One last sweet post before I go to bed

Forty-five minutes after we turned out the light, I FINALLY got Abby down--it's a heck of a lot harder at night when she's had a THREE hour afternoon nap, but what am I gonna do, wake her up? Heck no!

So anyway, she was all bathed and dressed and ready for bedtime stories, so Dan asked for hugs and kisses before I took her into the bedroom. She ran at him from across the room, arms wide open, and said, "I hug, I tiss."

MELT.

Oh! ONE more thing, I promise. Since, like, the dawn of time, I've been trying to teach Abby to either say or sign for "pacifier." The thing has been her constant companion since day one, and yet it's one of the few everyday items for which she has no form of communication, and heaven knows there have been plenty of times when she's had to spend five minutes "uh-uh!"ing and vague pointing into the distance trying to get me to figure out that's what she wants. So today we're watching Blue's Clues, of course, and it's the same episode we've seen about 30 times this month. One of the characters has a picture of herself as a baby, and Steve asks what's in her mouth. She says it's her "yi-yi"--her "paci." Well, all of a sudden, through a mouthful of strawberries, Abby parrots, "Yi-yi!" And when I ask, "Abby, do you have a yi-yi?" she grabs her paci and shoves it in her mouth.

So, thank you Steve and Side Table Drawer for finally giving Abby a word for her paci. I never would have thought to try yi-yi.

'Round and 'round and 'round she goes...

Abby has discovered spinning. She's done it before, but she's really addicted to dizzy now. Five solid minutes of turning and turning and drunkenly falling all over everyone and everything while laughing like a maniac.

And now she's reading a book. Slightly off-balance.

Yay Matt!

THANK YOU to everyone who voted for Matt last week. He won his day and is now one of the main finalists! I will let you know if there is another round of internet voting. Keep an eye out here so you don't miss it!

As long as she doesn't start saying, "How you doooin'?"

Remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe is trying to teach Joey how to speak French for a role he wants? The lesson went something like this:

Phoebe: Repeat after me: Je m'appelle Claude.

Joey: Blah doe be dooh.

Phoebe: Um, no, listen closely. Je m'appelle Claude.

Joey: Fwah blah nobee dee.

Well, whatever auditory processing issue Joey has, Abby apparently has too. She was "counting" yesterday, saying very clearly, "One. One. One!" So I said, "Abby, can you say, 'One, two?'" She replied, with much enthusiasm, "Peh-dee!" She didn't even say the "one" correctly! And whenever her diaper is just wet I'll say, "No poo-poos!" And even though she is very good at saying "No!" she will say "Ah poo-poos!" instead. What gives?

So today I am fall-down tired. I slept really well, comparatively, and Abby only woke up once, which was awesome. And I only had one bout of insomnia, which, granted, lasted me about an hour or so. But still! I'm just cross-eyed exhausted. And I feel so bad for Abby, because Dan was up late and is thus still in bed, and I've been comatose on the couch since about 9:45, and she's trying so hard to keep herself occupied, but bless her heart, she's just not used to having to entertain herself for so long. I can't wait until she's old enough for me to say, "Go on outside for a little while!" Not that I'd be able to say that today since it's about 462 degrees out already. This heat waves sucks! And everywhere you go that has fun indoor stuff for kids to do is just swarming because everyone in the county had the same idea, and invariably there are older kids banging around in the play areas, too, even though they're way too big, because their little sibs are in there, and poor Abby always gets run over and stepped on and knocked down, and I just don't have the energy to be Mama Bear today and be all vigilant. So we're watching Blues Clues. Again. I oughtta buy stock in Nick, Jr.