Three and half! How is my little girl that old!? It doesn't makes sense. Every day that goes by I just watch her, and listen to her, and seeing her grow up really is awesome. I'm proud to be her dad, and she makes me feel that way pretty much every day.

Abbi continues to impress Jenn and I on a regular basis. She's becoming more of a little woman each day, and unfortunately small "toddler" things she does are fading away into more "kid" things. Example, the other night I noticed that she no longer calls the TV the "T-T". She's finally figured out how to get that "V" in their. Its those small things, like her calling a princess "prin-tha", that she doesn't do anymore and every time you hear her talk the right way, you remember just big she's getting.

She's incredibly sweet at time to Cole, and others, I swear shes trying to get away with anything she can. Its really hard as her dad too. I get that she wants our attention, but its so hard to divide up our attention between two kids. One who needs our attention to meet his basic needs, and the other who needs our attention to meet her emotional needs. I'm not shorting the emotional part all, its just really difficult to try and balance those two. And after all, the point about writing here is to provide a fathers perspective on things.

Abbi recently had her first dentist visit and did fantastically. Jenn took her to see the same dentist that we have been seeing for the last 9 years, and after watching Jenn go first, Abbi went and did great. Wasn't scared, didn't wiggle to death, just did great. It makes me incredibly happy to think (at least for now) that she's not terrified of the dentist. Both Jenn and I hate going, so hopefully, through some miracle, she won't gain that irrational fear.

This being the half way point between 3 and 4 earlier this month we celebrated Abbi's half birthday by letting her choose Sunday, post-church lunch. She loves her some Five Guys. She gets fries, peanuts and a hot dog. Probably Abbi's perfect meal. It was good to celebrate half way, especially since I think its going to be a little hard for her next month when we celebrate Cole's first birthday and its all about him.

Abbi 3.6 Years

Jenn and I commented when Cole turned 11 months old, that not a lot had changed. And its true, there haven't been a ton of changes in the past month. I wrote last month about his teeth, and we do have some development there. One day we noticed he had two HUGE mounds in the back of his mouth, on the bottom. He's working on pushing out two molars right now, and at times is in considerable pain. Poor little guy.

Cole's personality is still the same, happy go lucky. I think he's in love with our pots and pans. I don't know its the red color, or the fact that they are always there waiting for him, but he's clearly in love. If you put him down on the ground, he immediately crawls toward the kitchen and gets out the pots and pans.

We've been working with him on trying to walk, but that hasn't taken hold to well with him. Sometimes he'll take a step with great assistance, but usually he's content to simply crawl where he wants to go. The crazy part is that when Abbi was his age, she was walking at this point.

Cole really does seem to enjoy playing alone. He seems very content to play with Abbi's toys that are laying around, or his own toys. He has a penchant for eating cardboard, so we are ever vigilant to ensure that he doesn't do that to much. But its almost as if he'd prefer to play alone. Another major difference between Cole and Abbi.

Jenn and I are eagerly looking forward to and planning Cole's first birthday celebration. One thing I'm sure of is that boy will devour his cake, and I can't wait to see it happen!

Cole 11 Months

Cole is obsessed with the mini-vacuum we have. We use it to clean up little things, and to try and stay on top of the dog hair. So he see it regularly, and LOVES it. The other night I had it out and he showed determined interest in it, so I handed it to him. He spent a minute or so trying to figure out how to get it to work, and then just kinda played with it. The vacuum and our cooking pans are this boys favorite toys some days.

Vacuum Boy

This is my kid. I love that she found my hat and used it to style herself up. This fashion statement was all Abbi and she looks super cute. My hat, and Jenn's scarf.

My Girl

Abbi was all set Saturday when we went out. She had her Ravens sweatshirt, glamour skirt, the unseen leggings and I'm sure she had on sparkly shoes. The real pinnacle of this fashion statement is the giant orange Orioles hat. Jenn and her got the hats at the Mother's Day Orioles game last year. She looks incredibly cute.

Gussied Up

Over the weekend I decided to spike Cole's hair. This isn't, nor will it be the last time, but it was the first time I got a decent picture of it. He didn't seem to care either way how his hair was styled.

Spike

Cole seemed to enjoy his first experience with the snow a few weeks back when it snowed. He wasn't outside to long, but he did enjoy his time while he was out there. I hope we get enough snow for him to be able to actually go out and play, but we'll see what happens.

First Snow

This is Ab these days. Crazy. Almost all the time. I love the abundance of personality that this little girl has!

Crazy Face

New Years day this year I was out in the garage waxing Jenn's new car. Abbi of course wanted to come outside and be there too. She like that. If I'm outside, she wants to be there too. Which is pretty awesome. Its nice to be able to spend the time with her. So a few days ago, once the wax was on the car, it needed to set up. So Abbi and I went for a walk. Which ended down at the pier of the yacht yard at the end of our street. At one point while I was taking a picture she sat down on the pier, and i snapped this picture of her. To help remember another awesome daddy-daughter adventure.

New Years

Cole got to go outside and experience his first snow last weekend. Thankfully we got the kids out in the snow before it all stopped and eventually melted by the end of the day. Cole seemed to like the snow well enough. The snow did bring to light the fact that we don't currently have a snow suit or anything like that for Cole to wear. Jenn was able to put together this protective wrapping on the fly for him!

Snow Baby