I'm about to get a new computer, and I've been sorting through some of my pictures to make the transition easier, when I found more Abigail pictures that I hadn't posted before!


This was one of the first days I had her... she had to have her yogurt fed to her, which seems crazy now! :)

Another really early picture. In the middle of our crazy snowy winter we had a 70 degree day, so we went out for a walk. I had to keep telling her "You can look, but you can't touch or walk in the puddles! It's not that warm!"

At her birthday party... poor baby was running a fever and not feeling well at all. I felt worse for her mommy and daddy who had worked so hard to make her party special!

Her Curious George cake. She LOVES Curious George (although lately she's been more into Tigger).

She perked up a little when it came time to open gifts and seemed to really enjoy all her presents.

Bye-Bye Binkies!

When I came in this morning, Chris told me that over the weekend Abigail threw out all her binkies. I was braced to hear tales of screaming at naptime, sleepless nights, and mid-day wails, but instead Abby seems to have done just fine. Apparently once she decided she didn't need a binkie, she was over it!

She's talking up a STORM now and I love hearing her talk! :) She's also been giving me kisses all day, which is another nice perk. It also kind of makes me a little sad, though - she's growing up so fast!

Today we went to my house to swim in my pool with the cousins. The pool is too warm to feel nice - it's been really, really hot this last week - so we threw a running hose in with us and Abigail loved it! She loved running the cold water through her fingers and over her toes, then she accidentally splashed one of the cousins with the icy-cold water, and when she saw the reaction she got, she kept doing it. :) The funniest thing was then Allen jokingly wrestled it away from her, she said "No!" and grabbed it back, and accidentally sprayed herself and started laughing and gasping from the cold all at once. It was pretty funny. She has no fear of the water - today she lunged out of my arms and her face went into the water a little. I asked her, "Were you trying to swim like a fish?" and she looked at me very wide-eyed and said very loudly, "YES!"

Beating the Heat

It was supposed to be a killer hot day today, but it wasn't as bad as I expected... Abigail and I threw a tea party for her dolls and toys and one very naughty toy lizard who kept biting the toes of all the toys and eating up all the cake, and had to be put in the mailbox for punishment (do you see yet why I lovelovelove my job?!), then we played on the front porch with her bubble machine and the two kitties, Sharon and Cocoa Puff.

The kitties jump from the garden boxes to the porch and back again with great agility, and Abigail has decided they jump like Tigger. She is forever asking me to "make" them bounce like Tigger, and how do you explain to a 2 year old that nobody makes a cat do ANYTHING, lol? :)

After playing for awhile we picked up the cousins and went to the indoor playground at McDonalds. We were going to go to the big outdoor playground but the heat was getting to be a little much, though it still doesn't feel as bad as Sunday was. Abigail napped all afternoon, and Chris came home a little early, which was a nice surprise treat.

Thinking About It

We're reaching a point now where Abigail has the physical skills to do a lot of things, but lacks confidence in herself. She'll climb up on to her rocking horse, then fuss to be lifted off, even though she knows how to do it herself. When I tell her 'You're a big girl and you know how to do it - just climb down!' she'll fuss for a second, then climb right down, no problems. Once she's down, she's SO PROUD to have gotten down by herself. Today at the playground she climbed onto a bridge, then fussed to be rescued. I told her to 'get low' and climb off, and she complained loudly about how it was TOO HARD and she COULDN'T POSSIBLY DO IT - all while she was climbing down. When her feet were on the ground again, she turned around beaming and said something I'm sure was her version of 'I did it!' Watching her makes me wonder how many times I go into a challenge kicking and screaming and yelling - all the way to success. What foolish creatures we humans are. :>

Crazy-Busy Day!

We had a crazy-busy day today!

The summer reading program at the local library kicked off yesterday, and I already wanted to get my siblings enrolled, but this morning it occurred to me that there was no reason Abigail couldn't register, too. It would give us activities to do together, and an excuse (or motivation!) to go to the library once a week. I texted Natalie to make sure it was okay, and she was fine with it, so Abigail and I picked up the cousins and headed off to the library.

I think it may have been her first time in a library - I forgot to ask - but she was obviously enthralled by the shelves of books. :) She is just like me - loves words and reading! Abigail was very patient as I got everyone registered - all five of them! - then we got to go hang out in the kids section.

At first she wanted to just walk around and touch and look at the books, but then we found a Dr. Seuss book that we didn't have at home - "A Wocket In My Pocket" - and we sat and read it together. She loved their little kiddie seats. :) After that, we sat on the floor by one of the shelves and pulled books off and talked about the pictures. She was especially interested in one book called "Bye-Bye Binky" about a little boy who loses his binky (she could probably sympathize - we're ALWAYS misplacing binkys and staging searches for them), then finally finds it, but decides he doesn't need it anymore, so he ties it to the end of a balloon and sends it up into the sky. I worried for a moment about the possibly "imitation" danger (I see imitation danger in all books since the binky-in-the-toilet episode) but I don't see her managing to tie a binky to a balloon any time soon. :)

After we checked out all our books, we decided to take a walk on the path that runs past the library. If I remember my local history correctly, it used to be a railroad track, which was then converted into a paved walkway which can double as a road. A lot of Amish horse and buggies use it, too. We met a friend down the path - one of Allen's mentors from his Tang Su Do dojang - and the two boys quickly outpaced us with a toddler. :) I was surprised at how well Abigail did - she walked about 1/2 mile round trip and only asked to be carried the last 50 feet or so.

By the time we got back from our walk, I was starving, so we picked up hoagies at Wawa (yay hoagiefest!) and went to a nearby park to picnic and play. Abigail was an angel - she sat beside us on the picnic table, swinging her legs and munching on apple slices. :) Then we were off to play! We played for about 30 minutes, and I was really surprised at how adventurous she was!

One day last week Abigail slept a little late and I got to get her up and dress her, since daddy had to get to work. :) I've been eyeing this adorable skirt for weeks now, and it paired up nicely with this shirt.

Sadly, we were not beach-bound that day... but we did get to go to the pool! :)

At The Playground

Since it's supposed to be 1) very hot and 2) threatening thunderstorms all week, and today dawned relatively cool, Abigail and I went off to the playground again.

I was really excited to learn that last week at gymnastics she FINALLY climbed through the tunnel they have, which she had refused to do before. She'd climbed through a tunnel on the playground with me the day before, so I'm taking partial credit. :)

I remembered my camera this time - hooray!

I enjoyed people-watching whenever Abigail was more or less stationary (swinging, or teeter-tottering, etc). The park has a 1/2 mile track running right past the playground, so lots of people were out exercising before the heat really set in. My favorite was the middle-aged lady who was singing her heart out to her Walkman, lol. We also saw a guy practicing jumprope moves. I think he saw me watching and slowed down a little so I could see. :)

We played for almost an hour and a half, and I think she could have gone on longer except she was red as a beet and I was terrified that she was getting sunburned, even though I'd SLATHERED her (and me!) in sunscreen before leaving the house. Sure enough, ten minutes in the air conditioning and she wasn't even pink.

We're so brave, going through the tunnel like a pro!

Last week she went down the slide a few times, albeit reluctantly, and she was quick to let me know when she'd had enough. This week she went down the slides a couple times, then climbed to the VERY TOP of the BIGGEST slide and said she wanted to go down. I was a little dubious, since I couldn't reach her - the slide was that big - but I caught her at the bottom and she loved it. :)

She loves all these poles that are everywhere - when you bang on them, they make a drum sort of noise, and she ran from pole to pole with a big smile on her face, making music. :)

We love the swings. :) "Up and down, back and forth, wheeee!" (Did anyone else read that book when they were growing up?)

So, funny story... Abigail has learned that if she finds a similarly-sized kid on the playground, and follows them around and watches closely, they'll show her how to do lots of cool stuff. :) Today she watched a little girl climb up these poles like a monkey, then promptly ran over and lifted herself up on the first step. I've been trying to get her to do the poles at gymnastics from day one, so I can't wait to see if this pays off.

We were riding the teeter-totter (okay, she was riding, I was standing behind her doing the bouncing) when a little girl ran up and climbed on the other seat. At first Abigail seemed a little surprised, then she started waving and bouncing harder and generally seemed excited to have found a playmate. She followed her around for the rest of the time.

I kept making her stop to drink water, which Abigail obviously thought was a complete waste of time, lol.

Abigail was contentedly exhausted for the rest of the day. :) We came home and she wanted to eat lunch, so we ate even though it was pretty early, and then she wanted to watch Pooh Bear, and she lasted through almost the entire movie all cuddled up with me on the couch, and then went down for a nap immediately and slept like a rock for three hours. :)