November 19, 2019

Abby-Jones... where do I start? You are hilarious and full of life. Last night you and Papa were being silly together, and after a pause in the conversation/laughter, you both let out a little sigh at exactly the same time in exactly the same way. It cracked us ALL up! This morning you got in the bed with us and you said, "Where are we going after school today? I just really like it when we go out to places!" And so you do! I got to go on a field trip with your class to an apple picking farm. We were running a little late, so when we arrived everyone was already lined up. One of the other moms leaned over to me and said, "I'm so glad you are here, one of the other students just said, 'Where is Abby Jones? We just won't have any fun if she isn't here!'" You are SO MUCH FUN!

Here are a few things I don't want to forget...

For the longest time you would sit down on the floor after wiping yourself to see if you were clean... If there was no poop on the floor, you assumed you had wiped well! But you had trouble in public bathrooms, because you didn't want to sit down on those floors, so you didn't know how to check yourself😂

One time Papa sneezed on you and you said, "Papa 'bless-you'd' on me!"

I was hugging Aunt Amanda at church one Sunday soon after we had gotten back from Kenya, and you asked why I was hugging her. "Are we not going to see her for a long time?" You had been through so many goodbyes!

You said, "When we live here like we used to live in Malindi, will we still have to wear seatbelts?" You also said, "There are a lot of rules in America!"

You are always in the bathroom while I am showering, and if I let you, you would hop in the shower with me. You hate to be alone... you are my little shadow. One day, I asked you to hand me my razor from the sink. You said, "Did you decide to raze today?" I said, "No, I decided to shave today." You looked so confused!

One time Papa got on to you for putting your dirty clothes down on the floor and told you to put them away where they go... you went and put your dirty clothes on top of Papa's, which were also on the floor! That cracked me up!

Several times lately out of the blue you have said, "I feel like I've been having a fun life."

And you are, my darling, you are having a very fun life. There is a little girl at church named Hattie that you love. She sits with us during church and you chase each other around afterwards. She has curly hair, too, and you two are so adorable together. When it's time to go you give her a big hug. I love your heart and your spirit. You look for opportunities to get tickled, and then you milk them for all they're worth. If something gets a laugh, you do it again and again until it loses its effect. You love the sound of your own voice and chatter on constantly. Sometimes I have no idea what you're talking about, and I don't think you really do, either! You love to spell. You say, "Give me a word, Mama." So I will tell you how to spell one word and you repeat it over and over. You know how to spell "stop" because of the "stop" sign we see on the way to Ruth-Michael's school. Your teacher said basically you are doing great with everything. She told me that sometimes you don't sit up at carpet time, but I think that was because she felt like she needed to give me something for you to work on. When she sent home the list of goals, she was supposed to circle areas that needed work and nothing was circled. You take life in stride, baby girl, and you love every minute of it.