Tuesday with Abby

I like my job.  I really do.  And, I think that working a full time job - in some ways - allows me to be a better mom.  It forces me to be away from home and that helps me keep things in perspective.  A phrase I use often is, it allows me to miss Abby everyday.  

Having said that.  I'm extremely lucky because I don't have to work in the summer and I get vacations off during the year.  This is a vacation week for me.  Which means, I get to play stay at home mom.  :)

I'm not sure I would have made a good stay at home mom when Abby was in her infant stages.  I mean, I wouldn't have turned down the opportunity I don't think -but, I needed the mental breaks from being "on duty"  And while I don't think things would be "easier" now - they would be different.  I think I'd make a much better stay at home mom to my little 2 year old.  

Anyway, this is all a long introduction to say: We had a nice day today.  Busy, but good. 

We got up this morning and made breakfast, and ate breakfast, as a family.  That was nice.  We took Kyle to work and Abs and I headed to the library.  She was well behaved and we read lots of books.  She started with the baby books, then some other random ones, and then she discovered the train books and had me read her every train book she could find.  :)  As we were getting ready to leave, she had an attack of 2-year old behavior.  She was running away, wouldn't put on her coat, going limp noodle - and not in the least upset or angry...in fact, she seemed to be enjoying herself (which only pushed my buttons harder)  Luckily, after a time-out (which seemed to only work because she was so excited about getting one) - we were on our way again.

We left the library and headed to the mall.  The playspace is redecorating.  25 kids were able to reserve spots to come today and paint a canvas that will be hung in the room.  I was pretty excited about this - but as we've never tried any kind of painting that didn't involve our fingers, I wasn't sure what to expect from Abs.  We met 3 of her friends there, and Abby had a good time. :)

My little neat freak, was actually ALL about the brushes.  She didn't get any paint on her until the very end when she touched a bit on the edge of her canvas and immediately cried out, "mama! wipe! please!"

Her beautiful masterpiece!

 I couldn't get Abs to spend much more time on her painting after a point though, because she was all too aware that one of her friends (the little girl she played Tag with the other day) had gone up to the playspace to play.  Abby wanted to go too.  So, we and Abby's two other friends headed up to play.  We had a good time playing - but the room was super crowded - so we didn't spend as long as we sometimes do there. 

Instead, we headed to lunch at Bertucci's with Abby's friends Katie & Ellie (who are sisters)

Look at how cute these three are...holding hands everywhere they went today.

 

Katie & Ellie's mom is also expecting in the coming weeks.  They're having another girl.  :)   So, at lunch, we had 2 pregnant moms, 2 two-year olds, and a four year old.  There were, potentially, 7 girls at that table.  ;o)  We had a nice lunch - pizza and toddlers, what's not to love?  It was appropriately messy, hectic, and fun.  We headed home after that and Abs was down for a nap....but a short one. 

90 mins later, we were back in the car.  Took Kyle to school and were off to have more fun.  We stopped by my favorite thrift store just to kill some time.  We found a bunch of hats and Abby had as much fun putting them on herself as she did laughing at me in them too.  

this one was a little big.  ;)

"I a big lion! Growl!"

I mean, tell me that's not awesome.

After we were done playing, I asked Abby what she wanted to do.  She didn't want to go home - she wanted to "take a walk"  So, we drove down to a fun little part of town and we strolled around and window shopped for an hour.  Simple and fun.  It was good for her to be outside, and it was good for me to walk.  It was good for both of us to stop for ice cream. :)

JP Licks treat.  We love this place.  Abs actually only had m&ms since she refused to eat the ice cream.  She says it's "too cold!" and gets scared by it.  I'm assuming she'll get over that one day.  Abby was a lot of fun at the ice cream store. She was so happy, and being silly and very affectionate.  She's started patting my head and saying "good boy, mama!" Dunno what that's about.  She made me take a million pictures of her (of which ALL turned out terribly blurry because she was moving so much)

posing with her hat hair. ;)

silly girl

We headed back to the car to go pick up Kyle from school.   While we drove and waited, we sang songs and played games and talked about...everything from family to cats to how traffic lights work to where stars go in the morning to how much we love pickles.  It was great. 

At one point, a runner ran by our car.  Abby says, "Is that daddy?  Noooooooo, that's not daddy!"  She does that a lot, but this time, she spontaneously added, "That's Jesus!"

She was pretty insistent, so I'm glad to know she recognized him, even in his jogging hoodie.  

We picked up Kyle, we all came home, food, PJ's, more train books, and bed. 

What a great, exhausting day it's been.  I'm glad I didn't waste a minute of it.  However, I'm thinking that tomorrow, we'll dwell a little more on the "stay at home" part of being a stay at home mom.  ;-)