Today I went through Abby’s clothes to sort out what she can’t wear anymore.  She’s still pretty small for her age so the clothes still fit her except lengthwise.  Her pajamas are stretched so that she looks uncomfortable.  It was time…past time for me to do this sorting through.  It makes me a little bit sad everytime I go through the clothes.  I love some of the little outfits.  I pray that I will have another little girl someday who can wear these clothes.  

As most of you moms probably know, the clothes start dwindling.  When Abby was born, we were given so many clothes which was an incredible blessing.  I even had a hand-me-down source but her hand-me-down source decided she wanted all the clothes back so ….anyone want to be my hand-me-down source?

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Abby is 9 months old today. I am sitting here watching her play on the floor where she is rolling over and over until she gets where she wants to get. This is brand new. It’s almost as if her body knew she was hitting the 9 month mark and said “Get mobile now”. I guess that means we have to babyproof the house now. I think she’ll find out soon enough that rolling is not an efficient way to get around and hopefully figure out crawling. Another fun thing Abby is doing is trying to mimic what we are doing when we talk. She can say bababa now. She used to do “k” sounds – I know – backwards. She has also figured out to do the “all done” sign with her hand but she does it all the time, even when hungry so no context for it yet, I guess. We’re only using three signs so far – “more”, “all-done” and “please”. Question for mothers out there. Is juice necessary for babies/toddlers? Do they really get important nutrition from juice? Abby so far does not like juice and loves water. I am fine with this and would actually prefer it. I don’t want to push juice on her unless she needs it. I was thinking that it has got to be better to eat your veggies and fruit than to drink it.

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In an earlier post, I admitted that I wasn’t doing cloth diapers for the double yuck factor.  Well,  we are now using cloth and it really isn’t that bad.  We use prefold diapers with diaper covers and it is actually super easy.    One of our most recent additions is a diaper sprayer which is attached to the toilet.  You can use this to spray off the poop from the diaper rather than the traditional dunk and swirl.  My husband loves using the sprayer so this is a double blessing for me  Since we still have lots of disposables, we are using them at night.  I haven’t quite figured out what we’ll do when we are out of them.  Abby soaks the diapers pretty fast so not sure how to get through a whole night.  I can’t imagine trying to do cloth diapers if I didn’t have a washer and dryer in house.    A factor that I didn’t take into account was that the diapers add a lot of padding to Abby and her clothes don’t fit very well anymore.  The onsies are barely snappable and her pants look like highwaters….oh well, what does a 9 month old know about fashion anyway?

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Greetings all, sorry it has been so long since my last entry, it has been crazy busy around here.  Abby is getting HUGE.  It’s amazing how quickly she is growing.  She is nearly 4 months old.  She has started smiling and laughing, as well as recognizing people.  Every stage is really neat! Also, we  have had a lot of visitors this summer.  Sarah’s mom came out for a month, my parents came out, and some of our friends from Tucson, Jeff, Beth, and Mary also came to visit!  This is the last week of class for the semester.  We had some really interesting classes, and lots of reading!  This week is Biblical Ethics.  I have been fully engrossed in The Ten Commandments by J. Douma (A Dutch Reformed author), Principles of Conduct by John Murray (excellent book), and An Introduction to Biblical Ethics by Robertson McQuilkin (a good introduction to the subject).  This semester, I would have to say that my favorite class was Church History. I enjoyed this class not only because I love history, and the professor was very good, but also because I love learning about those of faith that came before us.  This was the 3rd section of the class, so it covered the from Reformation to the present day.

Additionally, we are planning to go to Springfield, IL for the spring this year.  In preparation for this, we bought a trailer. . .The plan is to take some of our furniture with us to Springfield, but also be able to use it to move when I graduate and not have to rent anything.  It’s a pretty sweet trailer (as cargo trailer’s go).  We got a really good deal on it, and will be able to haul a lot of stuff.

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It’s amazing how quickly you can fall in love with a child.  Abby is just so sweet especially now that she smiles a lot more often.  She’s making cooing noises and almost what seems like a laugh.  

Last night she slept for 6 1/2 hours….it was like heaven especially since the night before she was up at least 4 times.  I think she is beginning to recognize Paul and I.  I can tell that she knows my voice.  She also knows that when I hold her that I am also her milk source

We take Abby everywhere with us.  For the 4th of July, we went downtown to the local parade in Westcliffe and then also looked at the carshow.  Later than night, we went out to fireworks at the lake.  Right when the fireworks started, Abby had a bit of a meltdown.  It was after all a LONG day!

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We arrived back in Colorado last weekend. It was actually snowing with the sun out when we arrived. We have settled back in nicely and Abby is adjusting well. Classes start-up again for me on Monday, and I am pretty excited about that. This should be a good, but challenging semester. As you can see from the photo, Abby is growing up quickly. Soon we will be sending her off to college! We are going this afternoon to Springs (Colorado Springs as the non-locals know it) to pick up Agogo (Abby’s grandmother, Sarah’s Mom) at the airport after her long travels from South Africa. She is spending a month here with us. We are glad to have her come and help and visit her granddaughter. Lot’s going on around here!

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I am beginning to learn that sleep is really overrated . . . or at least that’s what my daughter would have us believe. It is amazing the amount of changes our lives have undergone in the past 2 weeks. We went from just the two of us to the three of us and our entire life now seems to revolve around the eating and sleeping schedule of Abigail (last night it seemed like every half hour). This is not news to “seasoned” parent, but this is expected from a brand new infant. Nevertheless, no matter how much I prepared myself for it, I was not prepared. I have to say that as much as I love to sleep at night, I love holding my daughter (Okay so I really like sleep)! It is amazing how much I am already starting to see her personality. Every day Abby seems to change just a little bit more. We were excited to find out yesterday that she is almost at 5lbs. Well, speaking of baby needs, I think it’s time for a diaper change Enjoy the video below!

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Today was Sarah’s first Mother’s Day! She is already an awesome mom.  We of course did not expect her to be celebrating (officially) Mother’s Day this year. . . but God’s in grace and provision, we have a healthy, beautiful little girl and Sarah is a brand new mom.  Today was a really pleasant day.  We had a number of family members over for dinner.  Many of them saw Abby for the first time today.  She is already living up to her name (brings joy)!  As far as Mom’s go, Abby is a very blessed little girl to have Sarah as her mom.  It is wonderful to see the connection that they already have for each other. I can’t wait until Father’s Day! Just one month! Happy Mother’s Day to all the mother’s out there! We are all grateful for all of you!

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Well, Abigail has been born for a week and on Monday she will have been home for a week. Below is a video of a bath we gave her. She seems to really enjoy the baths. She particularly enjoys getting her head brushed.  Right now life is pretty simple.  Sarah and I get up,  feed Abby,  change her diapers,  take a nap when she’s napping (she has us up at all hours of the night and  . . . that’s about it.  She is such a joy and a blessing to us.  We are actually glad that she was born here in Tucson (the plan was for her to be born when we were back in Colorado) because my parents have had a chance to spend time with her.  Well. . . it sounds like another diaper and feeding is calling. . . enjoy the short video. (By the way, there are some new photos in the gallery. . . check them out!)

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Great news! Abigail Sophia Mourreale was able to go home today. Sarah and I are very excited. Thank you all for your prayers and support. As you know, Abby coming this early was a surprise to us, but we thank God that she is health and strong.

[Show as slideshow]

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