Do I hear Shakespeare?

[This entry is about 3 weeks late due to many extenuating circumstances. Getting laid off, contracting a computer virus I still haven't gotten rid of and some laziness. So, the following events are no longer real time.]

This entry will start out in the present because I just went in to Abby's room to get her up from her nap and...was promptly kicked out. The bouncer wasn't very nice either. I can't believe it, Abbers would rather stay in her bed than get up and hang out with me. So, I guess I'll journal about it...yeah, no I'm still straight. I will simply take it as a compliment and that she adores her new room. More about that in a bit.

So what does she do in there when she's not sleeping? For as long as she's been able to make sounds Abby has talked in her crib/bed. Before she goes to sleep at night, after she wakes up from naps, and sometimes even in the morning...she talks. Not only does she talk, but she sings, makes noises, does monologues, anything she can do for entertainment. We've always had the monitor on and can hear the sounds emanating from her room and I've always wondered what's going on in there? I sometimes imagine her like Peyton Manning standing at the line of scrimmage (her crib rail) pointing (at her stuffed animals) and yelling out an audible. Puppy you go out and up; Baby Jaguar-sideline route; Mickey, you're the hot diggity dog route...Dora butterfly, Blue forty-two, Swiper eleventeen set hut! Sometimes I think she's putting on a Shakespeare play in there. Other times I picture Abby standing in her crib conducting a symphony of color, sound and light. It's like Woodstock or Lollapalooza, that is until Mommy or Daddy opens the door. I'll literally open it up really quickly to try and catch any piece of the concert. Perhaps the biggest reason I think she's producing some type of performance is because anytime I've popped my head in there she looks at me with a mischevious stare as if I've interrupted something. All the stuffed animals hold up their bic lighters and aim 'n flames behind my back just waiting for me to leave so they can witness the encore. And sure enough, as soon as the door latches behind me it's off again to never never land for our Abber Dabbers. I truly hope I am not alone in my imagination of what goes on behind closed toddler doors, but it wouldn't be the the first time I've been on a solitary island with my crazy thoughts...

All of that brings me to the moment I just experienced. I walked in to Abby's room to get her up from her nap and was greeted with the aforementioned blank stare. I had missed another show. For all I know it was her year two of life opus. I'll never know. But I do know that this was the first time she actually snubbed me. In fact, her little "I'd rather stay napping than get up" bit almost got me in the dog house. Anna woke up from her nap and while I was typing away here she went in to get Abby. When she noticed I was home and was, of course, goofing around on the computer instead of attending to our daughter, she gave me "the look." Anyone familiar with Garage Logic will know what "the look" is. In fact, any guy who's married or who has been in a relationship for 72 hours will know as well. Anyway, I quickly talked my way out of that one by informing my wife that I had been brutally rebuffed by our 2 1/2 year old.

So about that new room of Abby's. Well, things have been hectic in this Brett household as we are preparing for the July arrival of the 4th member of our family. We moved rooms, Abby moved rooms, our office moved levels and Abby's old room is now vacant. We acquired some old furniture from Grandma Barb and I picked up another project...re painting and finishing two dressers, a night stand and a bookcase for Abby's new room. Where do I find the time? Well some time has certainly been stolen from this blog, oh well. But really, time is something I've had a lot of lately. I've been working for myself going on three weeks now. I've decided to go out on my own doing anything and everything home related. So, for whoever may be reading this, here is my shameless plug: spread the word to anyone and everyone who may need a new deck, a finished basement, painting, bathrooms, tile work, windows, doors, you name it. Ok, I feel cheapened, but what the hell, it's my blog, like six people read it, and I'm related to all of them one way or another...ha.

Anyway, we finished with all the room switching and Abby is officially in her big girl room and in her big girl bed. Wow, how did she get to be so old? She now says her favorite store is Target, well she says "Tahget" and since she has her mom's taste in stores and says the name like a mobster, I'm hoping she'll have my taste in movies and she and I will be watching The Godfather sooner rather than later. She also loves to come with me to Menards and Home Depot. Everytime we go by the paint department she makes me stop so she can get a color sample to bring home to Mommy.

During one of our most recent trips, with Mommy, Abbers and I went down the tile section and she spotted some yellow sponges. I didn't notice that she noticed them, but when we came back down that aisle a few minutes later we stopped paying real close attention to her. We were looking at tile and this and that and before we knew it we looked up and saw what, to us, was both hilarious and amazing. Well, Home Depot has these black bumper type poles in strategic areas so their displays aren't dented or run over by runaway carts or fork lifts. One would never really notice them or pay them any attention. That is, unless you're 2 1/2 and they're just about as tall as you are. We looked up and saw that Abbers had stealthily crept around to at least seven or eight of these black bumper poles and adorned each of them with a nice fluffy yellow hat. Anna and I looked at each other and burst into laughter. Abby was happy to see we didn't care about her little sponge distribution project and let her continue spreading golden pourous rectangle cheer. Maybe the cutest part of the whole thing was that she went about her business as happy as a little beaver sucking on a dum dum the nice lady who worked in the floring department gave to her. The only side effect is that now everytime we're in Home Depot she asks where the suckers are...

I think my entrys have been pretty rant free, but that's about to end. Anna and I have been looking at various tile for a backsplash we've been meaning to do for awhile now. We recently ramped up our search and have been buying samples to bring home and test out. Well, I have ordered samples of hardwood floor online before and things went great. I suspected that would hold true for tile as well. At least I was hoping as much since I had found a great looking copper colored pillow tile online which I wanted to see in person. The tiles are 4x4 inches and one square foot costs about $11. So the company said I could get a sample for $8.98 and they would ship for free. Great deal I thought. So my package finally came and I open it up to discover one, count it one 4x4 tile which is chipped, scratched and generally beat up. Nevermind the fact that if I decided to actually order this tile to put up in my kitchen I couldn't use the one tile they sent me because it's crap. I do have a problem with that. But I paid $8.98 for a sample of tile. A sample of tile that costs about $11 per square foot...and do they send me about 4/5 or 9/10 of a foot? NO, they send me exactly 1/9 of a square foot. What is that? I'll have to write another entry dedicated to concept of "getting it" and when I do DekoTile.com will certainly be on the list of people and/or companies who do not "get it"!

This weekend we went to the Minnesota Zoo with Johnny, Missy, Ella, Jen and Brian. It was pretty darn cold outside so we decided to stick with the inside exhibits. Probably a wise decision since Ella was just getting started with her pink eye medication and Abby stumbled upon some sort of illness sometime that morning. Overall the zoo trip was uneventful. It should be noted that I think Abby's favorite part was the "money game". Yeah, the one where you slide coins down the slide and travel around and around the giant funnel before plopping down into the donation bucket locked below. At least fountains and wells implore the kids to make a wish before throwing all that change our new president sees so fit to lead us towards, into the water. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have the right definition of "change". But I digress, aside from the "money game", the bird show we saw was likely the highlight. The dolphin show was the main attraction for our group, but that promiscuous sea mammal got knocked up and is out for the rest of the regular season. We'll have to hit up Como Zoo this Spring to compare...

I'll end with another good Abby quote,

"Daddy these pieces of licorice are little like me."