The Greatest Joy of All!

As I sit on the couch burping my child, she starts to doze off. It is almost bedtime. Slowly her head turns and rests on my shoulder and her arms curl slightly around my neck. This is my heaven-on-earth. So we kiss Dad goodnight and walk to the nursery. Roxanne follows to make sure everything is okay. As I lay her down she looks at me and smiles. Wow! "Good night my love, sleep tight." She wiggles for a few minutes and then is out. Who knew that 10 minutes could be so amazing? Definitley inspiring enough to blog it!

Her sweet sweet nature shows more and more every day and I am realizing that this was why I was put on this earth. She has scheduled herself to go to sleep around 8 or 9PM. We wake between 5 and 6AM to her voice on the monitor, not to a screaming come and get me, but to a sweet voice, usually saying good morning to her dollies and crib friends, and the stretchiest stretches I have ever seen! Unfortunately, everytime she stretches, we don't have the camera nearby...So we bring her into our room and she smiles and smiles! So glad to start her day with us! The feeling is definitely mutual. She makes waking up at 5AM delightful!

She is so much more interactive now. When we talk with our hands, she follows them. She gets so excited when she see a ceiling fan, especially when it is spining. She likes to stare at anything in the path of her eyes, see picture #3, often the bee(s) hanging over her swing. She has started to giggle, not very often or for long periods of time, but it is a definite giggle. Usually when we blow on her tummy or her little butt as we change her diapers. At the car wash yesterday, a little 2 year-old girl was giving Abigail a dolly dance show and she surprisingly giggled at that! I almost died it was so cute. She is working so hard on picking up her neck from all angles, see picture #2. We are doing tummy time with her every day to stregnthen her skills. She likes reading stories at night; she looks at all the pictures and colors and smiles. We are beiginning to incorporate the baby signs into normal conversation with her. Hopefully she will catch on eventually. It isn't something to hold your breath for, but the long term effects that are desired. When she gets excited she kicks her legs, flails her arms, smiles and breathes heavily, for a baby anyways. She loves her baths and when we sing to her she sings back. I put the back of the stroller today so we can strap her in without the carseat. She felt like a big girl and loved the ability to see everything as we walked through the store.

The pictures:
1: Cowgirl outfit from Grandma Briggs - trying to ride cousin Mahya
2: Tummy time!
3: Staring at her bee
4: Getting ready for bed. I just love this sleeper with the polka dots...thanks E!
5: Napping with her dolly
6: Big girl in her stroller!