The Abi update: 11 Cutiest Stories About The Cuteness

Abigail is 11 1/2 months old now (first birthday is just around the corner!!) and so I thought I'd post a few of my favorite Abi stories.

1. We play hide and seek in the apartment. I will hide in one of the rooms with some body part sticking out (like a hand or a foot) and she will crawl around until she finds me. As soon as she sees me she lets out a huge squeal of glee!

2. We've started using sign language for some of Abi's routines and I didn't know if any of it was getting through until this morning. I had been flipping my hands when I say "all done" to try to associate those words with the hand motions. Today at breakfast we were mostly through her banana oatmeal when she became harder to feed. Then she looked up at me and started squeezing her both her hands together (like both hands were saying "bye-bye"). I said to Jon, "What is she doing - wait! oh! She's saying 'all done!'" She was as excited as I was! I took her oatmeal away and she squealed as I took her out of her high chair :)

3. Abi loves the beach, the pool, the tub...she loves water! She has discovered splashing and almost always objects when we have to leave. Yes, she whimpers even when I take her out of the tub! Glad we live in the land of 10,000 lakes!

4. I had the TV on in the background one day and a commercial came on saying, "Say good-bye to unwanted soap scum!" And Abigail looked up from her toys and started waving at the TV! Bye-bye soap scum!

5. We went to Idaho over the Fourth of July to visit Abi's great-grandparents. After seeing all their pictures on the wall, we discovered that Abi had inherited great-grandma Nini's bright blue eyes. (not just any blue eyes, but heart-breaker baby blues!) Abi gets them from her dad, who got them from his mom, who got them from her mom. Great-Grandpa Miller says he married those blue eyes 54 years ago :-)

6. Abi gives big hugs around our necks and will sometimes even try to kiss us all over our faces with her big open mouth. She's so affectionate!

7. When Isaiah came over in early April, I was convinced that he gave Abi the unction to crawl. Well, after spending the last few days with Malachi and Zach Harpel, she's been getting into a standing position from squatting. She didn't like being left in the dust by them! You could see her envious eyes follow their running and walking. It probably won't be long now until she braves her first step!

8. One of Abi's favorite play things are the shoes in the front entry way. She'll follow daddy to the door as he leaves for work and then she'll just stay there and play with the shoes for a half hour or so. She also has started unrolling the toilet paper and emptying Kleenex boxes in her spare time. I love this picture of her with the toilet paper. It's like she's saying, "sorry, mom..."

9. When Abi gets excited she crinkles up her nose and face and starts breathing really loudly through her nose. I think she does it on purpose because it makes us laugh so much :-) The little comedian! (Here's a picture of her with the crinkle face...)

10. Every morning after breakfast Abi will greet whichever parent is still sleeping by crawling to our bedroom, pushing open the door, and squealing when she spies their foot, arm or face hanging over the bed. It's a joyful way to wake up!

11. One day as Abi was playing quietly in her room, she started to cry, so I went in to investigate. I saw her trying to pull her purple Care Bear (her favorite toy of all time) out of her crib. But the head was too big to fit through the slats and it frustrated her that she couldn't play with him! It was a very heart-melting moment.