Testing and Dickens

Dear Abigail,

We had another great week of Christmas activities, along with some other 'activities'! Tuesday morning we met Aunt Steph (no, no Christopher yet...) and Ellie and Miss EP and Baby Grant at the library for story time. You did fantastic, sitting right in front, and participating in the exercises and songs. You did get mad at Ellie at one point because you told her you were coming over to her house and she said no you weren't. You came running up to me saying "Ellie said I'm not coming over to her house!!!" Ellie didn't know, but it's becoming a trend that when Ellie tells you something other than what you want to hear, you get VERY upset... We 'rented' a couple books and then we all went to Mellow Mushroom and ate yummy pizza. Ellie told you you didn't like carrots and you got very upset, again. We keep telling you it doesn't matter what Ellie says, but apparently you need her approval on all things :) After pizza, we did indeed go over to Ellie's house. Mommy let Aunt Steph run a few errands while Aunt Steph let Mommy and you kiddos destroy her home. Yeah, you think I'm kidding, right. You girls were your typical selves, but then it got quiet about the time I was feeding Kate. I could hear china 'clinging' together, so I assumed you were playing with the tea set. After a bit, I knew I had to check on y'all. To know one's surprise, you two were up to more than just pretend tea parties. You were transporting water from Ellie's bathroom to the playroom in any possible cup, teapot, random container you could find. And tried stuffing every one of them in the play kitchen oven and microwave. When I went to pull them out both of you jumped down my throat that I was ruining dinner. Yeah, that's the least of your worries. To say the least, water was everywhere and we had a lot of water to empty. There were also a few butterflies that WERE on the ceiling that were now scattered around the floor. Hmmmm... Apparently someone (or some two) climbed on TOP of the kitchen and pulled those out of the ceiling.... Thankfully, it was snack time so I knew exactly what you were doing, and then Aunt Steph came home! You two are something else. And this is only the beginning. It only gets better - just wait.

Thursday we went to gymnastics and you had some new gear to show off! Actually, Mommy thought it was your awards day, but it's next week, but you still looked cute in your new gear!! You were pretty pumped about wearing it too...

But not about me making you sit still so I could get a decent shot...

We went to gymnastics, ran a few errands afterwards, and headed home to make some candy for your teachers!

You and I do not work well together when it comes to baking/making sweets. Only because we both eat the goods CONSTANTLY!! And then we look at each other and laugh because we're both stuffing it in our mouth saying "Last one"!! Nonetheless, we have fun. And I'm pretty sure your sister did too :)

And somehow in the mist of us cooking all afternoon, I forgot to set anything out for dinner, so when Daddy got home from work we packed up and went to the nearest restaurant, which happened to be LongHorn Steakhouse. Now, this is so not the typical place Daddy and I would pick, but it's right beside out new temporary home, so we figured we'd give it a try. Believe it or not, and this is after we paid the tip, but our waiter guy told us you were one of the most well behaved kids he's seen in there. I had to document it. He also was super nice and brought you a smoothie, on the house! Oh, and you got to meet Mommy's favorite Accounting professor - probably any type of professor. As we were walking out, he held the door open for you and said "Well, isn't that a cute outfit." (talking about yours). About that time, I looked up and said "Dr. Towsend???". And it was. And he remembered me. And that's why he's my favorite.

You got a special surprise on Friday because Mimi picked you up from school!! That night we went to Mexican with Ellie and her folks and while I'd like to think it was uneventful, that's never the case for us. I looked up and your milk was spilling all over the place. After trying to clean you, the table and the carpet up a bit, I asked why did you bite your cup (it was a styrofoam cup) and you said "I just was taking a bite of my pretend taco." Oh, okay, got it. Next time, please wait for the real taco.

Saturday we grabbed lunch and headed to downtown Franklin for The Dicken's Christmas festival. It was a wee bit chilly, to say the least, but we were able to walk around and warm up a little.

And then we saw Santa... Your thoughts on him had clearly changed from last week...
You did not want anything to do with him. You also didn't want anything to do with Scrooge, but we insisted Pic-pic take his picture with his best friend :)

And of course, since Mimi was in town AND we were in downtown Franklin, there was no question that we'd be stopping by Cece's, despite the subzero temperatures. Now, seems all sweet and stuff right - wrong. We walk in, all excited to get ice cream, and guess who opens the door for us...

That's right, Santa Claus. And no, you did NOT want to sit in his lap, stand near him, even look at him. And of course, he sat right there in Cece's the whole time we were there. He got up at one point and scared you to death, but Mimi assured you he was just going to get him some ice cream of his own. We left and headed to run a few errands to pass some time and stopped by the local toy store. Well heck, guess who was there. Yeah, Santa. We saw him as we were parking, so I ran in real quick and politely asked him to please ignore the 3 year old who was about to walk in, in her Mimi's arms with her face hidden. He cooperated rather nicely, if I do say so myself. We had a little shopping to do in there so any time he saw you he'd turn the other way. You can always count on that Santa. By the time we left there, we were spent and could not handle any more Santas, so we headed home, and not shortly after, to bed!

Sunday Mimi and Pic-pic left early and you and Mommy headed out to a birthday party for Sanjana (from school) at Pump it Up. You had tons of fun and even shouted out "This is so much fun!!!" You burned lots and lots of energy and just in time because you fueled back up on pizza and birthday cake!

After the birthday party, we headed over to Ellie's house to let the 2 of you play, more importantly, let you play in somewhere other than the tiny duplex we are currently living in. Again, a later story on that... So off to Ellie's we went. She was supposed to be napping, but when we walked up the stairs she was hiding behind the door! She was ready for her Abby to get there! So off the 2 of you went to play. Aunt Steph and I were in the media room playing with Kate while the dad's were downstairs. Aunt Steph made a couple comments about how quiet you 2 were and I'd agree with her and I even thought/said, Lord I hope they are not into that water again. Well, no worries. Not water - nope. Instead it was paint. Lots of it. I walked in Ellie's bathroom and the 2 of you were on the counter COVERED in paint. You both had painted your hands, like took paint and put it all over your hands. And apparently decided to wash them because said paint was all over the sink and faucet. Oh, and the wall, and the door. i hollered down to Aunt Steph that I may be awhile and to just stay put and keep an eye on Kate. Well, all that did was trigger her to come straight to the bedroom. I was almost positive that was going to set her in to labor. And I hadn't even gone into the playroom yet. Oh the playroom - where you got the paint. You two decided the blue colored walls needed a little red paint on them. And apparently some pink chalk. Y'all painted all over the wall. And painted the carpet. And painted random pieces of food. Oh, and Ellie's Simba -apparently you needed to paint his toes. We freaked - all of us. BUT, after A LOT of scrubbing, a lot of carpet cleaner, a magic eraser, and lots and lots of soap and water, we think we got it all up. And Mommy and Aunt Steph were kicked off 'watching the girls' duty. BUT... shortly there after, Mommy and Aunt Steph were downstairs while the Dads were upstairs 'keeping an eye on you girls'. Daddy yells down "Hey, we need you up here, they're in the shower." I actually said "Whatever. I'm not coming up there." and his response was "I'm not kidding, get up here now." Yeah, so you and Ellie decided to take a shower. Both of you stripped down, minus your shirt because it buttoned in the back and you couldn't figure it out, and decided to take a shower in Ellie's bathroom, water and all. Yep, soaking wet, all your clothes. Ellie slipped and bumped her head, you had to wear a size smaller clothes, and we were done with y'all!!! UGH you girls!!!!! We thought it was odd the 2 of you weren't arguing over who's turn it was to hold Simba!!! After a long day, we headed home and headed to bed.

Monday was a normal day at school, and then today (Tuesday), you were home with Kate and me. We ran a few errands this morning, got your hair cut, and headed back home to make more candy/sweets for the holidays!

Yes, you are tugging her ear... And here's your precious new haircut...

And Kate needed a hair cut since you got one.

You loved styling her hair but I had to put a stop to it because you were getting mad at her for not looking down. You cut and styled Mommy's hair, too, while I was trying to type up this particular blog, but were gone for a few to many minutes. This is what I found...

Yes, you got into my mascara. But what's so 'funny' or maybe 'ironic', is that about an hour or so after THAT, I was cooking dinner and noticed you were awfully quiet. I came into the living room to see you with the big, black permanent marker behind the couch. One glance back there and I knew we lost our rental deposit.

At first glance, not too bad, nothing a magic eraser won't take away, right...

Oh no, on the couch, that isn't ours, that is included in the furnished place we're renting...

Oh wait, what? You wrote all over the glass table that sits behind the couch. Hmmmm. This isn't looking good.
And then I looked behind the couch.
Yes, that's an "A". A mighty good looking "A" I might add. But that's not what I was thinking when I first saw it. Nope, not what I was thinking at all. Or saying for that matter. I'm pretty sure you had never seen your Mommy so mad. You went straight to time out with a lot of yelling included. You knew you were in trouble because you just curled up in a ball and cried. I freaked and knew when your Daddy got home that he was going to freak too. Permanent marker. Black. On a white couch. That's not ours. UGH. Thank goodness (well, we'll see...) for Facebook. I was able to ask other parents of children who have no control over where they write how to get rid of it and after toothpaste, Off bug spray, hairspray, rubbing alcohol, Vodka, and a Magic eraser, we are STILL trying to get that "A" off the back of that couch. It's 10:27, and we've been at it since about 6, and, well, nothing is getting it off. We also had to open our windows because the fumes were getting to us! Anyway, I'm not mad - no, I am mad. I'm mad at you for getting the marker when we just talked about how that marker is not for you to play with, but I'm more mad at me for leaving that darn marker out. What was I thinking. I knew you wanted it, and that it would tempt you. Oh well, at the end of the day it's a couch. Although the deposit we're going to lose would totally buy us a new couch for our new house...

Girly, you are totally testing me and my patience lately. I cannot take my eyes off you for any period of time, but we're also crammed in this tiny place with nothing to do but get into all the bad things!! I love love love you, but Sunday cannot come soon enough (that's the day we leave for Mimi's!!!!). Love you baby girl. I really do. And that really was a good looking "A."