Rainy Day

It was rainy here last week and we spent lots of time inside looking out. This guy started crawling on all fours instead of the commando scoot style he's used to.

And this girl made more "tall towers" than you can imagine. Good thing their birthdays are coming up... these toys are getting old!

521. a delicious movie night out
522. anticipation of date night
523. dance party with abby

Lady, The Bug

Welcome to the back yard that is home to Ladybug land. Honestly. If Abby and I sit still long enough (and Ford is asleep), we will see 5 ladybugs at a time crawling on the grass around us. She finds one, it flies away, and there are many more just begging to be picked up.

At first she let them crawl up her fingers but after awhile she started grabbing them, picking them up and placing them on her shirt. One in particular must have been an incredibly old ladybug because she refused to fly away after way too much man handling. Abby brought her inside and would not let her go even when we drove to a playdate.

She was really quiet for most of the drive and I finally asked her, "How is lady doing?" She whispered that she was doing great, even without her wings. Internally I was screaming "whaaaaaat?!" but I calmly said "Um. Did you pull her wings off?" This of course lead to an explanation about how this could hurt her and then tears from Abby, "I never meant to hurt her!" Oh dear.

This is pretty much how things have been going lately with our almost three year old. Challenge after challenge seems to fill our day. It's all pretty.... emotional.  I'm not sure how many more definitive absolute statements I can handle ("I do not like going there!", "She is not my friend!", "Ewww! I hate broccoli!") Mercy. We need some mercy.

And that is the story of Lady, the bug. She died in very comfortable carseat with no wings. Poor thing.

Well, at least we got her picture.

518. pounding chicken without a cutting board
519. chocolate incentives
520. time for Easter prep

Lizard Chasing

Since Red was outside chasing lizards, Ford decided that he wanted to, also. He couldn't compete with Red's deftness in opening screen doors and in his fancy footwork once outside. But he sure loved to watch...

Oh boy. Isn't he getting big?

And when he isn't chasing lizards, he's trying to drop his afternoon nap (on most days) and crashes in the early evening because i torture him, keeping him up till 8pm so he'll sleep till 7am. Here are my boys...

513. A husband who knows who's cheese is who's.
514. A husband who knows who's milk is who's.
515. A husband who knows who's crackers are who's.
516. Winnie The Pooh soundtrack
517. laughing while playing "store"

The Great Apple Toss

We found an apple outside that Daddy didn't eat when he was outside doing one of the zillion projects that he works on over the weekends and suddenly we were enjoying The Great Apple Toss. It was pretty nasty anyway...so Abby decided tossing it and watching Red chase it (and then eat it) was the best way to spend the morning.

Besides, in these kicks, a girl can do anything, right? Superpowers included.

I mentioned the over day, as i counted my blessings, that we had a fairly unemotional day a few days ago. After 3 days of Abby acting overly emotional (the asparagus is touching my pasta!) Things seemed to have mellowed out. That, or she's feeling better and getting therapy behind my back. Or, maybe it's the Yo Gabba Gabba guys at her side at all times now...

She literally said to me today, "Mom. I was just trying to write an email and bunny came in and pushed all the buttons on my computer." The mimicking has begun.

 510. playtime at the neighbors house
511. daylight savings time getting us a bit later sleep
512. softball games of dear friends

"I Like To Dance!"

Oh, Lord help me. Yo Gabba Gabba has entered our house. I pray it leaves quickly. Why in the world this show does not give nightmares is beyond me. Quite the opposite, really. Screaming, yelling, hopping...all in the name of DJ Lance Rock. If you don't know who that is, be thankful. Be very thankful. One of the things he likes to say is, "It's time to dance!" Abby loves this. She dances. She giggles. She...goes crazy. Truly.

 And then Grandma and Papa had to go and get her the dolls from the show. They go everywhere with us now, clutched in her sweaty palms. Except when she thinks "some kids are gonna take 'em." Oh boy. Where does she learn this stuff?

And then there's this little man. Growing like a weed.

Standing everywhere everything now....

and I've almost quit having a heart attack when he stands near all of the hard corners, edges and floors that this house is made of.  The boy is fearless, curious and very, very loud. We love him anyway.

506. leftover carrot cake
507. movie night with just me and abby
508. i'll say it everyday until it gets above 90. spring, spring, spring. i love it.
509. poignant bsf moments

Stomach Bug

Have you ever prayed for the stomach flu? Yeah, us either... except that we thought for about 24 hours that it was appendicitis. And when you think it's appendicitis, the stomach flu is a dream. It was a weird one -- tummy pain for 6 days straight and arrived the day Grandma and Grandpa came. It was cold outside during their visit too and we all had cabin fever after a few days.

Here she is in her new favorite Harajuku Mini t-shirt in a rare moment of feeling okay (and therefore not watching television).

The rest of the time, she was planted firmly on the couch, bowl next to her, with bunny and her blankie. Whew.

And magically, on Grandma and Grandpa's last day, she was feeling so good we were able to go to the park. Swinging on the big girl swing...

Exploring with Grandma and taking things slowly...

And Fordy's first true swing. Happy guy!

503. so very, very thankful that none of us got her bug!
504. the guest room being re-made before the guests were even out the door
505. getting outside and regaining some sanity

The Darnest Things

Ahhh. I got an extra 5 minutes today during nap time to finely chop my pecans for this recipe. I'll let you know how it goes. I should've realized their name was PG-13...Abby loves to say, "Mom! Are you making "Knock You Naked Brownies?!"

And then she giggles.

 Two other things she says recently make me giggle. She'll jump around the room doing a crazy skip hop move and say (after I've seen her do it 906 times) "Mom! Have you ever seen anyone do this before?!" Of course I say no. Perhaps that doesn't count as a lie, Lord? Hmmmm. We'll have to ruminate on that one. But I promise I never let her win at Go Fish just because she's two. I really don't. Ever.

 And the other thing is her saying, "not me!" For instance... we were leaving Trader Joe's today (our home away from home!) and she said, "Mom, did you forget the kale?" I said, "Actually, I did, Abby. Oh, I love Kale. What made you think of that?" "NOT ME! I DO NOT LIKE KALE." Okeedokee. That settles that. She does this throughout the day. I think it must be another way to say "No!" which has recently resulted in many hide tannings when she screams it at her brother.

 OH, kids. They say the darndest...well, you knew that.

 Here's Abby "helping" with the front yard work we did recently. Dirty toes make all the difference.

 499. bare feet and sunshine
500. all the doors open like it's summer
501. making it to church on time
502. a fairly non-dramatic day