Thursday, June 21, 2012

Since Abby is starting Kindergarten in the Fall I thought it might be important to record some vitals.  We just got home from her 5 year old check up (42 lbs., 43.5 inches, 4 shots).  Maybe I'll write more and post pictures as she does fun stuff in school!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Halfway There

**Okay, I've realized that I am neglecting the "Abby Blog" of our set.  It's not on purpose.  Right now, Abby is much more a part of MY life than some other being that I am studying.  Please check out my blog at rob.mdmonroes.com for more regular updates - they're often just part of other stories.  I'm contemplating the future of the "Abby" blog.  Will be in touch about that.**

Posted from my other blog:
Okay, after seven months of pushing, prodding and little success, Abby Roe has begun to use the potty!  She's still stuck on the #2 side of things, but the progress that has been made is being considered a win in our happy little home.

Because our journey was long - and hard sometimes - I wanted to share with you some of the lighter side stuff.  Now realize that this is only funny in retrospect and each ranked on a scale of beyond-annoying to this-side-of-angry, but perspective changes when you child goes from diapers to "No, I will do it by myself Dally" in the span of ten days.

As an important piece of info - we decided to just go the diaper-less route for a day or two to facilitate her training.  We tried this in June. And July. And August. And so on...  So, enjoy some of our frustration:

I'll Be Right Back
One morning Anny told Abby "I'm going to put the laundry away and when I come back we'll sit on the potty for a minute, okay?"  Abby gleefully exclaimed "OKAY!"  Once Anny turned the corner you can guess what Abby did.

Yes, she is so stubborn that she needed to go but refused to participate so much that she let loose on the floor in a 30 second span.

Not That Kind of Wii, Sweetie
While Anny was out I had Abby diaper-free.  We did the normal "talk" about when you need to potty, let me know and I'll get you there, but we're going to sit on the potty in fifteen minutes.  Wow did that story become routine.  When I took a minute to myself to go to the potty I came out to an agitated Abby - doing the "I have pee on my socks" dance.  As it would turn out, Abby was looking out of one of our big windows while standing on my WiiFit Board when she unleashed her whiz. 

She Wee-Wee's on my Wii.  It was immediately bleach cleaned and I haven't been on it since.  Just weirds me out a little bit.

No Laughing Matter (i.e. the TMI part for non-parent-types)
We're still a bit stumped on the poop front.  She refused for the whole weekend - which is a huge concern in my book.  Looks like we may change up what we give her for dinner and snack when she's home.  More fruits, less fruit snacks.  I would say "I'll keep you updated" but I hope that it's a matter that goes away quietly and you never hear about again, unless it's of particular humor.  Or grossness. 

So please, take a moment to laugh at us.  Now we can really say that we are laughing with you, because NOW it is funny.

Friday, January 08, 2010

The Christmas Picture

So, because Anny has been under the weather on and off since Thanksgiving, and I'm not a proponent of the Christmas Letter thing right now, we have put ours off until Valentine's Day. 

That being said, in my last post I wrote about a last-minute idea for gift giving, a home-made (by Abby, mostly) frame for a picture.  I could not post the picture, though, as gift-getters had not gotten gifts.  That has changed as of today, so here is the picture, for your ooh's and aah's! 


Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas Gifts - Can be Last Minute!

We have both had the same idea in regards to Christmas gifts for our families.  By "both" I mean that I had an idea in September, and began to put that plan into motion.  Last week Anny "had an idea" that sounded pretty much word-for-word what was described to her in September...  Yes, we "both" had an idea - and I'm sharing that idea with you!

When my office moved over the summer we found lots of supplies that were untouched from the move 5.5 years prior.  We redistributed some of those items to organizations that could use them - and in the case of legal sized manila file folders, I am such an organization!  We got them for the sole purpose of letting Abby pain them until her heart is content.  Some days that is three brush strokes and the fun game "clean the brushes and make the water splash" and other days it's quite a long ordeal.  I hate to throw things away, and hate even more to spend money on paper for her to paint.  Win/Win!

Enter - the plain manila file folders:



With a bit of planning, we had about two dozen of these folders with some sort of paint on them - some were heavily painted and some were not so plentiful:



We cut them into pieces that accommodated the cut-out that we wanted - a Christmas Ornament to show through our perfect Abby picture! (I will not show you the picture yet - you have to wait until everyone getting their picture opens it!) After finding just the right pieces to make our list complete, I drew on the ornament shape (which is the size of our drinking glass, plus a small square on top) and Anny cut them out. We are all about shared labor in our house!


(This was the template one, thus no paint)

The final product looks a lot like this, but with the real picture in it!



With every Ornament-Shaped-Picture-Frame, we are giving each recipient a regular picture frame to put it in.

Total time invested:
Abby - a few minutes about once a week painting whatever she wanted!
Anny - Three months to "come up" with the idea - 20 minutes of cutting and ten of putting pics in and taping it to the back.
Rob - About an hour of picture taking, but it was an outing unto itself, and a negligible amount of time drawing the template on the backs of the painted folders!

Thursday, November 05, 2009

2009 Halloween!

We did something strange last year - we grabbed two costumes from another teacher at Anny's school at a very good price.  I think we paid $10 for both, but their children had outgrown them and we were a year (and a hope) away from Abby being able to fit into them.  $10 is low risk, so we didn't really hesitate.  I did an even stranger thing this summer and bought another one on Ebay when I found out that Anny's schools Homecoming would fall on Halloween.  With that in mind, here are three stories from our Halloween...

Friday at School:


















For those that do not know, Abby's daycare is contained within a school for children with special needs.  The daycare is in the last two classrooms on the back side of the building, but the two programs work together for special events, like Halloween!  All of Abby's classmates dressed up in their Halloween finery and went Trick-or-Treating to all of the classrooms in the school.  Even better than that was that they invited us parents!  I had a blast and it was quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

At Homecoming:

From 10 2009
The high school football game was scheduled for Saturday, and I had a plan.  We grabbed lunch at the grocery store and ate it in our seats, then we got Abby dressed up as the school mascot: A Gator!  She hopped on my legs for a while, then ran around a bit.  Once the Pom Squad sat down, Abby really got attention!  (This photo was taken by their coach.)  Abby was excited and happy, and most of all we tricked her into being warm on a chilly day!  (Okay, so it was about being adorable, but two birds/one stone!)

Saturday Night:














Saturday evening we had some rain, so we started by playing in the yard under (and around) the umbrella.  Once dinner was done, Abby knew that something great was supposed to be happening, so we could no longer keep her pent up in the house.  We only T-o-T'ed on our street, but Abby's bag was plenty full.  We started walking with a friend down the street, and the power of two-cute-toddlers can not be matched!  Abby even got candy twice at one house because we brought a friend!

We had a great Halloween, and hope that you did too!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Abby's Newest Mark of Achievement

Okay, please don't criticize our parenting because of this blog post.  Things happen to toddlers are part of growing up. That being said, I introduce you to Abby's newest "mark" of achievement: The Black Eye:


On Wednesday evening the three of us were playing a fun game of Hide-and-Seek between getting home and dinner time, and in typical fashion, it was an accidental game of H&S.  I came into the kitchen to stop some whining by Abby, then ran up the hall to get away from the situation.  You know, fix things, make people laugh, run away.

Abby and Anny, though, took that to mean that it was time to chase Daddy, who was really just trying to find a little moment to use the potty.  I did the hallway loop, then through the dining room into the bathroom.  Anny and Abby followed, but stopped at the crossroads of our house - the top of the stairs.  Anny went up the hall, I didn't move.  Abby must have spun in place, because the next thing I hear is Anny gasping at the idea that our Abby was falling down the stairs!!

Here cheek got black immediately, so we tried to put ice on it, and forced it on for a couple of minutes.  Then we resorted to our normal calm-down activity - Sesame Street.  She sat quietly and would let us look at it, but not touch it.  Not surprising.  We were concerned about two things - that she damaged her eye or that she broke her orbital bone.  Anny felt around the bone and could not find any concern, but the eye seemed harder.  She was answering the "how many fingers" and "what is this sign" but we could not be sure if she was using her hurt side or the other one.  Finally I just asked "hey Abby, does your eye hurt?"  She's smart enough that she looked at me and said "no, Daddy.  My cheek hurts."  There, our concern was lessened - she could identify it for us.  Phew.

On Thursday morning when getting her dressed, Abby looked at me very seriously and said "Daddy, next time I go down the stairs, I want to go on my feet!"  I looked at Anny and whispered "I guess she is implying 'and not on my face!' when she says that!"

On Friday Abby had a previously scheduled pediatrician appointment and he gladly looked around both the outside and inside of her eye.  He assured us that she is fine, but reminded us that we are very lucky that no more damage was done.  Lucky indeed.

We got lots of questions, and honestly I fear Child Protective Services.  Our kid has a black eye and our excuse is she fell down the stairs?  That's likely, right?  Lucky for us, she's very vocal and can tell everyone herself if they ask!

*You can find the concept for the photo HERE.  Abby would not look sad for me, but instead looked like she would mock someone into actually fighting her!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Daddy Daughter Day

Abby has been to my office - heck she has been to my office more times than most people who don't work here have since she visited once a week in July and August.  She saw my office when I could not get to files from our recent move, and she came back and "helped" me with files when I could.  Abby knows where I work, though she is only two and can have no concept of what I do.

A few weeks back we think that Abby might have gotten the wrong idea about where I go when I leave the house every day.  You see, the three of us typically go fun places on weekends, but we also go to a lot of places over and over again.  We find a place we like and it becomes habit.  We did our best to get every dollar out of our pool membership, so Abby expected swimming a couple of times each week.

One Saturday Anny was not feeling very well and so I decided to grab Abby and get out of the house because it was an incredible afternoon, and the College Park AirFair 100 was going on - celebrating 100 years of aviation in College Park at the airport right around the corner!  Anny dropped us off so that I didn't have to deal with parking.  I took Abby, some cash, a bottle of water and a diaper in my pocket, and off we went!

There were all sorts of things to see - old planes and new ones, gilders and helicopters, an old car and lots and lots of people.  We walked around and saw some of the planes first, but it was blazing hot and there was no shade, so we made a dash for a covered tent.  They have just reconstructed a new Wright Flyer that will travel from city to city, so it was kind of neat to see that.

Because we got there after Abby's nap, we missed all of the really fancy stuff - the sky walkers and the maneuver displays and such.  I was a little bummed about missing the parachute jumpers, but I am not sure that Abby would have really understood how cool it was anyway, so I got over it.  I knew that Abby would get excited to see helicopters up close, and boy was I right!  We even got to go inside a Chinook that was parked for the day, which she then tried to imitate!

ON A Helicopter!

Flying High

We also got to see a few of the choppers take off, which was jaw dropping for her - we stood right under the Montgomery County Police helicopter as it flew away. 

We also got to listen to live music and I introduced Abby to her very first ice cream cone!
First Cone!

The bottom line is that I took Abby somewhere by myself (and have done that a lot since then) and we had an incredible time - but Anny and I agree that we believe it has changed Abby's concept of what Daddy does every day.  It seems that she genuinely believes that I got to the airfield every day and watch helicopters and eat ice cream!

Monday, July 13, 2009

She's a Graduate!

First Swim Lesson!

Abby has successfully completed the "Bubblers 1" swimming class at the same swimming pool that I took all of my swimming classes many years ago!  She was more comfortable on the first night than on the last, but all of the children were breaking down at that point!

She got check marks on all of the boxes, meaning that they think she can do all of the required things to... well to continue to cling on to mom, dad or any human available.  She is much better at being dunked and holding her breath, as well as kicking and moving her arms in a manner that could be considered swimming.  Getting all three of those things to happen at the same time will be coming in the future, but probably not this summer!

New Words Learned from the experience: Lessons, Suit Bathing (bathing suit) and Swimsuit

Friday, June 12, 2009

Dear Abby...

(Idea stolen from dozens of people, sorry.)

Dear Abby,

Today you turn two years old!  You've grown so much since we first brought you home on June 12, 2007.  Your mom and I wanted for a long, long time to have you in our lives, and we could not feel more blessed than we do when we are with you.

You are the light of my life, and of moms, too.  Everything we do now goes through a filter of "how will this work for Abby" without even thinking it on purpose.  I sometimes think that you are the reason your mom likes me so much, but don't tell her I said that.

In the past year you have learned so much that it blows my mind.  On your first birthday you could not walk, and today you are running, literally in circles, wherever you please.  You could only say a few words, and sign a few others.  Now you are very good with both, and even when you babble it is wonderment to me.

Last night you even sang us a song, which I assume is titled "La La" and I am sure that I could never reproduce it, but you were sure it was a song and told us so.

Your bigger family loves you, as well.  All of the locals will be here for your party, and we will see everyone else over the summer.  You diligently learned everyone's names from their pictures, and do really well at matching pictures with real faces.  That still amazes me, since I struggle sometimes with that.

You love your friends, teachers and babies (your three categories, not mine) at school.  You recite their names as if to remind us who they are, even when we are at home.  Always when we are at home, come to think of it.  I hope you never lose track of your friends, and they of you.

You are tentative in a new place, but only for a few moments.  Once you have judged something (or someone) safe, you're off and we have to pull you away.  I'm grateful for your happiness around strangers and friends alike.

We are lucky that you are willing to try new foods, and always just a little disappointed when you call too quickly for "chicken" if you don't like a new food.  I am persistent, though, and will get you to like asparagus soon enough!

I am looking forward to the next year of your life as much as I have the last year, and the one before that.  I am ready to be amazed by what you come up with, what you do, and how you grow.

Abby, we love you more every day.  I hope you always know that.
-Dad

Monday, June 08, 2009

Growth and Progress

I do not have official 24 month statistics just yet, we will have that appointment the week after school lets out, but last night I got Abby to stand on a scale and she came out at 29 pounds.  Why would I do such a thing?  Anny and I had just done it, and Abby wanted a turn. 

As the end of the school year draws close we have gotten a detailed progress report on Abby's growth in abilities, from coloring to talking and from eating to dressing.  It is fascinating to see that she has mastered almost everything for her age range, and that the next set of boxes had more checks than blanks.  We're truly blessed with a child that loves to learn and try new things.  (as long as there are chicken nuggets as backup, that is!)

Unfortunately, "dip" still pervades every meal that it can.  If there is no ketchup for dipping around, Abby will make due with jelly of any flavor.  She even sampled mint jelly when we were in Wyoming this spring!

Abby has mastered counting to ten, and on occasion will count to 11.  We are using this as a tool for things already, as in "count to ten and your diaper change will be over" or "once we get to five you need to be in your" fill in the blank.  She knows that if I get to five she is either in her place, or I will put her there.  I think it's a hybrid of "classic" parenting and "hippie" parenting.  We'll see how long it works.

Finally, Abby's ABC's are adorable.  Aside from skipping everything from C to G, she always has a N-A-N-O-P.  The funnier part, though, is that she knows there is a "double" something (W) at the end, and that often changes.  I have heard everything from "double m" to "double c," though most often it's "double v."   I'm proud of her for trying - it's a good potty time song, and can be used much in the same way as doing her numbers when needed.

As we gear up for her birthday weekend, which I believe began with a cake yesterday with the Wendy's Bunch from church, I will be reflecting on things.  I hope to be blogging on those, but in reality I have a house to clean, orange cakes to help bake and a wonderful daughter and wife that are fun to hang out with.  :o)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Abby is currently teething, and has been for the last three weeks or so. She does not just have crankiness symptoms, but she has also slept longer on a couple of occasions and her diapers are... let's just say that if you want details you'll have to email me. I don't blog about gross stuff like that! We are hoping that she is through this soon for her sake, and ours!