Getting in the Halloween Spirit

About 2 weeks ago I cut out fun Halloween shapes for Abby to glue together as an at home art project.  She LOVES projects and I used to do this growing up so it was fun to share this with Abby.  Then we carved pumpkins last night since Abby is old enough to understand it all now.  Enjoy the pictures!  We can't wait to trick-or-treat tonight! 

Dot, dot, not a lot!

She learned that at Gymboree - I like it!

She really liked the jack-o-lanterns - can you tell?

We also made ghosts and one scary black cat.  Forgot to make bats this year.

And my favorite - a wicked witch!

Last Thursday Abby had a Halloween Parade at school and got to give her costume a test run.  Success!

Abby's latest favorite pj du jour: her glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajama!

Here we go!  Abby's first time to "help" Daddy carve a pumpkin!  She essentially thought it was "gwoss" and "messy" but she enjoyed the whole experience of it all.  Especially when we lit them and turned out the lights. 

My two favorite Bakers!

She needed Daddy's encouragement to get elbow deep in the pumpkin.  She kept asking me to wipe her hands each time she touched the pumpkin.  :P

From the looks of it, she didn't really care to ever do that again.  :)

One down, one more to go.

One scary and one goofy pumpkin - done!

This picture is awful (time for a new camera) but it looks much better all lit up!

Having Fun at Home

I'm sort of going out of order but in the last few months, Abby's imagination has blossomed and she just talks all day long!  I love listening to her sweet, sweet voice and trying to make sense of all the toddler jibber jabber she speaks.  She's quite the little helper too and always wants to do things by herself as well.  We spend a large part of the day (and night) singing all the songs she knows: I'm a little tea pot, itsy bitsy spider, belle notte, once upon a dream, part of your world, heigh-ho, baby mine, when you wish upon a star, happy birthday, etc. The list goes on and on.  Her memory is outstanding.  She must get it from my dad who only passed it on to Kirk and NOT me and Ruby.  :P  She still remembers things from our trip to Taiwan back in April! 

Anyhow, I've been trying to think of fun activities we can do at home with her and the rest of the time, we are playing along with whatever she has imagined.  Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks (yes, I'm a little behind).

She is copying me wiping dust around the house with a Swiffer sheet.  Reminds of the picture of me around the same age copying my mom wipe the floor.  I was still in diapers too and that's pretty much the last time I did that!  :P

Abby watching Daddy make homemade pretzels for an Oktoberfest party 2 weekends ago.  :)

The flash went off in this picture but Abby was playing in the dark with Daddy's head light looking for animals!  She crawled all around the house looking for animals and kept telling us she found reindeer under our bed and under the couch!  They were brown reindeer too!

Here she is directing us to the reindeer.  :)

Abby LOVES to watch her Daddy shave his head and facial hair every Sunday.  It's their father-daughter moment but I had to get a picture because it reminds me of when I was little.  I LOVED to watch my dad (and my Lao Yie) shave in the mornings.  My dad would put a little shaving cream on my chin just for fun.  :)

This picture was taken last week and it's a big deal because it's the first time she drew a picture that was coherent and not just scribble!  This is a self portrait.  Hooray for Abby!

Super Fun Play Date Last Wednesday!

I have to admit, I had been postponing Abby's playdate with her Gymboree friends for over a month because I was just too tired.  It's sad, but true and it's because of the pregnancy.  I still haven't gotten all my energy back yet.  Only a few more weeks, I hope.  But last Wednesday, we finally got together and Abby had a BLAST!  We first met up at Monkey Bizness and Abby, Ryder, Ryko and Rycon ran, bounced, jumped, slid and played for over an hour!  They had sooo much fun and the grown ups got to catch up too.  :)  Then we all went to lunch at this bar and grill place that had a sand box in the patio and Abby thought that was more fun than the bouncey house!  All the kids had sooo much fun with each other - it was so sweet to watch them play and interact.  These are the boys from Abby's School Skills Gymboree class and they spent all summer with each other.  Abby calls them "her boys" and tells me she misses her boys all the time.  Ryder gives great bear hugs and Ryko gave Abby a kiss when we left!  It was so sweet since Ryko is a shy boy.  :)  All the boys took 3 hour naps after our playdate except our little one.  She was up and at it until 9:15 PM.  Crazy child.  Here's a picture of all the kids at the restaurant.  It's a miracle they all stood together for so long!

I'm getting frustrated because I can't rotate this picture but here is the gang:

Ryder, Abby, Rycon and Ryko!

She actually let me put her hair up in pigtails because she wanted to show the boys.  :)

Houston Zoo and New Closet!

Abby and I spent this past weekend at Lao Nian and Lao Yie's house since Daddy was on a boy's weekend attending the LSU vs Kentucky game.  As usual, Abby had a blast with Lao Nian, Lao Yie and Jo Jo!  We played A LOT at home and made it to the zoo on Saturday.  The weather was perfect and the only good thing about my mom hurting her foot is we got to park up close in the handicap parking spot.  :) 

What a good lookin' pair all geared up in burnt orange!

Ruby, these shoes look familiar?

Who knew Franco Sarto made "glass slippers!"

For some reason Abby doesn't like chao fan (stir fried rice) but she'll eat the heck out of xi fan (rice pouridge).  Either works for me!  We are so thankful she is a great eater!

Abby still loves to help Lao Yie water the plants.  :)

Jo Jo, Abby and elephants!  Thanks Bobo for carrying Abby around all day!

Monkey and Abby.  I like her smile here.

Family photo!  We eventually had to get my mom a wheel chair.  Just too much walking at the zoo!

It only took almost 3 years but we finally got elfa shelves and installed it in Abby's closet on Monday.  The closet walls needed to be painted and the shelves were really easy to install (of course, Bryce did the brunt of it!).  It originally only had one shelf with one rod that extended the length of the closet.  Too much negative space for a growing child.  Here are some pictures of our project. 

Before we knew we were pregnant, we had new door frames, doors and base boards installed in the hallway and all the bedrooms.  They are still not painted because of my constant nausea so please excuse the raw wood look!  Otherwise, this is the freshly painted closet.

Voila!  Shelves installed!  Time to transfer everything back into the closet and OUT of our room!

Of course, my little helper wanted to help.  :)

Finally done.  Next project - our master closet.

Abby's going to be a BIG SISTER!

Just wanted to officially announce that Baby Baker #2 is in the oven!  We are due March 31, 2012 but if this one is anything like Abby, he/she will come around Ruby and my birthday.  :)

I'm currently 13 weeks and 4 days along.  This Friday will be the beginning of my second trimester.  It's been so hard to keep this tight lipped on the blog these past few months since all I've been doing is throwing up again.  I feel like it's more intense this time and it makes it hard to still take care of Abby.  I also feel like I've slept the past few months away.  It's the usual blah, blah, blah pregnancy story so I'll stop boring you. 

Abby is old enough to understand she is going to be a big sister and she already tells me she loves the baby and wants to hug him/her (aka my belly) all the time.  It's so sweet.  Bryce and I are so excited about this new addition and we can't wait for the next chapter in our life to begin!