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!

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!

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!

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!





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!


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!

She's a Graduate!

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

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

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!

As you can guess since Abby will be two in less than two weeks she is a handful. I swear it's a good handful 98% of the time and we're elated to be having the handfuls that we have compared to other parents out there.

One of the times that Abby is most stubborn is at lunch or dinner time.  (For the record, she's an angel in the morning at breakfast...)  We often find ourselves reminding her that it's time to eat, not time to throw things on the floor or watch Elmo or Signing Time on the computer.  Meal time is for meals.

On Monday while Anny and I were in the kitchen cleaning up and getting things ready for dinner prep we could hear Abby quietly playing in the living room.  She was playing with her castle toy, complete with people and a huge dining table.

The one-sided, aimed-at-toys conversation we overheard was:

"Sit down."
"Dinner, sit down."
"Sit, Eat."
"SIT."
"SitSitSitSit!"

I'm not quite sure where she has heard that before...

All of her meal time troubles go away if you give her a cookie:

All is Well

Just a quick follow-up post to let everyone know that Abby is back to her normal self this morning and we gave the daycare the all clear to let her play as normal again. 

The rest of our weekend, after Friday's ER visit, was quite eventful and Abby progressed steadily throughout the duration.  On Saturday morning she had a pronounced limp, on Saturday evening she was walking fine, though slowly.  By Sunday she was asking to jump.  We decided to keep her from doing that on Sunday and yesterday.

Thanks to everyone for the emails, texts and phone calls.  Abby is loved and she knows it!

200th Post!

This is the 200th post on Abby's blog! She's grown a lot (since we started when Anny was only a few weeks pregnant!)

I start this post by saying: Abby is okay.

That being said - today was an exciting day as Abby had her first visit to the Emergency Room.  She has a sprained left leg (knee).

I got a call at 11:30 saying that she had jumped funny in their Activity Room from a play structure.  I can't describe it, but it's normally a very safe activity and they play on it regularly.  She hit the floor with her foot in an awkward position, got up and walked away.  About a minute later she refuse to put any weight on it.

We decided to go ahead and let her have lunch to see if it would go away, assuming she had just twister her ankle a little bit and it would not last long at all.  I got a call again when lunch was done that she would still not put any weight on her left leg.  I left work and tried to get Anny on the phone.  One we connected we decided that the best route would be the ER.  Better safe than sorry.

I got to school and Abby would not budge from Ms Denyse's lap.  We tried to get her to walk to me, and she would not have any of it.  (Amusing side note: she wet through her diaper and they had to change her clothes.  The only thing they had was a one piece PJ set without feet.  From the fall.  It was hillarious and I will load a picture of it soon!)  I got her stuff together, grabbed a snack for her and we headed up to Howard General.

She went to sleep.

I managed to keep her asleep in the stroller for quite a while longer, until the doctor needed to see her put weight on it.  He gave it a once over and said it was probably a knee issue more than her foot or ankle.  Then he called for an X-Ray.  Yeah, that was the most miserable thing I've ever experienced with Abby.  She was being held down by me AND a technician and it still took a long time to get her leg and foot into position.  Five times.  Not fun.

After reviewing the X-Ray the doctor confirmed that her left leg is sprained.  Our orders are as follows:

• limit activity (she's 22 months old!  Really?  Limit her?  Wow.)
• Use child strenght Motrin for discomfort
• Keep her off of the playground for five days
• If there is no improvement by Tuesday, call Dr Tang, an orthopedist.

There you have - we're home and she's happily having her afternoon snack.  She still will not walk, but she has put a little more weight on it a couple of times.  Should be an interesting weekend!

Summertime in Spring

This weekend was pretty much a whirlwind of fun and activity for us!  With temperatures in the upper 80's and low 90's it could have been miserable, but it was great!

Saturday -
We started the day at Maryland Day, which is annual open house that the University of Maryland puts on.  It was hot and crowded, but a heck of a lot of fun!  Abby had a blast playing with the bubbles when we first got there.  There were plastic ducks in the main fountain on campus, and all three girls had fun retrieving them and throwing them back into the water.

(No pictures from Maryland Day - I left my camera and phone at the house on accident.  It was really weird for me to not be connected!)

After grabbing lunch and a nap, we went up to celebrate Luke's second birthday!  Lots of family and tons of presents, but mostly it was fun to watch the children together.  Evan and Luke are constantly in motion, which is awesome to watch.  I think that Abby did not believe Luke was up to the challenge of opening his gifts on his own, so she helped a little:



We left their house way too late, but Abby did not notice too much.

Sunday:
We realized on Saturday night that our regular church service on Sunday was not going to be "normal" but rather was the Easter Choral Cantata.  I love music, don't get me wrong, but I don't love Latin.  We decided to head up to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for the morning.  Last summer we got a membership for the family as a good, indoor play place for Anny and Abby for hot summer days.  Abby has never really been a huge fan, so we wanted to go this spring to help decide if we wanted to renew our membership.  The answer is "no" but we had a fun time.

We have not been to the dolphin show with Abby, mostly because we paid for the membership and I'm too cheap to tack on extra money while I'm there!  This time they gave us tickets to the show for free, so we were not going to pass that up.  Anny went in and found seats while Abby and I walked up and down stairs a few times and looked at the dolphin tank from below.  Very cool.  When we got in and sat down it took Abby a minute to figure out what was about to happen, but when she figured it out it was hard to wipe the grin off of her face!



We had lunch at the Inner Harbor - nice big salads really hit the spot for Anny and I.  Abby went to sleep in the car, but not quite enough.  I hate when that happens.

After having folks over to watch the Capitals game, we went out and played in the yard and the street for a while.  Yes, I am a bad parent and let my daughter walk in the street without holding my hand, but she seems to be pretty clear about when that is and is not allowed.  We walk down the street with her in her wagon, or on her new bike, and sometimes we let her push her baby stroller:



Overall we had an incredible weekend and can only hope the whole summer is this fun!

Yucky! Gross!

As we were driving home from school today, I caught sight of Abby picking her nose (a truly disgusting habit, in my opinion), so I handed her a tissue.  A few moments later I heard these words from backseat:

"Yucky, Gross!"

"Brown."

"Yucky, Gross!"

"Nose."

"Green."

"Yucky, Gross!"

"Booger."

I just hope she wasn't eating them...

Abby's Evening Routine

We went out for an evening on Friday and my Aunt Pam watched Abby for us. (Read about our dinner out over at Rob's Blog.) I left her a very detailed evening plan for Abby, and thought I would post it here!

Typical evening for Abby

4-6 -
snack! Probably pretzels and dip or a clementine
general play time, helping with dinner if we're cooking

6 Dinner
we're buying whether it's pizza or Chipotle. We avoid pepperoni, but she's good with onions, ham, pineapple, hamburger, or plain cheese!
if she refuses to eat, there are chicken nuggets (3-4) in the freezer, and pickles in the fridge.

6:50ish Bath Time!
This time is fuzzy toward the later side - if all is well we typically let her play until 7 or so.
Bath time is not about being clean, really, it's about time in the tub playing. Soap requires bravery and screaming, we do it in the shower on Sundays, unless she's really dirty during the week.

after bath Diaper and PJ's!*
We've pulled out a special Elmo diaper. Point that out and you get points in Abby's book! The girl is in love with that Little Red Guy.
PJ's are on the pillow.
More points if you tell her about Signing Time on the agenda.

Signing Time is on the DVR - go with the episode called "My Things"
there is a short clip after the credits. Abby knows this.
There is milk in the fridge - pop it in the warmer about 15 minutes after starting the video**

After Signing Time
She typically will grab one of three things: Gator, Hershey Bear or her Cat.
Turn the music on the dresser on:
The on button is on the front, upper left of the player
The snooze button is the big one on top. hit that once to set the "sleep" function"
Cuddling in the rocker with Milk and her Blanket usually puts her out - but we supplement with a Pacifier, too (extras are in the pocket of the rocker) - total time in rocker... 10 minutes.
Lay her down (usually on her tummy), pat her back a couple times, and then enjoy some TV or Wii time!

*Turns out that Abby noticed the Elmo diaper before Pam did and began to yell "ELMO DIAPER" followed by "SIGNING TIME." Pam seemed a little disappointed that she did not get to play those cards...

**This was the last night of our taper-off-the-evening bottle. It seems to have gone well and Abby has picked up her daytime milk drinking. Very cool.

Abby is very routine oriented, and I think that this list helped everyone to be on the same page and helped Abby to be the "Angel" that she was reported to be. :o)

Abby's Play Kitchen!

It's finally here - the blog post about Abby's new play kitchen!

I was inspired by a blog post I found HERE that did something similar, but I kept parts of their idea and added some of my own.  As an added bonus, my brothers' scroll saw is in storage, so I got to buy myself a new one!

I started with the Ikea RAST end table.  At $15 it was probably cheaper than if I went out and got nicely finished wood and cut it myself, plus it was a great, square starting point.  (Cost so far: $15)

Then I cut a hole out to put in a metal bowl from our kitchen.  We have too many bowls as it is, so giving this one to the project made sense to us.  I added a piece across the middle to support any weight Abby might apply, as well as to divide the box in half - one is the "oven" and the other side is currently non-purposed.  This is also the point that I had to buy a new scroll saw, which was both fun and awesome at the same time!  (Cost so far: $15 for project, $29.99 for saw)



The tricky part, and the part that required the most thinking, was the faucet.  I scoured Ebay and Craigslist for a real kitchen or bathroom faucet, new or used, for several days before giving up.  I looked at prices in stores, but the cheapest was about $30.  I could not justify that in my head.  I decided to make something out of PVC pipe, and I think it turned out well.  It's two pieces, a p-trap and a part that fits into the p-trap.  I had to cut the bottom piece to get it into the tight space, but that was easy.  The two pieces cost me a total of $3.  (Cost so far: $18)



I had a random piece of nice, finished wood laying around the house that is only about 1/4 of an inch off of fitting perfectly with the table, so I used it.  I'm not much on perfection - it gives me nothing to complain about later if there are no flaws!  We think the wood was a shelf to an old entertainment center.  Cost: free.  (Cost so far: $18)



Since I have about a dozen mouse pads at my office that do not get used (they come with new computers, and we've gotten ten new ones in the last four years) I decided to put them to use in my project.  I cut circles out of the mouse pads to make burners.  They are not attached for two reasons - we might paint it so they would be in the way, and I don't know how we would attach them properly.  Oh well.
I added stove top knobs that are actually casters from tables at my office that were on their way to the trash.  They were screwed into a 1x2 across the top at the same time that I put a kickplate (1x4) on the bottom to keep toys from sliding under the kitchen.  (Cost so far: $18)



I added an oven door and Abby immediately knew what the whole project was!  You will notice that the knobs here are pink - it's because the casters from the previous picture were too large with the door on the oven - it would not open!  I ran out to Target and picked up some dresser knobs for $5.  Ended up at Ikea the next day and could have gotten better looking knobs for less money, but what's done is done.  (Cost so far: $23)



And that's the whole thing!  If we had bought a wooden play kitchen in a store we would have spent at least $125, and the cost for one can go up to numbers that I'm too embarassed to type!  I spent $23 and about four total hours on this project by using mostly scrap wood from around the house.  You can also check with your local hardware store (or Ikea!) for scrap wood to save on the cost.

Here's Abby enjoying her newest toy!

Stop Licking That!!

Suggestions welcome/encouraged!

At about six months (maybe before) Abby had an obsession with putting things in her mouth - toys, coins, food, fingers... everything.  It is an age-apropriate method of learning for an infant.  They do a better job of using their five senses to learn about things around them than we do - I assume my desk tastes like dust and plastic, so I don't try to taste or smell it - I rely on touch and sight.

Abby has seemingly reverted to some sort of tasting/licking stage.  Some things are adorable, like when she licks a blueberry before eating it.  Licking her clean feet after bath time was cute, too.

Some things are a little weird, like the freezer in our basement and our fridge upstairs - maybe she was licking each to see if they were the same or different.  (She didn't report her findings to me, but probably has a journal somewhere!)

Some things that she has licked are just disgusting - including our dog and, even worse, a piece of wood at Wendy's on Sunday afternoon.  Just.Disgusting.  I had to run through her high chair and over another chair to get her off of it.  If you've never been to a Wendy's - it was the wooden fram between the old smoking section and the old non-smoking section.  It's about a foot wide and she loves to run a circle and climb over it.  Fun game - gross twist to it.

Our particular Wendy's is not the cleanest thing around, so there were jokes about spots and blisters that would show up in the afternoon, and we were relieved that they did not!

Help!  How do I break her of this new game?  I don't want to create a punishment necessarily, but this is one situation that I would like to stop before it goes too far... 

She Had the Strangest Dream...

It is my assumption that Abby had a bizarre dream last night.  That's the only explaination that I can come up with.  Here's my story...

Last night Anny went up to church for her month Women's Group gathering where they talk about boys and stuff.  (Not really, but that is what I say!)  That meant that Abby and I got to spend some quality time together playing and reading books and such. 

At bath time something happened, though I don't know what, that made her mood change from "this is fun" to "get me the hell out of this water or you'll pay!"  Nothing happened in the water, and I could not get her to tell me what hurt.  I'm guessing that she's just crazy. 

After getting her into her PJ's, through tears, we sat down for our daily dose of Signing Time on the DVR.  She cuddled really close for the first half, and I pried her off during the latter half to get some other things taken care of.  Part of getting her to sit on her own was to give her the famous Purple Hat.  It seems to be in every other picture on our Flickr Site because she wears it all the time.



I had to take the hat away before bed time, of course. That went over okay and with very little notice, really.

Then came 2:30 this morning. With everyone sound asleep, we were awoken to hear "PURPLE" being yelled from Abby's Room. Then "HAT!"  That was followed by "PURPLE HAT?!"  Anny got up and assured her that the purple hat was okay and that it was time for sleep, not hats. 

I am assuming that she was having some sort of dream about her beloved purple hat, but can't ask her what was going on because she has no clue it even happened!

When she got up at 5:15 and we went out for our breakfast time, she very quickly found her purple hat and they were united once again. 

Weird.

Parent Teacher Conference

One of the perks of the the wonderful daycare that we have is that we have real feedback from our teachers on a daily basis, and twice a year we have a sit-down, parent teacher conference with the lead teacher.  (We could rave about this place until the cows come home, and then I remember how much we're paying and it helps to level things out...)

Last week we had our first of two (three?) PTC's at Abby's school, and all is right in Abby's developmental world!  Hooray!  Actually, she is doing better than her classmates on the charts, but that's because she is older and associated more with a boy who has since moved to the older classroom.  She got check marks down two pages of "Developmental Goals of a 12-24 Month Old" and has begun to check things off on the same type of list for 24-36 month olds.  It's really hard to believe how much she has developed, grown and just become a whole little person over the last six months.

There were two comments that stuck out on the otherwise Abby-Praising Pages:

1 - "Abby has developed an aversion to wet and sticky things - like finger paints."
Umm - what child does not like finger paints?  It would seem that my daughter does not like them.  She is the same toddler that does not like rice because of the texture.  Yesterday afternoon I tried to work on this, but Anny pulled out the paintbrush that I had stashed on the table (out of sight) before I popped open the paint.  Oh well, we will work on this one.

2 - "Abby is beginning to show age-appropriate aggression."
Yeah - our toddler is beating people up.  Not other-toddler people, either.  No, not really.  Abby is very routine and schedule oriented.  When I had her home last week sick for a couple of days I tried to stick to our normal routines, and she kept me to them!  Even her nap was on time, at her persistence.  Turns out that at school if they try to spring something on her (even as simple as "time to change your diaper") she can be pretty forceful about not moving.  She has even been caught on several occasions pushing her teachers!

All in all, Abby's progress is awesome and she's ahead of the curve on a lot of things.  Really, as long as she's having fun, we're happy.  (But it was totally awesome to hear someone else say what we've been thinking!)

Little Miss Constant Amazer

Abby continues to amaze us...

Over the weekend while giving Abby her bath, she said and signed "finished."  I told her that she needed to wash her toes, only as a stalling tactic while I finished brushing my teeth.  She insisted... "finished!"

I hurried up and finished up my tooth-brushing, for fear of even more insistence!

While the water drained Abby looked up and said "owl" a couple of times.  Anny had joined us in the bathroom at this point, and the two of us stood over Abby and were bewildered about why she would be saying owl, and so persistently.  Owl.  OWl.  OWL!

We were not paying attention to the whole picture; we were relying on her very primitave speech.  She is only 19 months old after all, she's not supposed to be using sentences.  (and she doesn't... much) 

She was signing to try to bring her parents up to speed.  I can only imagine that in her little mind she's thinking "these people are responsible for my safety and wellbeing, but they can't figure out that I'm signing what I'm trying to say?" Yeah, I put a lot of my own ideas in her head from time to time.

So anyway, back to the bath.  She was done.  She was watching the water drain.  The next logical step, for all but two people in the world....  She was ready for her....

Towel.

Yeah, I smacked myself in the head for that one.  She's very communicative, if only we pay attention.

18 Months Old!

Okay, here we are less than a week from Abby's 19 month mark, and I'm just getting around to celebrating 18 months.... I swear it's not all my fault!

Because of our trips and schedules and plans, Abby did not have her 18 month Well Baby Visit until last week.  At the visit she got two shots, one in each arm, as well as the regular check up.

She's doing really well as far as height and weight go.  She's a whopping 25 pounds (60th Percentile) and 32.5 inches (75th Percentile).  What that means is that her height has balanced out her weight over the course of learning to walk and run.  She's on the tall side, but that does not mean she will be tall later on necessarily. 

Abby also continues to delight learning new words, and honing in on the words that she has jumbled in the past.  We're always delighted to hear "mama... dada" when I'm not around, and visa versa.  She knows that we all belong together.  She still does not say "Abby" clearly, but understands who she is in pictures and mirrors. 

Unfortunately for me she can already figure out when I'm making up words for books.  She tends to latch on to one book at a time, which bores ME!  I know, I know, it's not about me.  But you don't understand, there are only so many times that I can bark like a dog at the right part without going hoarse. 

In a book that our friend Elise gave Abby for Christmas, after her travels to meet-and-greet with real penguins in Antartica, there is on spot that I "helped" Anny with one day.  Something about "these penguins like to eat...FISH!"  My help was adding emphasis to "fish" and now she will force Anny to pause so that I can be included.  It's adorable, and a little weird that she's that detail oriented after just one instance!

She's a handful, but a good handful.  (Remember, evan cash can come in handfuls!)

We're Back from Christmas...And New Year's...

I guess I should start with Christmas and will blog later about other subjects...

This Christmas I took off almost a full two weeks from work between holidays, vacation and sick days I only had to work for about a half of a day in the middle.  Turns out that putting in that half day was good for my coming back to the office yesterday because I could hit the ground running just a little bit.

We spent the first week visiting with Paul and Sarahlynn and their girls in St Louis.  Aside from plane delays on the Baltimore side of both flights, it was a wonderful time away.  The extra two hour delay on our way out was certainly not the best way to start a trip, but Abby was a great sport.  I took her over to the B gate at BWI and we found some children headed out to Orlando to play with.  They danced, jumped and chased each other for so long that Anny texted "everything okay?" 

Since we only get the cousins together every six months or so, for now, it always makes me just a little bit nervous about how they will react to each other.  Turns out, once again, that there is nothing to cause concern!  We arrived so late Saturday that the cousins (two girls, one 23 months, one five years) were long asleep, so the first re-meeting would wait for the morning.  Since we were on east coast time, and they are an hour behind us, we were up first.  As everyone began to wake up, it was like a wonderful reunion for all three of them!

Abby had used the word "mine" two times the weekend before, but perfected it while we were there!  Anny and I keep comparing the three of them to the seagulls in Finding Nemo:


It really was adorable when it comes right down to it.

It was great to spend time with Anny's family, even though our time was short. 

The week of New Year's we were home.  We were sure to figure out something out of the house during the day, and got to catch up with friends during the week too.  We took Abby to the play areas at two malls (Columbia - A+ and Tysons Corner - B+) as well as the massive fish tank at our local Bass Pro Shop.  She was amused and happy to have us around, I think. 

Now we have all settled back into work and school and are getting the routine of life back down.  I would say that Abby does really well at that, too.  I know that she does better than I do, after all!

More blogging to come later this week - Abby had her 18 month check up last week, too!