Forgot Some

Mommy, watch this!
Daddy, watch me!
Watch what I can do!
Watch me!
(followed by a feat of unbelievable talent, such as putting her tooth in the end of a straw or holding her first two fingers in scissor fashion to hold her lips apart or spinning around with her leg in the air or jumping onto her bed. Very precious talent indeed)

Daddy, that hurts my ears. I don't want it on. (about football)

My legs don't work- see? (when she doesn't want to walk but be held, with a show of walking slowly with her knees bent 90 degrees)

Playing pretend

Abigail is really into playing pretend these days. It's great. I love listening to her tell the dolls and animals and toys what to do. I went in her room one day and she was putting all her animals to sleep with the 'learning blanket.'

(Adding in an Abigail for good measure)

The only thing about the pretend- I'm getting the impression that I call her 'honey' and 'dear' too often. She is saying things like "Oh Honey, it's time for a nap." and "What Dear?" It is really cute when she says it. But I think if I heard myself I might be really annoyed!

Here are some interesting things Abigail has told us recently:

While talking about likes and dislikes as far as chocolate milk, regular milk, and water goes.
"I like everything I want"

"Our mouths are glued on so we can talk"

Abigail, what is your favorite food?
"Peanut butter and jelly, bread, and butter." (not all together)

Abigail saw the butter on the table at Thanksgiving.
"Can I have some bread with my butter?" ew.

(context: Abigail does ask why, but she's not in the 'why about everything' stage)
We turned on the TV to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade and a giant Abby Cadabby was floating along.
Look Abigail, it's Abby Caddabby!
"Why is that?"
(I'm a little flustered as to what question she is actually trying to ask here) Well, that's a big balloon. See the people holding the strings? They are holding her and walking along.
"Why?"
I tried a few more times, but she just didn't understand why that big balloon was there. I finally had to tell her I didn't know and leave it at that. Why do they carry big balloons through the city?

Courtney- I think she got this one from you. She usually says this when I'm laughing real hard.
"Are you serious Mommy. "

(I'm not very excited about picking out our Christmas tree- even though this is the first year we've done it. You see, we are the first customers and none of the trees are unwrapped yet (except this one) and all these boy scouts are moping around and some people are looking at me. They do have a cool giant inflatable gorilla though)

(I'm a little more excited now- about the tree and the fact that Mommy let me sit on the roof. And we also get to 'make Christmas.' I saw the Christmas boxes and I'm really excited to get the ornaments out.)

(Best 30 cents Mommy has ever spent. She went to the dollar store last February and got three sheets of Christmas window clings. I think they're really great)

The twenty step guide to going to bed

by Abigail

1. Brush teeth
2. Comb hair (sometimes not though, since my hair is curly)
3. Get my vitamin, make sure it's a lion vitamin. If not, ask why
4. Go potty
5. Put on PJs
6. Get blankie, hide in one of my favorite spots
7. Wait for Daddy or Mommy to find me again
8. As I'm being picked up, leave my blankie
9. Yell "No! My blankie!" because I left my blankie
10. Try to climb on Daddy's back until he says that now is not the time
11. Let Daddy or Mommy start to pray
12. Interrupt in loud whisper "ELSIE! And Ava and Cohen!" (Insert names of all my friends in rotation. They need to be prayed for and I'm pretty sure Mommy and Daddy would forget if I didn't remind them)
13. Hug Mommy
14. Ask for sandwhich hug
15. Hug Daddy
16. Ask for another sandwhich hug
(Sometimes here I add a "whisper, whisper" for both ears for both mom and dad. This involves pressing my cheek to theirs, looking the same direction, and loudly whispering, "whisper whisper!" Mommy and Daddy aren't sure where I got this habit. Other times I add a special kiss for each, several times)
17. Say "Watch what I can do!!" and run to side of bed. Stand on edge of bed and jump onto my knees with my head at pillow. A jump for James! And sometimes another one for Jonathan
18. Get my covers on, make sure they are straight and covering all the way to the side of the bed
19. Ask if all my friends and their blankies are sleeping
20. Ask if Mommy and Daddy will be coming back in and they remind me that they won't be
(sometimes here I say "See you later!" and become quite upset if they don't say the same words back to me)

I hope you can sleep better now!

Halloween, etc

I'm told that some people don't like to hear all about other people's children- their antics, how they pronounce words, and what happened at the zoo today. I'm assuming that if you are reading this you are like me- you think children are pretty funny and love hearing those stories, even though you've heard them about other children many times before. But, I feel the need to write this every once in a while, just in case someone stumbles across here and thinks that I'm crazy for thinking anyone wants to hear all this: I'm writing this for those who care and I'm not offended if you don't! I'd love to read about your children and, sometimes, maybe even about YOUR antics too!

That said, I have to share these pronunciations.

Abigail and I watched a Pippi Longstocking movie a couple of months ago. She kept calling Pippi, "Kippy" and couldn't seem to pronounce Pippi right, despite repeated attempts. Well, thats fine. A few days ago however, when Abigail became excited about something, she started saying, 'Yea! Kip-PEE!" It's so precious. That, coupled with, "Knee-haw!" (we never say ye-haw, but I'm guessing what this is derived from- though it sounds very much like the Mandarin Chinese hello, Ni Hao ), is delightfully exclaimed many times a day in our house.

Our annual "on the bench with our pumpkin" picture

to see previous years, click here

This is for all of you who think Abigail just smiles all the time and is really easy to take pictures of. Here is a face I see a lot!

For Halloween Abigail dressed up as Shirley Temple! I realized that a little girl in a pretty dress doesn't necessarily look like anyone, so here is the picture to compare :)

We had a Halloween dress-up playgroup at the zoo! (no I didn't torture her, it was in the 70s that day!)

Too funny not to share
One of our pumpkins started to rot this year, so we cut out that part and then decided what to make (I think you can tell which one that is). For the other pumpkin, Abigail picked out a template. I'm really curious to see if you know what it is before I tell you though, so look at it first.
Abigail said she wanted a kitty face and I found a website with some cat options, this was one of them. Abigail LOVES the Lion King movie and so when she saw a template of Scar, she had to have it :). I told her that it might be a little scary but she was alright with it. She kept saying, "Scarf might be a little scary when he's glowing!"

Pumpkin Patch Merriment

This year we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends again. Here are some pictures from the trip.

heading in

the oh-so-important family picture (I warn Jake before going that I have to have one while we are there)

The annual kids picture

This is the first year we have had a picture with all of us!

this one is too heavy!

This one looks right!

Mommy Daughter Pumpkin

Best Buds

We had a great time, but it was a little sad since we probably won't all be together again next year.