Camping Trip

We went on our first camping trip as a little family for my birthday last weekend!  It was SUCH a great time.  We just went to Malibu Creek State Park, which is only 10 minutes from home in case Abby Jane wasn't a good camper.  But it turned out she's a fabulous camper, and we totally felt like we'd been "away" when we came home on Sunday!  Here's our tent in our pretty campsite under some HUGE eucalyptus trees...

It was COLD at night!  S'mores and hot chocolate were vital, of course.  Abby Jane's pack and play fit in the tent perfectly, so she slept snugly under several blankets, but still woke up with a red little nose!  
Abby Jane ate her meals strapped into the picnic table and was totally unfazed by the change of scenery (except for being very distracted by birds!)We went on a hike (Abby Jane's first) up to a lake and through some of the surrounding area (passing the site where M.A.S.H. was filmed) on Saturday afternoon.  We stopped by some fisherman at one point, and for some reason, Abby Jane thought it was hilarious when they casted their lines.  She started belly laughing, which they thought was funny and casted some more...Jake went on shutterfly.com and made a bound book for my bday of my girl and I (and some family and friend pics) from the last eight months as well as a few preggo pictures- it is such a treasure!  The trip was made complete with crazy coyotes howling in the night, s'mores, some serious gin rummy by lantern light (CA law prohibits fires this time of year), s'mores, freezing cold showers paid for by putting quarters in the machine (good times, I promise), YUMMY dinners, and the following video of Jake's camp chair going from a little broken to a lot broken (cool headlamp and all)...

Pumpkin Patch Drama

Today was the MUCH anticipated trip to the pumpkin patch.  Four other mamas (Les, Jen, and two other Emilys) from our small group were going to trek out to this fabulous huge place 30 minutes away (http://www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com) to see the patch, play at the petting zoo, etc.  

Well, if you saw the news today, you saw that we have those crazy Santa Ana winds going on today.  Out in the area where this farm is, it was a WINDSTORM!!!!  It was OUT OF CONTROL. Dust was just blowing across the patch and valley like nobody's business. 

 Most of the mamas didn't even want to get their little ones out of the car into that crazy wind.  I was the nuts lady who had been counting the days until our pumpkin patch excursion.  So I grabbed Abby Jane and ran over to the cute pumpkins to document her first pumpkin patch experience.  The area where they were was relatively shielded, so the wind wasn't too wild.  For the grandparents and great-grandparents reading this, I promise I did not expose Abby Jane

 to any danger to her or her health!  All I did was let Abby Jane stretch her legs and play for a minute so I could grab a shot or two. 

This is her saying "Mama, why did you just run 50 yards and plop me down in the middle of these vegetables and expect me to suddenly make a cute face?"  Can you tell that her little baby hair is flying every direction?  Bless her heart to have such a crazy mom.

A break in the wind allowed her to actually enjoy herself...
I include this one so my crazy hair can be a point of reference for the wind...
ONLY IN CALIFORNIA is pumpkin patch day not a crisp, fall, apple cider experience, but instead a 88 degree wind tunnel!!!  HA we're trying so hard to pretend it's fall...

Dedication Sunday

Abby Jane was dedicated on Sunday!  We even got to do it with the Hoffs (dedicating Lucy) and the Roberts (dedicating Sammy), which was so fun as we are all LA transplants and our families couldn't be there.  It was so neat to publicly give Abby Jane to the Lord and dedicate ourselves to be the parents to her that we are called to be!  I actually teared up when I put her in her little white dress (thanks to the Husseys!)

Abby Jane did pretty well during the ceremony.  She was the most talkative one up there, but was not too crazy, thankfully!  The family after the service...
After the service, all the families and several other couples from our small group had a picnic to celebrate.  Here is Jen and Lucy (who slept through the night for the first time that night!)
Les and Sammy- who is the world's most laid back child.  Quite the antithesis of Abby Jane and Lucy, bless his sweet heart.  We think he has to be that laid back to balance out the little ladies.
Abby Jane had a fabulous time checking out what everyone else had at the picnic. 
Thanks to the Wades for organizing the picnic and bringing YUMMY pumpkin whoopie pies!

And thank you, thank you to the Aufhammers for taking all these pictures while our camera has chosen such an inopportune time to need to be sent off for repair!

Update

I hear that sometimes moms feel isolated and lonely.  Though that's not something I struggle with, I have to think that with modern mamas being able to express thoughts, ask questions, and get such fast, knowledgeable responses, it has to make a difference!  Thank you so much- it was just good to hear that what was happening was normal.

We decided to go with a little tough love, with the goal in mind of not getting her until 7 a.m. unless she was really frieking out (she used to sleep until sometime between 7:15 and 8:00).  She went to sleep fine and woke up once at 5:30, cried for 10 minutes, slept til 6:20, cried off and on for 20 minutes, then slept until 7:45!  She woke up sooo happy and had a great day yesterday.  Last night she slept until 5:40, squawked twice, then slept until 6:40.  She cried off and on until we got her up at 7:00.  We feel good about our choice to let her cry it out a bit- especially with her being so much more like herself during the day, too.  All that's not to say we won't check on her if she wakes in the night, but waking up earlier than usual in the morning seems more of a habit that formed than her having trouble with teeth, ears, etc.  Also, for those who were concerned about her ears, I had them checked last week and they were fine- thanks for thinking of that, though!

One funny story.  She's been clapping and saying "yea!" when we do.  On Saturday, she was wearing some thick, fleecy PJs that prevented us from realizing that she had a huge, dirty diaper.  When we did realize it and Jake was changing it, she started clapping for him!!!  Bless her baby heart!  Ever since then, she's been clapping when she's excited about something- when one of us walks in the door, when she sees her Puffs, etc.  It's fun to see her express herself!

Any suggestions?

For the past few weeks, Abby Jane has had a hard time sleeping. She has been a fabulous sleeper for a very long time until now.  She's waking up in the night once or twice many nights and waking up much earlier than usual in the morning on most mornings.  It may have had something to do with the cold she's pretty much over that started two weeks ago, but now she's about done with that and still not sleeping well.  Her two-hour afternoon nap is sometimes two hours, but often more like one hour.  

I think the biggest culprit is that she is an expert at pulling up and standing up in her crib now- I think she wakes up, stands up and gets upset about being in bed... as opposed to maybe coming to for a minute, rolling around and falling back asleep.  We're not afraid of "tough love," as we call letting her cry it out, though I think it will be much tougher now than it was when she was a couple months old.  I'd love to hear if your child did this around 8 months or when they were good at standing and if it just passes, so we should keep going in and rocking her back to sleep when she wakes... or if we need to leave her and let her take care of business on her own, especially at night.  I'm so big on schedules and routines, but I've even given in and nursed her on two occasions just to get her to settle down.  Like I said, when she was sick, no problem- I know sometimes you just need your mama or daddy when you don't feel good.  But that's pretty much over.  And I don't think I feel any new teeth.  Thanks for your input!

Eight months!

Abby Jane turned eight months today- it's wild that she's been alive for as long as we were aware that we were pregnant!  She has become such a big girl in the last month.  She pulls up on anything she can, now- and loves to cruise around!    Crawling seems to be easier in PJs than her dresses, but she's so cute in her dresses that I can't resist them.

It also turns out that the coffee table is a great teething object!

She loves to clap- it comes when she's proud of herself, when we're encouraging her to eat a few more bites, at the end of the fight song, and any other time we say "yea!"  She's added "na", "goom", and "ah goo" to her vocabulary.  I tell myself it's just a coincidence that she frequently says "na" when she's getting full and that "no" really isn't one of her first words!!!

She's a big crawler now- still not quite following me from room to room every time, but definitely can get around to get what she wants.  She's also really into walking around holding our fingers.  

Abby Jane feeds herself Puffs like it's going out of style.  When she finishes what's on her tray, she pats it and grunts for more!  In the spirit of fall, I've added pumpkin to her diet, and she loves that, too!  

One great tip my sister-in-law Betsy passed along is that there are flavored applesauces in snack sizes called "Healthy Harvest"- it tastes just like Abby Jane's beloved blueberries and apples, but is much cheaper!

She's gotten into books a bit more- finally looking at them, not just chewing them!  Her current favorite toy is a plastic ice cream scoop from my mom's house.  It worked out well for Mom that she has two, because Abby Jane wouldn't have been wild about leaving it in Atlanta!

She LOVES when Jake comes home and playing with him- they have a great time "rough-housing" and she says da-da all the time when she sees him!  They have a lot of tricks- one of the newest is giving hi fives!  If Jake walks by while I'm feeding her, she sticks her hand up for him to slap.  She's also waving bye-bye and hi sometimes.

It blows my mind that this tiny person is growing so fast and learning all these things- what a mighty Creator the Lord is!

Heaven

I must warn that there are a TON of pictures in this post!  We had the most wonderful time in Auburn and Atlanta- it was just medicine to the soul.  Thank you for all of you who made the effort to let us lay eyes on you!  It was an absolute delight to see you and your DARLING little ones!

Here are a few pictures from our get-together at Brick Oven with our Auburn friends last Friday night- it is difficult to encapsulate the fabulous chaos that night was with all the kids- and it was the sweetest chaos you can imagine!  About 20 adults and 9 kiddos- they ran out of high chairs!

Here are Abby Jane and Kirkley on our last morning in Auburn.  Alex and Holly were our wonderful hosts for the weekend, and we had the greatest time having some long-overdue catch up time with them and getting to know sweet Kirkley!

On Friday, we showed Abby Jane where she should go to school.  Here she is in front of Samford (which is also where Jake and I got engaged!)  We also were able to take her by my old office and go see the new Student Union and Jake's old coworkers.   

Saturday morning, I got to have breakfast with my girls (excepting the few who couldn't make it in town), mostly roomies and Jake went to a breakfast with Alex at the Conference Center for a Tiger Trail induction ceremony. It was SOOO amazing to have that time with my girls!  Holly and Alex were kind enough to watch Abby Jane so I could actually have a real conversation.   
Then, we got the huge hook-up when Ken was able to let us get into the game with a few of his football players who were being recruited by Auburn.  Which would mean we got to go on the field before the game and every time we came and went from the stands.
It also meant that Abby Jane was given a name tag with the rest of us that said, "Auburn Football"  "Abby Jane Gross"- five of Jake's and my favorite words all together.

She did great during the game and actually took a snooze in my lap for about an hour.  The ambient noise of Jordan-Hare is the greatest sound machine ever.  We snapped this one on our way out of the stadium.  It thrills our hearts.

Here she is with Pop-Pop.  I think his heart was as thrilled as ours in sharing an Auburn game with his granddaughter!

We got to see so many friends in the course of the day- the Carothers, the Williams', and both sets of the Jonas'- to be such a huge school, it's amazing how you can run into so many people you know.  Here is Abby Jane and I with Joy and baby boy Jonas on the way.

Jake with Ash and Chris at Toomer's after the game.  Thank heavens it was rolled.  Let's not chat about last night's game.

After the game, we all went over to the lounge at the conference center to watch the Alabama/ Georgia game.  Abby Jane was partying it up and absolutely enthralled by her "Uncle" Jeff.

Then Jake flew to Little Rock for a conference, and I went up to Mom's for several days.  We had lots of great dock time while we were there!  

Here is Abby Jane with her Mimi at GG's apartment.

Most of you know Abby Jane well enough to understand that it was AMAZING when she just chilled in her GG's lap for about 20 minutes when we got there.  

Mom's Lab, Mack, was Abby Jane's fascination.  At first it was a love-hate thing- she'd reach for him but fuss at the same time like she was scared.  By the time we left, though, she was obsessed with watching him, patting him, and, as seen below, crawling on that sweet dog.

Susan, Ryan, and Ashley came down from Greenville for the day on Tuesday.  We did a little fall photo shoot of Ashley and Abby Jane.  Ryan was very busy playing the whole time- one of the only times he's ever had all of Grammy's toys to himself!

Grandaddy and Joan came over to see the little ones.  I love that Abby Jane is getting to know her great-grandparents!

We spent an afternoon with Betsy (and Baby Gillies on the way) and Cade.  We loved getting to see their new home!  

Abby Jane was SO delighted to see her daddy when we met up with him at the Atlanta airport on the way back to LA on Thursday!  She then surpassed our expectations by doing great at MOPs on Friday morning, even with that time zone change.  It's amazing how fast kids adjust.  Happy Sunday, everyone!