Saturday, April 25, 2009

Li'l McAbbie Had a Farm...

Since Abbie was born, we've been reading her stories and talking about various animals - ducks, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, etc. And we've been having fun teaching her the sounds that various animals make. It's wonderful how well she's remembered them and can name animals from photos and movies as well as imitate them.
However, she's only had limited exposure to live animals. Mostly the little ponies in Middleburg, kitties behind the glass at the local PetSmart, and of course Shelby.
A local farm had a "kids day" last Saturday. The weather was perfect and so we packed up and headed out, excited that Abbie would finally get the chance to see and touch many of the animals she'd learned about.
As soon as we got there, her eyes lit up. She began pointing to the different animals, jumping up and down, and shouting their names: "COWS! HORSEY! DUCKY!" She wanted to touch and pet each one. Fortunately, many of the animals were used to people handling them, and they'd come right up to her. She'd reach out her little hand and pet them - "Nice... nice..." she'd say.
One of the highlights for her, though, seemed to be when we put her on the giant tractor. Once she sat down in the big, ripped, vinyl seat, she began twisting the giant steering wheel. She had a blast - so much that when we finally lifted her down, she put up a terrible fuss. She was not happy having to leave the thing. For as much as she wanted to "drive" the tractor, I thought we could put her to work on the farm.
Finally, especially after seeing her friend William, she calmed down enough to see the rest of the farm. She and William had a fun showing each other what they'd found, especially when we wandered into the big barn with the baby goats. One of the men there told Abbie that the baby goats were born in February, so they were only 2 months old. She was amazed at these little animals whom she towered over - the only animals there smaller than she.
All in all, I can't tell who had more fun - Abbie seeing all the animals, or us watching her. By the time we left she was exhausted, but I know she thought about the farm a lot after that. She was mooing in her sleep that night!! We're hoping we can take her back there again to see all of her animal friends.


Saturday, April 11, 2009

More Bitty Abbie

Abbie’s absorbing everything, and it’s not that she’s just repeating what she hears, rather she’s fitting her world together in context and joining words together.

For example, she and I were out at Babies-R-Us getting another load of diapers. (Just a side note, she’s a great little companion most times – she loves to trot along ahead and help her Mommy and Daddy at the store.)

While we were perusing the choices in diapers, a little baby somewhere in the store started to cry. Abbie heard this, looked around and said, “Baby crying... Baby crying.”

I said, “yes, honey – there’s a little baby and she’s crying. But Baby’s OK.” Abbie, satisfied that the baby was not in trouble, went back to choosing her diapers.

While we waited at the check stand, Abbie insisted on helping me by holding one of the packages of diapers. She stood there proudly, hoping everyone saw that she was helping her Daddy. When it was our turn at the register, I told her, “OK honey, put the diapers on the table so she can scan them.” Without resisting, she hoisted the packages up and tried to put them on the belt.

When we got to car she still wanted to hold the diapers. The package she chose was the nighttime diapers with a picture of a sleeping baby boy on the front. She looked a the picture, then turned to me with a smile and said, “Baby sleeping. Shhhhh!”, putting her little index finger to her lip. Finally she looked back at the picture and said, “Boy baby… boy baby…”

It was a perfect little outing that went without a hitch. One of those moments that I look forward to having more of in the future. I can’t wait to have my little helper and friend go with me to turn the most mundane errands into fun excursions.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Rarities and Oddities -- Part Deux

Abbie does a lot of little things that crack me up.  I don't want to forget any of them! Here's a short list of the things I can think of, more coming! 

1) When she eats, she has to have her "Rabbitt" bib sitting on the table next to the plate.  She'll talk to it and try to feed it, too. 

2) If you take a bite of her food, she'll start feeding you and would seriously give you everything on her plate simply for the pleasure of seeing you happy.  She smiles all the way. 

3) She says "cah-foh!" (careful) each time that she does something she *knows* I won't be happy about.  She anticipates my warning, looking at me as if saying "See? Don't bother, I said it for you" -- not defiantly.  She really does it to save you some time.  

4) She'll walk backward and slowly lower herself on to anyone's lap.  Even strangers. 

5) She barks at dogs: "Ruff-Ruff!!!" 

6) She makes silly faces when looking at herself in the mirror. 

7) If you tell her "Abbie, I love you", no matter what mood she's in or what she's doing, she'll slowly break into a sweet smile. 

8) She can dance.  Anywhere, any time, to any music or lack thereof. 

9) She bursts out laughing out of nowhere and for no reason apparent to anyone else but her. 

10) She'll recognize the letter "W" anywhere.  She loves to say "w".  She actually loves many complicated words, such as dinosaurs, hippopotamus, octopus, alligator, rhinoceros, etc. 

11) She loves to say "more coming!" when I am feeding her.  She anticipates when more food is coming :) 

12) She *has* to hold Shelby's leash when we go for a walk. 

13) She insists on helping me "clean" when she sees me doing household chores.  She'll say "Mammy clean", take the broom from me and actually sweep the floor. 

14) She will drink water from a regular glass, holding it herself, and no other way. 

15) She loves to smell flowers.  She brings any flower she sees to her nose and takes a whiff.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Abbie's Vocabulary at 19 Months

There are quite a few words that Abbie understands and appropriately uses, and for the sake of not forgetting what she would talk about all day long at this age, I decided to make a list, along with her personal pronunciation (which is the most important of all!) :)


Objects:

Car/s
Truck/s
Choo-Choo Tain (train)
Twee (tree)
Flourit (flower)
Powwy (potty)
Haus (house)
Baoon (balloon)
Bib
Book
Chair 
Pussle (puzzle)
Wee (slide)
Sing (swing)
Ball
Shoes
Jack-t (jacket)
Coat
Socks
Agoo (her Aquadoodle)
Cads (cards)
Gasses (glasses)
Tool (stool)
Daper (diaper)
Hatt (hat)
Cupp (cup)
Fon (phone)
Piwwo (pillow)
Boxx (box)
Picture (for a regular picture/frame or when she wants me to draw something for her)

Animals and Animal Sounds:

Apposus (Octopus)
Cow : moooo
Horse/Horses : ney
Cat : meow
Chi-chi (kitty--though occasionally she will say "Kitty") : meow
Dog : ruff ruff
Doggie: ruff ruff
Duckk (duck) : quack
Chiken (chicken) : cheep
Frogr (frog)
Bids (birds) : cheep-cheep
Rabbitt (rabbit)
Sheepp (sheep) : baaaahhhh!
Dager (Tiger) : raaaaaaaaaaah!
Tuh-tle (turtle)
Beer (bear)
Feesh (fish)
Pig
Pidgeon (pigeon)
Puppy
Foxx (fox)
Fies (butterflies -- bugs in general)
Mouss (mouse)
Whal (wale) : woooooooo!
Danasore (dinosaur) : rawaaaaaaa!
Chick : cheep-cheep
Ewefan (elephant)
Rinos-ah (rhinoceros)
Zea (zebra)
Giaff (giraffe)
Hipomous (hippopotamus)
Alliatar (alligator)
Mankie (monkey)
Lien / Ion (lion) : raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Foods:

Food
Cheese
Appe (apple)
Peas
Meet (meat)
Cheeken (chicken)
Wadit (water)
Juice
Melon (melon, watermelon)
Soup
Patta (pasta)
Auacado (avocado)
Cookie
Cackes (crakers)
Muk (milk)
Bins (beans)
Pizza
Beis (berries)
Eggs 
Banas (bananas)
Toast
Yogurt
Grapes
Bred (bread)

People / Terms of Endearment:

Mammy / Mama
Daddy
Wee-yam (William)
Becca (Rebecca)
Mies (Miles)
Iulia (Julia)
Sammm (Sam)
Nana (grandma)
Kisseen (Christine)
Shelby/Shebby (Shelby)
Emmo (Elmo)
Jack
Abbie
Abigail
Santa
Mel
Honey
Suit-ha (sweetheart)
Dowwy (Dolly)
Mack
Boo-Boo (one of the characters in her books)
Dick (from "Dick and Jane")
Noopy (Snoopy)
Doss (Doze, one of her stuffed animals)
Poopie (same)
Mama-Beer (that's what she calls an old stuffed bear that used to be mine)

Activities and Misc.:

Jump
Run
Sheet (sit)
Ca-foh (careful)
Hott (hot)
Down (as in get down)
Kiet (quiet-- to Shelby)
Again 
Do it
Peas (please)
Hepp (help)
Toys
Shaow (show)
Dish! (for "this! -- something she wants)
Mennicine (medicine)
Walk
Good 
Moon
Sun
Stah (star)
Sky
Shadow
Dance
Color
Open
Cose (close)
Bat (bath)
Baby
Noss (nose)
Mouth
Eye/s
Ear/s
Hair
Head
Arm/s
Hand/s
Feet
Foot
Tummy
Knee
Shoders (shoulders)
Back
Beboo / Buttonn (belly button)
Pee-pee
Poo-poo
Up
Awie / boo-boo (hurt)
Buh-bows (bubbles)
Eat
Hi
Bye-Bye
Ciao-Ciao
Wow!
All Done!
Beach
Claus (clouds)
Reed (read)
Dinnens (dinner)
Ovah (oval)
Quare (square)
Cih-cle (circle)
Damond (diamond)
Reh-tangle (rectangle)

I know I'm forgetting something, but this will do for now.