Abby at 28 months old

Yes, this little beauty pageant queen (or so she thinks) is our little girl. And no, I did not pose her! She did that all on her own.

Sigh. We're still enduring potty-training torture with Abby. I'd seriously would pay someone to sit in my house to pottytrain her and deal with all the mess that pottytraining ensues at this point. She's getting better. She tells me exactly when she's had an accident but hasn't quite gotten the concept of telling me before so we can get her to the potty. We might have to do "potty bootcamp" over the weekend if things don't improve soon. (As in strip her naked, and sit her on a potty for 48 hours until she actually succeeds a couple of times.) I think that if she did it "right" a few times, the concept would finally sink in. But right now, I'd settle for no more pooping on the floor of her room during naptime. Shampooing carpet every afternoon is getting old.

Abby and her "lil siter"

Abby is doing fabulous in school. Joel got a progess report from the school and the administator was telling him all about Abby's little friends that she plays with. Also, her Spanish is really taking off. The teacher can now tell Abby, "Go get your snack and put it on the table," in Spanish and Abby will do it. Our housekeeper is really helping Abby along as well. I'm having to make a point of speaking to Abby in English, so she doen't lose her English skills! Abby has already surpassed my Spanish, sadly.

Since Abby's now old enough to do "fun stuff," I'm now trying to encorporate more activity-type things in our afternoons after school. Last week we made cookies (from a bag, not from scratch) and it was Abby's first time cooking for real in the kitchen. It was a huge hit, so I'm sure we'll be doing it again very soon.

Abby's "poon" It also works as a microphone

Mixing the Dough

Licking the Spoon is Fun

What does Cookie Monster say? Chomp Chomp Chomp!

All Done!

Joel and I are so amazed by how beautiful and photogenic (and a ham for the camera) that Abby is. I made a joke that we should see if we can find Abby an agent and get her doing commericals or something here in Chile; so Joel is going to ask around the Embassy to see if anyone knows "someone" for us to talk to. Heck, it could be fun, and possibly put a dent in Abby's college fund one day, hehehe!

That's about it for this month. If anyone has any magic pills for instantaneous potty training, I want them!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily