A Day in the Life Of

I was talking to my mom this morning, regaling her with a few funny anecdotes about Abby and she asked me if I ever wrote any of them down. Weeeeellll, way back at the beginning of Abby's life, I had grand ideas about keeping a book with Abby stories and photos and achievements. I bought a beautiful album, pretty paper, and made a title page with her name and a photo of her at birth. That took about 6 months to finish. Then I started working on my PhD, training for various running races, and being a mother and I never added anything else. But I DO manage to find time to post on this blog now and then. Until now I have mostly shared photos, but I'm thinking I will start posting more stories. Blogs are nice because it takes a tenth of the time to write something down, if you make a mistake you don't have to get the whiteout, and I don't have to worry about whether or not my handwriting is good or whether the arrangement on the page is artistic enough. The moral of the story is that I'm giving up on the beautiful, handmade Abby book and am instead going to try to tell a few Abby stories here when I get the chance.

For those of you not keeping track (which of course, all of you are) Abby is now 18 months old. In fact, today is exactly the 18 month mark. To commemorate, I'd like to take you through a typical day in the life of Abby.

Abby wakes up in the morning anywhere between 7 (if I was up late the night before) and 7:45 (if I got up at 5:30 to go do a track workout). When we hear her stirring in her room, we grab her and bring her back to bed with us. She insists on bringing her blanket and her froggy with her. She likes to lay between the two of us, variously giggling, staring wistfully out the window, hitting daddy or poking mommy's eyes, and on rare occasion drifting back to sleep. Most of the time she climbs down after 15 minutes and goes over to the bookshelf to browse the paperbacks that she is not allowed to play with. If no one stops her, she picks one out and runs away with it.

After the drama of retrieving said book has subsided, she goes to the fridge and points and squeals for her milk. Or, if she's in a terrible mood, mom or dad offers her milk and she grabs it and throws it on the ground, screaming in rage ("How DARE you offer me milk when I want Lucky Charms?!). While she wanders around sipping milk, we prepare her breakfast which has been the same for the past 6 months--oatmeal sweetened with a bit of brown sugar, mixed with applesauce, and garnished with a bit of cinnamon. When it's time to eat, she climbs up into her chair. If we aren't quick enough, she starts whining and crying. Truly my child--can't WAIT to get that food in her belly. Sometimes she feels like helping to feed herself, but most of the time she lets us do the spoon work. If she gets any oatmeal on her hands or face she grunts and points at the sink. She likes to keep it clean when she's eating. If I give her the wipe she gently dabs at her face and chest and hands and legs. If any oatmeal drops on the floor or chair, she points and makes distress calls until it gets cleaned up.

After her hearty breakfast she's ready for play. Play time activities vary, but most of them involve climbing of some sort: climbing into the rocking chair and rocking, climbing onto the couch and watching cars go by, climbing into her toy bin and sorting through toys, climbing onto the kitchen table and grabbing something, anything, before mommy notices. Things that don't involve climbing include splashing around in the pool, riding her horse, pushing around her baby stroller, dancing to music, reading books, and chasing the kitties.

When she starts getting tired (which may be at 10, 1, or 4--she's currently somewhere in the limbo between one and two naps a day), she starts laying around the house on pillows or rugs. She just recently figured out how to ease herself from sitting to laying on her back--it takes a lot of stomach muscle and is apparently awesome. She also enjoys it when I spread a blanket on the floor. She gets giddy with excitement when I start waving it in the air, preparing to lay it down. When I start seeing the tired baby signs, I ask her if she's ready for a nap. She ALWAYS responds by running into her room, turning on her fan, and then waiting by the foot of her crib for me to put her in it. I wish her a nice nap, give her her froggy, and leave the room. Most of the time, she lays in there and sings/talks herself to sleep.

Most evenings, after dinner, the three of us and the dogs head to the park about a half mile away from home. Abby likes to walk the whole way, usually clutching Charlie's leash in one hand. She of course is highly distractable, mostly by cars ("Ca"), other doggies ("Da"), rocks ("Ra"), and leaves (something really complicated that I can't replicate). When we get to the park, her favorite thing to do is climb the ENORMOUS slide (seriously, it's really big) and slide down. Getting to the top requires climbing up a set of 8-10 ladder-like steps that are nearly vertical. Oh how proud she is when she gets to the top (don't worry, daddy spots her the whole way). Sliding down is second tier to climbing to the top. She also likes riding the teeter totter. On the way home, daddy usually ends up carrying her on his shoulders to prevent excessive tripping, which increases as the evening wears on.

Bedtime is at 8:30. She gets a giant cup of milk at 8:15 and then we head in to go "night-night." She likes to kiss daddy or mommy goodnight but more than anything likes to push our heads together to make US kiss. She giggles her head off every time we do it. Then she turns her fan on. She gets a couple of songs sung to her and then it's head to the pillow. Or mattress I guess. She says "ni-ni" and waves at us to leave and that's the last we hear from her until the next morning.

So, now, don't you wish you had the life of Abby??