The Baylor Family Blog

Last week, we had a couple opportunities to visit with Matt’s side of the family.

Our first visitors were Gran-B and Poppy. They came down last Tuesday to attend a Christmas In July event with Eli at church. Each kid was supposed to bring a parent with them to the event, but I was afraid it would be too difficult for me to attend with Abi and Micah. Eli loved having his grandparents with him and had an absolute blast celebrating Jesus’ birthday in July! After the event, we all met up at Jason’s Deli for a delicious lunch and time to catch up!

Last weekend, Matt’s Aunt Lynne and her dog, LeAnne, came to visit. Eli was delighted to have Aunt Lynne and LeAnne sit in the back of the van with him! Aunt Lynne got to listen to Eli talk non-stop in the car…I’m sure her ears needed some piece and quiet after leaving our house! We enjoyed a trip to the zoo and a drive up to the Will Rogers Shrine on Saturday.

On Sunday, we were able to meet up with Matt’s grandparents, Grams and Grandad Klish, at a local park in Monument. It was fun to show them how much each of the kids had grown since we had last seen them! Eli had to cope with not having anyone to sit next to him the back seat on the way home, as Aunt Lynne joined Grams and Grandad on the trip back to their home!

What a fun week of family visits!

Jealous of their little brother, Eli and Abi wanted to experience being wrapped like burritos, too!

Abi was distraught until she figured out to get an arm out to hold her blankie.

Eli was so squirmy he escaped the burrito wrap in no time. Just like when he was a baby!

I told her it was true, but Abi just cannot believe she is already 18 months old!

Here are her stats:
Weight: 19.1 pounds (1st percentile)
Height: 31.7 inches (62nd percentile)
Head Circumference: 18 inches (31st percentile)

Simply put, she is tall and skinny!

Let me just say that I love my little girl. I’m so thankful that God gave me a daughter. She makes me smile so many times every day. She is very independent and never wants to be left out. I was worried that she would be forced to grow up too fast with a little brother so close in age. But Abi always makes sure there is room in my lap or my arms for her. She is very content just being near me, even if I need to tend to one of her siblings. She loves to sing. She communicates so well already that it blows my mind. She can stand up to her older brother, though we are working on her screaming at him! She loves her little brother and daily admires his toes! To my surprise, I haven’t seen an ounce of jealousy spill out of her. She only knows of life with her brothers!

If anything, she wants to do things to keep up with her older brother. She now picks out her own book before bed. And puts her clothes in the hamper before bath time. And eats off a plate at the table. And puts her shoes on the shoe rack after we get home. And walks to the mailbox by herself. And drinks milk out of a sippy cup. And helps mommy move clothes from the washer to the dryer. And colors at the table. And plays with play dough. And climbs into the van by herself. And so much more. Just like her big brother. Simply put, her little brother isn’t forcing her to grow up faster. Her big brother is motivating her to grow up faster!

Despite being surrounded by brothers and cars and trains and boy toys, she easily picks out the girly toys. She pushes her baby in the shopping cart while carrying her pink “Prada” purse. I love having a girly girl. Thank heavens for my little girl! I can’t believe she is 18 months already!

We had a relatively calm week around here. Abi was working on getting over her cold most of the week, but is doing great now. She had a follow up apointment with her ENT to check her ears and everything still looks great. She hasn’t had a single ear infection since her ear tubes were placed!

Unfortunately, the cold was passed onto Micah. Despite our best efforts to protect him, he still got sick. Since he is still so little, I brought him into the doctor on Friday just to make sure everything is okay. He sounds all rattly when he breaths, but its fortunately all in his sinuses, not his lungs, so we just wait it out! The cold hasn’t phased him one bit. He’s doing great. We did learn, though, that his weight is up to 8 pounds, 3 ounces!

I am thrilled to report that Abi is officially done with bottles! It only took us 18 months to get her to drink out of a sippy cup, but at least she is doing it now! We are learning that Abi has a hard time with change, but in a different way than Eli has a hard time with change. Eli has a hard time sleeping in new places, but Abi has a hard time switching what she drinks out of and changing the foods she eats. Eli has made a ton of progress over the past few years, and I believe we’ll help Abi adjust, too. We bought her a different sippy cup that was a different color and she totally flipped out. After plenty of tears and time, she is now drinking out of the new sippy cup. Poor girl.

Did I mention that she just cut her third molar last night? She’s had a big week, I guess!

Eli and Abi have enjoyed bonding with Micah during tummy time. I thought these pictures turned out so cute!

On Thursday, we met up with some friends for a park date. It was so good for me to catch up with some friends, and Eli had a marvelous time running around with his friends. Abi pretty much stayed right by me on the blanket and played with a bag of raisins and Micah slept the time away.

I feel like I need to redeem Micah from my last blog post. For whatever reason, he is far less fussy than he used to be. He is having lots of very cute and sweet moments. He has loved studying my face and has just started to smile. Perhaps we are figuring out our little guy more or he is learning to adjust to life outside the womb more. But I’m very happy that he seems to be doing better, even with a cold!

This week I’m bringing Abi and Micah to the pediatrician for their 18-month and 2-month well visits. Matt will be bringing Eli in for his first dentist visit, too. So I’ll have plenty of things to report!

Though I haven’t been successful getting a sibling shot with all of their faces, I’ve managed to get quite a few combinations with two of them! Enjoy…

Abi Joy is now 17 months, just shy of a year and a half old. Somewhere along these months, she seems so much less like a baby and so much more like a little girl.

She is loving exploring the outdoors and is walking so much better than a month ago! There are moments she wants a finger for security to hold while walking, and there are other moments where she announces her independence and refuses to hold anyone’s hand. Abi is enjoying touching trees, rocks, grass, water, flowers and so much more.

Abi loves to eat paper. I have no idea why. Any piece of paper, envelope, kleenex, or toilet paper is now something we have to keep out of Abi’s reach. For a while, she was even opening trash cans looking for paper to eat. Gross! A couple weeks ago, she even ate Matt’s paycheck. While Matt and I were cleaning up after dinner, Eli loudly announced, “Abi is eating something that she really shouldn’t be eating! Help!” And sure enough, most of Matt’s paycheck was being digested by our little girl.

Abi enjoys carrying around a pink purse and filling it with treasures in the house. She plays with the shape sorter, but only the circle shape. She likes to hold a ball when she is in her car seat travelling around town. She is starting to enjoy being read to, but only books that have a couple words per page. She recently has started chomping on books, too, as several books now are missing corners. She has been going around opening her own and her brothers’ drawers taking out clothes and trying to put them on. She also loves shoes and can entertain herself playing with shoes for a long time! She is also quite fond of trying on hats, too.

Speaking of shoes, we recently bought her a pair of summer sandals in size 2. I thought she would surely need size 3, but they were quite big on her. She definitely has some small feet. She is wearing a combination of 12 month and 18 month clothes and seems to be growing like a weed at the moment. She has her 4 front teeth and two molars on the top. She seems to go in teething spurts frequently, but at the moment appears to be comfortable. And she LOVES to brush her teeth. Its another of her favorite past-times.

Our sweet little girl enjoys giving kisses, one on each cheek, followed by a “mah” sound. She’ll put her head on our shoulder, clinging to her blankey, and say “nigh nigh.” Very sweet. She is still taking two naps a day, a one hour nap at 9 in the morning and a 1.5-2 hour nap at 1 in the afternoon. She is still doing great in her twin bed, surrounded by lots of pillows and stuffed animals. Before sleep, she lays down in bed and drinks a bottle, then turns over and goes to sleep when she is done.

Her most favorite song at the moment is Itsy Bitsy Spider. While I’m nursing Micah, she is often standing right in front of me, so I often sing songs to her. She tries and does the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider and its so cute! She is learning new words everyday and is very willing to imitate sounds. She has the sweetest voice right now…I don’t want it to ever change!

As for her new baby brother, Abi likes to pat his head and tickle his toes. She always makes sure there is a place on mommy’s lap whenever I am holding Micah. She absolutely refuses to try and hold him, immediately pushing him away and saying, “No!” We’ll give her some space for now! She is very curious of his equipment, like his swing, bouncy seat, car seat, etc. and loves to try them out. She loves to “rock” Micah in his swing, too.

Eating-wise, Abi continues to only eat a handful of foods. She isn’t very interested in trying new things, either. We are offering her new foods, but not fretting when she refuses them. Some of her favorite foods right now are fruit (she’ll eat most fruit), raisins, cheesy puffs, cheese, and pretzels. I’ve never been successful with getting her to eat any vegetable. Oh well. She still primarily drinks water and milk out of a bottle, though we continue to keep sippy cups near her. We’ve tried to take the bottle away since Micah was born, and that was a complete failure once again. Oh well. Hopefully it will work out in time.

Abi continues to bring so much joy to our family. I don’t think we could have picked out a more appropriate middle name!!

Wow. I have three kids now.
Three very cute kids, I might add.

When did my baby girl get so big?

And when did my big boy find his nurturing side?
I’m very blessed.

The temperature hit 90 degrees earlier this week, so Matt pulled the pool out for the kids to have some fun in the water. We all enjoyed lots of time outside. Its been so nice to be together as a family!

Have I mentioned lately that Eli LOVES swimming? This kid had a huge smile on his face most of the day!

Abi splashed in the water for a few minutes before going off to explore the backyard. She quickly found a bowl of snacks and plopped down to enjoy!

Micah enjoyed soaking up the rays during one of his many naps. This was also therapy for helping keep his bilirubin under control!

We also enjoyed a picnic lunch outside.

Abi was amused by the fact that Micah was “wearing” a hat, too.

She then showed Micah her trick of taking her hat off. Of course, she helped Micah take his hat off, too. What a helper…ha!

After being stuck in the house with sick kids and a baby on bili lights, we took a desparately needed outing as a family to Garden of the Gods, or as Eli calls it, “The Rock Park.” Eli and Abi loved playing in the rocks and dirt. Micah pretty much slept through our outing. Matt and I enjoyed getting a little fresh air! We also managed to get our first family photo as a family of five! Enjoy the pictures!