As I was moving laundry loads this morning, I heard the sound of the game "Sequence" crashing to the floor in the other room. It's nothing new, or tragic, it happens most days. What cracked me up about it today, was that almost immediately I heard the sounds of little tiny feet running toward me, and Abby shouting at me with great concern, a mess of syllables that meant nothing.

"Abby, use your words, what do you need?"

"abba bhabba abba habba ahhhh MESS abba habba bhabba ahhhh GAME ahhhhh Help me please!"

SUCCESS! She can communicate her needs! And, it reminded me of the famous story about Joe when he broke Meg's piggy bank, and shouted to my mom, "Mommy help me *snort snort*" (Snort, of course, is the universal sound a pig makes)

Abby's growing language skills are thrilling me every day. She is a girl who knows exactly what she wants. And now, instead of shouting, if we can calm her, and ask her to use words, we can understand what it is she wants. HOORAY!

Aside from decreasing the amount of shouting in our house, it's also interesting for me to see how her brain works. If I asked you to describe something using a color word, I'm guessing you'd say "The Green ball."

For Abby, it's "Ball green." Or more often, when she's shouting for "COOKIE COOKIE" and you calm her and ask what it is she's screaming about, she'll say "Cookie circle" or "Cookie pink" The same works for crackers. "Crackers Letter" (Cheez-its with scrabble letters on them) or my favorite, "Crackers" followed by fish lips, her universal sign for fish. (Of course, Goldfish crackers!)

What do you like to do on a sunny Saturday morning? Today, while Chris and I cleaned bathrooms, Maggie and Katherine created a much more exciting game.

They built nests near the heat vents, and then pretended that Abby's 'Weebles' were bird eggs. Maggie and Katherine were mommy birds, sitting on the 'eggs' waiting for them to hatch.

They had an elaborate story about the eggs, and there was much excitement when they hatched. Luckily, the game ended about then, because I don't want to know what would have happened if the mommy birds had to feed the baby birds!

In other news, after dinner, Abby announced "POTTY POTTY" and then proved that she did, indeed, need the potty. She repeated this act about 15 minutes later. Yay Abby!

Happy Valentine's Day! We started making valentines about 3 weeks ago. Katherine quickly decided it was too much work, and went the way of store-bought. But Maggie enjoyed the artistic expression of stickers and stamps. She made cards for the 25 kids in her class. I thought I was ahead of the game by making them early, but was surprised when they had to be at school last week. We used up all of our creativity making those cards, and, while cards for Grandparents and other important people were started, they were never finished. Maybe by St Patrick's Day?

I also offered to bring a snack to the preschool party, and planned to bring popcorn to balance the sugar rush I expected. However, I hadn't thought ahead about how odd it would be to pop popcorn at 0800, especially after a rather busy night at work. And I wasn't sure how much to pop, so I made twice as much as was needed. Oh well, the girls ate the leftovers all day - maybe they'll eat more tomorrow. After school I finally realized why Chris says Valentine's is worse that Halloween. Our house was a disaster of candy, little cards, and assorted other trinkets that came home with both girls today.

I tried to get the girls to take a nice picture before Church on Sunday. But Abby only wanted to hold the camera and take her own pictures. I finally bribed her with a cookie - but forgot that Maggie and Katherine had already put on their new coats. Well, sometimes you take what you can get.

(In the picture at the top of the post, I bribed Abby with the ipod. Yup. Sad but true.)

On Saturday, when the temperature hit a whopping 33 degrees, we went outside to play. Chris took Maggie to a big sledding hill nearby. When he took Katherine 2 weeks ago, it was incredibly busy, so we didn't think it was safe to bring the whole family. As it turns out, they had the hill to themselves and loved it. I took the little girls to a nearby park where we used swings and slides. It was somewhat of a challenge for me to plow through the (more than) knee high snow to get to the equipment, made much more challenging by having to carry one and sometimes 2 children with me. But it was great. I took this video of the swings, because I loved Abby's giggles so much. I hesitate to post it because it sounds like I'm hyperventilating in the background. Really it's the wind, trying not to laugh, and yes, a bit of catching my breath after running, climbing, pushing, dragging, lifting girls in the snow.

(and in case you missed it, here is snow removal, Franklin style, for my nephews, and a little glimpse at our fun times post-blizzard, 2/2/2001)

Last Friday night, Chris treated us to a lovely fire in the fireplace. Of course, that requires a big plastic gate, which kills a bit of the ambiance, but it was a treat nonetheless. The girls made the most of it by asking to camp overnight by the fire. That idea was nixed, but a compromise of a picnic dinner made everyone happy.

And this picture is Super Bowl Sunday. This is a glimpse at what Halftime looked like. The Black Eyed Peas might not have gotten rave reviews , but we thought their show was great. We had a fabulous dance party.

A few other random tidbits.....

I took the girls shopping on Saturday to find Chris a birthday present. The mall was insane, and we ended up walking through the lingerie department of Boston Store to make it to a less crowded elevator. As we walked though, I heard Katherine say to Maggie "Oh, look at those pretty nightgowns, I wish I could have a nightgown like those!" She was referring to all of the lacy "pretties" on display for Valentine's day. Classy!

Abby has become a more frequent visitor to the potty. If she asks, I'll let her sit for a bit to see if anything happens. The problem is, she wants to sit for SO LONG. She doesn't get bored. She just chatters on and on, even if you walk away for a minute. She never stops talking!

And as long as we're talking about talking, tonight at dinner, Abby used her own had as a pretend phone, and made several calls, saying "Hi, how are you, ah, good, love you, bye bye" over and over. Hilarious, but also disturbing to see myself reflected back to me so clearly.

It’s a well known fact that the more you do a certain thing, the more it becomes a habit, making it that much easier to do. The same can be said for NOT doing something, the ‘not-doing’ becomes the habit, and it becomes so easy to continue the ‘not do’-ing. Sadly, this blog has fallen into the ‘not-doing’ category. I noticed mid January that it had been more than 2 weeks. And I told myself I would take January off; take a break. But here it is, more than a week into February and I’m struggling to get back into my groove. There’s no shortage of stories to share, just a lack of the ‘oompf’ to sit and write them out.

Stories like Maggie’s first attempt at fundraising for school. When I asked how she planned to ask her grandparents to sponsor her for the school ‘Knowledge-a-thon’ she replied “I’ll just say, ‘I need money, please give me money.’” We worked on a few, more subtle approaches, but in the end, that’s about what it boiled down to. She’s got a lifetime of fundraising ahead of her. I guess we’ve got time to work on her finesse!

Or, how about Abby’s first potty success? Well, success is a relative term. After removing her diaper before her bath last night, she started to pee on the floor. I quickly plopped her on the potty, and she finished her business there. The look of realization on her face as she did so was priceless. It was a look of “So THAT’S what you’re supposed to do?” She was very proud of herself. And her sisters were proud of her too, there was much clapping and shrieking. Never a dull moment around here!

(note to concerned readers, I know she’s not even 2, and I realize that winter is NOT an opportune time for potty training. I do not intend to train her at this point, but I do appreciate that she is interested, and that once the weather is warmer, she might be willing to learn!)

So there you go. It's a start. And I clearly have plenty of material. I hope to be more disciplined about writing. I wanted this to be a record of all those funny stories and memories for the girls. It won't be successful unless I actually write them out. So no more pressure to be eloquent, or have perfect pictures. Just committing to writing more often.