We had a major milestone the second week of July. It was more major for me than Abby. It was the first time I left Abby overnight. I went to visit my best friend in MD who was recently diagnosed with cancer. I had been wanting to visit her for 6 weeks, and it was such a great visit to see her even though she was sick. I was more stressed than ever because a) I was leaving Abby for the first time with my mom and b) my best friend of 25+ years has cancer. After leaving my mom 5 pages (overkill??) of instructions regarding Abby's routine and how to use my three different remote controls, I went to MD for a week. Beside a few minor bad habits Abby developed while I was gone mostly because Abby's grandmother has no interest in disciplining her (and she shouldn't as a grandmother), Abby did GREAT, my mother did fantastic, and they bonded even further as grandmother and granddaughter. So, while the reason this was the first time apart was sad, there was a major positive benefit for Abby and me (trusting my mom more). As much as I missed Abby and I yearned to hear her little voice each day, it was so nice to be able to focus all of my attention on my friend. She has intensive chemo treatments in the hospital every 2 weeks, and the week I visited her, she was home from th hospital. We spent all of our time talking and talking, and she said I was a good distraction for her. Her boys were in summer camp during the day, and she has an amazing support network in her community helping out with errands, meals, etc. It was really heartwarming to see how much my best friend is loved and cherished by others. It doesn't surprise me, but it did awe me a bit. She has only lived in MD for about 4 years, and you would have thought she had lived there an entire lifetime judging by the amount of local friendships she has already developed.
Another milestone. When I got back from MD, Abby moved into a toddler bed. She had never tried to get out of her crib, is a robot sleeper (i am so lucky), and she hadn't outgrown it, but... I just didn't think a child about to be 3 should be in a crib, so I decided to disrupt a perfect situation! I had been promising her a race car bed and she had been asking about it, so we got a little pink roadster. The first 3-4 nights were a bit bumpy with Abby up and down during the night mostly because Abby is a thrasher when she sleeps and she kept hitting her head on the sides of the bed. I finally fixed that problem by putting a large pillow in the bed that was at the same level as the sides. Abby is still a great sleeper but now enjoys her ability to get up when she wants to get a book, use the bathroom, get water, etc.
Abby's Race Car/Roadster Bed
The most important "first" or milestone Abby had in July was attending a baseball game. Abby loves baseball (or at least the accessories and peripherals - gloves, hats, etc), but I was probably looking more forward to it than Abby was. We met up with group of 7 area Dallas-Ft. Worth families who adopted children from Guatemala to see the Frisco RoughRiders play. Lucky for me, this baseball stadium is only 2 miles from my house, so I knew if Abby got bored or tired, I could easily leave. The RoughRiders are the Double AA affiliate of the Texas Rangers, and the team does a great job catering to families. I thought taking Abby to a game like this where the mascot is a major player was better than taking her to a normal Major League game. I was really impressed because Abby lasted until the 6th inning or 2.5 hours in. We didn't stay for the fireworks which turned out to be a good thing. Someone hit a home run earlier in the game, and they set off a small round of fireworks. Abby FREAKED out and was very scared by the noise. I don't feel so bad about not keeping her up for fireworks on 4th of July this year after all......
It was nice meeting some new families and seeing some familiar faces from previous gatherings. There were several children there Abby's age or close to Abby's age that hopefully we will get to know better over the next year or so. Abby loved the mascot. She loves the IDEA of eating hot dogs but never really eats them. Instead, she dumped the dog and dipped an empty hot dog bun in a big cup of 7-up. Yum. Her dinner that night consisted of a hot dog bun, 7 up (she had an upset stomach) and some cotton candy one of the other kids gave her. I know, I don't have any more room for another "Mother of the Year" plaque.
Speaking of Mother of the Year, after about 5 days of Abby complaining of a minor stomach ache from time to time, I took her to the doctor after she developed a pretty unseemly looking rash down the entire middle of her body. She literally bounced into the doctor's office going up to everyone from administrators to nurses saying "Hi doctor, how you doing?" She truly put on a a show and you would have thought she got to go to DisneyWorld. It was plain crazy. It turned out she had strep throat, and I just didn't put all the symptoms together because Abby did very little complaining overall and just seemed normal.
I hosted my book club for our monthly gathering in July, and I was curious to see how Abby would react to seeing so many people in the house at once. Last time, she was a bit scared and clung to me as everyone piled into the house. This time, she was not scared at all and wanted to be part of the action. In fact, we heard her running around upstairs the whole night when she was supposed to be in bed, but we were a rowdy bunch that evening. It was nice to see Abby more comfortable around people she has only met briefly even though it was difficult for me to play host and continue to try and put her back to bed every 15 minutes. Abby so loved the attention!
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