Recipe for a half birthday...

What does one do to celebrate six months outside the womb? Abby has spent her half birthday participating in a number of fun half-birthday activities, including...

1. Watching her mom bake half a birthday cake. (Then watching her eat the remaining pink strawberry layers while frosting the half-birthday cake with lime green icing.)

2. Spending a significant part of the day in her birthday suit.

3. Supervising the making of a highlights video, during which she is born, baptized, moved to Virginia, and more in only 2 minutes and 15 seconds.



At six months old, Abby is weighing in at almost 17 pounds and stretches to a whopping 27 inches. That's almost 10 pounds and 6 inches in gain in just six months! The time has flown by, as other parents tried to warn us it would, and we can hardly believe it's been a half a year since Abby came into our lives. What a fabulous time it's been!

Don't just stand there...bust a move

We have a problem. Apparently, spies have infiltrated Christina's School of Dance(tm) and are in communication with the U.S. government. President Bush has stolen my dance moves...

Park n' Fly

Some unseasonably warm weather rolled in today, and since Justin had the day off, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to take Abby to the park for the first time. We were right. She had a blast in the baby swing and giggled like crazy when we pushed her too high. All in all, a very fun day for the Fisher family. Click links for video and more photos.

Girls' Night Out

Abby had a fun time with one-and-a-half-year-old Mary Grace while I babysat for the neighbors this weekend. MG introduced Abby to all her toys, they watched Elmo's Wild Adventure together, and MG learned that the best way to wake a sleeping baby is to get right in her face and yell her name. Very effective indeed. Abby held her own with some baby death grip hair pulling in return. Under closer supervision, the two played very well together, and it was a lot of fun to watch these two only children learn about sharing toys and a parent's attention.

Happy Birthday Justin!

Continuing with our now nine-year-old tradition, we ignored yesterday's Hallmark holiday and celebrated Justin's birthday with homemade pizza and a blazing German chocolate cake. Only this year we had the added fun of watching Abby try to figure out what she thought of all those candles.

Happy birthday sweetie!

My Funny Valentine

What started as a fun little Valentine's Day photo shoot suffered a slow descent into madness this morning...



Maybe she's mad because it's her dad's birthday and she shares her mom's distaste for overlapping holidays. Oh well...happy Valentine's Day to everyone who's eating heart-shaped chocolates instead of birthday cake today!

win·try mix [wĭn'trē miks] - noun

It occurs to me that not only are the accents different, but certain words and phrases have entirely different meanings in Georgia and Virginia. Take wintry mix for instance.

In Georgia...
Meaning: Chance of rain with temperatures possibly dropping into the low to mid-30s.
Effect on residents: Rush to the grocery store to purchase bread, eggs, milk and salt for sprinkling on the driveway, then quickly return home stay inside until the extreme weather passes. If it does rain, or if there are any reports of snow flurries within a 30 mile radius, do not leave the house under any circumstances.
Road conditions: Unknown. Few will chance driving to find out whether the roads are safe or not.
Side effects: Power outages, school closings.

But in Virginia...
Meaning: Sleet and snow with temperatures dropping into the low to mid-teens.
Effect on residents: None. I've never seen a demographic so unfazed by weather before.
Road conditions: Wet, salty and drivable.
Side effects: Floors of homes and businesses strewn with melting ice and road salt.

Personally, I prefer the stay-at-home-when-the-weather's-bad kind of winter. But that's the difference. Our friends and neighbors here don't view this weather as bad. In Virginia, a wintry mix simply is.

What's the opposite of The Quiet Game?

Abby was quite the entertainer last weekend while her grandparents were here...and we confirmed the fact that she has no problem being the center of attention.

With a silver spoon in her ... nose?

My grandpa taught me how to balance a spoon on my nose. And now we're teaching Abby. She's a quick learner.

Watch your step

Maybe I'm getting used to the chill in the air, but something about the weather today made me want to be outside in it. So after bundling up myself and Abby (which takes considerably longer) we headed outside for a stroll on the very popular Reston paths. A five minute walk brought us to a lake frequented by an insane number of very noisy, very messy geese. Abby loved it. And dodging the goose poop in a stroller with eight wheels made for quite a fun adventure.