Glow Sticks Party

I read on Twitter about a Mom who bought glow sticks from the dollar spot at Target and let her kids play with them in the bath. She talked about how much fun they had and it was the best $1 she ever spent!

I would totally agree! 15 sticks for $1 and lots of glow in the dark fun!

I let Abby play with them tonight and they put 2 other sets of 15 sticks in her treasure chest when she earns 10 stickers on her responsibility chart. She loves counting her stickers and I think having these in the chest will excite her!

I'll Take Credit for This

During her bath one night, Abby wore her silly bands.

She then proceeded to take them off one by one and match them to her Gabba toys.

Marcus claims he would have never matched them up by character and I'm certain I've been matching things up for a long time!

New Camera Shots

I am slowly but surely learning my new camera. I used a portion of my bonus this year to buy an SLR (Nikon D3100) and it is lovely, but complex! Tonight, I played around a little and was able to capture Abby in the bathtub, a room where the lighting has always produced bad pictures.

She is at the stage where she has learned how to play a joke and loves to make others laugh. Check out the water dripping from her chin- thank you Nikon.

I love this face- the smile has a hint of trouble behind it. Shortly after this was taken, she threw a wet ball at me. Nice!

In a few short days, this little girl will be two and I couldn't be happier.

Bathtime Fun

I hear more giggles in my house during bath time with Daddy than any other time of the day.

Along with the crayons all over the tub, she loves to splash water lately. We are encouraging it as it helps with washing her hair and water running onto her face. That is slowly becoming less of a big deal.

We also love stacking our animals on the tub and full on belly laughing at their demise. Check it out!

Bath Time = Fun Time

This is my favorite Abby- the clean wet happy baby who wants to be wrapped up in my arms. I love the couple of minutes I get with her after Daddy has bathed her. I wish it lasted longer, but she is happy to get a little love and then wants to run around her room naked finding the perfect place to pee! She gets us every time! Before I wrap her in her green towel she is a wild bath time banshee with her Daddy. They recently started playing hide and seek with the shower curtain liner. You can just see the love she has for him!
She has so much fun that after dinner every night she says "ba" and lifts her shirt telling us she wants to go to the bathtub.

Travel Present

I love bringing home presents after I travel and this time around, our hotel was connected to a mall! It wasn't a great mall, but a touristy type mall, so it worked out well. I bought Abby these bathtub crayons from the Crayola Superstore! They are round and fit easily into an 18 month old's hands. Plus, they won't break or spill which is perfect for this age!
She is already writing her name... ha! But, we have learned to ID ourself in pictures and can say Abby (sounds close to Daddy) and will point to her chest when asked about "where is Abby". It is quite cute!

I bought Mom a nice executive pen which looks like a green crayon and Marcus got an R2D2 shaped lunchbox. Fun for all!

Pink Bath Water!!!!!

Isn't this fun? I read about crayola's colored bath tablets (from Target) on another blog and thought Abby would enjoy it. She loves seeing the water pour from the pitcher in the bath, so colored water had to be even better! In the end, I'm not really sure she noticed!

Bouncing Ball Video

Marcus and Abby have so much fun at bath time! I captured her laughing at the ball splashing in the water.

Don't Hold Me Back!

Marcus manages bath time 99% of the time and he is so frustrated with Abby's movement inside the tub. She wants to reach for him or the faucet, stand up, lean over, grab a toy, etc. He decided tonight to let her try the tub without any props. She did great and appeared to be much happier with her freedom.

Marcus is scared she is going to hit her head on the rim of the tub, but I assured him she will be fine. Do they sell anything to place around the top to soften it? I didn't think so, but am certain if it exists, one of you will know!

Water Baby

Abby still loves bathtime and Marcus struggles to keep her safe in her big ducky. I swear she would swim around the tub if she could!

If he needs her to be still and calm down, he can simply pour water and she will watch intently and try to catch it!
I find this snarly grin cute!
I love bath time pics because you can see the strawberry in her hair when it is wet!

Blueberries and a Really Big Duck

I think we have found a food Abby doesn't like- peaches! She has rejected them two times in a row. So, tonight, I thawed some blueberries. I honestly hate giving them to her- they make such a mess and I'm so careful trying not to let her get her hand in them that mealtime is a little more stressful. Here is the careful mess we made.
Obviously she loves them, so we'll keep giving them to her. I just have to feed her blueberries in the nude.

After dinner, we bathed her in her new pink rubber ducky. Isn't it the cutest thing? Abby wasn't loving the ring we had tried this past week. It inhibited her ability to splash herself in the face. Honestly!
Marcus and I went to Target today at lunch to spend a very generous gift certificate that arrived for Abby in the mail earlier this week. One of Marcus' friends that lives oversees sent it to us. We bought her 2 outfits, a swimsuit for next year, bath toys and her ducky, Baby's First Laptop, diapers, food, and some supplies for her first birthday party. We have a theme and are in full force buying mode :)

Bathtime Upgrade

Sunday morning we bathed Abby in her new bath setup- her ring! Plus, we moved her to her own bathroom that until now has served as just the guest bath. The ring was a hand-me-down from Johnna and was just perfect. It suctions to the bottom of the tub and keeps Abby from falling over.

Before now, she was in the newborn tub and was beginning to squirm around in it too much. We knew she needed freedom, but wasn't sure what would come next. The ring is perfect. She can't fall over in the water and bump her head or worse, and has more freedom to splash and kick!

With this new set, nobody has to get in the bath with her, so we stay dry! Instead, we get to sit on her Boon Potty Bench. This was recommended from our friends Matt and Tabriah. It will be her potty later on, but for now it saves our knees during bathtime. She also gets used to it long before she uses it and see us sitting on it.

It was also so much easier being on her side of the house for drying and changing her afterward. Plus, Marcus has more under-the-counter space now that we aren't storing her bath supplies in our bathroom.

With the new set-up in her bathroom, we were also able to introduce more of her bathtoys that were housed in her frog. She had fun looking at all of her new things.

To think in just 8 months, we have gone from sponge bath to newborn cradle to newborn recline to sitting up in newborn bath and now the ring. It is so much fun to watch her grow!

I Can't Keep them Still!

She kicks and she kicks and she kicks!

After bath time Tuesday night, we took some pics of our sweet naked baby girl on the bed. She makes me laugh- she just loves post-bath time and she expresses it with her kicking!

Think Daddy Got Wet?

SOAKED! Daddy got SOAKED and he LOVED every minute of it!

Moving to the Bathtub

Abby Lu loves bathtime. She knows when I pick her up naked off her changing table that it is bathtime. The kicking of her legs honestly begins at that moment and ends when her pajamas go back on.

Tonight, we moved her bathtub into our bathtub . She is so excited during bathtime that her kicking was making a mess. We had water on the counters, the cabinets, the floor, the rug, the wall, etc. It is cute and I want her to love the water, but the cleanup was too much.

Bathing her in the bath was much easier.


Check out the video to see her kicking in action.

New Bath Position

I could just eat her up! Abby Lu loves bathtime. She just hangs out enjoying all of the naked time and the attention we are giving her. A few weeks ago, we turned her bathtub around so that now she sits up during bathtime instead of reclining back. It makes washing her hair so much easier for Marcus.
While he washes her hair, I wash her body and therefore am in the vulnerable position near her feet. When Abby gets excited, she kicks and kicks and kicks. I get wetter as the bathtime goes on!

Abby's First Bath

I have lots of experience with babies and some experience with newborns, but I have zero experience with sponge bathing a newborn. I was quite nervous- will she catch a cold? How do I calm her if she hates it? What can't get wet again?

Luckily Marcus knew what to do!

Marcus read lots of book throughout my pregnancy and specifically liked reading The Baby Owners Manual which provided very practical advice on how to do various baby care tasks. He had read the bath chapter and pulled the book back out for us to use as a reference.

While I was feeding her, Marcus and Mom prepped the area. Marcus took the lead and I assisted on the bath, referencing the book, checking the water temperature, and watching and learning.

My most important job in the process was calming a very unhappy baby. Marcus did a great job getting her nice and clean, keeping her warm and talking through it all with her. I let her suck on my finger, kissed on her and soothed her screaming little mouth and quivering little lips!

After her bath, I took her to the nursery to diaper and dress her for bed time. Afterward, she was the calmest little baby I have ever seen. She was so chill! I laid her in her bed inside the cupcake boppy and she just sat there with her eyes half open.

Here is a closeup of her sweet little baby face all clean and relaxed!