Fun With Daddy

This week I learned something new … if you are going to lock your keys in your car, then make sure you lock them in your car while you are in Wisconsin Rapids! The police department will unlock your car for FREE and save you from having to call of locksmith and pay for them to do it!

Also this week, Abby was having fun playing with her daddy and then he had to go to school. He said goodbye to her and then left. Not even a minute later, Abby was at the front door, hitting it, and crying for her daddy to come back! When I tried to have her come to me so I could distract her, she took one look at me and turned back to the door and pouted some more! I determined that someone needed a nap, because Daddy wasn’t going to be coming home for another couple hours! Lucky for me, she agreed to the nap idea! Roland thought it was pretty funny that she missed him!

Abby loves her daddy so much! One day this week, Abby escaped from me after I had dried her off from her bath, but not put a diaper on and she B-lined for her daddy who was grading some papers. I got to her before any messes were made, but as soon as the diaper and sleeper were on, she was back at him and pulling on his pants leg like she was trying to say, “Daddy, let me help!” Roland’s mom and dad say that they remember when Roland was Abby’s age and doing that to his dad too! I guess it must run in the family!

Roland and I took Abby on Saturday to lots of different community events!  First we went to the Farmer's Market, then the annual Arts in the Park, and then we finished up by going to Dozynki Harvest Fest! We had so much fun and Abby had a blast! We are going to have to make a habit of doing this kind of things! At the Farmer’s Market there were lots of venders that were selling some fresh cut flowers along with the fresh fruits and vegetables. Due the all of the flowers, the bees of the whole entire county decided to come check things out, too! One of the venders had a sign up by their flowers saying, “The bee is free. No refund for the sting!” Abby had fun dancing to the polka music with her daddy at Dozynki. I love watching Roland with our daughter; it is fun to see how he tries to help her explore this big world!

So, this week I did bake something, and my helper helped by pouting again! I made some Apple Crisp! I had to call Roland’s mom to find out what type of apples to buy, and this time I used Roland’s sister, Nicole’s, recipe (or something close to it)! Last time I tried to make Apple Crisp, I used the wrong pan and the recipe I used only called for a light sprinkling of crisp topping … it was pretty disappointing! This time, I redeemed myself! Roland said it was perfect! I kept on telling Abby while I was making it that she might not realize it now, but someday she will come home from school and say, “Yay! Mom made Apple Crisp!” Sadly, that day was not today!

It is officailly FALL! Abby is looking forward to those crunchy leaves that her mommy has been telling her all about! :)

Pulling Up . . . Soon to be ON THE MOVE!

Did I mention that last week Tuesday was the first time that Abby pulled herself up to a standing position?  Yep, she just figured out how to crawl and now she wants to walk! Boy, do I have my work cut out for me or what? With both of Abby’s parents figuring out how to walk around 10 months old . . . I just might have a toddler on my hands before I know it! J

This week Abby and I did some baking!  Roland had mentioned (not complained) that I hadn’t really baked anything for a while and hinted that if I somehow could manage it, he would love for me to do it again! J So, I took the hint! Abby helped me bake some oatmeal raison cookies (she was playing at my feet the whole time with some old measuring spoons) then she took a long nap so I could bake some banana bread! Roland came home saying that he could smell something yummy as he was coming down the hall! What a great guy I have there! My baking adventure went so well that day, so I decided that I would save us a few pennies and bake some homemade bread … well, let’s just say that pretty much the whole time Abby was sitting at my feet pouting because she didn’t want Mommy to bake bread, she wanted Mommy to hold her and play with her! Someday Abby will appreciate it that I bake homemade bread for her! J

Roland has started back up with school and Abby and I are starting to get used to his new schedule.  I took Abby down to visit my parents  one of the days that he was gone all day long! Abby had fun with Grandma and Grandpa! They had fun seeing her again and not being completely empty nested, even if it was just for a couple of hours! While visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, Abby had her first taste of “real” food! I gave her a taste of the cooked green beans that I had on my plate, and she was puzzled at first, but then she just chewed it all us and was looking for more! What a big girl she is becoming!

Another thing we discovered this week was that Abby is just as ticklish as her mommy is, and daddy loves it! I think she likes it too, after all, she keeps on laughing and giggling and smiling these great big smiles while pulling on her daddy’s hair! Yep, I taught her well, you can let them tickle you, but you pay them back by pulling their hair or something like that! J

Abby just can't help but smile when her Daddy is around! She sure has become a daddy's little girl, she even cries sometimes when he has to go to school or work . . . it is so cute how much she loves that guy! :)

Update on Abby #2

Okay, here is the rest of the “what is new” with Abby (and her Mommy and Daddy)!

Week 29:

·         Abby pushed herself up from her belly to a sitting position this week.

·         Abby has started to blow raspberries, which is super cute, except when she has a mouth full of carrots! Needless to say, dinner time ended early that night!

·         Abby also has started to really want to try to eat just about anything that she sees Roland and I eating. One day this week I had made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I had for some reason had set it down just for a few seconds to quick do something before finishing it, and when I turned back, she had pulled it down from where I had put it, had it in her lap with her hands full of the peanut butter and jelly on their way up to her mouth ... don’t worry, I got to her in time and washed her hands off so we don’t have to worry about finding out if she is allergic to it … yet! I better keep both my eyes on her at ALL TIMES!

·         One of Roland’s coworkers had a family emergency, so he picked up an extra weekend and ended up working NINE days in a row! By the end, Abby and I were starting to really miss him! J 

Daisies are my mommy's favorite flower, so in honor for Mommy and Daddy's second wedding anniversary (one week late) I am looking adorable with some daisies! :)

Week 30:

·         Roland finished up his nine day stretch at work and had a 4 day weekend, so we did something really exciting! We went to visit Roland’s parents in Valentine, Nebraska! It was great to be able to see his Mom and Dad again, and to have Abby finally meet two of Roland’s siblings, her Aunt Faith and Uncle Jed! Now, all Abby has to do is wait until Christmas, and then she will meet her Uncle Sam who is serving a mission for our church in California!

·         Abby also had her first really crawling steps this weekend, a little in my parents’ bath tub for my mom to see, and again at Roland’s parents’ church building for both Roland and I to see! She was doing a lot of scooting around on Roland’s parents’ hard wood floors! Mostly army crawling and pulling herself forward with her arms and letting her legs slip and slide!

·         We introduced Abby to Sweet Potatoes and I think they are her new favorite food . . . she downs them in no time flat and refuses to eat anything after them in a meal, just more Sweet Potatoes!

Abby is studying (the circle) just like her daddy will be doing next week (when school starts back up)!

Week 31:

·         Roland had another 4 day weekend this week, so on Friday Roland took Abby and I to campus so he could get his books and figure out where all of his classes are before they start on Tuesday! Walking around on campus made me a little “school sick”, but Roland reminded me that I am doing the best thing in the whole entire world; I am being a full time mom to our beautiful baby girl! He is so sweet! Someday, when he is done with school and our kids have started school, I will go back to school! J

·         Saturday, we took Abby down to Madison to check out the Apple Store at West Towne Mall. We had to get my computer checked out and compare the price of iPads. Here is the verdict on my computer: the bad news is that there is something wrong with the hard drive and they couldn’t just transfer the information off of it to something else, but the good news is that the information is still there, we just need to send the drive into a drive retrieval place! Yay! We calculated it out, and it turns out for Roland with his employee discount, it was less expensive to by his new iPad at Target. He is going to be using it as a notebook this year at school.

·         On Sunday, Abby took us over to UW-Oshkosh to help move Vicki into her dorm! Vicki is super excited about being able to go to college! She is going to be great! Katie gave Abby a tour of campus while the rest of us helped Vicki unpack. Katie is trying to convince Abby to go to UW-Oshkosh too (just like she did, and now Vicki is doing)! Who knows what she will decide to do 18 years from now! J

·         Abby really has started to move . . . that’s right, she is crawling! She was taking a few steps up on her knees and then plopping down to army crawl to where she wants to go, but now she has gained her confidence and is moving as fast as she can on both carpet and hard wood floors! Look out world, here she comes!

·         We introduced Abby to Apricots and Squash this week and she loves them! J

·         Today is Roland’s first day of school of his third year of college! He is looking forward to getting back to school and working more towards becoming a pharmacist! 

Today is my daddy's first day back to school! Go Pointers I am trying to tell the world how smart my daddy is and how cool I am now that I am crawling all over the place! :)

Update on Abby #1

Okay, so I have been really bad about updating this . . . so here is part one of the update of what is going on with us! (My computer died so that is one of the many reasons why I have slacked!)

* At Abby’s six-month check up she was 15 pounds 3 ounces and 26 inches long. (She has grown 8 pounds 1 ounces and

 6 inches since birth, inch per month!)

* Abby was consistently sleeping through the night until the doctor gave her the six-month shots …. Now we have to work towards that again. The doctor has suggested putting a blanket with her in the crib. The blanket that Mommy and Daddy have chosen is the same type of material as her Mommy liked as a baby (the same texture as long johns). I am thinking about making my old beloved blankets square again and putting on a silky binding on it again so it can be used again.

* If you place Abby in a sitting position she will remain in a sitting position.

* She is working really hard at figuring out how to crawl. She can get on her hands and knees and even has figured out that the knees have to move forward, but the hands remain stationery, and if she moves them she belly flops! To get to her knees she’ll push up on her toes and do a little jump to her knees. Sometimes she also likes to raise her bottom up so that only her feet and hands are touching the ground then puts her head down so that she can see her feet. Her Daddy thinks that she is trying to figure out how to walk!

* She can roll and scoot to get where she wants to go. Her scoot/creep is kind of funny; she uses her right hand to pull herself forward while her left elbow is used to give leverage then she kind of lunges forward. (Usually this is done with her left hand in her mouth!)

* Abby is trying to add a little variety to her life and has been introduced to bananas, peas, apples, pears, squash, peaches, carrots and prunes as well as the rice cereal. She loves all of them, but, hates, not dislikes, but hates formula! She also enjoys little sips of water. She doesn’t like water from a bottle or a spill proof cup, is okay with it from a sippy cup, but enjoys it best from a big persons glass!

* Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Her visits have included visiting her friend Bryson (14 months old) in Minneapolis area so that Mommy and Daddy could go to the temple. Bryson tried to teach Abby how to crawl. He would get on his hands and knees by her, look at her, crawl a little, look back at her and seem to give the reassurance of, “Come on Abby, you can do it!” Abby would get on her hands and knees and do a wiggle but just hasn’t figured out how to get the hands to move without falling down!

* She has also had a Skype Talk time with Aunt Nicole and Uncle Joseph (they live in Rexburg, Idaho.)

* She had her six-month pictures and they are SUPER cute, we are going to have a really hard time determining what ones we want.

* Abby had a day that Claire, Daryn and Elise Thiel came to play, then three days that Elise came and played. She loved playing with Elise! Grandpa Jefferson was pretty jealous that his two girls were together and he was almost an hour away! Both Elise and Abby rank pretty high on the list of ones he loves to hold!

* Since Abby had so much exposure to children a little older than herself she has decided to be far more vocal! She is jabbering so much that Great Grandpa Bonney has started calling her Gabby Abby!

* Grandma Jefferson came to visit and watch Abby so that Mommy and Daddy could go out and celebrate their second anniversary! They thought the movie and meal were pretty awesome along with some one on one time together. Abby thought that the 1½ hour walk that Grandma and Abby took was pretty awesome!

*  On Saturday, August 11^th Aunt Katie came up to Stevens Point to “kidnap” Christi & Abby. Abby was scared by that “big, active dog”who was just trying to give Abby kisses! Helios was okay when he was outside chasing a ball, but that was as close as Abby was comfortable with. After Grandma Jefferson was finished with seminary in-service she stopped in Coloma, had lunch with Katie & Christi then Christi & Abby traveled to Grandpa & Grandma’s home with Grandma. Abby was able to meet her look alike Grandpa Jefferson who goes by the name of Great Uncle Scott! (Having two Grandpa’s kind was confusing at first! She looked like she was trying to sort out if she was seeing double!) Abby was able meet Christi’s cousin, Josh Jefferson and his finacee Mary! I approve of his choice! He finally gave his approval of Roland (before Josh left on his mission he said that I couldn’t marry anyone without his approval! So, it is nice that two years and one child later that I have his approval!)

* Abby LOVES being outside! She enjoyed being on Grandpa’s lap driving on the golf cart! Yep, Grandpa is teaching her how to drive already!

* This month Abby’s visits have also included going to Grandma & Grandpa Jefferson’s home for several days, Great Grandma & Grandpa Bonney’s home, Great Grandma Jefferson, Great Aunt Toni & Great Uncle Rich’s home, * On her 28 weeks birthday, Abby celebrated by having a boat ride on Grandpa Jefferson’s boat! She LOVES it! 

Check out my baby blue eyes! This was the only way that I could get her not to be holding onto the circle! :) 

Can you believe it? I am six months old today! :)

27 weeks . . . how fast she is growing up!

28 weeks old and super excited about taking the picture because she can hold the circle again! :)

Barnes and Noble, "Dada", and Bananas

Tuesday was a busy and long day for Abby and I.  I was planning on doing this yesterday, but Abby was having a "I only want to eat or sleep in mommy's arms" kind of day! Needless to say, today I am taking the time to post! :)  This week. Let me think, what all has happen this week in the life of the Fuller family?

Last Tuesday, Roland picked up some extra hours! He has been working pretty close to 40 hours a week, something that is really nice (paycheck wise and helping him learn) but also kind of sucks because sometimes I feel like I never see him! The good thing about Roland is that when he is home, he is ours (Abby's and mine) 100%! He might feel like a zombie, but he does his best to be the best daddy and husband he can be, and I think he is doing a GREAT job! :) I love watching Roland play with Abby before he has to leave for work in the morning, and then when he gets home, he will feed Abby her cereal and get her ready for me to give her a bath.  Her face just lights up when she sees him!

On Wednesday, my mom came up to see me! Abby loves spending time with her grandma! We made dishwasher soap from scratch, and so far it is doing a great job at keeping our dishes clean! It was fun just being able to have some grown up time and some girl time!

Thursday I tried to start giving Abby some rice cereal mixed with some formula . . . let me put that feeding this way, it is a really good thing that I was already planning on nursing Abby until she was at least a year old and not giving her any formula, she HATES it! She would get all excited because she would think that it was going to be her yummy rice cereal, and then as soon as she took the bit, she would start to gag it down!  I felt so bad for her, but I kept on trying to give it to her because I thought it might be one of those "she just needs to get used to the flavor" kind of times.

Friday I gave her some more of the formula mixed rice cereal and it was the same kind of reaction, if not worse. So I called in my backup . . . the grandparents! I called up both my mom and Roland's to see what they thought I should do to help this feeding process go a little better (like it was doing the week before). Both suggested that I might want to mix it with water or some diluted juice and see if she likes that any better, or even try mixing it with something like bananas. I figured since Roland was going to be home for the weekend, he could see what he thinks we should do to help our Abby!

Saturday was a fun day for our little family! Daddy had the day off, so that meant that we had him ALL DAY LONG!!!! We "slept in" a little bit, and Abby started playing with her Ds! I might be in compatition with Roland to see who gets the first word! So far she has been saying "dada" a lot, but never to Roland, actully usually to her monkey . . . I wonder if that means anything! :) We had a little road trip up to Wausau to get my wedding ring resized . . . one of the downsides of having a baby is that your fingers can swell up and then NEVER GO BACK TO NORMAL!!!! All I can say is that I really hope my figures don't swell up with each kid I have, that could get pretty annoying! :) Roland treated me to an Olive Garden lunch for a late birthday meal. Then we walked over to Barnes and Noble (my absolutly favorite store) just so I could smell the books! We picked up two board books for Abby because she was trying to eat the normal paper ones we have at home.  When we got home, Roland tried to feed her some formula flavored rice cereal, and after a few attempted bits, he gave up and mixed up a bowl with some of my breast milk! He said that he wanted her to at least get something in her system!

Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week, I know that I will get out of the house, and I have Roland for the day (or at least used to have him every Sunday, now that he is working in a pharmacy, he will have to work every third Sunday). I have been putting flower head bands on Abby when we go to church lately, and everyone tells me that she looks SO cute in them! Aunt Nicole has a friend that made them so we were able to buy some off of her, the ones that we have for Abby her Aunt Nicole picked out just for her! Lucky girl! We (mostly Roland) decided to start Abby on some bananas! He mashed some up and mixed it with the rice cereal, and I think that she liked it more than she did with the breast milk! I am so glad we have such a willing eater!

Monday was just a normal day for Abby and I. Every week someone comes from a Healthy Beginnings program that Abby is in just to help me come up with fun games for Abby that are just right for what stage of development she is at. This week Joanna brought out a little gumball machine from fisher's price. Every time you push the lever, it will make noise and one of the balls will come out. It didn't take Abby very long to figure out how to make the toy work! She really is such a smart little girl . . . I am going to have my hands full with her! When I showed Roland, his jaw just dropped and smiled! We are so proud of our little girl!

Tuesday was my long day with Abby. We went down to a funeral for someone I had know when I was growing up, he was a very good man and had lived a very long life. I will miss seeing him at church when ever I go down to my parents' church, but he is in a much better place now. It was great being able to spend time with my parents and my sisters and see so many of my friends. Abby is such a social bug and didn't want to stop, even to eat! Silly girl! When we got back home, she played with her Daddy for a little bit and then she was out for the count!

Well, that was our week in a nut shell! I hope you enjoy this "relaxed" look of our very active girl, she was really trying to eat the circle this week BIG TIME, so this is one of the only ones that I have that she isn't playing with it! :)

Mommy, wow! I'm a big girl now! :)

All I can say is that it isn't tomorrow . . . yet! :) So, as normal, I am going to write this like I am writing it on the day I was suppose to write it . . . almost a week ago! One of these times I will get it right again! :)

My little girl is a "big" girl . . . she has started rice cereal! Yay! Wednesday was a pretty big day in Abby's life. First of all, Daddy had the day off and that always makes for a fun day (family day)! Roland and I were invited by my parents to join them to a baseball game, so we took Abby to her very first baseball game (and the home team even won)! Then after we got home we decided to start Abby on cereal, something she probably could have done a month a go, but I kept holding off because I don't want my little girl to grow up! Though, the look on her face when we started giving her the rice cereal told me that she is more than ready to start this new adventure! Oh, and did I mention that it was her very first 4th of July?!

Abby's first feeding of rice cereal was done by her daddy with her mommy playing her paparazzi! She took her first bite with a little bit of curiosity, but one taste and she was a goner . . . she just couldn't get enough! We made a nice little mess, but had lots of fun . . . which dinner time is suppose to be: FUN! The next couple days (with mommy feeding her) we started to master the art of NOT MAKING A MESS! Yay for mommy! We mixed it with breast milk this week because we figured that she would have a better chance at eating it, but now I am a little worried that I am not going to be able to keep up with her healthy appetite! Just this Saturday Roland came home from work while I was just getting close to finishing up her 2 tablespoons of cereal, so he took over. Abby was acting like she was still hungry, so he mixed her up another 2-3 tablespoons . . . and she ate almost all of it up, there was probably only a teaspoon left! Next week I am going to try mixing the cereal with some formula to see if she will still eat it that way! Wish me luck!

As for our little mischievous 23 week old picture . . . I don't know if she was hungry or if the paper circle became a new "toy" that needed to be sucked on, but I think it could be qualified now as "well loved"! Want to know how I knew the photo shoot was over . . . she rolled over and started to play with the pile of clean laundry that I had on the other side of the bed. I am beginning to think that Abby really likes the color red. When ever she sees it on a shirt in our laundry, she b-lines for it! I told Roland this and he just laughed and told me that she probably associates that color red with her daddy, after all he is usually in Target "red" when ever she sees him! :)

Num num num! This week's circle is yummy!

Happy (one day early) Fourth of July!

Sorry, I was a little lazy in writing up my blog . . . at least it gets done, right!? (I am just going to write this pretending that I wrote this on Tuesday . . . the day that I was suppose to write it, the day I DID take the picture . . . so, at least I have one thing going for me, I take the picture on the day that I say I am going to take it!)

This week was Roland's first week of working as a pharmacy technician at his new job up at the Wausau Target Pharmacy! At the end of the week, I asked Roland two questions: "what more will you be doing when you actually become a pharmacist?" and "do you still want to be a pharmacist when you grow up?" He answered both with a great big smile, "I will be able to consult both the person receiving the medication and the doctor prescribing the medication, I will be able to . . . (fill this part in with lots of excited jabbering about all the things he is looking forward to doing when he becomes a pharmacist!)" Can you guess what the answer to the other question is . . . can someone say, "YES!!!!" :)

I love that he loves his new job! The only down side to it, is that this week Abby and I really started to struggle with bedtime! I even text my mom and mother-in-law telling them that I had a baby for sale, everything included, no delivery, only downside is that bedtime is a pain! They reminded me that there would be days like today, but it gets better with time! :) And they are right, Abby and I just need to listen more to each other (oh, okay, so I need to listen to her more) and compromise (I need to be willing to go with the flow and not "force her" into things). Sigh, it is really too bad babies don't come with instruction manuals like cars!

On Saturday, (even though we hadn't spent the whole week together) our little family went in opposite directions for the day . . . don't panic, we just did separate things! Roland had been trying to set up a time to go golfing with a couple buddies from work for about a month, and this was the only day that worked out for them! Abby and I went down to my parents' for the day to see my cousin Amy who just got back home from serving a misson for our church in Poland. can't believe that it has been 18 months since I have seen her! I missed my Amy Lee so much! (On a side note, because Amy went out the same month that my brother-in-law, Sam did, that means he will be coming home in less than 6 months! Yay! I can't wait to see him!)

When my cousin saw Abby, she kept on saying to me, "I can't believe we are old enough for you to have a baby!" and "You have a baby!" She just couldn't get over the fact that we really are growing up and old enough to be married with a baby! Since Amy and I are only six months apart, it feels a little crazy to be this old . . . old enough for her to have served a mission and old enough for me to be married with a baby! At my cousin's party, one of our friends came up to us and Amy said to him, "Tyler, can you believe it? She has a baby?!" And Tyler said to her, "If I didn't see it, I wouldn't have!"And then to me, "YOU MADE A PERSON!!!!" hahaha Why, yes, I did! I did make a person, and what a cute little person she is! :)

Since there was no 31st of the month, I just used the end of the month to mark the progress . . . so check out this picture of my FIVE-MONTH-OLD baby girl! She is getting ready to celebrate her very first Fourth of July! :)

P.S. I just remembered something . . . At the other outdoor picnic that my parants, Abby and I went to on Saturday (before Amy's), Abby started sucking on my waterbottle that I had been dringing out of, so I opened it a little bit to see what her reaction would be to when she got something out of it . . . let's just say, she is a BIG fan of getting water out of a bottle, she pretty much drank the rest of my water! Opps! :) Then later at Amy's party, I had to run over some dinner to my sister, Vicki, so I had my sister, Katie, watch Abby for me. When I came back I found my little girl with chocolate frosting smeared over her cheeks! They were trying to pull a fast one over me by telling me that Abby's first REAL food was chocolate cake! hahaha