Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Abbie Update!

Abbie has been making alot of growth in her development.  After a few months of her cruising around furniture & wanting to walk only when holding onto someone's hands or onto furniture, she finally got brave.

She waited until the morning after Joe got home from the truck.  That morning, Joe was sitting in the front room with Abbie standing in front of him.  She saw her toys on the opposite side of the room and wanted to go to them.  She started walking, taking small steps, towards the toys.  As she walked, she held onto Joe's leg as long as possible until her fingertips were sliding across his knee.  Then she took the brave steps into the center of the room.  She turned around and looked at Joe, then walked in a little circle pattern before returning to Joe.  She was so excited.  I was thrilled.  Joe misses so much of Abbie's developments while he is gone.  To watch him as he watched Abbie take those first steps was so exciting to me.  In the 2 weeks since that happened, Abbie has been getting more and more brave.  She actually will walk faster now to where it looks as though she is trying to run alittle. 

This morning, she made another development.  I had put her in her playpen so that I could do something real quick.  When I came back into the room a few minutes later, she had climbed out of the playpen!  The little monkey!!!  So today, I am going to put the playpen away to store until the new baby is able to use it.  In place of hte playpen, I will put a folded comforter on the floor for Abbie to lay on when she is drinking her bottle or having a little snack.

I am so proud of our daughter.  She is such a delight.  Her giggling and fun attitude makes the time that Joe is gone go by so much faster and easier.  I love watching her as she tries to figure things out.  Joe's Mom has some magnet puzzles on her refrigerator.  Each 2-piece puzzle is a 4 inch square piece with a second geometric shape inside.  Abbie loves playing with magnets.  She started playing with these, at first with Grandma's help, then on her own.  She now, at 16 months of age, is able to sort the shapes out and put the pieces together on her own & rather quickly.  I guess you could say that through her play, her home preschooling has begun.

At home, we get out the finger paints and I let her play with them.  She was very delicate with it at first, but then got it figured out and has enjoyed it.  Now, she will go to where I keep the fingerpaints and fuss alittle to let me know she wants to play with them.

My little baby girl is growing so fast.  We are enjoying every minute of it though.