Another random update...again

She's starting to build taller and taller towers!

Miss Joan at Gymboree taught Abby how to sway from "side to side" so that's what she's saying and doing here.  It's too cute!

I hope Abby doesn't hate me for posting this but here she is sitting on her potty while reading "The New Potty" book.

Abby has never liked things in her hair but I made an attempt to do a ponytail and she is obviously looking away in disapproval.

This lasted 2 minutes.  She's trying to pull the hair band out and it eventually led to whimpering/crying so I finally took it out.  Oh well, it was cute while it lasted.

My little nephew is 8 months and 4 days old!  I love how he always smiles when I hold him.  I guess I smell the most like his mommy.  :)

Bryce, Ruby and Matt ran the Rodeo Run 10K and we all met up for lunch afterwards.  Abby thoroughly enjoyed playing on the stage at Cedar Creek.  Look at that smile!

We never claimed to be smart.  Bryce is now attempting to put pigtails in Abby's hair.  She's somewhat oblivious so far (too absorbed in her book).

By the time the second pigtail was secure, the tears were already rolling down her cheeks.

Haha - this is what happens when you let Daddy do pigtails!  B+ for effort, Bryce!  Better luck next time!

Abby is 22 months old!

Only 2 more months until the big 2!  I feel like it's time for me to record some recent milestones/markers again.  I do this really for Abby's sake so she can eventually look back at this so please pardon all the minute details and feel free to skip down to the pictures below. 

1.  She is roughly 34.5" tall, 30-ish lbs, wears 2T or 3T clothes and size 7W shoes.  She is starting to slim down and look less like a baby and more like a toddler {insert sad face for mommy}.  She goes to bed at 9:30 PM, gets up at 8:30 AM and naps from 2:30 - 4:30 PM.
2.  A few days ago she learned her last name and says "Abby Baker" now.
3.  Her current obsession is playing with her baby dolls, swaddling them with "bankets," as she says and feeding them their milk/juice.
4.  She is an avid reader and looks at her books and magazines with intense concentration.  She asks me to read about 10-15 books to her a day.
5.  The infamous word has infiltrated Abby's brain and drives Bryce and I bonkers - "MINE!"  We are still working on the concept of sharing and have seen improvement {whew!}.
6.  Abby continues to love going to Gymboree classes and really likes her teacher Miss Joan.  Miss Joan can do no wrong and we love how much she has learned from class.  I highly recommend it!
7.  Abby's vocabulary and memory recall constantly astounds us.  No complaints here!
8.  There is no way I can write this without sounding bias but Abby is really a smart, sweet, shy at times, gentle, kind, goofy-like-her-daddy, huggy and kissy, typical little girl who loves hats, purses, shoes and flowers.
9.  I recently taught Abby to say "thank you" and "please" (aka 'tane-koo' and 'peas') so that's nice to hear around the house.  "Read, please!" sounds a lot nicer than "read!"  :P
10. We are really working on potty training now and have had a few successes lately.  Her reward is to get stamps on her hands, feet and belly (just like at Gymboree and she really loves it). 

That's all I can think of now.  It's only been 2 days since my last post but with the nice weather lately, we've been playing outside after she wakes from her nap and we stay outside until Bryce gets home from work.  Abby loves playing with the dirt in the garden and finding acorns in the front yard.  She calls them acorns or squirrel food - haha!  You can see the stamps on her hands from peepeeing in her potty earlier in the day.

I have no shame in buying her t-shirts that boast about me - haha! 

I missed seeing her chubby legs with all the pants she's been wearing lately.

Here she is playing in the dirt again.  I love that she knows to dust her hands off when she's done playing.  :)

I'm not sure what was funny but I'm glad I got a good smile in this picture!

She's in the middle of saying "rock" because that's what she has in her hand.  The next thing I know, she's saying "rocco" over and over and it took me a few seconds to realize she was talking about Zoe's pet rock named Rocco from Sesame Street!  Needless to say, Rocco is now her newest toy and was the hot topic of conversation at the dinner table tonight. 

Walking around and still holding Rocco (in her right hand)...

This time she is standing on a rock while still holding Rocco. 

Earlier today Abby and I visited a friend who just had a baby girl 5 weeks ago but the pictures are on her camera so I hope to get/post them soon.  Abby hasn't been around a newborn since Elliott was born and I'm glad to report that she's much more gentle with babies now and all she wanted to do was hold and kiss baby Maya.  :)

The daily life of Abby Baker...

Not much has gone on in the last week and I noticed the pictures on my camera were mostly day-to-day stuff at our house so here they are for your amusement.  I would like to note that 2 weeks ago I was sick for a week and the day I got better, Bryce got sick for 3-4 days and it was a miracle that Abby never caught our crud!  Consequently, my hands were extremely dry from the 20-25 times I washed them a day.  I did my best not to touch Abby unless I had to and after a few days, I could tell she was mad at me and I felt so bad but I did it for her sake!  Then when I got better, she was my sweet happy clam again and all was forgiven.  :)

Abby loves to eat jiao zhi (dumplings) and it makes me so happy!  She loves Chinese food and anything my parents make for her.  Woohoo - I'm so proud of her!  She knows how to say jiao zhi and when I ask her if she wants to eat ju zhi (oranges), she thinks I'm saying jiao zhi so she gets all excited!!  Luckily, she gets super excited about oranges too (her new favorite fruit du jour).

Here she is reading her Daddy's Beer Advocate magazine.  This picture was taken at an awful angle but you get the idea.  For any avid beer drinkers out there, this is a great magazine to subscribe to.

I love these Old Navy flip flops for toddlers.  I got Abby 2 pairs to play with at home and I just love her little toes in this picture.  Her feet are a spittin' image of her Daddy's so they both have short stubby little toes that don't do much more than look cute.  Haha!  She is definitely her daddy's daughter (just like I'm definitely my daddy's daughter)!

Every once in a while we catch Abby sucking on her doll's milk bottle so Bryce took it up a notch and to our surprise, she obliged!  In the end, we were only encouraging her so our plan backfired but it was fun to see how long she is now compared to her baby pictures where she's drinking her real bottle.  My, how time flies...

I just like this picture.  :)

This picture is for Bryce's benefit.  She's saying "Reach!" and for some reason, Bryce loves it when she does this (which is a lot because she can't reach anything now).  For those that watch Kai Lan, Abby says "Lulu!  Help reach!" when she is trying to get something on the counter.  It sends Bryce and I into hysterical laughter!  Does she actually think a pink hippo with a balloon attached to her horn will suddenly appear and help her?  That would be awesome!

Here she is making herself comfortable during lunch time.  We are almost at the weight limit for this clip-on chair.  It's so hard to find a wooden counter height chair but the search continues.

We definitely live in an Asian household.  She even takes her shoes off before entering her tent!  I love it!

We spent this past Saturday at Grandma and Grandpa's and as I've mentioned before, her favorite toy seems to be this old orange bowl and wooden spoon that Bryce actually used as a child.  This time, Grandpa got empty spice bottles for Abby to play with too!  So her 2 newest words are garlic and oregano!  And the bottles still smell so she knows them by scent now too - haha!  Here she is seasoning her wiffle balls and pelican.  Oh to be young again....  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  Today is filled with love and I am very thankful for everything that I have.  I am thankful for my loving family, lifelong friends, my wonderful husband and mostly, my dear Abby.  I love you all! 

XOXO!

Bear claw, Sidewalk chalk

We usually make our big breakfasts on Sunday mornings and this past Sunday was no different - scrambled eggs with sauteed veggies, hash browns and bacon.  I was going to make some quick Pillsbury rolls in the oven but Bryce was at the grocery store and told me not to make them because he had a surprise!  As the title suggests, Bryce brought back donuts and Abby got her first bear claw!  Needless to say, she loved it.  It's carbs covered in suger. 

She only ate half of it after her big breakfast.

The weather finally warmed up a bit so we played outside after breakfast while Bryce brewed beer.  I decided to bust out the Sidewalk Chalk since she was already in her play clothes and let her go to town.  I drew a bunch of stuff on the ground and wrote out the alphabet.  She knows all but 4 letters!  Woohoo Abby!  :)  I even drew little foot prints for her to stand in so she was looking at the letters from the correct direction.  She can spell so many words now, it's so cool to hear and she gets so excited when she gets them right!  If she doesn't know a letter, she says "Ummmmm......" until you help her out.  She's already learning stall tactics! 

Let's be honest, I had a lot of fun drawing all over the ground!  And Abby got to learn too.  Win-win!

When she first sprawled out in the bunny, my instinct was to pick her up but I decided to let it go because she was having fun and it's just chalk.  Baby steps, baby steps (for me, not Abby).

Check it out - it didn't bother me anymore!  :P

I love this face - it's peaceful and sweet.

Art, Chinese New Year lunch, Little Helper

Abby attended a preview art class at Gymboree and she had so much fun picking out her own color of paper, markers, paint and learning how to use glue (scary)!  I'm not sure if we'll add that class but it sure seemed like she enjoyed it!  This particular class we attended was learning about the letter "B" (one of the first letters she learned a while ago so she was a pro) so that was the common theme for the activities. 

B is for butterfly!  The pipe cleaner antennas did not quite make it to their intended destination but close enough!

B is for buttons and beans!  Abby picked out her own "gween" paper, buttons and beans to glue onto her sheet.  So much fun!

We went to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants, Fung's Kitchen, to celebrate the New Year and as usual, the food was delicious and Abby and Elliott stole the show.  :)  Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

Elliott with his first hong bao (red envelope)!

Abby with her hong bao as well.

Jo Jo making Abby laugh!  She was in such a girly giggly mood - it was too cute and quite contagious!

This was the first time Elliott really took interest in Abby and was trying to interact with her.  It was so cute to see their curiosity in each other.  :)

Elliott was pulling on Abby's hair but she didn't even mind!  Jo Jo was trying to save the day but Abby just thought it was funny.

For some reason Abby just got the giggle fits and it was a sight to see!  I have about 7 pictures of her busting out laughing - she had us all laughing by the end!

Family photo - Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

This is Abby's "Joe Cool" look.  :)

In the last few months, Abby has turned into our little helper.  She says "help" all the time now and insists on helping with every day chores.  It all started out with folding laundry with us, then loading and unloading the washer/dryer, unloading the dishwasher, taking MY socks and boots on and off, throwing her own diapers in the trash, picking my hair up off the floor and throwing it in the trash (embarassing but unavoidable), etc.  I managed to get a quick video of her helping Bryce unload the dishwasher.  She'll be an awesome big sister some day!

St. Arnold One Pot Showdown

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year!  Gong Xi Fa Tsai!

This year was the 4th Annual St. Arnold One Pot Showdown and Bryce and 2 homebrew buddies participated with a dish/pot called Cabrito Borracho (Drunken Goat) which is a delicious goat stew made with St. Arnold Elissa and Stout.  YUM!  Their team name was Goat Boyz.  :)  It was a family affair as my parents, Ruby's family and in-laws, my in-laws and of course, Abby and I, came to support the Goat Boyz and taste all the other food as well.  Luckily by the time we arrived, the rain stopped so we were good to go.  I had fun making the signs for them the night before too (thanks cricut!).  They even got a picture taken of their booth on chron.com and a close up of the goat dish on houstonpress.com!  Here are a few pictures from the day.  Although they did not place, we'll definitely make this an annual event!

The signs!

The Goat Boyz!

The set up.  Abby really liked playing with the donkey pinatas.  :)

These were the samples for everyone to try.  And no, that's not tofu, it's queso fresco!

Ruby and Matt just ran the half marathon in the morning and Elliott found a comfortable place to rest his little head.  :)

This was the best cousin picture we could get.  :P

The rest of these pictures are random Abby pictures.  I can confidently say that Abby is now having bonafide convsersations with us and it's now officially impossible to track all of her new words as it's exponentially exploded.  This is such a fun new phase!  She's been extra cuddly lately too so my cup runneth over.  *sigh*

It's safe to say I take about 99% of the pictures and this is a rare photo taken by Bryce.  Not bad!

About once a week, Abby takes her afternoon nap in the pop up tent.  Yup, she's definitely part Chen.  :)

This picture made me wonder.  I remember seeing my parent's older cars in the background of my childhood pictures and I always asked them what make/model it was and what ever happened to the car.  I wonder if Abby will ask the same about my beloved Volvo.  I still fantasize about this being her first car.  She'll be the only kid driving a car from the 1990's!!  A mom can dream...

I just like this picture.  :)