Spoon Trick

She did this tonight after dinner.  We kept laughing at her and that encouraged her to keep doing it.  She cracks us up!!  I think she saw this on Yo Gabba Gabba on the Cool Trick segment.

The VERY big news

Guess who is going to be seeing a lot more of this cute face?







6 of her aunts and uncles, 6 cousins, and 2 grandparents, that's who!

Because we are moving to Northern Virginia this summer!!

We have been dying to tell everyone for a long time,and now everyone at work (particularly the students) knows.  We have awesome jobs at a great school, a new daycare for Abigail, and a generous brother and sister-in-law who are lending their spare bedrooms until we find our Dream House.

Sunday Snapshot (s) - I couldn't choose just one!

Come on, Uncle Jim!

Aunt Steph, this is grass for Huxley's salad.

Beautiful day at the LDW.

Riding A Tricycle, Yinski would be so proud

On Sunday and on Monday, I took Abigail to the 700+ acre county park right by our house and I brought her tricycle.  We parked.  She rode from the parking lot to the kayak launch.  I estimate 300 yards.  She ran up and down the dock a while, alternately retrieving rocks and throwing them in the water.  Then she rode her tricycle back past the car (600 total yards, if you are keeping track) and to a look-out tower and play-structure (300 yards in the other direction, for a total of 900 yards).  She climbed on the play structure for 20 or 30 minutes.  (We left because a Mt. P mom in heels with $200 highlights was on the phone while her misbehaving son - age 8 or so - rough-housed Abigail right off the top of a 15 foot slide while she didn't say a damn thing.)  Then Abigail rode back almost the entire way to the car, stopping only 40 or 50 yards short and walking.  

 

That means my intrepid little girl rode nearly 7/10 of a mile on her tricycle.  

Sunday Snapshot- Dying Easter Eggs

We didn't dye eggs with Abigail last year.  But now she is almost 2 and a half so she got to dye her first eggs.  She dyed 3 eggs.  She picked the colors blue, pink and yellow.  She put the dye tablets in the water, stirred, added the eggs, and colored the Paas color sheet with colored pencils while she waited.  Periodically, she checked her eggs, would say she wanted them "darker", put them back in and returned to her coloring.

Wordless Wednesday-- Group Nap

The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment

If you are unfamiliar with the study mentioned in the title of this entry, basically it worked like this:

• a 4-year-old would be seated at a table and given a marshmallow and no other distractions
• the child was told that s/he could have 2 marshmallows when the adult returned if s/he did not eat that one
• researchers watched from behind a 1 way mirror and timed how long it was before kids broke down and ate their marshmallow
• some kids (about a third) ate it as soon as the adult left; other third were able to wait as long as 15 or twenty minutes- just staring down their marshmallow, waiting for the promised bonus marshmallow when the adult returned
• this was a longitudinal study; when the kids were examined in several 10 year follow ups, the kids who had the ability to delay their gratification as a kid had higher SAT scores, were described by their parents more often as "competent", and had more successful marriages and fulfilling careers while the kids who could not delay their gratification were not as successful in all measures of their lives

Larry and I have noticed that Abigail, while only 2 years old, is able to delay her gratification.  I am not sure why, but this is not something we taught her.  (I don't think you can teach this.)

For example, recently I stopped by Dunkin' Donuts while running some Saturday morning errands.  (I love the iced coffee, no sugar.)  I bought Abigail 1 doughnut Munchkin and she received it an a tiny brown bag.  When I bucked her into her car seat I did not take the bag from her but as we drove home, she opened the bag.  I said to her "Abigail, please wait and eat that doughnut at home."  She said okay.  When I looked in the mirror, I saw her sitting patiently, cupping her Munchkin in her hands, just looking at it and waiting.  She made it all the way home (about 8 - 10 minutes).

Another example is when she eats a candy or treat, she eats it very slowly.  She likes a certain coconut cookie.  When she gets one, she walks around holding it to her nose and sniffing it for ages before she will eat it.  She can make 1 cookie last an hour.  She can also suck on a tic tac until it just dissolves and disappears.  Her Aunt Steph and Uncle Jim gave her an Easter basket and she also can do the same thing to a jelly bean.  It took her an hour to eat 3 Jelly- Bellies today.

 

I don't know if this means that Abigail has the personality and demeanor to be a "work hard and achieve success" kind of person.  (It certainly runs in the family- all HWPK's reading, this if for you!) I don't know if all of this is technically delayed gratification (although I do think the doughnut thing was for sure).  She does continue to amaze us all the time and we love her and are so proud of her!