Abigail's 1st Birthday - The Decorations

I have been working on Abigail's birthday party for a month now.....Andy thinks I am crazy but I have to say it was absolutely worth every penny and energy spent!  We had such a blast at her party and I know she will not remember it but I will remember how much fun she had.  I have so many great pictures to remember it by that I am going to have to spread this out over many posts.

I will start with the decoration...
I have to admit that I steal all of my ideas from friends, Etsy and Pinterest.  I am not very creative but love to make things, I just need inspiration.  Thankfully I have creative friends and a friend that let me borrow her Cricut.  The Cricut is awesome!
  

I got this idea from my very creative friend Julie. I bought the letters at Joann's Fabric (I think....I spent so much time there, Michael's, and at Hobby Lobby that I'm not sure where I bought what).  They were brown so I painted them white and that was it...very easy.  We also used them during our photo shoot on Friday, I can't wait to see how they turned out.  Abigail kept looking through the O, it was too cute!  

 

I found this awesome chevron ribbon at Hobby Lobby and my wonderful mom made me a few bows.  I love them!

This is where the Cricut come in handy....

 

Here is my dining room the day of the party, everything came together nicely.  We catered food from Taziki's (chicken, pasta salad, & hummus) and had a fruit tray and homemade cupcakes.  All things that Abigail loves to eat.  We served lemonade and water to drink.  

This was another idea that I stole from my friend Julie.  I saw her monthly photos a few years ago at her first son's 1st birthday party and knew I wanted to do the same thing.  I will love having these pictures for years to come and they made for an amazing banner.  Its so much fun to see how she changed month to month.  I may not take this one down.  : )

My mom made wonderful mini cupcakes for me.  They were so yummy and looked so pretty with my toppers.  Also, in this picture you can see the party hats that I made.  I thought they would be pretty easy but they ended up being kind of hard.  I cut out the pattern, glued on the ribbon and tapped on the string (sounds easy right...very deceiving).  On Abigail's I glued on a # 1.

I decided to do this at the last minute so I was unable to get a one year old picture of Andy.  He is a little younger in his pic but I still think it turned out cute.  Andy still thinks she looks just like me with his eyes.  

I found these cute chevron paper straws on Etsy.

Food markers made with the Cricut....This paper was so cute and my sister, who has much better handwriting than me, finished them by writing the names on for me.

Another bow my mom made with this awesome ribbon.

Party favors.  I bought the chevron favor bags on Etsy and filled them with chocolate covered marshmallows from Edgars.  This was a last minute decision but turned out cute and yummy.

11 Months Old

Abigail is 11 months old today.  I cannot believe she will be a year old in one short month!  She is growing so fast and learning new things everyday.  In the last few weeks she has started cruising more, she can wave and say Bye Bye.  She gives the sweetest open mouth kisses and isn't so stingy with them anymore.  She has said mama a few times but not consistently.  The last few weeks she has also been really clingy to me....if I am around she will not willing let others hold her and she acts very shy when new people talk to her.  One of my favorite things she can do it play peek a boo.  She will hold a towel or blanket over her face and pull it down to look at you over and over again.  I have videos of her waving and playing peek a boo that I will post later.  Here are our monthly pictures.  I have to shoot fast because she does not want to sit in the chair anymore....but I still managed to get some good ones.

This is my favorite by far.  She is so adorable!

Tired of being in the chair.

Happy being naked.

Surgery was a Success!

Abigail's surgery was this past Friday at Children's South with Dr. Cogen.  We had to arrive at the hospital at 5:45 to check in and her Surgery was scheduled for 7am.  She did incredibly well in pre-op considering she could not have anything to drink.  She started getting a little fussy right before they took her back but that was all.  We were able to carry her to the OR door where we had to hand her off to the tech to take her the rest of the way....she did not cry or even look back at us!!  I was very surprised, but I guess she was just too interested in what everyone else was doing.  She got an IV (which they stuck her 3 times for) and a breathing tube even though it only took about 10 minutes.  Dr. Cogen placed a probe down her lacrinal duct to remove the blockage....he was able to do this without any problems.  She went to recovery for a few minutes but since she is still breastfeeding they brought her out to us really quickly.  She was so sleepy and very grumpy.  We fed her and held her for awhile then the RN came in, took out her IV, gave her some Ibuprofen then let us go.  All of the staff at South were great, we really had a good experience.

Here is Abigail in Pre-op.  She was so cute in her gown.

This is her new face...she does it all the time!

Here she is post op..

Since Friday, Abigail has not acted like she feels very good.  She has been very fussy and clingy, especially Sunday.  She wanted me to hold her all day.  She even fell asleep with her head on my shoulder...that never happens....ever!  She had a bloody nose Friday and Saturday but it has been better since.  

We have been on a medication regimen...here is what she gets 

Eye drops 4 times a day for a week

Afrin nose spray 2xday for 2 days then 1xday for 1 day

Decadron elixir 2xday for 2 days then 1xday for 1 day

We have also alternated Tylenol and Ibuprofen every day

The most important thing is her eye has looked great so far.  Dr. Cogen told us that if we can keep it open for a week then it should stay that way.  So far so good.
Here is a before and after of her eye...

Not sure how well you can see it but there is a
tear running down her cheek.

Here is the After.....

Dry Eye!!

I think she is over having her picture taken!

Visit with the Ophthalmologist

Since birth Abigail has had blocked tear ducts in both eyes.  For the first few months we tried everything to open them up...massage, warm compresses, and medications to treat the infections she got initially.  A couple of months ago the right one opened up but the left one is being stubborn.  We were advised by our pediatrician to wait till she was 10 months old to have it seen about.  He gave us a referral to Dr. Cogen an Ophthalmologist at UAB.  After checking with Casey, my friend and Optometrist to make sure he was the best person for us to see we set up an appointment.  The office was nice, the staff great and Dr. Cogen was very friendly and as gentle as possible with Abigail.  They dilated her eyes and did a full exam.  He said every thing else about her eyes is great...she just has a blocked tear duct in the left one.  To correct this all he will have to do is run a tube down the duct to unblock it.  Very simple, but unfortunately this will have to be done in the OR.  We considered waiting to see if it would correct itself but Dr. Cogen explained to us that every month after she is 12 months old the chances that the surgery will be successfull drops by 10%....so at 17 months old there is only a 50% chance that the surgery will work.  We have decided to go ahead and schedule for the end of this month.  Even though I hate the idea of her undergoing anesthesia, I cannot wait to get it fixed....her eye stays wet and irritated all the time.  She constantly rubs it like it itches or bothers her.
Here is a couple photos of her eye, red and with tears.  It is really hard to get good pictures of how bad it can get but I tried.

We went to the lake this weekend for the first time this year.  The water was covered with pollen and cold but the pups didn't care!  

It was a beautiful day Saturday.

10 Months Old

Abigail turned 10 months old this week.  She is growing soooo fast.  At 10 months old she is wearing mostly 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers.  She is pulling up easily and is slowly cruising.  She cut a new tooth this week (lower right) and has been a little fussy but not too bad.  She still has not said ma ma or really anything other than babble and dada.  She eats almost anything you put in front of her and is growing like a weed.  She is such a sweet sweet girl and will give hugs sometimes which are amazing.  She will also give kisses but she has to be in the right mood which is not that often.  

Here are some pictures from our monthly shoot.  They are getting harder and harder to get, especially in the chair, since she wants to move around so much.  

Her new favorite face.

Glad I have a fast shooting camera because she was happy
and still for only a few seconds before wanting in the floor.

She looks like she is playing here but she is
actually starting to pitch a fit.

Abigail was tired of the chair so Andy took over.

Finally got in the floor where she wanted to be.

Easter Pictures

I am so late posting this!  We had a great Easter weekend.  Sunday we went to my moms for lunch....ham, carrot souffle, green beans, hashbrown casserole and rolls...YUMMM!  Abigail loved all of it.  I wish I had a picture of her at the table.  We forgot to take her highchair so my mom got an apron and we tied her into a big chair.  It was really cute and she sat still and ate all her lunch.  I had a hard time all day getting a smile from Abigail.  She has started making this new face where she sticks out her lower lip.  Its really cute and she is doing it in almost every picture.  She is wearing her new dress...it looked so adorable.

The one smile I caught all day.

Abigail and Grammy

Abigail is too interested in the tv to look at the camera.

Abigail with Reagan & Monica.

Getting as close to the tv as possible!