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!

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:

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!

Apache!

Abby is always learning, and this morning she needed to release some energy. Is there any better way to do that than dancing? No. To that end, I taught her the Apache, to the song Apache by The Sugar Hill Gang.

I apologize for the shaky shot, but I was still prompting on when to do what.

Here's Abby:

Abby's Apache! from Anny and Rob on Vimeo.

Here's the "original" from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air:

Happy Halloween!

(Click on any photo to see a larger version)

At Abby's school yesterday they had a costume parade, and played with bubbles:


Here she is leading the charge for more fun!



I made a flower to go with the costume at dinner.  It did not last long once she figured out people were giving her food!


We only visited five or six houses, all of folks that we wanted to say "hi" to anyway.  In spite of that, she got a bag FULL of food!  Here she is checking out her haul!


Upon closer investigation, she dumped the bag and picked out a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup (my favorite, too).  We did NOT let her eat it right before bed time, I promise.  (And for the record, I didn't eat it either!)



Here is my favorite shot from the night. I like it for several reasons, but mostly because she was just so blissfully happy to dig into a big container of sugar. I'm sure she would have, if we let her.












Now the big question is whether or not to let her have some candy. She's had a few pieces of candy over her short life (Thanks Amy!) but typically chocolate winds her up. We'll probably have some with breakfast and keep it at that!

Happy Halloween!
(Or, at this point, All Saints Day!)

Me and My Shadow

Last week Abby noticed something on the wall.  I assumed that she found a dirty spot from a spill or a dog toy or something.  Instead, it was her own shadow!

She "followed" the shadow along the wall, and got a little concerned when she walked toward the hallway and it disappeared.  It was adorable!  I tried to get video of it, but as usual she stopped doing it when I was prepared for it!

Instead of posting such a cute video, here is a cute picture of both Abby and her shadow. 

A Video for You

We took Abby to see the sun rise at the beach over Labor Day weekend. Okay, she woke up at 4:30 and we needed to get out of the house before she woke folks up. Pictures are on the photo pages (see right for links) but here is a short video of her screaming at the ocean, which was adorable:


Abby at the Ocean from Anny and Rob on Vimeo.

Our Trip to St Louis, V1

Friends, I have been negligent in my blogging again, but have all intentions of making it up over the next few days! I refuse to do a step-by-step of our trip to see the family in St Louis, but I will touch on highlights. I think I will break it into categories:

1 - OUR Kiddo
2 - The Kiddos Together
3 - Parents

Today is dedicated to OUR Kiddo!

We decided to fly out late on Thursday and return mid-day Monday, mostly for Abby's sake. We ended up doing a LOT of walking around the airport, and stopped for some dinner. It was actually an ideal place for her to practice walking great distances while safely in the sight of her parents.

Once we got on the plane we grabbed two as close to the front as we could that were together. Ended up sitting next to a very nice woman who slept for most of the trip. It's always awkward to be the person bringing a baby/child onto a plane. I am always looking over my shoulder, wanting to apologize in advance. Turns out that on the flight out, we didn't have to apologize for much! Abby was a little fussy because she was being cramped, but went to sleep before we were out of Maryland airspace and slept until after we landed.

Once we landed, though, things changed. I can imagine that it's a little intimidating, though, to fall asleep in a cramped plane and wake up to a big cousin poking your leg! Abby was a trooper, and then she really woke up. And stayed up. For many hours. New Rule: Do not let Abby nap at 5:30, even if it's on a plane.

Over the weekend she was great with her cousins, but that's for the next post. :o) (Yes, just to build anticipation...)

On Monday we flew back, this time planning on landing before dinner, so that we could try to get Abby back into her "normal" of the Eastern time zone. She fell asleep between lunch and the airport. We let her sleep as long as she wanted to, which was pretty amazing. We checked in, still asleep. We got through security, including a very thorough check of both Anny and Abby because the buckles on her overalls set off the metal detector. Still asleep. She finally woke up when we found a place to sit down.

She was great in the airport again. I think that she has some extroversion in her system. Abby knows how to work a room already, and she sure did work the airport! I think she went out of her way to make eye contact with everyone at Gate 4. It's really neat to see people gabbing on their cell phones, irate about something at the office just stop and smile. The scary thing is that it looks like she understands that, so she will work to make that happen. Very cute.

On the plane we managed to get the inside seats on the front row, sitting next to a woman who had just met her 7 month old grandson for the first time. It was a great situation for us. Whenever Abby was on the floor our "friend" would put her leg out so that Abby could not get to the aisle. Brilliant. Abby also began the flight on a good note with the flight attendant by clapping for him whenever he was on the loudspeaker. It was even cuter when they welcomed "ladies, gentlemen, and Abby to flight...." She heard her name again, so she got excited again.

We tried to occupy her, and had success at it. It helped us that we didn't play all of our cards at once. We started with her book. Moved on to playing with a water bottle. Then snacks came. Then she pooped, so it was a lot of fun to distract until we got through the (very light) turbulence. After a clean diaper I showed her the clouds out the window, and when that got old I showed her that the windows could be closed. We had two windows, so it was twice the fun!

Abby fell asleep during the descent, but we knew better than to let her sleep this time! As soon as we got to the carpet inside BWI I began to gently wake her up. By the time we got to the baggage carousel she was awake and chipper again, walking all over the place with Mama. When my brother and his wife got there, Abby was in even more heaven. (They were life and money savers by picking us up from the airport, so we bought them dinner.)

GREAT trip from Abby's perspective. I'm looking forward to our next trip out, which will be at Christmas time.

Next post will be about all three of the girls. If you're itching for pictures, check them out HERE!

Some Attention on Dad Labs!

Umm.... My daughter is going to be very unhappy with me one day. At least it is MY name mentioned, and not hers...

(Warning - very Poopy conversation. Both gross and funny. Do not watch while dining!)



Watch more hillarious parenting over at DadLabs.com!

Abby's Project 365

Anny asked me yesterday, very honestly:

"Do you just sit around and think this stuff up all day?"

She knows better! I was with her all day! There was very little "just sitting around" on Saturday when we helped to host a surprise birthday party for our friend Charlene. We did the farmers market, breakfast, and some cleaning house before leaving at 10:30 ish to get to their house. The only time for thinking was in the car, when we were talking.

(insert joke about Rob choosing between thinking and talking, and rarely doing both at the same time.)

So, what was she so baffled about? A picture concept in my head*.

As I've taken up the Project 365 Challenge over on our Flickr account (HERE). Project 365 is where you take a picture a day for a year. In our case, we're taking our 365 days of pictures of Abby. We have missed a couple of days already, but have made up for it in other days. Our project is the 365 days between Abby's First Birthday and her Second.

The real reason that I began the project is that I want to take better pictures of Abby, not just more pictures. (If I kept all of the pictures that I have taken in the last 13 months, there would be no room for any more on the three computers in our house) I was tired of taking the same picture over and over. Right now, Abby is still gaining toys like it's going out of style, but she's also gaining personality and style.

I've got a ton of ideas from other people, and scenes that are in my head for pictures of Abby. She's always game for a camera and I'm always game to take pictures. We're perfect for each other.

Feel free to pop by Abby's Project 365 anytime. I'll link to it on the sidebar starting today.

*The particular picture-idea I had just come up with was using all of her foam bath-time letters for a picture of "alphabet soup." I'll do it one evening when I think about it. My proble is that I think of them at odd times when I can't follow through....

Abby Getting Some Web Attention!

We put the best-of-the-best pictures up on our Flickr page (HERE) and on occasion I tag a couple to the ParentDish group. Well, turns out they really liked on this week!

Click HERE for the ParentDish post of our little girl! Since she was chosen for a picture-of-the-day she is eligible for the picture-of-the-month!

A Fun Filled Week has Begun!

Abby's birthday has been celebrated once already, and the festivities will not end for a while!

There is a group of good people from our church that go to the local Wendy's each Sunday following worship. (Sorry, Sarahlynn. Wendy's really is an every-week occurrence for us! You should see what they've done to the Frosty!) Since we're not sure what's happening next Sunday, Abby had her first "Happy Birthday" sung to her following lunch last week. I can attest that there is something really cool about having a choir (like, real choir) of people singing such a song, in harmony, to your kid. Very cool.

On Wednesday we will go to Abby's school to celebrate in the classroom's end-of-year party. It sounds like all of the parents and teachers will be there, so that will be kind of cool. The flyer said there will be "happy hour types of food" so I'm hoping for some chicken wings. Not really. We will celebrate the growth that the children have made, and present the teachers with a little something.

Thursday is Abby's big day! We don't have anything planned except a dinner at home and opening gifts that are from far away places that needed to be shipped. Some came wrapped, but some did not. It looks like I have some constructing to do! YAY!

For school we have decided to send fruit cups for each child because there will be so much sugar on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Hopefully it will go over well. Who are we kidding? If it does not go over well, the children will deal with it anyway!

Friday is Abby S's birthday. (One of the three Abigail's out of three children under 1!) There will be more school celebrating, but we're taking it easy at our house! We are hoping to have dinner out with some folks as a pre-party party.

Saturday is the Big Birthday Party! We're not sticking with a theme or inviting many people. Okay, we invited many people only because we have lots of family around here. Last month I had planned on cleaning once for two parties, but in between said parties I have created quite the mess. I think I'll be cleaning the house tonight to make room for all of the people coming over!

The real thing that is crazy to me is that when all is said and done Abby will have no idea that it's happened. I might as well enjoy the ride, right?!!

I Will NOT Apologize

I know that posting is scarce on this blog, and it's with good reason:

Abby is awesome!

I can not tell you how happy we are to have her in our life.

So, what's new with Abby?

She can squat and stand, and go between the two, without holding onto something!
Her vocabulary is not yet into words, but she sure is loud and emphatic. Over the weekend it was really fun to have her growling at customers at Target.
She is more gentle on the dog than on her parents sometimes. Okay, a lot of times.
She has learned lots of signs, and can be helpful in telling us what she wants. Our favorite right now is "Bath" because she gets super-excited. "Please" is downright adorable.

We have taken pictures, and I hope to get them off of the camera today or tomorrow.

Cute story from this weekend:
On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and she fell asleep in Anny's arms. By the time she woke up, she ended up sleeping for two full hours. Not the norm for her morning nap. She did not show any signs of being tired as we went shopping for plants to put in the garden we're working on. (pictures of that soon, too)

Turns out that she fell asleep between the garden center and Potbelly's, a total of maybe two miles. We picked her up, assuming that she would bounce right up like normal. We were wrong. Anny went to the counter to order, while I sat Abby on my lap while she woke up a little more. But she didn't! She folded over in half, face on feet, completely asleep. A-dorable.

(A couple of minutes later she popped right up, bright eyed and ready for her black beans and Cheerios's dinner. She did go to bed a little early that evening.....)

Abby Monroe: Omnivore!

Remember when we thought it was great news that Abby had begun to eat rice cereal? Wow, we were young and stupid, and it was just a few months ago!

We neatly introduced fruits and vegetables in puree form after rice cereal. Some of them went over well (apples), some took some time (peaches), and some caused such a gag reflex that we have not tried them again (asparagus). I waited too long, but did end up making some of our own purees for Abby. Incredibly easy, and TONS cheaper than buying the packaged stuff.

We were really excited when Abby picked up on black beans from Chipotle! A year earlier I had given sideways looks to our friend April and Eric when their son was eating the same thing, but it's a wonderful addition to the food selection!

She also turned up her nose and tried to squirm away from pureed chicken. I probably would have too, it looked and smelled gross, but our "schedule" had us introducing chicken at nine months. We tried on occasion to get her to eat meat again for about two weeks, and then just gave up.

Last week, though, something clicked. Abby is a HUGE fan of small chunks of meat. She had some of Anny's chicken tenders when we were out to dinner one night (no fried parts, just meat) and we got a bit excited. Could it be..... progress in our family eating routine? Yep!

On Monday night we had a dream meal: cook one dish and share it between the three of us! We had chicken "stir fried" with zucchini and were able to just put food straight from our plate onto her tray! Wednesday she was cautious with roast beef, but quickly decided that she liked it.

Hooray for progress and hooray for being able to share a meal together, without Cheerio's!!

Daddy Daughter Time

Anny went to a ceremony for one of her teacher friends so Abby and I got to hang out for the evening. It was pretty cool. I have to say, I really like this kid!

Aside from the normal afternoon/evening stuff (food, bath, bottle, bed) I decided to take Abby to Greenbelt Lake. We had her on the swings there once and she loved it, so I figured I could get some great photo's out of it. I was right!

From May 2008

Since we haven't done one recently, I'll open this up as a caption contest! What do you think Abby would have been saying, if she could talk?

The Nursery Is Done

Okay - the nursery has been finished for months, but my friend Amy at PrettyBabies brought it back to my attention that I have not posted the final photos! Shame on me.

Here is a tour around her very small piece of the world:


We got the crib at Babies R Us. The plastic bin on the right is full of clothes that are too big. It's easiest to keep track of where things are this way. On the tub is the cow humidifier. We had one before this, but it got gross so we had to get rid of it. Hanging over her crib is the cross she received for her baptism.


Abby's dresser has been in my family for a while. There is a matching dresser somewhere in Maryland, though I'm not sure where. On the corner is clothes that are too small. We gather a few at a time and bag them to be stored for (ahem) later use.


In the circles are two sets of animals. When we decided on the theme of a farm we knew that we wanted family members to help. Since it is not feasible for everyone to come here to help, we bought cut out animals (from the craft store) and mailed them out. When they came back, the animals varied so much - orange lambs and purple ducks. Very fun, and everyone really did have a hand in it.


Abby's closet and the top of her bookcase. She has another bookcase that is much more full, and other books spread across the living room. We have a bunch of springy dresses that we are looking forwrad to putting Abby in!


The changing table was made by Gramps when my cousin Jon was born, 20 years ago this month. The top has the standard changing pad. The middle shelf has a a diaper warmer on the left, and creams and such on the right. Diaper warmer is essential when using cloth wipes. The (empty) basket on the right of the bottom shelf is where the diapers go. They are in the dryer right now....

From April 2008

We found this cow rug on sale this weekend. It's adorable, and the colors are perfect for our room. I like this picture almost as much as I like the carpet itself. Oh yeah, the floor! Under the cow rug is our rubber floor! We bought a reversible floor that is designed for play rooms. We hoped to use blue and green in the middle and the gray side for the outside, but we found out later that it's one way or the other.

So - that's Abby's room. She's about ready to head in there for the night. Hopefully....

Baby Food Warning!!

When introducing new fruits and vegetables to your baby......

Never follow Carrots with Prunes.

Follow up joke:
What's grosser than gross?

You guess!

How Does She Know?

How does she know where the dog's water is?
How does she know where the swiffer is?
How does she know where where the dust bunnies hide?
How does she know where to grab the dog's tail so that he can drag her around?

Okay, that last one was hillarious to see!

I refuse to believe that any place can be baby-proofed, and I believe that now more than ever. You can do your best to make sure that things are less hazardous, but unless we put her in a rubber room with plush toys, she will find something to get into!

So, we have already baby-protected 90% of the living room. Now that she can crawl, she's no longer interested in the living room, she has moved on to the kitchen. Yesterday we bought the latches for the cabinets, but only after deciding which ones to lock. We both believe that exploration is the key to learning and that we can not and should not lock everything away.

In our continued baby-protection process, I'm curious to hear what other parents have forgotten until your child brought it to your attention. (i.e. the dog food)

Also - what did you do with your dog food? Right now I'm thinking that we will just put his bowl down for food time and pick it up off of the floor when he's done.

Please leave a comment!

Books for Bed Time

Dad Labs has been focusing on Children's Books this week. (Not sure if the link will load for you. Since they got picked up by a bigger company access is hit and miss. They're also on YouTube.)

Here is one of the videos about Bed Time Books:



We have taken to reading a couple of favorites already. Snuggle Puppy (Sandra Boynton) and The Napping House (Don and Audrey Wood) are two that we all seem to like. Anny and I each have other favorites, and some that drive us nuts. For example, I tend to go fairly quickly to Z is for Zamboni (Matt Napier), an alphabet book based in hockey.

We like Snuggle Puppy a lot since we were also able to download the song from iTunes! The same was true for Barnyard Dance (Sandra Boynton, too). I am a huge fan of things that are truly multi-media.

What are your favorite Bedtime Books (so far)? Do you find that one parent favors certain books over others? Do you rely on old reliables like Seuss, or is there something new that you could tell us all about?

Discuss, please!

Snow Much Fun

From January 2008

Abby is a HUGE fan of the white stuff! As you can see, there was not enough on the ground to cover all of the grass, but more than an inch and we call that a snowfall!

I made a little snowman for her (click on the picture above to look at others) and she was amused by him. I broke his "head" off for her to play with inside. Mommies and daddies sometimes disagree on how much time little girls should be outside, so we compromise. Abby could go inside, but only if the snow came with.

Abby is still working on that second tooth, so she really liked chewing on the cold snow in the house. Her hands were turning orange because of how cold they were, but whenever I tried to take it from her she cried. Eventually she lost interest, thank goodness.

Yesterday she also went to the University of Maryland for another Infant Study. Anny took her, so I'll let Anny post about that over the weekend.