The Quotable Abigail, Part 34

On big sisterly advice: “Listen to all the stars of life, Gabriel, and you get to throw up in the air.”

On her observations about growing, gleeful: “Look at my butt. It keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

On getting into the head of the villain, probably correctly: “Maleficent thinks she’s the only good guy on Earth.”

On what that noise was: “It was just a bang.”

On the news from the back seat, casually delivered: “My tongue is dancing in my mouth.”

On why she won’t clap to save Tinker Bell: “I don’t believe in fairies.”

On being informed that she’s looking at a caterpillar, not a snake: “We’ll call it a snake for now.”

On her latest art project: “Gabriel’s gonna be all white if I paint him with goat cheese!”

On my explanation of EURO 2012: “I’m not talking to you because I’m a princess.”

On the Morris dancing at Eleanor’s birthday: “What happened? What happened?”

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Maggie Holds Back

Many of you are familiar with our dog, Maggie. What you’ll see in this video is her on her very best behavior.

You know she wants to get in there and really lick some baby face. I mean, he’s right there, totally helpless. She could have gotten in a good few seconds of slobbering before I could have intervened.

But she doesn’t. She restrains herself, showing off her inner good dog.

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The Trip, Part 3: The Last One

This trip retrospective has taken longer to post than the actual trip took. By weeks.

In the end, we went to San Francisco, where Abigail did this:

And the Grandparents Gorman took us to the Japanese Tea Garden, where she did this:

And Gabe and I did this:

Then we went to Petaluma, where Abigail spent her time with the Knight girls. This allowed me to get this awesome picture:

Not to mention this awesome picture. Yes, it was taken inside a slide, which the three subjects were rapidly twisting their way down.

That same park also provided Gabe with an opportunity to swing, which he enjoyed.

And we got to spend time with the relatives. We did not, however, take many pictures of them. Below you have one of the rare family photos. During our trip we found out that there are actually two babies in this photo.

Andy got to hang out with the kids and practice his parenting skills.

But in the end, Gabe had just had enough of it all and we had to go home.

 

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Triangulation

For those very few of you who don’t follow my every move on Facebook, I have had another short story published. Colliding appears in the latest Triangulation Anthology, Morning After. You can get it in Kindle format or an old fashioned hard copy. I also include a link directly to their website, mostly because of the picture of the cat. It’s a great publication. They always feature a lot of new authors and I’m excited to be listed among them. I’ve only read about half of my copy so far, but the quality is excellent. There are a lot of compelling stories in there.

Colliding is a story about a young woman who meets a strange man. I can’t really say much more than that without giving anything away, but particle physics is involved. If you want to know more, you’ll just have to buy a copy.

 

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The Trip, Part 2: Assorted Relatives

I’m posting here at a breakneck pace. I apologize if I’m moving too quickly for you to keep up.

We now move on to the next portion of our trip, still keeping with the mountain people up in the Nevada City/Grass Valley region. Gabe got a chance to spend some time with his great grandma Betty.

And yes, he’s going to look at those shorts in twenty years and ask us what the heck we were dressing him in. Can you please focus? We’re talking about spending time with grandma here.
Let me bring you back to the present with another photo of the two of them, this one in a more natural setting with worse lighting.

Gabe wasn’t the only one who benefited from seeing great grandma. She also gave Abigail two paintings for her wall. I’ll let you take a look at Abigail’s reaction and see if you can determine whether she liked them or not.

And here she is admiring the other one. Both pictures now grace the wall over her bed.

We made sure to hit a favorite Nevada City breakfast spot before we left town, the South Pine Cafe. Gabe was a big fan of the place, although his meal was strictly BYO.

Aunt Deb got to spend a little extra time with Gabe out at breakfast. While it might appear that he had mixed feelings about the whole thing, I assure you he had a great time.

I end up in this position a lot. Abigail demands that I carry her and Gabe all the time. It’s much easier than it looks, provided they both sit still. Which, in reality, means that this is often much harder than it looks.

From here we headed coastal.

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The Trip, Part I: The Wedding

We spent a week and a half driving all over the state of California last month. Below you will find the first of at least three photographic accounts of some of it.

I say, “some of it,” because taking photographs is much harder now that at least one person has to tend to the needs of an 8 month old at all times. I noted that at least one child is in almost all of pictures we took. Those were the only times we had a free hand to grab the camera.

We started the trip by heading up to Nevada City for Jessica’s cousin Shiree’s wedding. Abigail demanded we interrupt the official photo taking so that we could capture this one.

Abigail was somewhat intimidated. Shiree had reached princess status at this point.

There was also a lot of dancing with cousin’s to do.

Not to mention lots of boys to tell off. At least one, anyway.

Gabe also got a chance to meet his cousin Hoby, seen here doing his best Malcolm Reynolds. Gabe found the goatee new and interesting.

Also, Abigail did this:

Gabe spent most of the evening being passed around.

At least until it was time for him to go to bed. At that point, I took Gabe back to the rental we stayed at. It was essentially a little guest house, with two separate rooms. Which was great for segregating the kids. Or would have been, if the walls had gone all the way up. Instead, we had a good three feet of open space up near the ceiling through which passed every sound a four-year-old could make.

But don’t worry, Gabe got his fill of the party. Everyone had a pretty good time.

This is only the beginning, the first bite size portion. I’ll be back in another part, to tell more tales of travel and family.

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And Now, the Singable Abigail

Some of you might recognize this tune from “Sleeping Beauty,” which is one of Abigail’s favorite films. She frequently sings these lines, making only one change from the original lyrics.

See if you can spot the difference. The change is subtle , so don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t find it.

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream.

I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar, ugly.

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The Quotable Abigail, Part 33

On things you don’t want to hear when you know she has a plate of tomatoes: “I made juice.”

On how she knows she doesn’t like that soup: “When I was in your belly, I grabbed some food and tasted it and said, ‘Yuck!'”

On sing-song things overheard from the next room: “My butt is touching you, Gabe.”

On what she wants to hear: “Tell me the story of when Henry went out and met a skunk and the skunk got him! It isn’t usual but you’ve just got to tell it.”

On whether I should put a hat on the dog mannequin : “The dog would look strictly not beautiful with that on.”

On doing needed repairs: “It was walking like princesses, so I had to fix my body.”

On the top of the hunger scale: “I’m 16 hungry.”

On 60 miles per hour: “I can run way faster than we’re going right now.”

On the top of the energy scale: “I has 16 energy, Dad.”

On me telling her to be careful on the arm of a chair: “I’m sure you are right, but there’s lots other animals like us.”

On the photo of Leonard Cohen: “That’s a picture of my real dad.”

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What Abigail Has Been Doing Besides Saying Things

Abigail is an active girl. This summer she’s had a week of gymnastics camp, a week of art camp and she’ll have a week of fairy camp and a week of what the rest of us might consider “traditional” camp later on this season.

I’m going to start with art camp, which she just finished this week. Each day she created a masterpiece, starting with the lion you see below:

She was the youngest in the class, but I think she did a spectacular job here. I totally believe this is a lion.

The next item she made was an ant at a picnic:

Please note the artistic use of dirt and the artistic interpretation of “having many legs.”

Continuing with theme of arthropods, she also made a spider in a web:

You’ll note she went for a slightly more realistic interpretation of the leg situation. You’ll also see that she signed this one herself.

And now a bird:

Seriously? I honestly don’t know to what degree they help the kids, but the other pictures show little sign of any adult assistance. She didn’t draw those leaves in front of the bird by hand, but they did do a bunch of shape tracing this week, too. It feels like something she did, which is good enough for me. I’m also pretty sure that thing up on the branch isn’t supposed to have an eye.

We started with the lion, so it’s only appropriate to finish off with the lion fish:

This one is effing* mind blowing. I don’t even know what do say. It’s jaw droppingly good.

Abigail also had her dance recital a few weeks ago. Pictures at the event came out looking like tiny blurs on a stage, so I present you with Abigail in her ballet outfit, pre-enacting the event.

It was pretty much exactly like that. And it tasted like tears. Literally, the girl made me cry.

Here is a bonus photo for added awesomeness:

*The astute vocabularians among you will note that “effing” is not the appropriate modifier in this case. However, this is a family blog.

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The Quotable Abigail, Part 32

On things you might overhear her say while playing: “If you prick my finger one more time …”

On why she loves her teacher: “She honors me very nicely.”

On her surprise at the directness of our travel plans: “Not even a stop at Starbucks?”

On the toilet: “Do you want to sit on Cinderella’s special chair?”

On her cave (the space behind the couch): “This is a good place. It’s where people get to read books and be things.”

On the division of labor: “Dad, do all the work around the house. And mom, watch my food.”

On snot management: “Sometimes it helps if you stuff it back in.”

On the pile of paper she’s drawn parallel lines all over: “I’m not trying to make something. I’m trying to make work.”

On why we turned off that sitcom to begin with, apparently not quickly enough: “Why was he sleeping with Nadia?”

On latent defensive reactions: “When I get scared of people, I bite them in the face.”

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