Abby's Cabinet

A few months ago, I read a suggestion to set aside a lower kitchen cabinet full of baby-friendly items. Once Abby started pulling up, I finally took time to rearrange the cabinets to make a small one between the fridge and dishwasher for her. It has to do double duty storing some regular items too, so I thought plastic pitchers and like would be best.

I had envisioned that Abby would try to open my other cabinets first and I would redirect her. In reality, Abby saw me remove a few items from this cabinet and give them to her to play with in the floor while I washed bottles. A few minutes later, she discovered "her" cabinet and went to work removing items. Thanks to the novelty of this activity and her great affection for household objects, I finished what I was doing long before she lost interest. A rare feat, although she had spent quite a long time batting and chasing a cool whip container around the kitchen the day before.

Yes, I will wash this pitcher before I serve you tea from it. I promise!
No, there's no Advil in the bottle. I just saved a few containers of different sizes.
Once Abby gets quick at emptying the cabinet, she will probably try to get inside. She already leans way in for those hard to reach items. Success!

Here's Abby wearing her first pair of two-piece pajamas. There's plenty of room to grow! She has graduated to wearing mostly sleepers with traction on the feet. She still fits into one infant sleeper with slick feet. No playing in the kitchen after breakfast with that one! And the socks in this photo aren't much better.
The oddly placed mirror in the photo above bears explaining. Abby loves to pull up to the oven door and greet her reflection in the window. A bad idea for obvious reasons, this hobby requires her to be banished from the kitchen when the oven is in use and removed from the oven door many times a day when it's not in use. Abby loves to see and talk to her reflection. And her own reflection accessible at her own eye level is absolutely irrestible to her. The mirror that allowed me to see her in her infant car seat isn't usable with the convertible seat. After a stint in the crib, it has been reassigned to this chair in the kitchen in hopes of redirecting Abby's attentions away from the oven. So far, she likes this mirror. But she has learned to start at this chair and cruise down the oven too.

Abby tried her first teething biscuit this week. I only gave her half of one for the first time. She looked it over for while before chomping down. Once she began gnawing on it in earnest, she gave a few little chuckles as if she was delighted with the experience.
As I had been warned, things got pretty messy pretty quickly. But luckily we scheduled this session right before bath time.

Next time, I'll know that half of a teething biscuit is really a bad idea. In short order, Abby was able to reduce it to a wet, slobbery, but apparently tasty morsel that she could fit entirely inside her mouth. I had to remove it quickly, much to her displeasure.


Abby also had a few other firsts this week. She tried her fresh food feeder a couple of times. She enjoyed squeezing the juice out of it, with her mouth and also with her hand. Then she lost interest and pushed it away. She also tried fresh pears, bananas, and the inside of grapes as finger foods cut into tiny pieces. Abby loves to eat "snack" (Gerber graduate type puffs), so I mistakenly assumed she had the hang of finger food. I had not anticipated the slickness factor of fresh fruits. Slickness coupled with the microscopic pieces I'm giving her as a nervous first-time mom makes for a tricky and frustrating experience. But she's getting better every day. Right now, the grape pieces (an astonishing twelve from one average size grape) are her favorite.

Abby has learned to pull up on her bookcase (secured to the wall). She loves to grab or attempt to grab books off the shelf that is just above her head.

During one of her first attempts to get a book off the shelf, I directed her to this Berenstain Bears lift-the-flap book with a purple cover. She remembered the purple cover and retreived it herself the next several times she went to her bookcase. She has done a good job not chewing it although she has detached several flaps. (By the way, this sleeper featuring heart-shaped cherries is just precious.)