Update...

THE BEST GIFT EVER!

I feel like I have neglected to document Annie's life for a few days now. I just finished updating her baby book and thanks to the blog I was able to recall all the "firsts" with ease and great detail. I am thankful that I decided to start this blog as I hope one day Annie will look back and see how much joy she brought to us each day.

The past week has been a whirlwind. It started with the tragic passing of my Step-Sister Marli. We knew Marli was not doing well and had been messed up with the wrong people and made some bad choices that none of us will ever understand. Sadly, Marli succumbed to a liver and heart infection on December 14th and passed away. She will be greatly missed. I am at peace knowing she is no longer suffering and is free from her pain of addiction.

As life has a way of moving on despite tradgedies, my friend Ashley welcomed her baby boy Liam Michael on the very same day. He was 6lbs 14oz and was born at 3:41am. He is a beautiful baby and Annie, Mason and I look forward to several more visits with her "boyfriend". We went to visit them at their beautiful home in Mount Albert and bring every new parents favourite gift--food. Liam slept the whole time and we were able to catch up and hear all about their first few days of parenthood. It was weird to see a newborn as Annie looks like a giant beside Liam. I am sure he'll catch up, but for now my little baby wasn't so little.

This past week Annie has reached a few more milestones. She has learned to stand alone while holding onto the couch. It's scary to realise that soon she will be crawling and walking. She is growing up so fast. We also had a nice visit from Amy, Jonathan and Alex. We love getting together when we can to catch up with each other and let the babies play. This time they really paid attention to each other and played well. Jonathan even slept for 2.5 hours in Annie's crib allowing Amy to tend to Alex with both hands! She's a super Mom.

This past weekend was also Annie's 1st Abbott family xmas party and Chaukkah party at Buby and Zaida's. She was spoiled rotten and loved seeing all of her family. At the Xmas party I was without Mason as he was working so it was a bit hectic, so hectic that I forgot to pack a Playpen for Annie to sleep in. I made a makeshift bed out of a wrapped box that we were using for the family food drive. Oddly enough, Annie curled up and eventually fell asleep in it for a bit. That's my girl!

Last night our friends Caitlin and Tim treated us to a night off. They came over at 4pm and watched Annie and did her nighttime routine for us while Mason and I had a date night. As we had spent the past few days in a row dressing up, we opted for a casual night out together vs. the formal date night. We had dinner, then went to Starbucks and Chapters before driving around and enjoying each others company. On the way home we bought diapers and cereal for Annie. It was so nice to be able to get some time alone, but I'll be the first to admit that I missed her terribly and wondered how she was doing almost ever second we were out. Mason said he missed her, but that he is used to being away from her. I can only imagine what it is going to be like in April when I return to work if I can't even handle a 4 hour date. In the end, we returned home to a quiet house, a sleeping baby and Caitlin and Tim who survied their night of babysitting. We owe you guys! Thanks.