Is this seat taken?

Ah, the bucket swing. Where memories are made, friendships are formed, and two little girls named Abby get to swing way too high when they swing together.

Your standard bucket swing may be perfect for a two year old, but smaller babies get swallowed whole by the immense bucket-ness of this type of playground equipment. That's where teamwork (and a little mommy ingenuity) kicks in.

It didn't take Rebecca and I long to come up with this clever solution to thwart the collapsing of our babies in the too-big bucket swing. It seems that these swings are actually just the right size...if you bring a buddy to the park with you.

The Abbys and the other kiddos had fun on our little playdate, although it was a little colder than we would have liked and many of us came dressed for what we hoped the weather would be, rather than what it was. But because she loves her BFF, Abby Jean was happy to lend her extra pink sweater to Abby Mae.

Abby Mae's mom and I are sure hoping these girls grow up to actually like each other, since we've already decided they're best friends. "Yep," they'll tell their other buddies, "we've been friends since we could both fit in a bucket swing together."

Teeny weeny polka dot tankini

This kiddie pool was six dollars well spent, in my opinion. It made for some great Memorial Day fun in between the picnic lunch and dinner we enjoyed out on our back deck, and once we brought the water up to a temperature above freezing, Abby seemed to really enjoy herself.

Sunburn prevention

It warmed up again (that seems to happen in spurts up here) so the Fisher girls hurried into some shorts and headed out to the backyard to soak up the warm sun while it lasts.

While my goal is to have my olive skin tanned to a nice golden glow before I parade myself around in a green bridesmaids dress this summer, I have slightly different sunny day goals for my daughter: namely, to not burn her delicate baby skin to a crisp.

So I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that the adorable pink baseball cap I scored at last weekend's yard sale was not entirely offensive to my picky little girl. In fact, it stayed quite nicely on her head, shielding her pasty face and scalp from harmful UV rays.

For the rest of her pale baby skin, I opted for Coppertone's Quick Cover Lotion Spray. (It is, afterall, the #1 pediatrician recommended brand, according to the label.) I got suckered in by the smiling chubby faced little baby on the display at Wal-Mart--I could just hear the coos and giggles as he delighted in being sprayed with SPF 50 sunscreen lotion by his bikini-clad mom. The scene on our back deck was a cruel variation.

There were no coos or giggles, but rather shrieks of horror as I pointed the easy-to-use aerosol sprayer at my innocent daughter and dispensed what turned out to be freezing cold sunscreen onto her warm little body. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the hissing sound that accompanies the stream of lotion being emitted from the bottle sounds like a thousand rattle snakes fighting in a metal bucket, and terrifies my nine-month-old just as much.

Once I calmed her down from this horrifying experience of UVA/UVB protection, she was happy to play at her activity table, where, to my delight and amazement, she is perfecting the art of standing on her own.

I have decided that some things cannot be improved upon, and the twist off cap on a plastic sunscreen bottle is one of them. Be gone Coppertone lotion spray. You will no more torment my offspring.

Things I love about being a mom

Well actually...these are things I love about Abby. But things I love about being a mom and things I love about Abby are pretty much the same, so that counts.

Justin likes to ask the same question over and over again. And I love to answer it. The exchange goes something like this:

Justin: What's your favorite thing about Abby?

Christina: That she's ours.

Justin: What's your second favorite thing about Abby?

Christina: The way she smiles real big when we get her up in the morning.

Justin: What's your third favorite thing about Abby?

Christina: That she sleeps through the night.

So there you have it. My three favorite things about my daughter, and my three favorite things about being her mom. It's simple really. I'm madly in love with this little girl. The fact that she happens to be the cutest baby in the whole world is just icing on the cake.

Floor scootin' boogie

Crawling continues to elude the family of fish, but that doesn't seem to stop our little Abby from getting from point A to point B. To her already well developed skills of rolling and commando crawling, this week Abby has added a new trick of locomotion that is best described as a floor scoot...


Caution: Do not try this at home. Floor scooting works best only if you weigh under 20 pounds and have a heavily padded tushie.

In the mood for a melody

We've reached that point in our boxes of baby stuff where the baby shower gifts are waning. Faced with the prospect of having to actually spend money to buy clothes for our fast-growing daughter, I did what my momma taught me to do, and spent a Saturday morning updating her wardrobe in small bills and loose change at a neighborhood yard sale. I hit the jackpot, bringing home an assortment of toys and clothes for Abby, and a hammock that got thrown in by my shopping buddy that will eventually find a home in our backyard.

The best deal of the day seems to be this tot-sized Fisher-Price piano that I picked up for about a buck. Abby loves the light up keys and the little bench she can sit on. As an added bonus, this little contraption seems to provide just the right amount of leverage and stability needed to make standing up a tangible goal for our almost 9 month old little girl.

Check out this video to see some of her musical stylings, and to find out about the inspiration behind her talent.

Major innovations

Stuff Abby loves:

• Things that make noise
• Things that fit in her mouth
• Things that are easy to hold

Stuff mom loves:

• Things that are cheap
• Things that Abby can't swallow
• Things that don't make messes

So after raiding the pantry for some dried macaroni and carefully removing all parts of the coke label that she might otherwise swallow, Abby has a new toy, and I feel justified in paying too much for that cherry coke I just had to have.

Why backyards are better than parks

You don't have to get dressed to play in your backyard.

In fact, when it's warm enough (which it is) and you're eight months old (which Abby is), you can do just the opposite.

Abby's biggest fan

Abby's room is coming right along!

Her adorable fan that I picked out at the Lowe's in Georgia a year ago is finally up, 600 miles away, in her new room. We're just a few coats of Feathered Fern and Pink Kiss paint away from one super cute little girl's room!

A day for happy mothers

It was a happy day indeed for this new mom, complete with cards from my handsome hubby and darling daughter, pancakes for breakfast, mother's day wishes from the women to whom I've always sent greeting cards, and pepperoni and pineapple pizza (my favorite) for dinner with my little family. Oh, and hanging the colorful fan (thanks Mom!) in what will soon be Abby's room (thanks Justin!). I'll admit, this whole mom thing is still a bit surreal, even after almost nine months of Abby cuteness in my life.

Thanks to the women who shaped my life: to my mom, who gave selflessly and tirelessly, and to my grandmother, who has always been there for me. Thanks to the women who shaped my husband's life: to his mom, who showed him what a Godly wife and mother should be; and to his grandmother, for her intense love for her family.

Justin told me before we got married that his was a family of strong women, and he knew I would fit right in (a great compliment, and a high standard). To those strong women, and to the strong women who made me who I am, I wish a happy mother's day. I pray Abby will be able to look back one day and be as thankful as I am for the women in this family.

Wallpaper woes

What's worse than one wallpaper border you hate?

Two wallpaper borders you hate.

A couple of feet into what will soon be Abby's room, the previous owners decided it was too much trouble to tear down the teddy bear border, and instead opted to simply wallpaper over it with a larger floral border of their own. And while the teddy bears are kind of cute (in a 1995 builder-grade nursery decor sort of way) I've got big dreams for this room that don't include bears dancing gleefully on its walls.

I'm happy to report that Abby's morning nap left me just enough time to erase all traces of both tacky borders, and her walls are now prepped for some pink and green paint action. She may be walking by the time we get it done, but one of these days, this little girl's going to have a nursery!

Bust a Move

It's taken about two weeks of trying, but Abby is successfully propelling her body forward now, albeit a little unconventionally. Her commando crawling--imagine a little green army man with his knees forever stuck to the floor--gets her where she needs to go, and she doesn't seem to have much interest in pulling her legs up under her to push her body forward. So for now, she's developing some super upper body strength by stretching out and pulling all 20 pounds of herself forward using only her arms.

Always and Forever, one decade at a time

Travel back in time with me to May 2, 1998. My hair was too tall, Justin's tux was too big, and the two of us obviously had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. (And don't even get me started on that back drop. What was the prom committee thinking?)

Always and Forever
North Hall High School
Prom 1998

A five dollar bet about Justin finding a date to the prom seemed innocent enough. Until he asked me...bribed me rather, with a bag of M&M's. I was a sophomore, it was my first date, and my mom threatened his life repeatedly from the time he showed up at our door with my corsage. I recall her exact warning going something like this: "Justin, this is my one baby girl, and if anything happens to her, I'll kill you." (No worries mom. I understand just how you feel now!) My dad, meanwhile, tried to reassure Justin that we were really very normal people, which I think we can all agree has not proven true.

Over dinner and at the dance, we were two nervous teenagers on a first date, but we had a great time, and soon we were officially "going out," which for us meant dinner at El Sombrero and a movie, every weekend, without fail. Six years later we were engaged, in seven we were married in nine we welcomed our daughter into the world, and at ten we're moving into our second home. It's hard to believe all that's happened in ten short years. I wouldn't trade it for the world!