Our Little Bookworm

Lately the only "toys" Abigail (age 20 months) is interested in (besides Elmo and Grover) are books. She reads them for the half hour after she wakes up in the morning. She devours them at the Children's Museum. When we tell her we are going for a car ride around town, she runs to one of her piles of books and grabs one to read in the car and she spends the whole trip reading it. She gets so immersed in her books that she walks backwards until she bumps into something to sit on; she is probably usually hoping for one of us, but she'll use a chair, fireplace, or even stranger's lap (again at the Children's Museum) if it is a place she can read her book. She reads to us. We read to her. She reads to/with Grover and Elmo. We read after bath and before bedtime and she can't get enough. Of course, Larry and I are delighted beyond belief that we have a little nerd on our hands!!! It really makes the whole nature/nurture angle interesting.

Anyhow, this is how we found her this evening after she fell asleep:

Happy Match Day!!!

One year ago, my brother Jim and his awesome wife Steph, my dad, my husband and I were on a bike trip from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. The trail was very rough. It was hot. But we were having an experience to remember together. Then the trip became the trip to remember for a lifetime!

The last night of the trip, we gathered in one hotel room drinking ice coffee and eating pizza delivery when our agency called my cell phone to ask why we never accepted the "little girl with the cleft" whose file had been sent to us. The file was going to be returned or given to another family if we didn't want her.

Wait wait wait! Back up. We never received any file! We did receive one phone call a week earlier saying "Hey, this is (name of a women who doesn't work there anymore). Give me a call." That was it. And we returned the call. Twice. But never received a file. Or a return call. We never knew our girl was waiting.

Anyhow, all water under the bridge at this point, but her file was sent to us right away and we all gathered around an ipod to look at the first photos we would ever see of Abigail, our daughter, niece, granddaughter. Jim and Steph said that they can't wait to tell Abigail someday how her normally intelligent parents became stumbling and stupid in a matter of minutes, staring at her pictures, reading and rereading all of her medical records and information.

Here is a picture of Abigail today, holding one of her referral pictures.
Happy match day, Kiddo!

Wordless Wednesday: Super Girl Flying

Bleeding Heart, for Grover

In the past 2 weeks, Abigail has discovered Elmo. Er, "Melmo." She now thinks the purpose of the TV is to play Elmo's World videos and the purpose of the computer is to play YouTube clips of Elmo and his guests singing songs. She has noticed for the first time since January that she has an Elmo doll in her toy box, an Elmo in her bathtub, an Elmo book, an Elmo cell-phone and Elmo on all of her diapers. She swings in her red swing with Elmo. She holds him while watching his videos and dancing along. She says "Bye bye Melmo" when she has to leave him to do something. Her favorite new game she made up is to hide him, pretend she doesn't know where he is, walk around calling his name, and then "discover" him, shrieking and yelling "there he is!" while going crazy with delight.

Then she discovered his companion, Grover. He has quickly joined in the fun. She loves them both.

Tonight, after we read 4 books and I laid her in her crib with kisses and "night night" 's and her blanket and her Elmo, I crept out of her room. It was her first night to sleep that she was put to sleep with anything in her crib besides her blanket. A few minutes later, I heard her crying. That is very unusual because she either falls asleep, or entertains herself with giggling and singing until she falls asleep. So I went back into her room and scooped her up into my arms and she was crying and saying something. I rocked her and tried to figure it out. I realized she was saying "Bye bye Grover Grover" over and over while crying and whimpering. I quickly grabbed her Grover doll off of a nearby chair and handed him to her and she squealed with delight at having her friend back, at being understood. I laid her back in her crib where she nestled her two best friends to her chest and fell asleep.

Larry and I are SO in love with this child. How perfectly precious and amazing and clever is she?