Life in the One Acre Woods

Haircut for Ethan

2012-02-06T12:14:00.002-05:00

Ethan's hair was so long that it was curling up back, front, and sideways. We put Cars in the DVD player (his favorite) so he'd sit still while Debbie snipped away at his hair.

I think she did a good job.

Frosting cookies

2012-02-06T12:10:00.002-05:00

From January 24. Debbie is about 7 1/2 months pregnant here.

Family Christmas

2012-02-06T11:22:00.002-05:00

At the traditional family Christmas, much fun was had by Debbie and the kids. I stayed home with some nasty bug that kept me in bed for a week; bad enough that we decided to have them stay there for a few days, so they too didn't get sick for a week. We are thankful for hospitable relatives that live nearby!

Traditionally the youngest grandkids get the fun of delivering everyone's presents.

Obviously, living with Grandma and Grandpa has its perks!

Christmas Morning

2012-02-06T11:06:00.003-05:00

What a beautiful pile of presents...

Looking in the stockings before breakfast.

Ethan with a big pile of new blocks.

Abigail wearing one of her new dresses and unwrapping the other one. She needed some new "twirly" dresses, although only one of these two truly qualified.

This dress was a satisfactory twirly dress. The markers went with the new whiteboard/chalkboard easel, which didn't last long. THe chalkboard side didn't work and there was too much fighting over who got to use the whiteboard. And too many markers getting used on non-approved surface.

Six and One-Half Months

2011-12-17T13:09:00.002-05:00

Christmas Photos

2011-12-17T12:54:00.001-05:00

With Santa (much better than last year, when Ethan was terrified of Santa Claus)

Happy Birthday Abigail!

2011-12-04T19:35:00.003-05:00

Abbey turned four years old today: she's had a birthday all weekend, with gifts from one set of grandparents on Friday, the other set on Saturday, and those from Mom and Dad today.

Travelogue, part XIII

2011-11-26T10:41:00.003-05:00

Somewhere in eastern Ohio, we stopped for lunch at the site of the old Hocking Canal Lock 19.

The lock was dry, of course, and the canal itself has disappeared, but the lock was still pretty impressive, especially considering that it was all dug and built by hand.

The kids weren't all that interested in posing, though.

Travelogue, part XII

2011-11-26T10:16:00.003-05:00

We timed our departures carefully, to maximize the time they'd spend napping.

We headed home Sunday afternoon after church.

Entering the mountains between Virginia and West Virginia.

Which were beautiful in early fall colors.

We went though not one, but two tunnels. The kids were asleep through this one, but awake for the last one.

Travelogue, part XI

2011-11-26T09:53:00.009-05:00

On one of the last days we visited a local zoo, though not a typical zoo. It was a private exotic animal farm, many of them rescues from zoos or circuses.

On the left, a standard zebra, but on the right is a very rare zorse (a zebra/horse).

The tour lady said this (some kind of antelope) was the most dangerous animal on the preserve, more even than the tiger or the lion.

The tiger (a white tiger) was huge!

Travelogue, part X

2011-11-26T09:47:00.002-05:00

My mom put a lot of thought into things to entertain the kids, like sidewalk chalk.

She didn't want them to color on the house, so she told them very clearly that the chalk could only go on the patio, not the house. So they spent the whole time telling her all the places chalk couldn't go, like the house, the fence, the tree, the sky, the sun...

Travelogue, part IX

2011-11-26T09:38:00.002-05:00

Abigail the monkey: most of these climbs were her own idea. She's very agile.

Travelogue, part VIII

2011-11-26T09:26:00.005-05:00

One day we took a trip to an awesome play park: biggest one I've ever seen. It was built like a castle, with all sorts of things to climb.

The shaky bridge was popular.

Ethan was very unsure of it at first, and would only walk across holding my hand. But after a few trips back and forth, he was willing to try it all by himself.

There was a "well" made of stacked tires. Very challenging to climb up it, but Abigail made it, with only a little help from Dad.

I think this was her very first attempt at rope-climbing.

All summer she's been hesitant to go down slides by herself, even though she loved it last summer. Not today, though!

Travelogue, part VII

2011-11-15T22:16:00.001-05:00

My mom received a free set of preschool/toddler computer games, courtesy of Highlights magazine. We have no idea why they think she still has preschool-age kids, but be that as it may, she does have preschool-age grandkids. Here is Abigail test-driving one of them. She has since become very, very good at navigating with the mouse.

Ethan likes to watch her play. So far he's not very interested in playing himself.

They had their own table in the dining room. Ethan's reading Goodnight Moon, which was his favorite book for a very long time.

My mom had a seemingly endless supply of new toys, animals, games, and books, which she wisely doled out, a few each day. This is a book about the seasons.

Travelogue, part VI

2011-11-04T22:04:00.003-04:00

We finally reached my mom and dad's house. Their backyard is many times larger than ours (and has nicer grass, too) so we spent a lot of time in the backyard, playing baseball and soccer.

Ethan swung the bat a few times, but he was mostly interested in retrieving the balls.

Travelogue, part V

2011-11-04T21:51:00.003-04:00

On the way out of Williamsburg (passing by historic Jamestown), it was a peaceful drive beside the James River...

...when suddenly we realized the GPS was taking us on a ferry crossing!

An extra adventure that we weren't planning on!

Ethan didn't like the wind in his face, but Abigail had a blast on the ferry.

Travelogue, part IV

2011-10-28T22:37:00.002-04:00

We weren't allowed to take pictures at the wedding, but there was plenty of time at the reception.

It was a black-tie affair, so we made a special effort to get Ethan a tuxedo. He cleans up good, doesn't he?

As do we all. Abigail's lion went everywhere with us, and managed to get lost four times along the way, including at this reception. But somehow we always found it.

Travelogue, part III

2011-10-28T22:27:00.004-04:00

Saturday, the day of the wedding, we spent the morning walking around historic Williamsburg. Always fun to step back in time, but more importantly we needed to get them tired out so they'd take an early nap, thus allowing us to get to the wedding on time.

Slightly lost on the way back through town, we found this picturesque scene. Complete with a live colonial frog!

We saw General Washington, and Ethan nearly forced the General to slow down, by not paying attention to his aide's cries of "Way, way for His Excellency!"

Travelogue, part II

2011-10-28T22:23:00.002-04:00

The pace of the trip became much slower once we reached Washington, D.C. The plan was to drive around it: we entered the metro area about 2:30 from Maryland, but from then until we reached Fredericksburg (about 9:30), traffic was bumper-to-bumper and we rarely exceeded 30mph.

Travelogue, part I

2011-10-28T22:09:00.002-04:00

We just got back from a two-week visit to the East Coast, first to a wedding in Williamsburg VA, then on to the Raleigh NC area to visit my mom and dad.

Headed into the mountains between Pennsylvania and Maryland

The kids traveled really well: I was so impressed with their patience.

The plan was to stop at parks along the way to let them run off energy, eat lunch, etc. In fact, it's quite hard to find a good park if you're not a local. Somewhere in Maryland, we gave up looking for the promised covered bridge and stopped at this old church for lunch.

Three months

2011-10-22T09:55:00.002-04:00

Have we mentioned that Abbey and Ethan will be getting another brother or sister? This was taken September 23, or about three months along.

In a box

2011-10-22T09:48:00.003-04:00

It wasn't my idea, honest! We were packing clothes away and they wanted to play in the totes.

Summer slide

2011-10-22T09:39:00.002-04:00

It's October now, but we have a few end-of-summer pictures to post first.

Last fall he needed help just to go down the slide. This spring he learned to climb the ladder, and now he can even go up the slide!

They play together pretty well...most of the time.

Indoor Activities

2011-09-14T17:59:00.003-04:00

Helping to tenderize the meat.

Pushing the firetruck is usually Ethan's job, but here is rare shot of Abigail doing the duty.

Playing Candyland with Daddy

Painting: one of Abigail's favorite pastimes.
Pushing cars (or trains): one of Ethan's favorite pastimes.

Reading together.

Summertime Fun

2011-07-27T22:15:00.003-04:00

Where should we play? In the grass? In the playground gravel? Or on the slide? Of course not: dirt is the best entertainment of all!

With all the heat in the last few weeks (taken July 19, 2011), playing in the sprinkler seems like a good plan.

Although mostly they're about filling up cups/buckets/watering cans/dump trucks and drinking from them.

Cooking Skills

2011-07-27T22:13:00.001-04:00

Cooking with Mommy is always a fun pastime, especially if Ethan gets to help with the mixer!

Abigail's House

2011-07-27T22:08:00.002-04:00

Abigail loves to build houses: they're getting considerably more advanced, too...multiple rooms!

Strawberries

2011-07-27T22:04:00.001-04:00

Back in mid-June we found a strawberry farm and asked them if we could come pick some. They said they hadn't had a good crop and so weren't open, but we were welcome to come and take whatever we could find, free of charge. So we did!

Abbey and Ethan Cool

2011-07-27T21:59:00.001-04:00

They love playing with Daddy's sunglasses!

Easter time

2011-04-26T10:58:00.005-04:00

We did tell the kids about Jesus, and resurrection, and how Easter is not really about eggs and candy at all. But I don't think any of that registered. We'll keep working on that next year...

Here we have Friday, home from daycare with bunny masks and carrot hats:

Next we have adventures in egg coloring: by the time we got to the store, all the egg-dying kits were gone (perhaps we should go earlier than Saturday afternoon, next year!), so instead we bought some watercolors.

Abigail really enjoying painting the eggs: I was impressed at how well she did! Ethan did pretty well too, though he needed a bit of help.

And here is Easter morning at home, time to go find the eggs!

After church, a visit to a friend's house for the big hunt:

Hungry Hippos

2011-04-26T10:56:00.003-04:00

Abigail's old enough to start playing games: here is the first night with Hungry Hippos. I was a little surprised that she likes Candyland better, though.

Cooking Skills

2011-04-14T22:47:00.003-04:00

Helping Mommy make meatballs: what a studly chef!

Siblings

2011-04-14T22:44:00.001-04:00

I imagine that someday they won't like taking their pictures together, but for now they're awfully cute.

Ethan the Reader

2011-04-14T22:39:00.003-04:00

Ethan loves to pick up one of my big books and "read" it. This is one about Byzantium, I think.

Before he realized I was taking a photo...

"Cheese!"

Box Fun

2011-04-14T22:36:00.004-04:00

The box the new dishwasher came in, which surely can be used for much more than just holding it.

Ethan Turns Two

2011-04-14T22:22:00.004-04:00

I'm late with his birthday, but he did have one back on March 10. As I recall, the cake and the presents were a big hit---though his sister was probably more excited than he was. Favorite gift: the toy birthday cake from my parents, with candles that can really be blown out.

First time I'd ever seen new (non-faded, non-chewed) blocks!

Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas! (we think they were supposed to be for Christmas and somehow got missed...oops!)

Grandma and Grandpa Williams' gifts: toy cake, book (with music CD), and card.

The balloon was Abigail's favorite part.

Brother and Sister

2011-02-08T22:44:00.001-05:00

Ethan loves his books

2011-02-08T22:42:00.002-05:00

Piano Playing

2011-02-08T10:26:00.000-05:00

Pianos are a great toy for toddlers!

Playing in the snow

2011-02-08T10:22:00.004-05:00

We took the kids outside yesterday afternoon to play in the snow. It's been so cold this winter that it was only the second time they'd gotten to play in the snow. And we have so much snow (about a foot and a half) that there was lots to do: build a snow fort, go "sledding" and dig a snow cave/tunnel.

Night Time

2011-01-15T08:51:00.004-05:00

Night time means that we get our pajamas on, have some milk, and read some stories. Sometimes lots of stories!

Then we head upstairs...

This picture, by the way, is an updated version of this picture.

Ethan's ready to head upstairs, too.

Abigail was upgraded to a full-size twin bed last Saturday. Here she is, tucked in and ready for sleep (which will not actually happen for another hour or two, of course).

Ethan needed to be in the picture, too.

The Extended-Family Christmas

2010-12-28T10:12:00.004-05:00

Monday was Christmas with Debbie's family, which traditionally begins with the singing of Christmas carols.

Followed by opening of presents, starting with the youngest. Sometimes it's good to be little: Ethan got to go first! And it was a really big box, too.

A firetruck, almost as big as he is!

Meanwhile, Abigail got a lot of cooking-related presents, including a microwave (with sound and light) and a mixer.

Ethan got a lot of vehicles: besides the firetruck, he got a John Deere tractor that makes diesel-engine noises.

Mom and Dad got some good stuff too, but it wasn't nearly as exciting. As with most holiday parties, the Opening of the Gifts was followed by lots of rich, chocolatey food. Despite short naps that day and staying a long time, the kids did really well. It was Abbey's fourth Christmas (3 years old) and Ethan's second (22 months old).

Christmas Morning

2010-12-27T10:26:00.004-05:00

The kitchen was a popular present: with both of them! Ethan's big present was a basketball game, which Abigail played with more than he did. Meanwhile, he was enchanted by the kitchen.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-27T10:20:00.005-05:00

Abbey got a kitchen for Christmas, which was not "some assembly required" but instead was "ALL assembly required"! We started putting it together about 10:30pm and finished a little after 2am.

That's "A Christmas Story" on the TV in the background. By the time we were done, all the Christmas Eve movies and shows were over except for the service at St. Peter's in Rome.

Making Christmas Cookies

2010-12-27T10:09:00.003-05:00

Making sugar-and-frosting cookies with Mommy, in mid-December.

Pictures with Santa

2010-12-15T09:20:00.004-05:00

They turned out better than I expected. I actually like the second one better, as it's candid and not posed.

Christmas Family Photo

2010-12-11T22:24:00.002-05:00

The updated family picture is here!

I suppose this will probably become our tradition: we talked all year about getting a family photo professionally done, before the busy holiday time, but that still hasn't happened. Today we went to the children's breakfast at the college, and I asked a friend to take our picture before we got in line to see Santa. I hoped to get a good picture before anyone got cranky, and besides I wasn't too optimistic that either Ethan or Abbey would sit with Santa, even if we were there. And I was right: Ethan freaked out just being close to Santa, even on my lap. So the Santa picture, when it comes, will not be flattering to poor Ethan.

But we did get a good family picture. Note that no one is crying in this picture, unlike the 2009 photo.

Setting up the tree

2010-11-28T22:03:00.001-05:00

We put up the Christmas tree Saturday: here are the kids helping me out.

While we're supposed to be getting ready for naptime...

2010-11-28T21:51:00.001-05:00

This was from last Sunday (11/21). Can you tell she's very sleepy? ;)

Holiday Season

2010-11-27T23:38:00.005-05:00

Thanksgiving went well, though we had to cut our trip to the grandparents somewhat short in order to accommodate nap time. They just don't do well napping somewhere besides home. We even tried going for a drive: they both fell asleep, but woke up as soon as we pulled back into the driveway.

And now it's time for Christmas. We put the tree up this morning and brought out the Christmas books. Had lots of help from Abigail: Ethan was excited to see the tree but wasn't feeling all that well so mostly watched from Mommy's lap.

Slumber Party with the Cousins

2010-11-09T10:52:00.005-05:00

The four girls enjoying their ice cream cones.
Striker is waiting for something to fall.

My nephew James. The lone boy in the group.

Abigail had lots of help building train tracks.
She loved it.

Making dinner

2010-11-09T10:42:00.005-05:00

This is a typical making dinner scene at our house.
I wonder if that glass of juice ended up spilled. It
looks like I'm trying to rescue it.

More Fall Fun

2010-11-09T10:38:00.002-05:00

Abigail liked to get buried in the leaves.

Fall Fun

2010-11-09T10:27:00.005-05:00

The kids had fun making faces in the pumpkins.
Here are the finished pumpkins. Please ignore
the laundry basket:)

Fall colors on the way to the "new playground"

2010-10-10T22:26:00.003-04:00

We went for a long walk this afternoon, checking out the fall colors.

Our destination: the playground at Mauck School (the "new playground" as Abigail calls it, because Bailey School is much closer and therefore we don't visit Mauck very often).

The first time we visited, she was scared to try this monkey ladder, but this time she went up it six or seven times.

Ethan slept through most of this playground trip, but he woke up towards the end.

The twisty slide! I don't recommend it for adults: too much static electricity on those plastic slides.

Abigail's ponytails

2010-10-10T22:20:00.002-04:00

Only recently has Abbey starting letting us fix her hair, and allowed the hair to stay fixed for a significant length of time. It makes her look so much older.

Brushing teeth

2010-10-10T22:14:00.002-04:00

Ethan likes brushing his teeth; Abigail is usually good about it, but sometimes gets stubborn about opening her mouth. They both get to do it themselves for a few minutes before Mom or Dad finish it up.

Ethan dances with Tigger, and Abbey feeds her doll

2010-09-13T11:41:00.003-04:00

Ethan loves to dance with Tigger. And Abigail is really starting to use her imagination as she takes care of her dolls: besides feeding them, she also puts them to bed and changes their diapers.

Ethan's first shoes

2010-09-13T11:40:00.003-04:00

This was taken sometime in early to mid August, shortly after he started walking. He'd just been to Walmart with Debbie to get his very first shoes.

Ethan's first peach

2010-09-13T11:37:00.003-04:00

Ethan found a peach on the table and wandered off with it. Debbie said he ate about half of it, which is pretty good for only having his front teeth.

Ethan Making Friends with Striker

2010-09-13T11:25:00.002-04:00

Striker hasn't been all that enthusiastic about having kids in the house. It's hard to find a peaceful place where they won't bother him. There are some benefits, however...

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2010-09-03T22:49:00.002-04:00

Ethan's getting pretty good at feeding himself, although not so neatly. Sometimes he falls asleep before lunch is over.

Chic Abbey

2010-09-03T22:41:00.001-04:00

The sunglasses were lost, and then they were found. Pictures were taken, and now they are lost again...

Abbey lost a fight...with a mosquito.

2010-09-03T22:36:00.003-04:00

Abigail looks like she lost a fight, but it's just a mosquito bite under the eye that swelled up. Or maybe this is after she slipped at church and hit her head on the pew. Either way, we're thankful it didn't take long to heal.

She wasn't as miserable as looks: I think she just woke up in these pictures. :)

Siblings

2010-09-03T22:32:00.002-04:00

Abbey and Ethan make quite a pair!

Fence Project, part 2

2010-09-03T22:25:00.004-04:00

Stage two is the "temporary" fence between the garage and the house. The ground was rocky enough that it was easier to dig with my hands, although that turned to be not such a good idea when I found sheets of rusty metal underground.

Fence Project, part 1

2010-09-03T22:16:00.003-04:00

Next project is to fence in the yard. Because most of the yard is publicly visible, we don't want to do something cheap like chain-link. Instead we're going to use aluminum, which looks like wrought iron but isn't as expensive.

Still, it costs enough that we will have to do it in sections. The plan is to build a temporary wooden fence between the garage and the house, and then put up part of the aluminum fencing each year until the whole yard is fenced, at which point the temporary wooden fence can come down.

The first part of the fence project is close the gap between the garage and the neighbor's fence.

Setting up the playground

2010-09-03T22:08:00.003-04:00

Back at the end of July, we set up an otherwise hard-to-use area of the backyard as a playground for the kids. That entailed digging up the scrawny weeds, leveling the ground as much as possible, bordering it with homegrown Michigan rocks, and covering it with pea gravel.

Cars and Trucks

2010-07-30T10:52:00.001-04:00

Ethan is way more into playing with cars and trucks than Abbey is, even at 16 months old.

Abbey Outside

2010-07-30T10:50:00.001-04:00

I think we were waiting on dinner (June 29), and I was watching her play outside.

Playing and napping

2010-07-30T10:46:00.003-04:00

These two playground pictures are from July 10, when I stayed home to babysit. I found that taking them to the park or playground in the morning for an hour or so makes naptime in the afternoon much easier.

And this one Ethan taking a Sunday afternoon nap (July 25).

Ethan, advanced walking

2010-06-30T13:08:00.002-04:00

This was taken just last night, when Ethan surprised me by walking all the way across the living room from the TV to me. I'm hoping I can get a video of him crawling before he completely gives that up, but it might be too late already. I'm happy he's walking---he's so excited!---but I'm also kinda sad to see him stop crawling. He was/is such a cute little crawler!

Ethan practices walking

2010-06-30T01:34:00.003-04:00

Here is Ethan, practicing walking three days ago (June 26):

Ethan's First Orange

2010-06-23T23:41:00.001-04:00

So far Ethan hasn't been very excited about solid food, but that's starting to change. Here he is experimenting with citrus fruit:

Going Car-Shopping

2010-06-23T16:47:00.003-04:00

We've been car shopping lately, looking for a second vehicle that can handle the whole family (and any additions we might have). A couple of Saturdays ago we drove about 60 miles to look at one vehicle, and brought the kids to see how well they (and their carseats) fit.

We stopped for lunch afterwards at a park, so they had a place to stretch their legs.

Abigail wouldn't keep her eyes open for a good picture:

And Ethan found the only puddle around and proceeded to mop it up for the park department. Wasn't that nice of him?

Night-Night Time

2010-06-23T16:43:00.000-04:00

Here's Abigail putting Teddy Bear, Panda Bear, Sarah the doll, and Rabbit to bed (yes, we are creative with our animal and doll names!)

Ethan

2010-06-02T22:06:00.002-04:00

Ethan is a speedy crawler now, and will be walking before too long. He can pull himself up, and stand unassisted for 5 or 10 seconds. He entertained himself (and us) for nearly 10 minutes a few nights ago: pulling himself up and plopping back down with a giggle, and then repeating.

Cookie baking

2010-06-02T21:56:00.002-04:00

Abbey loves to help with the cooking and the baking, especially when it's cookies!

Model Railroading

2010-06-02T21:40:00.003-04:00

It's kind of hard to build train layouts right now, since Ethan likes to wreck them. Usually we wait until he's taking a nap, and then we work on elaborate setups:

A few weeks ago we drove by a real railroad yard, and Abigail pointed out the window and said, "Choo-choo train!" I was impressed that she could make the connection between her little trains and the real thing!

Vacation to Rockwell Lake Lodge

2010-06-02T21:29:00.003-04:00

Early in May we took a mini-vacation up to the Hillsdale College Biological Station (Rockwell Lake Lodge) in Luther, MI. I needed to go up there for work, so we arranged it so that the family could come with me.

Here we are after several hours on the road, stopping at a park so the kids could play and stretch their legs.

Ethan with Mommy on the merry-go-round:

Abbey crawling through a tunnel to get to the big curvy slide:

2009 Tennessee Trip

2010-04-22T09:36:00.006-04:00

Last August we flew down to Columbia, TN to visit some friends. I took these with my cell phone and just rediscovered them.

Waiting for the airplane to arrive (it was very late):

Abbey's not asleep, just entertaining herself by rolling around. We also rode the moving walkways many times, but didn't get pictures of that.

Listening to Mr. Tom play the guitar:

Checking out an old train at the museum depot:

Exploring Columbia's oldest cemetery. We found someone who had been born before the Revolution.

On the drive back from Detroit Metro Airport, we stopped at a park so Ethan could nurse. Abbey and I checked out the play equipment while waiting.

It was her first time down a slide, but after I showed her, she didn't want to leave!

Coloring Easter Eggs

2010-04-03T12:48:00.007-04:00

For Ethan, the best part was demolishing the egg.

Ethan enjoyed fitting the egg inside the measuring cup and he was quite skilled at it too.

Abigail enjoying the fish sticks we had for lunch as much as coloring eggs.

Abigail with her hair fixed fancy.

2010-04-03T12:40:00.005-04:00

Abigail let us fix her hair, but she didn't leave the bow in her hair long enough to wear it to church.

Cowgirl Abigail

2010-04-03T12:36:00.002-04:00

Ethan being his cute little self

2010-03-03T11:54:00.002-05:00

He's always been a happy, content baby. He's just getting over a four-day fever at the moment, so we haven't seen a lot of smiles lately. But most of the time he looks like this:

New Milestone for Ethan

2010-03-03T11:48:00.002-05:00

On February 18, Ethan achieved his first mobility milestone (if you don't count scooting): he started crawling!

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Mommy's Helper!

2010-02-16T10:17:00.001-05:00

Fun with Laundry!

2010-02-16T09:42:00.000-05:00

Ethan

2010-02-07T09:31:00.004-05:00

Christmas Morning

2009-12-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

Christmas celebrations

2009-12-20T22:04:00.004-05:00

Today was the Thornton family Christmas, and both Abbey and Ethan had new clothes in honor of the occasion (and of the Sunday before Christmas). We wanted a family photo, but Abbey wasn't very cooperative. She wanted to play with the other kids playing ping-pong, not sit for a boring photo!

A few minutes later, much happier:

And here's Ethan and his mommy:

Birthday Video!

2009-12-18T17:41:00.000-05:00

Off to bed early

2009-12-17T22:35:00.001-05:00

The aftereffects of their second H1N1 shot and seasonal flu shot.

Putting up the Christmas Tree

2009-12-12T22:07:00.007-05:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving: time to put up the Christmas tree. I had a lot of "help" from Abigail this year. Next year, with two toddlers, should be really challenging!

Both Ethan and Abbey like the lights, and Abbey enjoys pointing out all the ornaments.

Happy Second Birthday Abbey!

2009-12-12T21:55:00.004-05:00

December 4th was Abbey's second birthday! There's no original or creative way to say it, but it really is amazing that she is two years old already. For this birthday, we had a party for her: her grandparents on both sides came (mine via Skype). Many presents were unwrapped (the trainset was her favorite) and much chocolate cake was eaten.

One year ago. Two years ago.

2009-12-12T21:43:00.004-05:00

On a late fall day, (November 14), Abbey was helping Debbie do the gardening:

Ethan was observing:

Napping

2009-12-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

This is from November 5, a day when Abbey wouldn't go down for her nap at a reasonable time. Instead she fell asleep just before I got home at 5:00.

More Sibling Fun

2009-10-26T17:41:00.001-04:00

Taken just last night (October 25, 2009): Abbey's playing ring-around-the-walker with Ethan.

Sibling Play

2009-10-21T22:35:00.002-04:00

Abbey can be possessive of her Legos sometimes, but mostly she's a good sport and lets him play with them too. She'll even bring him toys (sometimes).

Silly Abigail

2009-10-21T22:22:00.002-04:00

These would be a pair of her underwear, which makes a perfect bonnet.

And this is her Lego bucket: