Philosophical Dad's Open Salon Blog

The Abby Report: October 29 - November 5

Fri, 5 Nov 2010 06:11:00 -0400

Abby continues to surprise and delight us with her talking.

A couple of highlights from the last week include her demanding that a friend "share," by which she meant "give that to me." Another particularly cute instant came when she was pulling her clothes from her drawer and telling her Mommy about the "hearts" and "polka dots" on some of her outfits.

Halloween was a big hit as well. Abby went as a butterfly this year. As it turns out we live about three blocks away from one of the best streets in Chicago to trick-or-treat. In fact, thousands of kids come from all over the city every year. Abby walked farther I think then she's ever walked before, and she got the hang of things pretty quickly. She's still a little young for candy, but fortunately she has absolutely no idea what candy is. So she was happy to hold the colorful packages for a few seconds and then put it into the bag that I was carrying for her.

She saw many interesting things - costumes, decorations, etc, and she only got scared once. It was a lot of fun.

And don't worry about all that candy. Mommy and I found a home for it.

The Abby Report: July 28 - October 28, 2010

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:10:00 -0400

I've obviously been remiss in posting as of late, and this won't really be a proper post either. It's just a quick update on memorable things that Abby has been up to, so we can remember them for posterity.

Today she saw a neighbor's puppy, and right now she's in her room talking to her boppies about the puppy.

Recently, she has become absolutely entranced by crayons and chalk. She walks all over Palmer park with chalk in hand and leaves her mark wherever she goes. She is also very well practiced at asking for paper, coloring on the paper, balling the paper up, throwing the paper away and asking for more paper.

Speaking of paper, she has taken a liking to cleaning. She will scream for a wipe, which she pronounces "bop," or a paper towel ("papuh tow"), and proceed systematically to wipe down everything that she can reach. She's also washing herself in the bathtub.

Last Wednesday was a special milestone. Abby sang the ABC song all the way through for the first time (so far as we know). On the downside, last Friday night, she awoke at about midnight, and screamed the ABC's at the top of her lungs for about an hour and 45 minutes. She didn't miss a beat, though, and she woke up at her customary 5:30 am the next morning.

Also last week, when I picked her up from daycare on Thursday, she said the following very clearly, "unos, dos, tres, quatro, seize, [s]iete, ocho, nueve."

Another fascination as of late is with helicopters "hetoter" and airplanes "airpane." Every morning on the way to daycare, I leave a little early, so I stop at Unity Park and watch the airplanes on the way to O'Hare fly over. Usually, we see the traffic helicopter over the interstate, and every couple of days, it flies right overhead. Abby absolutely loves it and will talk about all the way to school.

There has been some movement on the potty training front as well. A couple of weeks ago, I went to pick Abby up, and the caregivers said that she was "in the potty." Needless to say, that got my attention. Evidently, the older girls like to go the bathroom together, and they all sit on the potty together and talk. Abby has been very curious about this, so the caregivers asked her if she wanted to sit down as well. And of course, she took them up on it.

Speaking of potty-related things. If Abby catches you kneeling down, she will walk up behind you and check you for a ... let's say... dirty diaper. After making sure that you don't need a change, she gently and lovingly pats you on the head. This, evidently, is what they do at daycare. No one is safe from this treatment, she has done it to children and adults alike.

On a final note, she is in love with a spanish song, called "Los Pollitos." She knows that we can make the computer play the video, so whenever she sees the laptop open, she insistently says "pio, pio, pio" to indicate her desire to watch it. This turn of events has ended any possible hope that I have of working when she is with me.

That's it for now. I don't have a lot of time these days, so I will just be jumping on here to catalog things for the time being.

When things settle down, I will get back into more regular blogging.

The Abby Report: June 17 - July 27, 2010

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:07:00 -0400

I know, I know. It's been a long time since I posted. Well we have been too busy living life to write about living life.

The big news on Abby is her talking. She's using a lot of new words, including "Elmo," "Eww," "blueberry" (which she pronounces ba-ba-ey). She has also started recognizing letters of the alphabet. She's knows by sight and can say "A," "B," "C," "M," "O," "P," W," "Y," and "Z." The cutest is "W," which she pronounces as "dubby."

She had an ear infection last week, and I had to keep her in for most of the last ten days or so. That has not been fun as she gets very, very bored when she can't go outside and play.

As a matter of fact, she is pushing me away from the computer right now.

The Abby Report: May 29 - June 16

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:06:00 -0400

Abby is really starting to take talking seriously.

She is learning new words at the rate of about one every two to three days. Some notables are as follows (I will list the word and how she pronounces it.):

flower - "fwowy" She loves flowers. I take her on long walks around the neighborhood, and we look for flowers together.

ciao - "choow" This is what the day caregivers say when she leaves, and she answers them!

shoes - "shoooz" - She loves shoes, mostly because when I put them on (hers and mine), it means we are going outside.

outside - "tside" She absolutely loves to to go outside. She will often say this first thing in the morning, and when the word is uttered, she lights up and starts looking for her shoes.

ABC - "aee," "beee," "tsee" - We sing the ABCs song, read the ABCs book, and play with the ABCs toys. She is getting a good running start at learning her ABCs. She recognizes letters in different contexts and will point at them and start saying this. Note: she doesn't yet recognize specific letters, she just knows that all the little shapes (letters) that she sees everywhere have something to do with these sounds. She is very interested in this, so I don't think it will be long before she makes some real progress.

cheese - "chee" Let's just say that cheese is a go-to food for our little Abby.

Hi and Bye. "Hi" and "Bye"

Apple - "apple"

Yep. She's a chatty one. And I have a feeling that she'll have a lot to say going forward.

The Abby Report: May 26 - 28, 2010

Fri, 28 May 2010 09:05:00 -0400

Abby loves books.

I've said it before, but it's worth saying again.

For at least the last several weeks, she has been doing something that is exceptionally cute. If you are sitting on the floor, she will grab a book, and with an excited grin on her face toddle over to you. Then, she turns around, and plops herself down in your lap with the full expectation that you will read the book to her. As if that wasn't enough, she will occasionally miss your lap and sit down some distance away from you. This doesn't stop her though, and she fusses until you start reading.

Her favorite books are "Five Little Honeybees," "ABC's" by Charlie Harper, "Touch and Feel Farm," "Colors Bright Baby," and "In My Meadow."