Abby's 1st Birthday!!... and a little poop

Abby is 1!!!!! Holy cow, I cannot believe how fast she grew. I have always heard that the time you have with your kids go by fast, people aren't kidding when they say that. It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing home a brand new baby with that new parent feeling of "holy crap, people expect me to keep this thing alive!" It's been a whirl wind of a year learning all the new parent things; I consider my day successful when I can tuck the little one in bed and she is still breathing. Having kids changes you, I went from thinking about myself, Dexter, and sometimes Andrew; to Abby being the single most important thing in my life. I would give anything for that little girl, even when she has dog food shoved in her mouth that she just stole from the dog dish. I am pretty sure I can say Andrew would say the same thing about his little girl. So Happy Birthday Abby!!! You have made our lives so filled with joy!!!

How fast they grow!

Abby decided to have 2 birthday parties this weekend...she completely made us do it too. Her first party was in Green Bay, and was a little more impromptu. We had decided to visit family while in Green Bay and Andrew's parents made the suggestion that they have a lunch at their house to make it easier to get together. It was semi-great. See, Abby had gone to the zoo 2 days prior and she decided that picking up some fever causing bug was a good idea. She was miserable, I put her in her little party dress, but she continued to be miserable and cried every time Dad or I was not holding her. We also learned that giving your child the correct amount of medicine also makes a difference. We had been giving her a little less Tylenol than suggested, you know my nursing mind took over and I did not want to overdose my child and give her liver failure, but it turns out that if you don't give enough they are not happy. Once we realized we were under-dosing her and gave her the right dose she was in a state of drug happiness. But by then all her party members had left. At least the great-grandparents got to visit and at least see her.

Abby's 2nd party was held at my parents house and included our close family. Abby was feeling much better and had a great time playing with her cousins. Her day was complete with a Lady Bug cake and lots of presents. We have not fed her cake or cookies yet, so I expected her to shove her face full of cake. She was not a big fan of it. Maybe she will turn out like her dad and me and crave salty foods instead.

For Abby's actual birthday on May 29th, she got to spend the day at daycare. Don't feel bad for her, I'm pretty sure she loves it there and they do many activities and are way more creative than I am. We did however make her classmates and teachers some #1 cookies. I think only the teachers ate them. She is still in an infant room, so they do not pass out treats. Don't worry the teachers are not stealing the kids cookies. On the way home, I had Andrew stop at Nadia cakes to pick Abby up a birthday cupcake. I thought that maybe she would like this one better. Nope, 2 bites and she was done, barely even a mess was made. Our present to Abby was a pink cozy coupe car. She is IN LOVE with that thing. She opens the door climbs in, closes the door, giggles, opens the door and steps out. It is adorable. I think she is going to get a lot of use out of it.  All in all I think she had a great 1st birthday and I look forward to many many more.

As for myself, I am procrastinating doing homework, like usual. I am reaching the end of this semester with 4 weeks left, so it time to start cracking down on those papers that I have supposed to have been researching and writing since the beginning of the semester. I'll get there. I also needed to have a little me time, and while in Green Bay  had a great night out with my friend Jenny, to celebrate her engagement. I am so excited that she is finally engaged to Andrew's good friend Drew. Your welcome you two for setting you up :)

Andrew has been about the same except for today. I am pretty sure today may have been one of the worst days of his life. As I was driving home, I picked up my phone, realized it was on silent and then realized that I had about 8 missed calls from my frantic husband. 8 you say!! Something must be really wrong. So as I'm looking at the missed calls he calls again. I can tell he is mad. He tells me in his angry voice that when he walked into the house it smelled of diarrhea, THE WORST SMELL HE HAS EVER SMELLED!! (good thing he is not a nurse and never smelled GI bleed or c-diff poop). Apparently poor Dexter had not felt so good and had diarrhea all over the floor. I could not help but giggle silently to myself. There he is at home with a baby trying to walk all over and diarrhea all over the floor, and I'm 30 minutes away to being of any help. Oh, anyways he got some cleaned up and I finished steam vacuuming the carpet when I got home. I though it was funny, Andrew did not. I'm pretty sure he will need a couple drinks tonight, I need to do some homework.

Lions and Bears and Flowers...Oh my!

It was one busy week in the Delvaux house. Luckily Grandma Herrick came for the week to help with Abby, so both Andrew and I would not drive each other crazy. Our week consisted of 2 days of clinical for me, softball for dad, picture and crafts for Abby, a mad about mushroom cooking class for mom and dad, a dinner with friends for mom, homework for mom, the zoo for all of us, and to conclude the week, a very special Mother's Day get together with family. I'll summarize in pictures. 

Here is Abby making "beautiful" pictures for Andrew to hang up in his cubicle at work. She also made a footprint butterfly painting, a hand painted picture frame for great-grandma, and some hand-print art that was a part of my Mother's present. She was busy. And yes, some of the paint ended up in her mouth. I bought the kid non-toxic pant since I expected her to at least try some paint. She got a bath when we were done.

Bath time to clean the paint.

Andrew and I went to a cooking class on Wednesday, Mad about mushroom was the theme. And they were not kidding, mushrooms were in everything. It was delicious. We helped cook and learned a couple things. It was reinforced that Andrew is not a huge truffle fan. I do not know how he does not like it, it is amazing! Anyways, we enjoyed some mushroom appetizers, soup, salad, and pasta. I can see us doing another cooking class as it was lots of fun.

Abby has recently realized that she can grab some toys through the railing. She then proceeds to cry when the toy does not fit through the railing. What a hard life. She has also recently partaken to sitting in her bumbo. It has been sitting on the floor since she was born, and I'm not sure why she has suddenly taken an extreme liking to it, but it keeps her entertained. 

We took a family trip to the zoo on Saturday. It took the gorillas jumping down in front of her to begin to giggle and point at the animals.  As we were leaving she began to clap, as if she was giving her approval of the zoo. I see many future trips to the Como Zoo. And the best part about this zoo, it's free (we donate) and just the right size to keep her attention without her getting too crabby. 

We are watching the polar bear play in the water. She had a look of amazement on her face when it would splash in the water.  

Dad did not let the lions eat her.

We had a couple quite moments this week which allowed Abby to partake in her favorite activity, feeding Dexter. I think Dexter has eaten more goldfish than his actual dog food this week. And then there was the special Grandma/Abby time spent watching Elmo on the Ipad. 

Mother's Day. What a special day. I got some amazing flowers and a collage of pictures complete with a hand-print. My favorite part was long ribbon with hand-prints on both ends that said "I love you this much!" I had a couple tears for this one. And the best part about that, Andrew went on Pinterest to get the idea...oh that just makes me giggle even more. We got to spend the day with my amazing Mother who has guided and loved me my whole life and helped show me who I strive to be as a Mother. We also got to spend some time with Abby's great great Grandmother, 95 years separate these two, so it was extremely special to see them together and watch them make each other smile. We had a great day and plan to finish it off by making some popcorn and watching a movie. 

Giving Great Grandma her homemade picture frame.

Kisses for Grandpa.

Checking out the flowers. 

4 generations.

Adorable!

Gender Stereotypes

At least its not snowing. I woke up this morning to the news saying that just south of the Cities got over a foot of snow!! I'm glad it stayed south and our grass is still half green and speckled with dead grass from dog pee. It got up to 75 degrees this past weekend and it was gorgeous! Abby was able to go outside and crawl around. She was a little leery of the grass to begin with as it is still dry and prickly. I don't like dry prickly grass so I'd be leery of it too if I'd never seen or felt it before. She has warmed up to it and  loves crawling, walking, and putting leaves into her mouth. Our lawn is riddled with rabbit poop so I hope it is only leaves.

Out for a walk with Dad.

I am so glad these past few weeks are over with. I bogged myself down with presentations, papers, and studying at the beginning of the semester so that I had the hard stuff over with. I am glad it is done, but man was it hard and stressful. I can successfully say that I got A's for all my hard work. It should be smooth sailing the rest of the semester, so I can relax, sit outside with a drink in my hand and watch Abby play in the grass. 

This past weekend was also busy as we had a wedding on Saturday and I had a baby shower on Sunday. Both events were fun and successful, they got married at the wedding and presents were opened at the baby shower...success. Abby made it through the whole baby shower without getting too cranky but as we were leaving the crabby pants were on full force. She made it to the end of the block before falling asleep in her car seat. 

Abby is loving waking! She is getting much better at it as well. She was able to stand up in the middle of the floor before she started walking but it was not all too often. This past Monday she realized that she could be a pro at standing up, so this is now what she does most of the time and then walks across the room. She's so stinking cute toddling across the room. 

That little girl can also wear her sassy pants. Sunday morning, after I hung the wash out to dry because it was 75 degrees,  she decided that having the laundry basket over her head was hilarious. She then proceeded to knock it off herself and then scream because she wanted it over her again. Yes, these are the reasons she gets upset. So I put it back on her and all was good. Sassy pants Abby.

 She is also falling into the gender stereotype perfectly. I cannot help that she likes to clean.