home again

Oregon was great and I'm home again now. Kyle flew out for a week long conference the day I got back - so we're doing this little revolving door parenting thing for a bit.

I missed Abby while I was gone, but - to my relief - I didn't worry about her. However, I was very surprised to see how much she had changed in just the week I was gone. It was actually a little shocking. Her hair was notably longer, her face looked different, her vocabulary like quadrupled (slight exaggeration), and even her voice seemed to have changed. It was odd.

With us going solo today, we decided to spend a lot of girl time together today. We went shopping all morning for things we needed...and a few extra things. :) I decided we would take a detour to Petsmart just to let Abs see the animals.

She loved it. She loved the Guinea pigs, the birds, and the fish...and of course the dogs that other people brought in. She spent most of her time watching the birds and saying "Hi Bird!!" and mimicing their eating noises. When I carted her over to the Great Wall O' Fish - she was just awestruck.

can you tell?

We stopped for a quick snack before heading home - and halfway through our meal, Abby stops and puts her milk down, crosses herself and clasps her hands to pray. I'd forgotten to say Grace and she was not going to let me forget! I got her to do it again for the camera.

In the name of the Father,

the Son

and the Holy Spirit

Amen.

And it's cute, cause she says "amen" after the prayer -but she says it real southern, like she's saying "yee-haw!" but in stead, "aaaa-men!"

After a good long nap (I actually went to wake her up around 4:15) we hit the stores again. I've been trying to find her a swimsuit - but all the stores stop selling them in June. Which, I think is crazy, so I've been digging through clearance racks looking for something that will work. I finally found one that I can live with - not my first choice, but beggers can't be choosers I suppose.

In other shopping news, I actually bought Abs a potty chair today. Weird. She doesn't seem old enough to be starting this whole potty training thing yet, but here we go. I let her see it tonight and showed her how to sit on it. She loved it of course, didn't want to get up, thought it was the coolest diaper-less game ever.

All in all, it was a good day. Shopping is always fun of course, but I really enjoyed spending the time with Abby. I can't tell you how many times she made me laugh today - like really laugh. She dances and sings and does things because she knows I think they're funny. When singing her alphabet, she started saying, "H I J K, elmo-elmo, P..." Which is hilarious because that is exactly how it sounds to her.

Anyway, it's good to be back into the swing of things and I'm really looking forward to this summer vacation and soaking up as much time with Abs as I can.