Today when I went in to get Abbie up from her nap I was met with a most unique display. Abbie had taken off one of her socks (not unusual) and was -what I thought - playing with her toes. I sat to watch her for a minute. She stuck her finger up her nose and then removed the contents (not boogers per se..) and rubbed them on her toes. If this wasn't bizarre (and disgusting) enough in itself, I then heard her repeating - "Nose, toes, nose toes..." over and over. I have never laughed so hard in my life!

Easter at the Gray's was overall low key but we had fun anyway. On Saturday morning, Lisa and Ben invited us to go with them to an Easter Egg hunt in Bountiful. Although the weather was sunny it was still early and freezing cold. We had all been told we needed to get their early because it had a high attendance, unfortunately that meant by the time the hunt started, Abbie was crying from the cold and needing to wait to get the eggs, which were in clear site of everyone. It was hilarious because all the little kids were crying and miserable as we parents kept trying to convince them how much fun this was. Then things we do for - and to - our kids. Twenty seconds after it began the hunt was over, but Abbie still thought it was fun.

Saturday afternoon we colored eggs. Which, considering Abbie can't eat them ,was a little overkill (She is allergic to nuts we have to avoid all "high allergen foods" until she is three. Joy.) However as her favorite activity is to cook with water we thought that coloring eggs would be a lot of fun. Abbie loved it. She got so excited about all of the different colors and was thrilled about choosing which eggs got to be which colors. I don't think she even knows eggs are edible so she didn't even act bothered at not being able to eat them.

Sunday started with an Easter egg hung (plastic eggs with jelly beans inside). Thankfully, the eggs and jelly beans occupied her for most of the morning. We had wonderful meetings at church and then got to go over to Stew and Nicki's for a wonderful Easter dinner. All in all an nice Easter weekend.

Did you know that you have an extra pocket that you carry with you everyday? While it is much easier for babies and toddlers, in theory we all have it . Abbie discovered it. I was on the phone today and turned and looked. There she was stuffing handfuls of hair elastics down the front of her diaper! She seemed to think this was the best place to keep them handy. Thankfully when I went to "clean her out" they weren't stuffed too far down, but down far enough that we threw them away. So if you are looking for some extra portable storage just know you have one with you wherever you go!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm all about comfort over fashion, form over function, and substance over style. (My designer husband and architect brother are rolling their eyes as they read this I'm sure.) It is not that I don't want to look nice or appreciate beauty but when push comes to shove I'll take the comfortable route any day. I have never felt a need to apologize or be embarrassed for this world view until I made the decision to have a daughter.

Having a daughter brings out a whole other dimension in me. I want her to look adorable. I still prefer substance to style and don't want a fashionista on my hands if I have any control over it at all (and I'm sure any of you with daughters will be quick to remind me that I don't). However, I have been fretting over the last few weeks because Abbie -- while still the most beautiful girl in the whole world --was having some hair issues. Specifically - her bangs were too short to stay pulled back in elastics or clips, and long enough to be constantly in her eyes. Her hair is so thin that it was starting to look straggly after nap time and always falling into her eyes...so I gave in. (This picture doesn't really show how much the hair falls into her face, but you can see how they are always pushed around.)

I cut her bangs.

This was a big deal because I hated growing out my bangs between junior high and high school and thought it would just be better to not bother with them in the first place. But I went for it anyway. This is where my lack of any clue about how to make her hair look cute and fashionable made me realize (once again) my complete inadequacy in the realms of raising girls. I was terrified at having scissors close to her face and terrifed that with one misplaced snip I would have ruined her adorable hair. However thanks to "A Bugs Life" and fruit snacks, Abbie sat very still for the single snip of the scissors across her forhead and I was only left to fix one or two stragglers in the morning.

I think it turned out pretty good all things considered and can only console myself with the fact that she is way too young to care. Heaven help me when she is twelve!

First, a random collection of Abbie stories, by Russ....

The other day, I was talking to Emily on the phone at work. Emily had called me on our home phone, and we were having a pretty interesting, engaging conversation. I got interrupted half-way through, by a call on my other line, and so slightly annoyed, I switched over: “Hello?” A small voice immediately chirped excitedly: “Hi!” Abbie, of course. “Hi! Hi! Hi, Daddy! Hi!” She had found Emily’s cell phone and used it to call me while her Mommy was hogging the other phone talking to me. Smart girl.

She says hello and bye bye a lot. In fact, she often says it to herself, or to her toys, food items, or other inanimate objects. For example: when she’s done with breakfast (signified by the oft-used expression: “dah-dahn!”, or all-done!), I usually say, “Are you sure?” and she then says (as if to drive home the point) “Ba-bye, sodder (cereal), ba-bye spoon, ba-bye, mah (milk) etc”, and waves to each one.

She is learning songs, like The Alphabet Song, The Wheels on the Bus, and Old MacDonald, just to name a few. Today at church, whenever we’d finish a hymn, she’d say, “More song?” a few times. When I say she is learning songs, what I mean is she’s learning the last word of each line of many songs. So, for example, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which, unlike most songs, she has known this well for over a month at least, ): “blah blah blah blah blah blah STAAAAAR, blah blah blah blah blah AAAAAAARE, blah blah blah blah blah blah HIIIIIIIIIGH, blah blah blah blah blah blah SKYYYYYYYY, etc etc.”

Now for Emily to explain the pictures...

This week we went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. We had a blast! They have a mini mountain with water coming down through tubes, dams, and tubs. The kids have bowls, boats and balls to play with in the water. As seen on previous posts Abbie LOVES to play in water so this exhibit was a big hit. She fell in love with the cars. She loved to push herself around in the police car, and talk on the walkie-talkie (like her phone.) Just before we left we found the helicopter, which was a surprising hit. While I thought Abbie would be scared of the noise, she loved the buttons and being inside with daddy. I don't think we'll be going back any time soon because - while fun - the price just motivates me to come up with similar activities at home.

....Which brings us to the park. On Friday we went to the park. It was a little colder than we expected but we had still fun all around. Abbie was thrilled at her new skill of climbing up the stairs, by herself and going down the slide by herself. She did it over and over.

Then because today was stake conference we had the afternoon free and went for a walk as a family to the Cultural Celebration Center by our house. We live quite close, but with a 1 and a half year old wanting to push her stroller herself the distance was just fine.

Well, I haven't posted much, either because we haven't done much or during the things we have done I've forgotten to bring my camera with me, but I'll give you some highlights of our fairly non-exciting lives.

Abbie loves books and has taken up starting to read them to herself when I'm not around. I usually don't know what she is saying (I only get about half of it normally) but she babbles through the books quite regularly. There are a few simple books though that she knows all the words and will read them quite accurately to me when we sit down together. It makes this book-addict mother proud.

In other news, Abbie runs like a girl. It is hilarious and I almost laugh out loud every time she runs down the hall (which is all day, every day). Her hands are up about shoulder height and she flaps them as she runs. At some point we will probably need to cure her of this but right now I get such a kick that I just want her to do it over and over.

Finally, Abbie's new favorite game is "Seek" or as you might know it "Hide and Seek". "Seek" begins with Abbie standing in our bedroom facing the wall counting. If Russ our I are there we count all the numbers, if it is just Abbie we get "4,5,6". Meanwhile Russ or I hide in one of the five spots available upstairs and Abbie starts to look for us over, and over again. When I was a kid, I hated being "it" but it seems to be Abbie's favorite position as she can't ever sit still long enough to hide. She gets SO excited when she finds us and immediately yells out "Again!" and the whole process begins, again!