Priceless Conversations

So much has changed in the last few months... sometimes I feel like I don't recognize my life, and especially not my Abby. It's amazing how the arrival of a seven pound baby can make a two-year-old look so big overnight! Sometimes it makes me feel a little sad to see how quickly she is growing up... One day I was watching Abby draw "letters" on her chalkboard, and I asked her "when did you get so big?" and she looked at me with total seriousness and said "Friday". Thankfully, my sleep-deprived brain was able to hold onto that one long enough to write down... along with this list of other Abby-isms from the last few months...

1. I have found out that I can have some pretty great conversations with Abby now. Here's a clip from one... At the end of the day during cuddle time, I praised Abby for making good choices all day, and I explained that that her obedience made Mommy happy. Then I asked whether she likes making people happy, expecting a "yes" response that I could use to illustrate a point about obedience... instead, I got "No, I like making pizza and ice cream and cookies." One of our favorite mother-daughter bonding activities is cooking, so I have been intentional about having lots of cooking dates lately. So she has gotten to make homemade ice cream and pizza lately.




2. Abby learned about "dress up" from her friend, Jenna, yesterday and now walks around saying "I have dress-up on, Mommy"





3. We moved Abby out of her crib into a big girl bed the week after we brought Katie home from the hospital since I would not be able to lift her in and out of the crib. The first few days were rough, with lots of conflict and tears. But she has the hang of it now. However, she often plays behind her closed door before going to sleep. The other day I heard loud tears, and when I opened the door, Abby said "dress up backward"... "dress up stuck". She had removed her clothing and attempted to put on the dress up outfit all by herself.



4. Daddy told Abby that she needs to say in bed until the sun is up in the morning. So now she greets every morning by proclaiming loudly "Daddy, suns is up!!!"

5. Eating lunch at Mimi's and Popop's house... Mimi takes a bite of Abby's chicken to encourage Abby to have a bite too. Abby suddenly hollers, "Mimi, that's Abby's. Spit it out right now!"

6. She came out of my bathroom with an issue of Sunset magazine she found in a basket by the toilet, saying "I want to go swimming here, Mommy"... on the cover was a breathtakingly gorgeous resort swimming pool. Me too!

7. One night as I was running out the door, leaving Abby with Jake for the evening, I told him that she had eaten a fabulous dinner. The next morning we found salmon and broccoli in the bin of dog food.

8. When Katie cries, Abby sometimes says "what you need, Katie?"

9. When first home from the hospital, I had to tell Abby quite often that I could not pick her up because I had an "owie" on my tummy. At first she seemed upset that I could pick up Katie, but not her, so I went a step further by showing her my c-section scar so that she might understand even better. From then on, Abby constantly told us & strangers in stores that she had an "owie" as she lifted up her shirt to show them her tummy, saying "see, it's right here".

10. Abby does not miss a thing in my caring for Katie, as clearly demonstrated by her carrying her baby down the hall, patting her back, saying "don't cry sweetheart, I gotcha" or telling her baby every morning "good morning, sweetheart"

11. One day she walked into our office and looked at a pile of Jake's paperwork stacked on the floor and said, "what happened here?"

12. Instead of constantly saying "why" like a lot of kids do, Abby says "what doing?" and "what happened?" constantly... and I do mean constantly.

13. Abby sings twinkle twinkle constantly. Her favorite.

14. She is obsessed with Jake's shoes. She always tells him to wear his "chacos"... it kind of hurts my feelings that he will actually remove whatever shoes he is already wearing and replace them with whatever she suggests... he never did that for me! So I have been contemplating setting Abby up with a nice pair of preppy leather sandals for her to reccomend to Jake... I have had no luck so far!