Personality

Abbie's personality has been showing through more and more strongly lately. She has all sorts of ideas and preferences about how things need to be. Recently she has become really smitten with big piles of books that she can climb into and read and read and read. Here, she was in process of constructing a giant pile on the couch. Sometimes she'll make the pile on a chair or on our bed or even on the floor. Then she'll climb into it and move the books back and forth until they are just right. Then either she'll read to you, or you'll read to her or both.

She has also gotten really picky about certain things. She has a strong aversion to socks that have strings in them. I think its because once one of the strings got caught on her toenail. In case you aren't aware (I wasn't before this all started), any decorative sock of any kind is filled with little strings. Therefore, she prefers plain colored socks, but even those can have tiny little strings at the seam, which she has been asking me to trim for her. This past weekend, plain purple socks weren't even good enough. They had to be plain white socks. We ended up going to the store to buy some more for her.

Also, she has certain places in the crib where her bears need to be - certain slats that they need to sit between and they need to sit just right. They can't slouch and they can't be tucked in between the slats to help them. No, they need to sit nice and tall all on their own and not move. It is so tough on all involved. Such high standards for such little bears.

Its not all stories for the therapist's couch, though. She has also been laughing hysterically at things that she finds funny. For instance, the neighbor's dog grabbed hold of his owner's shoe (it was lying in the driveway) this past weekend and Abbie just burst out laughing at the idea of the dog trying to eat the shoe. Also, she has a book about a pigeon that tries to drive a bus and she just thinks that is hysterical.