"Abby, too."

Our annual home school Valentine's Party was last Friday. The day before the party the girls wrote out their Valentines, and I gathered their bags that they would be receiving Valentines in.

Abby saw me redecorating Emma's bag, and she right away wanted a bag of HER own. She ran up to my bedroom closet and found a gift bag. She brought it to me, and I asked her if she wanted a bag, too. Well, of COURSE she did!

Here is Abby with her bag. She has been carrying it around for days and filling it with all manner of items from Valentines to buckets to Avon Soap. ☺

Note:  Abby just came by me while I was creating this post, and she exclaimed, "My bag! I see my bag!"
So cute!!

Even two year-olds like Pandora...

...provided you make them a Blue's Clues station. ☺ Abby saw one of her big sisters listening to Pandora Radio during school, and as soon as her sister took off those headphones Abby jumped at the opportunity to try them out for herself. So I created a radio station of children's music for Abby, and she sat in the brown chair and listened for 15 minutes--which is almost an eternity in toddler years. ;-)

Abby's 2nd birthday

On Sunday, December 12 Abigail celebrated 2 years of life. We were to have a birthday party for her on Saturday with my parents and David's parents, but unfortunately God predetermined for southern Minnesota to experience a massive blizzard that day. Instead we tried for Sunday. Well, the roads were still nasty so no party that day either.

But being as it WAS her birthday, and church was cancelled due to the storm, we decided to gather with David's parents at their place and have cake and ice cream and open gifts. Admittedly it was difficult to even get out of our driveway. Perseverance!

Since Abby LOVES babies I ordered her a baby cake.



 She of course was thrilled with the baby on her cake.

 Name one child who DOESN'T prematurely sample their cake? ;-)

 Abby with her new purse from Gram-gram. Abby has to make sure that she has the wallet with her purse at all times.

 David and I gave Abby a baby. She sleeps with it every night.

 ~
A few days later, once the roads were back to winter "normal" I took the girls to my mom's place. There Abby opened gifts from my mom and step-dad.

 Mom gave Abby a Pillow Pet.

Abby also received a figurine of a girl holding a number 2. Abby likes holding the little girl and inspecting her.

~~

I know every parent says this, but it really is amazing how quickly children grow up. They advance from being little stoic lumps to crawling and then running and talking in such a short span of time. And when they begin to speak they have such cute little voices. (Except when you have to listen to them shout "NO!" for about the 37th time that day...) Pretty soon they're telling you stories and asking you to paint their faces "like a chipmunk".

Speaking of which, I have to go draw a chameleon on Paige's face. ☺ Toodles!

Abby's biggest fan

Yesterday I took the girls swimming again at Flandrau State Park. We met our friends there--Lisa and her 4 children. Lisa's 2 year-old son Daniel seems to have a taken a shine to Abby. One day while we were at their house Abby had a toy that Daniel wanted badly. He tried to take it from her several times, and Abby would respond "Hey!" and then push him away. Daniel must have had enough because after a final rejection he tried a different tactic: he kissed her. ☺ Abby looked stunned! It was so sweet AND so funny.

Yesterday then the two of them played nicely in the sand together. Except Daniel kept pouring sand and water down Abby's back. I guess that's a toddler form of affection? ☺ She didn't mind it one bit though. In this picture you can see her back with sand on it, and there is Daniel--ready to do it again. ☺

And here is a parting shot of Paige and Daniel.

Baby bragger

I have been steadily teaching Abby her body parts. This is something that my mom used to do with my other kids, and so I started it with Abby. "Where is your eye?" I ask her, and then I point to her eye. We do eye, nose, ear, and mouth. Abby loves this! She smiles the entire time. ☺ Yesterday I asked Abby, "Where is your mouth?" And she immediately pointed to her mouth! Oh, it was so exciting. Of course repeated tries produced no similar responses, but she did it once so I'm proud.

I've never had a flavor they didn't like

Four babies. Three cats. Copious amounts of cat food. You see where this is going, right? All babies love to eat the pet food. They're like moths to the flame; they can't stay away. This morning I took Abigail down to the basement with me so I could put a load of laundry into the washer. I set her down, and instantly she was gone. Where? Well over to the kitty dishes, of course. I fed the cats when Abby and I first got downstairs, and so all three were hunched over their food bowls, chowin' away. Now maybe it's the fact that cats are about the same size as crawling infants, and that gives the babies the idea that, "Hey, those furry things are eating those little chunks, and they seem to like them. I better try them, too." I pulled several pieces out of Abby's mouth, and then I emptied her hands. I walked away, looked back at Abigail, and she was chewing on something AGAIN! Three times this happened, before finally I took her upstairs.

I will have to send a letter to the Science Diet company and let them know that their Hairball Formula is not only enjoyed by felines, but humans as well. ☺