3 Weeks to Wean and Birthday Tales

David and I are going to an Encounter weekend that our church does every year. This means that Abigail is going to have her first stay away from Mama and Papa and for a whole weekend. This is why I have 3 weeks to wean. Well actually, it's 2 now, but I've formulating this post most of the week already. This week's goal is to eliminate the middle of the day nursing sessions (ie after her naps). Abigail is doing quite well, though I am more emotional than I expected. Who knew that I'd have issues with this? Probably everyone else who's had to wean their babies. We are surviving! Oh and teething... check out all of my baby's pearly whites!

Abigail's birthday was great. It started out with Mama and Papa singing her awake with a soft "Happy Birthday" song. We don't often go get her together and don't wake her with singing, so she liked that alot. David had to work so off he went and Abigail and I were picked up (a sacrifice of high proportion from my dear friend) to go to Abby's little friend, Aisha's birthday party. Aisha turned 1 exactly a week before Abigail and I'm sure they're going to be great friends! The party was great fun and Abigail even got a mini cupcake with a candle and was honored to be included in the birthday wishes. There are some great pictures of all the children - of which I have none because I forgot my camera. As we left the party, Abigail was given a lovely little present and loot bag with a balloon flower. Such a delight for her! After her nap we had some playtime which included funny hand to mouth songs:

Abigail was given some birthday money and had a gift certificate left over from Christmas and so we picked up a cabinet for all her toys and books. David assembled it on Tuesday evening. When Abigail woke up the next morning and I showed her the cabinet and that she was allowed to open it herself she said over and over "oh wow! oh wow! oh wow!" It's a hit! The cabinet is actually designed for linens, but it works well for this purpose.

The top section is full of older children's books for when Abigail is older. Under that is a drawer for her coloring books/crayons etc and below is her cupboard with board books and a few toys (we switch out her toys frequently - less toys to play with at one time means less to pick up and she gets different toys often to play with so it keeps them interesting).

We have lots of my books from when I was younger, including classics like the Little House on the Prairie series, Anne of Green Gables series, the Mandie series plus we added books like Peter Pan, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson and more. I hope to add The Wedding Planner's Daughter  books by the time she's ready for them.

In the evening we had our housegroup to attend and Abigail was given another lovely little present and lit up the room with this smile:

Thank you for all the birthday phone calls and felicities through facebook etc. I treasure them all in my heart and will tell her all about it someday!