Our Dextrous Daughter

Abby had her 4 month check up 2 weeks and we were in no way surprised to hear that she was around the 90th percentile for height, weight, and head size.  Our little girl is actually not so little, but at least she's proportionate!  Since then, Abby has stretched out a little and GREATLY improved her dexterity.  With her legs a little longer and little less chunky, she can now fold herself up and grab her feet.  She loves it!

With greater dexterity comes greater exploration and Abby has been grabbing at everything within her reach, be it toys, couch pillows, or hair.  She will roll the object around in her hands or yank and pull at it as she tries to figure out what exactly it is, but everything usually ends up getting thrown across the room in a spastic fling of her arms.  The cutest thing about her reach and grab is that her interaction with Eli has greatly improved as well.  A few nights ago, Eli was having a rough night and I said Abby wanted to give him a hug to make him feel better. When I held Abby up to him she actually grabbed onto him, and he tightly hugged her back.  Tonight she was pulling on his hair and he just giggled at her thinking she was such a silly girl.  I have a feeling that pretty soon they will be doing puzzles together on the floor and dancing around the house hand-in-hand.

The Elusive Laugh

Now that Abby can see more than 2 ft in front of her and is becoming more aware of the amazing world around her, she is finding hilarious joy in every interaction she has with the people she meets.  Even though she can now recognize faces and is, of course, partial to her mama and daddy, she will greet everyone with a smile.  Her smiles are the brightest, friendliest and most beautiful smiles since . . . well . . . since Eli's!  About a month ago, Abby amped up her smiles and squawks of joy into full on laughs.  Unfortunately, she has been a little finicky with her laughs and it has been tough to catch on camera.  She will giggle away, but as soon as she sees the camera she immediately stops and becomes entranced with the camera instead.  A few days ago I was able to sneak up on Abby having some fun with her mama and captured an especially heartwarming giggle-fest:

Screecher Creature!

I'll admit, I don't get to see Abby that much during the week due to driving Eli to and from school and our busy evening routine of getting both kids fed and in bed, but one of my favorite moments of the day is changing Abby as soon as I get home.  It's one of those rare moments when it is just me and her and we have each other's undivided attention.  Abby will babble in her soft raspy voice and tell me all about how her day went, and I'll just listen with an occasional, "Uh huh, tell me more".  As soon as we walk back into the living room, though, our little Abby-girl kicks out the jams and tries to compete with her brother for attention.  Instead of yelling, screaming, or even crying, Abby joins the family dinner conversation with her favorite noise: a hefty inhale resulting in a high pitched squeal.  She kind of sounds like David Lee Roth in his Van Halen heyday.  It's pretty awesome and I hope it's a talent that can carry her to rock and roll stardom in the future.  As old as I might be, I'll be right there in the front row rockin' as hard as any other punk hipster that thinks he's cooler than me. (Meh, I'll probably embarrass her on purpose by taking my shirt off and trying to stage dive.)

Get A Grip!

Over the past couple weeks, Abby has met a few more milestones, one of which is the ability to grasp and hold things.  She is able to grasp big things set in front of her (like her bug book here) but her brain-to-hand signals need a little more exercise before she has full control to grab smaller things.  Her dexterity is really quite amazing because you can see her focusing in on something and trembling as she streeeeeeetches out to grab it.  I think the main reason she is so driven to perfect this skill is that she has discovered that there are much more exciting things to chew on than her hands.  She's an odd ball because she abhors pacifiers and bottles, but she will chew on almost anything else.  Go figure.
I also noticed earlier today while doing tummy time that she is using her grasping skills to get a good grip on the floor blanket and pull herself forward.  Of course, she doesn't get to far because she has a lot of chunk to drag across the floor (insert "Your daughter's so fat " joke here).  I'm sure once she gets her legs under her and coordinated she'll be inch-worming her way around the entire house and into the guns, drugs and liquor cabinet.  
Call me a sensitive sucker, but the thing I like most about her grasping is that she now clings to us when we hold her.  One of her favorite things to do when we are cradling her and rocking her to sleep is get a tight grip on the collar of our shirts.  When we try to put her down in her crib, she just tightens up in an act of comfortable defiance.  When we have her upright and she is awake, she hangs on to us with tiny little hugs.  I can only hope that she will be more inclined to snuggle and fall asleep on my chest than Eli was around this age.
(Oh, by the way, you can also tell from the picture that Abby is getting is getting a little stronger and is able to sit up in her bumbo seat on her own!)

Fat and Happy

Is there anything better than a baby's smile?  I think not.  Keep your DQ Blizzards, walking through cool grass barefoot on a spring day, and zomedies (zombie comedy movies.  I just coined that!)  . . . I'd rather have a baby smile any time and Abby is happy to oblige.  She finally started smiling about a week ago and has been a true bundle of joy.  Every morning after her first feeding of the day, Abby will sit back on her Boppy and give a barrage of smiles to every face that greets her.  It doesn't take much, just a simple smile and a cheerful voice and she gives a big goofy grin back.  It's a true sign of love returned.
Even though she looks absolutely adorable in the picture, she actually has a funny progression of smiles.  She starts off by giving a little Corey Haim smile, then stretches it out to her cute full smile, then she gets really excited and goes full Chris Farley with it. When she tucks her chin back and it disappears into her many neck rolls, you can't help but laugh at her.  
Speaking of neck rolls, Abby had her 2 month check up recently and she weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs.  She has almost doubled in size and is now in the 99th percentile for weight.  She's still hanging around in the 50th percentile for height though.  Eli was the same way for the first few months, but he eventually stretched out and slimmed down once he started walking. 

2, 4, 6, 8! Abby let us sleep in late!

I tell ya, ladies and germs, last week was a monumental week.  Abby finally started getting on a schedule and was able to sleep about 6-7 hours each night last week!  Kelvey and I had just about reached our wits ends with both of us getting up every 2-3 hours to feed, change and rock Abby back to sleep and were trying our best to figure out how we can get her on a day and night schedule so she would be able to stretch out her nighttime feedings.  We even pulled out Eli's old log to see how old he was when we got him on a schedule, what times he was eating and sleeping, and how he compared to Abby's feeding habits.  Luckily, we found that Abby had naturally fallen into a routine very similar to Eli with a similar starting point to the morning and a similar rough patch from 2-5pm (the intervals were only off by about 30 min to 1 hr).  Unfortunately, we were now faced with a very big dilemma: how do we set a bedtime routine to help Abby get her body and mind ready for a long night's sleep when we have a 3 year old trying to get ready for bed at the same time?!  It took some trial and error, but we were able to figure out a way to get everything done without denying either child their much needed attention: 

7:30pm- Eli hits the potty for his nightly pre-bath poop while Abby bathes

8:00pm- Abby's out of the bath and Eli is on his way in

8:30pm- Abby's dressed in her pajamas with a fresh diaper and gets a late dinner with Kelvey, Eli's out of the bath, brushing his teeth and (very slowly) getting into his pajamas.

8:45pm- It's story time with Eli and Abby together!  *One of the best parts of the night*

9:00pm- Eli gets hugs and kisses from everyone and gives his special kiss to Abby on her head, then he's off to Sleepytown.  Abby hangs with us and usually ends up sleeping in our arms because she's not quite ready to lay down yet.

10:30pm- Abby gets topped off with one last feeding and is ready to go down for the night.

The first night that Abby slept for about 6 hours, she started fussing around 5am and I sprang awake thinking, "Holy Crap! I slept through a feeding an Kelvey is going to KILL me!"  Thankfully Kelvey woke up too and confirmed that Abby had been sleeping the entire time.  We were both a little confused at what had happened and the joy of our good fortune did not settle in until much, much later.  Hoping that Abby was on her way to more restful nights, we got her more acquainted with the bottle so Kelvey and I could alternate nights feeding her while the other got to sleep.  The combination of a regular routine, a nice relaxing bath (which Abby actually loves!), and a full belly make for one peaceful night.

To be completely honest, I used to dread the idea of getting set in a routine and having a life full of constant predictability.  As a parent of 2 kids, I have come to accept it with open arms if it will help me get 35 of my 40 winks at night.  By the way, I have found that getting a decent night's sleep also makes managing Eli much more tolerable.  For a while, Kelvey and I were so tired that it felt like we were in a constant battle with Eli to get him to follow the simplest of directions.  It didn't help that for a brief period, Eli was also waking up every other night talking and crying because of crazy dreams he was having, and we would have to go in and comfort him back to sleep.  It was such a horrible feeling spending so much of our time together in the evenings just trying to get to bedtime without any hassle, but things are getting back on track and the difference is noticeable in all of us.  I just keep assuring myself that we will eventually be able to bring flexibility and freedom back into our lives as Abby gets older and we all find a find a groove we can share comfortably.

Abby Abby Bo-Babby

So Abby is approaching her 2 month mark and even though she is still a teeny tiny baby girl that doesn't do more than eat, sleep and poop her pants, she has shown us a hardy mix of personality traits and funny little quirks.  For starters, the girl likes to eat! I mean she puts it DOWN.  Abby loves milk like a fat kid loves cake, and the only time she gets super fussy (to the point of turning purple in the face, actually) is when she wants to eat.  Unfortunately, Kelvey also learned very quickly that Abby's powerful appetite is coupled with her powerful sucking reflex.  Abby is relentless when feeding and tore Kelvey up pretty bad the first few weeks.  I have felt the power of Abby's chompers on my finger while giving her a finger pacifier, and I'm thankful I will never have to experience our little honey badger gnashing at my nipples.  Speaking of pacifiers, Abby doesn't really care for them too much.  You would think that a child with such a strong sucking reflex would latch onto anything remotely similar to a nipple, but not so with Abby.  She knows when you are trying to fool her and she will have none of it.  NONE OF IT.  She'll either spit the pacifier out or just cry around it most of the time.  This isn't so bad because she falls asleep pretty easily without it and it is a good sign that we will not have to deal with 5 yo still attached to her pacifier.
Another funny little thing we have noticed is that her chin often quivers for no reason.  It just seems to happen at random times.  You'll look down and there it is shaking as if we just took her out of the industrial baby freezer.  She also has a tendency to snort and grunt like a warthog as she wakes up, begs for food, tries to burrow in your arms to sleep, or just squeeze out a fart.  It's quite funny and Eli likes to make fun of her with us.  Eventually we will have to teach Eli not to tease his sister, but for now it's all fun and games and taking baths together:

(We recently started giving Abby baths in the big tub while Eli is taking his pre-bath poo and a few days ago Eli said, "I wanna get in with Abby".  So he hopped in and helped wash her.  Lately he has enjoyed helping by holding Abby's towel for me, all the while still sitting on the potty, as I take her out of the tub to dry off.)