What a big girl!

What an exciting day!! Abigail went pee-pee on her big girl potty for the first time today!! I am so proud of her, and she is pretty happy with herself. I was unable to get any pictures of her "in action" because Andrew had the camera, plus I was too excited to be thinking about taking pictures anyhow. This is how it happened:

Abby and I came home from Brain and Sam's house and I made a beeline to the bathroom. Abigail has been interested in the whole concept for a while now and she followed me into the bathroom as usual. This time, she saw her Elmo potty in the corner and said "potty". I thought, what the heck....she needs a nap and a diaper change anyway, so I stripped her down and let her sit on her potty. She sat down a couple of times but nothing happened. We left the bathroom, and I was going to put a diaper on her but then she wanted me to bring her potty out into the living room. Well, fine...what could it hurt?!? So, I set the potty on the floor and she sat down again. This time I told her she could have a sticker if she went pee-pee. Well, she looked up at me, twisted her face, sighed and grunted a bit and then I heard a little tinkle tinkle. You would have thought I had won the lottery or something, I was so excited. I think I even scared her a bit. So, I calmed down and clapped for her and told her good job and went and got her some stickers. After she got her stickers, she looked in the potty and looked back at me with a very proud expression and pointed and said pee-pee!! What a big girl!! We waited till Daddy came home and showed him her very big accomplishment too. I was a bit disappointed that Andrew wasn't there to see her do this, especially since I didn't know if it was a fluke, or if it was the start of something bigger. Well, after her nap she relieved me of my disappointment because she went pee-pee on her potty again! Twice in one day! I guess we are onto the next stage of toddler hood....potty training!!!!

This should be quite an adventure, and I by no means have a distorted sense that its going to be an easy, quick, or painless process. I know this is a part of growing up and while I am absolutely ecstatic at her accomplishment, I am a little sad too....my baby girl is no longer a baby. She is taking steps at becoming more independent everyday. She is growing and learning and teaching me in the process. I have to remember to slow down a little bit and enjoy this all while it lasts because before I know it, this too will be a distant memory!!

Watch the Video!


Here is Abby showing Daddy the pee-pee in her potty after she went for the first time. Notice the "reward" sticker on her hand.

A little bit...

....country





And a little bit Rock and Roll!!!

A Big Surprise

The other day Abigail and I returned home from running a few errands and we found a HUGE box on the doorstep! As we took a closer look, we found out it was a Dora powerwheels car. Abby was really excited about the just the box, and she really wanted me to open it up. As we opened the box, I found out that it was probably a little more than I could handle. So, I had to persuade her wait till Daddy came home to open it. After Andrew got the car put together, Abby took it for a spin. She is a little bit afraid of it at the moment. She can't really grasp the concept of holding onto the handle bars while at the same time pushing the button. The noise and the movement really starteld her the first time. There is no doubt she'll get the hang of it in a few weeks. She still likes to sit on it and she says "cool" everytime she walks by. Thank you very much Papi and Grandma Reeves, I am sure it will be a favorite for a long time to come!



Look Mommy I can carry it for you!


"Oh, what is inside?!?"


I guess I should tell her that you are supposed to drive with your eyes OPEN!!


About to drive off into the sunset.

Grammy and Papa come to visit

Andrews parents came to visit for the weekend. It was a quick trip, but we made the most of it and we were very busy! Andrew took the day off from work on Friday and we went down to base and rented a pontoon boat for a couple of hours. We went out into the bay and we were able to watch some of the planes practicing for the air show that weekend and we also got up close and personal with some dolphins. Abby had a lot of fun and was really enjoying the boat and "driving" it with her daddy...she is getting her sea legs at a young age! On Saturday we were all set to go to the Air Show when we found out from Sam and Brian that they had cancelled it due to bad weather. Instead, Andrew and his Dad went golfing and us girls went down to Destin to do some shopping! On Sunday, we woke up and took another stab at the Air show and this time we had better luck. We braved the high winds and bundled up and headed down to the base. We were able to see a lot of planes and even better, we ran into Jason and Cassie (our friends from Hanscom that are now stationed in Alabama). On top of all of this we ate some terrific dinners cooked by chef Peter and chef Andrew and enjoyed eating outside on the patio a few times! Abby also decided to finally say "Grandma" and now calls Susan Grammy- it is just too cute!! We had a wonderful visit and can't thank Peter and Susan enough!


Abby helping Daddy "drive" the boat.




The dolphins or "shishy's" as Abby calls them:


Braving the weather at the airshow, I can't believe they flew in this wind!!!








Abby and Daddy getting a picture and autograph from one the two female Thunderbird pilots!




Abby inside a helicopter, she didn't want to leave!


A family portrait atop a JASSM, which is the missile program Andrew works on.

"Babysitting"

This week I have had the pleasure of "babysitting" both Nolan and Tristan (at different times). I put babysitting in quotes because for me, it was more like a playdate. Abby loves to have other kids to play with and they really do a good job of entertaining eachother. Nolan came to our house on Monday morning and I was able to get a lot of little things done around the house while Nolan and Abby played together. Nolan is such a joy to be around and he didn't cry or ask for his mommy once!! Today, we went to Tristans house and we played with all of his big boy toys, Abby was in heaven. Tristan was wonderful for me and he was very polite and did very good sharing with Abby! Sam and Nadia have done something right with those boys!! I will "babysit" either one anytime!!

Abby and Nolan "cooking"


Abby just looks so silly in this picture, I had to share!


After we watched Tristan, we went to Tijuana Flats for lunch. Yummy!!

Just Like Daddy!

We got Abigail's big girl potty out today. It has Elmo on it, which happens to be her favorite right now. I don't have any expectations and I am not getting my hopes up that she will be potty trained anytime in the near future. We just got it out of the box so she could get used to the idea and we will see where it goes from there! S Here are a few shots of her "trying" out her new potty, and she even has some reading material!! She reminds me of her Daddy in these pictures!!

Rainy Day Fun

We were supposed to have a play date this morning at the park in Niceville. Well, when we woke up it was cloudy, and rainy and needless to say the play date was canceled. I was bummed at first and thought to myself "well, now what are we going to do". Well, Abby had a solution. She thought it would be fun to "get into" everything around the house....literally!!! Take a look:

She started out small:




Then, moved on to bigger and better things:

87 words!

Over a bottle of wine this evening, Cheyna and I started to talk about Abigail's growing lexicon. So we figured, why not write them all down? Here is the list we came up with. I was amazed at what she has already learned in less than two years! We left out the various animal sounds she says, as well as the other garbely goop she mutters all day long. Here it goes...

Mama Daddy Up
Down Car Truck
Dog Kitty Slide
Water School Cool
Park Boat Bus
Bucky Greta Duke
Papi Paci Bunny
No Yes Nolan
Sam Fish Cracker
Juice Milk Baby
Done Dance Gone
Hi Bye Toes
Night spoon stick
beach sit chair
Nona rain moon
Colleen Josh toes
knee hair tubby
boots more cheese
shoe socks please
poop pee pee potty
Abby see Elmo
Cookie Block Book
Duck Draw Tree
cutting swimming dip
chip beans purple
pink blue green
pretty booger go
blah two Dora
walk hand umm....

And many, many more incomprehensible words/phrases

Easter Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, I know we did! Bear with me, this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures. I had a hard time narrowing it down! On Saturday morning we braved the cold weather and headed out to an Easter egg hunt in Crestview. It was more of an egg dash than an egg hunt. The eggs weren't hidden at all, they were all just thrown on the ground, but the kids enjoyed it. Andrew also took Abby down one of the bouncy slides. It was a little faster and bigger than he anticipated, they had fun but Abby didn't want to go down a second time.




Here is Abby at the Easter Egg Dash:




After we got home from the Easter Egg dash Abby wanted to check out her loot. She sat on the kitchen floor and opened all her eggs to see the neat prizes that were inside. She had more fun with the eggs than the actual prizes. She did get a kick out of the pirate eye patch though!

This was one of Abby's Easter dresses, can you believe we got it from Cracker Barrel?


"Arrrr!!!"


On Sunday, after the Easter bunny came, we headed down to base and had Easter brunch at the officers club with Sam, Brian and Nolan and Brian's parents. The brunch was very nice, but the kiddos got a little unruly near the end. Hey, what do you expect? They are toddlers! They had an Easter Bunny too but there aren't any pictures of Abby with the bunny because she was absolutely terrified of him. That night we went over to Sam and Brian's for Easter dinner, they are way too good to us! Nolan had gotten a new swing set the day before and he and Abby had a blast playing on it. It was a wonderful night!



Abby was more interested in the Easter grass than the presents inside, go figure!


Abby and Nolan after brunch


Abby in her Easter dress


Playing on Nolans new swing set


Horsing around with Ms Sam after dinner...isn't Nolans new haircut adorable. Such a cute little fella!

Some "bunny" loves you...

Eggstravaganza!!!

Today we had a playdate at our house and had an Easter egg hunt. It was a blast and I think the kiddos really enjoyed it. There were 8 moms and 11 kids, but only 10 were old enough to hunt for the eggs. Abby did really well with the egg hunt, and actually found a few eggs without any prompting from Mama. After searching high and low for eggs filled with all sorts of treats the kids played and got really dirty and wet in the backyard. I was worried that Abby might be a little intimidated having so many kids in her house, but she did great. In fact, she was the hostess with the mostest (at least in my eyes). I have to give props to the moms that volunteer to do this on a regular basis because it was exhausting, but totally worth it. I feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful group of women, and I am lucky that Abby gets to have experiences like this growing up!! Thanks to everyone who participated!!

Here are the moms chatting while the kids play.










The kids playing in the water, getting SOAKED!!