Thank you, Lord, for Naptime!

...for without it I would go insane. Do kids' hormones start acting up at age 2? One minute they are a lot of fun, and the next they are saying NO!, crying, and refusing to do what you want them to do. One minute I think I would like to have another child around here, and the next minute I'm glad I only have one!

We've been potty-training Abby for 3-1/2 weeks, and overall she is doing really well. She stays dry most of the day, and does a pretty good job of telling us when she needs to go potty. She's 2-1/4 years old and isn't very verbal, so we have to be very attuned to her hints. I let her play in her exersaucer this morning (she's way too big for it, but I'm open to any creative play things for her, and this is what she chose this morning), but had to leave the room to get my coffee cake out of the oven. When I returned, the "saucer" had a nice puddle of "water" in it. Argggh! So I had a nice cleanup job to do, including removing the fabric seat (which is a PAIN). I know she called to me when I was in the kitchen, but I didn't decipher her hollering as "kai" (potty), so I just continued on with my work. Big mistake!

We went for a walk up town this morning. Randy needs some new work jeans, so we walked to the Salvation Army to see if we could find something for him. I didn't find any jeans, but I found some other things I'd been looking for. And Abby got to play with the for-sale toys for awhile. I let her play with them so she could try them out and help me determine if any of them really caught her fancy. She played with many of them, but wasn't inseparable with any of them, so we went home empty handed in that area.

Randy was home with Abby yesterday while I went to work. He was very excited to have Abby show me her new jumping game when I got home. I was rather aghast with what I witnessed. He had taught her how to stand on the arm of the couch (on the end where the brick fireplace hearth is), jump down onto her big bouncy ball (to enhance the bounce of the landing), and roll onto the couch cushions. In the first demonstration, she jumped and bounced and rolled over her neck awkwardly, and then rolled onto the floor. Mom was not impressed. In the second demonstration, she fell backwards off the arm, hit the torchier lamp and sent it falling, and then landed on the brick hearth. Neither fall hurt her badly (thank you Lord!), but I had seen enough and encouraged Randy to put that "game" to rest. Oh, the things we'll do to entertain our little girl! I know Daddies create rougher games than Mommies do, and I admire Randy for finding ways to play with his little girl. At least they had fun with that game (until Mommy came home), and thankfully Abby didn't split her head or get any broken bones this time around.

My sister and I went cherry picking last Monday. A friend of ours has a sweet cherry tree in their front yard, and it produced an enormous amount of cherries this year. They were generous enough to share with us, and after about 3 hours of picking (mostly all by Laura), we left with approx 60 lbs of cherries. We took 4 kids with us: Laura's sons Kent and Luke, niece Emily, and Abby. It was an adventure trying to pick cherries while also keeping the kids entertained and off the road, and making sure the two girls got to the potty at the right times. Our friends treated the kids to a snack of popsicles and oreo cookies. The two girls ate 4 oreos apiece! Mmmmmm.

There are a few things that Abby definitely has an interest in doing. One is swinging on swings, another is hanging off of things, and a third is playing with water and/or playing in dirt. Here are a couple pictures of her recent exploits: