Someone loves her soccer ball

Abby was practicing sitting up tonight and was really having a blast with her little soccer ball. Of course, all that comes to a halt when the camera comes out. But instead of just stopping and staring at the camera (the usual) she stopped playing but hammed it up a bit. I think I see some potential goalkeeper skills floating to the surface ... did you see that dive?

Packing the Rochester house, Halloween and Election Day

Last weekend, Melissa's mom came up to watch Abby so that we could do some packing. We have most of the house ready to go. We need to do some packing in the office, but otherwise most rooms are down to just the essentials. The moving truck will come on the 14th or 15th (just over a week). We will then leave in the two cars with Abby and Melissa in one and me and Neko (our cat) in the other. Between the two cars we need to bring our clothes, Abby's Pack'n'Play and the remaining food. The movers should drop off our stuff early the following week and we will stay with my folks until that time. There is a slim chance that the house won't have it's certificate of occupancy when the stuff arrives. We are slightly concerned about fitting the last minute bits in the cars, so in an apparent fit of efficiency, Melissa explored the option of packing Abby in a box.

If you haven't seen our niece Sarah dressed up for Halloween, you should check it out because she is adorable. We didn't plan on dressing up Abby until Melissa found a bandanna in a box of clothes from our friends Chris and Laurie. So Pirate Abby wore it out to dinner on Friday night. We promise, she actually liked wearing it ... for a while at least.

Lastly, I was in D.C. for work on Monday and most of Tuesday. I got back in the afternoon in time to vote. It was a gorgeous night here (71 was the high for the day), so Melissa, Abby and I walked down to our polling place so I could vote (Melissa waited in line at 7 AM before work). I hear about people taking pictures each year on their kid's birthday, or the 4th of July, or some other repeating day. I thought it might be cool to take a picture of Abby each Election Day when we vote. Is that nuts? Can you tell we have been running ourselves ragged between work and moving? Anyway, here is Abby on Election Day 2008 (note, she has her "I Voted Today" sticker).

Yummy! I think....

Well Miss Abigail had her first taste of solid foods this weekend and seemed to like it overall. We've started with the basic rice cereal and so far so good. Of course we did get a bit of a shock when we went to the market to buy it and found out that the Gerber cereal contains soy products - which Abby is allergic to (along with Dairy - much to Melissa's sadness as eliminating dairy and soy from your diet is difficult to say the least!!). But we found that Beech Nut is soy free and so our passage into solid foods has begun. Later in the week will come something new - probably sweet potato, but with her allergies we are taking things slow. Our first few feedings have gone well and she got to try out her spiffy high chair (Thanks to Sean and Lucy for the hand-me-down!) and vinyl bibs (easy clean up is a must). Should be an interesting journey to be a part of.


On other news it is COLD here in Rochester with possible snow forecast for tonight - shouldn't have any accumulation at our house, but still not quite ready for the white stuff. Here is another picture of Abby in her pretty sweater that Debbie Tate made for her - keeps her snuggly warm.

The Big Move ... it's coming soon

I was on the Cape this past weekend to work on the house with my Dad. I was in New Jersey for work and on Friday night I drove to Falmouth. That was a miserable experience. It took me almost 3 hours to go 40 miles thanks to NYC traffic. Anyway, I got to my best friend Crissy's house (in Woods Hole) around 11 PM, we talked for a bit and then I crashed on the pull out. This saved me driving up to my folks house (40 miles away) just to drive back in the AM. In the morning, Crissy, her husband, their kids and I walked over to the coffee shop in Woods Hole. We had some morning beverages and snacks before I headed over to the house. It will be so nice to be living close to them.

At the house, things are really starting to come together and we will move there sometime in the next month. All the exterior work is done except for the stone needs to be delivered and spread for the driveway. Inside the house, more painting needs to be done. My Mom plans on spending a lot of time painting the rooms we didn't get done last month when Melissa, Abby and I were there. I will never be able to repay her for all that painting. I don't mind a day or two of painting, but this will be a solid week. Super-Mom status for sure. A picture of Abby's room is below (currently lacking a little boarder between the two colors) which we were able to paint last month.
This weekend, my Dad and I worked on installing kitchen cabinets and other projects that are "fussy" in nature. You plod along on them to get something to fit just right and before you know it the day is half gone. But when I left on Monday afternoon, all the appliances had arrived and it was really starting to look like a house.
Most of the finish electrical work is done and the finish plumbing will start any day now. The carpeted areas will get installed in the next week or so, and that is one of the last items. I promise, many more pictures when we get in.

As for the Rochester house, we have been slaving away to get it ready for sale. We currently have it on the Rochester Craig's List site and I made up a snazzy brochure that we will post over at U of R and some other places. If we don't get any bites soon, we will bring in a Realtor. But, we thought we would take a stab at it on our own at first.

Watchin' Abby Grow

I can't believe it has been over a month again already. So, here is a quick one to get everyone up to date.

Abby will be 6 months old next week. And that is just nutty to think about. As you can see, she is a healthy little one. She's about 17 lbs these days and has gone from the tiny little one when she was born to the kid that is bigger than other kids her age. We think she is slowing down now.

She loves to giggle and smile. The picture of her outside was at the yard sale we had to get rid of stuff before we move to the Cape. She is very easy going and likes people (waiting for that "stranger danger" phase to start).

We take her everywhere we go. She went to all the Rochester Rhinos games with us and liked to watch the other people and even seemed to watch the game sometimes. The picture of her all bundled up was at the last game of the season (the playoff semi-finals, and we lost). She had a good time even though it was in the 50s.

She is learning to sit on her own. She has discovered how to bounce in her "jumper" (combination exer-saucer and jumper). She would bounce before, but she figured out the timing to get it really going the other night and now she doesn't stop bouncing and giggling. And, she got to the point where she figured out she can put her feet in her mouth. We guess it was only a matter of time.

A visit from Grandmom

I'm a little late getting this update up, but a two weeks ago Melissa's Mom (Grandmom) came up to babysit Abby the week daycare was closed. Grandmom was a big help in taking care of Abby and the two of them did lots of fun stuff. A trip to the mall, a trip to the Zoo, and her first portraits were taken at JC Penney (we'll get those out in the mail soon I hope).

Other than that, Abby continues to grow quickly, she is now 15 1/2 pounds and 24 1/2 inches! One of the nurses said she looked more like a 7 month old than a 4 month old. We went to our Day Care open house this week and Abby is much bigger than the new girl in her room, Caitlyn, who is only 2 weeks younger than her. She is about the same size as the new 5 1/2 month boy in her class.

No real other news, she loves her jumper and has discovered that making "ppppbbbttt" sounds is fun, she gets giggling if you mimic back at her. We'll hopefully have a good house update soon, but our plans for getting to the Cape keep getting changed due to many schedule conflicts in September. We are about ready for interior paint, kitchen cabinet installation, hardwood floor and tile installation, trim, and any other interior details that will need to be done. House is really coming along and we can't wait to see it now that drywall is done!

A Quick Abby Update

Miss Abigail continues to grow at a rapid pace. Last Friday she was up to 13.7 pounds and 23 1/2 inches! She is enjoying day care and the interaction with the other kids. Mom is happy to be back at work, but really likes that she now has Friday's off to hang out with Abby (and usually lunch with Daddy).

Abby is getting very chatty and often babbles through our evening walk through the neighborhood. She loves to be outside and enjoys looking at everything. She's also been to several Rhino's soccer games, which she also finds fascinating with so many people to watch. We think she is going to roll over very soon, she's got all the individual motions down, she just needs to put it all together. While we are excited that she will soon reach this milestone, we do realize that baby mobility brings all new challenges :).