Could it be??

Today I will brag about past Abigail and then plead for help with present Abigail...

All week Abigail has been impossible to put down for a nap. There have been a few changes to her routine somewhat recently. About 2 months ago, we finally got rid of the pacifier for good. About 3 weeks ago, we transitioned into a big girl bed. She did REALLY good with both changes. She has been sleeping really well in her bed and has been a much happier girl. She wouldn't get in and out of bed on her own even. She would stay in bed when we put her down, and would talk and sing until we got her up.

Until this week. She has been having a really hard time with naps. By really hard time, I mean, she hasn't taken them. One day I went in to see what the deal was, and she had taken down a 24x24 in canvas picture that hung above her bed, and was sitting on it. Yesterday she started getting out of bed when she wanted. Today she figured out how to open her door. As I type, she is standing at the end of the hall waving at me with a big old smile on her face.

WHAT DO I DO?? Could she seriously be done with naps already? She sleeps about 12 hours at night and goes down really easily.

On top of that- she has been a piece of cake to potty train. After over a month without a single accident, she is all of the sudden going back on that idea. She has had three VERY intentional accidents today.

Is she just out to get me?? All I know is that I have less than 3 months to figure this out, and I can use any advice I can get.

Eventful afternoon

Today was one of those days. I woke up to a rainy, gloomy morning and decided I would slip on my warm, flannel, leopard print pajamas- and spend the day in the solitude of my home, doing house work. I felt like I could justify staying in pj's for most of the day, if I got a clean house out of the deal.

The morning went wonderfully. Abigail followed me around as I did my various cleaning projects and kept herself fairly happy and occupied without much attention from me. This doesn't happen very often. Normally anything she plays, she has to play WITH me.

The fiasco started when I entered my last room of dusting- my bedroom. Abigail followed me in the room, as expected. I had to take something from our dresser to the bathroom down the hall. I heard the door shut behind me, which isn't too abnormal so I didn't think anything of it. I got back to open the door and... it was locked. I'm not even sure Abigail knows how to lock the door, or if it was just already locked when she closed it. But it was locked, none the less.

I assessed the situation. No screws to remove the door knob. The door frame is in the way, preventing any hope of the old "credit card" trick to pop the lock open. That is about the extent of my locksmithing skill set. So I called Charles- no answer. I texted him, "Call asap... kind of an emergency." He called a few seconds later. I explained the situation to him... he explained it to all the guys at work. I tried all of their suggestions, to no avail. So Charles headed home to see if he could have any better luck.

I called him on his way home to talk about it, and he ended the conversation with, "Well, me and Jason are on our way. We will try to figure it out when we get there."

Great... Leopard print pjs... remember? Abigail is locked in MY room... remember? Oh, and the house is pretty much spotless, so no hope of finding even dirty clothes in the laundry room that I can switch into. Oh well, we just gotta get this girl out of the room. She was beginning to get impatient and a little uneasy about being stuck.

As soon as Charles got home, I slid my phone under the door with a video playing on it for Abigail along with some fruit snacks. She was 100% content from that point on, with an occasional... "Daddy?? Abi stuck!"

I called a lock smith while the manly men tried picking the lock in any way the could imagine. They had as much luck as I did. Soon enough, the locksmith arrived and saved the day for little Miss Abigail and her felion mother. After an hour of scrambling, Abigail emerged from the room with an enthusiastic, "Thank you!"

A little plug for the locksmith... if anyone in Gig Harbor ever needs one- call Beacon Locksmith. The technician was on another job, stopped everything and was here within 20 minutes, and didn't charge us a dime. Very impressed with them :)

I'm pretty sure the look on Jason's face in this picture is saying... seroiusly, you're 2 year old daughter is trapped in a room, and you are taking pictures?? In leopard PJs??

The necessary equipment to TRY picking the lock

Our little runner

The Rotary Club here hosted a big running event yesterday. They had a 10 miler, 2 miler, and a fun run for kids. I wish I could say that Charles and I ran the 10 miler... but that would be a big fat lie. Instead, we slept in, and made it just in time to let Abigail do the toddler fun run. We weren't too sure what she would think.

She got stretched...

She got her game face on.

She scoped out the competition...

...and she LOVED it.

She was dressed in the proper attire, which I think made a big difference.

When they first took off from the start, she just stood there pointing at everyone else saying, "GIRL RUNNING! BOY RUNNING! Running, daddy, mommy, RUNNING!" Then we helped her get going and the whole time she ran the lap around the parking lot, any time we passed by someone, she would say, HI, ABI RUNNING!

She was SO excited the whole time. She even made a come back and passed a little boy, so she didn't come in last place. She crossed the finish line with Grandma and Uncle Scott, and got all of her prizes.

Then she grabbed Charles' hand and said, Again!! So we spent the next 30 minutes running around with her. Then we got to go get her face painted, and she got a balloon elephant made for her. It was a really fun morning. We will definitely participate more in it next year. Maybe even venture out on that 10 miler.

I'm not SURE, but I think if Abigail keeps up her training, she could do it too. I mean... you've seen her legs right? TOTALLY a runners build.

To see ALL the pictures from our day, click here.

Hot, Hot, Hot

Yes, I grew up in Texas.

Yes, I loved summers in Texas.

Yes, I would move back there in a heart beat... and

YES! I nearly died in this 90+ degree heat for the last four days.

But let me explain. We are missing two very important things

to make that kind of weather, my perfect summer.

A swimming pool.

Air conditioning.

Without the two... that heat gets miserable really fast, especially when you are pregnant. So here is what we have been doing to stay cool around here.

Failed to mention...

It has been brought to my attention that I forgot to

post when we found out what we are having a while ago.

Shame on me.

We are having another little girl :)

More to come on our trip to Utah, and Uncle Andrew's wedding, but just for a preview- they had the most adorable flower girl you've ever seen!

This little girl had a birthday...

What can I say about this little girl?

Being the big bad mommy that I am, when the doctor called and asked to reschedule her 2 year check up to the morning of her actual birthday, I agreed. So we started off the day with a bang, and two shots. Hence the gloomy face in some pictures :)

I cannot believe she is TWO years old.

This year was even more fun for me than last year. I took her with me to pick out a cake pan for her birthday. I gave her four choices: Elmo, Elephant, Horse, or Monkey. I threw in the monkey at the last minute, just for the heck of it and of course she surprised me and chose the monkey right away- despite her obsession with Elmo, horses, and elephants.

The next day I took her with me to the grocery store to pick out what kind of cake- no surprise there: CHOCOLATE. I swear to you, this girl has a sixth sense and can detect chocolate from miles away. We have lots of funny stories about her "chocky" addiction, but we'll save those for another day.

Something else we learned right away about Abi, is that she does things in her own way, on her own time table- started from her 2 week late entrance into this world. If you remember last year's birthday, I made her a "smash cake" just for her to dig in and make a mess of. She cried when she touched it and hated it. This year, when we put her up by the cake to blow out the candle... she couldn't resist dipping her finger right in. Oh... and she loved it.

Charles and I splurged and got her this little tricycle and she loves it. I loved seeing her face light up when we rolled it out and she exclaimed, "Abi's bike!!" as she ran over to climb on.

She spotted an airplane in the sky :)

I just love this girl. She is quite the talker now. She surprises us every day now with things she says and does. Her most recent thing that had me laughing really hard was when I was doing her hair and she sat on the counter and gave herself 'knucks' as she said, "Knucks?? BOOM, blow'ed up," and then threw her head back and laughed. She learned that from Uncle Kyle :)

She loves animals. She loves music: dancing to it, singing along with it, or working out to it with mommy. It is amazing to hear her sing along to songs she hears on the radio because she surprises me with how many of the words she knows. She really loves horses. She loves going to the zoo. She loves being a helper around the house. She has to be involved in whatever I am doing. She is a girly, girl to the bones. She likes to brush and fix my hair, play with my makeup, and wear pretty dresses. She is a total sweetie and loves to 'shuggle' with mom and dad. She still sleeps with a pacifier, and very soon we will have to stop ignoring that. She has the most contagious laugh you'll ever hear. She makes every day bright in our home. We are so lucky to have her, and she is going to be a GREAT big sister. I might just move over and let her be mom. She'd probably do a better job that I will.

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Today was one of those days.

Need I say more? I feel like it is taking all I can do to keep my head above water lately. As I rushed home today to grab church clothes for tomorrow (we are staying with Charles' two younger brothers for the week) I had to print out my lesson to teach in church tomorrow, and found this video on the lds.org homepage.

I scrolled down and saw the title... scrolled back up and thought, I don't have time to watch it.

Then scrolled back down and watched it.

And cried. A lot. I needed this badly today. Hope it can give a few of you other moms out there a boost.

Now... on to printing that lesson...

Hallelujah!

With a little help from these bad boys...

Along with some stylin' Elmo panties... we have kissed diapers goodbye.

At least until December...

And when we started potty training... I thought, I will NOT miss diapers for a second.

- Until you have a cart full of groceries at Costco and she says,

"Potty, Potty!" with urgency.

- or when you have just managed to get every thing loaded up and are finally on

your way to the zoo, and she lets you know... NOW is the time

- Or when you have just gotten her all zipped up in her one piece jammies and are

just laying her down for the night...

Ok, so there are a few times I find myself wishing for a diaper. But for the most part- what a relief :) She did a really good job with it too, I was pretty surprised how quickly she caught on.

Diapers or no diapers... this girl is growing up too fast.

Peek a boo

Where on earth could Abigail be??

Oh good... I found her.

This little girl cracks me up sometimes. She was just hiding in this clear box, and giggling her head off when I would start looking for her. What would I do without her?

When we're helping, we're happy :)

This week we got after our carpets and got them looking like new. It took some work and some serious scrubbing in a few places, but it is done and the carpets look a ton better. We couldn't have done it without our number one helper. Abigail supervised Charles with the carpet cleaner. My favorite part about her doing this was hearing her every couple of minutes saying, "Hi, Daddy! HI! Backpack, backpack. Hi Daddy."

Then she'd get down and help me scrub out the stains.

That's right... I had our almost 2 year old scrubbing the floor

with a tooth brush. And she loved it :) Guess she will be a clean freak like her mom.

Yeah, if you have ever lived with me... you'll see the humor in that statement.

Did she really?

She looks innocent enough, right?

We have been working on potty training, and since we started, she has become very aware of when she toots. She has been announcing with excitement every time she passes gas.

Well, this afternoon, she let one go, and then looked at me and said,

"Mommy, you toot?" and then giggled.

Oh dear...

Poll my 2 readers...

Ok, I am starting to look at getting Abigail out of her crib, but I am torn between getting a toddler bed, and just skipping that and going to a twin bed, close to the ground. I'm curious what other moms think... what did you do??

Busy month...

It has been a month since I blogged last... but boy has it been a busy month! We got to fly down to Texas for a quick visit over Mother's Day weekend. We were lucky enough to be there for little Baby Aaron's debut :)

We went to the stockyards in Fort Worth one day for the daily cattle drive, and Abigail loved that. It ended up being quite an eventful day for us. Have you ever seen a horse that smiles on command for a camera?? We have...

We did lots of fun things while we were there... but I think Abigail's favorite (and ours) was just getting to spend time with some of our favorite people. Of course, only a few of those favorites are pictured here...

We got to see Logan's last soccer game :) He's a stud!

We also had our first ultrasound and saw the baby and heard a good strong heart beat. As a result of that ultrasound... my due date also got pushed back two weeks. So Dec. 4th is the day, at least that is what they tell me. And, I think I am finally out of the nasty, sick phase- and I welcome that change. We find out the gender in a month, and I can't wait to know :)

Our last big change this month is with Charles. He heard about a start up company that he got kind of excited about, and heard that they were looking to hire programmers. One thing led to another and before we knew it, he had an offer on the table and we had a big decision to make. After a lot of thought and prayer, he took the job and started this week. The company is called Vote iQ- and instead of trying to explain what they do- here is a link to an article that says it better than I can. We are excited about the change, but Charles will miss getting to work with his Dad on a daily basis.