New Year

I'm debating waking Neil up to wish him a happy New Year, but I think he would prefer continuing to sleep. The poor guy's been asleep since about 9 pm--apparently we're not much for partying this year. To do him justice, I slept for about four hours this afternoon (I had a horrible headache and I kept waking up, realizing my head still hurt, and going back to sleep in hopes that it would be gone when I woke up) so he spent an hour or so trying to keep Abigail from waking me up. When I did finally wake up he'd been sitting in the hall guarding the door to keep her away--apparently we'd had a repeat of yesterday's small fists banging on the door while yelling "Mommy! Mommy!" Cute kid.

I feel like I should have some New Year's resolutions to post, but truth be told, I can't think of any offhand. My main resolution in the past has always had to do with regular exercise, but that's one resolution I've managed to keep phenomenally over the last eight months, if I do say so myself. So...ok, I will think of some.

1. Continue to go to the gym 3x weekly, refusing to allow myself the "I teach really early" excuse for this semester.
2. In bed by 9:30, since I have to be up at 5:30 most days.
3. Spend at least 15 minutes reading stories to Abigail daily.
4. Spend at least 15 minutes singing with Abigail daily.
5. Quit letting Neil get up with Abigail every single time she wakes up in the night.
6. Spend 15 minutes each MORNING studying my scriptures.
7. Not eat anything after 8 pm in the evening.
8. Drink 64 ounces of water every day.

Perhaps not as earth-shaking as some goals I've set for myself in the past, but these are things I try to do and would like more daily success with, so here goes!

Grandpa and the Geese

I wish I had some face shots, but here's Abigail with her daddy, granddaddy, and great-granddaddy feeding the geese the day after Christmas (we were at lunch at a restaurant which overlooks a lake full of swans and geese). Abigail really had a good time. It's cute--she keeps looking at pictures of my dad and saying "papa!" anxiously and looking around for him. Hopefully we will be able to see them again soon!

We had a rough day here today. It's amazing how much Abigail's mood can affect everyone, and she was sure cranky. She literally cried from the moment she got up until we put her to bed tonight--I have no idea what was wrong with her today. I think it may be a compilation of the fact that she's a very regular little child and her schedule has been pretty haywire this week, added to which I had an awful headache this morning and went back to bed after an hour or so to try to sleep it off, and she WANTED HER MOMMY and screamed and banged at the bedroom door until I reappeared. But I was asleep for about half an hour, so she had long enough to really get worked up. Nice to be loved, but it was not a fun day. I think it made Neil excited to go back to work, so maybe it was a good thing in one way after all.

Happy memories

No, this isn't a recent shot, but I was going through old photo files tonight, and since this is one of my very favorite pictures, I wanted to put it in my little virtual journal. I think this was taken when Abigail was about two hours old. It's hard to believe she's almost two years old now--it has really flown. She is such a delight and I can't imagine being without my fluffy little blonde companion.

Speaking of "happy" memories, my sisters drew a smiley face on Abigail's hand while we were visiting last week and told her it was called a "happy." Since then, she has insisted upon having a "happy" on her hand constantly (today she wanted one on each hand) and throughout the day will periodically cry out "happy! happy!" and show me her hand. It's pretty endearing.

Today was a better day on the sickness front. I reduced my nose-blowing toilet paper consumption to a mere half roll, and felt well enough to take an hour and a half walk with Neil and Abigail in the afternoon. We're having unseasonably warm weather here, which is a bit frustrating since it's December and we wish there was snow, but it's also nice to be able to spend time outside. Hopefully tomorrow we can go to the playground.

In other exciting news, I got some curtains for the dining room today. I know, I know, curtains are pretty boring, but they were exciting to me! Now we have more privacy at night, plus they sort of pull the whole room together and make it look more polished and formal. (And they're dark red--did you even have to ask?)

Post-Christmas

A pictorial note: third from the top is Abigail's hair after she smeared juice in her pigtails. Fourth from the top is our family on Christmas, the bottom is Neil trying to restrain an escaping baby. A little distorted, but I thought it sort of captured the essence of having an Abigail around.
I can't even begin to recap Christmas. Um...it was really fun. We went up to my parents' in Michigan on Thursday and had fun just hanging out for a couple of days. Mom and Dad went to pick up Ruth and Mary Beth in Chicago on Saturday, so Neil and I stayed with Elise, Rosalind, and Abigail. We had fun making dinner and then spent about four hours churning out cranberry bread for our caroling the next night.
On Christmas Eve we had our traditional hors d'oeuvres spread--yummy but artery-clogging! (Think spanokopita, olive balls, mini quiche, pigs in a blanket, cheese balls, rumaki, etc.) Then we went caroling, which is always one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I really wish we had thought to bring a camera! It was fun to see Abigail running along with us--last year she was just a little sleeping lump in a bunting. She seemed to enjoy it this year! We also got to hear my grandpa's sacrament meeting talk (which he's giving next week) on Christ's life and mission, which was really wonderful for Christmas Eve--and my dad also shared with us some thoughts and experiences he'd had which were really meaningful for all of us. It was a perfect evening.
Christmas Day was really fun too--I woke up earlier than I would have liked, but hey...that's the nature of Christmas. I had enough years waking people up before they were ready that it's justice anyway. We spent the morning opening presents and we had some really wonderful gifts whose givers had obviously thought a lot about what the recipients would like (I was especially amused by my mother and grandmother filling in the "holes" in my kitchen, which they had seen first-hand during our Thanksgiving preparations! Very much appreciated.) I'm also especially excited about the gospel art kit and church DVDs that my parents gave us. Abigail fell in love with her new baby doll, hat, toy food, and plastic dishes--when we got home today she put the hat on, loaded up the baby doll in her stroller, and proceded to carefully feed her dolly a diet of plates with a side of garlic and fish. It kept her busy while we were unpacking, which was great. And Neil disappeared mysteriously to the garage while I was making dinner, and I finally found him standing there watching his new tools charge. Funny boy.
Today (day after Christmas) we went out for a beautiful lunch with my parents, sisters, and grandparents. My grandparents treated the whole family for a combined lunch at one of the really nice restaurants in town, and we really enjoyed it. Abigail went down to the restaurant's lake with my dad while we were waiting for our food, and they fed bread to the ducks and swans. One of the things I really enjoyed about this trip was seeing Abigail with my family--she especially sitting on her grandpa's lap and it's fun to see them together and how much love he has for her.
Well...that was a long recap. To make a long story short, we had a blast, but came home earlier than planned because I'm coming down with a pretty nasty cold? flu? something? Our original plan was for Abigail and I to stay while Neil came home, but I started feeling pretty crummy on Christmas morning and it just got worse, so we came home today with Neil (and I was glad we did, since by the time we got home I had the most horrific headache from sinal pressure I've ever had, and all I wanted to do was go to bed for a year, which I plan on doing as soon as Abigail is in bed). But Christmas was really fun and a wonderful break from stress--I just wish I could have spent more time with my family, especially Ruth and Mary Beth, who are heading back to BYU in a few weeks and may or may not be home much this summer.

Mullet of Glory

That's pretty much all I have to say for today.

Project Day

Today was our catch-up on projects/"things that need to be done" day. I went to the gym early this morning and Neil finished submitting the last fellowship application while I was gone, then he worked on the Sunday School lesson while I made breakfast. Then I cut Neil's hair and vacuumed out the car while he and Abigail took apart the fence piece that blew down in the last storm (the people who lived in this house before us left a few fence shards that we've been taking apart bit by bit--we'll probably put up a new fence next summer). After Abigail went to bed Neil and I worked on finishing up G'ma's Christmas present, and I just put the finishing touches on that, so we're officially ready for Christmas!

Memorable Abigail moment of the day:

We've been teaching her to give us "five," and she calls it "pie" (she doesn't say her "f" sound too well yet). Anyway, I asked her if she wanted some apple pie this evening, and she held up her hand to give me five. So I did and then said "five," then pointed to the pie and said "pie." I repeated the whole "smack hands and say five, point to plate and say 'pie'" thing a few times, then she yelled "pie," held up her hand, and smashed it down into the pie.

Then she looked up with a very surprised look and said "Hot!" and licked all the pie off her hand.

Providing for herself

Today Neil took Abigail into the bathroom after dinner to wash her hands. When he turned around from adjusting the water, he noticed that she was drinking out of a big yellow cup that we keep in there for her baths...and the water in the toilet was rippling. He took the cup away, and she started scooping water out of the toilet in her hands and putting it in her mouth.

Never a dull moment!

Last night we got together with our friends Trent & Natalee and their daughter Milly and Andrea & Tyler and their daughter Elise. We had a really fun little BBQ and the girls all had fun playing together and generally giggling. Elise and Abigail were walking around holding hands at one point, and it was absolutely darling! It was really fun to celebrate the end of finals and have a chance to just relax and talk. Hopefully we can have more regular get-togethers--it's always nice to have adult conversation (and with our husbands around too!)

Little Narcissa

Today while I was cutting up oranges and vegetables for our snack, I pulled my hair out of my face with some Christmas ribbon that was tied around a basket in the kitchen. Abigail came in, pointed at my hair, and said "Pretty! Pretty!"

They say children and fools speak the truth, so I was pretty flattered. :-)

Later Abigail decided she wanted the ribbon in her own hair, so I tied it around her pigtails, and she looked at her reflection, grinned, and said "Pretty" again. After several minutes of loudly kissing her reflection in the mirror and commenting "pretty" she went back to her toys.

Abigail-isms

Fun new things about Abigail from the last few days...

1) Uh-oh: (v, n, adj, etc.) 1: Indication of impending self-propelled event; i.e. "uh-oh! I am planning to drop my spoon unless you catch it!" 2) Indication of impending Mommy-caused event; i.e. "uh-oh! My high chair tray which you carelessly placed on the counter is in danger of falling!" 3) Something is not working; e.g. "uh-oh! The song on the CD stopped and the next one has not started yet!" and finally 4) traditional usage, i.e. "I messed up. Fix it, Mommy!"

2) Sudden new attachment to dolls and Jelly Bean during the day. They now accompany her to snack time, when she arranges them (in sitting position) on the bench of her little table. They also go for rides with her in her little car around the house, do baby duty in her little stroller, and are grasped firmly, one in each arm, when she goes to sleep.

3) Incredible love of chili. She devoured two bowls last night for dinner (along with an enormous quantity of cheese, celery, and carrots) and another two for lunch today. She has also, with much glee, discovered cornbread.

4) Exciting new willingness to sit quietly and listen while Mommy reads. This applies to both storybooks and the children's Book of Mormon Stories, a novel and much-awaited development. Today we read for an entire twenty-five minutes before lunch, an especially exciting feat considering the ravening chili beast that she became three minutes later.

The Joy of Cooking

Today for breakfast I made pancakes and bacon. For lunch I made grilled panini with turkey, avocado, tomatoes, and lettuce. For dinner I made grilled garlic, chile and lemon shrimp scampi on angel hair pasta, asparagus in lemon-butter sauce, and French bread.

Today for breakfast Abigail ate two slices of bacon and a few bites of pancake. For lunch she ate chicken nuggets. For dinner she ate three bites of pasta, a piece of bread, and two bananas.

Some days are better than others (although in all fairness I made the panini when she was already asleep).

I am so tired

Today was insane, to say the least.

I went to the gym before Abigail woke up, came home and showered, ate breakfast, took Abigail to the church for two hours to recieve refreshment drop-offs, organized the refreshment room for the nativity thing tonight, organized all the nametags and hosting schedules for the nativity tonight, etc.

Came home at noon, Neil fed Abigail lunch, I ate lunch, rested for a bit and took a ten-minute nap, then went to a baby shower, then went back to the church at 3:30 to finish preparations for the nativity thing, stayed there until 5:30, came home and ate dinner, went back to the church with Neil and Abigail at 6:30. It's nine o'clock and we just got home...poor Neil and Abigail. I thought I would have more free time when I went back the second time so that Neil could do homework and I could watch Abigail, but it ended up being super busy with lots of things needing my attention, so the two of them frosted a lot of cookies together (and ate them all--I think it was a good break from studying for Neil, but I just feel bad because he really needed the study time).

But at least everything looked really gorgeous and we had lots of people there, and lots of nonmembers came, which was good because the missionaries were serving the refreshments.

Meanwhile, I need to go prepare our Sunday School lesson.

Wish list

I keep getting asked about gifts that we would like, and I can never think of any at the time. So I am going to keep a little log here--for myself as well, because I always think of things and forget them. I think I will just add to it periodically--I don't know how to make it a seperate tab!

1. The CDs from the Classical Kids Collection: Mr. Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Mr. Bach Comes to Call, Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery, A Journey Through Mozart's Magic Flute. I remember these as tapes, but now the CDs are on Amazon! Hurrah!

2. Socks. For everyone in the family.

3. Plastic food and dishes for Abigail's little kitchen.

4. Garden tools like rakes, hoes, shovels, etc.

5. Games: Catchphrase, Carcassone Discovery, Settlers of Cataan.

6. Pants for Abigail.

Girly Girl

Two things that make Neil wish fervently for a son the next time around...

Abigail has discovered lotion and chapstick.

You may recall that I am desperately addicted to my little tub of Vaseline. My lips get chapped really easily, so I end up carrying this thing around everywhere. Observant little creature that she is, Abigail has decided that she, too, must spread "chappie" all over her face (she has a hard time with the only on the lips concept).

I've also been putting a bit of lotion on her lately (partially so she smells more like a yummy little baby and partially because the weather is so cold and nasty). She has welcomed this enthusiastically, and came into the bathroom yesterday when i was getting ready, pulled a tube of lotion off the counter and asked plantively "Hands, Mama? Hands?"

Abigail and I have fun ganging up on Neil and turning our house into a pink wilderness of ribbons and sparklies.

Funny things about Abigail

I realized there are some fun things about Abigail that not even Neil knows--just things that happen during the day. So I think I'll periodically make note of them so that I can remember them in another couple of years.

1) She hates being weighed at the doctor's office. Something about standing on the scale terrifies her, and she will burst into tears and try desperately to climb off.

2) One of her favorite things these days is to try to sneak up and surprise me. She will run around a corner and yell "boo!" as loudly as she can.

3) When we go on walks, she likes to look for cars ("kah") mailboxes ("cah-cox) and trash cans ("ucky!")

4) Her favorite book right now is one that Mom and Dad gave us called "Mommy Loves Me." It's fabulous because it has a cute story, not too many words per page for us to read before she gets bored, and best of all, it has really detailed pictures with lots of objects for her to point out.

5) When we're in the car, she always yells "whoa" when I brake for stoplights or "whee!" when we go down a hill.

6) We use a cup to pour water over her head when she's in the bathtub. Lately, this is something she loves to do herself--except frequently she'll miss and dump the cupful of water over the side of the tub!

Sheepskin Demise

Does anyone know where I can get the equivalent of a leather band-aid?

My much-beloved and well-worn shearling slippers are finally giving up the ghost. I've resewn the majority of the seams (much to Abigail's relief--she kept calling the split seams "owie!"), but I can't do anything about the cracks and holes across the bottom.

The problem is that I love these slippers so much that I wear them constantly. So they're literally the first thing I put on in the morning, and unless I'm going somewhere during the day, I wear them until I go to bed at night (they help negate the FREEZING COLD that is our house. Outside of Abigail's space-heatered room, that is).

Anyway, I think I got these either junior or senior year of high school. I remember wearing them to seminary. So they've lasted a good five or six years, and held up remarkably well, but now there are all these patches where the shearling part is worn away entirely and the remaining leather is cracking. They were okay until this week, when suddenly a crack morphed into a chunk of missing slipper. Sad, sad day.

So I dedicate an entire post to the impending demise of my beloved slippers and again ask--anybody know about where/how to buy patches?

Cooking with Babygail

As you can tell, Abigail is becoming increasingly insistent about "help Mama!" She is sure cute. Today she helped me make lunch (macaroni and cheese--hey, she loves it!), dinner (mushroom and chile carbonara), and Neil's belated birthday surprise (cheesecake). She especially enjoyed smooshing around the graham cracker crust. She also discovered that sugar can be licked off a spoon--I wasn't quick enough to grap the tablespoon away from her when we were done measuring!

We had a pretty good day today. Abigail had a rough night last night--at one point, I was burying my head under a pillow and holding my hands over Neil's ears so he wouldn't wake up since I knew he was exhausted. Somehow that made more sense to me than getting up and fixing whatever was wrong with Abigail. I did go in at one point to find her rolling around her crib with her blankie wrapped around her torso so she couldn't unwind it or lie down flat, and I came back to bed and told Neil that Abigail was a pig in a blanket, and he was really confused. So anyway, I didn't go work out this morning, so I went this evening instead, and when I got home there was this ENORMOUS basket of fruit and chocolates from the youth in our ward (I think they might be going to everyone in the ward. Pretty cool). It was really sweet of them, but I have absolutely no idea how we are going to eat it all, although Neil is making a determined effort as we speak.

Abigail's repertoire of animal noises now includes pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, dogs, and cats. If you ask her one that she doesn't know, her fall-back is to snort like a pig. Then she grabs her toes and insists that you play "This little piggy went to market." So now whenever we drive anywhere, there's all these animal noises coming from the back seat...

Oh yeah...you can't really see it in the picture with this post, but I cut about six inches off my hair. It was really annoying me and Neil promised he'd cut it, but I kept feeling guilty about asking him to take homework time to cut my hair. So on Monday I just got frustrated with the fact that I wasn't cutting it--and gave myself a four minute haircut. I was literally grabbing it by handfuls and cutting it off. It's not the best haircut I've ever had, but it ended up surprisingly and happily even after a bit of trimming, and it is SO NICE to only spend seven minutes blow-drying my hair instead of eighteen.

I love this man...

Well, Neil has done it again...he's out in the garage right now saving us $240 in
labor on the axle replacement. It looks like it really needed to be replaced--we've noticed a bit of a grinding noise over the past two months when we turn, but on Saturday the car suddenly started clicking like mad.

So when Neil took apart the axle, he found exactly ONE of the six ball bearings which should have been in the passenger side CV joint (he hasn't opened up the driver's side yet). We speculate that our driveway is probably seeded with ball bearings. Fortunately we were able to fix it fairly speedily (I say this hoping that Neil doesn't spend all night in the garage. Apparently the bolts are pretty tough to get off). We have a really busy day tomorrow--Neil and Abigail both need to get shots and I need to teach--so hopefully it will go quickly and he'll be able to finish up tonight.

When I count my blessings, Neil is high on the list. Not just for his mechanical skills, but for his general ability to smooth out everything in my life and put things in perspective. I've had a hard time adjusting to his doctoral program and all its time demands, and it's not that I mind all the time he spends at school--it's that I hate spending time away from him! Hopefully this will all smooth out once the dreaded area exams are past.

In other news today, the last of the incentive grant fellowships is finished up, so now we just need to order a few more transcripts and a copy or two of GRE scores, and we'll be done. Abigail and I had a nice day today learning about animal noises (she is learning like MAD!) She is also becoming really attached to Blue's Clues, which is somewhat of a dilemma for me. On the one hand, I like to see her sing along and name all the different things onscreen--and she's learned so many new words and directions and songs and dances!!--but on the other hand, she is starting to ask specifically for "boos coos," and the part of me that remembers my TV-less upbringing feels very, very, very, very, very guilty. But we did spend about two hours reading books today, so I guess that sort of balances out.

Today Abigail said "moon" and "stars" for the first time. It was really cute--we had a full moon tonight and she looked at the window and went crazy!

The Abigail-o-meter

It's funny how the little things predict the course of the day. For instance, when Abigail ate all of her egg without complaint this morning, I knew it was going to be a Very Good Day, since breakfast is usually a battle.

And the rest of the day has gone well thus far--we did a couple loads of laundry, cleaned one bathroom, dusted the house, and cleaned the stove and oven. Plus, we spent a couple hours reading, playing with Abigail's farm, singing songs, and dancing to "My Turn on Earth." Abigail has learned how to wipe her own nose, so that was a definite added plus for the day!

She even ate lunch and went down for her nap without complaint--hopefully the trend continues when she wakes up.

The Abigail-o-meter

It's funny how the little things predict the course of the day. For instance, when Abigail ate all of her egg without complaint this morning, I knew it was going to be a Very Good Day, since breakfast is usually a battle.

And the rest of the day has gone well thus far--we did a couple loads of laundry, cleaned one bathroom, dusted the house, and cleaned the stove and oven. Plus, we spent a couple hours reading, playing with Abigail's farm, singing songs, and dancing to "My Turn on Earth." Abigail has learned how to wipe her own nose, so that was a definite added plus for the day!

She even ate lunch and went down for her nap without complaint--hopefully the trend continues when she wakes up.

Almost done

It's hard to believe the semester is almost over, but this is the last week of classes. Christmas break will be interesting--Neil will be studying intensively for his area exams, and almost all of our friends are going to Utah or Idaho for the break. Which means we will have no playgroups or friends around--pretty sad! Abigail and I will have to get creative with things to keep us busy...

This was a mixed weekend. On one hand, we finished up our Christmas shopping. On the other hand, we found out that we need to replace the front axle on our car. Eek. Needless to say, we were hoping our car would be okay for...five years or so. Hopefully Neil will be able to make the needed repairs over the next few days and we won't need to take it into a shop.

Abigail continues to be her sweet funny self. It is amazing to see how much she learns from us without a deliberate effort on our part to teach her a certain thing. For instance, today Neil and I were lying on the floor in her room singing to her before she went to bed, and she ran out of the room and came back with a pillow, which she put under Neil's head. Then she went back to the living room and returned with another one for me. Thoughtful little kid!

First snow!

Abigail ran to the glass door in the kitchen this morning (her usual habit--she checks to see if any dogs are outside) and yelled "Whoa!" So we went and looked--and lo and behold, snow!
So far it's not really sticking, but it's still fun to watch. We went to the library this morning and it was cute to watch Abigail's reaction to all the snowflakes...

Abigail has a bit of a cold right now, which isn't much fun for any of us, but is especially distressing to her, since she tends to be a very tidy child. She does realize, fortunately, that things like napkins and tissues are what we use to wipe noses (and wipes her own, then replaces the napkin on the table...) but this does not solve the "I'm going give Mommy a hug and wipe my nose all over her shoulder in the process" problem.

Speaking of the tidiness of Abigail, it's funny to see the like mother like daughter thing in action. We still do a LOT of picking up, but (perhaps because of this) she is really careful about things like throwing away her garbage (she actually stood and waited for all of her friends to finish their snacks a few days ago at playgroup, then took all the wrappers and boxes to the trash--apparently she did not want trash in her little kitchen half!) and bringing her plate to me when she's done with it. She stands on her tiptoes and pushes her plate up onto the counter right by the sink, and then she'll stand by the fridge waiting to replace her sippy cup on the top shelf. She's also very methodical about her belongings--she never drops her coat and shoes on the floor--instead she'll hand them to me and wait to make sure I put them away properly before she goes off to play.

Now if only she would act this way with her toys...