The Stride Rite pre-walker shoes gave Abigail blisters on her ankles. We returned the Stride Rites and visited the Children's Shoebox store at our local mall and asked for other options for baby kick-proof shoes.

My friend Khanequa brought her 4 year old son, Maxwell, to visit this past Saturday. Max was a little nervous about around the cats this time, even though the last time he had seen the cats he had really enjoyed being around them. He had a great time entertaining Abby and Abby definitely seemed to take a liking to K and Max.

Earlier that day, Abby had been struggling to stay awake. She refused to go down for a nap, despite obvious signs of exhaustion. She becomes very clingy to her knit blankie whenever she gets tired and she refused to part with it all morning. Ever since she started daycare, she has become attached to knit blankets, which she uses to cover her face or rub her face against as a sleep aid. We don't know how the habit developed, but so long as she has a pacifier and a knit item (it can be a sweater) against her face, she is generally a piece of cake to put down for a nap.

She was busy harassing Belle that day. Cornering her to get an opportunity to pet her favorite kitty was something Abby spent a good amount of her waking time pursuing. Lucky for Abby, Belle is stubborn to a fault and tries her best to hold her ground against all of Abby's attempts to grab her. We have been working with Abby to understand how to be gentle around the cats and she has actually learned to respond to, "Pet nicely, please."

All three of our cats went to the vet last weekend for regular check-ups. All three of them are doing great. Tigger has a mild heart murmur which the vets are keeping a close watch on, but his condition seems to remain stable. Belle weighed in at 19 lbs, but the vet is not concerned with her weight since she is naturally a big cat. (Actually, all of our cats appear to be above average in natural size!) Tigger weighs 15 lbs and Gizmo - our tallest and fluffiest - is just under 13 lbs.

Last Sunday, we were trying to get a photo of Abby doing her sign for "All Done!" Just as she started eating, with camera ready, we asked her, "Abby, all done?!"

Our good friends Matt, Staci, and Sydney moved to Idaho 2 years ago when Matt took a billet at a field office. We're ecstatic that they will be moving back to the area next year.

Earlier this week, Matt was in town for a few days for some NR meetings and to scope out Sections he may be interested in returning to. He had a free evening, so he came home with Paul after work. We got a chance to show him around the new house and introduce him to Abby. Abby absolutely LOVED Matt. Right off the bat, she made a beeline for him when he sat down with her in the living room. The picture below is a favorite!


Matt's visit was short, but really sweet and we got to catch up a little on how the rest of the family was doing. We took Matt to Mama Wok's - one of our favorite Chinese restaurants which Matt and Staci had introduced us to.


When we dropped Matt off at the Shady Grove metro station, Abby was done for the night and was rubbing her face, trying to fall asleep, yet when Matt said "bye-bye" to her, she mustered up all her energy to smile and wave "bye-bye" to Matt.

It blows my mind that our friends left as a family of 3 (not counting the pets!) and will be returning as a family of 5! We will have to reintroduce ourselves to Sydney since she moved away when she was so little and I doubt she can remember us. Finally, we can't WAIT to meet Luke and the yet-to-be named bun in the oven. :)

Paul, Abigail, and I stumbled upon the Tulip Library this weekend when we were on our way to see the Cherry Blossoms. The colorful flowers had caught our attention as we were driving around, looking for parking around the Tidal Basin. Six years in D.C. and we had never heard of this garden. It was quite an enchanting sight!


Extracted from the National Mall and Memorial Parks Brochure:

The Tulip Library is a display garden showcasing nearly 100 varieties of tulips. A popular site for photographers and picnickers, the Library offers a splash of vibrant color amidst the hustle and bustle of downtown Washington, DC.

The Tulip Library, created in 1969, is located near the Tidal Basin at Independence Avenue and Maine Avenue. Each fall gardeners from the National Park Service prepare the floral beds for hand-plantiover 10,000 tulip bulbs flown in from Holland.

Since Abigail has been starting to cruise and daycare has been letting her practice walking, we have decided that she needed some pre-walker infant shoes. Ideally, we would like her to go barefoot. That is the recommended and most natural way for her to learn to walk, however, with her eczema so bad around her ankles, we need to try to keep socks on her to prevent her from scratching them until they're bloody.

I started looking into flexible-sole shoes and - more importantly - shoes that will stay on her active feet. I observed the walking babies at daycare to see which shoes seem to work the best. Talking to the teachers, we concluded that the Pedipeds were extremely soft, durable, impossibly cute, and stayed on the feet fairly well. The Robeez were great for staying on feet and were softer than even the Pedipeds, but were not nearly as durable.

After a few days of internet research, I decided that Abby should try on the Robeez, Pedipeds, and Stride Rite Pre-walkers. To my disappointment, the Pedipeds just didn't fit her well. It turns out that she has very narrow feet and the Pedipeds just fell right off when she dangled her feet - even with the 0-6 months size! They were definitely the cutest of them all. :(

None of the Robeez shoes appealed to me. They looked just like the Carter's baby shoes that Abby already has and which she kicks off almost quicker than we can put them on. Yet, people SWEAR they stay put.

Finally, at the Stride Rite store at the Lakeforest Mall, we looked at Stage 1 and Stage 2 pre-walkers. The Stage 2 shoes were for cruisers/walkers, which seemed appropriate for Abby, but I was not impressed by how hard the rubber soles were. The idea is that they protect the toes of little walkers, but to me the soles felt way too hard for a kid learning to walk, so I looked at the Stage 1 shoes. They are marketed for crawlers, but they felt right to me. They offered flexibility, plus rubber "pods" for traction. With their "Buy one pair, get the second pair half off sale," I ended up picking up two pairs of Stride Rites - size 3 Safari Oatmeal (left) and Pandora Pink/Gold (right).



The Robeez shoes that Stride Rite sold were REALLY ugly, but I still wanted to buy a pair for Abby to try, so we marched across the mall to the Children's Shoebox. There, we tried on 6-12 month shoes, but found them to be too large. The 0-6 month shoes fit very well and gave her about a centimeter of room to grow. Apparently, Abby has TINY feet for 9 months!! Hard to imagine considering how large they were compared to her newborn body. All the Robeez at the store for girls were blaring pink, except for a pair of purple ones, but the "fairy" design was kind of kooky. We ended up walking away with a pair of gender neutral "squirrel" slippers.

One of my mom's recipes. Absolutely delicious!!! However, as with all of my mom's recipes, there are almost no exact measurements for the ingredients. So, my advice is to experiment. This recipe is almost impossible to mess up. It will taste great no matter what you do with the ingredients.

Hot Water Dough:
3 C flour
1 C hot water
1/2 C cold water

Mix flour with hot water, then slowly add cold water until a soft dough forms. If too sticky, add more flour and gently mix it in. Place dough in lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.

Scallion Pancakes:
Hot Water Dough
Chopped Scallions, the more the tastier
Salt
Vegetable Oil

Roll a palm size piece of dough into a flat circle. In listed order, evenly spread approx. 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, then sprinkle approx. 1/4 teaspoon of salt, finally a palmful of chopped scallions on dough. Roll tightly into a long tube then create a spiral (like a cinnamon roll) with the tube; this creates the layers in the pancake. Roll spiral into a flat, 1/2-inch pancake.

Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a flat pan. Fry pancake on each side until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes per side on medium-high heat.

Serve immediately.

1/2 pound egg noodles
3/4 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 sour cream
1/2 cup raisin
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook noodles according to package directions; drain. Combine noodles with cottage cheese. Beat egg yolks with 1/2 cup melted butter, salt and sugar. Combine egg yolk mixture, sour cream and raisins with noodle mixture. Turn into a greased 2-quart casserole. Pour 1/4 cup melted butter over surface. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve as a meat accompaniment or as a meatless main dish.

Yields 4 to 6 servings.

It's really fascinating to me how babies learn about this great, big world. For all tangible objects: first, they see it, then they feel it, then they MUST taste it!