Back to Blogging

I have finally caught up on all the overdue and pressing things I needed to get done. My break from blogging was a bit longer than I thought it would be (sorry to everyone who kept checking back, never to see anything new!). Kevin fixed my computer weeks ago, but I decided to extend my break until I got caught up on the important stuff. Things took even longer partly because Abby has been waking up one to three times a night for the last three to four weeks and often nursing is the only thing that will get her back to sleep. Consequently, I'm exhausted and having a hard time keeping up with life. It's almost like having a newborn again...well, nothing can be quite that bad. =) Anyway, it feels good to finally be on top of my schoolwork and business projects. Of course, there's still a million everyday things I'm behind on (laundry, SLEEP, gardening, correspondence, SLEEP, scrapbooking, etc), but I would never blog again if I made it a requirement to get caught up on all of that first!

So, what's been going on these last few weeks? Well, probably the most important piece of news is that Abby has finally begun to crawl. She certainly hasn't mastered crawling yet, but she's able to push herself around several feet (think crawling like an inchworm - face plants, pushes her feet closer to her tummy until her bottom is up in the air, lunges forward, face plants, etc). I'm both proud of her and sad to see her go mobile all at the same time....already she's gotten into things she shouldn't and found dust bunnies and gunk in places I never even thought to clean before! But it's a joy to watch her explore her world in a new way.

I've also been having fun making my own baby food for Abby. And I must say, many times I'm tempted to steal a few bites...okay, I'll admit it, I've finished off her leftovers a time or two. =) My favorite is cranberry-apple mush. Unfortunately, Abby's allergic to it. I haven't figured out if it's the cranberries or the cinnamon yet, but it would be a very sad thing if it is the cranberries since her Grandpa and Grandma Marks have a cranberry farm and I made it with frozen cranberries from last fall's harvest. She's also allergic to sweet potatoes (an instant, bright-red rash on her face has alerted me to her allergies so far). I'm disappointed that she has food allergies, especially since I exclusively breast-fed for the full six months with one of the reasons being to lower her chances of having allergies. No one on either side of the family has food allergies, except my nephew Stephen with strawberries. Hopefully she won't have too many more, or at least maybe she'll grow out of them.

Here are several random pictures from the last few weeks:

Helping Daddy organize some cords.


Watch out, Calvin! Soon she'll be racing right over to you!


Lavender girls!


Abby zooming around the kitchen in her walker (don't worry we don't have stairs!).

Rather than make this post excessively long, I will end it here and try to put up several smaller posts over the next day or two to fill you in on everything else that has been going on. It's good to be back and I hope you missed me! =)