A-BBY

I saw a blogger recently showing her daughter close to Abby's age spelling her name and wanted to see if Abby could spell her name too. We have a very simple version of spelling, but she can totally do it. It is just amazing to me how spelling it for her in the bathtub less than 10 times can lead to her knowing it. I can just look at her now and say A and she'll give me the B-B-Y right back.

I love how happy she gets spelling it for me- she knows it makes me smile which makes her happy. Sweet girl!

Halloween Fun

This is our little Wonder Woman for her school costume day. I just couldn't put her in Foofa and risk random food arriving 2 days before Halloween on her sweet costume. She makes a cute WW. Sorry for the photo quality and sweet girls rockin' updo, I was out of town and Daddy made do with limited cosmetology skills and a cell phone camera.

Speaking of sweet and Daddy, isn't he going to make a cool DJ Lance Rock for Halloween. It goes perfectly with Foofa and will be great to wear again at Yo Gabba Gabba Live in December. I love that my husband will dress this silly for Abby. I'll be Trick or Treating as a tired lame Mom.

Abby had a small class of kids today since many left early. She ate Halloween treats with her buddies Ben and Levi. They took her out of WW this morning to make sure it was safe for Sunday night. ha!

Happy Halloween Double Eve! We have fun activities all weekend- Marcus is juggling at our church fall fair tonight, tomorrow is a costume party at our local Barnes and Noble storytime where Marcus is juggling, and Sunday we are trick or treating with some friends and Grammy where Marcus will be juggling. Tough weekend to be a juggler!

Sweet Skeleton

Abby wore her pink skeleton this week to celebrate Halloween. Marcus and I bought it for her a few weeks ago since she knows "heart" as a body part and we wanted her to see it on her shirt.

Notice the blue circle on her hand, she gets 2 stickers everytime she sits on the potty or brushes her teeth. Stickers are a big motivator in our house!

Practicing her surprised face- it makes me laugh every time!

Happy Halloween Week!

Wordless Wed- Christmas Pics are Exhausting

Pum-Pum Party

Abby has discovered pumpkins and calls them pum-pums. So, Saturday night, we had some friends over for a pum-pum party. The kids almost outnumbered the adults which meant the party was outside and needed activities!

Sweet Lila and her Mom Andrea joined us for the fun. Lila is at the crazy age where her Andrea couldn't partake in much fun and had to just follow Lila around all night!

Ellie, the happiest baby you just might ever meet!

Abby has a mess- she loved the sidewalk chalk and sat in her artwork making her a chalk covered kiddo! She had no interest in eating with all of the activity and had skipped her nap. You can imagine..... we put her to bed in the middle of the party!

The adults did carve pumpkins- Jessica was a pro and Marcus and Alice were just learning.

We had a little mat and watercolors for the kids to paint small pumpkins. We learned that water colors rub right off pumpkins.... I'll plan that out better next year!

David and Catie still had fun painting, rubbing it off and painting again!

The inside of a pumpkin is pretty gross!

Marcus' pumpkin- go Raiders!

Alice's classic jack-o-lantern.

Mo and Jess, the pros, made a very respectable spider.

I have absolutely no pictures of Brandi and Daniel... but they were here and we loved seeing them and Brandi's growing baby belly!

Friday Night Playdate

Our little friend Madeline came over to play Friday night while her Mom had a work event. We had just seen Madeline the previous weekend, so the girls didn't take long to warm up to each other. Madeline took a few minutes to warm up to the entire situation, but once she did we were able to see what a smart, well spoken, and sweet girl she is!

We played outside while the sun was still up- both girls liked to slide, swing and roll balls down the slide. Abby being comfortable in her own home, went right to the playscape and got into her routine. Madeline watched Abby and then jumped in to do her favorites.

Her eyes are just amazing- they draw you in.

While Marcus made us grilled cheeses for dinner, we went for a walk around the neighborhood in the wagon. Abby was so excited to have someone in the wagon with her! Madeline was quiet and just kept making sure she had her water, bear and monkey in her reach.

Madeline and I finished dinner while Marcus bathed Abby and then the girls made us dessert :) They both had fun playing in the kitchen.

Thanks for coming over to play Madeline!

Family Time

We decided to skip church this morning and spend time together. Abby has been extra clingy the past few days and the thought of dropping her off at church wasn't appealing. Knowing that both Marcus and I have business trips this week (separate days) we wanted to stabilize her little world this morning. We decided Zilker Park would be fun since the weather was cool.

We all slept late and grabbed breakfast tacos at a local Mexican food restaurant and arrived at Zilker at 11, just in time to swing before the next train ride. Abby went on a swing strike, but we are back to loving swinging!

The train always sounds like a fun idea and then we spend the full 25 minutes holding her down, making her sit on her bottom, and trying to entertain her.

But, it was a tradition and one day she'll enjoy it!

While waiting for the train, we did treat Abby to her first snow cone. She doesn't know it, but she enjoyed lots of these while I was pregnant. She spit out the first bite, I think because it was so cold. After that bite, she enjoyed it.

We made it home in time for lunch and hopefully a long nap. We've protested that the past couple of days also! I like my long quiet Sunday afternoons and the happy girl that wakes up afterward.

Fancy Night Out

Marcus and I were invited to attend the 8th Annual Austin Food & Film Festival on Wednesday night. It was held downtown at the historic Driskill Hotel and included an auction, open bar, and some amazing food!

Here is a list of participating restaurants:

1886 Café & Bakery, Austin Cake Balls, The Belmont, The Boiling Pot, The Carillon, Carmelo’s Ristorante, Dragon Gate by Phoenix, Driskill Grill & Bar, Eddie V’s, Fonda San Miguel, Garrido’s, Judges’ Hill Restaurant & Bar, Maria Maria, Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill, Parkside, Passion Café, Polkadots Cupcake Factory, Ranch 616, Roaring Fork, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Siena Ristorante Toscano

They each brought one dish they are known for and had small servings for people. We walked around for 2 hours sampling food. There was a good deal of food I didn't try, but I am certain Marcus didn't turn one single plate down- he tried it all!

From the experience, I highly recommend having the green chile pork tacos at Roaring Fork, the Frito pie at Ranch 616, the tomato bisque at Judge's Hill and anything from Austin Cake Balls. It was all wonderful and we were so grateful to attend.

I Bite!

Abby wore her "Watch Out, I bite" shirt to school this week. I sure hope her teachers find it as funny as we do.

Her biting of other kids has gotten much better, but she now bites herself when she gets frustrated. I have looked around online and it is "normal", but definitely worries me. She has only done it at school and it is almost always part of a confrontation with other children. It is purely frustration that she isn't getting her way, the toy, attention, etc. We are working hard on teaching her "no bite Abby". I think we have such a low stress household and quiet life that she just gets overwhelmed. I pray it goes away.

Our Diva Pumpkin

This is our first Halloween with an "alert" kid so we decorated our first pumpkin this past weekend. We owned the "Diva" Mr. Potato Head kit from a few years back when Kyleigh came to visit. Marcus and I were pushing the pieces in and Abby watched closely.
She then had to go through the steps again and put the screw into the hole and then put each of the pieces inside. She loves doing whatever her Daddy does :)
Cheese! Abby and her pumpkin-
Our Diva Pumpkin completed!
We will do one more pumpkin this coming weekend- it will be a real carving something I have never done before. Exciting!

Driving around the Hood

It has been so nice outside lately that we've gone on a few car rides around the neighborhood.
Since Abby now likes to ride in her car, we took it outdoors. No more car rides up and down the hall. She laughed out loud going down the driveway so excited to be in her car! We need to talk to her about the "10 and 2" position or at least having 1 hand on the steering wheel. Geesz!
This is a hill near our house and Marcus would let her go fast down hill and just run behind or beside her. I could hear her laughing 5 houses back. She thought it was so funny to be hands free!
Every morning when Marcus and Abby leave for school, they look at the moon. We were able to faintly see it on our morning walk and repeatedly proclaimed, "Moooon!"
We also saw dogs which made Abby laugh in excitement. She loves dogs.
We also got to see some of the Halloween decorations around the neighborhood. Our neighbors do more at Halloween than Christmas! Here are a few of the houses.


We'll be taking lots of walks this fall while the weather is perfect and Abby is happy to be outside!

Halloween Dress

I bought this dress for Abby on clearance last year and was so excited to put her in it for church yesterday. Isn't is just so cute? Marcus was out of town, so Abby and I got dressed and went to Starbuck's together for breakfast before church. She was a little princess- you could just tell she felt fancy in her dress.

Do you think I'll be seeing this look for years to come? ha!

We'll be sporting it again in 2 weeks for Halloween!

Glasses

I got new glasses this week to replace the brown ones I wear that are a good 8 years old. I have a few pair I wear on ocassion and those really needed replacing. I like the shape and color of these- it is a good rosy brown color. But, for whatever reason they can't seem to make them stay up on my nose. We've bent the ear pieces like crazy and tried to narrow the bridge of the nose area and they still fall down. Then, when I push them up and put them in the place I want them, my eyelashes touch the glass. It is weird- I was thinking the arms of the glasses are the wrong length?

I returned them and learned the area that sits on my nose it too wide and to narrow it would mean bending all of the glasses which makes the top line across my faced bow down on the outsides. So, I ordered a new pair! Stay tuned!

Lunch with Madeline

Friday night Marcus went to Merkel (his hometown) for Homecoming and to help us Mom with a few chores around the house. So, Abby and I did a little shopping and enjoyed a girls night in. This morning we went a got a haircut to trim up the back and then had lunch with our friends Becky, Caroline and Madeline.

It is sad that our photographic evidence of the lunch date doesn't show how much fun these girls had. After eating, Caroline and I took them into the playground and they played together with us back at the table for 10 minutes or so. Abby typically wants us in there to show off her tricks and Madeline likes her Momma close so it was a pleasant surprise.

They went up and down the stairs, made faces at us through the glass, and they played well in the toddler area. We'll see Madeline again on Friday and can't wait to play! These girls are 4 weeks apart and we hope they'll be friends for a long time. They both have learned to say each other's names, but wouldn't do it today. We'll keep working on it!

We didn't get a picture of Caroline's Mom, Becky, but I loved talking with her about her big adventure this week- she is off to the Biggest Loser ranch! The same one they always talk about on TV. She doesn't have weight to lose, but wants to learn more about being healthier and stronger for her age. Isn't that exciting! Yea Becky!

Halloween Preview

We finally pulled out Abby's Halloween costume for her to see and try on. We bought it online a few months ago and she hadn't seen it yet. Do you think she likes it? This girl loves her Foofa doll. Before we leave the house, we have to say goodbye to Foofa and put her in her bed. The moment we get home, we get Foofa out of bed and take her everywhere. When we eat, we place Foofa on the counter right behind us so that we can still see her.
We took her into our bathroom to use the big mirror and see herself. Marcus pulled out his DJ Lance Rock t-shirt to show Abby. He plans to wear it for her.

The costume also comes with pants, but I think they are a little long, so we'll just put on pink pants or tights for Halloween. I'm so glad the hat fit her big head :)

Abby will get to sport her outfit 3 times- for a church Halloween party on the 30th, Trick or Treating on the 31st and then in December she'll wear it when we go see Yo Gabba Gabba live! I'm so excited for her to see a live Foofa in person- it will blow her mind!