Abigail is 7 Months

Abigail is now 7 months old.



























This is just such a fun age.




She so sweet and squeezy and squishy...and isn't crawling or running all over the place yet.

Jas and I each weighed her on our home scale (using the oh-so-technical method:  weighed ourselves holding her, and then NOT holding her, and calculate the difference)...and we each think she now weighs 23 pounds.


She still has only her two bottom teeth, and no more seem ready to join them yet.


Abigail is sitting up by herself even better now...

...but we still don't leave her alone yet...for fear she'll topple over.


Sissy has become even more mobile with the rolling and inching methods.  When we put her in one spot in the family room floor to play with some of her toys, before very long she can be all the way over in another part of the family room (10 feet away, I mean).

One of Abigail's new favorite tricks is displayed here:

Scrunching up her face and nose and making a weird snorty noise. It is so funny!


I recently purchased three new books to help me learn about A's hair.  I've finished two of them, and I'm (slowly) working my way through The Science of Black Hair.  It is more dry reading, as it is really a textbook.  For instance, I'm learning the names of the parts of the hair shaft and such, and looking at scanning electron microscope pictures of hair shafts.

I mentioned in A's 6-mo post that we were trying to figure out a way for her to sleep on satin, since the hair bonnet and scarf didn't work so well.  What we ended up doing was buying a pillowcase and using it as a cover for her bassinet mattress.  That is working really good.

Abigail has now started taking some of her daytime naps in the pack-n-play in the girls' room.  But we didn't let her start doing that until we got her a satin sheet for the pack-n-play.  I ordered two pink ones from a shop on Etsy, that came recommended in my FB Adoption Hair and Skin Care group.


What I've learned is that the big thing for AA hair is MOISTURE.

AA hair - by definition - is dry.  The sebum that all our scalps naturally produce can't work it's way down the curly hair shafts as well...so the hair is more dry.  Dry hair is brittle and can break easily.

I've begun to "deep condition" Abigail's hair.  But - of course - my preference is to use homemade concoctions, for safety and wallet concerns.  (Until it becomes clear that homemade won't cut it with her hair, homemade will be my go-to.)  I got my ideas from Kesha at We Got Kidz Curlz (she has the cutest twins ever!).


My first try was a mixture of one banana, 1/4 c. olive oil and 1/4 c. honey.

After you apply the deep conditioning treatment you need to put a cap on and let the mixture sit for at least 15 or 20 minutes.  You can tell she hated every minute of it:

It would be good to use a hooded dryer at this point (I wish!), but this cap is supposed to capture body heat to warm up the mixture on the head.  I don't know...

Her hair did feel more moisturized in the days after this treatment.  BUT....banana seeds.  Never really noticed or thought much about banana seeds before this...but there are A LOT of them in a banana...and they are pesky little things to try to pick out of hair!  ACH!  Learned that one the hard way.  Note to self:  IF we ever use that particular treatment again, STRAIN it first.


We've also tried a mixture of one avocado, 1/4 c. olive oil and 1/4 c. honey.

She is just such a difficult baby.

Just never happy.

Tried this plastic wrap deep conditioning trick I learned on a youtube video

Can't ever please her.

The avocado mix seemed good also...and had the bonus of no seeds!


And - of course - we had to taste test all of the deep conditioning treatments of A's.  Not bad at all!



Our routine the past few weeks is to wash and deep condition Abigail's hair on Friday night.  And a few times I've "banded" it, which is a heat-less way of stretching out the curl pattern, in order to make the hair easier to work with when installing a style the next day.

The banding itself is a very, ummm....interesting look:

It is just terry cloth pony o's used to stretch the hair out.

And if this look is interesting, the first (and only) time I finger-coiled A's hair....Gabriel threw in his two cents with this observation:  "Abigail's hair is SCARY!"  

Who asked him anyway.

I'm not the only one who likes to get my hands in Abigail's hair.  When Vicki and her four kiddos come over to do speech with three (now two!) of my kiddos...Ava Laurence is fascinated with A's hair:

She recently gave Abigail the spa treatment, which Abigail seemed to love.

Gabriel, on the other hand, wasn't so sure about his hair-do:

But they had a fun time comparing notes after they were both done:

I wanted to get a picture of A and G laying next to one another, to compare to a picture we took of them when A was 2 months old that was similar.  But - surprise - they were not especially cooperative.

But what they lacked in cooperation...

....they made up for in fun.

They have a grand time together:

But then, Missy is an active little party-waiting-to-happen.

And she is so proud of another new accomplishment: she has learned how to clap!

Elisabeth totally gets the credit for teaching her this.

She is still pretty slow and deliberate about it right now...and it is so cute!

The children are always wanting to get in on the Abigail-fun...and I often hear, "Take my picture with her!"

OR....I find random pics on my phone...

 But I understand their adoration of Abigail....

...I'm pretty crazy about this cool chick too!