A half a year

Wow, six months old--a whole half a year!  I can't believe it.  Pretty soon she'll be asking for the car keys.

We took Abby for her 6 month checkup on her half-birthday.  Poor girl always gets shots to celebrate these things!   She did well with the shots, though--just cried for a few seconds and that was it.

The doctor said she was super smart and extremely advanced and he had rarely seen such a cute, amazing, and intelligent baby.  Okay, maybe not exactly those words but I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.  :)  He DID say that she was better at sitting up then the average six month old and was growing great and seemed very healthy.  She kept grabbing his instruments and he said "wow, how many arms do you have??"  and that she was also grabbier than the average six month old.  (I can testify--this is definitely true.)  When he put his stethoscope on her chest, she quickly pushed it back off again, and the doctor remarked that she was clearly very opinionated as well.  (Again, I can second that statement too!)

Stats-wise, she was in the 97th percentile for height (27.75 inches, I think) and about 70% for weight (16 lbs 13 ounces, I think--wow, it's only been a few days and I already can't quite remember!)  So she's pretty big for her age.

I'm liking this age--she is MUCH easier to care for than a few months ago.  And more fun too--we get to see her personality come out and play with her more interactively.  She still has her bad days--I think she is trying to grow some teeth.  But overall, she is a pretty happy girl.  As long as she doesn't get too hungry or tired.  (But hey, aren't we all like that?)  The lady who watches her at the gym says she is a funny baby--soooo interested in everything.  She has to always be looking at whatever is going on (which does make it hard for her to ever fall asleep anywhere besides her crib or swing, but ah well.)  We love our little Abigail!

Easter

Our Easter was pretty laid back this year.  Not as laid back as last year of course (I was pregnant and nauseous all the time, so I don't think I even cooked anything last year) but we didn't do any egg coloring or egg hunting or Easter baskets or any of that stuff.  I did cook a ham and funeral potatoes, though, and the ham turned out AWESOME, if I do say so myself.  Actually, I'm not the only one who says so--I brought some over to my friend who had just had a baby two days before that and she and her husband raved about it to.  It's funny because I have so often had hams turn out as dismal failures.  Like the time I tried the recipe that used cloves only I put way too many in and the whole thing just tasted like cloves instead of ham.  So it was nice to have it actually turn out well.

We went to church, of course, and sang with the ward choir.  I had a little solo at the beginning of our song, but since  we sang it as a prelude number, a lot of the congregation didn't hear it.  That's okay, though--it certainly helped my nerves and I'm sure I sang better than if it was quiet and everyone was there and staring at me.  I've sung lots by myself during my life but I still get crazy nervous every time and then I can't breathe well, which of course is a bit of an issue when singing!  I sound much better as a choir member than a soloist.

Anyways, it was a nice day at church and I definitely felt the Spirit as we contemplated the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus.  I read Abby a short scripture at bedtime each night and for Easter I read her the story of Mary at the tomb.  I just love that passage.

Maybe next year we'll try to make a bigger deal out of the holiday.  I did buy Abby an Easter dress, though--who can resist such an opportunity for adorableness?

Catching Up

Here's a few highlights of what's been going on for us in the last couple of months.  I'm not going to worry about chronology much, so this will be kind of stream of consciousness.

At the beginning of April was General Conference (a twice-yearly conference where the worldwide leaders of our church speak to us via satellite/internet/radio), which we watched online from home and very much enjoyed.   Kevin had just bought Abby a new fancy jumperoo toy thing and it was great to entertain her (at least some of the time anyway) while we watched.  Then Easter was the next Sunday--I think I'll write a separate post about that.

Kevin went on another business trip--but this one was much shorter (just two nights) and plus Abby sleeps better and is easier to take care of in general, so it was not nearly so hard this time.

I cut my hair--I got tired of all that pulling!  We have a very grabby Abby.

My new do--although this was like 6 weeks ago and it's a fair bit longer now.  I need to get it cut again because Abby has started pulling it again!

This was one of the first times we fed Abby cereal

Abby is starting to be a little mobile--she rolls over, and does a little army crawling/squirming to get toys.  She has also started solids--just cereal mostly, which she loves.  She tries to feed herself (always grabbing the spoon from me) but obviously isn't coordinated enough to do that yet!  So it gets pretty messy.




I've been doing some oil painting recently.  About every week or two a couple of my friends (and former labmates) come over and we all paint pictures in my basement.  I'm working on a portrait right now--those are so hard!  I also recently painted a little mountain landscape that I was going to put in a local art show, but I forgot to drop it off in time so it wasn't in the show.  Oh well.

I've done a fair bit of reading (mostly on my kindle), often while I pump (which I also do a lot of).  Books I've read recently include: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, These Is My Words by Nancy Turner, The Beyonders series by Brandon Mull, Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale, Stargirl (meh) , the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones, Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, the Diamond Throne by David Eddings.

I continue work on my research paper (we are trying to publish the work in my dissertation).  We submitted it to Science and it got past the first review by the editor but was rejected after being sent out to referees (one of them liked it, one of them was so-so, and one of them hated it.)  Then I had to revise and change the format and we sent it to Nature, where it was rejected without even being sent out for review.  Now my advisor wants to try Cell, which has a very different format so it will require a lot of work re-writing and re-formatting.  Bleh.  I just want the darn thing published already!  But, my advisor won't settle for anything less than these super competitive journals, so most likely this won't be the last time I have to revise it for a different journal!


I joined a gym with childcare so that I can exercise more consistently.  I have been *gaining* weight since Abby was born--argh!  So frustrating.  Curses to everyone who told me the pounds just melt off when you are breastfeeding.  I think I got all the hunger but none of the calorie burning or something.  Anyways, I'm trying to reverse the trend.  It's nice to have a little time to myself everyday, actually, and they have some fun classes.  Sometimes I go to step class or kickboxing and sometimes I lift weights or use the cardio equipment.  They have dish TV on the ellipticals-woo woo!  I like the chance to watch HGTV or whatever.  It's not especially close to our house--like a 15 minute drive I think.  There is a gym like 2 blocks from us but they don't have childcare, so I have to make the trek.  Ultimately worth it though.

Four months old!

Helping Daddy with his programming

At the end of February, Abby turned four months old!  We celebrated by going to the doctor and giving her shots.  Poor thing.  Actually, she did really well with them at her four month appointment--just cried a few seconds and was fine.  At the immunizations she had at 2 months, she cried a lot more and then had a fever and was very fussy later that day.  I felt so bad for her that I pretty much just held her all day long and let her sleep in my arms.  Anyways, though, this time was much better.

We found out she was in the 95% for height and like 80% for weight I think--she's doing a good job of growing!  At this time, she was still waking up about every 3-4 hours all night long.  The doctor said we could try giving her some cereal before bed and that may help, but I didn't try it for a few more weeks after that.    Maybe I should have sooner because she was VERY interested in food and loved the cereal even though she wasn't that good at swallowing it yet.

I kept meaning to write a blog post about her mannerisms and funny habits around then and kept putting it off and now a lot of them she's already grown out of!  So let me see if I can remember....

1.  She LOVED to suck on her thumb, but only in combination with her first finger.  She'd suck the two of them all the time, and would often have to take a time out from eating to give her fingers a good suck and then get back to eating again.  (She doesn't really do this much anymore).

2.  She made the loudest, most high-pitched noises I have ever heard.  She still does this on occasion, but not like she used to.  Some days she would just shriek and shriek these suuuuper high pitch noises until I thought I was going to die!  Sometimes they were happy shrieks, sometimes mad shrieks.

3.  Interspersed with the shrieks, she would sometimes have a few days when she'd go off on a low gutteral sound kick.  Or occasionally a blowing raspberry kick.  She was definitely testing out lots of new and exciting sounds!

4.  Around this time she started refusing to let Kevin feed her a bottle.  In some ways, this was really frustrating.  I mean, if she was going to refuse to breastfeed I should at least be able to reap the benefit of having Kevin be able to do a feeding now and then.  But, on the other hand, it kind of made me feel a little better.  When Abby started refusing to nurse, I felt so rejected.  I knew I shouldn't take it personally, but it was hard not to.  So it somehow gave me a little comfort that she wanted me to feed her (just not nurse her.)  

5.  She loves it when I sing to her (this one is still true) and part of her bedtime routine is a lullaby or two (or three).  Kevin says she doesn't accept his lullabies when I'm not around but I'm not 100% sure this is not just a ploy to make certain he doesn't have to put her to bed.  Kevin does help with her bath and sometimes reads her a book, though.

4.  She LOVES to play with Daddy.  He plays little games with her and throws her around a bit and she's in heaven.

5. She's tickleish, but only when she's tired.  I guess she gets slap happy!

Valentine's Day

So I actually am having a hard time remembering what exactly we did for Valentine's Day!  I believe I made Kevin breakfast, and he made me dinner.  And he had delivered some very beautiful flowers, only they didn't come until the next day because he didn't quite get the order in on time.  But they were gorgeous, so I didn't mind.  (I should have taken a picture!)

Wow, what a boring post!  I will make up for it with a cute picture of Abby in her Valentine's Day dress.  (See how much easier it is to blog when you have a cute baby to post pictures of?)

Miscellaneous Cuteness--the February edition

 

Well, end of January/beginning of February is more accurate.  That was a little too long for the title, though.  

Daddy's Girl

Abby adores her daddy.  One of her favorite past times used to be (and still is, actually--these pictures are from January but she still does this today too) to stare at him while he types on the computer or talks on the phone, waiting for him to look over.  Then, when he makes eye contact, she gives him these huge million dollar smiles.  No one can resist them, I assure you.

Single Mommying

Soon after we got back from our trip to Provo, Kevin had to leave for a business trip in Atlanta.  For some reason I had been thinking it was just one or two days he'd be gone, but it turned out he would be gone from Tuesday to Saturday--FOUR nights!  I was very VERY nervous about having to hold down the fort all by myself--what if I got the stomach flu again or something?  What if Abby woke up 8 times in one night and I just needed an hour's nap in the morning before I could face the day?

Well, I'm happy to say, it all turned out okay.  I just resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to get anything else done those days besides taking care of Abby.  I stocked up on frozen dinners and made judicious use of Abby's new mobile.  My respect for the single mothers of the world definitely multiplied through the experience, though!

To keep myself entertained one day while Kevin was gone, I did a little photo shoot.  Abby was tired and so I didn't get many smiles, but I daresay she was still adorable.

New Years in Provo

We flew from Florida to Provo to visit Kevin's family for New Year's.  The flight had two legs and was a lot longer than the flight from Campaign, but Abby did pretty well.  We learned from our first time and checked ALL the bags this time--kind of expensive but ultimately worth it!

Kevin's parents are currently living in Kevin's sister's basement, so we got to see them all when we stayed there too.  And Kevin's younger brother Alan flew in from Washington too.  Abby met her four cousins on the Hoffman side for the first time, including Caitlin, who is just about six months older.  We pretty much hung out and visited the whole time.  Abby continued to sleep 7 or 8 hour stretches at night which was AWESOME, although around this time she also started consistently refusing to breastfeed.  She'd figured out that the bottle was way easier.  So I did a lot of pumping with the hand pump I brought.

My sister Heidi and her family happened to be down in Utah (they live in Rexburg, ID) while we were there so we got to visit with them for several hours too, which I was so glad about.  It was great to see and talk with them and have them coo over my baby.

We had a fun time in Provo, but by the end iy had been a lot of traveling and we were pretty ready to go home and enjoy our own bed and baby swing and an electric pump!

Christmas in Florida

We spent Christmas with my parents and my younger brother Matthew in Florida.  Why Florida?  Well, I knew it was just going to be Matthew and us visiting my parents for Christmas this year, and I happened to see a billboard as I was driving along one day that advertised a direct flight from Champaign to Ft. Myers, Florida for cheap.  (I should explain that Champaign's airport is TINY--four gates and flights only go to Chicago mostly, with one flight a day to Dallas.  There might be one a day to Detroit too--I'm not sure if that one still exists.  Anyways, not very many options out of Champaign!  And the flights are usually expensive).  The flight to Ft. Myers was only like $200 or something, and less than 2 hours long.  That is WAY better price wise and especially time wise than flying to New Mexico where my parents live.  Plus, it's the beach!  So I convinced my parents and brother to fly out and meet us there instead, where we rented a house for a five days or so.

I love this picture! Yay for Uncle Matthew!

It was a lot of fun--we swam in the ocean on Christmas Eve, which was definitely a first for me.  The only down side was that I got sick the day we went out there, so the traveling felt SO exhausting (even though it was a direct flight and Abby did great) and by the time we reached the house I felt pretty lousy.  Matthew joined us the next day, when I felt somewhat better, and then my mom and dad came the day after that.  By then I felt much better but I sounded terrible (lost my voice, etc.)  The weather was awesome and the house was pretty nice (we never did try the pool though).  Abby got sick too and was fairly cranky most of the time.  BUT, she slept amazingly at night--like 8 hour stretches!  That was awesome, I must say.  

Somehow Abby managed to wiggle her way out of one leg of this outfit and put both legs together in one instead .  I guess she was going for the mermaid look.

 

Christmas day--Abby's new outfit from Grandma 

We took Abby with us to the beach and laid her in this little travel crib thing I bought.  She mostly liked it, but she did NOT like it when Kevin decided to dip her toes in the waves.  Maybe next year at Christmas she'll be ready to actually swim!  (Not that we'll probably be at the beach next year for Christmas, but hey--you never know!  Maybe we'll start a new tradition.)