Abigail's favorite store

Any guesses? It's Lowe's! The ceiling fan aisle, to be precise. For a little girl who is so fascinated by ceiling fans, this place is heaven! 

I had the sweetest moment with Abby the other night. She's starting to skip her 5:00 pm "cat nap" so she is very sleepy by the time 7:00 pm rolls around. She nurses right before she goes to bed and this time she fell asleep in my arms. That hasn't happened for a good 5? 6 months? It took everything I had to get up and put her in her crib. I wanted to hold my little sleeping beauty like that all night long. Just look at this perfect, sweet face.

VIDEO: pacifier silliness

Snake Adventure!

WARNING: Snake Post! Betty and Marci, you should not be reading this. :) You will never come visit us again.

So this morning, there was a knock on the door and when I answered it was the meter reader. He wanted to inform me that he discovered a nest of snake eggs in the ground. Blech! We have seen a 3 foot long black snake in our yard several times and we were never very concerned. Black snakes help keep the rodents and cockroaches under control, after all. But an entire nest of eggs? No thanks. I called Animal Control but apparently they do not deal with snakes. I called a company that removes snakes and they said they would charge $175. What?! I even called a local reptile store who was interested in having the eggs, but they wanted us to deliver them to the store. Riiiiight.

In the end, our adventurous neighbors came to the rescue. Kay said she was willing to retrieve the eggs and move them to a nearby retention pond. Her high school aged daughter, Kayla, loves all animals and wanted to handle everything.

Ready to take a peak? Here are the eggs under the concrete "lid" by the meter. There were about 15 eggs total.

Fearless Kayla!

She made sure to remove the eggs very slowly and carefully. Apparently it will kill the baby snake inside if the eggs get moved around too much.

A few of the eggs started oozing some goo, and we decided that the snakes inside those shells were likely dead. I really wanted to know what was inside the shell -- could they be turtle eggs? -- so Kayla agreed to carefully open the shell on one of the eggs. A live baby snake emerged!

It seemed just fine and had a beautiful pattern on its skin. Kay said that it would change to solid black in time and that they're born with varied coloring for camouflage. 

Goodbye, snake baby! We hope you find a nice home somewhere else. 

Father's Day - Bobbie's post

Happy 1st Father's Day, Robert! To celebrate the occasion, I told him to sleep in this morning (the gift that means the most to both of us lately!) and then after Abby's morning nap we had brunch at Datz -- one of our favorite restaurants in Tampa. I ordered you had me at nutella: brioche bread filled with Nutella, strawberries and honey cream cheese. Robert ordered bubba's burrito which was basically a gigantic breakfast burrito topped with sausage gravy. Oy! He also ordered one of their signature Bloody Mary's, complete with a Nueske's bacon "stir stick!"

Abby was very patient and well behaved at the restaurant. The people at the table next to us kept smiling at her and commenting on how cute she is. Also, she ate puffs for the first time today! We realized it's time to introduce her to crunchy texture instead of just purees and mushy cereal all of the time. 

I'd like to give a quick shout-out to our friend Marci for being a part of today's Father's Day festivities. The Datz gift card was put to good use and thank you for helping me find this Daddy Calls Me Doodlebug book! It was a perfect gift. 

See her hand on her daddy's face? Too precious.

Robert, thanks for being such an incredible dad and husband. Your two little ladies love you so much. xoxo!

Father's Day - Robert's post

I have been meaning to chime in and write a blog post for some time now and today seemed to be the best time to make my debut and contribute. My thoughts this week have turned to one of those words that seems so simple and yet so mysterious - father. When Bobbie was pregnant one of our pet peeves was hearing people say "everything is going to change" and then look at us with some smug satisfaction that they had distilled their earthly wisdom about parenting into five words. Now that we have had Abby in our lives for 8 months I can say, unequivocally, that in my experience they are wrong. Not just a little wrong, but really wrong. Like the earth is flat kind of wrong. 

Being a father is a choice, not just a biological function or something that you just get to be. That is what seems so lost on those people who speak of change. When I saw Abby for the first time, screaming in the delivery room, I finally got to see that little person that I had loved before she was born and even before Bobbie was pregnant. I held the hand of my baby who I had loved for a very long time. Nothing fundamentally changed - sure we have to plan differently and the calculus of our choices have been altered - but the only difference is getting to see her, talk to her, and hold her. 

When did I become her father? This is where I think the problem is. I have known men with multiple children who are not remotely fathers and I know guys who have never had kids who are better fathers than most men, me included, could ever hope to be. The difference is that they have chosen to be fathers, men who are not perfect but attempt to live up to some standard by which they inspire those around them and take moments to reach into kids lives. Fatherhood, not in some oppressive, paternalistic way; but rather, as an expression of something that we have to choose to do, not something that just happens to us. 

I hope that when all is said and done, that I have chosen well and Abby will see in me all those starry-eyed aspirations that I want her to see. I will probably fall short, and even if I succeed there is no guarantee that she will actually see it - that is the real truth about parenthood that people should spend more time talking about. 

I thank all of the men I have known who have shown me what it means to be a father and I hope to one day be counted among you. My darling little girl and wonderful wife make it so easy for me to want to be a wonderful father, I only hope to be the man they deserve to have. I hope that I give them the love that they so deserve.

Abigail's first swim lesson

Abigail seemed to enjoy playing in the water this morning. They did a good job making this class fun for little ones. We sang songs, blew bubbles in the water, and splashed around. 

She practiced floating on her back.

And "swimming" after a rubber duck.

Kick, kick, kick!

Most pale momma in the pool!

8 months old

Oops, I'm a day late again this month...Happy 8 Months, Miss Abigail! One fun memory from this past month is Abby's new fish face, which has been impossible for me to capture with my camera. Also, it sounds like she's been saying "Mama" for awhile now. It's more "Mum mum mum mum mum" but Robert insists she says it when she's looking for me. We've had a lot of tumbles and falls and head bonks this past month as she practices standing up. I usually react by saying "tough cookie!" with a big smile on my face and more often than not she is a tough cookie and doesn't cry. 

We've attended all kinds of fun classes and activities lately, too. Summer programs started up at the Y this week and we had our first Tiny Tots gymnastics class this morning. The class is for 6-12 month olds and there were 5 other babies there. We played with a big, bright parachute and Abigail went and crawled right into the middle of it while everyone else was sitting around the edges. They had stations set up around the room where the babies could climb cushioned ramps or crawl across trampolines while following after a ball. The instructor ended the class by blowing a bunch of bubbles for the babies to grab. It was very cute. Tomorrow morning, we start her swim lessons at the Y.

Baby Bungalow was closed today so after her morning nap we headed across the street for Baby Yoga at the library. This little girl is getting a good introduction to all kinds of things, isn't she? I'm so impressed by all of the activities we have available to us -- and they're all free!

Here are the photos from our monthly shoot. I was sad because I ordered the cutest little flower hair bands for her and she will not wear them anymore. She yanks them right off. It was also a challenge to keep the sticker on her onesie because she kept wanting to pull it off and crumple it. Ornery little girl! :)

Playing peekaboo in the curtains with Daddy.

Love these cheeks!

This is a face I've never seen before. Sheer determination?

I feel like it offers a glimpse of what she might look like when she is older.

Then we went outside and played a little before my student showed up.

 Can you hear her giggle in this last one? 

Love you, little girl! 

Standing up!

Our little girl isn't wasting any time...she's ready to move! Enough of this sitting and crawling business. We now prefer to stand. 

My apologies for these slightly blurry pictures. I took them on a dark and gloomy day when Tropical Storm Andrea passed through. We got a lot of rain and some gusty winds but otherwise it wasn't bad at all.

Those chubby legs!!

Are you watching me, momma?

Yay, daddy's home!

She continued practicing yesterday.

Sliiiiiding down...

And then helped mommy with the laundry.

This morning, she watched Robert make strawberry pancakes.

I'll leave you with a picture I meant to post last time. Our blue eyed beauty!

 Whew! That's a lot of pictures. I'm due for a more substantial written post -- next time!