Sweet Abby girl is already 21 months! It is difficult to believe she is approaching 2, but as far as Abby is concerned, she is on equal footing with Benjamin and his 4-year-old buddies. Abby is tiny (in the 20th percentile), but her personality is such that when she is in the room, Abby is large and in charge.
Rough a tumble, Abby throws herself full speed ahead into every activity and endeavor. Her favorite phrase is, “I DO!” and that means climbing things, brushing her own teeth, picking out her own clothes, etc. She insists on moving furniture/objects on which she can climb, so she can help herself to things like scissors in the “child locked” drawer and vitamins from the tallest kitchen cabinet. (luckily she still can’t manage a child safety cap).
Abby especially loves water, and thus bath time. She is a big fan of the Jacuzzi tub, and if left to her own devices, more water would end up outside the tub than in it, once she is finished swimming and conducting water pouring experiments.
One of Abby’s favorite pastimes is putting objects into things, and then pulling them out to start again. Give the girl a box of cards, and she will spent 20 minutes carefully replacing them… only to dump them back out when she is finished. She also likes to carry baskets and bags around the house to collect treasures.
Whatever Benjamin is doing, you can be sure Abby will want in on the action. She especially likes to paint, play with play dough, color and attempt to use scissors whenever he is sitting down at the table. She even is doing her best to join us during reading/writing lessons, shouting enthusiastically, “B!” to every letter she sees or attempts to write.
Abby really likes to help out in the kitchen. During our belated Christmas celebration in Bluffton, she and Benjamin helped bake cookies with Grandma Jan. Abby also likes to taste whatever we are cooking, so she throws such fits when I don’t allow her to assist with (or sample) the raw chicken, eggs, meat, etc.
Abby recently discovered baby dolls. While they aren’t the center of her play life, it makes us smile to see her feeding her babies, taking them to the potty, or hauling them around the house. She usually insists that the babies, like herself, are permitted to roam the house mostly naked. Who needs pants anyway!?
Abby and Benjamin can get into some pretty physical altercations if I don’t intervene, but for the most part, they entertain each other pretty well. And, while Abby likes the time Benjamin spends at preschool, I think she also looks forward to his return. Speaking of time away, Abby loves her one-on-one time with Daddy each week at the library story time. She can’t get enough of the songs and the play time afterward.
Abby is very social, and she loves when we go places or to visit people. She especially appreciates when food is involved, since her number one priority (24/7) is ensuring she gets enough to eat. Here she is in Atlanta, enjoying time with the Meyer kids, and getting fed. Luckily, she is an amazing eater, and she not only eats ten times the amount Benjamin eats, but she also is much less picky.
It is still a battle to get Abby to drink milk. So, she usually gets hers in the form of hot cocoa…with a straw… in the same EXACT mug as Benjamin. She also eats one to two yogurts a day. We love that she calls it “O-toe!”
It is a good thing Abby has curly hair, because she won’t let me anywhere near it with a brush or bows. In places, it actually is getting quite long. She has what Jeremy calls her “piggy tail” in the back, where one curly cue hangs down longer than the rest. It is pretty cute, and uniquely Abby!
What else is Abby up to?
Abby loves to sing. Her favorite songs are the alphabet song, Twinkle Twinkle and her good night songs. Her songs often are accompanied by twirling and dancing in circles. She very much enjoys performing these songs for GG and Bob Bob, whom she asks to call daily on Facetime
While Abby has a significant vocabulary, she doesn’t enunciate well yet, so sometimes it is a guessing game to understand her. Luckily, just this week she mastered the “k” sound, so her “car” now sounds like car, rather than “tar,” and she is starting to say “cup” rather than “pup.” Her most often spoken words are, “No, yep, yes, I do, up and eat/hungry.” She understands EVERYTHING you say to her, or about her. She also has an opinion about everything, which makes me smile…usually.
Abby is super good about sleeping, unless she doesn’t feel well. She tells us when she is ready for her nap, and she happily waves night night, lies right down and sleeps for 1.5 hours typically. At night, she also goes right down around 8 p.m. and sleeps until between 6:45 and 7:15 a.m.
While we had a little success with Abby using the potty, she still doesn’t seem quite ready for a full court press. So, I am slowly getting her used to the idea, and I think in a couple months I will give potty training a try. Right now, she asks to go any time she is in the mood for an M&M or the ipad. She is pretty smart…and already a good negotiator.
We can’t get enough of our precious Abby, and we love watching her personality develop.
