Causing Trouble

She had been staring at these for days so we knew it would be trouble eventually. I'm surprised she got this far on her first try.

Easter and Abby

We had everyone over to our house to celebrate Easter and Abby's first birthday this last weekend. I think everyone had a good time, I know Abby really enjoyed being the constant center of attention and all of the cookies and cake. There are a bunch of pictures online already.

Having 11 people in the house is definitely a lot of work, so weve just been relaxing/recovering most of the week - especially Abby as she goes back to not getting cookies and attention constantly. I think we've almost eaten our way out of all the leftovers.

Abby did start cruising right after we ate lunch Sunday. She must have made a hundred laps around her table before she finally stopped. Since then she's been walking on everything and she's figured out how to push her table around like a little walker. It works great until she hits a wall and then she just pushes futily until she finally gets bored.

She also really enjoys singing about Old McDonald. It's not easy to hear, but she starts out saying e-i-e-i-o, then neigh-neigh (because we usually start with a horse), then baa-baa because she hears the block say a sheep's next. At the end, she looks down at her stuffed lion Gingham and tries to say his name. Maybe we're the only ones who hear it, but I think it's not too hard.

In other news we had a leak in the basement plumbing Friday night, it seeped from the boiler room, through the wall and into the playroom. It took most of Saturday morning to fix but we were able to handle it ourselves. I don't know much about plumbing, but I'm really not sure why this old piece was stuck on the end of a line anyway. At least we know that the drains work if we ever get any more water.

A Few Birthday Pictures

It's been a busy week but I thought should at least put up some pictures from Abby's birthday. They're in the family picture section and they're in no particular order. We'll try and make a real update sometime this weekend.

Changing All the Time

Abby constantly amazes us with how much she changes. As an unintended consequence of her playdates with Salem, she loves to stand up now. She pulls herself up on her crib, her block, the couch, me, anything she can possibly grab onto.

We think that she saw Salem trotting around, especially being able to follow me wherever I went, and decided that this would be a pretty good way to get around. About the same time, she also started actually crawling instead of scooting around on her tummy. We're not sure where that came from, but it's been pretty fun to watch her crawling around the house. Poor Adam's knees are getting pretty sore following her around, though!

Abby's really gotten into the block she got from Grandma and Grandpa VanDuyne for Christmas lately. She loves to see the weasel pop out, and to look at herself in the mirror.

Our favorite, though, is the Old McDonald side. She's started singing "E-I-E-I-O" along with it. It doesn't come out quite right, more like "I-EEEEE!" but it's pretty cute all the same. She's also been working on her animal sounds. Her favorite is the sheep - everytime she sees a sheep she says "Baa baa!" but she also knows the horse and the cow.

Abigail's other new favorite trick is biting her spoon. She'll do it while she's eating and when she's finished, and just giggle and giggle. She also has a "joke" - she holds out a hand with a Cheerio or piece of bread like she's going to share, but when Adam or I comes in to take it she pulls it back and puts it in her mouth. She thinks that's just hilarious, and will do it again and again until she's out of food.

With Abby's birthday coming up next week, I've been working on getting things ready for her party. We're having all the family over this weekend for her party on Saturday and then her dedication at church on Sunday. I figured that since she's just going to be one, we don't need to plan too much craziness. Honestly, I thought that if we all just sat in a circle in the living room and let her be the center of attention, that would be her idea of a perfect party. But I did want to make a fun cake. I found some pictures online of a cake that I thought I could make, but just to be sure I tried to make a practice cake. Apparently it was a good thing I did.

When I tried to take it out of the pan, it broke into a million pieces and fell all over the floor. I tried to put it back together just to try making the right design, but the more I moved it the more it fell apart. So we'll have to try again. County Market has cake mixes on sale this week - I can just keep on trying until I get it figured out!