Rainy Day

Unlike many parts of the country, here in San Diego we have had a very dry, very warm winter. We're actually in the middle of a pretty bad drought - this has apparently been the driest year in recorded California state history.  So finally getting some rain is definitely a good thing.

I happen to love rainy days, especially when I can choose to stay put inside and enjoy it without getting wet.  Rain is still pretty foreign to Abby so she has been watching it with great interest.  She really wanted to go for a walk outside in the rain so we bundled up and braved the rain and wind (it really wasn't so bad).  She kept saying 'rain' over and over.  At least now she'll know more what we are talking about when we sing 'The Isty Bitsy Spider'!

Also a perfect day for hunkering down at home since I feel absolutely terrible.  So now that Abby's napping I've made myself a nice cup of herbal tea and am going to wrap myself in a blanket on the couch and read a good book.  Maybe I'll even take a long nap myself.  Sounds perfect.

Abby the book worm

Spend any time with this kid, and you will quickly know that she loves books.  Offer to read her a book, and you will make her the happiest little girl!  When she wakes up in the morning, the first word out of her mouth, after 'down' (to get her off the bed) is 'book'. And she wants me to sit down then and there with her to read through pile after pile of book and can only be dragged away by the promise of eating breakfast. 

Lately, whenever we sit down to read, we first have to pile several blankets on us. She loves blankets too.

Love this kid!

Abby learning to paint

Although we have had finger paints for a few months now, it has just been in the last month that I have finally pulled them out to try to introduce them to her.  This was her reaction the first day that I put some blobs of pain on the paper and tried to show her what it was.  

She was not interested, and definitely did not want to touch the paint.  We finally folded the paper in half a few times to see how the paint smeared, and she liked that.  

Eric painted with her the next time and got her to the point where she was okay dipping her fingertips into the paint and then making dots all over her paper, and Dad's nose. :)

Then we went over to her friend William's house for some Valentine's Day crafts and it was here that she discovered paintbrushes!  I had never thought to let her use a paintbrush as I assumed kids liked to fingerpaint, but she loved it.

She also loved cleanup!

And now, guess who wants to paint at home?! With a brush, of course.

Valentines Day 2014

Really, this post is just about the food we ate on Valentines. :) I love holidays, especially planning the food we will be having.

Eric was amazing and made me breakfast. He made a Chocolate Dutch Baby with fresh strawberries. It was great, a little too much like eating chocolate cake though so it probably won't make any sort of regular breakfast appearance at our house.  But it was sure yummy!  Abby, of course, thought it was amazing.

I was a little too ambitious this year with dinner - it really wiped me out.  I decided to put the pasta make that I got for Christmas to good use and made homemade ravioli.  Completely from scratch.  Who knew that ravioli would take about 4 hours (maybe more, I can't really remember) to make start to finish? It didn't help that I made a huge batch - didn't realize it would make that much...

Anyways, it was Beet Ravioli (red for Valentines Day) with a slightly different filling than in the recipe (goat cheese, as yummy as it would have been, was just too expensive).  So I settle for a ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan mixture that turned out great.  We had roasted asparagus on the side.

Yes, this is Abby's table.  Ours was covered with the rolled pasta that I didn't get around to actually finished the ravioli process on.  We ditched the chairs and sat on the floor.

Dessert was cheesecake.  The most successful cheesecake I've made up to this point.  It did take a lot longer to cook than the recipe said, though, and it probably should have cooked a little more.

It was all so yummy, but I don't know if I will ever make ravioli again.  I just don't know if it is worth it.

We were able to enjoy our evening without Abby, which was nice.  The Young Women from church were babysitting as a fundraiser for camp so we decided to help them out.  Good thing, since Abby was the only kid that showed up... Felt so bad for them!

Abby's new bed

That's right, Abby has moved out of her pack and play that she has slept in since we first brought her home.  We never upgraded to a real crib, feeling like we just didn't have the space.  We've been talking about getting her a toddler bed for a couple months, but hesitated for the same space issues.  But we came across this one being given away so we couldn't pass it up (thanks Freecycle!). 

Eric went and got it one night after Abby was in bed and we set it up in the living room just to see what it looked like.  When Abby woke up in the morning and saw the bed, it was like Christmas morning. She was so excited!  She wanted up right away, lay down, rolled around, and had such a fun time.  It was fun just watching her!

 And a shot of it all set up in the room.

There is a space at the end of the mattress where a mattress extension is supposed to go (you can see the bare area in the pictures above).  But we didn't want to invest in that, so we rigged a set-up made of a thick layer of cardboard with padding on top, then a blanket wrapped around.  This covers the bare boards and serves as a place for all her blankets folded up.  They don't stay folded long as Abby seems to have an obsession with blankets - the more the better.

I just wish the bed would have helped solve our sleep difficulties... At least it didn't make them worse. Abby loves the bed though, which is great!

Temple visit

We headed up to the SD temple earlier this week since we had something we were going to up that direction that evening.  So before picking Eric up from work, we stopped to walk around the temple. Abby recognizes pictures of the temple and so when we got there, she knew where we were.  She kept saying 'temple' as we walked around.  There were a couple wedding photo shoots going on so we couldn't run all over the grass like Abby wanted to do, but we still got some pretty good shots.

If only she had stayed as cute as she looks here.  When we got to the church building to hear Clayton Christensen speak, we realized she had the worst poopy diaper we'd seen in a long time.  It was all over her tights and dress. I spent quite a while in the bathroom with her - good thing I had a spare pair of tights in my bag - so she wasn't completely clothes-less.  She sported tights and her black sweater the rest of the night.

We should go up to the temple more often, it's only a 15 minute drive away! And now that she know what it is, I definitely want to to help her understand why it is such an important place.  

Abby at 20 months

Abby is 20 months today!  That feels like such a big number, so much closer to two years old.

Some quick fun facts about Abby at 20 months:

She talks a ton now.  I've completely lost track of how many words she has, her language has really taken off.  She mimics a lot now too.  If we say a word, she'll repeat it, and gets it pretty good too.  Our signing has really slowed down since she is talking so much more now - I haven't done any new signs for a while.  She still uses some of them all the time - bread, more (these two are really just for emphasis since she says the words so clearly, please, thank you, and other random signs, like animal signs.

She loves to read to herself - when she does, its all in baby jibberish with a few words sprinkled in. So fun to watch.

She sure lets us know what she wants.  The other day I was trying to convince her to come help me make bread. She said, "No, book." (she wanted me to read to her)  When I tried again to get her to come with me, she stamped her little foot and said "No, book!" even more firmly.  Don't know where that came from.

One habit she has acquired is the need to hold onto someone's ear.  Most of the time mom's ear.  She does this when we are reading books, when I'm holding her and walking, and really whenever it is in reach.  It was cute at first, but now it is really driving me crazy.  I have sore ears all the time from her pulling on them, and nothing I do seems to make her stop.  I have been saying, "Be gentle with Mommy." So whenever I say this she stops and strokes my ear for a few seconds, then goes right back to holding onto the ear.  Sigh.

 Sleep is still not great.  Her 18 month regression hasn't turned around yet.  She did get a toddler bed (will show pics of that later) which we hoped would help, but hasn't made too much of a difference.

But she sure is adorable.  We love her, her little quirks and all.

Here is a conversation we had this morning during a diaper change: