Another Beautiful Day: This One is Dedicated to Abbie Reece

Today is our little girl's last day being a "0"... her last night before she turns 1....I can't believe that a whole year has gone already. Wow.

*Bear with me on this one...I'm not writing for an audience, just writing as I think. It could get sappy*

So much has changed this past year. Abbie is a beautiful compliment to our little family and definitely brings some punch to the calmness we once had. She has already grown into such a little person, fully of feisty personality, and a very curious mind. It's hard to believe that at this time just last year, we were a little family of 3, unsure what Miss Abbie would have in store for us. I've been thinking back to June 8, 2012 all day...the events leading up to her delivery, those few hours afterwards, the 2 nights in the hospital - just me and her, and then our coming home. Wow. It's already been a year.

I honestly thought she wasn't a pretty newborn, and it's true. She was a wrinkly, bald baby...and I thought she looked like an old man. Funny though, others thought she looked like Grandpa John, haha. She took all morning on the 8th to get here but when she was ready to meet us, she didn't waste any time at all. I still remember calling Grandma Rhonda to come watch Hayden at 3AM, walking around the hospital for TWO hours, being dismissed, crying in the car not knowing what to do, Ethan grabbing breakfast but the thought of eating made me nauseous, getting out to walk at the park and knowing it was a bad idea, returning to the hospital - barely able to make it to the check-in office, then it's a blur but there was Abbie.... She was different from Hayden already, so different.

Since then, she has definitely made herself a part of our family. I can't imagine our family without her. She is, for the most part, easy going and very content as long as she can see what everyone is doing and you give her what she wants. :) She really is stubborn and "strong willed" (to say the least) and has learned to throw her own little pity party recently .

Here she is at one year:

weighs rougly 20#
seems to be right-handed
still no teeth (no shock there)
sooo close to walking; seems to think she has to hold onto your fingers in order to walk
LOVES Hayden and wants to be wherever Hay is and play with whatever she's holding
she loves music
too stinking smart: knows how to turn on/off her cd player, brush hair, tries to put on necklaces, can work the fridge ABC magnets,
can say momma, dada, go, bye-bye, almost says up
signs bye-bye, all done, almost has "more"
loves to be outside and especially loves the slide right now.
not a big thrill seeker as in heights...doesn't like to be up high without support yet
however, really good at climbing...both up and down safely.
nicknames: Abbie-gator, Abbie-cakes, Abner, HooDabs, PooDabs, DabDabs, Slabbie (grrr, Ethan...and Slabner...more grr),

Hayden loves Abbie (thankfully). Although she's getting to the stage where she realizes that Abbie wants her stuff at inconvenient times so there is a lot of "teaching" happening in the house. Hay loves to go into Abb's room and see her after she wakes up, singing silly songs. She will entertain Abbie or distract her when we need a good distraction. Hayden wants Abbie to be big enough to play with her and it can't happen soon enough. She wants to help Abbie walk - loves to sit across from me and get her to walk back and forth. Hay is fairly gentle with her -- it's adorable hearing her talk or sing or read to Abbie when no one is listening.

Tomorrow we're having her birthday party here at the house. It's a watermelon theme and should be pretty cute. Definitely stay tuned for pictures from the party --- but it might be late Sunday night before I get a post up.

Until then, here are some of our favorite Abbie pics taken June 3,2013.