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!

As promised...

She is obviously crawling more traditionally now that she's been doing it a week and a half, and she is discovering all kinds of new things in her home!  And helping me discover them too- like how I need to clean my floor better...   (By the way, I sound pretty annoying in the video- sorry about that!)

Abby Jane also pulls to standing in her crib now at the end of naps and in the morning, looking expectantly at the door.  Thankfully, we had lowered the mattress a couple of weeks ago when she first started pulling up.  

We leave tomorrow for Auburn!!!!!  YEA!!!!  Can't wait to see so many of you!  Counting the hours...

Jake's surprise 30th birthday party...

70's style!  Jake always says he is a child of the 70's, so I made his party last weekend age- appropriate! Everyone really got into it, and it was hilarious.  Jake had absolutely no idea about the party and was completely surprised- it was so fun!  We fit about 20 people in our tiny Pepperdine apartment for dessert and drinks.  The 70's theme was made complete by a disco light that Jarrett, our neighbor and one of Jake's coworkers, found on campus!

Here is a picture of folks waiting for us to get there...

Jake blowing out the candles on his traditional birthday cake- chocolate with mocha frosting.

Les, Gil, and Kathryn...

The birthday boy and I (Abby Jane was put to bed in the apartment above us- her monitor reached downstairs perfectly!)  I had a ribbon for Jake denoting him as turning the big 3-0 in case anyone wasn't sure...Jake, Laura (in the background), Drew, and Stewart (in the back)!

Laura and Ryan (not sure why this is hyperlinking!) Laura provided my outfit...

Stew and Jake R. keeping the peace...

Busy girl

Abby Jane is crawling!  As soon as I catch it on video, I'll figure out how to post it b/c it's hilarious.  She sticks her backside up in the air (downward dog style) and swings her leg over.  She has to be pretty motivated to do it, but it's so funny.  She also can go from flat on her tummy to sitting on her bottom- this is huge since she's not always a big fan of being on her tummy.  If she's tired, she has a harder time getting back to sitting up.  But it's still progress!  She also loves to stand next to the coffee table and play with my wicker coasters.  She seems to like how the table tastes.

Abby Jane also made it through an hour and a half of MOPs on Friday in the nursery (with MOPpets- how cute is that)!!!  YEA!!!!  My mom says it's a new season of Abby Jane's life.  I'm not prepared to say or think that, but I'll take a fabulous morning of great progress any day!!

7 months and thank you

Friends, thank you for your responses to my questions!  It amazed me what a consensus there was on those two books ("Shepherding your child's heart" and "Don't make me count to three") from all different groups of friends!  It is so encouraging to hear back from everyone and get your thoughts!  Holly, I liked your thought about an online Bible study- or maybe a blog book club???

Abby Jane turned 7 months on Monday!  We are amazed at how big she is (at 6 months, she was still 75% in weight and 90% in height) and all the things she is doing.  Abby Jane will start crawling at any second. She gets up on all fours and rocks and reaches out and wants SO badly to follow us around and be mobile!  She scoots backwards on her tummy and also moves around on her bottom pretty well.

She says, "Dad", "Hi Dada", "Mom", "Mama" (that happened last Friday, and it was one of the greatest moments of my life to date), "bababa", "dig", "ga", "yah", and "yeah" and loves to do all of the above at the top of her lungs (except she talks to Jake in a conversational tone).  She eats all veggies, most fruits, and had chicken for the first time last week.  The meat kind of grosses me out and she's plenty chunky already, so we don't do a ton of that right now!  We are eating Puffs, too- which makes for some great faces.

She's also pulling up, and got her first bruise yesterday when she pulled up on a toy that tipped over.  Sad that she got a bruise, but it's also a milestone of her entering this phase of adventure and exploration that will sometimes end in a bump or bruise!  So I was kind of proud of the ambition behind the bruise.
I loved this mischievious face- it's the "you're being funny but not quite funny enough for a full smile".  The wrinkled nose is also her one expression I can claim!  Other than that, she's almost all Jake- which is a great thing!