More Adventures!

So this isn't really a nanny story, per se, but it was pretty funny so I thought I'd share. :) On Wednesday, I was absolutely exhausted. I don't even know why - I slept pretty well the night before, but just couldn't seem to get going. Abigail slept in and was looking tired, too, so we had a nice day in playing Play-Doh, coloring, doing puzzles, and watching what is for us a lot of TV (a whole Curious George episode followed by an episode of Sid the Science Kid, and then Pooh Bear later on that afternoon) cuddled up together on the couch. That's when I know she's really tired, when she wants to snuggle. :) Anyway, she went down for a nap at 12 and was STILL sleeping when Natalie got home. I was so jealous! So I drove home and lay down on my bed - just for a minute - and I fell asleep.

I woke up, and this is what I saw: my room was darkish (interpretation: the sun is coming up) and my alarm clock reads 7:15 (translation: I'm fifteen minutes late for work, and I haven't even left the house yet!). I panicked. I jumped up, grabbed my cell phone, and began calling Chris to apologize profusely for stupidly going to bed and not setting my alarm clock, all the while rummaging through my closet for something to wear (since, obviously, I didn't lay out clothes last night). And I'm thinking the whole time, I'm really, really tired. How can I still be this tired after 12+ hours of sleep?!

Which is when I realize that it's probably more likely that it's 7:15 PM, i.e. STILL WEDNESDAY NIGHT, instead of being 7:15 AM Thursday morning. Meanwhile, the phone is still ringing (thank God Chris didn't pick up, he'd probably have fired me as being mentally unfit to watch his baby).

I look outside my window, but I still couldn't decide if it was dawn or dusk light, so I turned off my cell phone and looked at the date. Yes, still Wednesday.

I decide to go back to bed. This time I set my alarm clock. :)

Keeping Our Cool

Natalie was going to pick up Abigail later this morning and take her to a local museum with her cousins and grandmother, so we only had half a day together. Abby wanted to go to the pool, but I didn't think we could make it there and back again in time (and plus, I didn't want to wear her out before her outing). I suggested we play outside instead. We went out through the garage and I found her tub of sand/beach toys, so I put her in her bathing suit, filled up the tub, and let her play in the front lawn. She was pretty thrilled when she figured out what was happening!


I showed her how to pour water out of the watering can and into the little watermill tower, then I took these pictures.


I turned around to put my camera on the steps of the porch, and I heard a little gasp. I turned around and saw this:

"Is the water cold, Abby?" She nodded vigorously. "Would you like to get out?" Just as vigorously, she shook her head no!

The water was frigid but it was a pretty hot and humid day so she seemed to enjoy it. I had to pull her out to get her ready to leave!

My Little Shadow

Today was so much fun!

I was sooo stiff this morning when I got up. About an hour after I got to Abby's house, she was playing play-doh and I decided to do some yoga and try to get un-stiffened. :) I moved about ten feet away onto the hardwood floor of the kitchen and began stretching.

A minute later I hear this little sound, and I glance up and Abby is watching me very intently, copying my moves. I was doing a half-moon pose at the time, and she had her little hands clasped over her head and was leaning over quite far, which surprised me since I'd have thought she'd have fallen over. :)

I smiled at her but didn't make a big fuss, and she followed me through a tree pose, downward facing dog, and child's pose. When we were done, I told her what a great job she'd done and she seemed pretty pleased with herself!

Last year I enjoyed doing impromptu yoga sessions with my sibs, usually to break up a tedious schoolday, but it never occurred to me that Abby might enjoy it, too! I'm so excited that she is showing interest - it would be exciting if this becomes something she enjoys that we could do together! :)

Summertime, And The Living Is Easy...

I'm still finding pictures that I haven't put up here yet. :)



Here's some of us both - not too many of those since I'm usually BEHIND the camera trying to coax a smile! This was at the beginning of the summer... It's funny, I never thought she looked out of place with her binky, but looking at these pictures now that more than a month has passed since she's used one, I found myself thinking "What are you DOING with a binky?!? You're too big for one!" Funny how your perspective changes.

I snapped this one on our way out the door last Thursday - AKA "The day the airplane was down on the ground, not in the sky where it belonged." :) We were heading to the pool, but we were running into the library to turn in our reading program voucher, so I put on this little ruffled white coverup I found in her drawer, and then she saw the hat and wanted to wear that, too. And it was so. cute. I actually did a little squeal of cuteness after I got her dressed, which was totally a mistake because she instantly realized that all she had to do was bat her eyes and look sweet and I'd have given her anything she asked for.

Nanny rule number one: Never let your charge see how smitten you are with them. They can smell adoration like animals can smell fear. :)

We did indeed stop at the library, and then ducked into the little coffeeshop nearby for a latte for me and a chocolate-chip cookie for her, and I got sooo many compliments on how adorable she looked. Seriously, she looked like she had stepped out of a baby magazine. :)

Pretty Crazy!!!

This is one of those moments when you just shake your head and go, "Ok, then!" And then you realize that you have no life, because your second thought is that you're going to have the most awesome nanny-blog post EVER!

This morning Abby and I were driving over to meet the cousins and go swimming; we pulled up to the main road, and I look to my left to see if I could cross to the median, and, I kid you not, an AIRPLANE is barrelling down the highway towards us! I pulled over out of the way, and the plane went past us, down the sideroad, and plowed into the woods, where it crashed between two trees.

Everyone on the highway pulled over and came running, cell phones in hand. A couple of the guys pulled the plane out of the woods, and the pilot - an older man - got out and seemed ok, was walking around and everything. I had a hunch that traffic was about to get crazy, so I went ahead and crossed the road and parked so Abby and I could see the plane (she was pretty excited about it, lol). About five minutes later, an ambulance, fire truck, and fleet of police cars pulled up, and a few minutes after that, a police helicopter started circling.

The fun part is that when everything pulled up, Abigail named them: "Airplane... fire truck... ambance... car." :)

All in all... CRAZY DAY! :) You can see pictures and the news report here.

Also, potty training is going MUCH better... She's pretty much saying "No!" to everything I ask (this morning I asked if she wanted a snack, and she yelled "No!" as if I'd told her I was going to hang her upside down by her toes) but I've learned that if I tell her we're going to go sit on the potty anyway, she doesn't fight me. This morning she was only wearing a diaper and PJ top so that made it easier to do pottying. So far we've had a great day - she's gone on the potty 4+ times and only went a little bit in her pull-up before I caught her and took her to the potty.

:)

Potty Training and Play-Doh

First, potty-training: I came back from Alabama to discover that Natalie had spent the weekend starting potty training with Abigail. From what I hear, Abigail is practically perfectly potty-trained with her 'rents, but apparently none of this new training translates over to her time with me. Even though I have been hyper-vigilant about asking her if she needs to go sit on the potty, it doesn't seem to be working. Her answer is always "Nope!" and if I try to take her to sit "just in case" she fusses and throws a tempter tantrum. I don't want this to become a power struggle... I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong. GRR! I hope I can figure it out soon!

Second - Play Doh! Whee! I've been waiting with bated breath til she was old enough to play Play-Doh, and now it's here and we're having a ball. Because, come on, you never get too old for Play-Doh. :) I'm amazed at how coordinated she is at squishing, rolling snakes, making balls, etc. She's even been "drawing" on it with the a little plastic stylus that came with it, so I'm really really hoping this is the beginning of writing. :)

Her favorite thing to make so far are these "swirlies". :)