Kangaroo Zoo and the Petting Zoo

I got in touch with Rayma, an old friend that I used to work with, and it turns out she lives in Eagle Mountain AND has a little boy that is about 6 months younger than Abby.  We got together and went to Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove.  Abby had a blast jumpin' around and I enjoyed the opportunity to visit with Rayma.

I took some pictures but right now every picture I take is blurry because Abby got a hold of the camera and touched the lens.  I haven't been able to get it clean enough to take a decent picture yet.

The next day, I met up with Are and Piper at Thanksgiving Point to take the girls to the petting zoo.  I've taken Abby a couple of time before, and she likes to look at the animals, but only from a distance.  Are was excited to take Piper on the pony ride, but I kept saying "there's NO WAY Abby will go on it".  Once we arrived and were looking at the animals, sure enough, Abby got scared if the animals got too close the fence, she wouldn't feed them and was pretty content to just stand back and look.  When we finished looking at the animals, we got in line for the pony ride, and I felt even more confident that Abby would not ride the pony.  As it got closer to our turn, Abby said she was going to ride the pony, but I figured she'd get scared when we tried to put her on it.  I had Lexi in the stroller, so I had to hang back, and Are took the girls to get on the pony's.  And guess what, Abby got on the pony, and was happy and excited! Never, would I have thought she would do it.  Those of you that know my timid little two year old, might understand my amazement.  I was SO, SO proud of her.  I know it seems silly, but I think that was one of the most proud moments I've had as her mother so far.  I still, just thinking about it get full of pride for her.  Abby is VERY shy, and can be VERY timid, and this was completely out of character.  I can only imagine what it took in her mind to convince herself to get up there and do it.  It's funny how the small, random things seem to remind us parents of the joy and love we have for our children.  GO ABBY!!!

 

A Special Day Just for Abby

I know that my having two kids pales in comparison to some, well probably most, other people's challenges and responsibilities.  I think one thing that might set me apart, is, honestly, I'm not a "kid person".  After Abby was born I was terrified and overwhelmed.  It took me a while to really bond with her, basically because I was scared of her.  I always worried about the damage a novice mom could do to her little infant.  Over time, I became less scared, and more confident, but I also became less and less patient.  So when it was time for a second little baby to join our family, I knew I could be a mother, but I was so concerned about whether I would have the patience.  Well...I have found that right now, patience isn't what I am lacking, it's time.

There just isn't enough time to get everything done.  It's seems that most days, by the time I get all the chores and errands run, it's already 4 or 5 pm.  That means it's about time to start dinner, then it's time to get the kids in bed, then, if I'm lucky I will get about an hour of relaxing before I crash into bed.  What happened to free time?

I think what bothers me the most is KNOWING how bored Abby can get.  I wish I could do fun activities with her all the time, but it just isn't possible right now.  I've tried to get her excited about helping fold laundry, or vacuuming and it worked for a while, but it seems to be getting less and less fun for her everyday :)  So after a week or two of her following me around as I cleaned, or dragging her to run errand after errand, I decided to have a fun day just for Abby.  We started by going to a local bookstore that opened up  in my little town a while ago.  We've never been, but I really like to support the local businesses, so we browsed around a bit.  Next, a viewing of "Princess and the Frog" at the Provo dollar theater.  I've never taken Abby to see a movie, so I thought if it was a complete failure, at least I'd only be out $1.50.  We arrived in Provo a few minutes early, so we took a trip over the Provo temple to do a drive by.  Abby loves to see the temples, but is always disappointed when all we can do is drive by them and look at the outside. 

Once we got to the movie, I got her a small popcorn and drink, and she was so excited!  When the previews started she got upset, she thought we weren't going to see "Princess and the Frog".  But eventually the movie started, and she sat and watched the movie and ate her popcorn.  I can't believe she sat through the whole thing!  And Lexi did great too, she just slept most of the time!  Since we were down close to Orem, I thought we would try to stop and see Cameron at work before we headed home.  However, almost as soon as we arrived, they got a call and had to leave.  So, we loaded back into the car and headed home.  To top off the "day of Abby", I let her stay up late, and then we had a sleep over in my room.

I hope the day was special for her, she seemed to enjoy it.  I LOVED the whole day.  It really was special to me and helped to build a little better relationship with Abby. 

Easter

This year, Cameron had to work on Easter, so we kind of celebrated the day before.  We dyed eggs and gave Abby her basket. 

 Abby  managed to spill one cup of dye all over the kitchen :)

Then on Sunday I took the girls over the Are and Wills were we had a family dinner and watched conference.

Announcing Ellie Ann

(A collage Scott put together)

My brother Scott and wife Sonya just welcomed their new little baby girl to the family.  Her name is Ellie  Ann, born March 31st. 9 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long.

Cookie Cutters

I decided it was finally time for Abby to get a haircut.  I love her long hair, but, it just needed to be cut to clean up the ends.  We decided to take her to this place in American Fork called Cookie Cutters that does kids hair.  I thought it would be our best bet.  The place was pretty cute, they had a little play set/slide, and the kids get to sit in little cars and watch a movie while getting their hair cut.  Abby was pretty unsure of the whole experience but she didn't ever cry (just a few whimpers) and ultimately let the guy cut her hair.

 She got a balloon and a sucker, I took this picture right after she finished her sucker (if you couldn't tell, it was blue).  He also did this funky thing with her bangs, kind of a ponytail or something???  I didn't really like it too much.

Here is a view from the side

Here she is the next day, with out a blue mouth and a weird ponytail thing.

Double Take

I couldn't resist buying matching dresses for Abby and Lexi.

The Big Toothpaste Disaster (quickly followed by the dog shampoo disaster)

On Sunday evening, I put Abby to bed around 8:00pm and we didn't hear a peep from her, so of course, we assumed she had fallen asleep.  Around 9:00pm I went upstairs to get Lexi ready for bed, and thats when I discovered the bright blue toothpaste EVERYWHERE!  Abby had emptied an entire tube of toothpaste, all over her room.  It was on the bed, the pillow, most of her favorite dolls and toys, the walls, the carpet, pretty much everything.  This is just one of those instances where I just had to laugh, or else we would most certainly be minus one little girl.

 So, I gave her a rag and asked her to help wipe it off the walls and she got to work while I threw her bedding in the wash.  The next day, I finished washing all the toys and blankets that got "toothpasted" and put her room back together.  We also talked a lot about who was allowed to use the toothpaste and who wasn't.

Well, it wasn't but a few days later that, while feeding Lexi, I realized that Abby was being very quiet upstairs.  And that's usually a recipe for disaster.  Sure enough, when I went upstairs, Abby ran out of her room to stop me and said "DON'T!  Don't go in Abby's room!"  That was my second clue that something was wrong.  When I walked in her room, I discovered that all of her stuffed animals and dolls were coated in dog shampoo.  And once again, there was shampoo everywhere, but the worst damage was definitely to the carpet.  So, all the stuffed animals and dolls, took another ride in the washing machine, and her carpet was scrubbed with the carpet shampooer.  If that was the only damage done that day, it would have been another "laugh it off" instance. However, over the course of the day she also managed to color of some important tax documents, clog the toilet with TONS of toilet paper, and feed most of her dinner to the dog.  By the end of the day, she knew she was in BIG TROUBLE.

Oh man, what am I going to do with this curious, mischievous little girl!