Wednesday, November 02, 2005





So, I have a 2.5 year old. Since my last post she has become even more of the amazing little person she is. She is funny and wise. She is still an old soul. She still loves to read, play with our dog, do basically anything outside. She loves to climb anything and do everything herself. She loves her teddy bear Teddy. She loves Elmo and the Wiggles. She loves to help with basically anything I am doing.

She does have her dislikes. She dislikes wolves (fortunately, this is based only on wolves of the imaginary form). She prefers not to be anywhere close to people dressed up as characters. As a side note, the one time we saw Dora the Explorer dressed up, I was pretty scared myself as Dora was clearly a man and Dora's head was as large as Abby though Dora's body was half that size. But I digress. Abby dislikes wearing dresses.

I love trying to guess the person she is going to be.

Wow. So where to even start? We have had so much going on. Abby was in her first play at school. They did an impressive rendition of The Three Wolves. Abby was one of about eight pigs in the house made of wood. They had a confrontation with a small pack of three wolves. Abby learned ALL the lines and will still repeat them on command to this day (more than a month after the production). So, a career in the theatre for my little star? I do not know the answer to that one but I do know that she is quite good at memorizing lines. I have taught her a few more classic movie lines and she will happily repeat them. She can say "Mind you don't cut yourself Mordecai" from Raising Arizona, "Just when I thought I was out they pull me back" from the Godfather, and "what's happening hot stuff" from Sixteen Candles.



Abby is quite interested in anyone's name. And when I say anyone, I do mean anyone. It could be a news reporter on tv, a stranger in CVS, a random person out for a jog, and Abby will inevitably ask "what her name" (or "what his name" when the situation warrants)? If I say I don't know, Abby will promptly add "her name Go Go". Every single time the person's name is Go Go. The name carries over to stuffed animals, zoo animals, or dogs we meet at the park. At Abby's school, they recently acquired 2 new parakeets. Abby was the first kid there that morning and the director let her name one of the birds. Yes, that green parakeet's name is now Go Go. And a proud bird he is too!

We continue to get together with many friends. A couple of months ago we had a "mommy's night out" as I went out with 2 other friends. We hired one babysitter who came to my house and kept all 3 kids. Abby, Alec, and Avery all had a wonderful time and all 3 moms had a great dinner and even a little shopping too.

In September I had my first out of town work meeting since coming home with Abby. Oh how times have changed. I used to have about three trips a month and now I have more like one a year. I do not in any way miss all that travel. I used to wake up in a hotel and have no idea what city I was in. My friend Melanie and her family kept Abby while I made my trip to Minneapolis. I missed her like crazy but we both did fine. I was sooo excited to get home though!!! Because of a little mishap with my extra house key, our friends Rhoda and Doug had Abby at their house when I got home. Since it was after 10:00, Abby was asleep. I got her in the car and she woke up long enough to say "Hey Mommy. Where are my shoes?" :-)

Last month we went to the World Partners Adoption reunion. This was our second year to attend and it was definitely a good time! It really is incredible to see so many beautiful kids and so many happy families. We got to see friends including Charmaine and her precious daughter Jasmine (and Jasmine's grandmother). We first met them while we were still in Almaty and it is really cool to see how the kids grow and change. Both Abby and Jasmine were so very tiny then!

Last year Abby didn't really understand the whole Halloween concept but this year she was totally into it. She was a dog this year and got the chance to wear that costume quite a few times. Between the party at her school, a carnival at our church, Boo at the Zoo, two birthday parties the week of Halloween, and, of course, trick or treating, the dog costume got its fair share of wear. Heh. My poet skills do indeed still exist. Abby did opt out of wearing the costume for a couple of those events, but all in all, my cute little dog was very visible for the last several days.

We have ventured into the world of children's sports activities. Abby recently began a gymnastics class at our local YMCA. Her first class was spent in the spectator mode as she spent it largely in my lap. The second class started much the same way. But then Miss Angelica brought out the big guns - in the form of an extra cool angled mat and showed the kids how to do a flip down it. That was all it took. Abby was a full-fledged member of the class at that point. The class is pretty funny as poor Miss Angelica spends the majority of the time chasing a little boy named Nicholas all around the gym. And for the record, Nicholas quickly figured out that when Miss Angelica counted to 5, nothing happened. So his game of "I can hands down get you to chase me all around the gym" worked like a charm.

Well, I am off to find ways to recover from my Halloween candy induced coma. When will I learn? Apparently not this year. Suffice it to say that I have had my fill of the sugary stuff. At least until next year.