Abby's new do...

Abby's hair was becoming uncontrollable. So yesterday, she had her first haircut. I think she looks really great!

Really confused...

I'm not sure how to even go about this post. I feel almost uncomfortable talking about it, but on the other hand it is sorta funny.

So today after speech therapy, I was buckling Abby up in her car seat. As usual I lean in and give her a big fat smooch (can't help myself!). What does she do? She terry's me! Yep that's right. Not only did she block my kiss (I can handle a mere block), but she acutally pushed me away with her hands. Her face had a "Are you kidding me!" expression.

My first response was a laugh, because her expression was so good, and then I kissed her anyway. On driving home, I started thinking to myself. That expression looked awfully familiar, too familiar, infact. It is one of my expressions. Her expression looked just as practiced as mine is. I also thought, I have wanted and waited to have her for so long, that she better let me give her a smooch. I always thought I would be a "cool" mom. Not the "my mom is my best friend mom", but somewhere in between. The more Abby grows up, the more I realize that may not be the case. So I guess I should get all the loving in before she perfects her technique. (ha ha ha)

I am posting a picture of her today. I wish I had a picture of the face she pulled today. However, this one is priceless too. She is saying Mama in sign... looking at this picture just melts my heart. I think she needs another kiss :)...

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

1/3 cup Butter
1/3 cup Shortening
2 cup Flour
1 Egg
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Milk
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla
Dash of Salt

Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add about half of the flour, the egg, sugar, milk, baking powder, vanilla, and salt. Beat till thoughly combined. Beat in remaining flour.

On lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough at a time 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. If desired, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 to 8 minutes or till the edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Cool cookies on rack. Then frost with powdered sugar icing.

Since when do you need a license...

One of the funny memories I have growing up is of playing dress-up with my cousins. We only lived 50 yards or so from them on a hill so it was often. Whenever we would play at their home, our characters would even go to church. Which meant that we would climb in the car with our "babies", shift gears, and really have a great time pretending to cruise down the road.

On one particular occasion, my cousin actually turned the key and drove us down the hill; where we hit a wheel-line, stopping the car. As I looked back, I'm sure with severe panic on my face and a "holy crap I'm gonna be in trouble feeling inside", I saw a whole troop of boy scouts running down the hill to rescue us.

This week I feel like this story might come full circle. Abby has decided she wants to drive. Every time we arrive home from an outing, she climbs to the front seat and starts "messing" with all the car controls. She ignores me when I tell her she needs to get out and go inside. When I pick her up to carry her out, she throws a complete tantrum. Her focus and determination just amazes me. I don't think she had even sat in one of the two front seats until these episodes. Not quite sure how to convince her that since she is only TWO, she will have to be satisfied with the backseat for a while...

Can you feel it coming?

You know, the slight chill in the air... That crisp fresh air that greets you when you walk outside. Today as I drove to Kaysville for speech therapy, I noticed the leaves turning color on the mountain. I could hardly contain my excitement.

I love everything about it. I love the smell of the air, I love the comfort foods, I love the layered clothing (fellow chunkies know what I am talking about!), and I love the harvest festivals with the hayrides and fun things for the kids. I just really love everything about it.

Each year I think I will savor each day more because fall is gone before you know it. Then you're stuck in January and January is just gray. So this year, we will add a couple more activities to our schedule. I haven't decided if Abby is too young for the Heber Creeper yet. So we will see...

Speech Therapy Update

Today was Abby's first day of speech therapy for this school year. I have to say, it was very nice having a couple months off. Now that the summer is winding down, I am raring to go! So today was the first day back, we even brought some sugar cookies to her therapist, Mrs. Sharpstein. (Off topic, Abby received the cutest sugar cookie set for her birthday. All the cookie cutters are in the shapes of fish, octopus, crabs, etc...)

Anyway, Mrs. Sharpstein was very happy with Abby's progress. Abby obediently repeated or tried to repeat everything that she was asked. This was much different that last year when she would only sign words. Abby even played the hearing game we do for hearing tests, but this time she didn't try to play by observing our actions.

Mrs. Sharpstein said that she didn't forseee any delays, verbally. She does think that Abby will have a slight speech impediment, but with Abby's first prognosis (at 2 months old) of her being profoundly deaf and we would be lucky if she learned to speak at all verbally; Mike, Abby, and myself consider ourselves very blessed.

What a week!

This week has been a busy one, mostly from my own actions. On the heels of Abby's second birthday; and lots of interest on Abby's part in potty time, I decided that we should give potty training a go! We started out with a bang, but in the end, Thursday, Mike and I decided that she probably is not mature enough mentally to comprehend what was expected. The way I looked at it was that I wanted it to be a good experience for her and if we continued down the same path, it just might get ugly... soon. So, I think we will tackle it again in a few more months.

So Wednesday afternoon I watered our patio. We have a cut out in the bricks for plants under the kitchen window. I left the water running for just a little bit so the flowers would get a good drink. I then put Abby on the potty. AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER, I was still waiting for her to "perform". The night before I had stayed up to do some coding so I wouldn't become behind in my production, so I was a little sleep deprived. During the hour and a half, I snoozed beside Abby. We also played Mr. Potato-Head and read stories. FINALLY, she gave me what I wanted. We had a little "potty party" and the Ab-ster went up to take her afternoon nap. I went downstairs to work on some coding, and the basement felt "muggy" and I could hear water running. It finally dawned on me that I forgot to turn the water off. Yep that’s right, I flooded our basement. It has been a crappy week for sure!

We stopped potty training on Thursday, when I realized we weren't any closer to our goal from where we started, but Abby and I were both getting lots frustrated. Not only that, but between the potty training, the basement flooding, and some minor internet problems, coding just didn't happen this week.

As for Mike, he has waged war on some unsuspecting bees who have built their home under our sidewalk infront of our condo. The bees have been winning but they are now furious. So the problem is much worse. They have tunneled to the other side of the sidewalk and now it is hard to gain access to them. So he either has to become creative or we need to pay a guy to come and "fix" the problem.

One highlight though, is that I got new curtains in my living room. The curtains we replaced came with the place when we bought it and they were original to the condo, which dates them to 1974. Yep that's correct, they are as old as I am. So replacing them was much needed. Its funny what a small change can do to make a big difference. Now I wish I had before and after pictures to show!

The Party Girl!

We had a little get-together this evening. Abby LOVED her "Big-Bird/Elmo" cake. She kept stealing finger-fulls of whip cream icing. She also loved the balloons. I wanted them to be tied around the living room to make it festive, but Abby had other ideas. (It's just a good thing she didn't blow away!) She held them the whole night! Our batteries on the camera ran out before we got to the gift opening part of the evening. Abby's cousins Morgan and Kelsey came, as did our good friends Nathan and Lexie Draney, and Alex (Originally I asked him if he wanted to come, he said, "hmmm, no thanks!" It made me laugh how grown-up he sounded. Abby can drive him nuts sometimes. :)

We had a great time! Abby loves everything that was given to her and it was hard for her to put them down so she could go to bed tonight.