Can't Count the Reasons

There are countless reasons that Abbey loves GMa Sharon & GPa Don.  This week, Grandpa let Abbey make a mess in the dirt help clear out some roots around his sprinklers.  Digging is something Abbey enjoys, so she was thrilled to help Grandpa.

At one point, Abbey was using the "real" shovel, and Grandpa was using the yellow shovel.  It's no wonder he is one of her favorite people!  On the way to their house, I told her that Grandpa was home (we usually don't see him until he comes home from work), and she was giddy with excitement.

Grandma provided the other fun of the afternoon, setting up a little pool for her to play in.  I think she went in and out of the water about thirty times, climbing onto and off of the porch, and playing with some of her favorite toys in the water (including the Fisher Price lion and her little Gonzo toy.)

Where was Dylan during all of this fun?  Well, we hung out on the porch for a while, swinging on Grandma's swing.  We then went into the house, fed Dylan, and both of us took a nap.  (There are countless reasons that I love my parents, too!)

Adorable summer outfit, courtesy of Aunt Jessica.  It's perfect for this hot weather.

Love the little foot propped up on the arm of the couch!

Stage Two

Babies amass a lot of stuff.  I know they don't really need all the stuff.  Something to eat, somewhere to sleep, some diapers, a soft blanket to play on the floor - those are necessities.  The rest is just icing on the cake, but I always liked the icing (flowers made out of frosting, yum!)  So my babies ended up with a little more stuff than is really necessary.  In order to keep all of it from absolutely taking over the house, I try to think of it in stages.

The first stage has been pretty well-documented here - swing, bouncy seat, playmat.  Dylan loves these things and still uses them on a daily basis.  I do think he is going to outgrow the swing and bouncy seat much younger than Abbey did, though.  I think she used them until she was at least one, but Dylan is solidly in the heavyweight category, and I don't see the shocks on the bouncer lasting that long with him!

I think I first realized he was beginning to transition to the second stage of baby gear when he didn't give me dirty looks when I put him in the bebe pod baby seat.

Then at a playgroup a week or so ago, I thought I would try to put him in an exersaucer to see how he liked that.  I thought he was a little young for it, still, so I didn't have the highest expectations, but he loved it!  We don't have an exersaucer (believe it or not), but we do have a Jumpe-roo.  This weekend, we pulled that out and tried it out.

Dylan was immediately enthralled by all of toys.  I'm sure the lights and music didn't hurt, either.

Abbey was trying to show him how to turn the music on and off.  Needless to say, that's a little beyond his ability (or interest) at the moment.

His expression here is pretty indicative of his reaction to the Jumpe-roo.  I don't think he knew what to make of it, but he knew it was a pretty groovy new adventure. 

"What do you mean I can turn myself around?  How does that work?" (He did all of the turning on his own, although he didn't figure out the jumping part of it quite yet.)

Abbey showed him how the sun spins around.  I am pretty sure she would have climbed into the seat if we would have let her!

We also brought up the high chair.  Dylan's not getting solid food yet, but he is definitely ready to sit at the table with us.  He is super social and was not happy sitting in the bouncy chair on the floor when the three of us were sitting together at the table.  Dinner is a much more pleasant experience with him in a high chair.

Hanging out at dinner

Look at this silly smile!

Stage two has been breached. Now the problem is where to put this stuff. The high chair obviously has made its way upstairs, but the Jumpe-roo is still in the basement.  I've pretty much given up hope that my house won't look like Geoffrey the Giraffe vomitted all over, but our space is limited. My head is starting to hurt just thinking about it. Our little house needs an organization make-over, stat!

Happy Victoria Day

Ok, so the only reason I even knew it was Victoria Day is because there are a lot of Canadians at Ryan's firm.  If not for that, I would have been extremely confused by the "Canadian Only" signs on the gates at the zoo this Monday.  Thankfully, they only meant currency and let us in anyway :)

Of course, it was way too hot to go to the zoo this week, but we went anyway.  Since kids are tough, they didn't seem to mind.  We ditched Dylan's shorts at lunch time and let him chill in his cute, green diaper, and he was an angel the whole time.

Abbey recently told me monkeys are his favorite animal, and it looks like she was right!

Abbey decided to take off her shoes, even if it meant riding in the stroller for a while.

The heat didn't bother my girl at all.  She is generally all smiles at the zoo.  I am constantly amazed by her energy and enthusiasm, and this day was no different.  I was pretty much marinating in my own sweat by the time I packed everything up, pushed the stroller around, and fed both of them lunch, and she was still as cute and sweet as when the day started.

We stayed at the frogs for a while.  In eighty-something degree heat, frogs that shoot freezing water out of their mouths are sanity savers.  Abbey played on them, I got my feet wet, and Dylan laughed when I drizzled some cold water on his toes.

I'm not going to lie.  I was pretty jealous of the polar bear by the time we got to the underwater tunnel.  It was one of our last stops, and I was ready to crawl into the stroller with the kids!

I Like to Move It, Move It

Warning: Cute baby tush appears in some of the following photos!

Why is this a significant picture?  Well, when I left the room for a minute to get Abbey some milk, Dylan was at least a foot away from the teether!  He's still only rolling back to belly, but he has decided that there are places to go in this world.  As you'll see in the following pictures, his method is none too graceful, but it gets the job done!

Face plant, scooch in knees, tush in the air

Now push!

It's hard work, but mission accomplished!

He's getting faster, though.  One minute he was fully on the blanket, the next he was almost to the edge of the rug.

A minute later he was on the floor.

I don't exactly remember Abbey's transition from rolling to crawling.  She was never much of a scooter, really; she would roll to get where she wanted to go.  In a way, I'm not ready for this next phase; he still seems so little to me (although I know he is a giant guy!)  It's a little strange, since he is going to be our last baby, and he seems to be moving through time so much more quickly than Abbey did.  I think it's because there is so much going on with two of them that I don't have the extra time to just sit and contemplate his every breath.  Not to mention, now I have to make sure that things like Abbey's little beads aren't just sitting around on the floor.  Thankfully, he isn't yet sticking everything and anything into his mouth. 

Accessories

They're my favorite.

hats

bows

sunglasses & shoes

tutus

Abbey loves accessories.  We went into the Forever 21 accessory store for some earrings, and let's just say that they should change the expression to "a kid in an accessory store".  She had a blast - and helped me pick out some earrings.  (I know I'm not forever twenty-one or even close.  They have cute, cheap, trendy accessories.  Don't judge me!)

Under the Big Top

Lately, Abbey likes to hang out under the dining room table.  It's fine with us, except that she sometimes wants us to hang out under there with her.  It's a tighter squeeze for those of us that are over three feet tall (keep the short jokes to yourself here, please!)  One day, she asked me if Dylan could play under the table with her.  I happily obliged by placing his bouncy seat under the table and sitting nearby so I could participate in the fun as well.

Dylan could look at Abbey all day.  He is enchanted by her.

She gets a kick out of him (most of the time). 

First they played with some toys.

Unfortunately for Dylan, Abbey's idea of playing with toys with him is to take whatever toy he is currently holding.

Fortunately, he thinks she is so hilarious that (most of the time) he just laughs at her and thinks that is part of the game.  One day he'll grab back, and I am looking forward to seeing how that plays out.  Should I not say that out loud?

Then Abbey read him a book.

Later she was showing him how she can play with her feet, too.  Dylan might be teething a bit, and one of his favorite teethers is his right foot.  I didn't take a picture of Abbey putting her foot in her mouth, because, well, she's two.

All in all, it was a successful way to entertain them on a rainy afternoon!  Who knew that playing with the same toys and reading the same books could be exciting again if those things were done under a table?

Call Grandpa

It's time to start keeping my cell phone on higher ground.  Lately (and it's happening more and more frequently), Abbey has managed to call people on my phone.  She used to want to "talk" to people on the phone but then wouldn't really say much.  Now, she really likes to talk and will spend a lot of the time on a conversation if you let her.  She also likes to walk around the house while talking, which can lead to confusion. 

The other day she was talking to Ryan on the phone while he was at work, and it seemed like she had been on the phone for a while.  I asked if she was still talking to Daddy (I thought maybe he had hung up and she was just playing), and she told me, "No, it's Grandpa."  Sure enough, she was talking to my parents.

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa, Colleen, Amanda, and anyone else who has humored her when she's figured out how to make a call!  Also, I do try to lock the phone, but it's kind of a worthless keypad lock, because it unlocks when you slide up the phone.

Walking around in the dining room and having a conversation with Grandpa.

And a picture of Dylan just because.  It's not his fault he doesn't yet have the dexterity to hold a phone.

The Round and Round

Abbey loves merry-go-rounds.  She generally calls them 'the round and round', and wants to ride every round and round she comes across.  Since Grandma Sharon and Mommy are both kind of softies for her, she gets to ride her fair share.  True story: the other day I spent $3.77 on about seven gummi worms just to break a twenty-dollar bill so I would have a dollar for her to ride a silly, three toy motorized merry-go-round.  At least Ryan appreciated the gummi worms.

Vintage Abbey (November 2009) with Grandpa Ray on the carousal at Canterbury Village.  Doesn't she look like she's having fun?

However, those aren't the round and rounds I wanted to bring up.  I'm talking about the merry-go-round that every mother knows so well.  Ok, well, I hope that every mother knows what I'm talking about, because it can't just be me, right?

In pictures, this is how a few spins of the round and round looks at our house...

These toys end up in the kitchen while I am getting lunch ready.  Not a big deal, right?  I'll just take a minute to clean them up after getting Abbey settled onto her little table with her lunch of mac and cheese.

While I'm in the kitchen for a few moments, Abbey managed to make this mess of her lunch.  You can see her on the move in the corner of the picture, milk in hand.  She's not a fan of sitting and having a leisurely meal, that's for sure!  Back to the kitchen to grab some paper towel to scoop up the food. 

During that brief span of time, Abbey has managed to find not one, but two pairs of my flip flops to play with and leave in the middle of the living room. 

I could post pictures all day, but it might start to get a little depressing.  I feel like I should be able to get more done during the day, but this merry-go-round of cleaning and mess-making is constant.  For every mess we clean up, two more arise, and that's on a good day when I am able to convince Abbey to "help" me clean.  So for those of you that stop by my house on a bad day, try to overlook the mess that has piled up that morning.  Sometimes it seems more important to jump off the round and round and play with the mess makers.

Self Portraits

AKA - Amusing a Toddler on a Rainy Afternoon

Abbey likes taking pictures. I'll let her practice flexing her photographer muscles as long as she is on the couch or the carpet. A giant problem she has is that she constantly looks at the lens. That would be fine if she wanted to take pictures of herself, but she is trying to take pictures of other things. I am trying to get her to understand that she needs to "see" her picture on the viewing screen before pressing the button, but it's not really sinking in. Maybe it's my fault for taking her picture so much; she's so used to seeing the lens side of the camera that she doesn't recognize the camera from any other perspective.

Needless to say, the great, great majority of Abbey's pictures are self portraits.  Save this post, people, these are works of art!

I had to join in the fun and get some pictures of the three of us, holed up on the couch goofing around.  Don't get me wrong, we do lots of different things in our house.  Even when we're not on the go, I try to make our days interesting.  Abbey is in a better mood when we're busy, and I can't say I blame her.  We all get a little stir-crazy if we're home for too long, but playing with the camera transformed this seemingly routine moment's rest into a fit of giggles and snuggles.

Dylan isn't sure about the flash.

Abbey is kind of obsessed with Dylan's head and his "little bit of hair".  His little bit of hair is so soft and baby-fuzz-like that I don't blame her!

This is about a moment before I had to untangle his fingers from her hair.  Dylan's a hair grabber, and he has fingers like a vise.  I think Abbey kind of gets a kick out of it, because sometimes she will kind of put her head near his hands, even when I warn her that he's on the prowl.

Dylan's face is funny here.  He looks like he's wondering what kind of madhouse he's fallen into.

No, seriously, are these girls like this all of the time?  Daddy?  Maybe I can go to work with you in the morning tomorrow?