The Family Bed

You know the dilemma? Should you or should you not let your kids sleep in your bed? Well, since I produce the least cuddly kids on earth, it's never been an issue. Seriously, I could count on one hand the number of times Abbey's let me cuddle with her in the last year. It's around two.

Apparently if you lose control and/or cry enough in one day, your otherwise distant toddler will take some pity and give into some lovin'. As the last straw in a pretty crappy day, Abbey would not stay in her room. My plan of attack so far (thank you Super Nanny) has been to not say a word and just walk her back to bed. I was simply too tired last night and could sense she was a little fragile (probably due to my aforementioned meltdowns), so we went and crawled into my bed and cuddled :) I honestly couldn't believe she was snuggling then she started patting and tickling my arm. It was just what I needed, sweet girl.

As she drifted off to sleep, I thought 'I could get used to this. I'm instituting the 'family bed'.' And I did. For another hour when Justin got home and promptly carried her into her own room! Ha ha, it was a nice thought. I do take naps with Hayden during the day, so maybe that's how I'll get away with it.

Who wouldn't want to wake up to these beautiful mugs?

Ok, ok, this isn't how Hayden looks when she wakes up. I don't let her sleep naked with a perfectly placed hair bow--this was for picture purposes :) But this is the Abster right after a nap--messy hair, no shirt, wrapped in her 'bankie'.

Beat the Heat

Ah, those summer days. The only thing to worry about is how to stay cool. Here's how we've been managing:

Water Fights with the Young Women in our ward. As you can see, Abbey was having a great time with the water balloons. That is until she got caught in the cross fire of the water battle. And she let it be known she was not amused.

But all is forgiven and forgotten when the popsicles arrive.

Then it was off to the beach.

I wish! Nope, off to the man-made beach at the Children's Museum. Almost as good. Some world champion sand sculpture artist made this incredible sand castle:

All they had was a few measly ropes and two measly teenage workers guarding the thing. Needless to say, I kept my toddler within grabbing distance at all times.

Mr. Jakey learned a tough lesson with a handful of sand.

Ahh...lazy summer days.

Too Fast, Too Fast

Can someone please stop time for me? It's going too fast and I want to freeze her! My grandpa was a photographer and told me once about being able to freeze time with his camera. I feel my two-kid life is even too hectic to pull mine out and do just that. Maybe I'll install a video camera and just record her day in and day out.

Abbey Girl Is Two

an afternoon at the pool...

* the salvaged cake *

anxiously awaiting her guests

hayden slept through the whole thing, but don't let that fool you. you know you've had a good party when your face is covered in chocolate, you have sand in your hair and stuck to the sun screen all over your body, and you can't find your shoes at the end of the night.

happy birthday sweet girl!

Initiation

This fuzzy picture was what I had in mind for Abbey's birthday cake this year. I don't know why I do these things, it seems like a good idea at the time.

It didn't work out. After a few hours of working and getting one layer just the color and consistency we needed, my mom and I moved on to the brown layer. We used an entire bottle of that brown paste and ended up with a light tan. It looked like a really cool suede cake. NOT the look I was going for. How do they get that color!?!

We'd already put way too much time into it so I let go of my dream cake and did what I could.

Next scene: day of the party. First day with a bona fide two-year-old. I hear 'clink-clink', shoot a terrified look to my mom, and yell 'The Cake!!!'. The birthday girl had knocked it off the cake stand while trying to sneak a bite. My little bro made a quick run to the store and I did what I could with no motivation left. It actually turned out pretty cute but most definitely did not reflect the 10 hours of work we probably put into that thing. Luckily by this point my mom and I could just laugh.