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...