Who told her my name :)

When Abbie was tiny she learned to say daddy before mommy, my feelings were hurt and a friend said "trust me she'll learn and then you'll wish she would forget" Today is one of those days I wish she would forget.

She is almost old enough to be skipping naps, note I said ALMOST. Today is one of the days she desperately needs one, needs one more than I need her to take one. She's yawning, rubbing at her eyes and fighting sleep harder than I've seen her fight anything EVER. I made the misate of coming in the computer room after I put her down. Wouldn't be a problem but her door is open and now I'm trapped. Just when I think she's asleep and head for the door I hear "mooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" WHO TOLD HER MY NAME!! So my choices are to sit here staring at the computer screen until I can hear her snore or go out the window. The window is starting to look like a good option after an hour or so.

This too shall pass and I'll be free at the snore.

quick so I don't forget

Abbie's teacher must say for goodness sakes a lot, becuase lately she's been saying for sakes and missing the goodness, it's so funny. She also tells you her shirt is backwards out rather than inside out.

because she said so :)

So I don't usually post this stuff or forward emails, but because Raquita said I probably would I shall...however I can't tag 7 bloggers because so far as I know I only actually know 2 authors of the blogs I read. So here goes.

7 random things about me.

1- I have attended more colleges than I care to admit
2- I have about 100 1/2 finished projects
3- I can cry at the drop of a hat but it's not usually intentional.
4- I love to give things I've made, now if I could just make more useful things :)
5- I knew Abbie would be a girl named Abbie from the second I realized I was pregnant
6- It's my birthday
7- I can type faster than I can talk.

So now if you blog and you read my blog post 7 random things about you and let me know.

Thanksgiving lunch

I realize it's not Thanksgiving yet, but we had lunch with Abbie today at school. She made little turkey place mats and we had a really good time. I just had one quick observation. There were only 2 dads there. I'm fairly certain most of the mom's are married, they appeared to have wedding rings on and I've seen more dads picking up than the two that were there. Rick was one of them and I'm really glad he went. I remember my dad doing stuff and it couldn't have been easy to schedule, but really what else is there. Work will ALWAYS be there in some form or another, but a 3 year old with hand made turkey placemats? That won't even be there in a month.

just an observation

REAL friends

I miss St. Louis with my whole heart. The people, the streets, the smells, the sights everything, even the nasty crazy hoosiers, but mostly for the people. Knowing that no matter when or where I could call and someone would be there. I never had a lot of friends, but all the ones I have are amazing.


Distance does not dictate who our real friends are


What a true statement. I thanked a friend for always reading & responding to my emails. It’s always emails although she’s such a dear friend to me. Every time we’ve moved I have left many friends behind. I am slow to warm to new people, I know not everyone believes it, but it’s true in the beginning. So I’m the kind of person with a few real friends rather than lots and lots of acquaintance friends. I’ve learned over time who the real friends, you know the out of sight, out of contact, but not out of mind sort of friends (well some are out of their minds, but not out of mine) I don’t have a lot of close friends here in town but sometimes I forget how many REAL friends I do have.

if you are reading this I'm guessing you are one of the real friends and I thank you for being there for me.

Coke or Pepsi

I get a fisher price email, it’s usually full of great things and I like it, not a junk email at all. Well today the parenting question was about soda for 3 year olds. SODA FOR 3 YEAR OLDS, seriously!!!! I hardly give Abbie juice and someone seriously wants to know if it’s ok to give their child soda, not all the time, but at the end of the day as a reward. Look I’ve been feeling guilty using sugar free gum as a reward for my kid and they want to use FULL SUGAR SODA. Just give them some meth. Sorry if you are one of those parents who give their kid soda, but it’s just wrong. The only time Abbie’s ever had any was once she was sick and she wouldn’t drink anything else and I gave her some sugar free sprite just to see if she’d drink that, she didn'tand I’m glad. I drink too much soda, I know it, I know that’s why I don’t have more success with the weight loss thing, it’s why I feel like crap (well partly) and so many other bad things. When I was pregnant aside from the morning sickness and being so overdue the hardest part was not drinking soda, but I did it and I am a SERIOUS DIET COKE GIRL.
Why would I want to introduce that crap to Abbie now, she’s three, she’s got plenty of time for stuff that’s bad for her in the future. When we go out to eat and a waitress asks if she want coke or sprite they are always shocked when I say milk or water. Yes we get her a kid’s shake at Steak & Shake but we go maybe once every six weeks or so and at least there’s milk in there J No soda for Abbie and less and less for me anymore.


Soda, seriously, three years old, unbelievable.

faster mommy

Well Abbie and I went to the park yesterday and I decided we should take a long walk after playing. If you have a 3 year old you know a long walk means one of two things a stroller or a short walk. So we took the stroller. It was a great day for a walk, sunny and cool, I did not notice the breeze until we were walking into the wind. We 2 choices walk back up the big old hill or keep going. The hill looked big to me and I figured the wind would die down eventually. Have you ever spent any time in central Illinois, if you had you'd know there is never a wind that dies down. Tractor trailer flip from our wind, we get snow rolls in the winter from our wind. Think jelly roll only out of snow!

anyway........ so we are walking INTO THE WIND and I run out of energy before I run out of walk so I'm really dragging. We've been walking for about 30 minutes and from the stroller I hear this sweet little voice say

"hey mommy, faster please"
"I can't go faster sweetie"
"please mommy"
"I'm too out of shape to go faster"
"WELL GET INTO SHAPE MOMMY!"

Seriously, I never thought about that. In all honestly we walked for over an hour and it was the last 10 minutes or so walking into the wind that killed me. How is it possible to walk in a circle around the dang park and walk into the wind for all but 1/3 of that walk?

I've got more to blog but I am headed home to see what she thinks I need to get today :)

you tube

I don't know how to put all the video's from here on you tube, I'm guessing there's a way to go there and see everything I've posted lately, I put a bunch on yesterday, lots of her when she was smaller.

Abbie and I stayed home today. No one was sick we just didn't want to go out. After her third fit IN A ROW I gave up and called in sick. I feel bad because it looks like it was slammed at work, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. We had a very busy and long weekend and I think she just needed to do nothing. Life is rough when you are 3 ;)

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend, no white pumpkins so we are still searching, but we did get a couple of them anyway. Completely forgot a camera, we'll go again this weekend and take pictures.


Oh so I was just messing with the you tube, if you just search for lovemyabbie it brings up what I posted. Harmonica playing, fit throwing, singing, playing Abbie.

Sorry for the pathetic post, have fun.

odds & ends

Abbie’s personality is shining through lately and there is so much of me in her it’s not even funny! Good and bad, it’s all there. The other day Rick and I were being silly in the car and from the back seat we hear “you people are making me crazy” and she said it exactly the way I said it to her. She’s smart when she wants to be too. I can remember when she was a baby if she didn’t want to do something it wasn’t going to happen, she never held a bottle and it made me crazy (guess that’s where she gets that line). I didn’t mind feeding her and holding it for her, but I could tell by the glint in her eye she was just not holding it, she didn’t feel like it and knew she didn’t have to. She could hold onto my earrings, her toys, anything else she wanted to put in her mouth, but not the bottle. Why bother.

Now she’s all in charge, of everything. We went to a neighborhood thing on Sunday afternoon. There was little boy who was according to Abbie misbehaving. He was climbing on a box covering what I think was electrical stuff. Abbie wasn’t supposed to play on it and he wouldn’t come down when she told him to. She came over to me and said Mommy he’s going to die playing on that thing (that she did not get from me, not sure where, but not me) and I about fell over laughing. Sometimes she’s just so matter of fact about what she says and does.

Mom’s dog is up for a visit and I guess we’d forgotten to feed her or something, anyway she was making noises and all of the sudden Abbie goes “what is wrong with this dang dog”, yep, me again and again I almost fell over.

Here’s the worst example from the last week. I wanted to pick up donuts for a friends birthday and confused the heck out of Rick trying to drive through and so we were not being friendly, not fighting, but almost. So from the back seat we hear “YOU QUIT THAT FIGHTING RIGHT NOW OR I’M GOING TO SPIT ON YOU” No one spit’s on Abbie, lets just get that out there right now, but when she’s mad she does this huffing thing with her mouth and sometimes spit comes out so we’ve had to say more than once we do NOT spit on people, so I guess she thought that would be our punishment. It’s a good thing she couldn’t see our faces because we just lost it.

Anyway, for now that’s the odds & ends I can think of, but I’m sure there’s more. She’s such a old person in a little girls body.

let's see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxd2drf2UVM

quick update

still no paci!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!











yes I'm a little excited :)

big girl = no paci?

Just a quick update that I hope sticks!

So last night Abbie started asking for a pair of pink shoes. She’s got PLENTY of shoes and I kept telling her no but she’s my daughter and kept asking. So finally I said, would you trade your paci for pink shoes, I figured this was the only way to end the conversation because we all know that won’t happen. SHE SAID YES. So I tried explaining that it meant she wouldn’t have it again any night or nap, and she said I know I’m a big girl I want pink shoes. So we got them, she’s got nicer shoes than me, but they are pink and she gave me her paci when we got home. She made it ALL night long without it. I’m sure it’s not the end of the paci conversation, but I know if we can make it one night we are DONE.

Big Mac Blessings

So Abbie’s good, great actually. She’s full of energy, questions and attitude just like a 3 year old should be. I need to post some current pictures, but have just felt so busy. I don’t think we really are, but sometimes feeling busy is worse than actually being busy, right?

Anyway, in the last month or so stupid stuff keeps happening. First Rick’s car died. We knew we were going to have to replace it, but we were hoping to hold off until after the first of the year, still hoping, but sharing a ride is not so much fun  Abbie is so confused because she thinks my seat in the Malibu is the one behind the wheel and Rick’s been driving. She’s all about routine.

Then someone broke into the house, well does it count as broke in if they come in an open window? I should have known better, after all the years of living in South St. Louis, but I didn’t. Dad even asked if they should close the windows before they went to bed and I said no we’d be fine. Well I went to bed and they listened, and I was wrong. Yep mark your calendars, August 31st, Melissa was wrong. I guess about 12:30 or so they came in, mom got up to go to the bathroom and scared them away so all they got was our purses. Having your purse stolen is minor I think compared to what could have happened, but it’s all that pain in the butt stuff like getting a new license, library card, sams card, I never knew how many cards a person could have! Not to mention all the brand new lipsticks, and the purse I spent WAY too much money on. That will teach me to buy nice purses 

But the point of this post wasn’t a pity party for us. It’s to remind me how really and truly lucky we are. No one was hurt in the “break” in, we still have another car to share and my family is healthy (knock on wood). I have a friend who’s mother after already having cancer, having a kidney removed and a bunch of other stuff, found out she had cancer again, in her lung. They removed the lung but couldn’t get everything and now she’s got to have the max dose of chemo and radiation. The first chemo treatment made her so sick they can’t even start the radiation. Another friend’s sister just found out she has MS on top of serious diabetes. Someone else’s mom is recovering from leukemia and needs to have her knees replaced. Someone at work, their car rolled across the parking lot into a pond! One family my parents know in just 7 years have lost a son, father, mother, had Hep B, another mother has bone cancer and I’m sure many other things I don’t’ even know! I feel like I’ve been having a crappy couple of months so I just thought I would stop and realize how lucky we are.

We both have jobs; we have a great house, great kids, great family, healthy family, friends and so many other things we don’t even see as blessings. So take some time to stop and look at the little things around you that others can only dream of. My step daughter said in the car the other night that she figures every person in America had been to McDonalds and was flabbergasted when I said not everyone has the money to go to McDonalds. Did you ever think it would be a blessing to get a Big Mac?

It's her birthday

Here's some quick pics

Three is the magic number

And Abbie's magic today! She was making about as much noise at the exact moment she was born as I was when she was actually born (bummer when the epidural wears off in the MIDDLE OF A C-SECTION) Anyway, we all survived that fit and will live through many more. She did how ever let us get a couple of cute pictures. Here's one.




for those of you who know her well she loves LOVES to read and often we'll head to bed only to hear her reading to her dolls. Sometimes she falls asleep with a book in her hand, see!




anyway, more stuff later. I'm tired and party and people tomorrow..

oh, Rick is 35. Just a little older than Abbie, but a good number for him too :)

what a fit

ok, in case you check this before I figure it out just click below and you'll see a fit. I know everyone think's always perfectly sweet, but nope not a chance. I'm trying to figure out how to make it face the right way but haven't yet. if you know shoot me a message

tell me a story

So Abbie's favorite thing is to have us tell her stories, not read stories tell her stories. I'm not so good at that, need to work on it, but in the car I had one for her. It was a story about a big girl who managed to sleep without a paci for a whole week and her mommy took her to the store to buy a new toy. She loved it we talked about it, she was going to be a big girl and sleep with no paci. LOVE IT. So we do bed routine, books, pj's, brush, hug, kiss, snuggle, mommy leaves. Didn't ask for a paci 10 minutes later SCREAMING for the paci. I said remember the story about the big girl who didn't need her paci. Abbie's response



MOMMY DON'T TELL ME THAT STORY ABOUT THE GIRL GIVE ME A PACI



Well we are down to one paci anyway. That's an improvement, have you seen this picture? There are at least six paci's in this shot!

she's reading

Ok not for real, but I'm in the computer room paying bills and I hear her looking at books and telling the story. Books I haven't read her in ages, bookes I didn't think she knew. It's amazing the memory she has. My mom broke her foot and made up this silly story about how it happened and Abbie asked her to tell it SEVERAL times over the last week when they were here. Tonight I asked her to tell me the broken foot story and she did, she even remembered that the princess captain broke her foot on the toe rail. I don't even know what a toe rail is, but she remembered it.

I am contiunally amazed by her and the things she has learned and I didn't even notice. I look at her and she's this big girl, a kid not a baby and I can hardly breathe just thinking about it. As I backed the car out of our spot at daycare today she said so matter of fact "So Mommy, how was your day, mine was wonderful" For real, she said it. And just when I'm so sad but resigned to the fact that my little baby has turned into a little kid I see her in her new big girl bed, curled up in a ball looking so tiny and small. She's so big and tiny all at the same time.

I'll try to post pictures of the bed and the kid this weekend. Rick is traveling most of this week though so I don't know for sure if I'll have time. Not sure I like being home alone in our house yet. I was actually looking at alarm systems today :( but when I walk at night I notice that there are ony 2 or 3 houses in our area with alarms so probably I don't need one. Someone said get a dog, as if I didn't have enough to do already :)

hope everyone is good.

quick post

We are doing our best to settle in. I sent pictures of the new house to those I had emai for, if you'd like to see it let me know. Also if you know how to make the picture at the top smaller tell me PLEASE. and if you're reading let me know too. No one ever leaves messages. More tomorrow I hope.