For the Record.

After losing countless post-it notes with highly valuable information (Abby rolls over--June 15, 2007, Jacob goes to his first movie--January 2008, etc., etc.) I've decided to start recording some of these milestones here on our blog. My hope is that someday they'll make the transfer from the world wide web to their baby books.

So here are the past weeks events:

July 25, 2008: Jacob catches his first fish on our vacation in Bodega Bay! Brad took the kids to a little trout farm while I got to shop with my mom and my sister for my birthday. He was so excited and showed me the two little fish that he caught as soon as I walked in the door. Uncle Will even fried them up for dinner and as we were eating Jacob leaned over to Nonna and said, "I'm so proud." What a great memory for all of us! (Check back soon for pictures of our vacation and this highlight.)

July 30, 2008: Abby, our little girl of few words, says "I love you." Well, it doesn't quite sound like "I love you", but it's always in response to our declarations of love, so I'm certain that's what she's trying to say. Nevertheless, it is so adorable to hear from her and I can't get enough of it.

August 1, 2008: Abby says "Papa." This was actually very heartbreaking for me. For those at Dad's memorial you've seen our huge family portrait. This now hangs in our stairway and Abby always points at it and says, "Nonna" and I continue by naming all of the other relatives in the picture. Today she repeated, "Papa" after me. Obviously I knew there would come a day when she would be able to say the word, "Papa." But I wasn't prepared for it to come now, and I wasn't prepared to see her little fingers pointing at him in the picture. Part of me is glad that she now has a name for the face that I so often show her, but my heart breaks that she will never remember this amazing man. Though it's a difficult milestone to record, it's something that I always want to remember.