Leaping Leap Year

Abby celebrated February 29, 2008 by leaping about the living room! She was most proud of herself and was convinced that she looked beautiful! And of course Will and I agreed!

Breakfast in Bed

Abby made me breakfast in bed this morning. If you look closely, you might see bacon and pepperoni, but Abby informed me that it was actually fake bacon and chocolate covered fake bacon. UMMMM DELICIOUS!

Abby asked if I liked it, and I told her it was perfect, but that I really wanted a cup of coffee. She ran out of the room, and popped her head back in and said, "It's pretend food, so is pretend coffee OK?" I assured her it was and she disappeared only to reappear quickly, saying, "Papa already made you real coffee!"

Play Date

Abby has a playdate with her friend Jili most Thursdays. Yesterday was our turn to host and Abby and Jili quickly turned into an octopus and a Karner Blue butterfly! Jili's sister Ruby wanted to be like the big girls, and so transformed into a ladybug.

SNOW!

I haven't posted many snow pictures this winter. It's certainly not for lack of snow. It's simply been so cold that Abby couldn't play outside. This morning it was a balmy 31 degrees, so before going to school, Abby enjoyed our huge piles of snow!

Morning Conversation with Abby

I was helping Abby with something this morning and she thanked me. I told her she was welcome and that some day she would do the same for her child.

She responded, "I wasn't planning on having children. Then I wouldn't be able to work as a paleontologist. Do you understand?"

I explained that she could do both, but would need a nanny or daycare or school for her child. She thought about it for a while and then repeated that she wasn't planning on it!

Skeleton Work

Abby brought home this skeleton -- part of her "science work" at school.

You Can Sing the Song in Your Head

Last night Abby and I were listening to the song Pretty Little Baby (click at left to hear the song yourself). I was singing along and Abby said, "Mommy, can you stop singing so I can hear the real words?" I made a pouty face to tease Abby a bit and she said, "It's OK, you can sing the song in your head!"

A Message from Abby

Happy Valentines Day

Will made a donation to the World Wildlife Fund for Abby's Valentines Day gift. As a thank you, she got these two meerkats! Needless to say, she LOVES them!

Chinese New Year Performance

Abby is studying Chinese in school. Her Chinese class performed tonight at the Mayo Chinese Students and Scholars Association's Chinese New Year Celebration. Abby was excited about "performing on a real stage."

She wore a beautiful silk Chinese jacket on loan from her friend Jili.

We thought she might back out at the last minute, but she bravely went on!!!

When the curtains opened, Abby was standing right in front. Her eyes looked huge as she looked out at the crowd of 200 or so people. She was standing in front of the mike, and you could hear her say, "There are too many cameras!"

Will and I don't know what they were singing, but the mostly Chinese audience seemed to love it!!

Caucusing

Abby went to her first caucus tonight. As we drove there, we discussed who we were going to vote for. Will and I said that we would be voting for Barack Obama. Abby announced that she was going to vote for Barack Obama too. We debated who Mira (our cat) would have voted for if we'd let her come, and we decided she'd probably vote for Ron Paul. She's got a bit of a "get off my back" kind of attitude!

Abby was a great sport the entire night -- and she had plenty of reasons not to be. There was a major (major for Rochester, that is) traffic jam on the way to the school where we caucused. Will and I were actually glad to be stuck in the traffic because we knew it meant that turnout was going to be very high!

When we finally found somewhere to park and entered the school, we were met by really long lines! We didn't realize that we needed to know our ward and precinct, but luckily, Aunt Lisa came to our rescue. Will called her and she googled the MN Secretrary of State and found the information we needed.

On our way to our room, Abby saw one of her friends and delightedly told her that she was going to go vote!

Finally, we made it to our room. Abby wrote her name on a nametag and put it on her shirt. She learned the meanings of "in favor of," "opposed," and "abstain." She asked me good questions about resolutions against the death penalty, in support of clean water, and public education. And she listened intently to a speech by Tina Liebling, our MN state representative.

Our precinct's vote:
52 Obama
24 Clinton
2 undecided

A Playdate with Andy Banker

Abby had a playdate today with her friend Andy Banker. They had fun playing together. They also enjoyed their cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows!

New Book

We finished one chapter book this morning and started another tonight. Abby loves the new book. I told her I'd read two chapters and she managed to talk me into reading seven chapters. At one point she looked at me and said, "You can't stop now! This is a terrible place to stop. I have to find out what happens!!"

Reading to Abby is one of my favorite things. She gets so involved with the story -- diving under the covers or putting her hands over her ears when spooked. She asks what words mean and tonight I got stumped. I for the life of me could not remember what ennui means, so we got the dictionary out and looked it up.

Game Day!

Abby and I decided to have a game day. We played all of the games we could find and we found SEVENTEEN!!!

Dog Sitting

Abby was an excellent dog sitter for Aunt Lisa's dogs Archie and Elmer. She made certain the dogs were comfortable and warm.