Piano Player

Abby loves playing the piano.

She is all about rhythm and music. We usually just open the piano and let her play but tonight I pulled out the bench and she went to town.

She wasn't very happy when she had to share with me. I hadn't played in a long time. I can't wait until I can start teaching her how to play.

Hopefully in a few years she'll still have a strong interest in music. Here is Abby's first performance for your listening pleasure.

Where is 8?

We've been working on counting with Abby. She doesn't like to repeat the numbers but go right to the next number.... except 8. She always skips eight. Abby has also started saying "Abigail." It's so cute! I might be a little biased but it's still pretty neat to hear her say such big words. I'm not sure what happened to the video... I shot it on the point'n'shot.

Absolutely incredible....

Ok, so this post is way off topic and has nothing to do with Abby or our family.

But, the Cardinals are now tied 1-1 in the 20th inning. I've been watching this game for almost 7 hours now. Yeah, not straight through, we had dinner, I played with Abby inside and outside, etc, but I've mostly been watching the game (considering both girls went to bed over 3 hours ago now!).

Why am I writing this? Well, frankly I'm kinda bored. 20 innings of baseball is a lot to watch.

So, let me catch you up to speed.

As of 30 minutes ago, it was 0-0 in the 18th. Yes, 18 innings with no runs. We had our chances, oh boy did we....we've had the bases loaded three times in extra innings alone. We even had 2nd and 3rd with no outs, but to no avail.

Then came the 19th. The Mets scored a run. I figured the game was over. How could we go 18 innings with no runs, and then magically get one just because the Mets did? Well, that's just what happened. Ludwick got a hit. Then tried to steal with Pujols up. He was out. Bummer dude. Well, then Pujols hit a double! Argh! If Ludwick didn't get caught stealing, he would have scored! Then somebody hit Pujols over to third, now two outs. And then it happened, Molina came through with a base hit! Hooray!

So, on to the 20th, that's where we are now.

Argh! The Mets just scored another run! How could this happen? Have I wasted the last 7 hours of my life on a loss in the 20th?!?

We shall see!

Frankly, the Cards don't really deserve to win. As of a couple of innings ago, they were 0 for 14 with runners in scoring position! I already mentioned three bases loaded and 2nd and 3rd with no outs!
Some stats they just put up:
To this point:
634 pitches
34 strikeouts
47 out of 50 of the available players from both teams have played in this game

I love baseball, but this is a bit much.

UPDATE: The Cards lost in the 20th. It was almost a 7 hour game. Argh....

Abby's New Swingset

A few weeks ago, we put up a playset for Lily and Asher. There was a swingset at Sam's Club that Abby's had her eye on for a while. Everytime we walk by, all we hear is "play!, play!" So, once Lily and Asher's was up, we took Abby over to see how she would do. She loved it. She figured out the ladders WAAAAY faster than we thought she would (within about 10 minutes, she could do them all on her own). So, we decided that we would get Abby the same swingset. So, last weekend, Grandpa Bo and Tim were in town. Perfect opportunity to get some help!

I picked up the swingset about a week ago. We kept it in the garage, four large boxes and a slide. It took three trips, but I got it all transported in the Vibe! (love that car!) I took a lot of lessons from putting Lily's together. One was to organize all of the wood first. So, a couple of nights before I organized the insanely large number of pieces of wood according to letter and number. This helped out a ton.

Then it was time to start building. It went up amazingly fast. We had an extra person since last time, which meant we could sort of have two crews going on two different projects. So, the build was pretty quick. Plus, it helped that we had already figured out the confusing parts of the directions before, so those parts were much quicker as well.

Finishing up the roof. This was all my project. Grandpa Bo and the girls were downtown getting his stuff for the half-marathon. Tim said I should get a job as a roofer.
Here's what it looked like at 1:00PM (we started around 8AM) Tim was just starting on the swings:
Grandpa Bo taking a break to make some awesome bubbles with Abby!
This one was at 4:00PM. Almost done! We were putting on the side rails at this point. Tim and Grandpa Tom were constructing the rock wall.

Just about done at 4:30PM!

Climbing up all on her own:


Playing with Grandpa Bo:
This thing is amazingly sturdy. It held Grandpa Tom and I just fine. And it even held Tim! He is not a small guy and it held him just fine!

Abby LOVES her new swingset. It's all she wants to do lately. She can climb all the way to the top all by herself, and get back down the ladders by herself. She does really well on the slide. She goes pretty darn fast. She's close to being able to do it herself (although I'm not sure Mommy's cool with that just yet). She will literally climb up to ride the slide down at least 10 times in a row. Then she might take a break to climb to the top, and then start all over again. She thinks the thing is pretty cool. The only thing she can't do is the rock climbing wall. We will probably end up covering up that opening for this summer. There is also a picnic table at the bottom that I'm sure will get used plenty over the years. The final plan is to fill in mulch all around the base. I'm going to try to get that done over the next couple of weeks.

1/2 Marathon Weekend

This past weekend Grandpa BoBo and his twin brother, Tim, came down to visit. BoBo brought Abby some new bubbles.

They had some fun playing outside Saturday morning while everyone else worked on the new play set.

The day was going great until, Abby got something in her eye. She freaked out and it took awhile, some eye rinsing and many cuddles from Mommy, Daddy, BoBo, and Grandma Nancy. She perked up after a while but it was definitely swollen. She kept rubbing it, but that probably just made it worse. It took her a couple of hours, but she finally started opening the eye almost like normal again. We figured that she had something in it, but it came out and left her with a scratch.

Sunday morning, she woke up swollen again. She wouldn't open the eye for about a half an hour. Once we were at the race Abby perked up.

The start of the race.

Check out that eye.

BoBo stopped at mile 6 to give Abby knucks.

Cheering at mile 13.

Great-Uncle Tim and Abby

That's BoBo in the yellow jersey, Run BoBo Run!

Playing on the swingset

Monday morning, she woke up, and wouldn't open her left eye for about 45 minutes. She ate her breakfast with her eyes closed. Dave pried it open, and her eye was rolled back in her head. In addition, she asked to go "night, night" (which she never does, especially right after waking up). So, he took the day off of work and took her to the doctor. He took a look and couldn't find anything. He then put a special dye in there and shined a black light on it to see any scratches. Luckily, he didn't see anything. But, her eyes have been incredibly sensitive to light all day. She can't go outside without her sunglasses on. And even being close to a bright window was usually too much. We kept her inside most of the day with the shades drawn. Hopefully she'll be good as new tomorrow! In the meantime check out the shades for outside time.

Easter

This is a few days late. We've had trouble getting our computer and camera to communicate, but I think the problem is now solved.

We had a wonderful Easter. Very low key. I worked in the morning but I was home by 10am, Dave made a big breakfast and Abby was ready for a nap. So she and I both napped before we left for the big party.

After naps we decided to stop at Jefferson Barracks a nearby park for some new pics.

At the party Abby had a blast finding eggs and shaking the eggs.

Taking a break on the slide

Abby with her cousin Lily and second cousins Rachel and Morgan

An Abby Update

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Between school, working on the bathroom, working outside, and taking two graduate classes, it's been a busy semester. So, I wanted to give you an update on some of the things Abby has been doing lately. So here goes.

Some of you may be wondering how Abby's blood sugar thing has been lately. She seems to mostly have gotten over it. Since we went to the specialist, she's only gotten the shakes a couple of times. She also hasn't been eating nearly as often lately. A couple months ago, she wanted to eat literally every 30 to 60 minutes. Now, we feed her three main meals with a few little snacks in between. You can say this has definitely helped our sanity.

Abby LOVES going outside. Whenever we're inside, she's constantly asking to go outside. The funny part is that she can say "outside" but doesn't say "inside." So, even when she wants to go inside (which is rare....and if she does, as soon as she gets inside, she wants to go out right away ), she stands at the door and says "outside!" It makes us laugh.

Speaking of outside, last week I helped Michael put up a swingset for Lily and Asher. We took Abby over there last friday to see how she did on it. She was able to climb up it all by herself. She still needs some help on the slide since it goes so fast, but I think she'll pick it up fast. So, yesterday, we went to Sam's Club (we've been shopping around for a while now, and like this one the best) and bought a swingset for Abby. We're hoping to construct it in the backyard next week. The only thing she won't be able to do for now is the rock climbing wall. We're planning on covering up that opening until at least the end of the summer. It has three levels to climb up (after a few attempts, she was able to figure out the ladders all on her own). There is also a picnic table at the bottom and a place for a possible sandbox.


Abby continues to say new words. It seems like she's adding a new word everyday. Everywhere we go, she talks to people around us. They're always shocked to hear she's only 16 months with all of the words she says. Her favorite new words include "bar" (for a granola bar), "whale" (Aunt Sally bought her a stuffed whale a couple weeks ago), "sorry" (she now has to say sorry when she's in trouble), "play" (whenever she sees a swingset in someone's yard, she yells out PLAY!....in fact, right this very moment, she's standing here watching me type, and seeing the swingset picture above, she immediately yelled out PLAY PLAY, OUTSIDE!....she's way too smart I tell ya), "slide," "bunny" (although for a long time we thought she was saying "money"), dirty (we've taught Abby to tell us "dirty" whenever she has a poopy diaper...she's hit or miss with it now....she always knows when she is dirty, but sometimes fails to tell us....first step towards potty training!)

Speaking of potty training. We bought her a potty, but haven't put it out yet. I think she's already ahead of where she should be. She certainly knows when she's dirty, but she's not a huge fan of getting changed lately, so she doesn't always tell us. We're planning on putting the seat in the bathroom in about a month or so and leaving it out just so she gets used to the idea. We're hoping (if she's ready) to potty train her this summer. We'll see what happens.

Abby now knows how to go into the pantry and get out a "bar." She just brought me one. Time to install baby locks, ugh! We just got rid of the baby gate on the two stairs in the kitchen (she gets up and down them fantastic now. But, now apparently it's time to add some other babyproofing.

Abby also loves water. We took a bucket of water and put it in the backyard for her to play with. She plays in that water for an hour at a time. We're currently trying to find a cheap water and sand table on craigslist for her.