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!

New Videos!

Abby loves to sing as much as she loves to dance. Okay, sort of. Here are two songs that we've learned at Sunday School. These songs have saved us on more than one occasion! At least twice she has been having a meltdown and we'll pull out "Twinkle Twinkle" and it brings her back down to a calm and sensible level!

Please enjoy:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from Anny and Rob on Vimeo.

And also enjoy "If You're Happy and You Know It!"

If You're Happy and You Know It.... from Anny and Rob on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving Weekend - Abby Style!

Thanksgiving weekend was one of fun and adventure for Abby!

On Wednesday we went to the turkey farm to pick up a fresh turkey, or two, and also took some time to explore.  We saw cows and cats of all ages and sizes.  Abby was fascinated by all of it!

On Thursday Rob's dad and step-mom made the drive up from Florida, so we got to spend some time with them before dinner. 
At dinner there was quite a houseful of people.  I think we counted 12 around the table, and four dogs.  Abby at lots of cranberries and stuffing, but was not interested in much else. 

On Friday we did a little shopping, and finished decorating the house for Christmas!  Since we'll be in Saint Louis for Christmas, we put up a fake tree.  It is already decorated and Abby loves it.  It has come at the right time as we are working on identifying colors and the lights are much more interesting than crayons!

On Saturday we raked the front and back yards - and Abby tried to help.  It was adorable and I wish I had gotten pictures, but I did not.  This year we are composting our leaves, so it was especially fun for her to throw handfuls of leaves over the fence!

What did you do for the big weekend?

Happy Thanksgiving

It's almost impossible to remember that last year our little girl looked like this on Thanksgiving:


She BEGAN eating rice cereal, her first "solid" food on Thanksgiving last year.

This year will look much more like this:


Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

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:

Six Weeks Late..

I don't really read the articles on ParentDish these days.  Too busy living the life to read about it, or something like that.

Anyway, my favorite picture of Abby was chosen as the Image of the Day back in September.  How cool is that?!

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/09/24/image-of-the-day-raise-your-hands-in-the-air/