This One's For You, Grandparents!

Here's a pretty non-eventful video of Abby walking around the house, but I know you grandparents still want to see it anyway! :) You can see her in person this weekend! Yea!

Just Some Pics

Abby's favorite Auntie Em came over to play on Friday, and they had the best time together! Yea for aunts!

Abby got to play with her BFF Ellie on Friday night. They took turns riding the seal. I just love this picture.
Abby loves her new baby doll stroller from The Ketchands. Thanks, Kendall and Emily! :)
This afternoon Abby decided to put the most coveted posession in her new stroller: the remote control. Abby has her own pseudo-remote, but she somehow found the real one and decided to take it for a spin around the house. How hilarious is that?
She loves that darn seal. She'll even ride it backwards.
That Popsicle sure looks yummy!

Abby with her daddy before his softball game. I knew when he called me well before his game should have been over that it was bad news. 15-0. Ouch.
Our little Sweet Pea
I have a new video of Abby walking, but I'm pretty darn tired, so I'll do that soon, hopefully!

Walkin'

Here is a VERY SHORT clip of Abby walking. She actually walks better than this, but this is all I have for now!

Abby and her Pals

Our pals Clay and Kristen visited us on Monday night on their way back to Oklahoma. It was our first opportunity to meet their daughter, 4-month-old Courtney. What a cutie she is!! Abby interacted well with Courtney. We do need to work on the "Babies are not to be used as a prop" lesson though.

Here are the girls

Yes, Courtney's head was so soft. Abby loves soft things at the moment!

Then, yesterday, Abby's local BFF Ellie came over for a dip in the pool. Here are the girls ready for their trip to go swimming.

They tended to want the exact same thing. Why do babies do that?? Here, they both wanted the syrup.
Ellie is quite the hugger. I'm picturing a future career as a WWF wrestler!
Getting ready to go to the pool
Check out the Water Taxi Floatie! They loved it.
Abby really enjoyed riding in Ellie's taxi.
Oh, and Abby fell asleep during lunch AGAIN the other day. The poor girl was worn out after playing with Courtney that morning, I guess!
Happy baby

Abby took her first steps a couple of weeks ago, and has really picked up on the walking thing the past few days. Each day she seems to walk more and more, so I'll try to post a video of that soon.

Adios, Paradise! Hello, Reality!

We are back from our trip to Cabo, our getaway Paraside. Thanks to our regular vacation buddies, Kathy and Cary, we had a fabulous time!! Abby stayed in Longview with all of the grandparents, and now that she is back home, she is now getting re-acquainted with the floor (I don't think her feet touched it all week! ha!) as well as the word "no". :)

We stayed at the new Riu resort in town, and it was really nice. It didn't seem too crowded either. We thought it was because of the fact that it was new and people steered clear of newer resorts, but it could be because, as we later discovered, there was a murder at the resort only three weeks before we went. Hmmm.... Perhaps that's why the staff was overly nice to us all week!

Here is where we camped out all week. The swim-up bar area. Matt and me
Kathy and me
Yes, it was colder than expected! Those bathroom towels sure came in handy.
Poor Cary had to resort to Kathy's swimsuit cover-up in order to stay warm!
Here is Cary picking up the ladies! Perhaps a slightly older demographic than what he was hoping for though...
Going to town
Yea for Matt's Go-Go-Gadget arms! :)
Off to parasail. In this picture, I had no idea I was about to be the most terrified I'd ever been in my entire life!!!
Here is Kathy and me going up...up...
...and away! Seriously. I thought I was going to die. We had them pull us back down after about 8 minutes. I kept thinking "Why didn't I make a will before we left home?!" No one parasailed after us because the wind was too dangerous. Matt and Cary admitted later that after they saw us whipping around and how high up we were, they were glad they didn't go! Pansies.
So, we traded in our unused parasailing time for jet skis. I think I had stopped shaking by this point.
Here's our last night in Cabo.

A wonderful time was had by all! We're thinking about a quick trip to Vegas in the fall. Grandpa Rick, if you're reading this, I've got a proposition for you: you can keep Abby for a few days if you foot the bill for our trip. That seems like a fair trade, right?? What do you say??? :)

I know my posts are getting less frequent, but Abby doesn't stop going. In fact, while I've typed this, she has dug out the contents of the trash can and emptied them onto the floor! And when she goes down for a nap, I have tons to do. Hopefully I will get back in the swing of things soon!!!

Abby's Goings On

I know, I know: long time, no blog. I don't know what was in that cupcake icing that Abby had a taste of on her first birthday, but whatever it was, it must have included some spunk, insomnia, and delight. Truth is, Miss Abby has become quite the energetic little girl lately. Don't get me wrong: she's ALWAYS had lots of energy, but it seems as though she's received an extra boost of it recently! It's at though since she turned one (only 2 1/2 weeks ago, mind you), she has become a new child!

How Abby has changed during the past two weeks:

-She now only wants to nap in the afternoons
-She is sleeping from 8:30 until 8:00 or so. While I LOVE the fact that she is sleeping later (I am NOT a morning person!), I am wishing she went to bed earlier. But typical "Curious Craddock" that she is, she doesn't want to miss ANYTHING; therefore she MUST stay awake later. Ha!
-She keeps me super busy during the day. With other household chores, I'm finding I have less and less time to get things done!
-Funny thing is that she refused to hold her bottles until she turned one. It was like as soon as she had lived exactly twelve months, she decided that she wanted to suddenly hold her bottles. Of course, this is just when we are trying to get her off of bottles completely. Go figure!
-Matt and I are fascinated by the fact that she knows how to climb up on her rocking seal. She just gets right up there, puts her hands on the bars, and waits for us to push her back and forth. Two weeks ago, she never would have done that.
-She recognizes her Mama and Dada. Abby will pull out the photo album and flip through the pages, and when she sees Matt or me, she'll point to us and say "Dada!" (Yes, she does that for my picture too. Still working on the "Mama" thing!)
-She understands so many words now. Dada, Mama, doggy, sippy, blankie, milk, bottle, baby, ball, kiss... and I love how she waves hi and bye, gives hi-fives, and waves her hands in the air when I say "That's it. All done" when she's finished eating.
-She will crawl over to us (SO close to walking), pull herself up onto our legs and reach out her hands as if to say "Hold me!"
-She mimics us now. Her favorite pasttime is digging through and emptying the entire contents of my purse. When she finds the brush, she immediately puts it to her hair and begins to comb it. Hilarious!
I know there's more, but I need to get some things done while she sleeps. :)

I guess I'm just still in awe of the entire process of aging. Sorry to bore you with all of my child's doings. Like I said, I'm in awe of how quickly "babies" turn into little "children!" Here are some pictures from the past week or so.

Going to a playdate. She can wear barettes now. How fun is that?
More pool time
Chicken Fight! :)
Abby and Ellie racing up the stairs.
Poor Millie and Winnie only thought they had Abby to contend with. Look at the chaos Ellie envoked when she came over!
Hmmm...I wonder what's in this cabinet??
Sweet baby