Happy New Year!

Check out Abby's original fashion creations, her first beer review, and a sneak preview of her upcoming yoga video—all in the December photos!

 

A Holiday Present for You

No better way to ring in the New Year than to catch up on posting baby photos:

September
October
November

Happy New Year!

 

Double Feature: July and August Photos Posted

We've been lazy. So finally, here are the July and August photos!

June Photos Posted

Turns out Abby isn't too sure about sea dragons, but she doesn't mind posing behind goofy cutouts. See for yourself in the June photos!

 

May Photos Posted

Will she be a conductor or a biologist? Check out the May photos for further clues.

 

Bonus April Photos

We loved the photos Katherine O'Brien took of my preggers belly and Abby's newborn days, so we recently asked Katherine to come back and capture Abby at 1 year old.

Katherine picked a few of her favorite 1-year shots and posted them to her blog—check 'em out!

April Photos Posted

April was an exciting month in parenthood as we watched Abby develop her organizational skills! Oh yeah, she also learned how to walk.

 

March Photos Posted

March is over, and Abby's not yet walking or talking (without her hands, that is). But she's so, so close! Any day now, we're going to be wishing we hadn't been so anxious for these next steps...

 

February Photos Posted

February brought Abby a birthday, fashion accessories, and yes, more cuteness.

 

Abby by the Month

We're still deciding what will make the cut for the February album, but in the meantime enjoy a year's worth of red chair photos!

 

January Photos Posted

After you take a swing through January, check out the latest addition to Abby by the Month.

 

December Photos Posted

Although it's hard to catch on camera, December was the month Abby started signing. Her first sign was "more," then she starting doing "dog," "milk," and "water." But here's a sign every baby learns how to do:

 

But wait, there's more! We put together a little end-of-year gift for you—a collection showing how Abby's grown over the last 10 months. Enjoy!

November Photos Posted

November highlights include new pajamas, jeans that wouldn't fit over Abby's cloth diaper butt, and a lot of downward facing dog as she tries to stand up.

 

October Photos Posted

October was a big month. We went to the zoo, a friend's wedding, a pumpkin patch, early voting, and Halloween festivities. 4 more teeth came in—those days were fun lemme tell ya—and she's crawling!

 

Stereotypes Be Damned

For the almost 3 years we've lived in our neighborhood, this house has proudly displayed the ten commandments on a yard sign. Who knows how long it was up before we moved here.

But check out what Abby and I snagged a shot of during our morning walk today.

 

Hell yeah, Texans for Obama!

September Photos Posted

We promise we take Abby out of the house. We just always forget the camera. It's a good thing she's so cute, because you won't mind that almost all the pictures are of her in the bed.

 

August Photos Posted

In August, Abby turned 6 months old. To celebrate, we gave her solid food for the first time. Obviously, she was a big fan.

 

July Photos Posted

On the docket this month: teeth, elimination communication, and accessories.

But this girl takes accessorizing seriously. You'll see Abby wearing an amber teething necklace in most of the photos. When worn against the skin, the amber heats up and releases minuscule amounts of resin that supposedly has healing properties. Yes, we are hippies. But we figure it can't hurt, and she seems to have less teething-related pain while wearing it.

 

June Photos Posted

You won't want to miss the June batch...we finally caught Abby laughing on camera!

 

May Photos Posted

May was a big month—I had my first Mother's Day, Abby turned 3 months old, and even though we didn't think it was possible, she got even cuter!

 

Baby's First Farmer's Market

Every New Year's Eve, Erik and I cook a nice early dinner (because we're lame and never have exciting NYE plans), and we sit down to eat with two sheets of paper. On the first sheet, we list all our accomplishments from that year. Everything from "We switched to cloth produce bags" to "Erik brewed 31 beers" to "Mae won the dog division of Run for the Rovers for the second year in a row." Okay, technically that accomplishment belongs to one of our dogs, not us, but it's not like she's going to make her own list of accomplishments—so we get bragging rights.

On the second sheet of paper, we write down our goals for the next year. Not resolutions. These are goals, which we can start any time during the year. As opposed to resolutions, which if you don't do them every day of the year starting with the first day, you are A Big Fat Failure. So one of our goals for 2008 was to start going to a farmer's market at least once a month. Because even besides the fact that local food has to travel less distance to get to you so you're helping to save a bunch of fuel or even the fact that shopping there supports small family farms, The Sticky Toffee Pudding Company has a booth at the main Austin Farmer's Market, and in said booth they sell scones and other amazing deliciousness.

So yesterday, we made our first trip of 2008 to the farmer's market, which also happened to be Abby's first farmer's market trip ever. She did great in her Zolowear sling until she puked all over herself. But then she was happy to be out of the sling and taking it all in. There was another baby there her age—a little boy—but Abby was way cuter. Even his mom said that girls are so much cuter than boys.

The farmer who sold us some eggs even helped us fully immerse Abby in her farmer's market experience:

 

April Photos Posted

Check out the April batch. Here's a little taste of the cuteness within:

 

Flowers Purty

Erik and I have both lived in Austin over 10 years, but neither of us had ever been to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Abby turned 9 weeks old today, so we thought we'd celebrate by taking her to see the pretty flowers. And of course, we had to dress her up in her Under the Nile dress (thanks Doug and Deb!) and matching sun bonnet (thanks Grandma Linda!):

She slept most of the time and didn't really get to see the flowers, but we're going to let it slide since she was dressed head to toe in flowers herself. I can't believe it took us this long to go to the Wildflower Center. But from now on, it'll be a yearly tradition in the M-H-M family.

 

Abby's Famous

A few weekends ago, we had a photographer come over to take pictures of Abby. She posted a few of the pictures on her blog so you can get a taste of how they turned out. We love them! (By the way, if you're in the Austin area and looking for a photographer, we highly recommend Katherine O'Brien.)

Here's my favorite:

March Photos Posted

At the end of every month, we'll post that month's photos. So here are the March photos! And here's our favorite: