Abby & I love shopping

Abby has a new shopping cart and she will shop till she drops. All she wants to do is walk up and down the hallway with her little cart. It's adorable and exhausting.

Merry Christmas!

Ahhh... Christmas morning! The excitement, the chaos, the recycling... it's all over and now we are enjoying a napping baby and the sunny day.


Meme arrives with her famous cinnamon rolls and a gift for Sammy. Thank you! Thank you!


Peter and Eli getting ready to open Eli's first present. A garbage truck! Oh boy! Eli's favorite!


Meme and Abby, cuddling and opening presents... how lucky is Abby?!


Eli cannot get enough of his new garbage truck!


"Auntie" Rachel and Abby, the green-eyed girls.


OMG! Abby loves the grocery cart from Peter and Rachel.


Eli helps Abby check it out!


Abby has to rest after all that excitement.


Eli is anxious to get his new truck home.


Abby, Mommy's little shopper.

Christmas Eve...

Yay! Christmas Eve is finally here! I wonder what I'm getting for Christmas???


Hurry! Let's go to church so we can come home and open our Christmas Eve present!!


Oh boy! Abby's first present!


Jammies!! Wow! What a surprise!

Some people would probably say we're lucky, we get to have a leisurely Christmas Eve doing whatever we want, but when I was a kid, Christmas Eve was a busy, exciting day that necessitated a nap in the afternoon just to ensure that you would be able to stay up late for the party! I miss that. Now it's feels like any other Thursday night.

In an effort to generate some Christmas Eve excitement, Abby and I got dressed up and went to church. I'd like to say it filled me with a feeling of Christmas cheer and good will, but honestly, I mostly felt jealous of all the families who were there with Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles, all dressed up and excited to head out to a family party afterwards. Well, enough of my pity party, I got to come home to a quiet, cozy house and a husband who had not only cleaned up, but had a fire going and a bottle of sparkling wine chilling in the freezer. Not the Christmas Eve of my memories, but certainly not a bad one and Abby got to open her first present too. So although I was longing for a different Christmas Eve, I think I ended up with something pretty close to perfect.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Abby's got her stocking, there's some new Christmas Eve jammies waiting for her tonight and lots of fun planned for tomorrow! We can't wait for Abby's first Christmas and neither can she!

Abby & Sammy

Abby likes to squint her eyes now... I think she may think that I intentionally make my eyes so squinty.


Laughing at Sammy


Chasing Sammy


Sammy in her favorite spot

Looking cute at breakfast...

You would think I would have something way more exciting to blog about this close to Christmas, but I really only have this... Abby looked really cute at breakfast today. She really likes to be in charge of the spoon and in Abby's world, using her own spoon at breakfast is definitely a blog worthy event.

Play Date

Abby hasn't had many play dates so when our friend Michelle and her daughter Zoey told us that they were in town and staying up the street we were very excited to have them come over and play. Zoey is only a few weeks younger than Abby so it was especially fun to watch them play. They are both pretty squirmy so it was hard to get a pic of both of them smiling or even looking at the camera at the same time, but you get the idea, they had fun together. I think I'm going to have to teach Abby how to be gentle with her friends, she really likes to grab faces.

Ho Ho Ho

Abby really loves the grocery store (although you certainly wouldn't know it by the look on her face in this pic). We have a great grocery store about 3/4 of a mile from our house and pretty much every day since Abby was born we have visited the store for coffee and/or groceries. She LOVES it there and the people that work and shop there are usually pretty excited that she's there too. It's pretty funny, I find myself glancing up from the onions or jars of spaghetti sauce to see grown men and women with huge goofy smiles and it's because Abby is literally beaming at them. I have a lot of new friends because of Abby. Today we were there and I found this silly hat and tried it on Abby. She entertained the shoppers for a minute or two while I tried to get the perfect shot of her, but she would not smile for me. She doesn't seem to like my camera phone for some reason... oh well, you get the idea, she looked goofy and it made shopping even more fun!

This was bound to happen...

Sammy has a new source of food. I was wondering how Abby ate those peas so fast...

Thank you Sammy

Sammy and I today


Sammy as a puppy

Sammy is the best cuddler in the whole world. I knew she was the best dog ever when 2 weeks after we got her she took a nap on me and laid her fuzzy little head right on my neck and we took a nap together. That's the way Sammy hugs you, she will take a nap on you. She's a little heavy, but so warm and she radiates love, so even if your legs are asleep, you can't help but love the feeling of Sammy asleep and softly snoring in your ear. Today Sammy gave me an early Christmas present and took a long nap on me. It was the best present a doodle can give. Thank you Sammy!

Big Girl Seat!

Abby's infant car seat has gotten a little snug so we gave her an early Christmas present of a new car seat.


YAY! I'm in a big girl seat!


Wait... you mean this is one of my Christmas present?

Abby Loves the Learning Home

Big surprise, I know... but Abby loves her Chanukah present. It was fun to watch her play with it... the house has about 1000 buttons and noises, so I think it will take her a long time to get tired of this new toy!






I just had to take a pic of this toy because Sammy is TERRIFIED of it. If you look in the background you can see Sammy, I think she's trying to take cover behind the couch. I have no idea why she hates this toy, she is scared of a lot of things, if we hadn't had her since she was weeks old I'd be convinced she was abused, but then again, could you really be abused by a jack in the box?

Abby's First Chanukkah!

Today we celebrated Chanukkah with Charlie's parents. Holidays are a lot more fun with Abby. It was so fun to see how excited she was about everything. Just look at her big smiles!


Grandpa Goose is home! It's time to celebrate!


Abby LOVED this snow globe/music box. I wish I would have had my camera with me when she first saw it, her face just lit up with such joy and wonder. It was very cute.


Thanks Bubbe and Goose! Both Abby and I are excited to play with this new toy!


Who needs latkes when you are this excited about lentils and pears?!


Abby thought the menorah was very cool.

Abby and Eli

Finally, Abby impresses Eli by showing off her cell phone (actually it's my phone, of course, but Abby treats it like it's hers)


First pic of all 4 of us.


Eli showing his cousin a little love.


Abby and Sammy just barely indulging me with a posed pic by the tree... I thought Abby and Sammy might be too young to say "seriously Mom", but here they are saying it with their eyes.


Oh Eli, just look at that face!

Abby and Eli are about 7 months apart and for most of Abby's life they haven't really had anything in common, but lately we've had a glimpse of how much fun they will have as they get older and can really play together. Here's a couple of recent developments:

* Eli can say Abby's name
* Eli will often hand Abby toys and he really tries and mostly succeeds at his efforts to share
* Abby gets really excited and waves her arms and legs when Eli is around and loves to stare at him

So there you have it, the beginnings of a beautiful friendship. What lucky little babies! I always thought it would be fun to have an older brother, but now that I think about it, an older boy cousin is even better, way less fights over the remote control and who "gets the front" but with all the perks of an older brother.