Some words about words

Abner is becoming quite the talker. She must be up at about 40 words by now. I have no idea if this is a lot for her age, but it seems quite a lot to me. Each word she adds to her rapidly expanding repertoire brings a smile to my lips. Mono-syllabic or otherwise, each one is an accomplishment worthy of a little cheer.

To date these are the ones she's mastered: bee, bum, shoes, hi, mum, mama, dada, done, baby, knee, up, down, again, back pack, coco (cookie), bed, phone, sit down, apple, nana (banana), cheese, gramma, grampa, me, dat (that), table, bumbo, milk, more, out, soo-soo (soother), car, house, hot, pee-pee, chair, pea, bye-bye, go, ball, boat, book, and a bunch of names (her cousins, daycare lady and a few friends' names).

What amazes me most is how few of these are true baby talk. She doesn't just shorten regular words or just use the first letter instead of the whole word. For the most part, she's able to enunciate and clearly state the word she's saying. But perhaps that's just my Mommy Interpreter kicking in.

Last weekend, she learned the best word yet - her own name.

We'd been working on it for ages and she could handle each part of it on its own, but stubbornly refused to connect the two. All of a sudden the light bulb went on the other day while she was in the bath and she put the pieces together all by herself --"Ah-bee".

Seriously, there's nothing cuter than hearing your child say her own name for the first time.

I ♥ Pt. Roberts

I have a special place in my heart for Pt. Roberts, Washington. Our extended family owns a cottage there and is kind enough to let us use it on a regular basis.

Why do I love it so much though? Well, I vaguely remember going there as a kid, it was the first place Abner ever slept through the night, and many an afternoon has been spent with family and friends playing games out on the lawn or huddled in the, how shall we say, "vintage" trailer enjoying delicious meals.

It's also a handy little place to go for a weekend getaway, which is exactly what we did for Labour Day weekend.

Part of the beauty of the place is that there is not much to do. Just sit, relax, re-read the stack of Reader's Digests that have been in the cottage since 1970 or so, and throw a few stones in the ocean. With not a lot of toys to play with or any of our usual entertainment items from home, we had to get crafty to keep Abner entertained and out of trouble. Thankfully, our trusty picnic blankets did the trick.

Place baby on blanket. Wrap up and grab all four corners. Commence spinning.

Can't even begin to describe how much Abner enjoyed this game. She actually began squealing with delight.

Even though the weather report was calling for rain and the sky looked rather ominous, we lucked out and managed to stay dry the whole weekend. We did come prepared for the worst though...

Abner is not such a fan of rain boots but is oh so adorable in her rain suit. N'est-ce pas?

Not quite so lame-o buffet anymore

Remember this buffet? Yeah. Okay. It was so boring and plain, you probably forgot about it. It's okay. I understand.

With it looming in my face every day, I couldn't forget about it. After months of talking about fixing it up, I finally went at it with a spray can of chalkboard paint. Fifteen minutes later...voila!

Super quick. Super easy. Super fun.

If you want to try this yourself, I recommend against spray paint - though very easy to apply (cramped up claw hand aside) I think a brushed on finish would look a bit more like a real chalkboard. This stuff came out quite glossy and made me feel like I'd just painted my cupboard with plain old boring black paint.

Also very important is starting with a very smooth surface. I neglected to do any sanding before I started and the result is a slightly rough chalkboard that eats chalkboard brushes in no time flat. It's a bit better now that we've used it a bit and worn down the roughness, but it's probably better to start with a smooth surface in the first place.

I still plan to paint the rest of it, change out the feet and find new knobs. For now, I am simply enjoying having a place to doodle. Abner is enjoying having a place to rub her hands all over and then wipe them on her clothes.