Abby’s 1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday to my Irish baby girl! What a fast and wonderful year. She has become such a little person and has so much personality! We laugh all the time at her little quirks and mainly at her dancing. She LOVES music and if you even hum she will stop and start dancing. It is hilarious. She is such a cuddly baby and will lay her head on you and just cuddle away. She loves to hug baby dolls and stuffed dogs and pat their backs. She is also pretty independent in that she likes toys and will play by herself for a little. Kate and Abby have recently started playing together a lot; I love hearing the two of them laughing together.  She is very head strong and has no trouble taking care of herself (especially against an older 3 year old )

Abby started taking steps before her first birthday and is now walking everywhere, definitely over crawling! She says Mama, Dada, Ball, Balloons, BaBa (supposed to be WaWa for water), Ank U (thank you – rare but crazy when she says it!) and few other “words.”

Jason has taught her to click at us (he taught Kate to fake whistle at us so I shouldn’t be surprised). She loves to be outside and if it’s been cold or rainy she will crawl to our back door, look out the window and cry and/or yell! She still loves to swing. She tries to be like Kate and wants to sit in a big chair, and put on her own shoes and socks… She drinks out of a sippy cup and can even drink out of a real cup with no top. She’s a climber!

Bottom line, she’s amazing and we love her so much!

Abby loves balls and I really wanted her to have a ball cake. I couldn’t find what I was looking for so I made and it and, for the first time ever, decorated a cake! It was a lot of work but fun and she said ball right when she saw the cake!

Abby’s more interested in looking for her cake than posing!

Attack! She loved being able to eat cake

Our Lovely Family

New Years Eve

2010 was an amazing year not because we went on any big trips or made a big purchase, but because our family of 3 grew to 4 with Abby being born! Watching her and Kate grow was the highlight of my year.

Here’s to a year that’s hopefully as wonderful as 2010 was!

Hat Competition!

A Night To Forget

Kate had what appears to be a night fright. They run in Jason’s family so he was able to recognize it as more than a bad dream. It. Was. Horrible.  She was crying this sad sad cry and when I went in her room she wouldn’t snap out of it and there was nothing I could do. We got her out of bed and when we thought we had woken her, put her back in bed, but she started crying again. I cannot even explain how awful it was. Jason wasn’t as concerned since he had them as a child and knew she wouldn’t remember any of it. I, however, was a little traumatized. No child should EVER be that sad or scared and I think what really bothered me was that I couldn’t comfort her. Whenever she’s hurt or upset I can always hug her or make her feel better. To not be able to give that comfort as a Mom is just unthinkable. I laid with her in bed and she seemed to be getting over it because she stopped fully crying. She would still whimper occasionally, but I would put my arm around her and that seemed to calm her. I slept with her most of the night and she was fine after the “incident.”

The next morning when I went to get her I asked if she had a good night (all upbeat, praying Jason was right about the whole no recollection part). She quickly replied “Yep, where’s Abby?” And that was that. As awful as it was for me I’m kind of glad she had a night fright and not a nightmare since she honestly did not remember it at all!

They say if you’re prone to night frights (runs in Jason’s family so I guess our kids are) they can be brought on by being overtired and some other causes. Kate was definitely overtired that night. They also say getting them to concentrate on something helps to snap them out of it or you can just try to comfort them while it’s going on if they don’t wake up. Hopefully, since that was her first one and it’s been a couple of nights they won’t happen regularly.

Again, I’m so glad she didn’t remember the longest night ever. Jason reminds me that it only lasted about a half an hour but wow it seemed long!