Daddy

There's no one like Daddy. He's the only one that can rock Abby back to sleep when she wakes up from a nap prematurely. He often rocks himself to sleep in the process.

Paranoia

I've always thought my mother was a little paranoid (sorry mom). Always thinking the worst when Olivia or I don't call when she expects us to, interpreting the slightest symptoms of illness in the worst possible light, etc. But Abby has given me a whole new understanding of my mom's "paranoia."

Case in point. Early on, during the first 4 months or so of Abby's life, she mostly slept with me on the futon or the couch. Occasionally we would sleep together with Alex, a situation most books advised against. Apparently, although mothers are in tune enough with their baby to avoid rolling over on them in the night, fathers are not. I'm sure this is a broad generalization that doesn't apply to all fathers or mothers, but anyway. Whether the books influenced my feelings about the three of us sleeping together or whether they came naturally, the truth was I was VERY paranoid about Alex rolling over on Abby. Whenever he even slightly twitched I would frantically reach over and protect Abby in case he was going to roll over on her.

I think a little paranoia about crushing your baby is probably a healthy thing. BUT. The days of Abby sleeping with us are LONG past, maybe 6 or 7 months past, and my paranoia is stubbornly lingering. At least 4 nights a week I wake Alex up in the middle of the night, usually by frantically pushing him off the bed or yelling at him, in order to prevent him from rolling over on an Abby that isn't actually there. I'm sure this is pretty annoying. And now that I'm watching Rowan half of the week, he has joined the cause. The other night I woke Alex up because I was certain he was going to get up and step on Rowan who I thought was crawling around the floor in our room.

When will this paranoia go away? Will I always and forever be pushing Alex out of bed or yelling at him to be careful in the middle of the night? Maybe it will only go away when I have a new paranoia to replace it. For Alex's sake, I hope the next paranoid dreams do not involve him.

Black and Whites

My Other Favorite Baby

Rowan. What a cute little boy he is. He's got dimples to die for and lady-killer eyes. I didn't think you were supposed to love other babies as much as your own. Clearly it is possible. And Abby loves him too. I caught them kissing in the bathroom just this afternoon.

Waving

Abby learned to wave over Christmas break with the determined help of Barb and Beth. Since this video was taken she has fine tuned her waving ability. She does it at the appropriate occasion (as opposed to randomly, although she still stops nursing now and then to wave at me) and has started using her wrist instead of her whole arm.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USWdskf97ac

In case you're wondering, she did not learn to high five--we'll save that for the next visit.

Snowshoeing

It was a rare day in Michigan yesterday (and today!). Sunny blue skies with a nice layer of fresh white snow on the ground. To celebrate the sun's visit to the skies of Michigan, Rachel, Heather, Rowan, Abby and I went snowshoeing out at Pinckney. It was Rowan's and Abby's first time out on snowshoes and Heather's and my first time trying to carry them while wearing snowshoes. I'd say it was a resounding success, but only because Rachel was there to handle everything that couldn't be done with a baby in your arms. For me, that included buckling my snowshoes and wrangling dogs. While we were out, Abby discovered the camelback nozzle. That was the best toy ever and entertained her for half the walk. She learned how to drink from it, but I had to shut of the water supply because once her thirst was quenched she started drinking and then spitting it out all over herself and me. After that she just chewed on it. Here are a few photos from the day. P.S. If you're wondering whether Abby was warm, both of us were sweating. Or maybe the sweat on her clothes was from me, but either way, she was definitely warm.

Other Christmas Pictures

Here are some other pictures from the Mettler Christmas Extravaganza.

Beth and Abby are pretty much best friends now. Abby couldn't get enough.
Christmas Dinner #1 at the other Mettler's (Alex's aunt and uncle) house.
Present opening at the other Mettler's house.
Opening an early Christmas present from Barb--puzzles (both of which have already been put together and taken apart). No holiday is complete without a puzzle. Alex bought me a 2,000 piecer that we put together while we were still in MN. It was a doozie, and much harder to finish with distractions like Abby running around. I couldn't really work on it for 8 hours straight as is my wont. We did manage to finish it, but not until 1 am the morning of our departure. And it wouldn't have happened without a last ditch effort by the whole team. I think it was the first time I've seen ALL of the Mettler's working on a puzzle!
Christmas dinner #2 at the primary Mettler's house. So much good food.

Me hoarding a pile of presents on Christmas Eve. Can you believe that whole pile is for me or Alex? Crazy.
The woman largely responsible for the giant pile of Christmas presents seen above. To demonstrate to you the scale of Christmas at the Mettler's: after all the many, many presents had been carried down to the Christmas tree Barb said "Wait, let me check my notebook to be sure that's it." Notebook? You know you've bought too many presents when you need a notebook to keep track of them!
Beth and Abby having more fun.
Lazing around together.

Helping grandma open her presents.

Alex and Abby.
Grandma.

Abby Pictures from Christmas

You may have noticed that prior to today I haven't posted much. I didn't post while we were in Minnesota because I didn't have access to the internet from my laptop. And then when we got back I was working non-stop on a grant proposal and didn't have time. And now, finally I have time! But that means you're going to get a bunch of pictures all at once instead of more moderate doses spread over three weeks. Let's begin. Here are a bunch of Abby pictures from over Christmas break.

Looking longingly out the window at the dogs playing in the snow.
"Opening" her presents. Really she only ever made it as far as the tissue paper. I guess I should have asked her to make a Christmas list. It obviously would have read "Tissue paper, shiny present bags, and more tissue paper." Babies are so easy to shop for.
Playing with the window opener, a favorite toy.
Showing off her new coat (courtesy of great grandma Rothgeb).
Abby got beaten up by the notorious gang "Inanimate Objects." In this case, the culprits were the floor, the wall, and the chair.
Abby learned to climb the stairs and, as you can see, was very proud of her accomplishment. Thank god we don't have stairs at our house.
Again, looking longingly out the window at the dogs.
I tried and tried to get a cute picture of Abby in front of the Christmas tree, but she just couldn't be distracted from the ornaments. Yes, that's an ornament in her other hand. The funny thing is that she totally ignored the tree on a regular basis. It wasn't until I plopped her down in front of it for a picture that it became fascinating.

Grandmas are Great

Happy New Year!

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that, to date, I have taken approximately 2,300 pictures of Abby. Should I be embarrassed to admit that? Maybe. But if I hadn't taken so many pictures I couldn't do this:





(Actually, I think I only need 500 or so to make one of these, but I bet it wouldn't be as good...)