Big Changes

My goodness there's a lot that's been going!  Between the move--we're now The Towers Ettingers--and Abigail's birthday, there's so much that's been going on.

We moved just over a month ago to our wonderful new apartment in Jackson Heights.  Here's Abigail enjoying the swings in our backyard:

We're loving the glorious light and space of our new home.  We're loving our neighbors.  We love to see Daphne run down our long hallway and Fink lay in the sun.  And Abigail, well Abigail just loves her new room.  Rooms we should say--a bedroom, a bathroom (yeah two bathrooms for all of us!), and a playroom with chairs and a table she picked out herself.

On the day Abigail turned three she exclaimed, "I am delighted with my birthday."  She is such a big girl now.  From sleeping soundly in her big girl bed, to saying (just today) "I have to go to the bathroom," two whole times!, to whizzing around on her bright yellow scooter, to coming up with hilarious songs about Fink, she is blossoming each day into quite a li'l lady.

Moving

Well, we are days away from being the Plaza Street Ettingers to the The Towers Ettingers! 

Abigail is excited for the move and asked, "who's going to move into our place?"  We were pretty impressed by the question.

Abigail is constantly talking, and talking very clearly mind you, which is wonderful, but we can't help but love hearing her say "becided" instead of "decided."  It's very adorable.  She's got some other speech quirks but that's our favorite.

We'll miss Brooklyn but we becided it's for the best to move on to a new borough.  Look out Queens, here we come!

Tell me story...

Abigail is very big on asking us to tell her stories.  Usually about anything but, there are times she specifically requests, "Tell me about my day."  Then you run through all the great things that have happened during the day and a very pleased expression crosses her face.

On January 13th we realized she was 2 and 3/4 years old and marveled at how time had flown.  She's such a big shot now, capable of so many things--like drawing circles and spelling her name!--but weren't we just bringing her home from the hospital?  Wasn't she just learning to crawl and now she's daring herself to walk with one leg raised in the air asking, "can you do this?"  Which she asks all the time, usually in some improbable contortionist position that no one but a 2 and 3/4 year old could do and so, our answer is "no, we can't," but you can Abigail.  You can.  It's no coincidence that her passion of the moment is Wonder Woman, because that is indeed what she is, our wonder child. 

Queries, inquiries and pretend

Abigail has been very interested in people's birthdays asking just about everyone, "When's his birthday?"

She loves to pretend.  Her favorites are: Wonder Woman, Lilo, Mulan and Ariel.  She will be receiving a Wonder Woman costume for Chanukah.  When we visited DisneyWorld in October we met Lilo and Mulan and have happy memories of them (and a cup with her picture with Mulan on it).  And she has always loved Ariel--she memorized and sings Part of that World.  We particularly like when she sings herself to sleep singing it.

A budding mathematician, she's asking "Should we count?" for just about anything she comes in contact with.

Two of our favorite things she says:

"That's a good plan."
          and
"I love you Fink.  She's so cute."

We have a master hula hooper.  She may be running of to the circus one of these days with an act.

We are ever diligent about her wearing her eye patch so she also likes to put eye patches on her stuffed animals.  When a pal takes off his eye patch she makes sure to take it off in a place that's not too bright.  Smart lady.

All smiles!

Well, we were walking out of music class and couldn't go to the playground because of the rain falling on us so what did the Ettinger ladies do?  Get a new, shorter haircut for Abigail:

And she and the rest of us have a smile on our faces because we're so proud that Barack Obama has another FOUR MORE YEARS!  Abigail was watching for Barack last night on the TV and when she didn't see him asked, "Maybe Joe Biden will come on?"  That's our little political girl!

So...

So much has happened since we last wrote.

Abigail likes to say "So..." to start a conversation. "So, mama, I'm going to go to work.  You stay here and enjoy your house and I'll be back in a few minutes."  Then will proceed to walk away, check back a few times and then rush back, "so, how was work?" She'll ask you to remind you to ask her this question.  She can easily hold up her end and your end of any discussion.

We recently got back from Disneyworld.  She got to meet Mickey (and even posed long enough for a non-blurred picture to be taken), both Lilo and Stich--"he touched me!" She said after that encounter, Mulan and Ariel (who she loves but was a bit shy meeting).  Plus we saw animals everyday at our hotel and she loved to run ahead of us as we went down the hallway.  At the park that was a different story- she only wanted mama to carry her, not even sit in her stroller!  "I'm not going to sit" was a favorite phrase from this trip, making the first days a no-rides zone for her.  Luckily it is the most magical place on earth and she came to enjoy It's a small world and Peter Pan, along with some fun shows.  It was exhausting  and yet totally enjoyable.  So, basically, it was the day in the life of a two year old, just with a little more pixie dust than usual.

We returned back to our Forest School class, a lovely few hours in Prospect Park, which includes making mud, nature walks, singing, puppets--rain or shine!  Abigail has said, "this is a nice, wonderful day," during this class and says "I don't want to go," at the end it. We swim once a week too, she's loving jumping into the water and visiting the hot tub after class is done.  She takes a zoo class where she's touched a chicken named Pigeon and a turtle named Sleepy.

She loves to glue things and she LOVES to swing on bars.  There is scaffolding outside our apartment and those bars have become a playground.  She first just swung backwards and forwards and now she whips up her legs, folding herself in half, puting her straights legs over the bar, then bending her legs over the bar. She has not yet let go, but, that's the next step!  It's great but it can make but it makes our hearts skip a beat!

Other news is we will only be the Plaza Street Ettingers for another few months.  Where we will be after that, well, do you know of anything?  Send us a line if you have any leads!

From Mama

Abigail, I love listening to you.  You use big grown-up words for sure, like when you say, "I am a women" when you insist you're not a little baby anymore but I also just love listening to you talk in your own language, which you just started to do again.  I  won't call it baby-talk because it's not babble, it's got a ryhthm and sing-song quality to it, mixed with a lot of laughter and sweet banter.
You have a lot to share with the world.

I love watching you play.   A hula hoop becomes a magic oversized ring when you let it twirl around your body.

I love to watch you dance.  One arm swings up and the other locks in a perpendicular way and you ask, "mom can you do this?" and I can never get it just right but we still laugh seeing mama try your unique dance.

I love to watch you be Abigail Rose Ettinger.  You create yourself new everyday.  And it's a wonder to be around you.

Today is my birthday and I celebrate you.