Show Off

Here's Abby walking down our hallway. She demonstrates how good she is at standing up on her own and walking. My little girl's growing up fast!

This is from a couple weeks ago, but Abby has recently understood the fun game of Peek-a-boo. Now she instigates it without warning so Roy and I really have to be on our toes to ask the question, "Where's Abby?" She giggles and pulls down whatever object she is holding in front of her face: gladware lids, bowls, toys, clothes, and even diapers... But her favorite places to play involve peeking around corners.

Abby's Accomplishment

Yesterday morning as I was getting ready in the bathroom, I heard little Abby screams. From right behind me. Since I had left her in the front room playing with Roy, I was a little surprised to not see Roy right next to her. She had walked all the way through the apartment and was quite pleased to announce her arrival in the bathroom. Throughout the day she walked down the hallway to the bathroom, but only when Roy or I were in there. During one bathroom visit, she discovered a few "fun" things: toilet paper and the toilet flusher. Earlier in the week she discovered that she could stand outside the bathtub and turn on the hot water. Nothing will ever be safe again...

Happy Halloween!!!

Here's how we spent our Halloween...

dressed up like pirates

eating yummy trunk-or-treat candy

crying, "ARG!"

Isn't Abby the cutest pirate you've ever seen?

The Generosity of Strangers

We live right next door to a shopping plaza so it's a nice place for Abby and I to run when we just need to get out of the house and pick up a few groceries. Such was the case today. It was a gloomy day outside, Abby had just woken up from her afternoon nap, and we'd been in all day. So when I asked Abby if she wanted to go bye-bye and she was literally shrieking with excitement and we walked outside to find it raining, I couldn't very well turn around and go back inside. That thought did cross my mind since both our umbrellas just happened to be in the car. With Roy. At school. It was only drizzling so I covered Abby's head with one of the campaign ads we got in the mail and walked as fast as possible to the covered stores (way less than 5 minutes for anyone concerned for our health). On our way back home, I checked the rain and it was going a little harder. A man in the parking lot asked me if I was okay and I responded that I was and had just been checking the rain. He offered us a ride, but since the stranger danger lessons I have learned plus the fact that we had no carseat for Abby helped me to say no. Undetered, this stranger said, "Follow me!" and ran into the discount store, grabbed an umbrella, and handed it to me with an, "I'll take care of it."

Now it is my turn to give back. To my stranger, thank you, but not just for an umbrella, but the reminder of doing good to others, friend or stranger.

FOUR!!! (Say it like you're on the golf course)

I never do these, but since Sister Funsch (aka Melissa Nielson) challenged me and I have a hard time saying no to her, here it goes:

A) Four places that I go to over and over: Shoppers, Target, the post office, church

B) Four people who e-mail me regularly: Sarah, my mom, Becky, Roy (yes, I know we're married, but we still email)

C) Four of my favorite places to eat: Olive Garden, picnics in the park, Wendys, Union Hotel (our once-a-week pizza place while we were in CA...yummy)

D) Four places I would rather be right now: I'll be honest, there's really no where I would rather be--Abby is asleep and I'm about to curl up with some chocolate and a good book

E) Four people I think will respond: Sarah, Liz, Steph, Becky and whoever else can't say no to a challenge!

F) Four TV shows I watch: We watch everything online, but I enjoy Bones, Fringe, Numbers, and The Unit

I tag Sarah Morrow, Becky, Liz, Steph, and anyone else who wants to!

Two Weeks of Catch-Up

I'm not sure how Abby got the coolest parents in the entire world, but this girl is lucky! We have had so much fun recently, but a lot of that is because she is hysterical and ready to have fun. Instead of doing a lot of writing, I'm going to tell about the fun things we have done through pictures.

Just over a week ago, Roy had an interview just two blocks from the National Zoo. So Abby and I dropped him off and went to the Zoo and Roy met us after his interview. How, you ask, did his interview go? Well, he knew it would go great when the first question was, "How much prosecution experience do you have?" Hmmm, the answer to that is none. Apparently, when Roy sent his application to work for the county civil division, it went to the prosecutor's office and since they didn't look carefully at his resume to see that he had zero criminal law experience, he got an interview. The interviewer was really nice though and they talked BYU football, which is never considered a wasted conversation!

This past weekend we went to a Fall Family Festival that was at Mount Vernon. We went on a hay ride, walked through the hay bale maze, made a corn husk doll, and listened to live music from the time of George Washington. It was a great morning!





Other exciting events include:

eating yogurt

doing the laundry

Abby refusing to eat food from a spoon and forcing Michelle and Roy to get really creative with what Abby eats (if anyone has any grand ideas of food, most especially veggies, that can be finger food, please let me know). Don't worry, the puffs container was empty, but we just thought Abby was hilarious trying to get every last drop.

and Abby getting to play guitar with Roy.

Oh, The Horror!

My sister-in-law used to be able to cut her son's fingernails when she turned on the vacuum. He was so scared of the vacuum that he would freeze and stare at it, thus making the dreaded fingernail trimming an easy experience. You would think that Abby would share some of the frozen fear of the vacuum with her cousin, but such is not the case. Yesterday during Abby's lunch, I got the floor all ready to be vacuumed. I cleaned up the toys, picked up the crumbs that were too big to be sucked up, and moved chairs and the coffee table (we now get crumbs in all sorts of good places so we have to move everything) to the other room. Then I opened the closet door where the vacuum is. During this whole process, Abby was pleasantly chatting and finishing up her food. Then the vacuum came out of the closet. Fear and terror were definitely the response, but instead of freezing, Abby began shaking her arms and screaming. Loud. I tried to calm her down to no avail. Then she refused to eat, keeping her eyes on the vacuum the whole time. Keep in mind that at no point has the vacuum been turned on. I ended up vacuuming with Abby on my hip, her face buried in my shoulder and her arms flailing throughout the horrific experience. While I wrapped the cord up when we were done, Abby stood staring at the vacuum and would start to reach for it and then pull her hand away. A couple minutes of trying led to success and she touched it, screamed, and lunged at me for a hug. Who knew the vacuum itself could be so scary?