Cars, cars, cars!

My Andrew still loves his cars. And trains, too. And airplanes. All transportation, really. But he has a special place in his heart (which he would probably call his engine) for cars.

He continues to refer to himself as a racecar, for much of his day. His socks are still tires. He recently referred to his arms as doors. At dinner the other night, he looked at me with all seriousness and said, "Mommy, I'm a race car and you are an ice cream truck." Ah. Thanks. Gotta work on your flattery there, kid. But I still love ya!

Today we were out and about and Andrew spotted a yellow Mini Cooper. He loves spotting yellow cars. He's recently started asking if we'll buy THAT car for him. THAT car changes by the day and the moment, but he means real cars.

"No, honey," I tell him. "That car costs a lot of money. Like... $9000." Today this conversation went on about the yellow Mini Cooper. And I'm no Kelley Blue Book, I'm just making up numbers here.

"Oh," he said. "And I only have $1000?" he asked.

"No, sweetie. You have about $6. That's a loooong ways from $9000. Maybe when you're older and you have a job...(blah blah blah)."

Two minutes later, we spot a big, bright yellow Hummer. "Oh my," I think.

"MOM!" Andrew said excitedly, "Will you and Daddy buy me THAT car?!?"

Sigh. "You could buy about three Mini Coopers for the price of that Hummer."

I'm not sure if we're practicing math skills here or if we're negotiating or what. But it made me chuckle. And it made me wonder if Andrew will be a mechanic or an engineer or (clutching my heart) a race car driver one day. Only time will tell.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

My precious baby girl has turned one. What a bittersweet milestone! We've loved watching you grow. I'm pretty sure each month of your life I commented to your Daddy, "Can you believe she's 5/7/11... months old?!" And now, a full 12 months.

As I rocked you at bedtime this week, I realized that you are getting tall. You cuddle up on my shoulder and tuck your arms underneath your body. You used to be able to fit on my shoulder, then my shoulder and my chest. Now, sweet Abigail... now your legs dangle in my lap. I'm so happy that you've grown in to a big strong one year old. I'm thankful that your little heart has helped you thrive, even with a couple glitches.

You are creeping furniture like a speed demon, even using the walls when you need to. But you've only taken a couple stumbling steps between Mommy and Daddy. And those were more of a coordinated fall with feet coincidentally moving beneath you. Tee hee! Very cute, but I'm not sure it counts for walking quite yet. But you're so close, we know you'll get it in no time. And then - look out, world!

Words, however, have come easily for you. You say 'bye' and 'up' and 'mama' and 'dada' and 'no' and 'ah nun' (all done). You love to copy your brother! He will blow you a raspberry and you'll give 'em right back. He'll squeal with delight and you'll squeal right back. His favorite game is to say "Ready, set....." and you say, "Goooo!" And you're so proud of yourself, Miss Abigail. You smile and beam at everyone. You use your big brown eyes and your charming smile to catch the attention of passers by.

We have LOVED spending this year with you. We can't wait to see your personality unfold. To see what your likes and dislikes will be. To see who you will become. But deep down I pray that you'll still let me cuddle you, and that you'll fit on my shoulder for a little bit longer. You will always be my baby!

Love,
Mommy

Second Tooth!

At a turtle's pace, you will get your teeth, my sweet Abigail! On Feb 13th, you finally broke your second bottom tooth. 10 days shy of your birthday. But shoot - you eat like you've got a full set of teeth! I got a little fact sheet on one-year-olds and it said, "Your child will be getting their 1-year molars soon." I thought, "Psshh... we've got awhile."

First tooth!

It's finally through! Abigail's first tooth finally FINALLY broke through. We could see it pushing up her gums for a month now. We thought for sure it would be in for Christmas. It finally poked through last night.

Whew. Now. How many more to go?

And, since I'm updating on my girl, she's creeping along the furniture pretty easily now. She's transfered from one piece of furniture to the next. But I still think she's got a ways before she'll be walking. Her feet are a mile apart when she stands up! LOL! Gives her a good, steady base, I suppose. But not great for mobility.

*sigh* My baby is getting big. I need to get some new pictures of her. And I need to start planning a birthday party. Only about a month away now!

Taking it too far?

Andrew loves cars.

No no. I mean - LOVES cars. To a crazy extreme.

The kid pretends to be a car for much of his day. If his socks slouch, he's got a flat tire. He loves to wear dark blue or black socks, to give himself the most believable tires, I guess.

We've used this to our advantage, at times. Requesting a 'pit stop' to go potty. And he's doing great at using the potty most of the day. Even without reminders, he's staying dry pretty much all the time! #2 is another story, but we're working on it.

This brings me to my story. This weekend, Andrew might've taken this analogy too far.

"Mommy, you have to change me. There's something stinky in my trunk."

Um, yeah. Where does he come up with this stuff?

She climbs!

My little Miss Abigail has really taken off in the past week or two. She's been doing a fierce army crawl for months. It was just a couple weeks ago that she found her knees. And, while she's still faster at army crawling to really get somewhere, finding her knees has opened up the world of 'pulling up', 'creeping' and today - 'stairs.'

So pulling up and climbing are officially her new favorite hobby. The funniest thing is to see her try to get down. When she's standing at the couch, she kinda reaches for the floor, braces her forehead on the edge of the couch, flails her little arms, and finally just plunks down. Tee hee! She's so cute.

Oh - and I got her to say, "Up!" I just modeled it for her a lot when I approached her to pick her up. Sure enough, she gets a knowing look in her eye and says, "Up." Kinda like, "Well, why didn't you tell me that's all I have to say?"

So her current vocabulary, at 10.5 months is: bye/buh-bye, uh-oh, kack or kack kack (quack - which she says at the sight of any animal), up. Well, she only imitates 'up' right now. She babbles mama and dada, but I don't think it's meaningful yet, so I don't count them. She also waves bye, and signs "So big!" and "all done."

Whew. They change so fast, these babies. I love seeing Abigail's personality develop!