girl time

So Kyle is gone for a few days to go do important stuff in Washington with the National Federation for the Blind. He's gotten really involved in both the local and national chapters of the oraganization and part of his prize for winning a scholarship was a trip to DC to speak with congressmen and others about the issues of importance for the organization. I know he's having a great time and enjoying the networking and information he's learning. So yay for that!

Of course, we've missed him at home too. He left on Friday, he'll be back early Wednesday morning...so this weekend was just me and Abby. Our dear friend John from Hendrix came to Boston for a med school interview and spent Thursday & Friday with us. It was great to see him and to rehash old memories as well as to catch up with what keeps him busy now days. Its definitely weird when you realize that you're at that age where you have "old college buddies" I hadn't seen John in a year, and yet, I think those friendships that you form in college are a beast of their own. They're strong and lasting.

Anyway, it was great to visit.

On Saturday, Abs and I hung out at home. We took my friend hannah's suggestion and made a fort where we hung out for a really long time. Truth be told, I think we spent so much time in our fort because it was about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Its been cold lately - even cold for Boston, so the house has felt cooler as well. The weather man actually said last night "right now its 14 degrees, so considerably warmer than it has been" Our perceptions of warmth get really screwed up in the winter up here.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, fort. We hung out and played most of the day. We had a small tragedy when Abby's gloworm needed new batteries and I stripped the screw trying to fix it. I was about to go buy a new one when I decided to give it another shot. I could write a whole blog about this ordeal - but it suffices to say that Abby is scared of my little drill and she is mortified when I take the gloworm apart to change the batteries, and it took me about 20 mins to get the stripped screw out and the WHOLE time, Abby was at my feet crying - no SOBBING - pleading for the life of her dear friend. I mean, I really felt awful. You could just tell that she was utterly distraught that I was tearing gloworm apart and drilling, banging, prying. I tried to show her that it was ok and she just screamed louder. In the end, I gave her gloworm back, and she was afraid to touch it for a while. She clung to me like a monkey for about 10 mins while she let her sobbing come in gasps of breath and eventually slow down to normal.

...later at dinner I was putting away my tools and I picked up a simple allen wrench and she started crying again. Great. I've totally given her a complex and she's terrified of all my tools now.

Speaking of afraid. I have this game on my iphone that's like flash cards with animals and when you press the animal, it makes the noise. She loves it. loves loves it. The dolphin is her all time fav, followed by the cat, duck, and dog. But. Everytime we get to the elephant card, she freezes. She's scared of it. No clue why - I guess she doesn't like the sound it makes? So, it's kinda funny because you have to touch the screen to flip the card, but she's afraid of it and she gets really confused. She usually ends up clinging to me until I flip to the next card for her. Random. And odd.

Ok. I'm getting off track a lot. On Saturday we went to the library for a while, and that was fun. She liked the books, but she liked the other kids more. I'm hoping to take her to this drop-in group on Saturdays where they read and sing and such for kids her age.

so many books, so little time

Sunday was more of the same. We made jello for the first time, and I have funny video of that. She was not a fan of using her fingers - but quite enjoyed it with a spoon. We also went grocery shopping, which was good. I spent $85 bucks at the grocery store and saved $40 - so I was proud of that.

Abby was eating crackers while we shopped to keep her happy - but as we were finishing up, we ran out, so I grabbed an orange off the shelf for her to play with. That kept her happy. I finished unloading our cart on to the belt to check out and then found her eating the orange peel. I got these pictures.

nom nom orange peel

ummm?

that's disgusting!

haha. She then opened her mouth and let an entire mouthful of half masticated orange peel fall out. So, because its my mom instinct, I caught it all in my hand and then the cashier was looking at me like "well, whatcha gonna do now?" But, also because I'm a mom, I always have wipes or tissues nearby and found one to put the mess in. Silly girl.

Ok. I gotta run to my next meeting - but here are a few more random phone shots from our weekend.

after I fixed Glowie, she wouldn't let her go - insisted on trying to climb the stairs with her in hand. This look says "you think I'm giving her back to YOU??"

oops