Jee Jee

I'm rocking Lillian after her nap. Abigail asks me to sing "Mary's Lullaby", after which she asks for the story of when Jesus was born. I asked: Do you think Mary sang a lullaby to Jesus?

Upon hearing the name of Jesus, Lillian looked up at me and said, "Jee Jee". She then got down off my lap, opened the drawer where we keep the illustrated scripture stories, pulled out "Old Testament", opened the book, pointed to a picture of Jesus and looking at me smiling said, "Jee Jee!"

Turkey at Smiths

At the grocery store last night. While I'm looking at pickles and olives for Thanksgiving dinner a middle-age couple looks at pies on the other side of the isle. They mention something about turkey. Upon hearing this Abigail perks up and exclaims, "I sing a song about turkeys!"

Woman: oh, you do?

Abigail: yeah. I'll sing it for you!

Woman: okay

Abigail: (holding up her right hand with all five fingers spread apart) Five fat turkeys are we! Like that!

Woman: Do you use your fingers?

Abigail: I use my fingers, like this. Five fat turkeys are we! Like that!

The couple starts to walk away while still smiling at Abigail.

Abigail (to mom): They are kind of shy.

Mom: yes, they don't seem as outgoing as you are.

Less

We had a little adventure today, after detecting a very-minor gas leak outside our home. In short order, my dad was here, the Questar guy was here, and my girls were enjoying the most exciting late Friday evening we've had in some time.

I seized the teaching moment, and told Abigail about natural gas.

Me: Do you recognize the smell?

Abigail: Um hmmm.

Me: This is the smell of natural gas. It can be a scary smell if it weren't for the nice gas man here helping us out. If you ever recognize this smell, tell mom or dad...
... Kinda like I did...

Well, things got straightened out, and we settled down in the kitchen for pre-bed-time snacks. Now, my little Abigail loves one food above all foods. In the diet of Abigail, it reigns in the largest tier of the food pyramid, esteemed and regarded above all else. You guessed it! The yogurt food group.

In a crazy attempt to restore yogurt to its proper place on the pyramid, we told Abigail we were going to eat less yogurt. After explaining our reasons, she heartily agreed.

Delores: What would you like for your snack? You could have...

Abigail: I want less yogurt.

Delores: You want less yogurt, huh?

Abigail: Yeah! I want LOTS of less yogurt!

So we did.

First Hair Cut

This is Abigail's very first haircut - ever!

She wanted it short like Mom's so it wouldn't blow in the wind and Lillian wouldn't pull it. She loves her hair and loves that it doesn't blow in the wind and when Lillian pulls it, it is not nearly as painful for her.

This is the first female haircut I have ever done. After this picture, I later did a touch-up hair cut to get the loose ends. It looks better now.

Working Hard

Yesterday Abigail and Keith did yard work. They painted the newly fixed gate/fence and began laying bricks for our new and improved flower garden. While Keith was organizing bricks, he gave Abigail permission to walk on all the bricks except the one or two he was currently working on. When she later wanted to walk on the off limits bricks Keith was working on, Keith reminded her not to. Her reply: work more.

Distracted

I leave Abigail painting in the kitchen while I go downstairs for a few minutes. After said few minutes expired, Abigail comes down stairs with green paint all over her legs and hands.

Mom: Abigail, I'm so sad you painted on your skin. I guess that means I have to take the paint away for a while. What a bummer.

Abigail: I'm so sorry Mom. I got distracted. I was trying to write my name on the paper and I got distracted.

Mom: Yes, I see this.

Story Time

Yesterday Abigail had a friend over to play. After painting in the kitchen, they moved into her room to read books. Abigail picked up "The Pied Piper" and proceed to "read" it to her friend. After hearing a bunch of nonsense words from her as she pointed to the pictures and turned the pages, I hear, "Let's go read 'One Pretty Princess.'"

She picks up said princess book and sings the words to her friend. She has this book memorized and it looks like she's reading it.

Abigail was a cute story teller to her friend.

Beautiful

Abigail says to Keith during sacrament meeting: I’m going to go potty then I’m going to see Mom because she’s beautiful

Grateful

I love to listen to Abigail pray. She likes to tell Heavenly Father the things she is grateful for. Tonight, it sounded like this:

Dear Heavenly Father
I'm thankful for my mom,
and my dad,
and Lillian,
and Abigail,
and my friends,
and my hands,
and my feet,
and my blanket,
and for Jesus,
in the name of Jesus Christ
Amen

I was so pleased. Later, I said to her, "I'm grateful for my hands and feet, too. They're so handy

Without hesitating, she replied:

And so feety!

Sunscreen On

Yesterday we had car trouble on our way to a family reunion in Idaho. We stopped at a random reservoir to survey the damage. Upon approaching the body of water, Keith took it upon himself to explain to Abigail what makes a reservoir.

Keith: This is a special kind of lake. This would just be a river, but those rocks over there make a dam and stop the water to make this lake. It's called a reservoir. This kind a dam is not the bad word dam that we talked about. This dam just means that it's blocking the water. So we can play here in the lake. Isn't that cool!

Abigail: Oh. I have sunscreen on!

Keith: It's at these moments that I feel my teaching is especially effective.

Vader in the Family

In their best Darth Vader voices:

Keith: Abigail, I am your daddy!

Abigail: I am your princess!

Moving to the Park

We had a picnic lunch at the park last week with some friends. When it was time to go Abigail wanted to stay and play longer with her friends.

Abigail: I want to stay at the park forever!

Mom: Stay forever? What would happen when it got dark? Don't you think you'd get cold?

Abigail (pauses to think): I have my blanket, that would keep me warm.

Mom: There are no beds at the park, where would we sleep?

Abigail (pauses to think): We could sleep on the grass!

Mom: What about food? There isn't a kitchen. We would get hungry.

Abigail (gestures to the left over lunch food): We have food, we'll be okay.

Mom: What about if it gets windy, we'd get pretty cold.

Abigail (thinks): We have blankets, that will keep us warm.

She refuted all of my arguments. Looks like we're moving to the park!

Ode to Losing 10 Pounds

I'm not as big
As I used to be,

...

But I am as big
As I used to be.

Surprisingly Strong

Abigail, Lillian and I are shopping at Shopko on Saturday. I put both the girls on the floor so we can look at some clothing items. After a few minutes I look up and the shopping cart is moving away from me. It continues to go away until it hits a clothing rack about five feet away. The culprit? Lillian is pushing the cart while pushing on the bar that runs about six inches off the floor and parallel to it.

After I steered her away from said clothing rack she pushed the cart all the way to the checkout stand (I only steered). She also turned the cart a full 180 degrees -on her own- when needed.

Another surprisingly strong moment occurred yesterday when Lillian carried a grocery bag full of wet diapers up the stairs (with one hand) from the living room to the kitchen all by herself - one step at a time. She smiled with every step.

Congratulations

Abigail approached me, saying "I will give you a hug."

Which she did, for longer than usual. In fact, I was getting a little sentimental inside at this tender Father-Daughter moment when she let go, gave me a winning smile, and said "You are a little sweet dad!"

After a pause, she added: "Congratulations!"

Abigail Dorton

Abigail comes into the room and announces: I am Agigail Dorton

Mom: Where is Abigail Rimington?

Abigail: She went to Provo...On August 22nd she got married in the Provo Temple...and lived happily ever after

At least I know where she went!

Keith's Silly Outfit

Abigail watched Keith walk, she clapped many times for reasons unknown to her, she waved in his general direction and she rode up to the event in Logan with Grandparents Rimington.

When she was finally able to give him a hug her first words to him:

"Dad, you look silly."

I guess these robes are a bit that - silly.

Congratulations on completing your masters degree Keith - silly robes and all!

All by Myself

Abigail goes into her room to change her diaper. She comes back out to the kitchen a few minutes later with a wipe in her hand.

Abigail: I cleaned up the pee off my leg all by myself!

Mom: Did your diaper leak or did you pee after you took your diaper off?

Abigail: I peed after I took off my diaper. I cleaned it on the floor too!

Mom: Do you want me to help you clean it off the floor?

Abigail: No, I can do it all by myself. Do you want to come and clean it all by yourself too?

Mom: Sure! Lillian, come on! You can come clean by yourself too!

Abigail: Let's go! Come on! You can clean all by yourself! Here are the wipes!

It was a joyous cleaning party.

A Man in the Bathroom

Abigail needs to wash her hands and asks for help to do so. Keith is taking a shower in the hall bathroom. Abigail is knocking on the door so she can go in and wash her hands.

Delores: Abigail, Dad's in there taking a shower. Lets go wash your hands in Mom's bathroom.

Abigail: Let's not wash my hands in this bathroom, there's a man in there. There's not a man in Mom's bathroom!

I don't know when Keith became "a man" to Abigail.

My Owwie

I stood in our bathroom, shaving to remove the last of the day's grime. Abigail and Lillian came to show the results of their latest escapade: a shared bath in the other bathroom sink. I was completely happy, having spend the bulk of the day with Abigail petting rabbits, trucking through town, and preparing our garden plot for seeds.

There, in the bathroom, we had a conversation that went something like this:

Abigail: (Looking at a strange bruise, normally covered, on my right shoulder.) You have an owwie.
Keith: Why yes, I do.
(Delores giggles from the other room.)
Abigail: Does it hurt?
Keith: Actually, it feels great!
(More giggles from the other room.)
Keith: (Feeling the obligation to have a little fun...) Mommy gave it to me.
Delores: (From the other room.) Now she's going to think I hurt you.
Keith: (To Abigail.) Well, it was kind of an accident. It's OK.
Abigail: I want to kiss it (better)!
Keith: Chuckling. Seems appropriate.

After a healing kiss, my shoulder never felt better.

Cute conversation

Yesterday our friend Sophi (3) came to visit. Her mom was at the post office in Willard. I hear this conversation in the other room:

Sophi: Where is my mom?

Abigail: She's at the post office

Sophi: She's at Wiward.

Abigail: She's at the post office.

Sophi: She's at Wiward.

Abigail: She's at Wiward?

Sophi: Yeah

Abigail: Oh, I didn't know that.

Kisses

Yesterday Abigail is kissing Lillian on her tummy and back. She likes to kiss people a lot lately. I say to her, "kisses are special and we save them and only kiss people who are special to us." She replies, "I'm special!" and proceeds to kiss her leg several times.

Speaking of kissing...Abigail informed us that she was sleeping beauty in her new Easter dress and we needed to kiss her to wake her up. She now also tells Keith and me to go to sleep so she can kiss us awake.

Abigail is watching "Rigoletto". Lillian reaches over and paws at Abigail's arm. Abigail responds by saying,"no, no Lillian, you can't do that. I'm watching a movie. Let me have my privacy."

Funny Sunday

After church today I'm waiting for Lillian to crawl to me. As I pick her up I say, "there's my little princess!" Knowing Abigail doesn't like being left out I quickly add, "and there's Abigail, my big princess!" To which Abigail replies, "I'm a pooing princess." She was indeed having a bowl movement. Keith then asked, "would you like me to change your diaper?" Abigail replies, "no, I want to poo for a while."


After dinner I was putting together a scrapbook page and let Lillian play with the tupperware cupboard. She pulled everything out and then crawled inside the cupboard to get the rest. Abigail pointed to her and said, "Mom, look at Lillian!" I replied, "yeah, look at her, she's really going to town." A few minutes later Abigail crawls inside the same cupboard and calls, "Look, Mom, I'm going to town!"

Happy Sunday smiles!