High waters

The river is up again. See the bench swing out there? That's by the bank. Below is a photo with that bench from last fall with the river at a normal level: (click photos to make them larger)

October 2010

April 2011

A bigger vehicle

We said goodbye to our car. We had talked about selling it for awhile and one morning I just printed out a For Sale sign and stuck it to our window on the way out to run errands. Someone spotted the car that afternoon and then bought it the following week. Neat! I loved my car but we need something larger for luggage and for Abigail's things (stroller, pack-n-play, etc) if we want to take any vacations this summer.

 Now we're busy test-driving new [to us] vehicles. There are a lot to choose from!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Come again another day.... (and preferable not for tomorrow's garage sale either).

There is one guy in a white minivan that has been circling for the last half hour, waiting for garage doors to go up. Now I know what field mice feel like when the hawk is out. :)

Easter

Happy Everything!

With Abigail's auntie home we decided to celebrate as many things that we can until we see her again for her wedding: Easter, at least 4 birthdays, a retirement, finishing another semester of grad classes, Mothers Day, and Fathers Day (hey, we like to celebrate!).  

Also, an unrelated question: 

Do you see our television and that empty space above our fireplace? If we put our tv up there, where/how do I house the dvd player/vcr/receiver? Any suggestions? I don't want to just leave an empty tv stand in the corner if the tv is up high... ya know.  I haven't found a side table wide enough to hold the receiver (they are all tv stands!)

Faces

I would like to make a book about emotions and use Abigail's face for each page so I've been trying to catch more faces on camera. It's hard to get anything but "happy"!

...and then I set the camera down and SCOOPED her up! :) he he

Spring Break

We spent 5 days up north at "the cabin". It's always a nice retreat from everyday life. We take walks, have a fire, watch movies, read books, and play. 

It snowed on Sunday!

 Abigail sitting by the fire.  We didn't let her roast marshmallows like last time though.

 Taking a walk (Derek ran 11 miles, we didn't join him)

 The river flooded the front lawn so the waterfowl swam right by the deck! (See the bush in the middle of the river, that's the shoreline normally)

Lots of water being let out of the Croton Dam. The fishermen were loving it.

Crawling and getting into all the cupboards!

What's this white stuff?

Just 8 days after enjoying an 85 degree day... we wake up to a few inches of snow on the ground. Oh Bah! 

 My poor spring bulbs!

First 80+ degree day!

After church we went to the beach. It was actually windy and chilly out there but further inland it hit 85 degrees that day!

Knapp Reunion

5 of the 6 housemates from my junior year in college were able to get together with our children. 4 girls, 1 boy, and another baby on the way. We try to get together once a year even though we live apart - some of us in different states. Our "reunions" are going to get pretty interesting with all those children!

giggles

I [heart]

Ready to dance the night away!

There are only 100 more days until Auntie's wedding; we're practicing our moves!

Ten Months Old

Here's my update (a little late) but it's really for me to remember her milestones and family to see. Sorry to those of you rolling your eyes at yet another mommy who's just using the world wide web to brag about her offspring. :) Okay, here we go:

At Ten Months Old Abigail...

...sleeps a bit more inconsistently these days. She had a cold almost this whole last month so she was up a bunch during the night (2-4 times, ugh!) and the time change really messed things up so she'd wake up at 7am and be up for the day sometimes. We put a blanket over her windows to darken the room more and hopefully we'll get some curtains to replace the blanket. Two naps a day but sometimes the morning was was longer and then afternoon one short and then a few times she just didn't take a morning nap at all. Whatever girl, I'm not going to fight it. One of those no nap mornings she slept from noon to 4pm, THAT was awesome child! 

...eats more table food this month and is getting an attitude about it. She'll still eat anything... if she wants to. Ha! If she doesn't like the texture at that moment, she fishes it out her her mouth with her fingers and flings it on the floor (hmm, sounds like were headed for Toddlerville soon). New foods: strawberries, grapes, pickles, broccoli, cheese, plums, pineapple, animal crackers, chicken, and wheat bread. That list is the last of it because I'm done keeping track of new foods (except of course the no-no list like peanuts, cows milk, honey... ya know). If it's soft  or small enough then we let her try some of our table food (like chunks in our soup or part of our sandwich). She has 6 teeth.

...nurses 3- 4 times a day (when I remember to do it during the day, ha! (well, it's not like she's in need of it since she's been up more at night, that's the quickest and easiest way to just get her back to sleep: fill her tummy!) She takes bottles regularly now and I'm so annoyed with pumping. That is so funny because I was so frustrated with her not taking a bottle earlier and yet it was so easy for me nursing.

...plays and smiles all the time! She runs around like a madman in her walker trying to slice your Achilles. Loves to look out the window and watch for birds, dogs, and anything that moves. She "woofs" at everything. We still read books and she loves it but I don't leave her with a big pile right now because she's learned to peel the paper and eat it! She waves goodbye and claps her hands. She also points with her index finger at people she knows and things she wants (like the food on MY plate). Favorite toys right now: Lots of non-toys (cups, keys, straws, laptop),  her dinosaur bike, her walking duck (hard to explain), her baby doll... We keep a rattle in her crib and when she wakes up she plays with that for a bit; it's cute to hear on the monitor.

... is talking. She says mama, dada, byebye, doggie, woof woof, hi, num-num. Abigail will copy a lot of things I say to match the same vowel sounds and pitch so if I say "we're going into the store" sometimes she'll say "ore".  She's also learned that girlie, high-pitched squeal. Where do girls learn that???

...is crawling, "Army Crawl" style. She likes to pull everything out of the cupboards and drawers and onto the floor now. She also sits on her dinosaur bike and rocks to the music or pushes her feet against the floor to go backwards.

...wears 18 months clothes, size 3 shoes , and size 3 diapers (and cloth diapers).

...weighs just under 20 lbs yet because she lost/didn't gain any weight this month with that cold.

Here is her nine month post.

9 Month photoshoot