Generations...

I know when I look at old pictures of me with generations before me, I don't really have a personal relationship with the oldest in the pictures. I realize that for Abby the same will be true, but then I also realize that it's not so much for her, but for our parents and for us. I am ecstatic that Abigal has been around so many "Great's" and I often wish that there were other "Great's" still around to share her with. But last night, as we were amongst the newest introduction of great (Robbie's grandpa on his mom's side), it was made clear that Abigail was most assuredly amongst the other "Great's" before she was entrusted to us. It's a touching picture to imagine...the other "Great's" loving over her before we got to love on her...

I survived!

This last weekend my church held a Women's Retreat up in the mountains that I had the wonderful pleasure and opportunity to attend. This meant that it was my very first time to be away from my Abigail overnight and for more then just my regular 8 hour work day. Robbie had to fly solo with her and later I found out that he even had to pre-arrange alternate baby-watching so that I wouldn't cancel my plans to be away (he didn't tell me about that one - smart man!). He apparently had a basketball tournament in LA he had to be at and knew that if I had known ahead of time, I might have canceled my plans to attend. It was really nice to just step away for a while, but it was even more nice to hear that everything here at home went so smoothly. I missed her like crazy, but I survived!

My apologies...

So Abigail has a new favorite look that she does to just about everyone now. She loves to just crinkle up her nose and forehead at anything and everything. She can even do it on command now as well. Robbie just does it first and then she copies him. It's hilarious. The only problem now, is that when someone that doesn't really know her comes up to her and smiles and tries talking to her, she does the same face and they think she's upset with them or that they smell or something. So, my apologies to you in advance :)

Happy Birthday Robbie!

Well Robbie is an old man...he just turned 35 on Sunday! Can you believe it?! To all his credit, he doesn't look a day over 25, and he's not letting his age hold him back from anything! We had a wonderful day on his birthday. His favorite breakfast with his favorite girls and then his favorite football team and his favorite thing to do on Sundays - lounge around watching the Chargers. And later, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at his parents house, with homemade peach ice cream. Robbie's favorite gift of the day - Wii Fit - thank you to his parents and mine!

Even though it was Robbie's birthday, I now have a new favorite video from his day. Unfortunately it only was recorded from our digital camera, so the image is a bit grainy, but I hope you can see why it's one of my favorites (You have to listen carefully to what Robbie says to Abigail). Robbie and his little girl, kisses, and giggles...all of my favorite things!

What a doll!

I just wanted to share with you some new milestones of our little doll-face! Abigail has now found that rolling over is just simply way too much fun! She will take any opportunity to now roll over in her crib and loves to squirm around from side to side - preventing herself from taking any naps though! Who would sleep when your own crib is just way too much fun to explore?! We have found her now in her crib asleep on her side, on her tummy, and even face down on her arms - leaves interesting marks on her when she wakes up too. She no longer will go down quietly (except her bedtime going down)...now she takes any opportunity to squeal at Fox in Sox and Sam I Am, and she's taken a new interest in smacking her tongue (which grandma taught her that one?!). She loves, loves, loves peek-a-boo and enjoys sitting up to play with her toys.

Something really funny happened today. She's so incredibly smart and only almost 7 months old!! I don't know if I can explain this very well, but I'll try. Today, I went in to check on her during a nap and she was wide awake playing in her crib. So I crawled over to her crib and peeked between the bumper and the mattress...a small sliver mind you - only my finger could fit through the hole I made to peek through. Well, the little girl saw me and shrieked with excitement when she saw my eyes peeking in at her. So, of course, I spoiled her nap by playing a little round of peek a boo through the bumper and mattress. Later, I went in to check on her again and I found her reaching her hand between the bumper and the mattress to peek through herself. She was looking for me!! Can you believe it? Crazy smart that one!!

BBQ Robbie

So, my own labor this week prevented me from posting about our Labor Day. We had a wonderful BBQ with friends to celebrate Robbie's upcoming birthday (Sun, Sept. 14). Abigail even got to meet the famous Dr. Turner! Robbie's best bud from Westmont, Chris Turner, came out to SD last weekend. We had food, passed Abigail around, visited with friends, and some even played Mexican Train and ping pong. It was a lovely day!

Chris, you look like a natural!

So, I realized that as we had signed up to create this blog together, Robbie never gets on to post anything. I'm sure you've noticed the biased posts about the cutest girl in the world, and as I'm sure he shares this same opinion, he probably wouldn't brag the same way that I do. Robbie has been extremely busy, preventing him to get together with friends more, to also be able to share about himself more, so I've decided to take a moment to share a little about him for those of you interested.

Robbie is currently pursuing a career that he finds extremely fulfilling and he is fully enjoying his experience with the staff and with teaching. He is student teaching at Westview High School in the ENS program. ENS stands for Exercise and Nutrional Science, and it has replaced the traditional PE program at Westview. He is pursuing his single subject credential in PE, but this program is going to give him more then just experience in PE, it's also going to provide him experience in Health Science. This additional experience will probably give him an upper hand against other candidates for teaching positions when the time comes, and it will also help that he is directly working for the California PE Teacher of the Year. His student teaching will end in mid January, and hopefully there will be something available for him, if not in January, then at least at the beginning of the next school year. Even though he's working at a high school right now, he thinks he'll be more interested in trying to find a position at a junior high school instead. Whichever way he goes, we know that God will provide him the perfect placement.

Robbie wasn't always interested in teaching, and it took discovering his talents while coaching to head him in that direction. Robbie not only is teaching full-time right now, he is also the director for the Westview Club Basketball program for 6th-8th graders, both boys and girls. He does that on his time outside of teaching and actually coaches for the girls 8th grade team. When coaching the club team isn't enough, he then picks up the girls JV team at Westview as well. Robbie has an amazing disposition with the girls - patient, calm, encouraging - all necessary for working with us females :) and he does a great job communicating with parents as well.

On his spare time, he loves watching sports - specifically the Chargers and the Padres - checking up on his fantasy sports, playing Tiger Woods golf on his Wii, go jogging at Lake Miramar with our friend Jon, and play with his daughter. He loves listening to music and enjoys talking about different bands and sharing and exchanging CDs. He would drop anything he's doing to be able to go play golf with his friends, and dapples in frisbee golf when he can. Somehow, the guy can play any sport with you and play well...don't even get him started on foozeball (is that considered a sport?).

What made me think to do this? I was thinking about our Labor Day and how for his birthday, as long as I've known him, his absolutely favorite thing to do is to have his friends come over for a bbq. Perhaps that's a little unknown fact about him. So maybe now you've learned a bit more about him that you didn't already know. I'll plan on doing this often...catching everyone up on us also...so the baby doesn't absorb the whole blog.