Slide

Abby went down a big kid slide at the playground today all by herself. I'm really enjoying watching her learn to do new things, but I miss my little baby who just loved to be held and snuggle. Now all she wants to do is big kid things. She had a really good time at the playgroup we joined. She got to blow some bubbles (she is not quite ready to do the whole bubble wand thing - she just sticks it into her mouth). She mostly love going down the slide and back up the steps to the slide all by herself. It was a slide designed for little people like her, so it didn't involve any dangerous climbing and wasn't very steep. She had a blast.

Abby is currently cracking me up by feeding her baby fake food. The baby has one of Abby's bib spread over it and Abby says "more" after each bite she gives the doll from the little spoon. It is too precious! She has a very active imagination these days. And she is getting very good at saying "more". Maybe that wasn't the best word to teach her.

Cookie

Abby learned the most important word in a child's vocabulary today - cookie. Now she is set for life. Whatever troubles befall her, she will be able to ask for the world's greatest comfort food. She also learned how to say horse and Bible today. She is a little walking talking machine.

Another amazing development has been her recent transition to imagination based playing. For example, she's been feeding herself fake food and pretending to eat it. Today we also caught her pretending to change her dolls diaper, complete with pretending to wipe its bottom. It is amazing watching her little mind develop more and more each day. And as we watch we wonder whether we will be able to keep up with such a smart little cookie.

We had another full night of sleep, so it appears that we are finally over our illness - and just in time, since I am still feeling exhausted on a daily basis. We will see how the week plays out and will hope that she is still feeling great next week when Abby and I plan to head out to the Blind Sucker River Flooding near Grand Marais, Michigan to camp with my family and some of my mom's family. We are really looking forward to seeing aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents.

One Full Night's Sleep

We finally made it from 10:30 pm to 7:30 am without Abby waking up or getting into bed with us. Hooray!!! I'm still pretty exhausted, but it was great to actually get some sleep.

Cooking Lessons

Abby took some lessons on cooking today. She learned how to layer a perfect lasagna. She's finally on the getting better end of the cold, but she is still really clingy, so she's been doing everything I've had to do. So this morning she had to have her hair blow dried. And this afternoon, besides her nap, she's been glued right to me. And last night she made it 2 and a half whole hours in her own bed before she freaked out and needed her mom. I am going to need a vacation from sick toddlers.

We found a great deal at our Goodwill today - a Little Tikes play table for Abby. It cost her a whopping $1.50. It even has fancy pink legs. After we cleaned it Abby enjoyed her lunch from a seat at her big kid table. She is so funny about big kid things. Tonight her friend A.J. will be over to play, so they can both enjoy dinner at the big kid table.

A Yooper's First Words

A Yooper's First Words
Originally uploaded by Jen O.

Abby has learned a new word and wanted to share it with you all, especially Uncle Glenn and cousin Jack. She came up with it all on her own - I don't even recall saying hockey around her in the last few weeks. Weird....

Sick, Sick, Sick

Licking the sparkling apple juice out of my toasting glass at the wedding we attended over the weekend.
This is the "cheese" face. Hopefully we outgrow this one into one where she keeps her eyes open soon!

Poor Abby had a very long night last night. She is definitely in the middle of a bad, bad cold and was really feeling pretty bad last night. She and I ended up sleeping on the couch together so that I could keep her propped up pretty far. And she was not fun to sleep with - lots of tossing, turning, coughing, snoring, etc. I hope she is on the way to all better soon!

Abby picked out her first necklace and bracelet at Wal-Mart today. It is a rainbow heart set and boy did she think she was hot stuff wearing it around the store while I did my shopping. She certainly loves to be the boss of her own style. Today we had to switch her shirts 2 times because she changed her mind after picking out her own clothes. She finally decided upon a cute orange one, which looks great with her new jewels.

Summertime Sniffles

Thanks to Auntie Em, Abby has a case of the summertime sniffles. It isn't too bad when she's up and moving, but she is having a hard, hard time sleeping. It's pretty difficult to suck your thumb when you have to breathe through your mouth. She had to sleep with momma for part of the night so that I could prop her up enough to help her sleep. Not sleeping well creates a little grouchiness during the day for both of us.
Yesterday was a lovely day to play outside and we enjoyed it as much as possible. Abby is getting to be very, very tan. Even with spf 50 sunscreen she is already looking a lot like a native. I think she is up to about 40 words now. Today she learned piggy and horse.

Cherries, Cherries, Cherries

Abby is a nut. Yesterday she would only eat the bing cherries. Today she will only eat the rainier cherries. Why the sudden change of heart - don't ask me!

We are trying to potty train more today. So far we made an attempt that resulted in poop on the bathroom floor. Whoops! Hopefully we will have better luck for the rest of the day :-) More updates and pictures later (I hope).

Big Girl Potty

We are going to have a celebration tonight because Abby is such a big girl. After her nap today Abby went pee on the big girl potty! She did a really good job at sitting still on the potty until her business was done. We had a big cheering party after that great event and tonight we are going to have more celebrating. I hope this will be a good start to potty training.

Abby had her 15 month checkup and shots today - ouch! She was 24.5 pounds and 31 inches tall. She was in the 75th percentile for height and weight, but the doctor thought she was in the 100th percentile for smartness (no joke). He was really impressed with her 30+ word vocabulary and her ability to listen and follow directions. Plus she is a very, very good waver and had all the staff smiling after a nice wave.

We had a very quick trip down to Hastings over the weekend and attended the wedding of Steve's dental school friend Adam Mileski. His bride Anne was beautiful and Abby was on her best behavior at the reception (the wedding, not so much). She even made some new friends of her daddy's old classmates.

Traumatized

Abby just witnessed the taking of Maize's blood for a heart worm test. Thankfully there are 22 cats who live at the vet's office that helped distract her from Maize's crying and panic. I'm not sure why the vet's assistants felt the need to do the procedure in the waiting room, but at least it is done.

Now on to the fun parts - getting ready to head to Hastings :-)