Wordless Wednesday - Smile!

Another fun-filled weekend!

These last few days have been jam packed with fun activities for Abby and for us!  Over all I'd say it was a successful weekend and a great way to end Sunday night.  :)  I'll let the pictures tell the stories - here goes!

I call this "Baby in a box."  This is a bad blackberry picture but you get the idea.  :)

On Friday we met my parents at the Galleria and this time Lao Yie took Abby on the train ride so my mom and I could shop (more efficiently).  Last time she sat in the caboose so this time she sat in the front and she had so much fun again!  My dad said she kept asking "Where's Lao Nian and Mommy?"

We did some major house cleaning this weekend and I finally cleaned out these cabinets for Abby to store yet more of her ever growing stash of toys.  She calls this her closet and tried to close herself inside - silly girl!

While I'm glad she knows to smile for the camera now, I am still waiting for a more natural looking smile.  These goofy grins will have to do the trick for now.  :D

Abby & Daddy!

This little girl decided to not take a nap again (stage 2 of sporadic naps - ugh!) so she played and played and played outside and ran around in the sprinkler too.  I love it when her cheeks are all flushed.  :)

Abby & Daddy again!

This morning Abby helped her Daddy make some home made pizza dough.  She's quite the little helper!

I did all this research to find a fun inflatable pool for Abby and then I happen to come upon this one on clearance for $20 so all my research efforts went straight out the window.  Luckily, this was a huge success!  Abby really loves the slide and spent 2 hours in it this afternoon!

We hadn't gotten around to buying an air compressor so Bryce and  I were trying to blow this up with the bike tire pump.  Needless to say, we were a sweaty mess before our neighbor happen to stop by and lend us their air compressor.  They saved the day and Bryce and I were so hot, we decided to take a dip in the pool too.  It was a huge family fun time success and we can't wait to use it again later this week!

You can't play in a pool without eating a popsicle!

After a long weekend of non-stop cleaning,  re-organizing the house and playing in the pool, we all worked up an appetite.  Bryce smoked lots of chicken and made another one of his delicious all-out-for-no-reason-except-that-he-loves-to-cook meals to cap off our productive weekend.  Our child has quite the palette.  She ate organic smoked chicken legs (yes, plural - about 3 of them!), prime filet mignon, heirloom tomatoes, coriander baked potato pieces and her favorite, haricot vert.  She had all but the arugula and wine for dinner.  She then got a good shower, had a good dump and fell asleep like an angel.  :)  That's our little girl!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Popsicles!

Lao Yie and MILK!

Abby's 1st trip to the movie theater!

We decided to be brave and take Abby to the movie theater to watch the new Winnie the Pooh movie and it was a SUCCESS!  :)  It helps that the movie is only 63 minutes long and a friend gave us some advice about taking a toddler to the theater that really made a difference.  Don't bring her into the theater until AFTER the previews are over.  It really eats into their unpredictable attention span time.  So I went in first and saved us some seats while Abby and Bryce walked around the theater and they came in just as the movie was starting. 

Can't get either of them to smile right....  :P

She had a big smile on her face but the flash on my phone was too bright so unfortunately, she looks annoyed.  But you get the idea!  She sat like a big girl and ate her snacks.

My First Wordless Wednesday

Latest Happenings

I just have a few notable milestones I wanted to post before I forgot. 

1. As of a few days ago, Abby can put on her own shoes on the correct feet!  It's a nice time saver for me.  :) 
2. She can count up to 11 now.  Her new made up numbers are eleventeen and twentyteen.  We're still working on that. 
3. She is making progress at Gymboree Summer Camp.  The first 2 classes were pretty good successes.  The 3rd class was a disaster and I had to go back and pick her up because she wouldn't stop crying.  But that's when she had the ear infection as well.  Classes 4 and 5 were awesome.  She didn't cry at all the last time - woohoo!  The 6th class will be this Wednesday.  She LOVES to paint and do art work.
4. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant tonight with Lao Nian and Lao Yie and she ate SO WELL!  I love, love, love that she LOVES Chinese food.  Then again this girl will eat anything - and I mean a-ny-th-ing.  She even eats raw scallions!  That's my girl!
5. Thanks goodness we're back to taking naps every day.  It's been a wonderful past month.
6. She still absolutely loves her High Five Magazines (Highlights Magazine for 2-6 yr. olds).  I've been getting them for her since she was 18 months old and she has read them over and over and over again.  Half of them are bandaged back together with reams of Scotch tape.  I highly recommend subscribing for young toddlers!
7. Her 19th tooth, top left molar is making its way out any day now.  I know this because she told me the other day.  :) 

Apparently Daddy makes a good foot rest when she's sleeping.  During the week, she naps with me and on the weekends, she naps with Daddy while I work out.  It's a win-win for everyone.  :)

She loves to read her High Five Magazines in her chair with a blanket on.  So she'll sit and read while I'm reading my Kindle.  I love spending afternoons like this with her.  :)

Fast forward 19 months...

                                         7 months 3 weeks                                                       2 years 2 months 1 week

Long weekends, we love you!

All I can say is, I'm done with the sun.  I'm not a big fan of sun bathing or being out in a pool for that matter (I'm a homebody, through and through) but I suck it up because I have a husband and baby girl who love to be in the sun.  The constant cycle of being outside, sweating to death, consuming way to many beers due to the heat and consequently slightly dehydrated the next morning, only to do it over again the next day has aged me in this short, but long weekend.  And I didn't even mention the 25+ mosquitoes that turned me into a buffet-fest.  Ok, I'm done whining; onto the fun stuff!

Once again, I have not taken ANY good pictures from our pool parties and festivities but I can start off with a few random pictures from late last week.

We gave this mug a test drive in an attempt to graduate from her sippy cup.  She could drink out of it but she wasn't too good about keeping it up-right just yet.  We'll add that to the list of things we are working on.  And yes, this is my Shipley Donuts cup!  You can buy it at any store and get discounts on coffee.  It has a lid on it too like those Aladdin thermos cups you've seen.

Way to go, Xiao baby!

Just look at the excitement!  There's a HUGE smile behind that mug.  :)

I call this picture "Hobo Baby."  For some reason this picture really cracked me and Bryce up.  Not sure if it's absurd to others but we got a good laugh.  :)

We spent Saturday at Lao Nian and Lao Yie's house and Jo Jo got Abby a new DVD to watch.  Can you tell we were watching after dinner?  Everyone was losing the battle.  :)  We had a fun filled day of playing inside and also in the pop-up pool outside.  This is what happens after you consume ribs!

We spent Sunday at a friend's pool party and somehow, both Bryce and Abby were still interested in eating outside today.  Abby discovered Capri Sun's at the pool party yesterday too.  Needless to say, she loves it!

Bryce had the fan (you can barely see but it's behind Abby's head) outside to help keep cool and of course Abby had a blast (no pun intended) standing in front of it like any other 2 year old.  :)  Thankfully they both got their fill and we had dinner inside. 

We had such a great time with both friends and family this weekend.  Thank you to everyone who had us over!  We really appreciate it and we had so much fun.  I ended the long weekend by going outlet shopping with Janice, just like old times and it was the BEST.  I love good sales even more than long weekends!