15 Weeks

A few new milestones met:

- Even when I was pregnant, I knew that our girl had very strong legs, made evident by the way my whole stomach would move whenever she kicked.  But lately, Abigail has been showing her very strong desire to "stand up"!  She loves trying to bear weight on her legs when we're holding her up.  Also, when we have her laying down on her back, she has learned that she can kick her legs against the bed and she'll be able to scoot away.  Unfortunately, she hasn't yet learned how to control which direction she is scooting towards, which gets her a little frustrated.

- She's so much more comfortable sitting up now!  Of course, she can't sit up by herself yet, but when we put her in her Bumbo seat, she can sit up so well with very little head bobbing.  She has great control of her neck and head!  When she's sitting independently, she loves looking around and checking out the toys nearest to her, while still turning to look at us to make sure we haven't gone too far away.

Sitting up and having a nice chat with her Papa (Michael's dad)

- Abigail's back has really gotten a lot stronger too!  She's doing fabulous at tummy time!  Before, she would tired out after a minute on her stomach, and she'd end out with her head down on her blanket with her whimpering for someone to pick her up.  But just this morning, she was on her tummy for almost 15 minutes, and still she was just looking at her toys and smiling at her reflection on her tiny mirror.  She's getting better control and more strength in her forearms.  Sometimes it looks like she's doing little baby push ups.

(pardon the bed head)  :)

- She targets specific items and then reaches for them and grabs them.   When she's sitting in her car seat, she loves batting at her toys because she has learned that they make noise if she moves them.  She seems to find great satisfaction in seeing that she can make the toys move and make noise with them.  She's got a pretty tight grip too!  I've learned very quickly not to wear my hair down, or wear any jewelry right now.  I need to teach her to be gentle.

-  She clutches her hands as if she is praying.  She's amazed at her fingers.  She loves watching them wiggle.  It's cute just watching her as she discovers that each finger can move independently from one another.

- Abigail loves making all sorts of sounds now.  She shrieks, giggles, coos, gurgles and chuckles.  I love it!!  Also, she "talks" back when she is spoken to.  When someone talk to her, she sits and listens and when they have finished talking, she seems to "respond" with her little babbles.  SOOO cute especially because often times she shows emotion, for instance, her eye brows furrow, or she smiles while she's "talking" which totally looks like she's got something important to say.

- She recognizes familiar places, toys, people and routines.  She can tell the difference between familiar voices and faces.  She definitely lets us know who she wants because she'll scream until the correct parent is holding her.  Also, she knows when we are getting her ready to go somewhere because she's usually very excited to get into her car seat now.  She loves car rides!   And at bed time, she knows when we're about to swaddle her.  She could be really fussy, but as soon as we lay her down to swaddle her, she seems to know already and instantly calms down.  It's the weirdest thing.

- Before, while I'm feeding her, her hands would stay balled up into tight fists and would stay close to her sides or up against her chest.  Recently, she started taking her hand and gently touching my face with it and stroking my cheek.  Sometimes she'll stop eating for just a second just to smile.  AHH! This girl totally just melts my heart!

- Lastly, she LOVES playing soooooo much more now!  She loves when her daddy makes her "fly."  She loves putting rattles and teethers into her mouth.  She loves toys with lights and music.  She smiles so much more and laughs when we're teasing her with the toys.



She's getting SO much more fun.  I keep thinking at every stage that "it can't possibly get any better than this".... but somehow, she just keeps getting more and more fun!  She's such a strong and smart girl!  It's the neatest thing to see her do something by accident one day...and then all of a sudden, she's doing it on purpose and smiling because she's learned how to do something new.  With each day, she's showing us more and more of her personality.  My pride and joy to the millionth degree! :)