Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Keeping Up With Miss Abigail

Michael struggled a bit last night, but had a much better day today. His gums are looking better, as well. Me- I'm still trying to get by on the less-quantitative, less qualitative sleep than I've been getting for the past few nights (which is never quite enough on a good night, as it is), so I'm feeling too lazy and tired to come up with anything substantive to write about.

But, I've been collecting Abby snippets to share over the last week or so, and tonight is as good a night as any to just get them all out there in a nice, unstructured way.

I'll start with last week's little gem, that Tom emailed me a line about to ensure that he would remember to relate it to me at some point. As he paid for his pre-Thanksgiving groceries in the Wegmans checkout line the on the Sunday preceding it, the cashier asked him if he would like any cash back. Abby, carefully observing the interplay, chose that moment to begin singing, "I want my money back! I want my money back!"

On the following Tuesday, when Tom brought Michael into Abby's room with him to bring her downstairs for breakfast, Abby declared, "I need to change Michael's diaper."

Then there was the Friday after Thanksgiving, when Abby got cute and creative in an empty box.



Then, she was so amazingly cooperative during finger-and-toenail clipping time that I had to get a record of that, too.


She's gotten better and better about it, particularly in recent months, and was actually getting her toenails clipped per her request. Tom started off interested only in her sharp little fingernails.


We had our share of moments today, too. This afternoon was a big one for Tom. He had to go into the office for part of the day today, and did not arrive home until close to dinnertime. As he descended the stairs to greet us upon his return, Abby cried out, "Daddy's home!"

The grin that spread across Tom's face was priceless. But then, he asked for a hug and kiss, which Abby was not inclined to give, having already fixed her interests elsewhere (though, she did continue to chant, "Daddy's home," as she went about her business). That is, until she saw her daddy swoop down to pick up her little brother. Suddenly, it seemed there wasn't nearly enough of Daddy to go around.

Jealous as she gets of her little brother, she can be so sweet with him, too. I was trying to sneak some semi-sweet chocolate chips after dinner when Tom brought Abby into the living room. Michael was already crawling around the floor there, still blessedly oblivious to what I am eating most of the time (outside of meals, anyway), so long as he finds other things to distract himself with. Abby, however, is far more observant. She made a beeline for me, and my little bowl of chocolate, so of course, I had to cough some up. However, after reaching out to grab a second piece from me, Abby turned right around to her brother and said, "Michael, would you like some chocolate?" It was so precious, I hated to intervene, but I had to explain to Abby that Michael is not old enough for chocolate just yet. I made sure to tell her how proud I was of her, though, for offering to share.

***

In other news, as of 6:27 pm (Central Time) on November 25th, 2012, Abby and Michael have a new little cousin. Congratulations, Michael and Aimee!

Is it weird that I feel so much more grown up now, having suddenly become an aunt, than I ever did becoming a parent?