Life with a Preschooler!

Life with a preschooler has been fun, rewarding, and an interesting experience all wrapped into one! We thought we would go stir crazy this winter but actually it has been great. Abbie has grown up so much in the past several months. She loves to play games - Candy Land, The Ladybug Game, and Don't Break the Ice - are her favorites.

Abbie has also been taking swimming lessons and we just signed up for her first Tumbling class!

Ready or not, here I come!

Since Ed has been taking so many pictures with his new lenses, we thought we'd turn the tables around and gave Abbie her first camera for Christmas. Thankfully, this little gem is virtually break/waterproof. Abbie has been taking pictures regularly for a few months now and I will post a "Life According to Abbie" picture post shortly! This should be interesting!

Abbie loves that she can take her camera anywhere, even the Bloomington Nature Center!

Abbie has also been exploring the world of dress up! As you can tell, playing "Doctor" is one of her favorite activities! instead of using fake instruments, we decided to give in and purchase a dress up set including a stethoscope, otoscope, and many others thingys that have very long/complicated names!

Let me listen you your heart, please.

Looking forward to this spring where Abbie is bound to love the great outdoors, just like her Papa!

Happy 3rd Birthday Abbie!

3 Years of Abbie. on PhotoPeach

Summer Car Rides

For the last, oh seven months or so, Abbie has decided that she doesn't like to sleep in the car when we go on long car rides. This includes driving in the evening/night when she would normally be asleep. Because of this, we have had some seriously interesting conversations which often turn educational. Here is just an example:

Abbie: What's that papa?
Ed: What?
Abbie: That!
Ed: I don't know what that is, describe it for me.
Abbie: That big thing in the sky above the trees, over THERE!
Ed: Oh, that's a water tower.
Abbie: A water tower, what's that for?
Ed: It holds water.
Abbie: For what?
Ed: For people to use.
Abbie: What do they use it for.
Ed: For everything.
Abbie: Why can't I see the water?
Ed: Because the water is in the tower.
Abbie: But I don't see the water.
Ed: It's in there, trust me.
Abbie: How do you know if you can't see it?
Ed: ...*silence*

Needless to say, we have seen a lot of water towers on our travels this summer.

It's August Already?

I cannot believe that it is August already. Where did the summer go?! So much has changed in the past three months since our last post. Not only is Abbie not a baby any more but she isn't even a toddler any more! She has grown THREE inches since May, is 100% toilet trained (no idea when her last accident was - during the day or at night), she is in a big girl bed, given up the pacifier - finally, and is a HUGE giggle monster and dare devil!

We have been exceptionally busy this summer. Abbie spent a whole week in Duluth with Granny and Grandpa Mike. They had a blast! They went to the Children's Museum, the Depot, the Aquarium, and the Lake Superior Zoo. Ed and I went to the Pacific Northwest to visit Ed's brother Shelby, his wife Kate, and their almost one year old Judah. We spent a few days in Portland, OR and then headed up to Washington's Olympic Peninsula. We enjoyed our trip but missed Abbie and realized that a week is TOO long to be away.

Since we didn't have the greatest weather this summer, we had to learn to be creative with our time indoors. Here are a few pictures of Abbie building a 'cave' in our living room.

ROAR! Did I scare you?

Ha ha!

I want to ride in the VAN! and other toddler quotes

When Ed decided, about 2 years ago, that he thought a the Honda Odyssey Mini Van was his dream car, I thought he was kidding. Unfortunately he wasn't and for months on end he razzed me about it - whispering ODYSSEY in the baby monitor, leaving magazine or newspapers open to Honda/Mini Van advertisements, and commenting on every single Odyssey we would pass on the road. Just when I though this craziness was behind us, Abbie gets her first ride in a minivan and for a week straight all she wanted to do was 'ride in Tiffany's VAN!'. Oh goodness. I guess I am now officially outnumbered and it looks like our next vehicle will probably be a van, oh joy.

We also learned over the past few weekends that Abbie loves to dig in the dirt, watch bugs, and pick up worms. I honestly didn't think she would be a girly-girl, but I had no idea she would have such a desire to get dirty every day. (seeing as I would just sit on the grass and not move when I was her age, this whole playing in the dirt is a new concept for me).

What, I'm not dirty!

Not only does Abbie love to get dirty, but she is also become a bit of a dare devil. We live near a park and go their frequently and for a long time Abbie would only go down the smaller slides on the small kids side of the playground, however Papa took her down the covered twisty slide on the BIG KID side of the playground ONCE and she was hooked. Now she goes down that big twisty covered slide all by her self, climbs up the faux rock climbing wall, and is becoming more ambitious every day.

Over Easter weekend we traveled to La Crosse, WI to visit the Sundstrom grandparents and Abbie got to see Uncle Shelby again and meet Aunt Kate and Cousin Judah for the first time. She had a blast! Of course, no visit is complete without a visit to the nearby playground. This time Abbie had a chance to go on the self-propelled twisting thingy, which she enjoyed (for about 5 seconds) and proceeded to stumble around for 5 minutes afterward. Not sure if she enjoyed the stumbling around part, but the adults we certainly amused! She asked to go back on the twisty thing later that day....we decided once was enough for one day.

Ed and Shelby helping Abbie go around the Self-Propelled Twisty Thingy

Abbie in her Easter dress complete with Easter Basket. Cheese

Goofy

Need I say more?