My Phone

Lately, I am always looking for my phone - I seem to always misplace it! Turns out, I am just looking in all the wrong places!

This is where I found my phone this evening, INSIDE a toy!

Here is someone who I think MAY have had a hand in it. What do you think? Guilty or not?

First Easter Egg Hunt

Robby and I had the day off work today, so we decided to volunteer to help at Abigail's school with her class Easter egg hunt! Each kid brought about 12 eggs to hide, and everyone was ready to go! We've been practicing hunting eggs for a few weeks now (scattering three eggs around and letting her put them in a basket), and it seemed to pay off! She found 15 eggs! We were very impressed, especially considering there was only one other toddler there younger than her!

While other kids were dumping out their baskets, Abigail was focused and moved from one egg to the next with very little direction! One little girl there (about 8 months older than ARR), picked up an egg, opened it, and decided to keep it based on whether or not she liked the goodies inside! If it was a "good egg" she'd put it in her basket, if it was "bad" then she'd put it back on the ground! So funny!

I enjoyed hunting eggs with my princess more than I thought I could! It was so much fun to be a part of her daily activities. I am so thankful for this time off!

They were ready to go!

Looking for some more eggs!

Found some!

Her cute bunny shirt with her name embroidered under the bunny!

Abigail and Sylvia checking out the goodies!

Group shot!

Somebunny found Bunnie!

Hey! What's this? What's in here?

Chance was just as interested!

The Easter Bunny stopped by a few days early and dropped off Abigail's Build-A-Bear (from a few weeks ago), Bunnie. Abigail found her "condo" (the box the bears/animals come home in from BABW) and started peeking through the windows and door. As soon as she found a way, she nearly pulled Bunnie all the way through the door! Needless to say, Bunnie got to come out and play a few days early.

Abigail was delighted to see her!

Warm and Fuzzy

Abigail was too cute after her bath tonight! Such a pretty girl!

First Baseball Game

Today was Abigail's first baseball game; we went to see Robby's stepbrother pitch against Mansfield Timberview HS. He's a sophomore and pretty good - he's the starting pitcher on Granbury's varsity team.

Even though Granbury won (and won by a lot - run ruled in 5th inning!), I did not get to enjoy much of the game! Abigail was more interested in running around or trying to climb up the bleachers than watching the game, so Robby requested that I take her around in the stroller. We ended up going across the parking lot and walking around the football track the majority of the game.

Pitching

Up to bat

The always adorable spectator!

The New, Adventurous Self

Dear Mommy and Daddy,

I am a toddler now and I like to climb and explore. Please watch me more closely.

Love,
Abigail


I feel like Robby and I should have gotten that memo from Abigail because today, we had two MAJOR supervision mistakes! First of all, we went to Babies-R-Us in hunt of a new stroller for Abigail. Yes, true, she already has two - a huge whopper of a stroller that came with her travel system and a light weight stroller now that she is older. But the bigger, better one has a busted handle and is a pain to use, even after the attempted repair with duct tape (Robby found out that it is NOT 4-wheel drive in the snow!), and the other one, kind of like an umbrella stroller, but a little different, has a handle that is too short to drive. Robby absolutely cannot drive it - he looks like an old man hunched over, and it is even uncomfortable for me to drive (push) at 5'4". It makes me wonder who, exactly, the stroller company had in mind when making it - someone who is shorter than me, obviously!! We HATE it, and Robby was fed up with it when we went to the park yesterday. I went online and gave it bad reviews for anyone over 5 feet tall.

Back to the story...while we were looking for a stroller, Abby managed to climb out of her seat in the buggy and tumble out of the shopping cart! She fell flat on the floor and started hollering! Yes, I know it's a shock! Robby and I were both right there, and I even saw it happen, but I felt like one of those movies where you're in slow motion and can't quite get there fast enough because, although I am in slow-mo, she is in fast forward. Shame on us for not buckling her in! Robby scooped her up, I checked her head for lumps/bumps/bruises, then her body/back/legs/arms/everything I could check, and no bumps at all or blood of any kind. THANK GOODNESS! After about 2 minutes of crying, I took her to the rocking chair section and rocked her for about a minute, then she was squiggling out of my arms wanting to get down and play. She was good as new! Happy, talking, running. Yes, I kept a close watch on her behavior after that (and ours, as parents!).

We were so upset and thankful that she was okay! Naturally, we let her pick out a "sorry Mommy and Daddy didn't buckle you in" present. She got some Mega Blocks! She's a toddler now, and a climber - lesson learned!

Oh wait. As if that wasn't enough, there's another boo-boo in store for us. We decided to go to the park near our house to try out the new stroller (it's fantastic, by the way!). Everything was going well: we walked around the trails first - over a mile! - then came back to the toddler playground where Abby likes to play. We let her out, and since I was holding Chance's leash, Robby went to play with her on the equipment. (Plus, I had to take pictures.) She went up the stairs by herself (Daddy is good at letting her explore on her own) and went down the slide --- ALL BY HERSELF! Yay! I was nervous, but Robby let her sit down on the slide by herself, then push herself down and I was at the bottom to help her off. It was great to see her so autonomous!

She did this cycle about 4 or 5 times...and that's when it happened. At one point, Robby scooted over to let another kid climb up the stairs, and as soon as he did that, BAM! Abigail fell off the playground! OH MY GOODNESS, I am not kidding. Two falls in one day! It was about 3 feet, but luckily, she landed on soft, squishy wood chips. This time, we didn't feel as guilty about because Robby was right there and it was something we have to do - let her do things on her own, even if that comes with a risk of falling or getting mildly hurt. She cried for a bit, but it was more like an "ow!" than anything, and she wanted down immediately and ran back to climb up the slide. Whew. Growing up is hard work. I'm just glad she is tough as nails!

Going into Babies - R - Us eating a sucker!

Abigail's new ride! She loves it and thinks it is very comfortable. It has full recline.

At the playground - going up the stairs with no help from parents!

Moments before Fall #2. Robby moved over to let that kid pass and right after that is when Abigail fell. The kid in no way pushed her - he was careful. She just turned around and fell straight down under the bottom rail.

After falling, she wanted straight back up to play again! Here she is getting ready to go down the slide.

A Day at the MAC

Happy St. Patrick's Day! My little Abigail was wearing a shamrock shirt from Nani and she looked extremely cute! The green really complimented her hair, and every where we went, she was told that she was so precious! Of course, I had to agree! I just wish I got a good picture of her to post!

Since we are on spring break this week, I looked around for some fun things for Abigail (and Mommy and Daddy) to do. I'm afraid I'm spoiling her with these fun activities and the go-go-go nature that our spring break has had so far, and that she will be mighty upset when she returns to normalcy next week, but what can I do? I like having all this time for family!

Today the Mansfield Activity Center had "Toddler Time" in their gym - free for Mansfield residents; actually, they have it every Monday and Wednesday, but today was the first time that we were able to make it, and it will probably be the last time until June. There's a maximum of 50 kids allowed, so we had to register, and it's a two hour time period for children who are walking -> before they enter kindergarten, basically ages 1-5. The majority of the children there were under 3, which was nice. I liked seeing how Abigail's abilities compared to children of her own age. (Uh-oh. I just said a Mommy no-no: compare! Ack. I better get a grip!) She was one of the younger ones there, but she could hang with them quite well!

She and two others nearly her age, a girl 22 months old and a boy 19 months old, followed each other around and played...not really together but near each other. If I remember my psychology it's solitary play, but emerging to parallel play, where the kids are near each other, but still not playing with each other. Most of the time Abigail plays by herself indifferent to others around her, but she was really watching them and trying to replicate what they did. Well, she always has been very observant of the situation around her.

The activity she loved most was the bounce house! It was her first time in one, so at first, I got in with her. She couldn't stay standing up for anything! Those 3 year olds were making it bounce like crazy! Don't get the impression that it was packed with 25 toddlers - in fact, in only had about 6-7 in it at the most at one time. There was so much to do!

It was fun to watch and she laughed all the while; every time she tried to stand, she was bounced back down. After we got out and explored the giant foam blocks, she ran back to the bounce house. I didn't get in with her this time, just helped her climb in and watch. She held on to the net, but since she can't really jump, she kind of bounced her knees. Too cute! After a few minutes, out she came to play with the balls. Then back in the bounce house - then back out to play with the tunnels. This continued on for nearly about an hour and a half - until Mommy got tired of trying to keep her away from the "big kid" dodge ball game that was happening on the other side of the gym. She was SO interested in that game!

It was a fun time, and we will definitely go back when school is out for the summer!

Sitting in the bounce house. She had to rely on others to bounce her since she can't jump yet!

Trying to stand - it was a bust!


Watching kids bounce!

Checking out the tunnels.

After her nap, we took Chance to the dog park, then took a family walk on the trails in the woods. Notice how this trail has lanes? It's a very busy place for bikers and roller bladers!