Kindergarten

I'm thinking of the first, first day of school we spent together.  You were five months old and as the NYC public school students headed back to school and I wasn't a teacher to any of them, I was pleased as punch that we were together and I wasn't headed back to school.  And on that day, I thought of this day. The day you would start kindergarten.  It seemed a long way off back then but now here we are.

You're nervous and have been for a while.  It would creep into your head throughout our summer and you'd wonder aloud about how long a day would be and then we'd continue with our summer adventures.  As it got closer to this day, you increasingly became a bit more concerned about really, how long would it be and that neither I, nor Papa, would be there to experience it with you.  "I'd be all right with it if you were there the whole day," you told me several times last night.  But the thing is Abigail, this is for you to experience, this new world, on your own, and then you get to tell me all about it.  You get to learn a new language, meet new teachers, new friends, new words will appear before you as you magically learn to read and, of course, you'll be wearing your new silver shoes.  The shoes that represented kindergarten to you throughout this summer: big girl shoes with no strap!  So, in your new shoes,  in your uniform, in your four braids hairdo, you walked to school, crying and worrying.  And that's okay.  It's how you deal with it.  You will come out of this triumphant, at your own pace.  And I'm so very proud of you.  I mean, hey, you didn't follow me out the door when I walked out.  That was no small feat. And though I may not physically be there to experience a day of kindergarten with you, all my hopes, all my dreams for you are there for you, rooting you on: "You're ready for this!  You can do it!"

Birthday wishes

Abigail, 

Papa called me at 8:11 this morning.
"It's not quite time yet, we still have a few more minutes," I said as I picked up my phone.
Five years and 4 minutes later you'd be exactly five years old. 

Five years of you.  I can't believe how quickly those years flew by.  Actually I can.  While the years did fly by, the moments with you run long and deep.  You're so passionate about life, about dancing, particularly your beloved ballet, and just plain spirited about MOVING!  Shaking up the world a bit.  You're an amazing kid, my Abigail. 

Always feel how "cleverful" you are--a vibrant word that you created.  Because you are indeed cleverful in all the ways you express who you are.  So, birthday girl, shine on, flutter and float about, and always know we simply adore you.

A beginning

Abigail, I'm about to pick you up from your first day of Pre-K.  Like on any typical walk we've had this summer, you wanted to see how old cars were parked on the street.  So I checked the little registration sticker and we saw cars from 1988, "wow 26 years old is old!" and some that were from 2012, "That's a youngin'."  But this was no typical walk.  This was a big, leaping, laborious walk to the unknown.  You were scared to meet new people and had convinced yourself "school was no fun."  You did not want your picture taken.  And no matter how hard I tried to put a positive spin on things, you had a quick response of how horrible it all would be.  You cried when I walked out the door (and three paces out the door, I cried too) but you had bravely waved "good-bye" and went with your smiling teacher to explore some part of your new classroom.  Because you are one amazing explorer.  And adventurer.  And experimenter.  And you love life, even when it's new, scary territory.

So at pick-up it was no big surprise, but still much relief, when you walked out the door on your own to say, "I was having so much fun I didn't want to leave!"  That's my girl.  (We'll see if you remember saying that tomorrow morning.)

There was a moment before I left when you were worried you would never see me again and you promised to draw a picture of me.  You handed it to me at the end of the day with a smile:

It's fantastic!

I love to watch you play

I was reading a survey somewhere on the interweb about what parents of professional athletes said to their children to encourage them in their pursuits.  The survey overwhelmingly found the phrase, "I love to watch you play," repeated again and again.  Such simple words and yet when I first read them a chill ran down my spine.  I was overwhelmed at how deeply moving they were.   It was saying "I believe in you in, in that thing you feel so passionate about.  I love you and I'm so very proud of you."  Who wouldn't feel emboldened by those words?

She's got her own style

So, Abigail,

                  ...I love to watch you in gymnastics.

                  ...I love to watch you throw your head back and laugh.

                  ...I love to watch you eat chocolate ice cream.

                  ...I love to watch you climb.

                  ...I love to see you hug the Fink.

                  ...I love to hear you say, "watch this move," and you show us  a new dance move.

                  ...I love to watch you hula hoop.

                  ...I love to watch you watch handball players and wonder when you'll be able to do it.

                  ...I love to watch you flip.

                  ...I love to hear you sing the "I Don't Remember" song you created.

                  ...I love to watch you read in bed.

And today when you had your first playdate with a girl from your class, I loved to watch you say "that's me," when she held a baby picture of you.  You were proud of youself as you showed off your room with all the drawings, photos, colors, books and toys that help make up who you are.

I love to watch you be you.

Self portrait!

Abigail started school this past week and we already see her confidence growing. She's speaking up for herself at the playground, she's talking about fire drills and she's drawing her self portrait!

It's been hot, hot, hot! And she's hot stuff.

School!

Well, we all made it through today.  Abigail's first day of school.  She was glorious. 

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.

"Join us!"

There are several phrases Abigail says lately that we want to remember she said at this age.

"That's incredible!"  as she bounces off a slide.

"Join us!" as she joyfully said as we searched for clovers.

We talk about Daphne as our dogness (dog and goodness made into one word).  Well, she likes using that word and then created her own: catness!  She LOVES her Fink.

And she loves singing "Wheels on the Bus."

She is so full of life (please read: exerting her independence) and exploring her world every second of every day.  No wonder we're all so exhausted every night!

What a joy

While Abigail eats she will ask questions like, "Papa, do you want some?"  And sometimes she'll even give you the thing she's offering and sometimes she'll pull a "psych!"

We're adjusting to life now that "Mama not go to work."  She loves this idea (and so does Mama) but really doesn't understand when she still goes to daycare (and it's simply because after all the crying she does have a good time and we're all paid up through July!).  She has a new favorite song she calls Blue, Blue, Blue.  She told us about it one evening and much to her dismay (which led to our dismay) we didn't know which song it was.  We played songs that had to do with Blue, no.  A Laurie Berkner song that says Moon, moon, moon; a very exasperated no!  How about Bluebird on my Shoulder--oh goodness no!  Finally, a few days later we asked the woman who runs her daycare and she sent us the lyrics which led us to a YouTube video of a very sweet song.  "What color is the sky? It's blue, it's blue.  What color is the sun?  It's yellow, it's yellow.  The sun is yellow, the sky is blue, it's blue, it's blue, it's blue. (and so forth with other hues).  The kid knew what she was talking about and thankfully we now know too!

We also got to visit Jones Beach (above picture and more here) and its pool.  She is a water baby.  In the foot deep pool she threw herself around and pretended to be Ariel swimming under the sea.  It was such an incredible pleasure to see Abigail have such a joyful time in a pool Amanda had visited as a child.

It's been incredible seeing Abigail continue to blossom, now into an inquisitive, strong, opinionated little person of the world.  What a joy. 

"One day"

Abigail now is saying "one day" in regards to doing things when she's older.  One day she'll be able to change a light bulb and stand precariously on top of counters like Mama does or climb up onto the air conditioner to look out the window...when she's tall enough, when she's big enough, when she's a "big girl."  She's our amazingly independent, carefree, loving, little girl.

Who's 2 today?!

Happy Birthday Abigail!!!!!!!

Getting dressed!

Abigail dressed herself into her pajamas tonight!  Getting her feet through the hole was tricky for her, "make the hole bigger," but she didn't give up!  If we went to help her she said, "self" and eventually got her pants and then her shirt on!  "So impressed" she parroted to us after Papa said it to her.

Approaching Two

For more pictures click here

Abigail went for her two year old check up this morning and in her words, "Don't like it!  Out the door!"  Her doctor said, "she's verbal, isn't she?"  We then went to the playground to find out if the bouncy bridge was still broken or had it been fixed?  It was still broken but we did find another bridge to cross and she got herself intertwined with a whole bunch of children, didn't like that tight squeeze and made her way out of that mob with the ease of a seasoned New Yorker.  It was quite the morning.

She asks for the lights to go off often now--so she can practice singing, Happy Birthday.  (which is just three days away!)  She sings all the time to herself.  It ranges from Stayin' Alive to the ABC's to Humpty Dumpty.

Her favorite saying now: "where's your pants?!"  Our little comedian.

Imaginative Play!

Abigail's pretend play has kicked up a notch.  She is taking objects and turning them into brand new things.  Tonight she was playing with two toilet rolls and "pouring" one into the other, making tea.  She THEN put them onto her feet and said, "shoes!"  Love it!!!!