November

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was that Abby has started drinking water. We can't get her to drink it from a cup, but she will drink it from a spoon. So each time she sits down to eat, we spoon feed her about 2 ounces of water, and continue to give her the rest of it through her feeding tube. It's progress!

She is also trying to be more independent with her walking. She wants to walk with only one hand instead of both. She's not super steady with it, but she is much better than she used to be. At the beginning of the year when we tried to do one-handed walking, she could only go one or two steps before falling over. But now she can go a nice distance before losing her balance completely. Sometimes when we are walking she will pull one hand away so that she can go with just one hand. The more practice the better!

I also forgot to mention that we got Abby a new bed - complete with a new awesome quilt made by my mother.

Putting Abby to bed at night is my least-favorite part of the day. It takes at least an hour, unless she is absolutely exhausted - then it only takes about 30 minutes, if you're lucky. Before we got this new bed, she was sleeping on the floor. She liked that better than her toddler bed for some reason, and so that's where she had slept for the last year and a half or so. But when she started acting like she couldn't get comfortable on the floor a few months ago, we decided to try her bed again. We brought the toddler bed back in (we took it out because it was a safety hazard with all the railings, and she wasn't using it anyway) but she didn't like it. She seemed to like the idea, just not the bed. She was too big for it anyway. So we went out and bought a twin mattress and put it on the floor. It hasn't cut down on the amount of time it takes to get her to sleep each night like we had hoped, but at least she's off the floor. That makes us feel a little better.

The other day I found Abby making a mess in the bathroom.

Actually, it was Spencer who alerted me as to what was going on. The funny part is that after she ripped off some of the toilet paper, she would wipe her bum with it, then pull off some more. Cute. She did really well cleaning it up though. I sat the trash can in front of her and told her to pick up all the toilet paper, and then she did it - without any other verbal or visual cues. Nice work!

It was picture day at school not too long ago. Abby's picture isn't very flattering, so I'm glad I snapped a few of my own before school that morning. Her hair wasn't at it's best, but this still looks better than the professional photo.

Spencer turned 3 in November. I made more birthday donuts. This time I dipped them in cinnamon sugar instead of frosting.

After I made Abby's pink birthday cake, Spencer couldn't stop talking about how he wanted a blue cake for his birthday. I tried to talk him out of it because he doesn't even like cake, but he was pretty set on it. Then I decided, what kind of a birthday would it be without cake?!

Just as predicted, he licked off all the blue frosting I made for him, and didn't take one bite of the cupcake. Silly kid. Happy birthday Spencer!

 

Anthony's little sister got married a couple of weeks ago. I love this picture of us because it is so hilarious. This is what seems to happen every time we try to take a family picture. Abby is trying to escape and Spencer is being goofy. This is real life guys! Ha ha!

But these are cute.

And this is my favorite - dancing at the reception.

We spent Thanksgiving in San Diego with my parents. It's always nice to be with family! But I didn't take pictures. Crazy right? I do have these ones though.

Spencer helped my dad put up some of their Christmas decorations.

Happy Holidays!