Princess Paint and Mouse Ears

Abbey wanted to have her face painted at the Princess Faire after spotting another girl with it. I thought it would last about 45 minutes and then we would be wiping it off, but she truly loved it and we left it on for 3 days until the last vestiges were washed away during a shampoo. She wanted pink, glitter, and big curliques, and sat perfectly still as they did it.
She also knew precisely which pair of mouse ears she wanted and wore them non-stop.
Watching her watch the parade was amazing. She calls it the Hip Hip Hooray!!! She was dancing around waving to all the characters and gobbling up spoonfuls of Avonlea's mint chip ice cream. Delightful with a capital D.

Magic Kingdom

Well now I understand what the big deal is about Disneyland, it was absolutely magical! I hadn't been in over 20 years and it couldn't have been more fun. We loved it. It was all new for us and our only introduction to everything was a sing-a-long video that Abbey saw the day before. From that she knew she wanted to head straight to the Teacups.Our next ride was Alice in Wonderland. I asked her if she wanted to sit in the front or back seat and with myself or Avonlea ( my wonderful niece) and she said that she wanted to sit in the front seat alone. Alrighty then, Mommy sees you are big enough for rides.
We basically just set up camp in Fantasyland. Once she got on Dumbo that is all she wanted to do and has been talking about it ever since. We rode it five or six times. She likes to go full throttle and get Dumbo up as high as you can and stay there.

One time 1/2 way through the line she said "I go pee-pee potty!" and we started climbing out of the maze of chains and lines and running to the Alpine Haus. Can you believe we made it and that all the nice people let us back in our spot which was now near the front of the line? We ended up doing that on another ride too. It's kind of like Fast Pass. You establish your place in line, run to the bathroom, and come back when it's time to get on.

Loving the Casey Jr. Train.

*A special thank you to Someone Wonderful who gave us these never-to-be-forgotten two days. It was the best gift I've ever received.

More to follow...

Abbeyisms

• This child cracks me up. I love her strong and very funny personality. As some have said, "she's no shrinking violet." She is in the toddler mode of repetition, repetition, repetition. We had started out the new year reading The Beginner's Bible every night and we've made it through quite a chunk but have recently gotten side-tracked to these Read-Aloud Bible Stories which I love. I've used these (three volumes) for years because of the huge pictures and simple preschool text. Abbey is now fixated on the story of the Good Samaritan. I had been a little dismayed when after reading about The Boy Who Shared His Lunch (feeding of the 5,000) Abbey told me in no uncertain terms that she did not want to share any of her food. When we moved on to our current story she also made it clear she had no intention of helping the hurt man. She's softened over the week and is now saying that she would help him. She loves it that the man gets bandages and has insisted on wearing several Batman band-aids all week. We acted out the story again tonight as I put her in bed. She was the sick man and I had to put on all her medicine and bandages and give her water to drink.
  

• We also act out (EVERY NIGHT) her trip to the dentist office months ago. She is the dentist and puts on her gloves, and wants me to smell them to confirm that they are bubblegum flavor, and then she examines all my teeth with her eye right to my mouth and her forehead pressed up to my lips. If she could she would crawl right into my mouth. She gives me some sunglasses in case the light is too bright. She gives me water and has me swish and spit. She counts my teeth, proclaims them good, and then lets me get a token for a bouncy ball (at this point she has now departed from reality and says it is a gumball that the dentist gives - it was a gumball machine with toys in it). The machine has to be too hard for me to turn so she has to turn the handle for me. She holds open a bag for me to put all my goodies in (toothbrush, toothpaste, stickers). If the dentist only knew of the esteemed position she holds in Abbey's eyes!

• She completely burnt me out on my Switchfoot CD which for some reason she calls "brand new". I finally had to put it away and tell her I am just sick of it. Now she has a couple of songs on a new worship CD that she asks me to play over and over. I still like them for now but it won't last long.

• When she doesn't want to do something I ask, and probably has no intention of ever doing, she tries to let me down easy and tell me "maybe later Abbey will do that" ( she talks about herself third person, Elmo style) or "when I am older I will do that." Tonight she told me that she might eat vegetables when she is taller and I explained that she wouldn't be getting any taller if she doesn't eat them. When she doesn't do something she's supposed to she will also tell me, in a very hope filled voice, "maybe next time", meaning that in the future she might pick up toys, tell me that she has to go potty, etc.

• Her favorite sayings right now are "Oh! I got!!", meaning I forgot, and "not TOO much, a little bit lot" so that I will know exactly how much milk or other foods to give her.
  

• She's added thunder and the dark to her list of things to avoid and is still talking about lions everyday. Last week while sailing in her laundry basket boat she used her wand/paddle to whack tons of alligators. I finally had to open the door and shoo them all out of the house.

I plan on getting back to my camera this week and taking pictures as we take our first trip to Disneyland and celebrate her third birthday. She has a new super short haircut to beat the heat.

It Works!

After hearing many experienced moms share their perspectives on potty training I decided to wait until I knew Abbey was really ready. I had heard that if you wait long enough they train themselves, and that has been true for us. We both enjoyed her time in diapers and since I didn't get her until she was 18 months it never got old for me. Although she could have done it 6 months ago I just didn't feel it was the right time, and now I am so glad I waited. A couple of weeks ago we went to Costco and bought a huge case of diapers. The next day she woke up dry from her nap and I took her in to use the potty. Something clicked and I just knew we were both ready. We returned the diapers and got pull-ups instead. She just took to it all like a duck to water and it has been so easy and fun. This picture is from our trip to get her a bike helmet which is what she wanted for filling up her potty chart. She has no need for a helmet, but she just thinks bike riders are so cool and has always been very impressed with their helmets. The other thing that really helped was M & M's. She's only had a little bit of sugar at special occasions, so treats have been really thrilling for her. I am so proud of her! Way to go Abbey!