It's Twenty O'Clock
For the last few weeks Abby has been waking at least once (and often two times) during each night. She just gets up and walks to my room. The first couple times she did it, there was a Gayla-shaped indention on my ceiling. She about scared me to death. I would wake up to a small face staring at me. Now I kind of hear her as she opens the door. Usually she is now waking up because she has to go to the bathroom. This is actually a very good thing! Waking up in the middle of the night from a very sound sleep has been a bit more difficult. For some reason it takes me awhile to get back to sleep. The first few times she tried some stalling tactics to avoid going back to sleep but I was too asleep to fall for any of those attempts and was able to stick to putting her back in bed. In less than a week the excuses to stay up stopped so at least now when I take her back to bed, she just goes right back to sleep.

Anytime Abby sees a clock or watch she will say "It's twenty o'clock, Mommy". I love that. One never need worry or wonder about the time. It is always twenty o'clock.

We had a very full weekend for the holiday. It was a lot of fun but we were both so tired this morning! It was hard to get up for work/school. Saturday after Cai's party, we wound up going to see Over the Hedge. We each gave it a thumbs up. I laughed out loud many times.

Sunday we had a playdate with Kris and Avery. We went to the park near their house and then walked to eat pizza afterwards. Abby was so excited that whole day. And apparently Avery was too. She called Abby on the phone just before we were leaving to go to their house. They actually had a conversation of sorts. Abby has been talking on the phone for over a year now but it has just been the last week or so that she has begun to talking on her own without me being the voice from Cyrano de Bergerac.

So finally, some pictures!





At Avery's house before heading out to the park.



Driving the firetruck.



Wheeeeee!!!!!



Avery loved this tire swing and especially loved standing up on it. Abby tried standing.



But she realized she preferred sitting to standing. :-)



Tired and full after eating dinner.

Birthdays Birthdays Everywhere

This time of year we have a lot of friends with birthdays. Last weekend Abby had a party on Saturday (her friend Kendall) and a party on Sunday (her friend Roman). This weekend she had a party yesterday (her friend Cai) and a party tomorrow (her friend Corre). Next Saturday we have a joint party for Meredith and Sam. I remember last year, every time we went to a party, Abby wanted to open the presents and blow out the candles. But this year she has the whole procedure down and gets very excited when we have a party to attend!



Blowing lots of bubbles at Kendall's party at the park.



Sliding with the birthday girl.



Playing ball with the boys.



Supervising Kendall opening her presents.



Sliding at the big jump place for Roman's party. I did not even know this place was here (it just opened a month ago). These places used to only be way out in the suburbs so it is great they have begun to open some close by! Parties at jump places guarantee great naps later because the kids get completely worn out.



Getting ready for more jumping!




Playing in the ball area at Cai's birthday party. Cai's party was also at a jump/bounce place though this one was a different one from Roman's party.



The kids loved playing in the ball area but we found out later that they were all too big to play in there. Oops. Funny thing is I can't imagine letting smaller kids in the balls because it was kind of deep and I think you would lose them!



Tired out but happy to eat pizza and ice cream! Abby fell asleep in the car about 5 minutes after we left the party and slept all the way home.

Abby loves to dress up. The other afternoon she was quietly playing in her playroom while I was folding clothes (something she normally likes to "help" me do). I went to check what she was up to as Quiet + Toddler can equal something one prefers not to deal with. But I found that she had gotten out her dress up drawer and was quite the little wizard/princess. :-) She stayed dressed like this for quite awhile. It made for some excellent twirling.

Friday night dinner
Last Friday we went to downtown Decatur http://www.decaturga.com/ to eat dinner. It was one of those nights weather forecasters dream about. Not a cloud in the sky, no humidity, and about 75 degrees. So, of course, Abby and I translate that to mean a walk to the ice cream place.



Checking out the statue.



New fake (though still quite cute) smile for the camera.



And the real smile!



Mmmmm ice cream!!!

On Mother's Day, we went to Fellini's for lunch after church. The temperature was a little cool but the sun was out so we sat outside by the fountain. Good food. The best possible lunch companion. Great Mother's Day. And it was topped off with Bob Marley playing on the loud speaker. It just doesn't get much better than that. :-)

Saturday we went to the zoo. Abby's friend, Bay, went with us. The girls were giggly and silly and had so much fun together. Fortunately, they were both very good about staying with me and I did not have to do any chasing of little girls or fishing of little girls out of, say, the gorilla area. I will say that getting 2 little ones in and out of the bathroom (many times) was hilarious.

Seeing how it is to be a lion.

Hanging out in the large bird's nest.

Wow but ostrich eggs sure are big.

Spending the day with Gigi

Friday my mom came down to spend most of the day with us. I took a vacation day and Abby stayed home from school. It is really difficult for mom to come down to visit us because she takes care of our family friend, Bryan, as well as my grandmother. So, we were very glad she was able to work it out!

Abby was just plain excited to see her grandma (Gigi). We went to the park (where I managed to forget my camera) and then went to eat at Evans Fine Foods. Evans has been around since the beginning of time. It is a diner type restaurant where they still only take cash. I remember reading a review one time where they called Evans something "straight out of Pulp Fiction" and that does pretty much sum it up. We normally go there for breakfast. In all the years I have lived here (and eaten at Evans), I had never ever eaten lunch there before. The lunch food was really good and our waiter appropriately grumpy (though Abby did win him over).

After lunch we just came back to our house. My mom helped me clean out Abby's sandbox and I filled it with the sand I bought a month ago. Abby has been happily playing in the sand ever since. I'm not sure what it is about sand and kids but whatever it is also works for adults. I love playing in the sand with her. Abby informed me I'm pretty good at building canyons. That is quite the compliment.

A couple of pictures of my two girls. Lucy is in heaven when we are all outside together.

Spirit Week
As I mentioned earlier, this week is Teacher Appreciation/Spirit Week at Abby's school. Each day we took in a little gift for the teachers (Tuesday was candle/candy day, Wednesday was gift card day, etc.). At the same time, each day was designated for some kind of dress. Monday was sports day, Tuesday was tacky day, etc. I didn't remember to get a picture of Abby on Monday but she was so cute in her Braves shirt. And such a good little Braves fan too. She was very proud to point out which team she was representing.

I did remember to get a few pictures on tacky day. When I picked her up from school that day, it just looked like all the kids were wearing their back-up clothes simultaneously. If the teachers weren't dressed the same way, I'm not sure anyone would have noticed. Here is a sampling.

A Day at Callaway
Saturday we drove down to Callaway Gardens - http://www.callawaygardens.com/. We first stopped by LaGrange and picked up our friend Vicki. In the midst of a lot of days with not so good weather, Saturday was beautiful (78 degrees and sunny). Abby was very excited to see Vicki, her dogs, Scout and Fisher, and to meet her new kitten, Gilmore. The dogs were happy to see Abby and Gilmore was more fascinated with just what Abby was. Vicki's boyfriend gave her Gilmore at Halloween so little Gilmore is still a kitten. He really cracked me up because he acted a little scared of Abby (he has never seen a little kid before) and yet he stayed very close to her just checking her out. It looked like he was saying "what IS she?"

Before she was even dressed, Abby got the things she was going to take with us and put them literally beside the front door. She was so excited!

When we first got there, we started by feeding lots of very large turtles (plus some very large and very sneaky fish). You can buy a handful of food and Abby liked throwing one tiny pellet at a time.

After lunch at the Country Kitchen (delicious food by the way), we checked out the view. Before you worry that this looks like something Michael Jackson would let his kids do, the view is very deceiving. :-) The other side of the little fence was really no drop at all as the ground was level there. The view was really pretty though!

Next we went to the butterfly exhibit. It is really cool and Abby loved walking around it. In fact, she made 3 tours around.

After the butterflies, we went to the beach for a little while. Since the official season opening isn't until Memorial Day, there were only a few people hanging about. Next time I will have to take Abby's bathing suit (or "baking suit" as she still calls it).

After the beach we headed back to the other side of the lake to watch the Birds of Prey show. We had just enough time to partake in a little ice cream snack before the show. We managed to snag a front row bench and got to see Tildon the Hawk, Willow the Owl, and Vinnie the Vulture up close and personal. My favorite was Vinnie. While we waited on the bird show, Abby did her own little parading.

Abby checking out the statue of Mrs. Callaway and her dog.

After the bird show, it was time to head home. Abby was sound asleep before we even got out of the gardens. She slept all the way back to our driveway.