miscellany

Ah, where to begin?


First of all, I'm feeling much better. Abigail had a friend over this morning and the two of them played fabulously together, so I was able to catch up on most of the housework I've missed over the last few days. And just as I was looking out at the snowy streets and bemoaning the fact that I really HAD to go to the grocery store as soon as Juliet woke up from her nap, one of my friends came by with dinner for us (which made me feel a little guilty for writing a blog post sounding like I was crawling off my deathbed to make dinner for my family...but believe me, I just about burst into tears when I opened the door. I was very, very, very grateful. Even if I'm not dying).

I was so touched by her thoughtfulness, especially since she told me that she had resolved to reach out to others after having a pretty rough time herself last week. And I was also very touched by the fact that while we are friends, since our children aren't the same ages we don't tend to see a lot of each other outside of church, so I was just really...moved by the fact that she went so far out of her way to help someone who she doesn't see on a regular basis. I think too often I tend to confine my acts of service to the people that I see a lot, or whose children play with mine, because those are the people who I am most aware of. So thank you, Heather, for encouraging me by your actions to reach out to a wider circle!


And secondly, it's been awhile since we've seen any pictures. In fact, I think I have over 200 pictures that I've taken lately that I haven't even looked through to think about posting any online...so I'll give you a sampling.


I like to call this little array "Buddies." Or alternately, "How My Children Entertain Themselves All Day While I Compose Blogs In My Head."

First...our cast.

Maniacal Abigail...


...and the ever expressively-eyebrowed Juliet.



Collectively known as...

...my wit fails me. Moving on.


Yesterday Abigail spent a very long time playing with her Leapfrog Fridge Phonics toy (great, great, LOVE that thing) and Juliet.

She was trying to teach Juliet all the letters, which I find somewhat ironic, considering as the letters that Abigail knows fall into one of the following categories:

• those that look akin to Greek letters (from many walks to and from campus during the summer past the fraternities)
• the letters of each of our first names, since they are written on the yogurt containers in the 'fridge (that way Abigail limits her yogurt intake per day, since she knows she can only have one "A" yogurt every day and the "N" and "R" ones are off limits)
• the letters that spell "DELL" (um...we like computers, I guess)
• and other ones, depending on the day. But let's just say...we haven't made any serious effort to teach her the letters of the alphabet. I don't want her to be bored in kindergarten, although...speaking of which...it seems now like preschool is pretty much expected and kindergarten picks up where first grade used to...hmm. I'll have to write a bigger post on this later.

Anyway, my point is, it was funny to watch Abigail. Anyway. Here is Juliet with "her" letter.

And Abigail with all the rest of them.



They were pretty cute. The best part is that they entertained each other for half an hour while I made dinner. Goooood tooooy.

Oh, and Juliet is almost able to fully sit up from a stomach position. Pretty cool, eh?



One thing that Abigail is FABULOUS at (take notes, Neil!) is giving Juliet a toy or book when Abigail wants to play with the one Juliet currently has. Rather than just taking it away to play with it herself (Neil, are you reading this?) she carefully gets another one out, gently slides out the one that she [Abigail] wants for herself, and spends a minute or so getting Jules involved with the new one (look, Neil! Quit toy-stealing!)

Sometimes I get upset when Abigail plays with my camera and turns off the red-eye thingie. But sometimes I laugh, because it results in pictures like this, which I have chosen to call "Demon Baby Attacks Quiet Book. Or Possibly Own Fists."

It's a keeper.



Blurry, but this captures one of my favorite things about these two...they just adore snuggling together. They'd do it all day if I let them, preferably inside the laundry baskets. I haven't quite figured that one out yet.

But they'll settle for stories on the couch.

It's pictures like this that make me want to go wake up a perfectly content sleeping baby and kiss her about a hundred million times all over her soft fat kissable little cheeks.

As a sidenote to this picture, before I got married I wanted my future husband to be smart, funny, compassionate, good with kids, etc., etc.

What I never even considered was his kid-music repertoire. Fortunately, I hit the jackpot, as the nightly bathtime strains of "Rubber Duckie, You're the One" belted out in manly tones would tell you. (Oh, and Neil knows more of the Disney Princess songs than I do, thanks to a Disney CD one of his mission companions had. Apparently their mission president OK'd Disney music and classical music. Which means that every night, Neil is the one who has to sing the Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella songs. It's really cute. And surprisingly manly.)

And last but not least, here's some little comparison photos for you.

Here's Abigail, circa December 2005.

And here's Abigail last week.

And Jules. Also last week.

Both of them busily turning the living room into Fisher Price Happyville...

...punctuated by a few rounds of their mutual favorite game, "Picture Picture." If someone knows why one child would stand like this, make clicking noises, and yell "picture picture" while the other one laughs hysterically, would they please explain it to me?

All I know is it keeps 'em both happy. For a looooong time.

The end.