Two Firsts

Olivia had two "firsts" this week:

First smile: She smiled at Grandma Mary on Tuesday, then smiled at me on Wednesday. I told her before we left that she wasn't allowed to show her first smile to Grandma Mary. She did not listen.

First intentional thumb sucking: Olivia stuck her little thumb into her mouth on purpose and by herself for the first time yesterday. Abby was impressed - her dad not so much.

We had a nice time visiting family and introducing Olivia to lots of Great Aunts and Uncles and cousins and also Great Grandma Lorraine and Great Grandpa Harley. Abby had so much fun that she didn't want to leave. This morning she woke up and said "Abby lives here okay." But she was pretty excited when she got home and her dog Maize was going wild with excitement. I'm hoping a night in our own beds will be a good change. Abby is getting her two-year molars and they are really bothering her. She named the new tooth "The Beast", so she is frequently asking for medicine for "The Beast." I hope she can get over the discomfort soon!

Revolving Doors

I feel like we are stuck in some revolving doors lately... mostly at the doctor's office. I think they are getting tired of seeing us. And the worst part is that all these visits and none of them have been emergencies or sickness related. Today is my turn for the 6 week after having a baby check-up. Yippee. With Abby's birthday and annual well child exam falling into the mix, we've been to the doctor's office 5 times in the 5 weeks we've been home with Olivia.

The other revolving door is unplanned and sometimes sad trips down toward Hastings. Our last unplanned trip was the middle of the night ambulance ride/chase to take Olivia to DeVos Children's Hospital, which in the end was a very good thing. Tomorrow will be the unplanned trip to attend my Great Aunt Barbara's funeral. I was thinking last night about what a great example of Godliness she was to those of us fortunate enough to know her. In all of my memories of her I could not think of one time where I felt she was unkind or uncaring. I hope someday when people are thinking back on my legacy they can say the same about me. There aren't many people I know that I don't have any "bad" memories about. And I'm sure someday I will see her in Heaven - there is no doubt in my mind that her faith was in Jesus Christ for salvation and that she served Him faithfully in her lifetime.

So tomorrow I will cross my fingers and take my first extended road trip with two small girls. Hopefully one will sleep most of the ride and the other will watch her dvds. And we are very excited for Olivia to get the opportunity to meet more of her wonderful family. So to those of you in Hastings, we will see you soon. Poor Steve will have to entertain Maize until Friday.

Excersaucer

Olivia is a pretty strong girl. In fact, she has mastered holding her head up pretty well. So last night Abby and I got out the exersaucer so that Abby and Olivia could play together on the same level. They had a good time. Olivia's little eyes were moving super fast to keep up with everything Abby was trying to show her. And Abby was being most adorable and trying to feed Olivia pretend food. Abby is pretending a lot lately. She will pick nothing up from the floor with her little fingers like she is pinching and then hand me any number of things (horses, cows, sheep, princesses, food, really anything). So last night she was holding her flat hand to Olivia's face and giving her all sorts of wonderful "foods." I hope they continue to enjoy each other this much into their adult lives.

Olivia slept 5 hours again last night, but it was a miserable 5 hours for me because she was gassy and uncomfortable. So... the foods I can't eat list is now up to chili and barbecue sauce. The chili I'm not too sad about, but the barbecue sauce is one of my favorite foods. This is going to be a long, long year nursing Olivia if I can't have barbecue.

Sleepless in Sault Ste. Marie

Olivia slept 5 hours last night, which was awesome. Unfortunately Abby was up two separate times during that 5 hours. These girls need to communicate better so I can get some sleep.

Abby has decided she wants to wear big girl "underwears" but she has not decided that she needs to use the potty also, so my laundry is increasing exponentially. And my floors are really clean from all the mopping.

Other than those two events our life has been pretty uneventful in the last 24 hours. I'm enjoying that uneventfulness. Now we just need some really nice weather so we can go outdoors and enjoy some fresh air.

6 Kid Craziness

I survived 6 children under 3 for 10 entire minutes on my own today. It was not nearly as bad as you might think. We had Abby's friens Autumn, "baby" Abby, Rian, and Huron over to play and have lunch. For the most part there was another adult around, but for a little bit I was flying solo and flinging food toward lots of little people.

Abby had her 2 year old check-up today. I got to fly solo for that too. Abby wasn't too happy about being the one getting the check-up, but she did do almost everything she was supposed to do. She cried about being weighed and measured and wouldn't let the doctor look down her throat, but she did okay for her shot and even thanked the nurse for the band-aid and sucker afterward. She was 29 pounds today and 34 1/4 inches. Olivia also sneaked onto the scale. She was 10 pounds 9 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. During the check-up Olivia visited and snuggled with the front desk staff - I think they were in heaven.

And, we finally got both girls to take a 3 hour nap at the same time, so I got a nap and a spin on my elliptical now that I'm done with any restrictions.

Hello Old Friend

Abby wanted to take a walk after dinner tonight and we wound up down by the locks, since she has a little bit of her Great Grandpa Steve in her and loves looking for the freighters. While we were down there she ran into her old friend - the Rodger Blough. She has some history with the old guy and a very nice picture of the first time they met.Olivia wasn't quite as impressed with the freighters. She slept through our whole adventure. It's too bad since we ended up watching three huge boats on the lower river and saw two pass within yards of each other. We also got to see a little tug boat taking things off the Rodger Blough while it was moving and putting more supplies on. Maybe it was laundry, or food... Either way Abby enjoyed her boat adventure.

Grandma and Grandpa Hodges Were Here

And Abby had a good time, right up to the point where she tried to give Aunt Emily a kiss goodnight and Aunt Emily wouldn't let Abby kiss her on the lips. She gave Emily one good night kiss on the lips and then decided she would give her a second one, but she didn't close her mouth all the way, so Emily said no. Abby was heartbroken. Her little eyes were all welled up and she didn't even try to give Hannah a hug and kiss. It was funny but I felt bad for her poor little girl feelings who don't know that big girls don't like open mouth kisses from nieces. She wouldn't even give Emily a good bye hug when they left this afternoon. We have some rehabbing to do before our next visit apparently.

We had lots of fun with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Scott, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Emily, and Carson. We took them to The Antlers and let them see all the real fancy stuffed animals. We even let the wolf hold Olivia's car seat for her (Grandpa Scott assisted). Abby had a lot of fun with her birthday presents - a radioflyer wagon and an art easel (Thanks Mel, Glenn, & Jack!). Hannah and Emily also searched the basement and found Abby a GI Joe doll to be "The Beast" and they found the old doll clothes we had for a barbie doll version of the beast, so we had lots of fun playing with him and the "Belle girls".

And we had a yummy birthday cake with all of Abby's favorite princesses to celebrate her birthday. She really loves the birthday song and has been singing "Happy birthday to Abby" ever since Wednesday. It's been pretty cute around here. Except at 5:00 a.m. when Olivia decides to wake us up and stay awake. Or 6:00 a.m. when Abby decides to make our bed into her bed. I just keep telling myself I only have a few weeks of this left. I hope.

Happy Birthday to Abby

So yesterday we were too busy to post, since we had to do lots of fun things with Abby the birthday girl. Here's a rundown of her day:

6:00 a.m. - Abby wakes up and wants to sleep in "mommy's bed," so we make room and go back to sleep.

6:40 a.m. - Steve has to get up for work. Olivia decides to wake up for food. Abby sleeps.

7:10 a.m. - Olivia is still awake. She needs a diaper change, on attempting to change it she refills the new diaper and also soaks her clothes. All the excitement wakes Abby up.

7:20 a.m. - Steve is summoned upstairs because Abby the birthday queen does not want to walk. He carries her downstairs and she opens her presents from mom and dad. She gets parts for her Mrs. Potato Head, a Snap and Style doll (imagine a bigger, chunky 3-D paper doll), an Olivia book, a music c.d., and a toddler laptop with learning games. We spend the rest of the morning playing with the new toys and watching "Abby's news" (read Veggie Tales).

12:45 p.m. - I take Abby and Olivia for a walk in the stroller since it is in the 70's but had rained all morning, so the park was too wet to play. We walked for over an hour. Abby wanted to go see the boats, but just before we got to the locks she fell asleep. She woke up 25 minutes later when I tried to move her from the stroller to the house. She did not nap again.

2:30ish - Abby wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast (you're shocked... I know) so I told her she could only watch it if she laid down on the couch and didn't get off until the movie was over. Apparently this idea worked. I must have slept through a good part of the movie, but she never moved from next to me.

4:00 p.m - Abby and I planted seeds in our garden. We planted pumpkins, corn, and beans. Olivia slept in her car seat in the shade under a tree. Abby and I got pretty filthy.

5:30 p.m. - Steve comes home from work and we ask Abby where she would like to go for birthday dinner. She picks Taco Bell - nice. We enjoy dinner, come home for ice cream and watch Shrek. Around 8:30 we go upstairs to put away all the laundry I managed to get done yesterday (4 whole loads). Abby goes to bed around 9:30.

Other items of interest - Olivia is now 10.3 pounds says Nintendo Wii. She is also starting to hold her head up on her own and is super close to intentionally smiling. She loves checking out Abby. Also, Grandma Mary, Grandpa Scott, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Emily and Carson are coming tonight. Abby is pretty excited... it is going to be a long day of waiting for her.

Birth Date and Party Time

Today, April 14th, was Olivia's due date. She turned 5 weeks old today. And she was wide awake the whole time Abby napped. That whole "sleep while your baby sleeps" stuff does not work when you also have a toddler.

And that toddler is turning two tomorrow. That doesn't seem possible. For real... I can't be old enough to have a two year old. We had a birthday cake to celebrate with her friends at our Bible study tonight. She was pretty impressed with her Snow White cake, I was not as impressed with my frosting job. Especially since I couldn't find my decorator tips, so I had to just squeeze the pink frosting from the tube onto the cake. But it tasted good and Abby liked her doll, so that is all that matters.

Other than cleaning to host the Bible study and making the Snow White cake, we had a very uneventful day. The car guy came by and gave us the estimate for getting it fixed, which he also sent to the insurance company. Now we just have to wait to see if the other driver's policy will pay the 1/2 of our deductible that our insurance company is asking them to since he was at fault. Then "Big Black" can get her new bumper and hopefully that will make Abby feel better, since she was pretty sad that her car got "hurted." She is pretty attached to some very random things around this house.

Last night she earned the right to go to bed extra early because she was flipping out whenever Maize sat down anywhere. Apparently Abby was sitting everywhere because everywhere Maize sat was "Abby's spot." I wasn't about to put up with that nonsense, so Abby got a very early bedtime and ended up sleeping 13 hours. She must have been pretty tired.

Catch-Up

Okay... so I'm behind. Quite a bit. We've had a busy few days. Abby and Olivia had a great time with Great Grandma Jennie and Grandpa Steve and Great Aunt Ruth. Abby even let Aunt Ruth stay in her room without putting up a fuss, so we were pretty proud of our little lady.

Olivia had her first trip to church Sunday morning. She did great. Abby did not do so great in the nursery. She had a little bit of a breakdown over being left, but she did make it the whole service without us being called back to collect her, so that's not bad after 5 weeks of missing church. I'm sure after a few weeks she'll be back into the routine and not freaking out when I leave her. Or then again...

Olivia also had her first stay with our babysitter Kitty. She and Abby did great - Kitty still had all her hair and was smiling when I got back. It's nice to have a baby sitter who can handle Abby and still think having Olivia around is a bonus (she called the night before to make sure I knew she was totally okay with having both girls since I had been considering taking Olivia with me to the service for Uncle Jeff's dad Bud Mansfield). Since both girls did so well I guess Steve and I will be taking a date night soon.

So all of that gets you through Sunday and Monday. Then we got to today... play group day. Abby and I were excited to get back to playgroup and to get outside at the park to play. We packed Olivia up for her first trip to playgroup and the park. We got into the car, which Abby has lovingly dubbed "Big Black" and took off. Then we got rear ended by a college kid who was running late for class. He got to be a lot later by the time I called the police out to make a report since my bumper now has two big cracks in it. Luckily no one was hurt and since he was going less than 5 miles per hour and I was parked the damage was pretty minimal and the air bags didn't deploy. Olivia slept through the whole incident and Abby didn't really care although she kept saying "that kid knocked down Big Black." She has a funny way of expressing herself sometimes. So we finally made it to the park after all that excitement. Abby had a great time and played all over the playground without being clingy. She was really excited to see all her friends and I enjoyed visiting with the other moms. I'm hoping our next trip out is much less eventful.

Ballerina Time

Abby had an opportunity to go watch her two babysitters (Kitty and Susie) and their sister Sadie perform in LSSU's dance recital this afternoon. She had a great time. She was very excited about being able to wear her fancy "Belle girl" dress and "nursery" shoes (translated: a white dress with multicolor polka dots and white patent leather shoes). She even let me put a bow in her hair. And boy did that girl strut around the Fine Arts Center. She did nap through part of the recital, but when she wasn't sleeping she was having a good time and her running commentary was cracking me and our friends up.

Olivia skipped out on the recital and watched some baseball with her dad. I'm pretty sure he was pretty relieved to get out of watching the dancing. He was also pretty impressed with both girls, who let me sleep in until 8 a.m. Steve got to sleep until 9 because I made sure to get the girls downstairs pretty quickly once they both were up and making noise. We both needed a morning where we could "sleep in." Once upon a time we would sleep until 10 or 11 on a lazy Saturday morning... that was a long, long time ago.

Matching Shirts

Abby and Olivia wore their matching shirts for Olivia's first trip to Daddy's office. Abby was pretty excited about the matching shirts.

Training Day

Abby decided yesterday would be a good day to start training Olivia, so we worked on "Go Blue" and the proper form for "Hail" to the Victors. Abby was very excited that Olivia has gotten big enough to wear her Michigan shirts. We had to put away most of Olivia's newborn sized clothing since her torso was getting too long for it. We also are using the very last of the newborn sized diapers up (they should be gone today).

We are looking forward to an unexpected visit from Great Grandma Jennie and Grandpa Steve, Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeff (and boys). We aren't excited about the purpose of the visit (Uncle Jeff's dad Bud passed away - he was a really great man), but it will be nice to see them all. That is one benefit of being in Sault Ste. Marie - every once in a while Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeff are around to visit his family, who mostly live in town. I'm sure Abby will be very excited to see her "Candy Grandma."

C-Section Day

In the alternate reality where Olivia doesn't decide to be born 5 weeks early, today would have been her birthday. We would probably just be wheeling back into our room after the c-section. She's swinging in her swing right now and enjoying her really cool "Wubbanub" pacifier (see photo - practically in real time and then find these as baby gifts for new moms, they are wonderful). She has sure changed a lot in the past 4 weeks.

Our weather is entering day 3 of yucky, so I'm not sure what Abby is going to do today to keep entertained without driving me crazy. We played a sorting game yesterday with her teacups and M&M's, but you can only do that one for a short time and with a limited number of M&M's unless you want a wild child running around on a sugar high. She is getting really good at matching the color of the candies to the color of the teacups. And she knows the names for pink, blue, yellow, and green really well as a result of our game. I'm not too sure that it was a Dad approved activity, but it is survival mode for me until the weather is nice enough again to get that girl outside. She is also reminding us about her birthday and that she is going to be 2 - as if the terrible two-like behavior isn't enough of a reminder. She's been to enough birthday parties in the last few months to understand the whole birthday thing and she is pretty excited about it.

Olivia learned an important lesson about over-eating last night. Unfortunately it was at the expense of my shirt, the sheets, and her pajamas. She decided that she wanted to enjoy some extra milk right before bed, but filled her tummy too much and ended up projectile vomiting all over the two of us. She must have still had a pretty full belly after that because she still slept 3 1/2 hours after the incident. And she has been regulating her portions better since then. It must be one of the lessons in an infants life that must be learned the hard way - a full belly is nice, but too much of a good thing is not something you want to try. And now I have two extra loads of laundry to do as a result of her lesson. I guess the lesson for me is to put an over-full baby in her bed, even if she is wide awake and wants to snuggle.

Doctor Day

Our whole family made the trip to the doctor's office for Olivia's one month check up (she'll be one month on Saturday - time flies). Steve planned on keeping Abby at home for the appointment, but Abby insisted that she needed to go visit Nurse Ellie. Olivia is doing great! She weighed in at 9 pounds even and was 21 inches long. That puts her in the 50th percentile for height and weight of a full-term, one month old baby. I tried to pull up a preemie growth chart, but she is off the charts for height and weight based on her gestational age. It's hard to believe it, but tomorrow was supposed to be her birthday.

So... the other big news from the doctor's visit was his opinion that there is no longer any reason why Olivia can't participate in normal life with us. That means Abby and I are breaking out of this popsicle stand as soon as possible. I'm thinking a trip to the park is in order, since Abby loves being outside and the backyard is under construction. The doctor even looked at me like I was crazy when I told him we had kept Olivia in the house basically since she came home, with the exception of one walk and the three visits to his office. Abby will be very excited when she realizes we aren't just sitting around this place day and night anymore. Not that we have lots of exciting places to go or anything... it's just a relief knowing that we can go if we decide to.

And... just for Great Grandma Lorraine, we've decided to give an old lamp a new lease on life as a brushed nickle lamp. We decided a face lift was in order and the fixtures in the room the lamp lives in are all brushed nickle, so the lamp has a shiny new coat of paint and will soon have new wiring. After 50 plus years we thought it was time.

In Retrospect...

Putting the grass seed down was not such a great idea. It shrunk our available play space significantly. This may be the end of house arrest... I can't handle Abby whining to get outside and enjoy the nice weather much longer.

Easter Egg Hunting

We took advantage of the nice weather this morning (it is now raining and supposed to rain tomorrow a bit too) and let Abby have her own Easter egg hunt, since we will be missing the Easter egg extravaganza at Great Grandma Jennie and Grandpa Steve's house tomorrow. Our small group had brought by an "Easter" basket for us as a gift and it had lots of great things like diapers, wipes, candy, bedtime body rub, and filled Easter eggs. So we took those filled eggs, filled a few more that I picked up at the store, and sent Abby out into the backyard to hunt eggs. She found one, opened it, realized it was full of candy, and decided she was all set. It took some major coaching to get her to pick up another egg, but after about the 3rd or 4th one that she found and opened she realized that there was lots of eggs and lots of candy available. It was pretty funny. So was her egg hunting outfit. I love how she refused to wear her "fuzzy boots" all winter when they would have kept her feet warm and has recently decided they are the best shoes ever. It makes life interesting around here... we never know what is going to tickle her fancy.

Olivia decided to pass on the egg hunting fun and took a nap instead. We picked up some gas relief drops for her (she was and is a gas passing champ) and we have all been sleeping much better in the hours that we are sleeping. It has really solved her grunting/moaning/groaning all night long problem. So it must be working at making her feel more comfortable, although it isn't really preventing the gas passing. So while we are sleeping better, we are for some reason also getting up much more frequently. I think she must be about to grow a ton since I was up about every hour and a half to hour and forty-five minutes last night. I was really hoping for the every three hour schedule, but it was not happening. I'm hoping we aren't in for many more nights like that. She has been back on the two to three hour schedule during the day today, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Since we've got the gas problem about under control, Olivia decided it would also be a good day to have a plugged tear duct. So her eye looks crusty and yucky, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her and she doesn't have any signs or symptoms of sickness. We are keeping a close eye on it, but other than needing some extra washing it seems to be manageable.

Steve and I are starting to find a routine for dealing with a newborn and a precious little lady who is hitting the terrible twos with all her might. Our only problem this weekend is exhaustion coupled with an ill dog (digestive issues... worse than having to clean the biggest diaper blowout). So we are pretty tired... to the point where I remembered to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer and then walked up the stairs without starting the dryer. Whoops. I did manage to get a nap for a whole hour, so that should help. I think another nap is in the plans for tomorrow - the weekends and having Steve home are so much nicer.

A Long Walk

Steve had today off, so we took our girls on a long walk in their double stroller to enjoy the ridiculously warm (76 degrees) weather. They lasted about 5 blocks before they were both sleeping. I'd say that makes the new stroller a keeper. We also spent a lot of time outside enjoying the weather and making dirt "princess" castles with Abby.

Besides our outdoor fun, Abby and I met her friends for brunch at Burger King. She had lots of fun seeing her friends and enjoying some time out of the house. I also enjoyed visiting my friends, who just happen to be the moms of Abby's best friends - it's great when that sort of thing works out.

First Real Bath

Olivia had her first real bath today at the same time that her big sister Abby was washing up. We just put the little tub right next to the big tub so that I could see both girls and then we did some major scrubbing.

Olivia also had her first playtime outside. She rode in my baby carrier, so she was pretty much snuggled up next to me and with the new moby wrap carrier I have she was totally covered in fabric. Abby had a great time with her sidewalk chalk and we all enjoyed the 65 degrees and sunshine. I even planted some seeds so I'm counting on the weather staying warm enough for them to make it.