Happy Birthday, Abigail June!

Abby turned 3 this past Saturday - 3! I can't believe it, it's just too much to believe the last year and a half have gone by so quickly. My "silly goose" is growing up... all last week she would come to me very serious, and say gravely, "Sa'ah, I all growed up now. I big, like you. I not little anymore." :*(

On the other hand, there are moment when she still tickles with her childishness... for instance, last week she was sitting at the kitchen counter eating breakfast while I was brushing her hair and putting in pigtails at her request. I had one pigtail done and was working on the other when all of a sudden -
"Stop!" she ordered. "Shh!"
I paused, listening, but I didn't hear any airplanes or helicopters (the usual sounds we stop to hear) so I finally said, "What do you hear, Abby?"
"My pigtail!" she whispered. "Hear it? Oink, oink," she added surreptitiously. I cracked up.

Her party location - my grandfather's pool - sprang a leak, so we celebrated with a small group of family.

Her beautiful cake... Abigail was absolutely entranced in it and would have literally dug right in if her parents had let her, I think. :)

Natalie set up a craft table for the kiddos.

Daddy lit the candles.

Then it was time to blow them out!

And open gifts. Momma helped. :)

So much fun!

Trying out one gift - a little beach chair, just her size, with TinkerBell on it to boot!

"Aw, a bunny rabbit!" :)

Abby wasn't really sure what to do with the cards... she'd open them and then had a rather cheated look, lol.

Her love of balloons being no secret, almost everyone brought some for her. :) I love balloons too!

I wonder what sort of things we'll learn and do in the coming year... she has changed so much in the last year that I can only imagine.

Some things we're currently working on:

• Eating with silverware... especially now that she's outgrown her highchair and eats at the kitchen counter with the adults!


• Trying new foods, and eating a wider variety of foods - she'll now take one bite of a new food without any protest. Once she's taken one bite, I don't care if she has any more - the point was to try it - but I think she's surprised herself at how many new foods she's ended up loving!


• Following directions - we're not really working this one too hard yet, but I know it's a skill that will help get her ready for preschool/kindergarten, so I got her a workbook with a simple color-by-numbers so she'll get used to following instructions. So far, she loves it. That it's Pooh Bear-themed only helps. :) And I've started giving her multi-step directions around the house to get her used to them - such as when we come home, I might say "Can you take your shoes off, put them nicely away, and then bring your toy into the house?" She's really good at verbal directions!


• Listening to the teacher for instructions - mostly this only applies at gymnastics, lol, but we just started music class so we're learning it there, too. Abby is very good at this and only needs to be reminded once in a while. :)


• Saying "Hello!" and "Goodbye" to our teachers/adults around us... This one is a little tougher, since Abby is a bit shy, but we're going slow. Right now I just encourage her - "Can you say hello?" Sometimes she substitutes a very shy wave in place of words, but we're definitely moving in the right direction. :)