More Christa Stories (And Maybe an Abby Kate Story or Two)

Hello all!

We have been staying busy, continuing to enjoy the beautiful October weather! Christa and Abby Kate are at such fun ages right now - I am really having a blast with my girls, and have been enjoying some surprise hormone-induced energy for the last 4-5 weeks! I have accomplished many small projects that have needed to be done for some time, and I have a few more in mind - such as spray-painting some storage baskets and moving Christa's room to the guest bedroom so that we can make room for Baby J. We have a lot to get done to make things as easy as possible once the baby arrives, so I am hoping this energy will last at least a couple of more months.

We have been talking more about the baby with Christa, now that I am further along in the pregnancy. Christa loves to randomly say, "I have a baby in my tummy." The other day, Christa said, "I just have to go throw up because I have a baby in my tummy." She proceeded to go to the bathroom, cough into the toilet, and return a moment later saying, "I just tried." (Our popular potty-training phrase).

Christa also loves to play the, "maybe we can call the baby...." game. We have had many funny conversations on this topic, and I have heard suggestions ranging from "Baby William" to "Chick-a-Booty." She loves to say silly words that don't mean anything. About a week ago, I said to her, "If the baby is a boy, maybe we can call him Thomas." Christa replied, "NO! Let's have a girl!" As I was posting this humorous interaction on Facebook, Christa came up and said out of the blue, "You freak me out, Dad." I don't know where she picks up these things!

Abby Kate is learning a few tricks of her own, as well. She is now a pro-walker, and can keep up with Christa quite easily. They have started fighting over certain toys (mostly because Abby Kate usually wants to play with whatever Christa has - little sisters are pesky like that - love you, Alicia :) I try hard to strike a balance between teaching Christa to share and allowing her time and space to enjoy her toys without having to worry about Abby Kate moving them around. I have a feeling that we may be asking Santa for two of everything this year! At any rate, earlier today, as we were driving home from ballet, Christa decided to share her precious duck with Abby Kate, and promptly took it back. Abby Kate caught on like a little genius, and handed Christa her rabbit lovey, only to jerk it back when Christa reached out for it. This turned into quite the fun game!

In other news, the yellow blankie has been found! Cline spotted it behind the TV while he was standing upstairs, looking over the bannister 2 days after it went missing. Christa had tolerated Blankie's absence very well, but was so glad to see her little friend again. We had told her that Blankie went on vacation, and the first thing she said when Cline brought it back to her was, "Blankie is back from vacation!"

Well, I have a little 3 year old who needs my attention now, and I'm hoping to squeeze in a short rest this afternoon! Have a great day, and I'll try to post some new pictures soon!

Fall (and a little end-of-Summer) Fun!!

Alright, I'm finally getting around to posting the promised pictures! Enjoy :)

Go Dawgs!! This picture was taken during one of the first games, before we realized how awful the Dawgs were going to be this year. Oh well - we are loyal fans, and making plans to attend the GA/FL game!

The weather has been so beautiful lately, so we have been soaking in some outdoor time. The girls wanted to have a picnic not long ago, so we ate dinner in our driveway, and then went to play on the play set.

We had our first play date several weeks ago, without the child's mom present. Alyssa's mom had a baby about a month ago, so we brought Alyssa over to our house to play to give the new Mommy a break. Christa was fascinated by this concept and kept saying, "Alyssa is coming over, but her Mommy is not coming over." They spent most of the time at the diner, talking like little adults. Every time Cline or I would walk through the room, Christa would say, "I'm not talking to you; I'm talking to Alyssa." So cute!

"C" is for "Clocktower!" About 2 weeks ago, the letter of the week was "C." Her class took a field trip to the Clocktower and had a blast!

I got to go with her...

...and we ate Cookies and Colored with Chalk! Such a fun day!

Christa loves to bake! Here we are making brownies (from a box, of course)!

Abby Kate is walking like a champion now and loves to get around. I love that she can walk! Despite what many said, it has made life much easier, now that I can put her down when we go outside or out in public. Christa loves it when Abby Kate walks "to her."

My sweet girls! I hope they always love each other this much!

So proud of herself!

On Tuesday of this week we went to the Pumpkin Patch for story time. It was great, and Christa loved it. Ms. Wendy, from Kindermusik, led it, and Christa was so interactive.

Abby Kate enjoyed the pumpkins, too!

3 is a Fun Age!

Hey guys! I'm hoping to get some new pictures posted this week. For right now, though, I wanted to tell you about a couple of cute things that Christa has done/said lately. It is so easy for me to quickly post this stuff on Facebook, but I want a record of it here, too, since I plan to print this blog out as a keepsake one day.

Christa's First Prayer Requests

Fall is Football Season for our family! We didn't get to enjoy the season by actually going to football games last year, because Abby Kate was just a newborn, and we were adjusting to life with 2 kids. This year, however, we are making up for lost time. Both of my girls enjoy the football games (Darlington and the GA Bulldogs). Christa is quite the enthusiastic fan, excitedly yelling, "GO! GO!! GO!! GO!!" whenever a team is running down the field. She sometimes cheers for the wrong team, but cheers at the appropriate times, nonetheless :) Anyway, we were at a football game several weeks ago, and one of the players got injured during the game. Everyone got very quiet as we waited for the player to get up. As time passed by, Christa started asking questions about the player. "Is he hurt?" We explained that he was hurt and that we had to wait to see what happened. Eventually, the player got up and returned to his team. That night, as we were saying our bedtime prayers, Christa said, "talk about... I want you to talk about the football." Cline started off a little confused, but after talking to Christa for a minute more, she said she wanted Cline to pray for the injured football player. She requested this prayer the next night as well. Such a compassionate child!

Last week, we got out the Fall decorations. Christa is fascinated with pumpkins this year, so we have been talking about going to the pumpkin patch. One night, as we were saying our bedtime prayers, Christa also requested special prayers for the pumpkins. "I want you to talk about the pumpkins." We're almost getting the concept :)

Opposites

About a week ago, Cline and Christa somehow got into a discussion about opposites. Cline explained what opposites were, and Christa very quickly caught on to the idea. She can plainly tell you that the opposite of "hot" is "cold." The opposite of "boy" is "girl." The opposite of "big" is "little," etc. Lately, due to my frequent vomiting with the ingestion of meat, we have not been going through very many fast food drive-thrus. Last week, however, I was in a bit of a time crunch, trying to get to church on Sunday evening after waking the girls up from their naps. I had to feed them somehow, so we went to Wendy's, and I told Christa that she could get a happy meal. Christa replied very seriously, "I want a happy meal and a sad meal." I cracked up laughing, and she repeated this request several times. When we got her food, I said, "here's your happy meal." She said, "where's my sad meal?'' :) (I told her I had the sad meal, since I didn't get anything!)

Missing: Yellow Blankie

We found out I was pregnant with Christa in the Fall of 2006. Cline's twin brother and sister-in-law were due with their first child (and the first grandchild) in December of 2006. Trying to be considerate, and not steal any attention away from them, we waited until their baby was born to announce our happy news. We told my parents right before they left on a December trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. While they were there, my mother purchased a precious, yellow, Little Giraffe silk and velvet blankie for our new child. Breaking a few of the SIDS rules, I placed the blankie with Christa while she was sleeping, along with a now-much-loved yellow duck that she was also given before her birth. I quickly bought an identical duck, once I realized she was going to be so attached to it, so that we would have a spare. Despite several attempts, I have never been able to find an identical blankie, so we made do with the one. The rule has always been that she can sleep with duck and blankie in her bed, but she can only have them in her bed. Our second duck lives in the car, and can leave the car only when Christa is being left in a nursery or going to school. This arrangement has worked out wonderfully.

The night before last, Cline and I went out on a date and left the girls with a wonderful babysitter. Christa was napping when we left, but was awake when we returned home. We noticed that she had Abby Kate's pink blankies, but not her yellow one. We searched her bed, and then looked in every drawer, cubby, trash can, and behind every piece of furniture, as well as every other location that could possibly hide a small, silky blankie. After a solid hour of searching, and a couple of late-night phone calls to everyone who had seen Christa that day, we decided that we had looked everywhere we could. Christa fell asleep with Cline snuggling next to her. I frantically searched the internet for a replacement (and a spare this time), and I think I found them. We'll see if they arrive this week.

When blankie still didn't turn up yesterday, I decided to take Christa to a local boutique to see if we could find an acceptable "new" blankie to love. (I'm still hoping the original turns up somewhere - I have sentimental attachment to it!) After looking at several pink, blue, and green silky blankies, the nice lady at the store showed us a soft, cream colored (yellow :) blankie. Christa immediately grabbed the "yellow" blankie, and said she wanted that one. I showed her the other choices to make sure that was the one she wanted, and she curled up the end of the "yellow" blankie in her fist, letting the rest hang down, and said, "look, we can stick our thumb in our mouth like this," demonstrating that this new blankie worked just as well as the old one! It was pretty hilarious, and the nice ladies at the store laughed along with me. She has been very satisfied with her new yellow blankie, so far, and I am one relieved mommy!

Alright, I'm off to church for the evening. Have a great week, and check back for pictures in the next few days!