The best pictures YET.

Before our long weekend started, I responded to every "what are your plans?" inquiry with, "WE ARE GOING TO THE KITE FESTIVAL!!!!!!!"  It was at the VERY TOP of our weekend wish list and we looked for the bluest skies and the happiest children in our window of opportunity. 

Thursday morning, it was!

Now, before I go on to share more pictures with you, I must admit that a few people told me that my pictures looked JUST LIKE THEY DID LAST YEAR. 

And I laughed. 

Because they kinda do.   

But it's the feelings attached to them that are totally different.

LAST YEAR, we went to the kite festival with a two year old and a two month old.  As parents, we hadn't quite figured out the WE HAVE TWO KIDS NOW thing and, as a toddler, Nory hadn't quite figured out the IT'S NOT JUST ME NOW thing.  It was an awkward phase of adjustment for our family and I don't think anyone was able to enjoy the festival to the fullest.

But that was LAST YEAR. 

THIS YEAR WAS DIFFERENT.  THIS YEAR, we went to the kite festival with a commentating three year old, a walking one year old, and a much more confident parenting team.  We've really started to get comfortable as a family of four and I think it made the outing so much more relaxed than last year's.  We also got to see the kites through Jettie's eyes (#pureaweandexcitement) and listen to Nory as she described THE BIGGEST KITE and HER FAVOURITE KITE and THE KITES THAT ARE PINK and.....anything else that came to mind.  IT WAS AWESOME.

So.

Perhaps my photos DO look like last year's. 

And maybe they will look the same as the ones I post next year, too. 

But they are different to me :)  And this year's pictures are THE BEST PICTURES YET!

Call us weird, but...

...even though we have a properly-functioning, super comfortable, BEAUTIFUL bathtub in our flat, we still SOMETIMES find ourselves having "tubby" in the living room.

Mmmmm hmmmm.

You read that right.

THE LIVING ROOM!!!

Despite the inconvenience of setting it up, the likelihood of drenching the carpet, and the 100% chance that SOMEBODY in the house will slip and fall in an un-detected puddle of water.....living room tubbys STILL (happily!) take place in our home.

Here's why:

1)  If one child wants to have a tubby, and the other child does not want to have a tubby, and both children are passionate about their desires AND there's only one parent at home to manage the children.......a living room tubby is the perfect solution.  One child has a tubby, while the other does playdoh.  It's genius, really.

2)  With living room tubbys, the supervising parent isn't isolated in the bathroom.  This might not be a big deal to most people, but when your child IS A MERMAID, you'd get where I'm coming from.  Being the supervising parent of a mermaid means you may never EVER EVERRRRRR escape the bathroom.  Which is why we sought out alternative bathing experiences for our little ones.  Enter........THE LIVING ROOM TUBBY!!!!!!!

3)  Bathroom tubbys are the norm.  Living room tubbys are TUBBY 2.0!!!  And TUBBY 2.0 is always a crowd-pleaser when an activity change is necessary for the survival of all persons (and cats!) inside the house.  #reallyfuntransitionforthewin 

4)  Lastly, living room tubbys mean THE WHOLE FAMILY is invited to hang out, relax or play.  Literally, THE WHOLE FAMILY!

So, friends.  Even though we paid a good chunk of money for a REAL bathtub.  And even though it meant removing the door off the bathroom so that the bathtub would fit inside the bathroom.  And even though normal people have their baths inside the bathtub in the bathroom.  Our family still - for as long as our children fit in large, plastic tubs - believes in the miraculous discovery of:

THE LIVING ROOM TUBBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And you can call us weird if you want :)

NARRATING THE CAMERA ROLL (again)....

^^^  Our darling "Mama C" turned 60 this month and we had a "WONDERWOMAN" party to celebrate the milestone.  If she wasn't so full of life, you'd never know she was a 60 year old lady! :) WE LOVE YOU, BAAAAA-RBARA! xo

  ^^^  A snapshot from an OBNOXIOUS VALENTINE CARD MAKING morning.  I haven't created a HOMEMADE VALENTINE in a long time and this little gathering made me believe in bringing it back.....ANNUALLY :)

 ^^^  Left Side:  I saw this somewhere online and it made me laugh/relate completely.  Right Side:  I have this quote posted on my wardrobe.  I read it every single day in an effort to achieve a better work/life balance.  I THINK it helps....

^^^  The "SUNSHINE COMMITTEE" at our school organized a fun afternoon of bubble soccer for the teachers.  Phil signed up to play (I cheered from the sidelines) and it was hysterical to watch!  I had never heard of such a thing before!!!

 ^^^  First of all, they are wearing the same shirt in this picture.  Technically, it is one of Juliet's dresses, but Nory has decided it's also one of her shirts.  Nory's also decided that Jettie needs a "cracker bath" every now and again.

 ^^^  Left Side:  I don't even know.  Right side:  Nory decided to write all of her Valentine cards on her own this year.  She scribbled sweet nothings (ha!) on two entire boxes worth and then shoved them into her Princess Sofia purse for delivery.

  ^^^  GRAMPY!!!!  UNCLE GRAEME!!!!!!!  We're using some of your favourite tools to fix our baby doll!!!! 

^^^  My thoughts on painting with Nory is that it is the worst.  She, of course, thinks otherwise.  And so we continue to do it.  Because she's the BOSS.  And I'm a sucker.

^^^  Juliet's eyes are mesmerizing.  I could literally stare into her eyes ALL DAY LONG...

NARRATING THE CAMERA ROLL.......(which I forgot to publish a few weeks ago)

 ^^^  Not one of them is looking, but for some reason I adore this picture.  Also, the treadmill has since been moved into our bedroom thanks to PHILLIP THE PERSISTENT!  Now I can use the treadmill ALL BY MYSELF and WHENEVER I LIKE :)  THANK YOU, PHIL! xo

 ^^^  It was my colleague's birthday last month and we celebrated with some treats at our after school department meeting.  I was really excited about these candles I found, right up until the third last letter.  Haaa!!!!!  When was your first BIRTH-RAY?  

 

^^^ Left Side:  January 24th was NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER DAY and our friend Mary hosted a gathering after work to celebrate.  She had MORE THAN just peanut butter, too!  She had all the fixings for the girlies to make peanut butter smiley faces!  Right Side:  "Lindsay" is a tricky name to relay to a barista in a crowded Starbucks where the name is far from usual.  I feel awful every time I have to say my name, because, you know what Starbucks employees are like.  They want to get your name RIGHT and make your experience a GREAT ONE.  During my last trip for a latte, the barista and I settled on "LEN".  In retrospect, I think this name has some serious STARBUCKS sticking power....  

^^^  Here we are in the midst of a 2-3 day MY LITTLE PONY obsession.  We had to bake in our MLP dress, with our "real" MLP.  

^^^  Family selfies are IMPOSSIBLE now.  We still try, though.  In doing so, I suppose we are capturing the current season of parenthood :)  #crazy

^^^  We also celebrated NATIONAL POPCORN DAY last month.  It was our JANUARY girls night event - super easy to throw together and tasty nonetheless.  FYI - I've discovered that dried cranberries and popcorn are MADE FOR EACH OTHER.

^^^  This is why I have the best sister in the world!!! LOVE YOU, DANA!!!! xoxo

^^^  This is why I have the best friends in the world.  LOVE YOU, SARA!!! xoxo

^^^  And this is why our drive home from work feels shorter than it actually is :) #longestlighteverparty

I never told you what happened after Nory's birthday party...

But I'm reminded to do so now as I sit here and think about how tomorrow is Saturday.  And how I've grown to fear Saturdays.  And how that's WEIRD because Saturdays are THE WEEKEND and there should be nothing fearful about a break from work (well, minus a passionate threenager waiting for you at home).

But the reason we fear Saturdays is THIS:  our family has gotten into this "SICK SATURDAY" routine (with one of us being sick EVERY SINGLE SATURDAY) and we've been PREPPING SUB PLANS LIKE IT'S GOING OUTTA STYLE (and crying too).  Allow me to share with you the post-princess party events.....

^^^  A harmless trip to the baseball field, where Emily watched her first baseball game EVER and we almost froze to death watching Phil's team play against our friend Amy's team.  When we got home, Phil was feeling achy and awful.  I told him he was "maybe just out of shape".  I totally eat my words later.

 
^^^  Saturday morning, Phil returned from basketball practice feeling even worse.  He definitely needed to rest, so I did my best to distract the girls and run off some of their "PLAY WITH ME DADDY!!!!" energy.  In the meantime, Phil's best friends became the toilet and the garbage can.  He was officially out of commission.  (Hey Babe, you're totally in shape!  Way to run those bases and win the baseball game!  I knew you were sick all along!)  

 
^^^  Phil called in sick on Valentine's Day and Auntie Gem invited him to stay in her spare bedroom so that he could actually rest away from the girls.  I decided I needed to run the house like a full-fledged camp that evening, making pink pancakes for dinner, making pretend heart cakes with playdoh and making a real heart cake with colouful sprinkles!  It was the only way I could comfort my aching heart.......... #valentinesdaywithoutmyvalentine  

 
^^^  Once "camp" came to a close, the girls were gifted some fancy new pajamas for Valentines Day and I quickly dropped off a Sri Lankan miracle drink to Phil (thank you K-POP!) before returning home TO SLEEP.  This parenting thing is so much easier as a DUO, I tell ya.

^^^  After kissing my $45 Starbucks travel mug on Monday morning, I survived another Phillip-less day at work (boooooo!) and then returned home for an evening of "the hugging game" (invented by Nory) and "the survival game" (invented by ME).  As the visual evidence demonstrates, the Camp Director totally slacked off this evening and hid Juliet behind a chair with some of Nory's barbies, while Nory watched some "Goldie and Bear" on Disney Junior.  I drank coffee LIKE A BOSS.  Poor Phil was still BFF's with the bathroom and we didn't get so much as a glimpse of him this evening.

^^^  On Tuesday, Daddy was still very sick and so he drove himself to the hospital where he spent the day hooked up to an IV, re-hydrating and trying to solve this PHILLIP + BATHROOM mystery.  As it turns out, he had a highly elevated bacterial count and the doctor suspects it was food poisoning.  Phil was sent home with a bag of meds and strict instructions to rest.  Which meant he was going to continue being roomies with Auntie Gem for the next few days.  So on this day, the Camp Director maintained her lazy streak and boiled a bag of edamame for the girls to play with.  Haaaaa!!!!!

Then Wednesday came along.  And I didn't take a single picture. (GASP!!!!!!!!!!!)

After five Daddy-less days, I was wiped out, the girls were missing their Daddy terribly, and Phil was sick of being sick and missing the girls something fierce.  We were all just teary-eyed and exhausted at this point.  Even taking a photo with my mobile was SIMPLY TOO MUCH.  #dramatic

So, on Thursday night, when he "moved back in", it was THE BEST DAY EVER.  We were pumped!  We were smiling!  We were an UN-STOPPABLE TEAM OF FOUR!  And the blissful, on-top-of-the-world feeling continued until Saturday.  

Because on Saturdays we get sick.  And our house was a mucousy mess.

Tomorrow is Saturday too.  Besides my lingering cold, we're doing alright.  But it's still only Friday.  Can y'all please think of us and send us some immune-boosting thoughts over the next few hours?  Alas, if one of us gets sick tomorrow, we're going on some RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS spree to improve our karma. 

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, ELEANOR!

Phil and I have a THREE YEAR OLD, you guys!!!!  A THREE YEAR OLD!!!!!!!!!

I mean, I say this in a breaking news, unexpected, didn't see that coming whatsoever sort of way.  But given that three comes after two and two comes after one and times keeps on ticking and yadda, yadda....I get that it's not something you can possibly deliver in such a surprised way.

But STILL.

WE HAVE A THREE YEAR OLD, YOU GUYS!

Last Friday was the official BIG DAY and we celebrated with a Princess Party at our place - planned by Auntie Gem, executed by a group of us, and enjoyed by MANY :)  There was lots of dressing up (adults included), a pink and sparkly playdough station, glitter galore (praise K-POP!), and the trademark "water bottles" that have become a characteristic of all ABBOTT-ORGANIZED events.  This time is was ROYAL WATER, too!  TAKE A LOOK!

It's crazy that some of the party guests were at the hospital on the day that Nory was born.  Perhaps they can relate to me, then, as I say with such AWE that the girl is 365 times THREE days old.  OY.

Thank you to everyone who came to party with our Princess!  And an EXTRA SPECIAL THANK YOU to Auntie Gem for all that she did to make this day wonderful.  We are fortunate to belong to such a loving and thoughtful community in Kuwait! XOXO

And now, some fun facts about Nory at AGE THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1)  Her new favourite phrase is "of course!".  It makes her sound super agreeable when the truth of the matter is that she WANTS WHAT SHE WANTS. 

2)  She has an imagination that is wild and wonderful.  Most afternoons, there are wolves chasing us around in the living room, dolphins swimming in the floor tiles, and witches freezing every human they encounter.

3)  She still swims like a fish in her tubby.  She has multiple baths a day and it can take hours to coax her out of the water.

4)  She wants to start school so badly.  All of her friends in our complex are attending school, so she gets pretty jealous and has a hard time understanding why she has to wait until August.

5)  She's a baker.  She LOVES helping us in the kitchen while we make pancakes, cupcakes, cookies, and muffins.

6)  Seton is her best friend forever.  They've been going through some growing pains these days, but every day she reminds us that her best friend is Seton and that she loves her SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH.

7)  Give the girl some coins and a piggy bank OR some edamame and some bowls, and you've got the girl quietly playing for at least five minutes.  Playdough usually does the job too.

8)  Nory isn't so keen on the fact that Juliet is walking.  It means that toys get moved, towers get knocked over, cheese gets stolen and sharing becomes more of a thing.  We're all trying to figure out this new dynamic.

9)  Although she's not even close to being known as A QUIET CHILD, she does declare at various points throughout the day that she NEEDS QUIET TIME.  Which basically means an episode or two of Max and Ruby on Netflix, in her bed, with a snack, and a bottle of water.  Then she comes flying back out and is recharged for more action :)        

10)  Lastly, our DRESSES and SHOES GAL changes about a BAZILLION TIMES each day.  Which is why her birthday present from us suits her absolutely PERFECTLY!  Phil, Em, Justin and I PINTEREST-ED together this dress-up storage unit, hacking some shelving from IKEA and using some "royal" knobs from Zara Home.  It all came together quite nicely and now has a permanent home in our living room where the princess plays and pretends for hours :)  Even better, many of our friends gave her costume jewellery or pretty purses as gifts and so her accessories collection is really rocking! 

And before I sign out here, my family will understand what I mean when I say that Nory is in the "bow's in a knot!" phase of life. Let's just say that Nory wants to do everything by herself and when she can't get the task done alone, she freaks out.  (I blame my family for failing to tell me that this is a PHASE and not JUST A MOMENT.  That would have been helpful, Grampy.)

Wish us luck as we navigate Parkinson Family of Four // With a Three Year Old // And a One Year Old // And Two Cats.....

XOXO