None, but Ourselves.

Abby came to me while I was making dinner tonight and said,

"I'm so tired. Time to put on pjs."

I gave them to her and said that she could put them on by herself while I finished dinner. She needed a little help with her shirt, but she pretty much dressed herself. I was struck by what a big girl she is becoming and told her how proud I am of her. Then I scooped her up like a baby and asked,

"What happened to my little, tiny, Baby Abby?"

She told me she is a big girl. I said,

"I know, but you used to be my little baby and I would hold you like this, and rock you while I sang, 'Oh, pirates, yes they rob I. Sold I to the merchant ships. Minutes after they took I, from the bottomless pit...'"

This time she sang along with me.

She remembered and sang a few lines.

Word for word.

I melted.

When she was that colicky little baby, screaming in my arms, I would sing every song that I knew word for word to her. Not only in hopes that it would soothe her, but also as a means of soothing myself. And what song worked most often on my little Nordic, blonde baby? Bob Marley's Redemption Song.

"Free yourself from mental slavery.
None but ourselves can free our own minds."

School and Some Small Miracles

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I really need to just schedule time to do this. Abby started school a week and a half ago. She is going in the afternoons this year and that has been a bit of an adjustment for us. She gets antsy waiting for the bus and I feel like it's near impossible to make plans for the rest of our day, because smack dab in the middle of it all, I have to be home to get her on the bus and then 3 hours later, be home to meet her off of the bus. I've already had to make 2 emergency calls. One to my father-in-law, "Can you hurry to our house (20 min away) to get Ab off the bus?" and one to the bus depot, "Can you switch up your route today and drop Abby off ten minutes later?" I was stuck in road construction which is EVERYWHERE right now. Ugh! I'm sure they just LOVE me. The frazzled mom, still in her pjs at 1 pm, helping her kid onto the bus. Or I'm running behind (as usual) and making everyone else work around it. Will I ever get it together?! I keep trying.


Well enough about me. Abby is doing great in school. She comes home happy each day. I really like her teachers and thankfully, so does Abby. She talks about them at home quite often. She likes to say that she is going to go on a picnic with them and then list what foods she'll take. I mentioned in my last quick post that she's been babbling talking a lot lately. Most of the time it's AMAZING, but often it's the same story over and over and over again. Like the picnic. There are only so many times in a 2 hour span that I'd like to have that conversation, but if Ab's stuck in that storyline, we talk about it for two hours. At least.


We did have a communication exchange the other night that blew my mind! We were in their bedroom and I was about to change Bean's poopy diaper, when Abby said, "NO! It stinks! Better change it in the kitchen." Now for someone with typical kids, this isn't a big deal. It's a logical request (except that we don't change diapers in the kitchen normally). But for those of us who have been dying for some sort of communication from our children for a long time now, this is AMAZING!!!

She 1) expressed her opposition to the situation with words and without screaming, then she 2) expressed why she was opposed and then she 3) suggested a solution to the problem. I was thrilled! Now that is communication, Baby! And of course, Bean and I went into another room to change his diaper. YES! There appears to be a light at the end of this tunnel.

This last picture is of Abby's little brother, Bean, on Ab's first day of school. He was so upset. There was nothing I could do to make him happy that day. This photo was taken after I'd tried EVERYTHING and finally resorted to giving him his pacifier, blankie and put on a movie for him. He was so mad at me, I'm guessing he missed his sister, that he refused to come out of the doorway. He could see a sliver of the tv and this was as close as he would come to the living room... and me.