Gabby Abby

Fall continued

This week Abigail began eating some baby foods. The doctor had us putting small amounts of rice cereal in her milk when she was 2 months old to help with an upset tummy, but now she's started spoon feeding. She started with oatmeal last weekend. This week she had peas for dinner 4 nights in a row with a little rice cereal. Tonight she had some mashed banana from the banana bread I was making. She liked the banana more than the peas (can you blame her), but she ate both just fine.

I wasn't sure at first if she was really ready to start eating solid foods. The doctor told us that 4 months was good, but I know that some people say to wait until 6 months. But one thing Adam and I read is that the baby may be ready when you notice her eyeing your food. She has recently taken a big interest in the food that Adam and I are eating. We gave her the peas and rice cereal while we were eating dinner so she would feel included.

Below are some pictures from this week.

Abby eating peas for the first time.

Just playing.

A friend from work gave us this tub full of baby girl clothes (her daughter is 11 months older than Abigail). Abigail was very interested in what was in the tub at first.

Abigail looking at her book on the floor.

Abigail dressed in one of the outfits from the tub. This is what she wore to church today.

Abigail enjoys playing with stuffed toys more than plastic ones. She picks them up, hugs them, chews on them, and intently stares at them.

Abigail eating bananas mixed with oatmeal for dinner tonight.

Abigail and Mommy having a bottle before bed.

Abigail dressed for bed in one of the outfits from the tub. We thought they were cute because the feeties had little bugs on them.

Early October

It's October finally. September was very hot. Temperatures stayed in the 100's throughout the final week. But they are dropping now. We have some much cooler air tonight. It is finally feeling fallish. Work and school are keeping both of us busy. Adam's mom has been watching Abigail for us while he is at school. She is learning and growing fast.

This weekend we began feeding her baby oatmeal. She is not quite sure what to make of it, and always makes a funny face after the first bite or two. But she enjoys eating it.

Abby spends a lot of time babbling at herself. She loves to look at herself in the mirror, which she does every night after her bath. She sleeps and eats very well. She has started teething, but no teeth are poking out. She has a frog teether she enjoys chewing on.

Abigail sleeps 11 hours straight almost every night. When she does wake up, she only requires her pacifier and then quickly goes back to sleep. This is not all luck, as we began training her and teaching her good sleep habits at 3 weeks old. She was done eating at night by about 6 weeks old.

We have a lot of fun with her each day. She has happy moments and crabby moments, but the happy moments are starting to out weigh the crabby moments.

Below are some pictures from this weekend.

Abby asleep on Saturday night. Fortunately the flash didn't wake her.

Abigail eating her oatmeal. Or perhaps wearing it.

Abby in her Boppy.

I will lay Abigail on her blanket. Within 5 minutes she is in a noticeably different position. She is quite the squirmer.

Abby and Adam lounging in bed on Sunday morning.

Abby wanted to help with the laundry Saturday.

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.