ISR Weeks 1-5 - Abigail learns to swim.

Even before Abigail was born Andy and I knew we wanted to get her into swim lessons, and not just regular swim lessons where hopefully by the age of 4 she could swim without a life jacket.  We wanted to do something to that would benefit us now.  We spend almost the whole summer at the lake and having a toddler around the water that much scares us to death…..It only takes looking away for one second for something bad to happen.  

We first heard about Infant Swimming Resource or ISR when one of Andy's friends from high school posted a video on Facebook of her toddler floating on her own.  We looked them up and immediately knew this was exactly what we were looking for.  It was very time consuming and expensive but at the end it was worth every afternoon and penny.

For 6 weeks we went to the Birmingham YMCA every week day at 4:10 for a 10 minute swim lesson.  We also kept up with everything she ate, every diaper and her sleep habits….this was required to get in the water.  Missy and Leslie, her two instructors are actually from Decatur and one of them drove down every day for lessons.  They are so sweet and very dedicated to all the babies.    

The first week was rough!  Abigail was happy when she got in the first day but it only took one dunk to make her cry….and she cried the rest of the week.  

First time under the water.

You can see how unhappy she was at first!

Here is a video from week one….she wanted out of there bad.

By Tuesday of the next week Abigail decided that swimming was kinda fun.  She stopped crying and only got upset when it was time to get out.  Here she is learning to float and roll over with a lot of assistance from Leslie.

Waiting patiently for her turn.  Isn't
she cute in her bathing suit!  Look at
those rolls!

Every week there was something Abigail was doing that Missy and Leslie had to work to get her to stop.  During week 3 it was her arms….she would get so excited that she would flail her arms around so much. 

By week 4 she could almost roll over by herself.

And by week 5 she had it down.  This is the main purpose of ISR.  If Abigail were to fall into the water without a life jacket on she can now roll herself over and float until help comes.  By the end of week 5 she could easily float for over 2 minutes without getting tired.

Week 6 was a very big week and I have some great videos of her showing off all that she learned.  I'm having trouble getting them to upload so I will get it posted as soon as I can.

DIY Table Re-Model

Abigail loves to color!  The only time we let her is at restaurants because we do not have a safe place to let her do it at home.  So, I was excited when my mom asked if I wanted the old table and chairs that I used when I was young.  It has been stored all these years in my grandmothers barn and was in pretty bad shape.  The structure itself is good but the stained laminate top was horrible!  I wanted to use it but it was in desperate need of an update.  I decided to paint it even though I knew covering the laminate would not be easy.  

Here are the before pictures...

Stained laminate top with stickers on it.

The chairs looked pretty bad too….very scratched
 and scuffed up.

The easy part…I cleaned, sanded and spray painted
the chairs white.

I didn't get a picture of the table before I started the polka dots but I painted the base white and the top a lime green.  I chose these colors because Abigail's playroom is dark blue, gray, lime green and white.  The hardest part of this project was the polka dots by far.  I am sure there was a better way of doing them but this was the best I could come up with.  I used my circle cutters to cut circles in strips of poster board, decided which color I wanted each circle then taped the strips onto the table top.  Then I needed to cover up everything but the circles I wanted to spray. 

Preparing to spray the blue circles.

All ready...

This seemed like a great ides but a little spray got
under the edges so I did not have the crisp lines
I was hoping for.  

It is definitely not perfect but unless you really get close and inspect my work it looks great.  I am very happy with the final result.

Abigail enjoying her new table!

Gru, Lucy and Minion Abigail

I loved our Halloween costumes this year and it is so much fun dressing up as a family.  We had to piece together each of our costumes because only Gru had a full costume to order and it was very poor quality.  The biggest part and what made our costumes was Abigail's hat.  Andy's mom made it and the two Gru logos.  The hat was awesome, especially since Grandma was not close by to test fit it on Abigail's head.  My mom was able to make a few little adjustments to make it fit perfectly.

The sweetest Minion ever!

Andy shaved his head and painted on some eyebrows
to look the part…..I think he made an excellent Gru!

Lucy wasn't too hard to put together….She wears a
turquoise dress and sunglasses, has red hair up in a bun,
and has a white with red polka dot scarf.  I bought
everything on Amazon.

We spent Halloween with the Overstreets who had
awesome costumes too!

Abigail didn't really trick or treat but she had a blast
walking house to house.

She was worn out from all the walking…she would just
sit down when she needed a break.

The Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend was a busy one for us.  We went to Boo at the Zoo Friday night, Andy competed in Barbells for Boobs (a Crossfit fundraiser for mammograms) on Saturday and we went to the Pumpkin Patch on Sunday.  We had a great time!  I only got pictures from the Pumpkin patch so here they are…

We went with some friends to Old Bakers Farm and Abigail had a blast.  

Abigail loves to walk and she looked
super cute in her overalls.

Driving the big tractor.

This one was more her size.

Taking a break from running around.

I love this! 

Checking out the chickens and ducks.  

Hay ride to the pumpkin patch.

Andy had to find the perfect one.

The patch was not as I imagined it would be.  Lots of
rotting pumpkins…..not the best place for a clumsy
and curious toddler to walk around.

16 months and SOOO many new things!

So much has happened since my last post....Abigail is walking (well running), taking swim lessons, and growing way too fast!  I started a new job with a totally new schedule.  And we are going to have another baby!!  

I took Abigail to her 15 month (actually at 16 mo) well visit this week and everything is going great.  She weighs 23 lbs and is right on target with growth and development.  This was the first visit where she was upset most of the time.  She did not want to see the Dr and we really had to hold her down for her shots.  Andy could not go with me so it was hard for me to handle her.  Thankfully we are all done with shots for awhile.  We started letting Abigail sleep with her teddy bear and she will hardly let it go....as you can see she took it along to the visit.  

Abigail started walking at about 15 months and now she is constantly on the move.  She wants to walk everywhere especially to places we don't want her to go.  Her walk (waddle) is super cute.  I have tried to upload a video but I can not get it to work.  Since she is now walking we are going to more places like the park and the zoo and she is loving it.  

We had a play date this week with our best friends Casey and Lucy.  Abigail has just recently started giving hugs and thats all she wanted to do with Lucy.  She was so cute but she got a little aggressive trying to hug her.  

We started Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) swim lessons this week too.  This is a huge commitment....lessons are 10 minutes/day, 5 days/week for 6 weeks.  Lessons are at the downtown YMCA.  The goal is to teach Abigail how to survive if she falls into the water.  On the first day they dunked her under 4 times.....needless to say she cried a lot this week but it got better every day.  The instructors are great and love on her and play with her too.  She is learning to close her mouth and open her eyes when she goes under, how to float on her back, and eventually will learn how to swim to the side and hold on.  I can't wait to see how much she learns after 6 weeks.  

We are having another baby!!  I would still be in denial myself if I had not been so sick the past 8 weeks.  I am 13 weeks now and still having morning (all day) sickness but it doesn't seem as bad as the last time.  Baby is due in April.

1 Year Well Visit - Finally!

I am soooo late posting this!!  Abigail is now almost 14 months old but we were about a month late seeing Dr. Dudgeon for her 12 month visit and I have just been busy the past few weeks.  I started a new job last month and we spent the past week at the beach (I will post about that later).  

We had a great visit with Dr. Dudgeon.  Abigail was good while there but she is sometimes hard to handle....she wants to be on the floor crawling all the time and it is hard to keep her in my arms or on the table.  She had fun playing with the paper though.  Dr. Dudgeon said Abigail was growing and developing right on track.  

Weight:  22 lbs (60%)

Height:  30 1/2 inches (80%)

Head Circumference:  8 1/2 inches (80%)

At 13 months Abigail is:

Drinking whole milk from a sippy cup - No more bottles!!

Eating anything and Everything - she is a little picky from day to day.  One day she will love something and the next she won't touch it, then the next day she will love it again.  She will only eat things she really loves from a spoon or fork.  The last few days we have let her try to use a fork herself and yesterday she used it to eat two bites of her omelet.  

She has only taken a couple of steps but she crawls super fast.....I have a feeling her fast crawling will prolong her walking but we will see.  She can crawl up and down stairs and can climb on and off the couch.  

She has 8 teeth and Dr. Dudgeon says her molars will be in soon.

She talks constantly!!  We can't understand much of it.  Here are the words we can understand:

da da

ma ma - but vary rarely and usually when she is upset.

tickle tickle - she says this a lot but not sure why.

doggy

Hey - she says this all the time and will even put her (or our) cell phone to her ear and say it.  Its very cute!!

No - she has this one down pat and will even say "No Da da"

Bye - she can wave bye too

Look at those rolls!

Here is a video of Abigail with her cell phone...