Pigtails!

This isn't a good picture but it's Abby with pigtails!!  :) 

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

It was another great Christmas filled with family, friends, food, more firsts and lots of gifts!  As I mentioned before, we did not decorate our house this year because of the bathroom renovation and the only evidence of Christmas was Frosty the Snowman.  Abby warmed up to the singing Snowman after a while of just staring at him.  :)

We got to spend Christmas Eve at the Tong's house this year.  We spent many childhood Christmas' with the Tong's so it was an extra special treat for Abby to share in this family tradition.  Even though we didn't have a tree up in our house, she still got the tree experience at the Tong's (and at Grandma & Grandpa's).  This tree had a choo-choo train going around the middle which was a huge hit for the kids!  Even I was enamored (but then again, I'm easily amused).  Xiao Xiao got a HUGE puppy dog doll for Christmas!

We spent Christmas day at Lao Nian and Lao Yie's and Abby had so much fun!  We had a delicious early dinner (the stir fried rice was my favorite - can't have Christmas dinner without rice!).  I don't think Zeus quite knows what to make of Abby yet.  :) 

Abby opened her first gift from Aunt Janice!!  :)  Woohoo!  Thank you Aunt Janice!  By the end, Abby got really good at unwrapping gifts and taking out tissue paper. 

We spent the day after Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's where the fun only continued!  Abby met Heidi the Goat!!  She is a long standing gag gift between the Wendler's but I would have loved to receive Heidi as a gift!  She is the yodeling goat from The Sound of Music - only the best movie and musical (second to Les Mis) ever!!  By now, Abby was an expert gift opener.  :)  She was very thankful for all of her gifts this year!

 

Abby is 8 months old!

Typically you do not have a well check at 8 months but we went in today for round 2 of her seasonal flu shot and we went ahead and had Abby measured and weighed.  She is currently 26.5" tall and 19 lbs.  She has only grown 0.25" since her 6 month check up but she has gained 2 lbs and 4 oz.!  It's no wonder we call her Xiao Xiao (Chinese nickname meaning "little little").  My mom says we need to start calling her Da Da ("big big") in hopes she will grow taller.  Considering Bryce and I are above average in height, we've got a little munchkin!  I think she just may be a late bloomer.  :)  We love her all the same and that just means she's still prime cuddle size!  :D

We hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas!

Abby Update

I can't believe Abby will be 8 months old on Wednesday.  Where has the time gone?  Our sweet baby girl is developing right along except for one thing.  She's still toothless!  :)  But I don't mind because we love her gummy smile.  She's been drooling and showing all signs of teething for what seems like months now but tonight she decided to fuss unexplainably so I did a quick tooth check.  Nothing has crowned or anything but I definitely feel the tooth under the gum on her bottom gums.  We'll give it a few more weeks.  In the mean time, we're semi back into our routine again so I've been better about taking pictures and hopefully blogging.  Here are a few recent pictures.

Abby tends to doze off during her last feeding if her daytime naps are disrupted.  Perhaps something similar applies to Daddy...

Amee masi came to visit this weekend and Abby took this opportunity to cuddle up (she cuddles the most just after waking up).  So sweet.

Abby got spoiled by hanging out with Amee masi and Ruby a yi!

Amee did a great job feeding Abby since she is a seasoned masi by now (thanks Jayna and Aneesa!).  Yummy pears.

Thanks Ams for feeding and babysitting for a couple of hours while we finally Christmas shopped!  You saved the day!

That's my girl!  Mommy gets distracted by shiny things too.  After all, diamonds are a girl's best friend and it also happens to be her birth stone.

We wrapped some gifts and Abby was fascinated.

Btw, can you tell Daddy dressed her that day?  :)  I love it!

I had mentioned before how Abby enjoys bath time so here's a quick picture.  :) 

Bryce started doing this after each bath since Abby was born.  Gotta love those baby feet!

Bathroom update

The bathroom is coming together!  Since my last post, our bedroom has new crown molding, new base boards, doors and new paint.  The shelves over the commode and by window were installed as well as the custom cabinets.  All the wood work was stained so we had to move out of the house for a few days.  The smell is atrocious and not to mention, poisonous.  So thank you to both our parents for putting us up for a few nights!  I know they each enjoyed the extra Abby-time too.  :)  The granite counter tops were installed and now the walls are getting textured and painted.  Tomorrow the plumbers come to install the commode, hookd up the sinks and shower heads.  We still have to pick out new carpet for our bedroom and that's it for the major stuff!  You wouldn't even recognize the old batheroom with the amount change we've made.

BIG 12 CHAMPIONS!!

Bryce and I spent the first weekend of December in The Big D (well, really FW and Arlington) to attend the Big 12 Championship game.  And as we all know, is was literally 1 second away from being a wasted trip.  Abby spent the weekend at Lao Nian and Lao Yie's and Bryce and I missed her terribly (but not enough to miss the tailgate/game, apparently).  It was our first weekend apart.  This post is a little after the fact but here are a few pictures from the weekend.

All of us bundled up and crammed into Zack's mommy wagon.  :)

Remember me?

Gosh, this is the longest I've gone without posting a blog - my apologies.  As you can guess, things have been hectic and chaotic lately.  And being the Type A planner that I am, it's been....interesting.  This has been a bad time to be busy and not post because Abby has done SO MUCH in the last 2 weeks!  She is 7 months and 3 weeks old and approximately 19 lbs.  Here they are in no particular order:

1.  The biggest is she said her first word!  What was it, you say?  {{drum roll}}  She said "CAT!"  :)  She actually points at a cat and says "cat" in her sweet, small way.  At first is was just "ca" and then she learned to add the "t" sound to the end.  Both grandparents have cats but it was good ol' Zeus that she learned it from (compliments of Lao Nian).  We were so excited!

 2.  And my dad, Lao Yie, taught her something new too.  If you say bi zhe (which means 'nose' in Chinese), she'll point at your nose!!  How cool is that?  :)  We thought we'd teach her how to say eyes in Spanish and mouth in English and really mess with her.  Haha!  No...being bilangual is good enough for now.   

3.  A few weeks ago she mastered the pincer grasp (picking up small objects with thumb and pointy finger).  She points at things all the time now.  Generally she does it when she's feeling new textures (i.e. flowers on blankets). 

4.  She LOVES to stand all the time now.  At 7 months she mastered going from her tummy to either her knees or sitting to pulling herself up on anything.  She can sort of balance herself standing for a few seconds and then you gotta catch her.  My mom says I started walking at 10 months so maybe Abby is on track with me.  We'll see! 

5.  She loves bath time even more now that she can sit well and can now splash, splash, splash with her little hands and feet!  I think I get as much joy watching her as she does playing.  It's a win-win for Mommy.  :D  I love it!

6.  On a not so nice development, now that Abby is more mobile and vocal, she has also become opinionated!  She lets you know when she's unhappy or upset.  I'm still in the phase where I still think her pouty face is cute; we'll see how long that lasts.  :P 

7.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  This should be higher up on the list but Abby kisses me back!!  Talk about melting your heart out....it's so sweet and I get super excited each time.  It usually happens when I'm holding her in my arms and she'll grab my face and lean in to my face.  The first time she did it, I thought it was a fluke.  But then she did it again and again and it's been about a week now.  She finally learned to imitate me, I suppose.  I kiss her about 100 times a day (so Bryce says).  :{}

8.  This is more of an observation on our part but when Abby is in a new environment, she's very much the people watcher (just like M&D - apple didn't fall too far from the tree).  She loves to sit really still and observe people and things.  It's interesting to watch because I'm always wondering what's going on in that brain of hers.  Ruby and I are VERY observant people.  We notice everything (right, Ams?) - wonder if Abby got it too.

9.  Abby saw her first snow 2 weekends ago too.  We were on our way to Pearland my parents got about 3 inches of snow!

Here are a few random pictures. 

Abby likes to play with our drawstrings

I call this the "chao pi gu" (butt in the air) picture because that is what she's doing.  There are lots of pictures and Ruby and I sleeping like this too.  :)

Whatever Daddy said sure is roll over funny!  :D

 Bed head.  Good morning, xiao xiao!

We still have her fall asleep in our arms - I can't help it!  Screw Ferber, she sleeps through the night anyhow.  :)

I just like this picture. 

Abby got her own, appropriately sized stocking at Grandma and Grandpa's!  Unfortunately we won't have a tree up in our house this year since our bedroom furniture is in our living room. 

Abby got an early Christmas gift.  She loves it!  :)

I think Zeus has a shorter attention span than Abby.

Think she needs a hair cut?  Nah...Mommy's going to let her hair grow long like my mom did with us.  :)