personality

No shortage of personality chez nous these days.... Abigail is loathe to be interrupted if she is in the middle of something, like reading a book or feeding doll Betsy or Po. "I just wanna finish this mommy." "Papa, I'm busy doing something." Some of the time we roll with the delayed timing, other times when we need to move things along we engage in major negotiations. Toddlers generally have such short attention spans, yet remarkable patience to continue intense negotiations when they want to keep feeding play-doh to Elmo at breakfast time.

And tonight as Abigail was going to sleep we hear over the monitor . . . "Mama, there's a hair in my mouth.... Mama, there's a hair in my mouth ... Please help me." Was the hair for real? Probably. Bedtime stalling? Maybe. But who could resist?

happy friday

Abigail's bulbous Friday hairdo.

Getting Po and Bunny's day off to a good start with "breakfast" in their "bed".

A is momentarily distracted by her feet.

It's only 7:30am - what next?!

sing sing sing

Lately, Abigail spends lots and lots of time singing. All sorts of songs . . . Oh My Darlin', ABC's, Old MacDonald, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Baa Baa Black Sheep . . . the list goes on.

Some blog readers will remember a recent failed attempt to capture the ABC's on film. When Grandma was in town, she got it! With piano accompaniment no less!

Also, wishing Dee Dee a very speedy recovery!! Abigail loved singing the ABC's to you over the phone last weekend!

visitors

Guess who came to visit?
Uncle Dan!

And Grandma!

Many adventures and silly times were had by all.... Lots of baby room sorting and various house projects, wake-ups every morning with Abigail asking about and wanting to see Grandma and Uncle Dan, PhD-ing by Dan, date night for Sarah & Jamie, lots of Grandma-Abby time at home . . . and an earthquake to top it all off (Abigail slept through it, everyone else woke up with various theories about what that was!)

A not often seen view of Abigail's hair loose and straight. Getting your hair done is serious business.

And we went to a play - Abigail's first - a performance of "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" . . . a pretty good experience, but contrary to pre-theater research, it seems it may have been aimed at an age group slightly older than Abigail...some scary moments not found in the book!

lotus

We made a return trip to see the lotus flowers again this year!

Hey, is someone making a silly face?

That's more like it...

We saw many pretty pink flowers....

And lots of butterflies too.

Abby and Mommy captured on film with funny facial expressions....

Lah dee dah. Abigail sure is bigger than last time we were here!

Checkin' out the blooms.

This was fun - velcro marsh animals that stick to the walls! (This was fun last year too!)

Bye bye birdie.... see you again next year?

this and that

What have we been up to, you ask?
Well, making banana muffins for starters....

Taking long walks in the neighborhood with Buzzy Bee.

And swinging at the playground (while singing along to the chorus of "Happy Birthday" being sung at the park shelter behind us - the birthday party of strangers that we were not invited to)....

5th of july

Thank goodness for a day off on the 5th of July after all of the 4th of July festivities!

Papa and Abby held down the fort at home and had lots of adventures over the weekend while Mommy went to Vermont to celebrate Sarah & John and see lots of friends. ... turns out that a wedding party 4 years after wedding bells ring is pretty darn fun. Especially when it is Sarah & John hosting! So, after mommy returned home on the 4th of July it was nice to wake up to a day off on Monday. With the temperatures rising, we were up and outside early while it was still relatively "cool".

Abigail surveys the scene from the treehouse.

Hops down the stump path.

Takes the watering can on a visit to the gnome's home.

And generally just acts pretty silly.

When the fun turns to pretend naps in the shade at 10am, you know that it's time to get back to the air conditioning.

goings on

Lots of fun times here lately . . . Abigail likes her new water bottle that Mommy brought her from Colorado. She's a big girl.

Po gets a check-up. During this visit to the doctor Po also got weighed on the scale - Abigail's real-life doctor's office phobia - but when asked whether Abby stands on the scale at the doctor's office she nonchalantly replied, "Yes." Revisionist history? Hopeful outcome at our next doctor's visit? Only time will tell.

Good patient, good doctor.

We attempt to stay cool at our early morning zoo visit by standing in the cool misty spray thing.

Two thumbs up from two-year old toddler and pregnant mommy. Why don't they have these things everywhere??

Abby recently re-thought her stance on dresses. It used to be "Abby no like to wear dresses." Now, apparently some are okay! Like this one from Uncle Dan and Aunt Anna....

And a second dress on Abigail, worn for an entire day!

Abigail chows down on her first corn on the cob.

After polishing off the first ear, Abby was on to another one.

abc's

Mommy was away in Colorado all week and missed Abigail (and Jamie) very much! So it was a treat (for mommy) to have a 6 am wake up call this morning from Abigail who was lying in bed singing the ABCs over and over. Later in the morning, we tried capturing the ABCs on film, but life interfered. We remain in pursuit of the full-version alphabet in video form.....

".... next time won't you sing with me!?"

ikea

We are slowly but surely transforming the room formerly known as the "office" into a "baby room" in anticipation of our soon-to-arrive new family member. (But we are not yet calling it the "baby room" or anything along those lines, for fear that could inspire some negative 2-year-old emotions given that many of her things are migrating into this room. Crib and changing table, we are talking about you.)

This room transformation involved a trip to IKEA last weekend . . . Abigail had a blast riding in the funny euro-carts, jumping on beds, sliding down slides, eating Swedish meatballs, asking a million questions, and helping us pick out this couch:

We hope Abigail is this happy when there are sleep deprived parents and a screaming infant sitting next to her on the couch!

Abby starts to think about mischief.

New couches are lots of fun.