It's beginning to look alot like...

...we have a "walker" on our hands. Abbs still refuses to walk on the main-level of the house... I think she finds the laminate too slippery/unstable. She does prefer to crawl in the basement as well, but we've been trying to encourage her to stand and walk while playing with us. Slowly her confidence grows, and she walks more and more, although, part of me feels a bit guilty though because I know in a few short weeks this new baby will make it's appearance, and everyone will look to Abby to "grow-up" a little more, and I feel thats not fair. At 17 months she will not be tiny baby, but she's not "big-kid" either. Ty and I both try to remember this every day... and not wish this time away.

http://www.vimeo.com/17251922

I'm at work, so I don't know if that link will work... I can't view Vimeo on our network here... if it doesn't I'll re-add it when I get home tonight.

Hmm... We're trying to start to get ready for the holidays. This upcoming weekend I think we'll tackle Sugar Cookies and Khrustikias (I know it's not spelt correctly, but I can barely say it), these are delicious deep-fried Ukrainian cookies sprinkled with Icing Sugar... I can't get enough at the holidays. This will be Abbys first year tasting these cookies, and I'm hoping to find a cookie-partner in her...although she doesn't really care much for sweets, so I might be disappointed.

We bought a Jingle Frog... about a foot tall and when you squeeze his hand he sings "Jingle Frog" and jumps up and down and she is SO afraid of him. She loves him from afar, but doesn't enjoy him up close at all and hides from him. In fact, if she is into something she shouldn't be I can tell her No, and try to redirect her and usually she won't fall for it, now all I have to do is say... "Please don't touch that. Come with Mama and lets get the Frog", and she stops what shes doing immediately :D Ha ha...

She's talking SO much these days... so at 14 months she is saying:

Hello (hi/hey-oh)
Bye (bYY-ah)
No (Nnn-OH)
One, two, three (Uh-NNN, Ta-OO, TAA) - and she understands this is couting down to something. (I have a video of this at home I'll post tonight)
Down (ow-n)
Up (up-ah)
Hat (at-ah)
Yes (yah)
Come here (mumbles, and pats leg)
Weston (wah- sound I can't write)
Dog (woof) Woof gets used for most animals
More (Moe)
Mama
Good night (ni-nigh)
That (dat)
Dada
She also sings patta-cake with the correct tune, not correct words but she does the actions.
She also does "Round and Round the Garden" to herself or someone else, incorrect words but correct tune and actions.
Abby (Ah-Bee)
When she wants to hide and you find her, she covers her hand and sometimes says Abby and sometimes says "hiding" (hii-dee).

and she tries to repeat anything you coax her to say. Those are her regulars though that she does un-prompted.

She loves to read books... any books and will sit forever with you. She LOVES to turn the pages... and it's more common for her to spend an hour reading books, than it is for her to spend independent time playing with toys.

Recently, she's aquired a love of coloring with crayons, and we bought her a finger-painting kit, it's clear gel she dips her fingers into, and when she touches the paper, the different gels turn a different color. It makes really pretty pictures, they almost look like watercolor paintings. She's done a bunch, and I just bought cute frames and I'm going to put them in her room.

We tried to take holiday photos yesterday of her, and much to my surprise, waking her 15 minutes into her afternoon nap to dress her in full garb and take some pictures did not result in any photos with smiles. Sigh... again, they are at home so I'll have to post them later. I have a glucose test this week and will be either flexing the whole day, or at the minimum a half-day, so I might try to get some more of her that day.

Hmm... well thats probably a long enough post for now :) I'm handing in my 6 week notice today for work, which is insane... I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone! And we can't wait to meet this little person... I can't imagine how busy our life is going to be by then, but it's so exciting. Lots of people are asking how we think Abby will adjust to having a sibling, but she LOVES little kids and I think she'll LOVE this new baby...maybe a little too much. I think Weston will gladly welcome someone/thing else to be the center of her attention. Poor girl is turning that dogs hair grey!

Here's a video of Abby and her "shrimp" when we were in Florida a few weeks ago.



Abby bugging Weston

Some New Stuff

Here's some new stuff finally of Abby!!!

She was a Butterfly for Halloween. We didn't go to many houses, just two and the Firehall, but she LOVED seeing all the kids and going up to the door.





And the back...




Its hard to believe this was her not too long ago...



She LOVES being outside and playing with Weston...


Heres my 22 week 5 day belly... growing all the time!!!


This is from supper the other night, you can see the scar by the corner of her eye from wehre she fell into the coffeetable and split her head open.



Here's a video of her from last week, afraid to reach into the bag.