what's abby been up to?

Yep, that's always a good question to ask. She's frequently MIA - so I check all the usual spots: climbing on a chair by the window, rummaging in the drawer where our Math Class things are stored, in the bathroom where the bikes are stored...and that's where she came from with this one afternoon:
I feel like not much has changed regarding her attitutes toward me (as in: not being able to be separated from me even for the slightest moment), but I feel like my heart is changing toward her. I am thankful for sensing an extra portion of grace and love this last week for her. I've been using these trying times as prompts to pray for her soul and her spirit and her future. I've also been using these trying times as prompts to pray for me and my own weak spirit!

She loves making a ruckus with this new lawn mower Aunt Kristen sent in the ballerina box. Who ever thought making a lawn mower for a kid Abby's age needs to be shot. Or at least subjected to the lawn mower sound for 24 hours a day before seriously considering putting it on the market. Not that I'm complaining, Kristen...I'm not! Abby loves it. But it is...um....a little festive.
Her tooth-that-almost-fell-out is growing in fine now. What? I forgot to mention that slight accident a few days before Christmas when my kid fell off a chair and knocked her front tooth so loose it was dangling by a very disgusting thread? How could I have forgotten to recount a story that highlights my mothering negligence as much as that one? That's right...I left it out on purpose.

I was convinced she'd be scarred for life and her tooth wouldn't grow back in. But, after a queasy attempt at shoving gently nudging it back in place, after several weeks, it has grown back in pretty solidly.

A dentist friend of ours suggested we do everything we could to keep her fingers and other objects out of her mouth to avoid further loosening the tooth. So we were going to use this event as the impetus for weaning Abby off her finger-sucking habit. BUT...after applying the nasty Melva-Stop stuff to her fingers (to keep her from sucking on them) and then watching her THROW UP every time she put her fingers in her mouth...I lost all my strength. I gave in. Let her suck her fingers a few more months. I'd rather deal with that than throw up.

Her chair episode has not deterred her, though and she continues to climb on anything she can get close to. Abby, little Abby. Her sense of adventure and love of life-on-the-edge keeps me laughing. She's a handful... =)