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.