Chatty Abby

I've talked before about Abby's tendency toward chatter. I will tell you that if you've ever had a child who's speech was delayed, getting to the point when they are talking non-stop (and understandably at that) will send you over the edge with happiness. That's where I was today.

Due to a staff meeting after school I had to pick Abby up from her school and bring her to the child care at my school. This was the first time I've picked her up this school year and I was thrilled that she still did the familiar "joyful run down the hallway" when she saw me. It seemed from that moment on she was filled with questions.

Were are we going?

Can we get pizza?

Oh, Mama has a meeting?

I get to go to Mommy's school?

I get to play with my kids?

Yep, the whole way back to school she kept up a constant chatter. Telling me about how she had a steering-wheel "just like Mama", and that she was driving too. She also checked and double checked that she would get to go outside and play once she got to school because I had a meeting.

She was in a great mood and had me laughing as we drove. It got even better when they were lining up to go outside and she spied me in our meeting room before we got started. She ran in to say, "Hi!" and to tell me that she was going outside. With a hug and a "Love you, Mom!" she was off (nearly plowing into the wall in her excitement).

The chatter kept up as we packed up to go home. As soon as we got in the car she was asking for some pizza for dinner, and the softy that I am I agreed that pizza it was. With that "in the bag" she could concentrate on what was going on outside the car as we drove.

What's that?

Oh, a biker!

Look, Mom - another bike!

Who are they?

Who lives in that house?

Who lives in that other house?

What about that house?

And on it went. She even heard that Dada had picked up a few surprises for her and so she also spent some time guessing what it could be.

It's a dollie.

Oh wait, I know what it is....a bus and a bus driver!

We needed to swing by and get Jason on our way home, since he was having his car serviced, so once he was in the car she had a captive audience to chat with.

A dress....is it a dress.

Mmmm...not a dress?

How 'bout a black dress?

I know what it is....it's a drum!

She had both of us enjoying her conversation and when she turned to Jason (who'd popped into the back so he could visit with her) and let out a spontaneous, "I love you", I swear I saw him in my rear view mirror literally melt.

Yes, Abby was (and still is) at her most charming this afternoon. I really couldn't have imaged a day like today years ago as we were relying mostly on signs and signals to communicate with her. Even though I had no doubt that she would be talking one day, I never could have imagined the simple pleasure that comes from hearing her thoughts and getting a peek into that curious and precocious mind of hers. Yep, even after a day with a room full of talkative kids, Abby's chatter was just what I needed.

One of her surprises was a jester's hat. She was excited that,
according to her, she now looked "just like Barney!" Yikes!

She also got some alphabet cards - one of which she is using
as a phone in this picture....hmmmm - I guess we gotta work
on that one.

Fighting

It seems that around here it was a weekend for fighting. Oh, not with each other (although there was a bit of a loud discussion between Abby and her "parental figures" this evening), but with each of our own internal and external forces.

Jason started the weekend by battling a fever. After some blood work there seems to be no "concrete" reason for his periodic spikes in temperature, but it did leave him feeling pretty miserable. It seems that his veins were doing some protesting of their own as well. He continues to have to go to the hospital daily for IV antibiotics, and last week they took out his PICC line. So, he's had an IV line. The only problem is that the thing (for one reason or another) keeps needing to be replaced. He has been poked so many times that they are now having a hard time finding a spot that isn't mad at them. After blowing out a vein this morning, it took a bit longer than usual before they could start his treatment.

I was fighting my own desire to do nothing. This normally wouldn't be a problem, after all, aren't weekends supposed to be about "doing nothing", especially after a busy week? The only issue is that I am half way through the grad class I'm taking, and assignments are now coming due. I had an annotated bibliography and podcast due this weekend - and no desire to work on them. Along with getting over the lack of motivation, I had to struggle to against a sort of resentment that popped up that I had so much work to do on my "free" time. Luckily I have Abby, and so when I really started to get irritated, I'd just seek out my good-time girl.

I can only assume that Abby was fighting boredom. We had grand plans today to skip out to Nana and Papa's, but with Jason's fever, and my homework we put that on hold. We'd also thought about taking her out to see "Nemo" in 3-D over the weekend - that didn't happen either. This boredom lead to other battles - those of the "I-don't-want-to-listen" variety. We had time-outs, crying, and big battles of wills, followed by sweet moments and "I'm sorry's".

So, here's what I'm hoping, with all the fighting we've done this weekend, we should have a very smooth and enjoyable week - that's my plan anyway!

Today we had some "resting" time. Abby seemed to think it was "play" time.

Yesterday Abby got ahold of her pink monkey.

The poor guy is still recovering.

A Bedtime Story

Tonight I thought I would share the bedtime story that Abby and I wrote last weekend. I've also attached an MP3 of us reading it for you. So let Abby see you off to dreamland with her wonderful story.

Enjoy!

Cuddly

Anyone that knows us, knows that we are definitely cold weather people. As the temperature drops, our moods go up. In fact, after a particularly high energy bill this summer one of my friends asked me if we keep our house at "morgue setting" - yep, that's about it. I would much, much rather be cold than hot, because as I often say, "You can always put more on, but you shouldn't always take more off." Now is the time that I really love - these cool, cool nights are wonderful.

Luckily Abby had always shared Jason's and my love of keeping cool. There were many days when she was younger that it was the middle of winter and she was romping around in just a diaper - seemingly impervious to the cold. Even now, if her room gets too warm and stuffy, she will be sure to wake up several times during the night, asking for something to drink. But when she was a baby there were times when we did "bundle" her up - especially when it came to bedtime.

Tonight as I struggled to find something to write about I sat down at my computer and started looking at Abby pictures (which number in the thousands). I came across some from when she was pretty little and I noticed in several pictures she was wearing those footed jammies that grace every kid's wardrobe.  It was as I was looking at those pictures that I could so clearly remember how cuddly she was in them. I don't often have those pangs of longing for when she was younger, it just seems that each age gets better and better, but tonight as I came across this one I did.

It was an early fall day (much like today) when we took Abby outside, wearing some of those cuddly footed jammies. I don't think we intended to have a mini-photo shoot, but that's what happened. This still remains one of my very favorite pictures of her.

I know that they still make these pajamas for bigger kids, but there is no way that she would be comfortable being so warm and cozy, so sadly, those days are behind us, but lucky for me she still can be pretty cuddly.

A Balm

When Abby gets in trouble it is heartbreaking. For the first few moments I'm usually pretty irritated, so you could say that my heart is hardened against the very sad tears that come with a time-out or a stern "talking to", but once I'm past that it is so very sad to hear her crying. I certainly have to leave the room when she is in her time-out spot lest her forlorn carriage breaks me.

Today she needed a good talking to, but not by me. I knew something was up when the bus pulled up and Ms. Cathy gave me a frown. It wasn't an angry frown, but a sad frown. Usually I don't board the bus, but today I did so I could get the full scoop while Ms. Cathy helped Abby out of her seat. Apparently, Abby was having a bit of trouble staying in her seat for the ride home. Even the seatbelt wasn't enough to hold her in. She is double-jointed see, and can quite easily maneuver out of restraints. Her shenanigans even caused Ms. Cathy to have to pull the bus over and get her situated again (a move I'm very familiar with). Abby was just not understanding that you cannot be moving around on the bus. Ms. Cathy had to bring out her "I-mean-it" voice, which in turn caused Abby to cry.

As I listened to the story, and Abby's head got lower and lower, I didn't know who felt worse about the whole thing, Abby or Ms. Cathy. At the end of the whole story Abby was letting out sad whimpers as she turned to give Ms. Cathy an apology hug. We then had to wait while Abby took the time to wipe her nose and each eye with the tissue that was provided, before she declared that she was "all better now".

As we were off I reassured Ms. Cathy that Abby was fine, and her response was, "Yes, but I'm not." I completely get that. There isn't anything much more heart-wrenching then when Abby turns to you and chokes out an "I'm sorry." Luckily Ms. Cathy understands that Abby's safety comes first.

I carried her into the house and drove home the point that we just want to make sure that she doesn't get hurt on the bus, all the while assuring her that she was loved and that tomorrow would be better.  Abby listened and agreed to do better, then moved on to happier things. I'm sure she didn't give her sadness another thought, but as I put her to bed tonight I couldn't help but see that little face from earlier before me, and it made me sad. She fell asleep quickly but as she cuddled next to me, with her head on my shoulder I found that I wasn't ready to sneak off to "my own thing" just yet. Where I had soothed her hours earlier, she was now soothing me. Soon enough the sadness was gone and only tenderness remained. Abby certainly is a balm for this soul.

This is an old picture (from 2009), but I thought it went well with tonight's
post. This is Abby sitting in her car-seat with her pants on her head. We'd stopped
for gas and I turned to see this. Mind you, those pants were on her bottom when
we left the house - and she'd been strapped in the whole time. Now you can
see that a measly little seatbelt isn't going to hold this girl down for long.

Impressive

I've talked often about how much Abby amazes me. I've mentioned her will of iron, her joy and sunny outlook on life, and her compassion for others. Tonight she once again amazed me, but it wasn't because of the capacity of her heart, but the capacity of her stomach.

Yesterday I'd promised her that she could have pizza tonight for dinner. We found a great place down the road that offers a gluten free pizza - a gluten free pizza she loves. So, on my way home from work I swung by and got one for her. As she got off the bus I told her she had a surprise waiting for her in the house. As you can imagine she was pretty excited.

She came into the house slowly, checking out all the surfaces carefully for the surprise waiting for her. At first she missed it, but then she saw the box. She was thrilled and didn't even balk when I wanted to wash her hands. Soon enough she was happily eating her pizza and drinking her chocolate almond milk.

Now, it is not unheard of for her to eat two, maybe three, pieces of pizza, but tonight she outdid herself. Granted, the pizza is a small size, and it is thin crust, but when she asked for a fourth and then fifth piece I was sure that there was no way she was going to eat it all.

She did.

Abby ate all but one piece of that pizza. It seems that a long day at school makes for one hungry girl. Now, if she ate like this all the time I would worry, but she has always gone in "spurts" when it comes to eating. She'll go though times when it seems all she does is come to me and tell me she's "hungry" and is constantly requesting something else to eat. Then there's other times when I'm trying to coax her into eating something, and meals are often left unfinished.

Maybe it was a particularly active day at school, or maybe she's going through a growth spurt, but whatever it is, I'm impressed and certainly amazed at how much she fit into that little tummy tonight.

Yesterday Abby decided she needed to wear her
spring hat - even while eating some popcorn.

Tonight I looked up and saw Abby furiously writing away.
When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was "writing
notes."

Guest Columnist

Over the past several months Elizabeth and I have entertained the idea of having a "guest columnist" for Abby's blog. While I found the idea intriguing I have to admit I was a bit intimidated because, unlike Elizabeth I am not a trained author. My undergraduate, and graduate training, are in the "cruel" sciences - i.e. Finance and Management. However, after a particularly sweet exchange with Abby while putting her to bed, I decided it was time to make the leap.

Consider yourself warned...

First, I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank many of you for your well wishes and prayers during my latest health pilgrimage, which included a near-death experience (that's a topic for another blog), and a (mostly) all expenses paid stay at the hospital that included such party-favors as pneumonia and a blood-clot. In all seriousness, thank you for your kindnesses to Elizabeth, Abby, and me...

So, I thought what I would do is give you a glimpse into a world few, if any, have ever seen...I'm going to tell you what happens after Elizabeth leaves for school in the morning.

The best way to describe our mornings is: "hurry up and wait". Most mornings begin with Abby waking up and shuffling out of her room with hair reminiscent of Albert Einstein. It is in this instant that our mornings can go one of two ways. Some mornings she will begin by yelling indiscriminately at anything around her, and the first battle of the day is convincing her to go to the bathroom. Mind you this isn't a physiological issue, the bottom line is that Abby does not like to be told what to do. I can honestly tell you that she comes by this naturally - from her mother. Seriously, why else would a woman who hated school all her life become a teacher? It's the one profession where you spend the day telling people what to do. But I digress...

Usually, it is at this point where Abby comes down to the master bedroom and hops in bed with Dad. Depending on her mood, she will either say, "Love you too, Dada," or yell at me to leave her alone. This is when we usually start watching "Rugrats" or "Yo Gabba Gabba", and Elizabeth is either running around trying to get ready, or using her famous line, "I need to leave a little early today," which loosely translated means: "I didn't have time to make coffee and I want a bagel from Tim Horton's."

This is when "hurry up and wait" begins. Whether they will admit it or not, all dads feel a bit of a panic when left in charge of getting kids ready for school.

Sometimes it's a battle to get her to eat her breakfast, but after a little coaxing she will sit down at her table, with her imaginary friends, and have a rousing breakfast discussion. Next comes getting dressed. Again, this is where the day can take another turn, for better - or for worse. Some mornings we wear what Mom has put out for us, some mornings we don't. It is usually on those mornings that Elizabeth will get a note from Abby's teacher, curious about Abby's attire of that day.

Hurry up and wait - again. This time, for the bus.

I like certainty in my life, so waiting for the bus always makes me nervous. With all the unknowns our dear bus driver, Cathy, faces every day, there can be a 20 minute swing in either direction. This is when I sit at the piano bench and start staring out the window for the bus, and Abby begins playing in ernest in the other room. For whatever reason, when the bus arrives it always surprises me and I panic about getting Abby out there in time and before the bus leaves her (which has never happened). This is when I run and grab her, and whatever toy she is playing with, and we all make a run for the bus. As we run to the bus I devise my plan to take away from her whatever toy she brought along, which are verboten on the bus (drumsticks, wooden spoons, balloons, and nun-chucks).

So there you have it, a typical school morning with Abby. For those of you whose toughest choices, or biggest surprises, are whether to wear black or blue socks, or to have scrambled or poached eggs, you have no idea how quiet your mornings are. For those of you who have more than one kid to get ready in the morning, I have no idea how you do it.

Thanks for reading this wordy post and for investing so much time, energy, and love in our little angel - Abby.

Maybe next year, when I am allowed to write my second guest column, I will tell you about our evenings.

- Jason

Abby on a good morning.

Abby on a bad morning.

The jury's out on this one.