Your Friendly Neighbourhood Stalker

Was yesterday gorgeous or what? Sure it was a little on the cool side, but the sky was clear and blue. So clear in fact I found myself with a bit of a sun burn by the day's end. You think I would have learned by now, sun + me = sunburn. I mean I'm only 32 years old, it's only been happening for 32 years.

It seemed a shame to waste such nice weather so Abby, Maya and I headed outside at about 11 am and pretty much spent the entire day outside. Maya napped in her stroller while Abby ran around like an escaped monkey and I hung clothes out on the line. Once I had dispensed with that I figured I better find something else to occupy my time since Abby apparently had no interest in going back inside. So I raked the entire back yard. Which is surprising because I hate yard work, of any kind. That usually falls into Mike's department, but he was out running errands. So Abby played and I raked. Boy is my "raking muscle" killing me. I have come to find out that the raking muscle is also the "baby lifting muscle". So, yeah, feel the burn. Every time Maya crys I find myself waiting a moment or two to see if she really means it.

Watching Abby play yesterday was a study in contrasts. At times she was wildly fearless, repeatedly riding her tricycle down the grassy slope between our yard and our neighbours. It was a fast and bumpy ride, most times the pedals were going faster than her legs could handle. When she wasn't playing Evel Kneivel she was passive aggresively stalking our next door neighbour. When she entered her yard Abby stood waving mutely at her. That failed to get her attention so she softly called "hi Karen" barely loud enough for me to hear her and Karen was twice as far away. Next on the agenda was to start kicking the deck in hopes the commotion would catch her attention. Still nothing. So Abby moved to the side of the bush between our yard and theirs and simply stared. When that failed to illict a response she moved forward another 10 feet. Again nothing. That's when she made her boldest move and snuck around their garden shed and peeked out from around the corner. Finally victory. She had been spotted and now Karen was speaking to her. Abby just stared at her with a big smile until Karen finally managed to draw some conversation out of her. For the rest of the afternoon Abby would periodically slip away and stealthly advance on Karen. It was like watching a pre-school commando mission. She would creep, low to the ground a few steps at a time, pausing to check out her surroundings, make sure she wasn't being followed or hadn't been noticed too soon. You know, nothing that would make her abort her mission. We can only be thankful that Karen finds her cute and not supremely annoying.

With the exception of some bathroom breaks and a dinner break Abby was outside until about 7 pm. I finally had to forcibily drag her inside and throw her in the tub. She was a wee bit filthy. She put up a fight, but she was clearly exhausted. And hungry. After her bath she powered back two peanut butter sandwiches before bed. The whole sandwich too, even the crusts.

It was good we took advantage of the weather because it's supposed to be pretty yucky this week. A high of 19 today but thunderstorms this afternoon and much cooler and rainy with the possibility of flurries for the rest of the week.