She has a large head

At around six months Abby's head growth did a jump on the growth chart. Ever since then she has been at the 95th percentile, or higher, while her weight and height have been down at 30% (we think she is taking after her dad in height). Since there was the big jump with head growth her doctor has had us come in every month to monitor things. At around 9 months with her head still being large the possibility of doing CT scan to make sure nothing was going on in her head was brought up. Seeing as Abby was still reaching all her milestones at or before what's normal we saw no need, plus Grant has a big head.

Well last week at the 11 month check up Abby's head took another big growth jump sending it off the charts. Our doctor having talked to a specialist felt with this lastest jump that it was probably best to check things out. So 7:30 Wednesday morning we were scheduled to bring Abby to the hospital for a head CT.

This already being a stressful week, with parent-teacher conferences Monday and Tuesday till 7:00 each night, my nerves were shot. Thankfully it was not a big deal to get the CT scan done. We brought her into the room where they tightly swaddled Abby and covered her with lead. They only allow one person to stay in the room with a child....why do they do this? I really don't see why they can't be more understanding because it is so hard to have one parent step into the hallway. Grant let me stay in the room and attempt to hold Abby's head still by holding her chin, yeah right! I did my best to calm our scared baby, luckily Abby handled the whole situation wonderfully. She did not cry until the bed slid into the machine (see below). Her cry was more of a 'okay I'm ready to move cry' rather than a cry of panic, thankfully. Actually at times she got distracted from crying by watching the spinning components of the machine.

The scan only took about 5 minutes. After they confirmed several good shots ( I was shocked they got it on the first try, I struggled in taking care of my job) we were free to go. We were told they would get the scans to our doctors in 24 to 48 hours. Do they not know how much of a worrier I am, and how wild my mind can run in 24 to 48 hours?

I tried to focus on enjoying the day with my little girl because I knew it would be a long day of waiting with no word. The one thing that helped is I felt a peace deep down that everything was okay because she's fine developmentally. But there is always the "What if..."

The call from the doctor thankfully came 9:00 Thursday morning, everything looked completely normal and she does indeed just have a large head. After letting out a huge sigh of relief, and a prayer of thanks to God, I looked forward to getting through the day so I could wrap Abby up in a hug of relief.

I know with being a parent there are going to be powerful emotions towards your child. It just takes me back in just these 11 short months how much love I have for Abby. How I would do anything possible to ensure that she is safe and healthy. I am so thankful for my healthy baby, and with her big head there is just that much more of her to love!

Oh NO!

We once again have a snow day. This is our sixth snow day so far this year. As great as these days have been it is time for them to stop. Being in school till the middle of June is no fun at all. Especially when you have places to go, people to see!

Abby is learning to do new things everyday. Unfortunately one of those things is learning how to say no. Although she doesn't quite get what it means yet, I fear the fact that she has this much down it won't be long.

Below she is caught in action, see for yourself:

Here we go again

Well the ice has started to fall. Seeing as it is just about a year ago to the day that the ice storm hit last year the area is pretty hyped up on whether or not this will be a repeat of ICE STORM 2009... I sure hope not. With that storm (see Ice storm post from last January) we lost power for about 5 days I believe. Luckily some of our friends kept their power so we were able to hang with them. Something about being without power and having a very active 10 month old just doesn't seem like too much fun.

For this storm there is a chance of 1/4 -1 inch worth of ice then on top of that 3-5 inches of snow is due in tomorrow. Adding that nice cushion of snow on top of ice makes diving too much of an adventure if you ask me. Obviously everyone is assuming there will be no school, I even gave my students "snow work" as they called it so they would do a small amount of learning with the break.

If ice and snow do come as planned I am looking forward to some quality Abby time. All we need is for Grant to get to stay home as well, cross your fingers.

Below I am going to try and keep a timeline of this storm. Let's see what the storm has in-store for us.

Thursday, 4:00 pm- 30 degrees, the sleet started to fall.

Thursday, 6:30 pm- 30 degrees, sleet continues to fall. Grant just got home said roads are wet, not slick yet, but there was a thin layer of ice coating his car. Meteorologist just informed the viewing public that the ground, being below freezing temperatures, causes the rain to freeze upon contact, this is why it is called freezing rain....Really, so glad he cleared that up for me. :-)

Thursday, 8:00 pm- 28 degrees, sleet continues to slap the window. Thin coating of ice on tree and patio furniture.

Thursday, 8:45 pm- Just posted... No School Tomorrow! Not a real surprise, but it is nice to know that I don't have to get up early in the morning to find out that there isn't school!

Friday, 6:30 am- Grant got the call that they closed his Fayetteville office today. Lazy day here we come. Lightly sleeting. There is about a quarter inch ice on the ground.

Friday, 11:00 am- The sleet is now turning to snow.

Friday, 5:20 pm- 22 degrees. The snow continues to fall. We have three inches and they are now predicting 5-8 inches of snow once everything is said and done by early Saturday morning. The power is running strong with no flickers! Through the world of Facebook, I've heard there have been a few reports of power outages in Springdale due to a car crashing into a power pole, but all power is back on.

Saturday, 8:30 am- The snow has stopped falling and the sun is starting to shine upon the six inches of snow dumped upon Northwest Arkansas. I had to laugh, as I was explaining to my parents about the excitement in the area over the storm they said this type of storm would have been considered a flop for them in Park City, UT. Where according to http://www.utahskiing.org/ gets appx. 500 inches per year!

So now let the melting begin! The only question that remains now is will enough snow melt before Monday so we can return to school?

Abby and the Dogs

I was going to try and post this the other day, but after waiting for it to load for 3 hours I decided it just wasn't going to happen. Today I was more successful. The video lets you see just how active Abby is and what a kick she get out of the dogs. Enjoy.

Let's call those HOGS!!!

We've been staying busy. The snow storm ended up canceling the entire week of school (now to be made up in June). I really enjoyed having the extra time with Abby. The first week back was crazy which I expected it to be, although it was great to see my students.

This past weekend Lisa, whom I've been friends with since elementary school, came up from her Grandparents to visit us for a few days. It was wonderful to see her as I don't get to very often because she works on a cruise ship running the ship's theater productions!

We had a fantastic weekend dinning out at some of our favorite restaurants, going to Abby's first Razorback basketball game, watching the 3D Avatar movie, and of course some good ol' catching up time. It was such a great weekend I hated to see it go by so fast knowing it will be a while before I'll get the chance to see Lisa again. She is such a wonderful, happy person who I love being around.

Lisa brought a bag of goodies for Abby. This ball with a monkey on top was part of the gift. Abby was very interested in it. Thanks for the wonderful gifts Lisa!

Abby is very used to cameras by now. But she was sure to show Lisa what she likes to do with them.

To the mouth it goes!

Oh the Razorback game! Our seats were right behind the students section, aka loud, scary students. As soon as the first shot was made the crowd erupted scaring Abby terribly. We quickly exited and walked around until she calmed down. Grant noticed that one of the upper deck sections was pretty much empty so we relocated there. Abby soon got used to the sounds and actually enjoyed all the action. The ring of lights around the court especially caught her attention.

Being in the upper deck we had a bit more room to spread out, which is very good to have with a 10 month old who doesn't like to sit still.

Lisa and I taking advantage of a time out to take a picture.

The Razorbacks actually pulled out a win, making it an enjoyable game. Much better than the game this past weekend where they lost to Kentucky by 31 points. Not too pretty.

Despite the fear of the loud noises at first, this is how Abby spent the fourth quarter of the game and the walk back to the car.

This is just a picture of Abby I took the other night. Wild hair and all.

Just this week Abby is experimenting standing by her self. She is up to about 15 seconds. She is just getting so big. Looking back at this picture I had to laugh at our matching sweat pants.

Snow Day Take 1

Living in the south has some definite advantages... at the drop of a snow flake school is usually cancelled. This storm that arrived Saturday night left us with 3 inches of snow, which is a quite a bit when there are not many snow plows to take care of the roads. As an added bonus Grant's office was closed in the morning (the roads were ugly!) so he got a half snow day! Taking advantage of this extra time with Abby we decided it was time to introduce Abby to the snow. Here is Abby's experience: 5 minutes of getting ready to go outside for a whole 2 minutes.

Oh no, the hat again.

You guys know I don't like this thing on my head, it messes up my hair.

Please take it off.

Daddy, mom won't help me, Will YOU?

Geeze what does it take to get someone to help me

Maybe I'll try this look again, PLEASE dad.

Time to take matters into my own hands.

Wow it worked.

Freedom, Yes!

You have got to be kidding me.

So now what.

Hey, what do you know, this is kind of fun.

The world it's....white.

Okay my nose and bum are getting cold.

It's time to go in!

And this was our favorite shot from the whole experience, it speaks for itself:

Abby and I are very excited for our next snow day together, which just happens to be tomorrow. Oh Happy Day!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-jig

We are back in Arkansas after our wonderful trip out west. We had a lot of fun seeing family and friends. As with our normal holiday trip we spent time in both Park City and Green River. Although good times were had, it was bittersweet being without Howard, as we missed him dearly.

Here is a picture recap of our trip:

Christmas started early in Arkansas before we left as Abby explored her new activity table. She is a cruiser now and loves the fact that she can stand and play at the same time!

Grant has the most wonderful people as neighbors. Twice a year they get together for neighborhood parties, 4th of July and Christmas Eve. Although there were many people out of town this year it still went on and it was good to see everyone. This is Ashley and her daughter Stella who is several months younger than Abby. Although this year the girls didn't quite understand how to play together (Stella was very interested in Abby's pigtails), next year I'm sure they'll be running around together causing trouble.

Abby loving the coffee table, trying to figure out how to get at the nativity scene.

As you can see getting a picture of the two girls together went well.

This is Christmas morning. Abby actually helped open this one present. The remainder of the time all she wanted was the teething biscuits she recieved in her stocking. She was not very interested in her other gifts.

A quick family shot.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day we drove back to Park City for the traditional Christmas Brisket Dinner! Yummy! Here are my Dad and Abby enjoying some time together.

This is Cody and Emma. Playing with my new camera I got his teeth to sparkle. Don't ask me how I did it because I'm not sure. :-)

A view of the mountains from my parents house. I love the mountains!

A few more pictures playing with the camera.

Here Abby is taking Dad for a walk around the room. Watch out, I don't think it will be much longer before she takes her first steps.

We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas as well!