animals.

Just looking around.

Amanda and Jeremy taking a rest.

Abigail fell asleep half way through the zoo. Adam was disappointed that this picture wasn't better. He said it was such a cute moment and the camera just didn't capture it.

Adam carried Abby through the zoo while she slept to make sure she stayed cool and shaded.

A family shot. You can see the cheetah moving in the background. We didn't notice that he moved until we viewed the pictures later. The only thing any of us saw him do was lay in the shade.

And there he is just laying in the shade.

Adam became an Adamfly.

Adam and Abby spent some time playing in the ocean together. She loves to go swimming in the pool and she loves her baths. She wasn't a huge fan of the cold water, but she was quite happy to play in it all the same.

Mommy and Abby having some fun in the sun.


In this video Adam and Abby were playing in the ocean. Hopefully you can see what happened. Click play and choose 480p or 720p to get the good quality video.

Abby getting warmed up and comfy after playing in the ocean.

Adam wanted me to burry him in the sand. So I did. Then he ran in to the ocean to clean himself off. Got a good dunking and lost his glasses. Quite a horrible thing since he does not have another pair. We ordered some as soon as we got back to Vegas but they could take a week or two to get back. Until then Adam cannot drive. This is going to make for a few interesting weeks since Adam has to go to UNLV for classes and I have to go to work.

Abby staying warm at the beach. It cooled to the 70s in the evening and we wanted to keep her from getting too cold.

We rented one of those beach bikes you see families riding in and took a sunset ride. Abby slept the whole way.

Adam took this picture of the sun setting while we were taking our ride.

Family picture at the end of our ride.

We took a walk after our ride and I thought the moon looked pretty. So we took a few pictures and tried to capture its beauty. Didn't work, but it's still a neat picture.

We bought Abby this gym while we were on our trip. She just loves playing with it. Adam put the musical monkey at her feet so when she kicks with her feet she turns it on. She realized she was doing that and just went crazy with her feet.

All that playing made her tired. She just fell asleep on the mat.

August Pics

The following are some pictures taken throughout the month of Abigail just enjoying life.

She loves to stare at herself in the mirror on her swing.


Adam and Abigail playing together.


Abigail has gotten very strong. She doesn't mind being on her tummy too much anymore because she can push herself up and look around if she wants to. See the video below.

This was a few days later. See how much better she was at holding herself up in just those few days. She's even stronger now.

Abby enjoys her swing

July 12, one month old.


Abby in blue jeans. Blue eyes and jeans, just like Grandma Karen.

Adam and Abby at the park. They enjoy playing outside together.

Abby at 6 weeks, wide blue eyes.

Another picture of her blue eyes.

She's a bit too big for the Easter basket.

Sitting in her bouncer.

These pictures were not all taken on the same day.

We just really like this outfit.

Abby hanging out at home, looking cute as always.

Update Time

Abigail is growing quickly. She was 10lbs last Wednesday (5 1/2 weeks) and 22+inches. She smiles often now especially when we play with her little frog. The doctor said she should start giving social smiles soon, looking right in our eyes and smiling at us. She has some digestion issues that result in an upset tummy and too much crying. The doctor told us to add a little rice cereal to her bottle to add some bulk to her stomach contents. He said that it is possible there is too much stomach acid and she is feeling a burning. We were not sure we wanted to do this, but finally bought some cereal Monday. We're not sure how well it is working.



Sunday night she slept for 10 hours straight. I woke a bit panicked at 4:40 and thought something must be wrong. But we both checked her and she was breathing just fine. She slept 8 hours on Monday and was back to just 5 1/2 last night. We think she was just very worn out on Sunday from all of her weekend fun. This Saturday she went swimming with some of her cousins at Uncle Michael's. Then on Sunday we were all over at Grandma's. She does generally sleep very well though. She was doing 6-7 hours at night just a few days after getting home from the hospital. However, the last few weeks she has only been sleeping 3-4 hours at a time. She has also been very, very fussy. The fussiness is dying down and so we hope that the hours slept will start to improve also. She doesn't stay awake for long at least. Just long enough to drink a few ounces.



I went back to work on Monday. Grandma Gamble has been watching Abby for us. She's also been watching Decker (he's 2) who is visiting from Washington. So poor grandma has 2 little ones to keep an eye on. Abby was good on Monday and Tuesday, but had a rough day today. She began to cry just as I was leaving. I know she shouldn't be so aware, but I swear I said I was leaving and she began to cry. In any case, I'm counting down the days until the end of the school year. Next Friday can not come soon enough. It will be nice to have two more weeks off with her.



Here are some pics taken over the last several weeks:

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Image Center - Olan Mills Portrait Studios