Our Cubbie

Bring On Fall

So, it's been a month almost since I posted... and I was doing so good at being consistent there for a while. Oh well. Since our last post we enjoyed a long weekend camping with friends, made a trip down to Hastings for Labor Day, and got some additional work done on the kitchen (including replacing the fridge with a shiny new one that I got to fill up today). So... here's how it went.

We spent the weekend of August 19-22 out camping at Muskellunge Lake State Park. I'm not one for staying the semi-modern state parks - I would rather have my space than flush toliets and electricity. In fact, while we were there we did not plug in the camper and we were closer to the outhouse than the bathrooms, so our family made equal use of the running water and non-running water facilities. After all, it's camping - the goal is not to be squeaky clean and all. And the girls got good and filthy having a great time with all their friends. They played in the big lake, the little lake, the playground, and had lots of fun picking blueberries. And over that weekend Olivia started saying Abby and really took off on the use of words with her mouth open. She's becoming a little talker.

We went down to Hastings for Labor Day - it was a good trip, even though it always leaves us worn out. The girls had lots of fun playing with cousins and seeing almost all the grandmas, grandpas, and great grandparents. And we finally got to swim in Grandma Mary and Grandpa Scott's pool. Olivia and Abby also got to take a tractor and 4-wheeler rides at the farm and Grandpa Scott took Olivia to see cows, which is now her favorite word. She looks for the cows in the toy box and walks around the house telling me about her cow. She is even figuring out how to moo on command. We got to bring back most of a pig that was butchered for us (yummy!) and a spinning wheel that belonged to my grandpa's family (I'm not sure how far back it was, so I can't tell if it was a great great grandma's or just a great grandma's). Either way, I now have a great wheel and I'm pretty excited to try and get it spinning this fall.

Abby starts Cubbies tonight - it's weird thinking I have a kid big enough to go to Awana already. It goes so fast. She's got her book, vest, and book bag ready, although I am not sure about how well she will do when we get there. We tried to sign her up for dance this fall, but every time we talked to her about it she told us she wanted to go "when I'm five." She's saying the same thing about Cubbies, but we are making her go, even though we decided to let her skip out on dance for at least this year.

The Very Hungry Caterpillars

We have been raising some very hungry caterpillars into monarch butterflies for the last few weeks. Great Aunt Carol and I caught the caterpillars and we have them hatching in a mesh caterpillar environment. The girls enjoyed watching them at the caterpillar stage - they only eat milkweed so we had fun harvesting the leaves and feeding our friends.

We are now at the cocoon stage - we have two caterpillars of the four that have successfully made it into cocoons. We did have three, but Abby got really excited about the first one and ran, with the cage, to show me. That cocoon fell down and oozed a lot, so I'm not sure it will make it into a fully developed butterfly. But the two that are cocooning are changing - you can see the patterns in their wings through the cocoons. It has been a fun process to watch. And... we even had a little caterpillar hatch from an egg in the last few days. We took it out of the environment in our house and released it in a patch of milkweed in town, since we had used up all our picked milkweed and the other caterpillars had already cocooned. Now... the wait for butterflies is on :-)

No Shot Monday

This is the first Monday in a four weeks that the girls haven't needed to have a rabies shot. I don't even know what I am going to do with all the free time I am going to have today because I am not waiting in a waiting room and then spending the afternoon comforting two little girls and discussing in great detail Abby's bat obsessions. I'm hoping that after next Monday's shot (the last one) that we will be able to finally get over the bat/rabies talking that has been a daily occurrence around here.

The girls and I got to spend a day with my parents and littlest sisters on Mackinac Island on Friday and we had a great day. We got to explore the local shops, rode bikes all the way around the island, enjoyed the pool and saw the inside of the Grand Hotel where my family was staying, and got to ride the ferry boats twice. The girls really enjoyed time with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Scott, Hannah, and Emily the most. It had been 14 years since I rode a bike and I will probably not be on one again for about another 14 years - my knees were not appreciating my efforts on Saturday.

The Osgood Annual Camping Trip

We spent last weekend at the Blind Sucker Flooding with Great Grandma Jennie & Grandpa Steve Osgood, Grandma Mary & Grandpa Scott, Melissa, Jack, Emma, Hannah, and Emily (and some other cousins and aunts and uncles too - too many to list). The girls had a really good time playing outside and being spoiled rotten by all the relatives. And Grandpa Scott found us an old pop-up camper that our car can pull, so Abby spent the weekend reveling in her camper, which could have been the Taj Mahal with as wonderful as she thought it was. Steve and I weren't as impressed (don't get me wrong, we both like it a lot), but with a little work it should be lots of fun for the next few years. We had some minor mishaps like forgetting to put the back jacks down so that it flipped up when everyone was checking out the back bunk (neither Steve nor I were in the camper for that trick. The top also dropped once without being triggered. It didn't fall all the way down and with some supports it's now totally safe. And then there was the incident where the tire fell off on the dirt road on our way home. Luckily we were only 4 miles from the campground and no one had left to go fishing yet so we were able to get some help putting the tire back on and getting home.

Both girls got to catch a fish - they were very small, but the girls still had fun. And we had lots and lots of blueberry pancakes and smores. Yummy!

Beach, Peach

We had a rhyming picnic at the beach today! The girls had fun playing in the sand and waves at Brimley State Park and we had a picnic lunch while we were there. It was a lot of fun. Abby loves swimming and Olivia loves the sand, so it was a good day for everyone.

Sand Monster

Bats Are The Bane of My Existence

It's official. I hate bats. Really hate. Hope they all die. I don't even care that they eat bugs. Neither do my babies who now have to get five shots each on the off chance that the bat from their room had rabies and potentially bit them. It's a long shot, but, since we were not thinking straight at 12:30 am when we caught the bat and neither kid seemed to have bites, we let the bat go without having it tested. And since rabies is 100 percent fatal once symptoms show, we decided that it was better to err on the side of extreme caution (with the advice and agreement of our doctor and a friend who is also a family physician). So... our kids have had 1 of the 5 rabies shots they will be getting over the next few weeks. They did pretty good, all things considered. So here's hoping they do okay on Thursday when they get the next dose.

It was a nightmare getting the vaccine - a true test of my patience. And I'm afraid my score would have been low, especially toward the end of it. I called the health department at 8:30 am, again at 1 pm, and finally about 1:15 got a call back and was told that our girls needed the vaccine based on their exposure to the bat last Wednesday night/Thursday morning. We were directed to the community walk-in clinic (I also checked with my family practice but they don't keep the vaccine on hand). So off we drove to the walk in clinic. But they can't start the rabies series there, so they sent us to the ER (we will be getting the next 4 shots there though). Thankfully, our family physician was covering the ER today, so I know we got good care. The downside was that we arrived shortly before 3 ambulances, so being non-critical we had a long, long wait. Like 4 1/2 to 5 hours. It got a lot trying since I came ill prepared to keep kids occupied for so long. And Olivia missed her afternoon nap, so that only increased the chaos. But it's over, they have the shot, and we can sleep without worrying about another bat ending up in their room.

So, here's what I know now that you should remember:

1. Always try to catch the bat or wild animal to have it tested. This is especially true if you get a bite or if the animal is around a child, deep sleeper, or a mentally incompetent adult who may not notice or be reliable in reporting a bite. And try to keep the animal alive to make testing easier and potentially faster.

2. If you don't catch the animal, you should seek treatment if: you or your child was bitten; if a child, mentally incompetent adult, or someone who was sleeping deeply (medicated or alcohol induced generally) was found to be asleep or alone in a room with an animal; or if you come into contact with bodily fluids or mucus membranes of an animal that wasn't tested.

Less than 5 cases of rabies are reported in the US each year. And my kids aren't going to be part of that number thanks to their immunizations. Yay for shots, even though they hurt.

Bat Man!

Steve is two for two in bat catching in the last two days, which means we officially have a bat problem (at least in my books). Tonight's incident started with an Olivia freak out around 11:30. I normally let her cry it out but she sounded extra frantic, so I went in to check on her. The bat was flying circles in the room when I opened the door. Yuck! And I'm sure this was a new bat, because the first one is dead on the street in front if our house.

So... We moved the girls into our bed, shut the door and Steve started bat hunting. But in the move the bat ended up in the "safe" room with the girls and I. It stayed hidden for about 20 minutes before I startled it out and it startled us. Steve made quick work of the capture and got the bat released outside. Now for the tough parts - getting Olivia back to sleep and figuring out where these crazy bats are coming from.

This is where renting was so much easier... Now it is my problem since it's our house. Any good bat removal/prevention ideas would be greatly appreciated!

The Bat Came Back

Or more likely never left. But thanks to Steve it won't be coming in here any more.

Bat Attack!

We had our first bat in the house incident yesterday. I guess with this being an older home I shouldn't have been so startled to have a bat in the living room, but it was still a little much for the girls and I to handle. I was working on some bookwork with Olivia's assistance (or non-assistance) and Abby was relaxing on the couch trying to beat the heat. Then the bat flew down and landed on the couch right next to her head. She freaked out, Olivia freaked out, and I grabbed them both and tossed them into the car before heading back in to find my shoes, Abby's shoes, my wallet, and phone. Then we escaped to a friends house to wait for Daddy the bat remover. But, since I purposely left the back door open, Steve couldn't find the bat. So all day I've been looking over my shoulder waiting for it to reappear. Let's hope it got the message and flew out the door after we left.

And... in all that chaos, I didn't notice that Abby had dressed herself in only a dress and forgotten to put on panties. So yep... that went well. Luckily our friend had some size 4t undies, but they were boys so we had a little talk about the difference between boys and girls undies. And to top off my wild afternoon, we took the girls to see Winnie the Pooh at the movie theater with their friends. They had a good time, but somehow when I had changed Olivia's diaper before the movie it ended up twisted and inside out. So when she decided to pee at the theater it ended up on my lap not absorbed into the diaper. It can only go up from yesterday... I hope.

Uncle Dan the Traveling Man Visits

We had a visit from Uncle Dan last week (and a visit from cousin Meg & Ron her husband last night). It's fun to have company come up here so that we can have some quality time to visit - that is hard to do when we go home and have such a short amount of time and so much family concentrated in one place. So we've been to busy to do any substantive thinking about the last few weeks in the Obreiter household. It's been almost two weeks since we took Olivia to see an allergy specialist. That visit was mostly a waste of time. On the positive side, we know she is not allergic to dogs, cats, dust, or mold. But the allergist seemed to have this idea that a girl her age couldn't have an outdoor allergy. We disagree. A lot. The snot has been flowing all spring around here and was even worse for the last few weeks since she had to be medication free for the week leading up to her appointment. And after he told us she had no allergies and didn't need the medication we went with that for about a week. But eventually you've just got to go with your gut instinct and make your kid feel halfway normal, so as of 3 days ago she's back on allergy medication. She's still snotty, sounding funny when she's talking, and having all the allergy symptoms (especially after being outside), but we are hoping by the end of next week she will be feeling a little better again.
While Uncle Dan was in town we took advantage of the opportunity to do some day trips. The first trip was up into Canada. Our goal was to photograph Chippewa Falls, which is just over 30 miles from our house. We went on Monday and the radar showed some sprinkles, but it seemed like it would clear up quickly. It did not. Poor Dan braved it and got out at the falls to try and get a picture. Two minutes later he was totally soaked and didn't have any great shot to show for it. And he ended up crossing the border back into the US in my shirt (luckily I had packed myself and the girls extra clothes). But we had a good time driving up the coast. It was a beautiful stretch of road leading up to the falls and we saw a bald eagle sitting right on the beach.

We also took a day trip to Drummond Island and had fun exploring the neat things that the island has going on. Here are some of the things we saw...Maxton Plains - this place is basically a gigantic slab of limestone. The picture doesn't really do it justice. If you could see this from over head it would look like grass and bushes had grown up on a giant parking lot. And it's totally naturally occurring. It was pretty cool. And it would have been gorgeous about 2 weeks ago when it was in bloom. But, being a flower lover, I did enjoy snagging some wild columbine seeds, so I can enjoy the beautiful wildflowers in my own yard in a year or two.
I've lived in the U.P. for over three years now and this was the very first live, wild deer I'd seen. Not kidding... And it was an adorable spotted fawn. It would have been even more adorable if it hadn't been running down the middle of the road and making us follow it at a creep. I normally wouldn't have cared, but when on an island with a ferry that runs only once an hour it's important not to get slowed down if you want to leave on schedule. We ended up having to hang out at a beach for a few minutes because we missed the ferry boat. But the girls had fun swimming and playing in the water.

Birthday Partying

We have lots of little friends, so birthday parties are a fairly frequent occurrence for the girls. We had lots of fun celebrating a couple weeks ago with our special little buddy Wyatt who turned one. And Olivia learned how to swing on the swing without freaking out, so that was a major improvement in our outside activities!

Beach Weather

We finally have had some beach weather and the girls have been crazy about being in the sand and water. Olivia literally tremors with joy at the sight of the beach. And when I said beach the other morning she ran right to the closet, grabbed my flip flops, and put them on my feet so I would be ready to go. She can hardly stand the wait from the car ride when she knows where we are going.

We tried a new beach on Tuesday and it is someplace we probably will avoid for many years (and also made me rethink my plan to sell our house and buy a house on the Lower Saint Marys River in about 10 years). We are pretty well used to seeing freighters (huge boats) at the beach, since you can't really visit a beach around here without catching a peek at a boat. So we didn't think twice about throwing our kids into the water where big boats might be passing. And we did read the warning signs about strong currents and all. We even made the kids get a good 20 or 25 feet from where the water line was. But that apparently wasn't far enough. I was at least 20 feet on shore, but when the boat wake came I was mid-thigh deep in a very strong current. Luckily I was holding Olivia and had a good grip on Abby. Abby's friend Huron was on the bank, about 25 feet inland, and he ended up washed away. A quick thinking stranger plucked him up, but not before a big scare. So ended our first (and probably last) trip to 4 Mile Beach.

Sleepy Swing

Olivia got swung to sleep by her big kid friend Aron. She enjoyed having her own personal playmate last night!

Big Girl Talk

Olivia finally had a consistent morning of big girl talk with her mouth open so that I can understand her. Maybe it was the fireworks last night or the homemade ice cream that loosened her lips. So her words this morning were dog, doll, wall, ball (she can rhyme good), momma, dad, and cup. That's a lot of talking for a girl who has been mumbling and grunting with a few words thrown in for the last few months.

We had a great holiday weekend. We enjoyed great weather, took a trip to the beach, had a barbecue with friends, and hung out last night with lots of people from church to watch the fireworks. The girls both enjoyed the fireworks - especially when we told them it was tinkerbell making the lights. And there was even a Mickey Mouse firework. It was a good show and a great night with friends.

Popeye, The Sequel

Here are some pictures from our trip to to the Toledo Zoo (we went while Steve was in Haiti). We had lots of fun with Great Grandma Lorraine, Hannah, and Emily. Unfortunately, Olivia wasn't feeling good that day and spent most of it moaning in the baby sling.
Abby loves posing on or in anything.
Abby riding the zoo train, which takes you on a safari and all around the perimeter of the African exhibit. She really got into the zoo this time around.
Posing (above) in a Dora Explorer hat - Thanks Grandma Lorraine! And (below) modeling in a nest.
Abby's arm (the other one) is huge again today, along with the bridge of her nose. It's apparently going to be a recurring theme this summer. This is the 4th big swelling incident since the mosquitoes arrived. Yuck! And, since Olivia is scheduled to see an allergy specialist next Wednesday she is off her medications. So we have two unhappy ladies around here. One with big swollen bites and the other with a faucet for a nose.

Steve and our friend Trevor started the new door project yesterday. They got the trim boards all pulled off in one piece and re-usable, so we are off to a good start. Hopefully next week we will have the old door out and the new one in. I'm looking forward to being able to go into and out of the backyard the easy way. It will make the rest of this summer much easier from a parent of two kids in the backyard perspective.

Abby's Art

So... Here is Abby's drawing. It is her riding on daddy's head and Olivia riding on my head (her explanation). The scratched out part was her, but then she decided to ride so she removed the original Abby from the picture. I'm pretty impressed by her art skills.

Toddler Bed Update

It's been one week since Olivia started sleeping in her toddler bed. It's going. Somedays it's going okay, somedays not. But with Steve and I both being sleep deprived before, we are both getting pretty tired (and short). Last night Olivia was up an in our room twice and I had to put her in her room and leave her there to get into bed and go to sleep. I'm finding that if I try to stay until she's asleep he thinks it's playtime and usually I wake her up in the process of leaving. I guess she was well trained in going to bed herself.

Abby has started drawing pictures with recognizable figures. Last weekend she drew a picture of our whole family. She is growing up too fast!

Some Pictures from Steve's trip to Haiti

Students at the school where the team was building the kindergarten classroom (roof and posts for walls)
The accomodations
Steve and Ryan with the head of the Haitian help that was hired
Pastor Dave, Ryan, Steve, and Lindsay at the top of the mountain on the drive from Port Au Prince to Jacmel
Building concrete forms for the posts to hold the roof

I'm not going to try to tell you anything about Steve's trip to Haiti, except that they went, they survived, and they are home in one piece with stories to tell. Maybe I can talk him into sitting down and typing a reflection on it, but knowing him you'll just have to find him and ask him in person about it. It sounds amazing and intense and scary. I'm proud to call him my husband and very happy to have him home!

Rainy Day Fun

We are on day 4 of all day sprinkles and rain and we are running out of ways to entertain little people. Today is our day to have Maddie & Wyatt over so that helps break up the boredom for all of them, but it still stinks to be inside all week long. And if I believe the weatherman it looks like next week will be the same way. So today we are having an indoor camp out (and testing our spare tent so we can loan it to friends for camping together this summer). It's been a good distraction so far. And maybe later I will brave walking all these kids to get some produce - but that may be too crazy for even me.

Pudding Face

Fingers Crossed

We are two naps and one overnight into Olivia in the toddler bed and so far it's going great (knock on wood)! Maybe I can survive this child after all...

Growing Up Too Fast

Olivia is officially growing up too fast. She got her first bloody nose tonight - she took a spill climbing onto her new big girl bed. And she is sleeping in that new big girl bed because sometime during her nap she managed to climb out of her crib, onto the dresser that was next to the crib (about a 4 inch gap between), rip a jewelry box in half and play with the barbie shoes that were hidden inside. I'd caught her climbing up the crib to get into it the other day, but I didn't think too much of it. Now that we've established her ability to scale it both ways, it is time to switch to the toddler bed so that she isn't falling from the top rail of the crib. Ugh... just what I don't want to be dealing with on Steve's first night home from Haiti. I'm sure he's just as tired as I am and we probably could have waited another night or two before we made the switch, but I'm of the better safe than sorry camp. So it may be a sleepless night while Olivia figures out how to sleep in a big girl bed at 15 months (We switched Abby at 17 months and Olivia was supposed to wait until 24... as if my plans for her ever work out).

So... in less than an hour Steve will be home. His baby girls are waiting up, but they are pretty much crabby. Olivia didn't really take an afternoon nap since she was apparently climbing on dressers and destroying property during her 30 minutes of time in her room this afternoon. And we had friends over for lunch, so that wears these little girls out just a little bit. But they are bathed, snacked, and had their medicine, so Steve can walk in and start in with his teeth brushing and story routine. Man will it be great to have him home and have that little break each night again!

It's June Already?!?

Well it's been another month (plus) - and what a month it's been. We are right in the middle of Steve being in Haiti and that has been quite the challenge these last few days as the girls really begin to miss their daddy. The other times we've been away from him the girls have had the benefit of being the travelers and so that made it easy because there were grandmas and grandpas around to distract them from their daddy being away. We had that for the first five days while we visited Great Grandma Lorraine and Great Grandpa Harley, but now we are back at home and there is a distinct void without our daddy here. And probably too much estrogen in this house!

So... since the beginning of May we have done and dealt with a lot. Both girls had unscheduled trips to the doctors office. First Olivia because we finally decided her snotty nose was not going to go away on its own and it was making her miserable. She is now taking two different allergy medicines and I'm not noticing much improvement. She sees the doctor again next Friday for her 15 month check up, so from there I'm kind of expecting to be sent to see the allergy specialist in Petoskey to see if we can figure out how to make her comfortable. She has been markedly happier since adding the second medication, but the snot still flows freely from her nose. Abby also had an unexpected trip for an infection in her arm. She got her first mosquito bite and her arm doubled in size. She's since had lots of bites and no reaction, so I don't believe it was just the mosquito bite. A course of antibiotics later her arm looks great expect for a small spot that will probably scar where it had some discharge from the swelling. Yuck! So I'm hoping that we can be done with all that stuff for the rest of the summer.

In May we got to go down and visit family and celebrate my sister Hannah's graduation from high school - man did that make me feel old! The girls had a great time with family and we enjoyed celebrating with lots of friends and family we don't get to see too often. It was ridiculously hot the day of the open house, so I will admit that I was very, very glad to return to the Upper Peninsula the next day (bet you'd never thought I would say that 10 years ago if you knew me). And, like I said before, we just got back from visiting Great Grandma & Grandpa in Blissfield. While we were there the girls got to visit the Toledo Zoo. The last few visits Abby was pretty scared of most of the animals (or uninterested) so it was a pleasant surprise that she loved it this time. She's still talking about the animals she saw and the fun she had. Unfortunately Olivia was not feeling good that day, so she spent her time at the zoo in the baby sling moaning and whimpering. I felt bad for hauling her out, but it was our chance to see the baby elephant and she would have been just as miserable at Grandma & Grandpa's house. It's been a lot of travel, so we are looking forward to a low-key summer with some camping around here and hopefully people traveling up to visit us, since the summers here are magical.

Behind Again...

Yep... it's been more than two weeks. I'm still not mastering this blogging on top of two kid raising. And the kid raising is more important, so this may be a sparse few years. But someday I'll appreciate the fact that I have at least recorded some of the craziness.

We had a really fun mother's day weekend enjoying the beautiful weather that has finally arrived in the upper peninsula. It's been a long wait for spring, but it's finally springing up all around. Yesterday the girls and I spent a lovely afternoon planting things in our garden and pulling up weeds. We added a mature poppy plant (who wants to wait 2 years for flowers?!?), a hydrangea, and a wide assortment of annuals, thanks to Abby's great flower picking skills. She loves red. A lot. But she also got pink, purple, and yellow flowers, so it's going to be a very colorful garden this summer.

We also enjoyed a free trip to Mackinac Island on Saturday. The Star Line ferry company was offering free trips to the island for Chippewa and Mackinac county residents, so we took advantage of that and enjoyed a beautiful walk along the waterfront and into the woods on the island. We even enjoyed some wildflowers and a squirrel who was pretty friendly. And Abby enjoyed eying up the horses, without getting to close of course.

Happy Birthday Abby!!!

Well... we've survived round one of terrible two. Abby celebrated her 3rd birthday about 10 days ago (I'm continuing to fail at finding time to update a blog, sorry). We had dinner at Quiznos on her birthday and then celebrated the following day with an Easter egg hunt with lots of her friends (I think we counted 21 kids in our house plus parents for a total of maybe 40). It's hard to believe our little baby girl is already 3!

Today was Abby's 3 year check up. She's still at the 75th percentile for height and weight (33 pounds, 38 1/8 inches) and is way ahead of the curve for language and cognitive development. So that was all good. But then there was the whole need to take blood for a lead/iron/vitamin D panel. That did not go well. In fact, we have to take her back in to the hospital lab to try and get the blood drawn since the nurses couldn't get it from either arm. My whole body is aching from trying to restrain her so that they could get the draw. It was pretty heartbreaking to hear her screaming "I want to be all better" for the next 20 minutes. I'm dreading taking her in again. And I made the mistake of bringing Olivia with me, so that did not help the situation. We also walked there, so I had to carry Olivia and deal with whimpering Abby walking the 6 blocks home. Luckily there was a spot to stop and get a strawberry smoothie on the way home. Ugh... this is the part of parenting I hate!

We had a great time over the weekend celebrating Easter with our families and we even got to see Jack, Emma, Glenn & Melissa all the way from Minnesota. And Grandpa Harley got to come spend the night at mom & dad's place too, so it was wonderful to see him able to get out and about again. The girls had a great time with all their cousins and especially enjoyed playing with Grandma Mary's puppies. They also had a photo session with their Hodges family cousins, so we are excited for the pictures to come back.