Monday, October 31, 2011

Yesterday was Abbi's first foray into carving a pumpkin and the case of this picuture, her first experience with the inside of a pumpkin. As Jenn was cleaning it out so it could be carved she asked Abbi if she wanted to help pull the guts out. No interest from Abbi, and as you can see, she was actually quite disgusted by the thought of it.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I took this picture specifically to highlight Abbi's little braided ponytails. I'm not sure if they are any kind of specific braiding, or just braided in general. Regardless of my understand of this, I do know she looked super cute. And I like this view of her with the pumpkin in her hands. She had fun looking for a pumpkin among all the choices. She understood clearly when we told her she needed to pick one that she could cary herself, which she did.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

I love this picture of Abbi. When we were cleaning up the trailer before heading home after vacation she was in the bedroom finding different things to play with, this was one of them. She on her own put it up to her nose and made this incredibly cute face. These day (and then too) Abbi has really started to develop quite a vivid imagination about things. I commented to Jenn on the way home Sunday that Abbi was talking up a storm, and it happened to be to herself. Just having her own little conversation.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Jenn loves to buy Abbi two piece bathing suits. Each year we've gone to the beach, Jenn has made sure to have one ready for Abbi and this past summer was no exception. Here you can see our little cutie smiling away in her little two piece. Also notice the heart tattoo on her arm.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Abbi LOVED Frontier Town this past summer. I mean she LOVED it! That was the day that we devoted to her enjoyment, not that the other days weren't for the entire family to enjoy, but our trip to Frontier Town was really for Abbi. She spent the majority of her day playing in the 18 in. deep pool area that is enormous. She could go down water slides, jump off things into the water, and just lounge around if she felt like it. There's also a lazy river that we navigated a few times, but since its just sitting and floating its not the height of fun for a 2 year old. And as you can see by her smile, she had a great time.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Another month gone by and my little girl is that much bigger. This past month we had the opportunity to take Abbi to her first amusement park, and she had a fantastic time. She was slow to get started, very cautious about the rides but once she rode her first one she couldn't wait to get on all the others that were nearby. It was really cute to watch and fun to see the amusement park experience through Abbi's eyes.

As Abbi gets older, its interesting to me to see her establish opinions and routines for things. She definitely has learned behavior from Jenn and I, but at the same time, there are things that she does, that are all her. When she says bye to people, she runs up and gives them hugs around their legs and says bye, very clearly. We didn't teach her this, its just what she does. She's also a fantastic mix of both Jenn and I. She has her calm, contemplative states sometimes, which are very Jenn-like, and then she's got other moments where she is just wild. Very Drew-like. She'll run around the house for 5-10 minutes straight, just running end to end, and we wonder where all the energy comes from.

She's also become a little repeater factory. Almost anything she hears she tries to repeat it back. I shared a video the other day showing her saying the word paradiddle. She's still saying it, even though she has no clue what it means.

As for development, she's finally nailing down some colors. She's got orange, pink, green and purple all down. If you show her something that is one of those colors, she can recognize it and tell you that's what it is. She's got her numbers, up to 12 now, but she still hates 8. I'm not entirely sure why. She's tons of fun to play with, and I find myself truly enjoying the time I get to spend with her each night, doing something with her. If its playing LEGO's with her, eating pretend waffles, her helping me build a 6ft. storage rack, racing around the house, or her just sitting on my lap playing a game on the iPhone. I enjoy my time with my little girl.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Here's another picture of Abbi related to her new baby brother. Before opening the bag of Hershey kisses to photograph them, I had Abbi hold up the bag, and what I love about this picture is her smile and the words "its a boy" written on the bag. She of course loved being photographed and eating the candy!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Last night Abbi, Jenn and I were playing in the office and I asked Abbi if she could repeat the word "paradiddles". Its a percussion term for one of the basic rudiments. She repeated it back to me fantastically and then proceeded to say it numerous times. I was incredibly proud as you can imagine, so I had to get a video of her. This is her rendition of paradiddles using plastic frying pans.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Despite the fact that we are trying to educate Abbi with regards to the sex of the coming baby, she still refers to the baby as her "Baby Brudder-Si-ter" all the time. I took this picture of Abbi after we were finished with the sonogram two weeks back, and from that point have been trying to tell Abbi that he's just her Baby Brother, not sister too.

Friday, October 7, 2011

After we finished up one of the rides at Hershey Park, Jenn and I headed over to the get some lemonade. This lemonade stand happened to also sell cotton candy. Once Abbi saw it she decided she had to have it. So I told the attendant that I wanted some and he asked what color. Abbi was saying blue, but once he saw she was a girl, he offered her to choose between pink or blue. She choose pink. As soon as she had it in her hands, she started to wail because she actually wanted the blue one. So a quick switch and she was elated, and had a blue mouth, as you can see.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The other night while Jenn and I were working in the office to get it cleaned up Abbi pulled out the drum pad and started playing. She's really quite good, especially for her age and the weight of the sticks. I really hope that as she gets older she'll want to get involved in music, and hopefully she'll want to be a percussionist. There aren't enough girl percussionists in high schools these days.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

This post title is apparently Abbi's new name. We've been working with her on her last name and tonight she decided that her name was Abbi Wheel. So there you have it, introducing for the first time....Abbi Wheel. At Hershey on Saturday, Abbi had her first chance to ride the Ferris Wheel. She was a little apprehensive at first, but by the time she actually got into the car, she was fine. She loved the ride. As you can see here in the picture she was clearly happy. She talked about seeing her wheel all week and when asked what her favorite part about Hershey Park was, it was of course - the wheel.