The Baylor Family Blog

The older this little girl gets, the more we realize what a perfect fit the name, Abigail Joy, seems to be.

I bet you would never guess these pictures were taken while she was fighting off yet another GI bug? Without a doubt, she has felt miserable. But her joy still creeps through…

Don’t get me started on her beautiful blue eyes…

There are two funny things that go along with these pictures. First off, we got Eli some Sesame Street sticker books for his birthday. He has enjoyed looking through them, but only recently mastered the art of getting the stickers off all by himself. After being quiet for a little too long, we discovered our little boy was covered in alphabet stickers. And boy was he quite proud!

Secondly, Eli has fallen into the toddler-shut-your-eyes-and-give-a-cheesy-smile-for-the-camera stage of life. Thus making it tricky to capture the genuine Eli smile we often see that suddenly disappears when we say “Smile for the camera!” Well, we figured out a solution for this. We taught Eli to say “cheese” for the camera and he puts on his best smile and says “cheese.” And we take a great picture. And then he says, “Again.” And the process repeats. Though it may be a temporary solution, we’ve gotten some great smiles with it!

Around three months, Abi started smiling and even better, laughing! The best way to get her to smile is simply to talk to her! There isn’t anything much better than baby smiles and laughs!

Abi has also discovered her hand and loves to suck on it!

It has been a little more difficult recently to capture Eli’s smile with the camera! So, I love these two pictures! Its amazing to think how stressful eating was for Eli even a year ago, and then to see how much he LOVES to eat now. In fact, it seems like he wants to eat all day long right now. His interest in using silverware during mealtime has definitely increased and he seems to be getting a little better with his technique every day. He now climbs in and out of us booster chair independently and likes to wipe his hands and face by himself when he is finished eating (though he often needs a second wipe by dad or mom!).  At the moment, some of his favorite foods are cheese, lunch meat, bananas, goldfish, raisins, Nutragrain bar, and whatever his dad and mom are eating! Since Eli loves food at the moment, we’ve been able to use meal time to encourage him to use his words. He often uses the word “more,” but now when he says “more” we give him two choices, like “more cheese” or “more banana” and he has to attempt to say the food he wants to get more. It has been working suprisingly well!

We have fallen into the routine of letting Eli watch a video after naptime. It often helps him get through his crankiness upon waking, and it allows me some time to feed Abi without entertaining Eli. Eli’s absolute favorite movie is the Veggie Tales “You Are Special.” Matt and I laugh through it, as well! Eli loves to dance around the room to the songs and yell “Bob” everytime “Bob the Tomato” comes on the screen. He has also started making mini-forts with the cushions on the couch during his movie time. From his smile, you can probably tell he looks forward to “Bob” time all day long!