Surprise!

Jake called around 6:00 last night to say he was on his way home for the night- we weren't supposed to get to see him until Saturday afternoon!  It was fabulous to have him home for the night, and saying goodbye this morning when he went back to school was made easier by the fact that he gets to come home again tomorrow afternoon until Monday morning.  Abby Jane was glad to see her daddy and settled right in with him, talking, exploring his face, laughing at his tricks and funny sounds...  Needless to say, she loves her daddy and I love my husband!

THANK YOU for the great advice on mixing foods.  I mixed her peas with rice cereal yesterday, and she ate the whole jar over the course of her meals throughout the day.  YEA!  Here's the proof...

She's been sitting up for a week now, and it's amazing how much more stable she is this week than last.  When I see her sitting like this, playing by herself, she looks so small that the phrase that comes to mind is "lump of sugar!"

She doesn't like peas, but...

She'll eat carrots!  

We tried peas yesterday, and she gagged at the taste.  Hilarious.  So we moved onto the "oranges" today, and she enjoyed half a jar of carrots with her oatmeal after naptime.  One question... the carrots are runny- is it normal to combine runny things with cereal to thicken it?  Or is that gross?

The girl and I continue to be ladies about town while Jake's gone... went to Baskin Robbins in the Palisades with our small group last night and YEA! we're meeting Beth for dinner tonight in Pasadena while she's in town again for business.  

Adventures

We've had a few adventures since saying goodbye to Jake on Saturday morning when he left for his summer two weeks out at Azusa.  I will be blogging a little more often than usual while he's gone to let him see his girl's antics!  Yesterday morning, Abby Jane was playing under her gym where she goes every morning after breakfast.  I laid her down on her back in the center of the gym (feet towards camera, head towards the window).  After a little while, I heard her grunting a bit and discovered her crooked under her gym on her tummy!  She never rolls onto her tummy unless she gets too much momentum rolling off of it!  So I would have loved to see how this happened...

So Abby Jane's foray onto her tummy was adventure #1.  Adventure #2 was our trip out to Azusa last night for a kick-off dinner and for Jake to get to introduce the child to his friends and professors.  But don't you know our cute little girl spent the majority of the time with her bottom lip stuck out, on the verge of or in tears?!  Funny kid.  She was so good in church and all day, then I think the party was a bit overwhelming or something.  

Adventure #3 was this morning when I ran to the store really quick at 10:30 to get a couple of things and be home before I fed her at 11:00ish.  But then a pushy old lady parked next to me was in too big of a hurry for me to finish getting Abby Jane out of the car and grab my purse and be out of her way.  So I got Abby Jane in the Bjorn and stepped back before finishing gathering my things, closing the car door so she could pull out.  Then I remembered that I had already locked the car and put the keys in my purse. So efficient of me.  So thanks to the pushy old lady, we spent a lovely hour at Ralph's waiting for the Malibu Tow guy to come unlock the car for the nominal fee of $70.00. By the time we got home, my child had not eaten in 4 1/2 hours, which is a long time for a 5 month old!  And the young lady who was so cranky last night could not have been more chill and relaxed this morning despite her empty tummy!  So you never know...

Sitting Up

That's right!  Abby Jane turned 5 months this week, and she decided she'd kick off the month by sitting up!  Granted, she looks like a weeble wobble as Jake kindly pointed out, but she stays up for a while before this starts to happen...

...and apparently falling over is funny here!

We went for a beach picnic last night to have a little more family time before Jake leaves for school tomorrow morning.  He'll be gone for two weeks, but we'll get to see him at least twice between tomorrow and when he comes back at the end of next week.  As you can tell from this picture, the girl loves her daddy.  I don't think there's any risk that she'll forget who her daddy is in that time period!
I find this one so funny- she's like- "OK, Mom, that's perhaps the 9 millionth kiss today. Enough's enough, you know?"

Summer Days...

We've had such a fun last week and a half!  "Aunt" Beth came out for business last week and had dinner with us one night- we love her business trips!!!

Abby Jane had her first two trips to the pool last week!  I have become a bit of a sun Nazi, so she's sunscreened up in her rash guard suit and looks a bit greasy, but I love this shot of her "that's my Daddy!" face...

Jake took Thursday off last week, and we had the greatest family day, going to the beach in the morning...and to the Pepperdine pool in the afternoon after naptime!  She's funny in the pool- not really smiley, but not fussy... she just looks around, taking everything in.  Jake was "waterskiing" her in the water, and her expression looked like, "yeah, this is no big deal, I do this all the time..."

On the Fourth, we went to the Will Rogers 5K/10K in the Palisades with our dear friends Jake and Lesley Roberts.  Yes, Lesley is due in three weeks, and she walked the 5K!  Jake R. and I ran the 10K, while my sweet Jake and Abby Jane spectated- it was so fun!!

We had a normal afternoon of naptime and playing outside... then went back to the Roberts' place to grill out and watch fireworks.  Abby Jane had just been put down when the fireworks started.  She woke up from the noise, but was quiet and very interested to watch the fireworks with me from the patio!  We were so proud!

The highlight for her this weekend was probably when Daddy put together her exersaucer!  She LOVES it and keeps being surprised by discovering new things that it does!  Here she is examining a flip toy...

Perfection

We had the most perfect anniversary yesterday!  Jake dropped by mid afternoon with a pot of these...

My favorite flower in the most beautiful blue!  After he came home from work for good, we had our favorite dinner with flank steak in my mom's fabulous marinade.  I gave Jake a remote meat thermometer, so he loved trying it out and got a good bit of respect from the other guys out grilling!  

We had the bottle of wine that we had been saving due to pregnancy constraints since wine tasting in Jan. 'o7... and Peachy Canyon red zin continues to be our out-of-this-world favorite wine.  We first tasted it during the best meal we've had in California, in San Luis Obispo at Buona Tavola's back courtyard.  I digress.

After dinner, we bathed our little girl and put her to bed.  As I turned on her mobile, it played Canon in D, and it struck me that I was walking down the aisle to the same song on the evening of June 26 four years ago.   How much has happened between that night four years ago and last night!  So our sweet neighbors, Jarrett and Katie, came down and stayed with Abby Jane while she slept... and we went on our first real date in four and a half months!  We went to the beautiful Geoffrey's...

and overlooked the water from our cliff-side table while we had dessert (and Jake sampled the port).  It was AMAZING to know that Abby Jane was fine and sleeping- our two other times away were abbreviated and somewhat distracted as it was while she was awake and we knew she was having a few bouts of drama in our absence!  But last night, we had the most WONDERFUL time talking, sharing, thinking out loud, discussing how we've never been more in love.  It was funny to be the parents who love their child more than anything in the world... and yet so excited to be just Jake and Em for an hour and a half!  We came home refreshed, delighted with where the Lord has us right now, and looking forward to what He has ahead.  I read in Psalms yesterday, and it said, "I will sing to the Lord, for He has dealt bountifully with me."  So true!  Perfection, indeed.

WAR EAGLE

Just wanted to mention that we have definite plans to be at the Tennessee game on Sept. 27th! We would love to see as many of you as we can that weekend! We've been singing the fight song to Abby Jane, and Jake's teaching her a censored version of Bottagetta to get her geared up for her first experience of Heaven on earth.  This was from Abby Jane's last trip to the Plains...