Abby - 8 Months Old

Abby is 8 months old today! Hard to believe that in 4 short months, she will be a year. I'm already starting to think about how I want to celebrate her first birthday. I was just talking to a friend about how fast last year went. I was pregnant for the first half, and had a baby for the second.... I look back and it seems like a blur.

Here's how Abby has grown this past month:
Her bottom two teeth cut thru (right spelling?)
As she sits, she can pivot in a circle
She can scoot to places she wants to go
She gets upset when I take things from her
She does baby talk, mostly dadadada
She will switch and item to the opposite hand to pick up another item
She will place something I hand her behind her back if she doesn't want it
She was weaned
She started sleeping in her crib
She (finally) sleeps 6 hours a night every couple nites
She claps her hands
She gives kisses
When I say more, she knows to open her mouth for me to feed her
She can feed herself her bottle without help
She can pull herself into a standing postion with just about anything
She loves the cat

I love Diapers.com

I've been seeing ads for this company all over the place since Abby was born. I've been reluctant to purchase... but when I got an email from Pampers late last week giving me $10 off a first time order plus 500 Gifts to Grow points, I figured this might be a good time to try it out.

Well, I did my research while placing my order, trying to make sure I was getting a deal. I calculated how much I normally pay for diapers and how much I would be paying at diapers.com. I decided to go ahead and order a box of wipes as well, since I needed to spend over $49 to get free shipping.

Well, with the $10 off, I was about 5 short, so I figured I buy a toy or something. I decided to hold my order till we got our February 1st pay so that I was spending the February diaper money. So, for a couple of days, I thought about what I should buy extra, then I remembered I had seen these really cool Arm & Hammer Nursery Fresheners from Munchkins in my Parents magazine back in December. I've been wanting them since I saw them, so I checked it out and sure enough, diapers.com had them in stock! They add 5.99 to my order putting me at around $59 and some change (because of tax).

That seemed to much to me, so I went back to see how much I was paying for the wipes. I was really surprised to see that they were $14.99 for a 384 pack versus the $11.98 for 448 that I was paying at walmart. I called diapers.com up and asked about this and found out they price match. Only problem was it had to be listed on a competitors website, not an instore price. Walmart.com didn't have the same package so I looked around and found it at Target.com for $12.69... not as good as walmart, but $2.30 less. I was ready to order!

I called diapers.com back, told them about the Target price, they checked it out and took the price right off my order before checkout. Then I purchased.

I realized later that I never got my 500 Gifts to Grow points and meant to call them yesterday to see if they could help me, but didn't get a second to call.

I ordered on Wednesday around 230pm and got my box last night (thursday).

Well, this morning I was double checking how much I had payed for diaper when I discovered something not so good! They had sent me the wrong box of diapers; Size 4 at 140 count instead of Size 3 at 160 count. I immediately checked my invoice then called diapers.com again. I told the lady about the points first. It was my mistake that I didn't get the points (you have to click directly on the link in the email), but she was so nice about it and gave me a code for the points.... apparently lots of people make the mistake.

Then I told her about the diaper mix up... I was trying to figure out how I was going to ship these bigger diapers back when she told me that I could keep them for free and that she would send me the box I had originally ordered! How cool is that?!! Instead of paying 27cents a diaper, I paid 14cents a diaper!

diapers.com is A+ in my book!

Abby's Room - My Favorite Place On Earth

I finally got things cleaned up in Abby's room this week.
But to be fair, I will post some of the before pictures as well.

Her room is pretty easy to clean up. The boxes are full of her outgrown clothes.

There are a few things more I would like for her room, particularly stuff for the wall. It would be nice to have some matching shelves as well. Eventually, but not any time too soon. I will have a yard sale this summer, maybe after that. If we had lots of money... I would put in new carpet, get rid of the popcorn ceiling, add new closet doors, and put new trim around the base and add some trim at the ceiling. Wishful thinking.

I am happy that I have the canvas up now though! I'm working on a few posters in my Heritage Makers account that are specifically for her room. I love that I can personalize a poster! One will be an alphabet poster and the other a numbers poster. How cool is that?! When I finish them, I'll post some pics of them here for you to see.

Hello Big Bear!

I still need to vacuum... but it's not of the utmost importance. Meanwhile the rest of the house is a disaster; as per SOP. Notice all the extra's from Abby's room out in the hall. About half of them are still there as we speak.

I even wiped down the window and window sill. I don't think I had cleaned it since we moved in 3 1/2 years ago. It was filthy. It's nice now!

Of course, what's the first thing that Abby does?! Pulls the books off the shelf one by one! Typical.

This is Alice, Abbigator's Alligator.

Hello Alice!

Neglect

I feel like I've been neglecting this poor blog. Now that I have my CM365 blog, I'm posting every day, which I am really enjoying. But I feel like there is so much more to the stories that I post and that I should be finishing them out over here.

Back in November, Steve and I finally painted Abby's room; Hidden Sea Glass (a very light shade of green). On the 7th, I went to IKEA with my friend Elizabeth Giles to pick out Abby's crib. Thanks to Great Grandma Sally, we didn't have to pay for much of it, and I was able to get a chest of drawers, as well as a small matching table I found in scratch n dent. I've been working on her room since then, and it's coming along nicely. I was finally able to sort through all of her clothes; box up the ones she doesn't fit in, hang up the ones she does fit in, and wash the new ones she got for Christmas. I've managed to find a few cheap things at GoodWill that I wanted; a crib border and some pink curtains.


(Abby sitting in the bunk bed demonstration at IKEA)


Abby and I have been hanging out with some of our friends lately. Especially Jenn and Bailey Sadler. It's fun to watch Abby and Bailey interact. Bailey loves babies, and especially Baby Abby! She goes around saying Abby, Abby, Abby... a lot. She likes to feed Abby her bottle, and help her with her pacifier. She's so helpful that even when Abby cries, she tries to scramble around to figure out what she needs. It's completely and utterly adorable!


Abby cut her first two teeth a week ago... the first (bottom left) on Thursday, Jan 7th, and the 2nd (bottom right) on Sunday, Jan 10th. I have no pictures yet, she will hardly let me look at them.

Abby did pretty well the first few nights in her crib, but the past 5 or so days have been a bit tougher. I've only taken her back into bed with me once, and it was because she seemed to be in some pain and wouldn't relax enough to sleep. That doesn't count yesterday though, when I was trying to catch a nap at the same time and she woke up earlier than I liked, so I brought her in with me and we slept another hour. I've been enjoying her bedtime routine. I read to her, give her a massage, play a little with some toys, give her a bottle, and then sing her to sleep while rocking her in the rocking chair that Steve's Mom gave us with a special little plate on the headboard in remembrance of Abby's big brother Joshua.


On the 1st, I started Weight Watchers... it's been tough, but I've been doing really well. I've already lost 8 pounds. It's interesting how it helps you understand what portion control really is.

I've started focusing on my Heritage Makers Business again. I've got two Workshops scheduled this month and a Digi-Crop this Saturday. I've been working a lot on getting my business blog really functional. My goal is to hire someone to design my blog to make it look professional when I make it in the Presidents Club... I'll let you know when it happens!

Project CM365

Last year I learned about the photo a day for a year idea from Alicia Corbridge. I thought that it was way cool and really enjoyed following along with her photo blog, so as one of my resolutions I decided that I wanted to start my own. I waited until the first of the year to start mine so that it would be consistent with the days, but it can start on any day. I've been doing it for 10 days now (obviously), and I've been very consistent! (I'm hoping to discover a new found sense of consistency as another one of my resolutions for the year). The blog is separate from this account and is actually linked with my Be A Storyteller business blog account. Go check it out... I will have a link posted on this blog for easy access. It's also accessible from my facebook page if you are one of my friends.

Abby Canvas

I designed a 20x20 canvas using Heritage Makers the other day. I had put together 3 different designs and had friends and family on facebook vote for their favorite... this is the one that won.
If you would like to make this project or something similar (you could do this as a 12x12 scrap page for $5 instead of a canvas for $100 or if you're really dedicated, you can host a workshop and get your canvas for free!), then visit www.beastoryteller.com and sign up for an account. I will transfer the project to your account!

Abby Is 7 Months Old!

Things Abby did this past month:

Sitting on her own
Escapes from the Bumbo

Eats Peaches, Pears, Apples, Chicken, Peas, Carrots, Squash, Sweet Potatos
Gets angry if I take something away from her

Can pull herself into a sitting position
Can pull herself into a standing position

Absolutely loves her little rubber duckies
Will play for short periods of time on her own

Began to enjoy bouncing
Can feed herself with her bottle (knows to tilt it back)
Sips water from a cup

Can push herself out of her bumbo
Is ticklish in the same spots as her Momma

Loves to play with paper and anything else that makes crinkly noises
Can push herself across the floor and spin around on her belly

Can get up on her hands and knees

Will turn the pages of a book when you tell her to
Loves to play peek-a-boo with the blanket