Mornings with Cora

Poor Abby! We put up two baby gates last weekend and Cora has figured out that she can be close to Abby while still being unreachable. Abby gets so excited when she sees her kitty cat! 

She's practically taunting her in this one.

It's getting harder for me to keep up with this little stinker. She gets into everything. The curtains and our DVR are her favorite new "toys." We put a big rug in the middle of the room and made a little play area but of course she prefers to crawl into any little corner she can find.

The front of our DVR has a touch screen (never knew that until now) and Abby has recorded all kinds of different shows for us. Both Robert and I wanted to be meteorologists when we were kids and it looks like Abby is following in our footsteps because the show that gets recorded the most often is the Day Planner from The Weather Channel. Ha! I guess we're going to have to get some kind of gate to put around the TV.

    

In other news, we usually go for a family walk around 6:30 each night and I'm happy to report that stroller time isn't always "serious time" anymore. Look at that happy smile from our happy little girl! Love you, munchkin.

Kim & Paul's Visit

We had friends in town from Waco, TX this past week. Kim and I have known each other for a long time now. She grew up in Liberty, Missouri and throughout our high school years we would see each other at All-State auditions and we played in the Kansas City Youth Symphony together. Then our paths crossed again in graduate school when we both attended CCM. We have many fun memories from those years in Cincinnati including Easter potluck meals with huge spreads of delicious food, an unusual horn quartet gig in Kentucky where we played music at the start of a fox hunt, a fun trip to Ottawa for a 5k and a friend's baby shower, a fancy horn duet gig held at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and a shared love of all things sweet: cake baking, crepe making and plenty of ice-cream eating. 

Kim and Paul passed through Tampa before and after their trip to Key West and the Everglades. Kim is expecting baby Phillip in September and she is doing great! I think she is one beautiful, glowing pregnant lady.  Abigail thinks so, too. 

On Memorial Day, Robert stayed home with Abby while Kim, Paul and I drove out to Clearwater to eat at Skyline Chili -- a famous Cincinnati establishment. When we arrived, we were excited to discover a Cincinnati Market next door that had opened in January. The market carried all things Cincinnati: frozen LaRosa's pizzas, pints of Graeters and UDF ice-cream, Frisch's tartar sauce, Montgomery Inn Barbecue sauce and frozen entrees and even Glier's goetta. Here's proof that this place exists.

Look at all of the glorious Graeter's ice-cream flavors!

And here's my Skyline vegetarian 4-way. Love that mound of cheese!

After dinner, we headed to Honeymoon Island State Park where Kim and Paul let me take some maternity shots. They were such easy subjects to work with!

 

One of my goals for the shoot was figuring out how to get a nice silhouette.

 

See? I told you she is glowing.

Thanks for coming to visit, Kim & Paul! We wish you all the very best as you wait for Baby Phillip's arrival. 

More Dolly

I just can't get over how cute Abby is with her Dolly. Here are a couple more pictures from two separate days this past week. Does she need a little pillow? 

In other news, on Monday morning Abby and I went to the Rampello Middle School Music Awards Banquet. Abby was a trooper because it was loud with all of those middle schoolers cheering for their friends. This year, all of my students who auditioned for All-County made it into the band and everyone who took a solo to contest received a Superior rating so the band director had me come up on stage to be recognized.  Such a sweet surprise. Here's a picture of me (and Abby!) with my students. I really love working with these kids.

Oh, and apparently chiffon mullet (ha!) skirts are all the rage right now. It's a good thing I have 7th and 8th grade girls to keep me up to date in the fashion world.

swinging

7 months old

Happy 7 months, baby girl! Or if Robert were writing this: "Happy 7 months, doodle bug!" I love the names he comes up with for her. Betty flew back to Wichita bright and early this morning so the house feels a little empty today. I think Abigail misses her buddy.

So what will I want to remember about this age? Abigail has definitely become a great eater this past month. She loves her oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, peas and carrots. We'll continue adding different kinds of foods to her diet. She enjoys being outside and we're amazed by the things that catch her attention: birds chirping high up in the air or a dog barking across the street. She's also strong enough now to sit in shopping carts and she enjoys looking around at everything in the store. Hooray for more time at Target!

We love you so much, happy little girl! 

I finally got a picture of her two bottom teeth! See them?

Here are some action shots of her crawling. Look out, world!

Oops!

Aaaand, made it to mommy!

My first Mother's Day

I have a daughter! I'm a MOM! Sometimes those words still catch me by surprise. I can't figure out how on one hand, this all feels very new and on the other hand, it's hard to remember what it was like to live in a world without sweet little Abigail by my side.

Robert had double duty today: his mom is in town and his wife was celebrating her first Mother's Day. He fixed us a delicious brunch of brioche French toast, bacon, fruit salad, and a shallot, cheddar & oregano frittata. Served with mimosas, of course. Yum.

I was spoiled with many plants. Betty gifted me with a tomato and herb garden for our back porch. I love freshly grown tomatoes so hopefully the heirloom beefsteak tomatoes and little cherry tomatoes will grow well in the hot Florida sunshine. She also picked out cilantro, sweet basil, oregano and spearmint. My grandma -- Mamaw -- used to have spearmint growing in her backyard and smelling it brought back so many wonderful childhood memories. Robert added some to our fruit salad this morning and we look forward to garnishing our tea this summer, too. So fancy.

Also, my parents sent the most beautiful flower arrangement. I think I've mentioned in this blog that lilacs remind my mom of early days with her baby girl (me), so the lilacs in this bouquet were an incredibly sweet and sentimental addition. I also love the hydrangea because it is one of my sister's favorite flowers and the peonies remind me of Mamaw -- again -- because she had huge bushes of them growing along the side of her house. So the blooms the florist selected really couldn't be any more perfect. Isn't it stunning? I wish you could smell the lilacs through your computer.

I'm so thankful for all of the amazing mothers in my life: my mom, my mother-in-law, my sister and many others. And thanks to Robert for making this such a very special first Mother's Day!

Mommy! Enough kisses! 

We're so grateful Betty was able to spend these past couple of weeks with us! Abigail loves her Grandma.

Seriously though, when did she get so big?!

fun in the sun

I know the rest of the country has been experiencing some crazy weather lately -- snow in Kansas City in May?! -- but it's been mostly warm and sunny here. It definitely feels like summer is right around the corner.

My mother-in-law Betty flew in a week ago and we've all been having a lot of fun together. She cleaned up the swing in the backyard and Abigail has been enjoying it.

The weather was particularly beautiful today so we headed to the beach at the air force base where Robert works. I took Abigail to the St. Pete Beach with our friend Clara awhile back, but she didn't get into the water. Today we let her splash around and she loved it. She also tried to eat a handful of sand...blech.

Here we go! First time in the ocean! She's way ahead of me considering I was 19 years old when I first saw the ocean.

Look at those adorable chubby leggies!

I promise the water wasn't as dirty as it appears to be in these photos.

In other Abby news:

1. She has 2 teeth! The second one (bottom left) came in just 2 days after her first tooth.
2. We've been introducing new foods and she has tried avocado, banana and peas. Each new flavor results in a priceless face of what the heck is THIS?
3. I saw her crawl! Not just the army crawl she's been doing for awhile, either. But since then, we haven't really seen her do it again.
4. We lowered her crib today. Even though she's not pulling herself up yet, we didn't want her to catch us by surprise.

Warm and sunny thoughts to all of our blog readers!