365 days.

What a difference a year makes!

Halloween 2009 (Notice the boxes... just unpacked from Germany.)

Halloween 2010 (No visible boxes, but just unpacked in Korea. Some things never change, I suppose.)

Cutest duck. Ever.

Obviously I haven't been doing so well at updating the blog. I check other people's blogs regularly (I miss you, fellow Auerbachians, thank you for being better updaters!), but I'm hoping that checking them via the Blogger Dashboard instead of checking them regularly will help remind me to update.

We've been in Korea now for about a month and a half now, and in our house for a little over a month. Seems like so long considering it feels like we just got here! We really enjoy it so far and are happy to call Korea home for the next few years. Abby's been a huge hit with all of the locals. Something about an adorable, smiling, blond haired, blue eyed baby girl who loves new people seems to have an effect on them. Who knew!? She loves to smile and wave at everyone she sees and all of the Koreans love to talk to her and play with her. Everyone wins!

On the subject of Abby... we're dangerously close to walking. Scary close. Like, have the video camera ready close. And now that I've said that, she won't start walking for another 6 months out of spite. She's her father's daughter, after all. She crawls lightning fast and can talk now. She says Mama (when she's hungry), Dada (when she wants to play), and bye-bye (with an accompanying wave most times). And she knows her name. My graduate level psychology education tells me that these are all clearly signs of early brilliance. Her grandfather agrees and he's a psychologist, so it must be true. Two people can't both be biased in this situation, right?

Just eat your kimchi.

As the upcoming Korea move vapidly approaches, things to have gotten more and more hectic. I'd love to blame the third (3!) international move in four (4!) years for my lack of blog posting, but we all know that just isn't the case. In reality, I have a very active 7 month old and a poor sense of blog follow-through.

As for the latest and greatest in the Nystrom household, Abby is keeping us on our toes these days. After about four months of cranky, drooling, any minute now, pissed off baby teething behavior it appeared. The first tooth! She was chewing on a rubber duck pirate bath toy in her highchair when her gums started bleeding and we knew for sure the end was nigh. Sure enough, it came to the surface the next day and we had a much happier baby a few days later. Then she surprised us with an out of nowhere second tooth on her 7 month birthday. Which, I would like to point out means she's SEVEN MONTHS OLD! More than half a year! We've managed to keep her alive, in relatively good condition, and away from the various sharp implements and hatchets strewn throughout the house. Thank goodness everything gets packed up in a few weeks and we can pretend that we don't need to childproof for a little while longer. As it stands now, our house is a small child death trap/dangerous wonderland and frankly we're just too lazy to child proof.

Ironically, one of the things I registered for before Abby was born and before we had left Germany were some of the childproof electrical outlet covers. Not knowing what kind of house we'd be living in soon, I didn't worry about any of the cabinet locks or toilet lid things. But electrical outlets? Every house has those! How can I go wrong?! I did not account for a move to Korea, where they most definitely are not going to fit the outlets there. Oh well, we'll use them eventually...

Speaking of the move to Korea, we actually have plane tickets so I think the Army might be serious about us leaving this time. We even have dates for movers to come, which I might add are rapidly upon us. Army regulations state that we can only move half of our normal weight allowance to Korea, and the rest will be staying stateside in government storage. This really isn't that big of a deal, but now we face the task of deciding what stuff is important enough to take with us , what stuff can we live without, and what stuff is stupid to even consider taking (i.e. most of our 110 volt kitchen appliances). We'll be able to get loaner furniture from the Army and a lot of the apartments there actually come semi or fully furnished. After some typical chaos, we have it settled to where the dog and the cat will be able to fly to Korea with us. Our original airline was unwilling to fly any pets over 70 lbs, dog and crate included, which promptly knocked out flying Cody with us and shipping him cargo was just not an option. But that's squared away, so I can breathe a little easier.

And because you, dear reader, have been a trooper and read all my ramblings, I leave you with a picture of an adorable baby with super squishy cheeks!

What a difference a year makes.

Dear Abigail,
One year ago today, our world began to change in ways we never could have imagined. One year ago today, I naively took a pregnancy test figuring it would be yet another month of heartbreaking negatives. I had more or less given up hope that you would find your way to us. So much so, in fact, that I went on a nice long bike ride with your daddy that day and drank FAR too much delicious iced coffee. But then... when I expected it the least... the screen on the digital test flashed "pregnant." At this point, most people would have found something poignant and emotional to say. Your momma, however, was so shocked that she yelled out "holy crap (but in different words)!" and looked at your daddy with wild-eyed surprise. Apparently I'd forgotten to tell your daddy that I had taken a test, because he looked at me like I was insane. Two minutes, an entire bottle of water, and another test later we had the same answer and sense of complete bewilderment.

One year later and you are a beautiful, active, intelligent and amazing four month old. You are a real person, complete with likes (i.e. your pink stuffed elephant and daddy ) and dislikes (i.e. being hungry and tummy time). I could never really comprehend that I was actually pregnant with you, even as my belly got giant and I got more miserable. But now that you're here, I can't even begin to wrap my brain around this situation. We're parents... and you are a product of us. You look strikingly similar to your daddy, but you have your momma's tongue, feet, and temper. By and large, you are a very easy going baby who takes so well to change and chaos. (Stick with that, by the way, because we're a military family!)

Who knows what the next year will hold, Abigail, but I look forward to seeing you grow and change throughout it. I anticipate you becoming your own person, learning new things, and continuing to charm room fulls of people on a regular basis.

Momma loves you, Abby. I am so blessed to be your mother and so grateful to have you in my life.

Love,
Momma

Better Late Than Never (or Why We Don't Shoot Video)

We've clearly been negligent in our blog postings lately... As it turns out, having a nearly four month old (!!!) baby keeps you pretty busy. Abby is learning all sorts of new things lately that most babies don't get to see. She comes to work with me everyday and has adopted the staff as her surrogate family! For those who don't know, I'm the lead case manager/site manager for the local domestic violence shelter. I've been really lucky to have a job where I can also still be a full-time mom, but that will unfortunately be coming to an end this week. Why, you ask? Well that brings us to chaotic point #2 in the Nystrom household! We're currently gearing up for the next great Nystrom Family adventure, two years in South Korea! We're not entirely sure when, but sometime in the next few months we'll be heading out. Stay tuned for more information and travel adventures!

In Abby news, she's... getting... HUGE! It's astonishing that we're quickly approaching the four month mark. She giggles with reckless abandon, has a new found love of bathtime, has made a pink elephant her best friend, and can charm a room like nobody's business. We're having some issues with reflux and digestion, so evenings are a big touchy but she makes up for it by being the happiest baby you ever saw during the day.

While I work on getting some pictures uploaded, check out the (hopefully working) video below! It's a very good example of why we don't often end up with good video footage. But we're working on it and Abby's only getting more adorable, so expect more now that I (think I) know how to work it!

-Pam

Big smiles in her Star Wars onesie!



Just looking adorable


Relaxing and watching the Olympics


Aunt Anne and Abby (lots of A's!) sleeping after a long day of traveling

Late notice

Surprisingly enough, I'm running a little behind on posting the latest and greatest of Abby's Big 0-1 Month Birthday. Who knew a tiny helpless life on your hands would be so involved? Abby's been doing wonderfully and it's insane to think that she's been here an entire month. It really feels like just yesterday that she was born. She had a huge growth spurt sometime in the last few weeks and she doesn't even look like the same tiny underweight little girl that we brought home. For comparison's sake...

From this at about 3 days old...


To THIS!

Where did my tiny little girl go? She went from 19th percentile in weight and 47th in height to 83RD (!) in weight and 81ST in height! She's HUUUGE compared to just a month ago! (And apparently huge compared to other babies too. She's just sturdy.) Of course, she's still got a giant noggin (86th in head size). I have a feeling that's going to stick around for good.

And she's not just getting bigger, she's getting a lot more active. She's learned how to coo enough to make her parents' hearts melt and she's a champion smiler. She loves the bird on her tummy time mat (I think her Aunt had a little talk with her about it). She still hates baths and tummy time with the fury of a thousand suns.

The baby wash says it's supposed to be calming. Abby disagrees.


Finally, I'm pretty sure that Abby had a strong part of the Saints winning the Superbowl because of her very adorable pro-Saints outfit made by her Mommy.

Geaux Saints! (Unless they're ever playing the Seahawks, then it's all blue for her!)

Just pictures....