The New Abby

Abby underwent a major personality transformation during October. We’ve been seeing the signs of her independent streak for a while, but this last month was a real turning point. She changed from a pretty easy going, happy kid to a strong willed, strong minded little girl who is getting ready for the terrible twos. She is still cute and sweet (some of the time), and of course we still love her loads, but she has definite opinions about how things should be done and isn’t afraid to let us know when we aren’t going along with her plan. “NO!” has become her favorite word.

She thinks she should be able to do everything that her brother and sisters can do. The other day I asked the kids to carry some two liter bottles of water down to the food room. She dragged a stool over to the counter to get one. It was almost as big as her, but she managed to carry it over to the stairs and drag it down one stair at a time until she was in the basement. She yelled when Emily tried to take it from her to put with the other ones. She had to waddle over there herself and squeeze it in right next to the other bottles. Then she just grinned. She was so proud of herself.

She has a whole new list of rules. She is too old to be strapped into her highchair. Cutting her food into pieces is no longer allowed. She has to have a real cup at dinnertime . . . no sippy cups! We can open a piece of candy for her, but she has to be the one to throw the wrapper away. There’s no more going down the stairs on her tummy or holding our hands when she walks. She has to pick out her own pants (it is the only drawer she can reach . . . I’m sure she’ll be picking her own shirts too when she grows a few inches). She is the only one who can throw her diapers in the garbage. She still needs us to open doors for her (when she commands “DOOR!”), but she is the only one who is allowed to close a door. Her latest thing is that she insists on sitting on the toilet after we change her diaper. (If we could just teach her to do it before her diaper needed changing.)

It is fun to see her growing up, but we kind of miss the happy, smiling, easy to please baby that was the old Abby.

I can do it myself.

This was on Sunday when Nate was trying to close the refrigerator door before Abby was done looking inside.

Abby thinks she is the queen of the world sitting on the potty.

It is a good thing she is so darn cute!