My baby girl turned 15 months old today! This month is special to me because my sister and I were 15 months apart and even though we didn’t get these two that close, I still think they will have just as special of a relationship. I hope. I hopeIhopeIhope. No pressure ;) And in honor of National Sibling Day, I just wanted to take a moment to say how thankful I am to have a sister that has been my very best friend my whole life. She’s been such an encouragement, best role model and biggest cheerleader and I have no ideaaaa what I would have done without her. I hope and pray these two bring each other as much love and comfort as my sister brought me. Siblings are the best :)

My friend asked me, way back before we were pregnant, if Abbie and I would be willing to do a lil photoshoot together since she is hoping to transition her business over to more motherhood portraits, so of course we said YES! I normally hate getting my picture taken but I hardly ever get to be in pictures with my baby girl so these are so special to me – especially since it worked out that by the time we actually got around to doing it, I’d get to be in there with BOTH my babies :) She keeps sending me snippets and I just love them all.

Since this is my sentimental month and Abbie just seems to be skyrocketing into adulthood, I figured it’s time for a little update to remember the little things :

She’s a little cleaner! She loves to take any napkin she can find and start wiping down any surface she can reach. And it’s mighty adorable.

She is FINALLY sleeping allllllllll the way through the night! But only in our bed. We tried, for like a week, to get her to sleep in her crib and we’ll probably go back to it once this renovation is done but man that stuff is rough. She’s got an iron will and does not like losing. Many many tears were had and absolutely no sleep was included so I’m not really looking forward to starting that up again. She ended up catching her first real cold (I’m blaming partially on the lack of sleep and no more nursing ..sniffle) and got a 102 fever, so back in with us she came so that we could all get better asap. We are lovers of sleep over here. And wellness.

She’s weaned. This one is bittersweet because I truly loved nursing her, but I don’t know if she just wasn’t getting enough milk with the pregnancy hormones kicking in there or what but the biting kinda got outta control so I figured if this next baby has any hope of having a nursing journey, this needed to end. Although there are times she gives me that look that makes me cry a little inside and think that I made her do it before she was ready, I think it was for the best because did I mention SHE IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!? And this momma needed that :) Also, I love being able to wear a real bra again. No one tells you what a luxury that is ;)

She’s super aware of what’s going on around her. This one’s not really new cause I feel like since she came out of the womb she could just dive into your soul and understand everything around her BUT now it goes beyond that knowing look and comes with sweet little actions! Like, the other day I was just a mess – seriously, I feel like this pregnancy has been a lot easier physically, probably because I’m not obsessing over every little thing, but WAY harder emotionally/hormonally. I’m a friggen basket case every day. So the other day I was just off the charts and couldn’t stop crying and everything was SUCH a big deal and she kept coming up to me and crawling on my lap and taking her little hands and playing peek-a-boo! to try to cheer me up! And then she would give me this big smile and then a big hug with lots of back pats included. It was the dearest.

She likes to fall asleep on mommas neck. I mentioned we will be taking another stab at crib training shortly.

She got her number called for the first time in church today! The kid that won’t stop crying? Yup, that’s mine. That scream you heard in the middle of Easter service? Also mine. Dropping her off at any sort of childcare is proving to be a challenge. She only goes to the ones at BSF and church but I’ve now had to start going to get her from both places because she’s inconsolable. (I mentioned the iron will ;) ) She’s going through a major momma only phase and although that is not always convenient, I kinda like it and know I’ll blink and it’ll be gone.

She’s the friendliest little thing! (when she’s fed and well rested) Whenever we go to the grocery store, she sits in the cart and waves at everyone, and I mean everyone, we go by. And gives them big smiles. And flirts. I gotta say, it’s pretty cool to see some really sad looking people all of a sudden light up when they see this little ray of sunshine coming towards them. I feel so honored to get to see little glimpses of her spreading joy around to other people. It’s truly so special.

She gives good, slobbery, kisses. And will always give Bentley kisses if you ask her to.

When she wakes up in the morning, I say, Abigail, why don’t you go give daddy a good morning kiss? And she makes her way over to him and plants one on him and it just makes my heart burst every time. Yesterday, she was giving Papi all the love with lots of kisses, hugs, and of course, back pats which was just so sweet.

She nods with her entire head. And she nods at everything. Do you want milk? yes. Do you love Grammy? yes. Do you wish you were in prison? yes.

She totally knows what you are saying! I’ve been asking her to go into the other room and get her book and she does it!!!! Crazy sauce. I’m so blown away by her brilliance.

She mimics everything. She does this adorable panting thing that we are milking for all it’s worth. She loves to play drums on the table like daddy. She tries to do the popping sound that daddy does with his mouth but ends up just opening and closing it which is equally as amazing to me. She just does a whole bunch of cute. She says hi, momma, dadda, dog, doggum, doggy, llama is mama, “more” sounds something like “mo” and a whole bunch of her own special language. She jabbers about all day and is getting pretty good at communicating what she wants. She does “more” in sign language too which is pretty cute. And throws up her hands in her infamous W when she’s done with her meal.

She loves music and dancing. Not full body dancing. Seated dancing with hand movements. As soon as the music comes on, the hands start going and I wish I could just record each bit of it! Even though I take about a billion pictures and videos a day, I just can’t capture it all and am forced to try to take in the moment and do my best to store up all that cuteness in my memory banks. Also she has a special shy face that she gets when she’s embarrassed. It’s beyond cute.

She’s starting to get into everything, cleaning the house takes 2x as long on account of the little piles that keep forming behind me all day, she thinks being told no is either funny or the end of the world, and life is a whole lot more exhausting, but my goodness she’s made my heart grow about a billion times bigger and I can’t imagine a greater gift. Seeing her with her daddy just makes my heart explode every time and I’m just so thankful for my little family. Happy fifteen months little monkey! We love you so much!