St. Patrick's Day 2010

I'm not exactly sure when I decided that I loved St. Patrick's Day. I always liked it growing up, and my enthusiasm was reinforced after moving to Boston. Last year, I remember taking pictures of Abby and having so much fun and, maybe it was then, that I started looking forward to the next year's festivities. I do remember how my mom always tried to make holidays special and how we would have green milk and other fun things to go along with the day...traditions I'm proud to continue.

Today, was a good day. Possibly even great. I felt like I got an "A" on being a mom today. I got a D- on cleaning the house...but I think I've got my priorities straight. ;)

Our day started groggy. Taking Nyquil at 1am does not for an easy morning make. Nevertheless, we eventually got ourselves together. I do not like to miss an opportunity to celebrate a holiday, so of course I made Abby green eggs for breakfast. She seemed to enjoy them.

After breakfast, we took Kyle to work. Then Abby and I went to the grocery store for a while to pick up a few things we needed before heading to the Apple Store. Kyle's phone was not working right and he needed us to take it in for him. However, we ended up with about 30 mins to kill between groceries and iphone rescue, so Abby and I decided to have a small snack at a bakery next to the grocery store. We'd never been in before, but it was a cute little place. We split a lemon- blueberry muffin. I absolutely love this age. I love love love that I can take Abby out for breakfast and we can just chill together. It is so much fun. And, as a bonus, the booths made for a great photo backdrop. :)

It was a great jumpstart to our morning. After the bakery we took Kyle's phone in. We had to wait a little while before we could be seen and Abby spent her time walking around the store completely oblivious to all the attention she was getting. I will say, it's pretty easy to entertain a toddler in a store full of bright monitors and iphones. So, all that went well and it was time to take Abby home for a nap.

We both took naps. And I woke up feeling like I had finally shaken off that Nyquil feeling. Next was lunch, and we had to stick with the theme...so green mac & cheese it was. :)

Today was one of those days that we simply could not stay indoors. The warmest day of the year so far - I think it was 60 or even higher. So we packed up and went to the park. We played on the playground for a long time (where Abby made several friends and got more attention for her shamrock-saavy look). I decided to take Abby to a pine tree grove to have a snack and, of course, take pictures!

This makes me laugh. This was Abby's first pinecone experience.

"Hey, what's this?"

"aaaaaah"

"ugh! mom! that was gross!"

How could I not add this picture?

Those eyes melt me - and dirt on her face just makes it better.

Ok. So, back to our day. We left the park to pick up Kyle from work. I was super excited to realize that today is ST. Patrick's Day. As in Saint. As in it's a "feast day" Still not following? Lent doesn't count on feast days. As in, I can eat sweets. So when I picked up Kyle from work, I thanked him for letting us go get ice cream. :) He gave me one of those looks - but found it in him to comply.

Also, I discovered, it's pretty much impossible to say the phrase, "Can I please have sprinkles" without sounding about 4 years old. Especially when you add, "the green ones?"

I thought this was a cute moment. Kyle explaining to Abby why she has to hold his hand when they're walking by a street.

So, we had dessert first, but that's the kind of crazy world I live in. We came home and I invented some hodgepodge stuffed peppers recipe. Let's see, we had turkey, black beans, onions, peppers, and cheese and spices. I think they came out pretty well.

So. Here we are. At the end of a fantastic day. The child is in bed, the kitchen is cleaned, and we're going to catch up on a few tv shows before bed. What a wonderful day this has been. I think, to an extent, holidays are made for kids (some of us never grow up) and I am having so much fun participating in the festivities. Who knows, maybe 15 years down the road I won't even remember where I put my green shirt - but this year, we had a really, really fun time.

'O Paddykat

For those of you who are not on facebook, here are a few of my favorite St. Patrick's Day Abby pictures. I think this may be my favorite photo-holiday.

windy day yesterday

lookin' cool

This is how most of the pictures I take turn out...I gotta get a faster camera some day.

my wee little leprachauness

she was loving hiding under the hats

all tangled up

this is one of the more "true abby" pictures I've taken - just Abby being Abby.

look how happy she is. :)

I hope everyone is wearing green and nobody is pinched. We've already had a great day and its not even lunchtime yet, but I'll update about all of that stuff later. Happy St. Patrick's day!

growing up armstrong

Its funny how having a kid is, in some ways, like living your childhood all over again. I mean, maybe I would have watched Sesame Street in my PJs while eating blueberries with one hand and stacking blocks with the other even if I hadn't had a child...but probably not. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have read nearly as many Suess books and certainly wouldn't have memorized Goodnight moon and countless other stories.

When you have a kid, you remember a lot about your own childhood. I mean, that is the main example you have to work from. Which, in some cases, is problematic if your childhood was traumatic or unhealthy. Lucky for me (and Kyle), we had wonderful childhood experiences (thanks mom & dad!).

It has dawned on me lately, however, that some of the things that I thought everyone did or knew about were actually not as universal as I thought. For example. I decided to get Abby some graham crackers for the first time and mentioned to Kyle "now all we need is cream cheese" He gave me this funny look and said, "okaaaay..." As it turns out, not everybody was raised to know that the reason graham crackers were even invented was so that cream cheese would have something other than bagels to go on.

This realization prompted me to ask Kyle "what about graham cracker cereal?" Again, I got a blank look. I was a little shocked to learn that he, and I assume most people, didn't routinely fill a bowl with broken graham crackers and pour milk over it. It was one of my favorite breakfasts growing up - but you had to eat it fast because its not as good soggy...and it gets soggy fast. My good friend Joel would laugh at this and add it to our ongoing list of "things poor people do" I have a whole book of "poor people games" that my siblings and I constructed one year for Christmas. We should totally publish it. It's great stuff.

Anyway. Other things that I grew up with that others didn't:

-calling your shoulder blades "wing-nubs" As in, "hey, dad, scratch my wing-nub"

- knowing that when microwaving a cup of tea, the perfect time is 1:11. To this day, I still use that number.

- My dad and his siblings once wrote an entire musical - I remember thinking that everyone did this in college.

- the confusion that happens when you're 5 and think God looks a lot like Santa Claus, and your dad, the preacher, looks like both.

- Instead of playing "I-spy" we said "Riddle, Riddle, Marie - I see something you don't see..." I thought those were completely different games for a long time.

- I thought breaking out into song was normal.

- I was actually pretty old when I discovered that not everyone knows that angles and star ornaments have to go on the top of a christmas tree and that glass ball ornaments should be placed on the inside branches to reflect the light...and the other hundred rules for decorating a Christmas tree (Kyle is still a bit intimidated I think when it comes to this)

-I thought going to the Indian pow-wow every summer was just a typical american activity.

- I thought all parents kept a "Book of Discipline" on the bookshelf...very intimidating for a child to see (its actually a book of the Methodist rules/regulations/etc)

I could go on and on and on. I have so many wonderful, and funny memories. And I hope I can pass on some of those to Abby. Mom, I promise to let her play in the mud...even if she's grounded, at least once. Dad, I promise to show her how to cut apples so that you can see the stars inside. And Abby, I promise to do my best to give you a loving and creative and exciting childhood.

fun times. :)

lazy saturday

Its 7:30 pm and I'm still in my PJs. Its been that kind of day. Not a bad day, but a lazy day...very laaaazy.

It didn't dawn on me until after I posted yesterday that it was technically Abby's 15-month day. So, I should have mentioned that. I feel that the progress she has made between months 14 and 15 are off the charts. She has done more in this last month than all the others combined...ok, well, that may be an overstatement, but its how it seems.

She has started walking, and now walks 90% of the time, her vocabulary has doubled, if not tripled lately. She tries to say things after you, she has started trying to crawl down stairs instead of just up. Just today, in fact, she went from sitting to standing without the aid of an object to pull up on. I really do feel like she's doing something new everyday. As I mentioned previously, she's getting really good at saying Please and Thank you - and while I don't think she fully understands when or why she has to say "please" she definitely knows to say Thank you when somebody gives her something. Its so cute.

Of course, not everything is progress - with the new freedom and independance Abby is discovering comes a healthy dose of frustration when things don't go her way. She wants so so badly to do everything herself. And when she can't, she throws tantrums. Her screams are completely disproportionate to her problems. If she wants to put on her hat, but can't seem to get it to work, she will throw herself on the ground and scream all while throwing things. Its crazy. Of course, if you try to help her, she pouts, pushes you away and stomps off...but if she manages to do it herself, she is instantly cooing and happy again.

Sigh.

I try to stay on top of it. I understand that she simply doesn't know another way to express her frustration at her limitations and I don't think she's ready for time outs...or that those are even the answer. I think this is simply a phase that will (hopefully) pass as she adds to her bank of words and expressions to help her manage her emotions.

Anyway. The last month has been amazing.

Back to today.

We spent a lot of time this morning uptairs. Abby pulled all the books off her shelf and sat and read through most of them. She's loving the books with animals in them now that she has learned to identify many of them. At night, we've started letting her pick 3 books. Lately, she picks a prayer book (because it has sheep in it), a baby bible (because the pictures are bright) and usually a touch and feel book about puppies & kittens. Kyle and I have started saying bedtime prayers with Abby every night. She thinks they're funny.

just another picture of Abby with her books - but we picked up these PJs yesterday and I think they're adorable.

I've mentioned that Abby gets into everything, now, right? And I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that my baking drawer is her favorite thing ever. I've removed all the icing tubes that she could actually get icing out of, but that doesn't stop her from carrying around sprinkles and cookie cutters all day. Today, I caught her "hiding" the icing in her high chair...yep, they'll never find it there...

...but then, she noticed that she could do even better. I caught her lifting up the fabric on her footrest and putting them under it. She didn't pay me any attention as I snapped these pictures, and when she was done she just walked off - totally pretending that she wasn't up to anything.

sillykat.

Speaking of kat - Abby has started "meowing" randomly throughout the day. Its odd, but I find it endearing.

Our other activity on this lazy saturday was to introduce Abby to her first play-doh. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, and after several (failed) attempts at eating it, she played with the can more than the dough. However, she eventually got the hang of it and discovered that poking her finger in it was good fun.

what's that?

And now I'm going to log off of here, enjoy a movie with my hubby (who has been locked in the office all day working hard on school work). Tomorrow is looking to be a busier day.

Thursday

Yesterday was a normal day, but a good day. It was a nice Thursday. I was pretty productive at work, and had time to run a few errands after work before I went home. Its not really that hard to run errands with Abby, but its easier to do it alone. So, I was glad to have those things crossed off my list.

Abs and I played for a while when I got home. She is learning new words everyday and is getting so good at mimicking me - just this morning she said "lotion" after I said it. It was freakishly clear. She's also adding new animal sounds at a rapid pace. It seems that her vocabulary has just snowballed over the past few weeks. She's also getting *really* good at saying "thank you" and signing "please" This makes me and Kyle very happy. Abby actually probably says Thank you too often - but how are you supposed to correct that? Yeah, exactly. So, we're ok with being thanked for every little thing. I'm sure it won't last forever. :)

As far as animal sounds go, here's a list. I should probably get them all on video.

dog: "uffff"

cat: "meow"

cow: "oooooo"

monkey "oo-oo, aah-aah"

sheep: "baaaa"

duck "cak-cak"

tiger "rar"

Anyway. I'm really enjoying her new vocab skills. We took a few pictures yesterday, here she is rockin' the headband.

pointing at the cat - she now says "meow" for cat and its adorable.

saying "woah" as she unlocks the phone

Abby has turned into a little climber. She loves to climb on the couch, in and out of our storage ottoman, her toy baskets and especially her duck.

what? doesn't everyone check their mail this way?

Abby has a shelf in our pantry that is kind of her shelf. We keep our things on it, but she routinely plays with those things. Yesterday, she decided to rearrange and clean house. Here she is having cleared most of the shelf, discovering a hidden bag of marshmallows.

here she is pretending she wasn't just holding the marshmallows. Even at this young age, she knows that she probably shouldn't be doing what she's doing. All I said was "Abby." and she dropped the bag, sat down, and started putting things back on the shelf.

In other, non-abby news, I tried two new recipes this week. Last night, I made my first eggplant parmesan. It was pretty good, although I think I still prefer meat to eggplant. Abby, on the other hand, looooved it. loved.

I used a no-fry recipe so I breaded and baked the eggplant, and then arranged the casserole

it tasted better than the finish product looked. :)

the other new thing I tried was prosciutto wrapped asparagus. I used cream cheese and spread it on the prosciutto and then wrapped and baked. The key here is to not overdo how much prosciutto you use per stalk since it can be rather salty. I found that using 1 slice to wrap 4 stalks was a good ratio, or .25 - .5 of a slice for 1 stalk. Either way, they were good.

Ok, back to Abby things. Yesterday we bought Abby her first real ball. I know, I know - how could this have taken so long? Well, because we don't often go to stores that sell them and when we do, we forget. But yesterday as we were all at the grocery store, I spotted a bin of them and so we grabbed one for Abs. The video doesn't do justice to how excited she was over that thing. She had so so much fun playing with daddy last night.