2 and 3/4

Autumn you are growing up in front of our eyes!  Last night you said 3 or 4 times, "I'm a big girl now, I go to Sunday School."  You had gone to a 2s and 3s Sunday School here in Maryland with your cousin that morning.  It is so true - you are growing up so quickly.  Because it was so cute I will try to remember more of your dialog before bed.  We had a rough time getting you to bed and so when we came in you said, "Momma, I'm sorry for making bad decisions tonight." This was a good way to make your momma's heart melt. Other sentences I can remember...  "Momma, I'm getting older, someday I will graduate, when I'm a big kid." "Can I go to Sunday School tomorrow?" I said, "We will get to go again next Sunday."  You said, "I go to Sunday School on Tuesdays and Fridays." You were in a really talkative mood and I said, "Autumn can we keep talking about all this in the morning?"  You responded, "No momma, can we talk about it on Tuesday?"  Then you turned over and started listing our friends in Hawaii. "Chris and Andrea, Jackson, Ashley, Brad, Tosh, Saiah, Angie..." I asked if you were missing our friends in Hawaii.  You sighed and said yes.

New/refined skills:
POTTY TRAINED!!!  You are doing so well now and your accidents are getting farther and farther apart!
Today you buttoned the pajama's on Aunt Christie's baby
Jumping - you love to jump everywhere, if there is opportunity to jump, you take it! Off logs and rocks, down stairs, off stools, off play equipment...
You can manage most younger play equipment and now climb up harder structures

Since the last time I wrote one of these - we have been very busy and are now 5000 miles from Hawaii in Maryland with your uncle Chad, aunt Christie and cousin Eric.  In May we celebrated 2 of your friend's birthdays, had a nice little baby shower for your sister, finished daycare, found out you are having a sister in October, and flew to Maui the last day of the month.  You have done amazingly well for all the changes - which we really appreciate.  You've always gone with the flow as we've floated around the last 18 months, but I thought this move might be harder since you're now older and we'd been in Kona for 10 months.   We packed up the house mostly while you were at daycare and stayed with friends so that you didn't have to stay in your empty room.  The distraction of a cute dog, new toys and a swimming pool was enough to get us through!  You did have a really hard time getting to and while at daycare those last 2 days, as you knew I was pau working and you wanted to stay home with me - but it really was best for both of us that you had things to do while I packed and cleaned.  We had a great time in Maui! You stand up paddle boarded with me for a couple of miles - sitting, standing and laying on the board - finally the wind picked up and we headed back to the beach.  You loved the Maui Ocean Center and we even got to hold a baby green sea turtle thanks to daddy's college friend.  We spent a couple of days doing parks and playing at the house and ended our short stay with an afternoon treasure hunt with Tutu at the Lavender Farm.    We've been here in Maryland for almost a week and have done a lot of resting, playing and enjoying time as a family.  Yesterday we celebrated Eric's birthday with slide, pool, bubbles and cupcakes!  Eric and you had a great time in his new riding police car!  

I feel like I should have more specific details about your development - the last month has been mostly depth and breadth in your understanding and being able to explain more and more complex ideas.  Your humor grows and you make jokes or tease about things and giggle.

We love you so much sweetie!!!
Momma and Daddy


Other fun stories -

About 4 weeks before our 20 week ultrasound for your sister you told me we were having a girl and her name is Abby.  We found out at our ultrasound that you will be having a sister!  When we got to Maui I asked you in front of Marie what our baby's name was and you got a big smile on your face and said, "Monkey."  You thought you were so funny!!!  Ever since then you say our baby's name is Monkey!   Last night we were talking about how you had outgrown something and you asked what I was going to do with it. I told you we'd save it for your sister Monkey, Monkey Brown.  You said, "how about Monkey Purple!" (-:

Tutu Denise was doing your toe nails and got done with the first color and asked you how they looked.  You said, "oh, they are all mucked up, we need to do them again."  You selected a different color and she asked again and again you said, "oh, they are all mucked up, we need to do them again." After the third color Tutu said, "oh they are so pretty and didn't ask you what you thought!" (-: