Memorial Day Weekend

We had a good weekend! Having that extra day was such a blessing.
The weather was really hot, and Friday night was kind of a drag, since we got stuck in a horrendous traffic nightmare (the major artery eastward out of SoCal was closed due to an accident). However... Saturday morning, Frances was able to play with her friend Sienna for about 4 hours, and that freed up the television so that Abigail could watch Blue's Clues and Elmo. After Ab's nap, we ran a few errands, including a trip to the thrift store, where we bought lots of books for both girls. Frances is into Nancy Drew and Saddle Club books these days. We all went to bed at a reasonable time. Ahhh....


Sunday after church, we went out to visit my parents. We hadn't seen them since early April, but my mom's health has stabilized somewhat. We celebrated a belated Mother's Day, with my dad and I following mom's directions to cook a delicious dinner. Frances was able to watch her favorite shows on cable TV (which we don't have), and Abigail played non-stop. She and my dad built with blocks and read books together, and she is such a busy child that my mom was tired out from just watching Abby!


After we left my parents' house, we stopped by the Lindfors' house to play, and the Waites were there also. Frances, Colby, James and Clayton played basketball, while Emily, Abigail and Karley played with doll strollers. It had been a busy day, and was a late night.


Monday morning, Frances was up at 6:40, but Abigail slept in until about half past eight. The girls stayed in pajamas for a while, and played "slumber party" in Abigail's new bed. We ran a few errands, and then came home for lunch and a nap. Abigail looked like she was going to fall asleep in her car seat on the way home from the grocery store!


Even Frances slept, for about 90 minutes, and admitted that she felt much better after a nap. While they slept, I actually sat down and read a magazine. I could have been doing laundry or cleaning things up, but I decided to take a break, too. We went to the Waites' house that afternoon, where the children played with water balloons. Frances and Colby ended up playing basketball in the neighbor's driveway, while Abigail and Karley pretended to "swim" in the wading pool, which had about six inches of water in it!



After having dinner with the Waite family, we packed up and came home. Abigail fell asleep as soon as I put her to bed, but Frances tossed and turned, got up a few times to use the bathroom or get a drink (really to see what I was doing). But I think that the three-day weekend helped us all to relax and unwind a little.

Gymnastics Update

This Tuesday at gymnastics, Frances was able to do a back handspring unassisted! She was so happy! She goes to gymnastics three days a week. Two of those days are 90-minute group lessons, with about 10 girls in her Pre-Team class. On Tuesdays, she has a semi-private lesson. There are just three girls in the class, hand-picked by the coach. Frances, Olivia and Kelli all would like to be on Team one of these days, and are all willing to work hard. And the semi-private actually works out to be less expensive than the group lessons, since the coach can set her own price. Frances loves her Tuesday class, and we have heard that the coach of the competitive team has been asking about little class... We'll have to wait and see what the future holds.

Oh, and Abigail is now in gymnastics, in a preschool class on Tuesday afternoons. Finally, there was a preschool class at the same time as one of Fran's sessions. Abigail has a long way to go, even for the basics, but what she lacks in skill, she makes up for in enthusiasm!

a photo would not be appropriate, but....

When Abigail gets out of the bathtub, I wrap her up in a towel, and she runs down the hallway to her room. Once she is there, she struggles out of the towel, flings it away, and shouts, (with a big grin) "Nakey Belation!"
I have no idea what it means, but it is hilarious! If she is partially clothed, and I ask her, "Are you Nakey Belation?" she tells me, "No, I not Belation."
The nakey part I understand, but what does belation mean?

The Birthday Princess

On the morning of Abigail's birthday (her estimated birthday from China), Frances remembered a special occasion hat that we bought last summer. We dubbed it "the Birthday Princess Hat," and Abigail was thrilled with it. She wore it ALL DAY LONG, everywhere she went. It's sort of... well... conspicuous, which means that most people are compelled to comment on it. This was fine with Abigail, because she got to tell sooo many people, "It's my birthday!" It even earned her a pink balloon at the grocery store. She worked for days to develop the manual dexterity to put up three fingers, to show her newly advanced age. I had no idea that it would be hard to do, but it took Abby a while (and several interesting configurations) before she could put up those three fingers. She loved it when Frances and I sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and kept asking us, "Sing it again, please!" While she was wearing the hat/crown in the car on the way to school/work/RoBen's, Abigail kept saying, "Snap my cap! Hoo hoo hoo!" The first thing that I thought of was the line from High School Musical, when Troy says, "Miss Darbis has snapped her cap!" But Abby told me that Tigger says this phrase. I am not up on the current Disney channel shows, so I was clueless. She would tip the hat forward onto her lap while saying "snap my cap" and then do the "hoo hoo" part with a big grin. Later, she used the crown to cover her cough!

Back to the birthdate issue: Many people think that Abigail is older than her estimated birthdate makes her, and they may be right. When she was found, she had a heart defect, so may have been small for her age. But back at Christmastime, our pastor reminded us that no one knows the real date of Jesus' birth. He may have been born in the spring, summer, or fall, but we choose to celebrate His birthday on December 25th. So even though we will never know the actual date of her birth, we will choose to celebrate Abigail's birthday on May 19th.

The questions are getting harder....

This morning in the car, Abigail said, "Thanks, mom."

I asked, "Thanks for what, baby?"

Abby: "Thank you for my head."

Mommy: "But I didn't give you your head!"

Abby: "Who give me my head, mommy?"

Mommy: "God gave you your head."

Abby: "How He give it to me?"

At this point, I am wondering how to appropriately address this question. So I just went with Scripture, figuring that even if it is above her understanding, it is true, and someday she'll figure it out. I told her,
"The Bible says that God knit you together in your birthmother's womb, and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made."

Future parade float queen....

This morning after Abigail was dressed and ready to go, she strutted down the hallway, with her left hand on her hip, and her right hand doing a perfect "parade" wave. Don't know who she was waving at, but maybe she is practicing for some future event.

The girly girl turns three

Abigail's fabulous sitter gave her five (count 'em, five) Princess rag dolls for her birthday! Talk about sweet dreams....

And they fit in perfectly with her new "big girl" bed. I was so excited about her beautiful new bed, but Abigail was not impressed; she didn't really seem to notice much of a difference. I guess as long as she has a place to sleep, she's happy. The rest of the bedding is coming soon, but currently, she has Princess bedsheets on the bed. And she does not get out of bed without me (or Frances) coming to get her. I don't have to lift her out of the bed or anything, but she won't climb down until she knows she is supposed to get out! Wow. Wonder how long that will last....