another top 10

10 sites i visit every day

1. dooce
a super-fantastic mommyblog. has made me laugh so hard that i have broken the computer chair.

2. metafilter
a collection of links posted by members...the snark is pretty overpowering sometimes, but i've learned some interesting things.

3. finslippy
another great mommyblog. definitely not updated every day, but it doesn't stop me going there to check.

4. mighty girl
a soon-to-be mommyblog. (noticing a theme here?)

5. fussy
yep, you guessed it...mommyblog.

6. suburban bliss
aaaaaaand...mommyblog.

7. mental floss
for when i need something a little more intellectual and stimulating.

8. gawker
no, i do not live in new york, but i do enjoy reading well-written items about it.

9. mimi smartypants
one last mommyblog...definitely not updated often enough, but i visit every day to go through the archives.

10. sweet juniper
and for something a little different, a daddyblog! sometimes mommy too. this is sometimes a little self-righteous about the indie parenting, but whatever.


reading these mommyblogs has been incredibly not-possibly-explainably helpful to me. i constantly worry that i'm not doing the right things and i'm going to ruin abby forever, but reading all the different variations of parenting that people are doing has soothed my brain more than anything. plus, these mommyblogs are hardcore funny. i hope you check them out.

me too!

the internet has been overrun with the predictable year-end top 10 lists of everything, so i figure that i can have a couple of top 10 lists as well. it's my right as an american.

10 fave abby moments of 2006 (in no particular order)

1. abby learning how to play with kishi with her "kee-toy", which is a strip of multicolored fleece attached to a plastic stick. they run laps around the dining room table, get tired out, and everyone wins.

2. boating on lake kegonsa. a beautiful august day, and we all had a blast.

3. abby discovers olive garden salad. luckily we got a couple of gift cards, so we can definitely keep enjoying the salad-y goodness into 2007.

4. abby's vocabulary explosion. this started in october when all of a sudden she started putting words together and it just snowballed from there. now she's basically talking in sentences and sounding so grown-up.

5. abby loves music! she loves to dance to an interesting collection of music...from techno remixes of roxette, to polyphonic spree, to they might be giants...her taste in music is beyond eclectic.

6. abby eats an entire box of macaroni and cheese. not only did this happen, but it happened more than once. that's my girl.

7. the social butterfly. it never failed that every time we went to the grocery store or target or any store that she would charm the pants off of everyone. she always said hi to everyone she saw, and flirted with cashiers like you wouldn't believe. those overworked target cashiers always remember her.

8. her new friends: elmo, blue, and nemo. i wonder if there's significance to the 4-letter names.

9. every morning for the past month, as we're coming down the stairs, i hear..."play house!" we got her the fisher-price little people house for her birthday and even a month later it's the biggest player in the toy wars here.

10. the whole year. just seeing how much she's grown and how much her personality has changed in the last year is incredible. she's definitely developed her own character and is one of the funniest people we've ever met.

the very best time of year

to simplify things for my swiss-cheese brain, this post chronicling our christmas adventures will be presented in chronological list format. enjoy.

december 24:

9:15am--abby and i arrive at church for the morning service. i attempt to rehearse with the trombone player while abby bangs on the bass end of the piano. it's not an easy rehearsal.
11:00am--the service was very good. now we go home.
12:30pm--abby goes down for her joke of a nap. i take a nap as well.
5:30pm--we leave for the evening service.
7:05pm--i bomb the first hymn, one that i've played every year since i was 16. sigh.
8:30pm--we are in the car headed for appleton. abby sleeps from columbus to neenah, then cries the rest of the way.
10:15pm--we arrive in appleton, we change her diaper and put on jammies, she goes to sleep.

december 25:

merry christmas!!

8:15am--abby wakes up, and we all go downstairs for breakfast.
9:00am--presents! abby and mommy and daddy all get very nice things from grandma and grandpa schultz. it's an arcane musical instrument christmas for me...i got a fife, a penny whistle and a harmonica. abby got toys, books, and clothes, including a stuffed meemo and meemo book from mommy and daddy. abby didn't show much interest in opening presents, because there were toys that weren't all wrapped up for her to play with. but, she got the idea.
1:00pm--we leave for menasha. brian's grandma came down from the great white north, so that was wonderful to see her.
4:45pm--cory, cortlee, james, and hayden arrive. let's eat! we had beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, homemade mac-and-cheese, cottage cheese, corn, beets, and rolls. mmm.
5:30pm--more presents! we all got more great stuff. mommy and daddy even got a new printer/scanner/copier! abby got a set of little stuffed muppet babies, and other toys and clothes.
6:15pm--time to go back to appleton. brian dropped us off and took most of the presents back to sun prairie with him.

december 26:

6:45am--time to wake up! i wake abby up and she is very confused. we get dressed and load up the van for the long trek to springfield. she was an excellent traveler the whole way down.
12:30pm--we stop for lunch in washington, IL, with john, mary, kim, matt, and derek. we have awesome turkey salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, fruit, crackers and dippity-doo, and other things i can't remember. oh, and ice cream. as abby said, "more ice!!" oh, and matt made the traditional scottish shortbread which turned out very well.
2:30pm--back on the road for the short little jaunt to springfield.
4:00pm--yay! we're here! playtime ensues...abby really enjoys daniela's new dora the explorer dollhouse.
6:00pm--time to eat! we had roast beef, carrots, mashed potatoes, rolls, 24-hour salad, oyster dressing, and for dessert chocolate tofu pie and various cookies/treats. abby says, "more pie!!"
7:30pm--bedtime for abby.

december 27:

7:15am--time to wake up! after a very restless night, abby opts to wake up early. i am not pleased. playtime for the rest of the morning.
11:45am--lunchtime. sandwiches, chips and dessert.
12:30pm--back on the road headed for home. abby is not as excellent a traveler this time around. after a short nap, she wakes up and is very upset...so much so that we pull over to get her calmed down and when we put her back in the car seat she pitches such a fit that she throws up. it's a pleasant rest of the way home after a change of clothes and some carseat cleaning.
5:00pm--we're home! abby and mommy are happy to see daddy and kishi. hooray for home!


hope everyone had a wonderful christmas. pictures to come.

technical stuff

i thought i'd let you all know of an option that may simplify your enjoyment of this blog. you can subscribe to this blog's feed and i think that you would then receive an email when the blog is updated. either that or you'd have to get a feed reader which you probably don't want to do. i know i don't. anyway, someone try it and let me know what happens.

joyeux noel, tout le monde

this is the last post till after the holiday. we will be in appleton/menasha christmas eve and day, then abby and i will be going with my parents down to springfield on the 26th and coming back the 27th. zo, wish us luck on the long car ride and wish brian luck on working the day after christmas.

btw, this picture is from abby's first christmas (2004). hard to believe there was a time when my hand was basically the same size as her head. her now-ginormous, earth's-orbit-altering head.

merry christmas!

love,
brian, maggie, abby, abby's head, and kishiru

and so it begins...

we signed the lease for our new place today. the closing date for selling the house has been moved up slightly to january 11. so, things are falling into place...now the stupid part has to happen. packing has been going well. abby helps, and she "helps" too. i think you understand the difference. :) we've started talking about the concept of home, and she knows that this is our home. but, we've brought up the fact that sometimes people can change homes and that different places can become home. i'm reasonably sure she has no idea what we're talking about, but it's sinking in somewhere.

this is the last time i'm going to complain about moving, but i just want to say that this has got to be the worst time of year to move. between the weather and the holidays...ugh. ok, that's it for the complaining, i promise.

oh, and brian wanted me to blog that i almost upgraded our brand of pickles at the store today...i almost bought the claussen because it seems like a step up, but then i didn't. i didn't because mr. pick might not have approved, and we can't have that. :)

birds fly in the sky

Howdy pardners.

your friday treat

i present to you...a phonetic representation of abby counting to twenty.

"wuh, toooooo, teeee, foh, hi, sih, seh, ayee, nyee, teh, leh, tweh, ter, sis-tee, sis-tee, sis-tee, sis-tee, twen!"

in case you're wondering, yes, she does say sixteen 4 times. and then skips straight to twenty.

happy weekend!

this is what people do

on the way back from looking at our new apartment/townhouse tonight, abby decided to talk about people and all the things that they do. people at home, people in cars, people at work...fine. but then we got into people brushing their teeth and people reading stories, and we realized she was pretty much going through her day. and what happens at the end of the day? brush teeth, read story, sing, go to bed. so, don't forget to do those things tonight.

in the last week, her ability to put words together has skyrocketed. instead of just yelling for more, she (FINALLY) specifies what exactly she would like more of. more goldfish, more pancake, etc. this has made my life 8000% easier.

so yeah. moving. as much as i'd like to say that abby's helping with the packing, i can't. let's just say that she's going to be very helpful once we're moved and the UNpacking can start.

little mommy

abby's newest fascination is babies. she loves saying "a baby" whether it's related to anything in reality or not. in target yesterday, she called every kid she saw a baby, and i think that a large portion of them were slightly insulted by it, especially since they were twice her size and very obviously not babies. so, we're working on this. her other new thing is calling me "mama" instead of mommy. not sure where this came from, and i certainly don't mind, but it's interesting that she has realized that i can be mama and mommy at the same time.

non-abby-related post

we've just accepted an offer on our house! closing is slated for january 15, so we'll be starting the packing very soon. as abby would say, "bye house!"

visions of a teenaged abby

yesterday when brian got home from work, we spent some family time on our bed. we talked, abby played and ran around, and it was nice and relaxing. at one point, abby was pretending to comb my hair and kept saying "a coh! a coh!" brian didn't understand, so i told him she said "a comb!" abby then got right in brian's face and enunciated very clearly "a coMb". translation: "dad, you are so lame...i said A COMB." i'm still laughing about it.

she has also seemingly abandoned "yeah" in favor of the sportscaster-esque "oh yessss!" usually followed by the non-sportscaster-esque giggle.

little miss fix-it

so, i think abby has inherited some sort of weird fix-it gene from somewhere. in the past 3 days, she has fixed a lamp in the living room, and also the computer chair. the lamp, in the course of being modified into a touch-lamp, has had many issues and 99% of the time will not turn on. however, she did something to it that fixed it. a couple of months ago, the computer chair decided that it wanted to tilt back very very far when someone sat in it so that the person would be convinced that the whole thing would just fall right over. but, she was sitting in it this morning watching the itunes visualizer and did something to one of the levers and now it's fixed. weird stuff, i'm telling you. and of course, now i'm thinking of everything else around here that's broken and wondering how to get her to work her magic.

yesterday we went to the children's museum because it's free the first sunday of the month. it was okay...VERY crowded, as you might expect. she thought it was pretty fun, but we had a few meltdowns when other kids got too close or tried to interact with her. she also had trouble taking turns, but that's completely understandable since she never has to take turns with anything...i think we're going to start working on that.

my girl wants to party all the time

we had abby's birthday party today. all the grandparents came, and so did aunt jenny, uncle adam, and mason. overall, everyone had a great time. the only bad part was that when grandpa schultz came in, he said that one of the tires on our car was completely flat. so, without going into the whole story, it's fixed and everything's fine now.

abby got lots of great presents. books, clothes, a puzzle, a travel potty seat, and a bunch of fisher-price little people stuff, which she loves. so, thank you to everyone for the presents...she loves them.

happy birthday to our princess

Happy birthday, baby. We love you!

Love,
Mommy and Dad

big head! big head!

abby had her 2-year checkup this morning, and everything went great! she's in the 92nd percentile for weight (31 lbs), 75th percentile for height (31.75 inches) and as usual, is over the 100th percentile for head size, making it official that she has the biggest head in the known universe. she is most definitely a schultz, and i weep for her future. :) but, she is perfectly healthy and doesn't have to go back till she turns 3! not that i actually think we'll get through a year without going back, but it's nice to know we don't have to.

mangia!

we went down to state street late this afternoon to buy a certain someone a certain christmas present (hi kim!), and had a nice walk. well, abby rode, but it was nice to get out and "blow the stink off" as some relative of mine likes to say. as we got in the car to come home, we realized it was dinnertime and that by the time we got home and got something made, abby's schedule would be radically altered to the point where my head might explode. so, we opted to go to the olive garden because abby has been known to enjoy the salad there. well, now we know that she doesn't just enjoy the salad, she LOVES the salad. all parts of the salad, including olives and onions. we didn't give her any pepperoncinis, but everything else she gobbled up. she even refused cheese ravioli in favor of more salad. it was really something else, especially watching her going at the onions. i'll tell you, i'm not so much looking forward to the results of the onion eating in the diaper region, if you know what i mean.

tomorrow morning she has her 2-year checkup, so it'll be interesting to see how much she's grown in the past 6 months.

oh, and as a side note, 2 years ago right now, brian and i had been at the hospital for about 2 hours and had just been told that we weren't leaving and were in fact, going to have a baby very soon. they were right on the part about having a baby, and so very wrong about the "very soon" part. it's almost like her birthday is a 3-day celebration for us. :) oh, and 2 years ago in about an hour sees me refusing an ambien, a decision that i would come to regret.

a meemo!

we don't tend to let abby watch much tv. she watches sesame street most weekday mornings, and the occasional old episode of blue's clues (only steve is allowed in this house...i can't come to terms with joe). but, one day a while ago when she was sick and cranky and not feeling well, i put in our copy of finding nemo. i figured that everyone deserves to have a day to just sit on the couch watching movies and feeling sorry for themselves. :) needless to say, she absolutely loved it. there were repeated exclamations of "wow!" and "wah!" (water), and of course, "meemo" (nemo). she's watched it a couple of times since then, but i tend to feel guilty every time because i want her to have a more active lifestyle than brian and i manage.

of course, today she ran 50 laps around the dining room table, so we may be okay. :)

post-turkey day

ah, home sweet home. after being gone for 5 days, it's awesome being back home. this past sunday after abby and i were done at church, we drove up to menasha for vacation. sunday night we had thanksgiving dinner with brian's parents, cory, cortlee, and the boys...tenderloin, homemade mac-and-cheese, and various other goodies. abby loved playing with the boys, and they loved it too. monday night, brian and i went out for dinner and a movie as our early christmas present to each other (gotta take advantage of the babysitting when it's available). we went to sergio's, and then saw "saw III". it was pretty good, but definitely more gory than the first 2. tuesday, we took advantage of a free Y pass and went swimming. abby wasn't sure what she thought at first, but by the end, she was having a blast. she hung onto the side all by herself, and occasionally would dunk herself completely underwater and then pull herself back up...she thought it was hilarious. she definitely had a good nap that day. before she went to bed that night, we watched a little of the christmas parade on TV, but she didn't seem to have much interest in it. after she went to bed, brian and i went to clancy's to play trivia with cory and brandon. then on wednesday, we packed up and went to appleton to stay with my parents for the night. abby went to the park with grandpa schultz and had a great time. yesterday (thursday), we all drove to milwaukee to spend thanksgiving day with the schultz side of the family. the food was great, and abby had a good time. she had the first of her 2 birthday cakes, and experienced frosting for the first time. the verdict? overwhelmingly positive. so much so that she tried to steal mine. she also got an aquadoodle mat from the strommen family that we haven't tried yet.

all in all, it was a great vacation, but it's nice to be back.

now, we start looking forward to abby's birthday next week, and her party next saturday. and then before you know it, it's christmas. crazy time of year.

our little artist...

abby won her first contest...brian's very happy that she's following in his footsteps already. :) abby won a coloring contest and won 4 free kid's meals at country kitchen. i'm thinking about getting her on the waitlist for art school pretty soon now.

HUH?

abby has become a little old woman. in the car on the way to the grocery store today, i asked her a question, and she said, "HUH?". good thing her 2-year checkup is coming up...we can maybe get her hearing checked. :) i got to thinking today that she should really get a flu shot, so i called her clinic to see if they could do that at her regular appointment, but of course they can't. so, she's going in on wednesday night just for the shot. should be a fun time for all.

we've started getting her birthday/christmas gifts. of course what they are will have to be a surprise. :) i also got the stuff to make her cake for the first of 2 birthday parties that will be combined with family thanksgiving next thursday. i'm still trying to figure out what to have for snacks at her regular party...suggestions would be welcomed and appreciated.

a pizza!

this is what abby said the whole way through target the other day. "a pizza! a pizza!..." (repeat ad infinitum). not quite sure where her fascination with pizza comes from, but we're going with it. the good news is that she loves pizza with lots of veggies on it, especially black olives.

she's just getting over a few days worth of fever and is feeling much better now, thank goodness.

she is scared of snow, we just found out. we got a bunch of it last night, and brian brought a little inside this morning for her to touch and she freaked out. so, taking her out to play in the snow may be more interesting than previously thought. as soon as we get her some boots we'll give it a try and see what happens.

happy happy happy happy

it's hard to believe that abby will be 2 years old in less than a month. plans for her birthday party have begun and seriously? i don't know how people do this. maybe it gets easier, but i'm definitely not cut out to be a party planner. :)

abby's words have been multiplying like little bunnies. her fave toy these days is a fisher-price school bus, complete with multicultural little people. she loves walking those little people onto the bus to go to school almost as much as she loves trying to eat their heads off. another favorite activity here lately is anything that is preceded by a "one, two, THREE!" or a "ready, set, GO". doesn't seem to matter much what comes after the countdown, the joy is in the counting itself. she's also grasping the idea that everyone can have similar things. for instance, the other day we were putting coats on to go out, and she said, "abby coat, mommy coat!" it's amazing to watch that little lightbulb go on above her big ol' head.

uncle cory, aunt cortlee, and james and hayden will be in town tomorrow staying at a hotel in middleton, so we're going over there in the late afternoon to all go swimming together. abby has become quite the little fish, and even enjoys putting her face in the water during bathtime. and of course, she loves spending time with the boys. on monday we plan to make a day trip to milwaukee that will include a little side trip to pleasant prairie to tour the jelly belly factory. hopefully the day will go well considering we have not budgeted any time for a nap.

people!

yes, abby knows about people. groups of people in real life and in pictures are now classified as "pee----pole". it's pretty funny. we got her back yesterday from the grandparents and things have been interesting. she's having a tough time adjusting to being back with mommy and daddy, but there have been improvements. i'm having a hard time pain-wise, but hopefully that'll go away.

in good news, we have discovered that brian has a TON of vacation time left that he needs to use by the end of january, so we've been planning lots o' fun things to do before thanksgiving and after christmas. fun and cheap/free. if you have ideas, let us know!

abby's vacation

since i've been having various gallbladder issues, abby has been spending a lot of time with grandparents. last week she was up there for about 4 days, and she's been back up there this week since wednesday and will probably come back on sunday. it's been very weird without her here and pretty depressing as well. but, she's been having a BLAST with the grandparents and that makes it all worthwhile. hard to believe she's going to be 2 in just a little over a month.

when she came back last week, her new thing to say has been "that way". she says this in the car, when she's walking around the house, really anytime. she says it to direct us and also to let us know where she's planning on going. luckily, she doesn't seem to mind when we don't choose to go the way that she has directed. :)

anyway, we miss her tons and tons and can't wait to see her again on sunday. hopefully we won't have to be without her for so much time again for quite a while.

abby's current skillz...

1. can count to 12, now without skipping any numbers.
2. can identify all letters, and kind of sing along with the alphabet song. that LMNOP part is tough, though.
3. can answer yes/no questions appropriately, although no is becoming more and more popular.
4. can keep her diaper dry and ask to go potty, although she doesn't always choose to do so.
5. can give kishi nice hugs and pet her gently.

and so on and so forth. you get the idea. she's a smart smart little girl, of course. :)

take 2

so, i had a first post all written out and everything and then somehow it disappeared. anywho, if you couldn't tell, this is abby's brand-spanking-new blog! i figured the babyhomepages site wasn't really appropriate anymore, since abby's not a baby anymore. i've restored it, so it's there for you to look at and reminisce, but this is the place to come for the latest in abby news and stories. please be patient as i get this up and running and looking purty...i hope to have links to all the snapfish albums as well.

enjoy!