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.

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.

Going Cordless

Olivia turned 3 weeks old today and had two little milestones in the last 36 hours. The first was her first spit-up, which of course went right down the front of my shirt yesterday around lunch time. I could have done without that. The second was losing her umbilical cord stump this morning - oddly enough at the same moment she was spitting up down the front of my shirt. So she is now cordless and Abby is having a great time comparing belly buttons with her baby sister.

Abby has been having a good and bad transition to being a big sister. Most days and most times are good, but she's also been having lots of meltdowns and fits. It will be good to try a day just the three of us girls tomorrow so we can start to establish some rules and regulations for the little girls who live around here. One will need to learn to nap by herself and the other will need to learn that she can't have everything she wants right at the minute she wants it. Actually... reading that sentence I think they both need to learn both of those lessons. I guess I have a lot of work to do.

We had a lot of fun with Grandpa Roy and Grandma Von here the last few days. And we got a lot of yard work done thanks to Grandpa. We have a great spot set for Abby and Olivia's new swing set and a nice new garden with a small rock retaining wall (we found the rocks when we were cleaning up the weedy "gardens" that were left out back). Last night we had a little birthday party for Abby and Grandpa Roy, since Grandpa's birthday was about 2 weeks ago and Abby's birthday is in 2 weeks. She had a great time opening some presents and has lots of cool new Belle things and princess pajamas. She was very impressed with it all, except for the singing gift bags... those kind of freaked her out.

Abby and I went tonight to our small group bible study for the first time since the first Wednesday in March. She had a great time seeing her friends, although she has completely forgotten her playtime manners and how to share. We have some major re-learning ahead of us on that front. But it was great to see friends and have some adult conversation with them. Abby gave all of her friends big hugs on her way out the door... it was the most adorable thing. I can't wait for Olivia to get big enough to have such great friends too.

Frozen Fingers

Somehow I managed to get locked out of our house this morning. I'm not sure if Abby or Maize closed the locked door behind me or if I shut it myself. All I know is that I found myself outdoors with no keys or coat and wet hair this morning. Luckily I happened to have my cell phone in my pocket, so I was able to call Steve for help. After about 20 minutes he showed up to open the doors. I'm not sure his patient appreciated switching dentists midway through the procedure, but I'm pretty sure I would have frozen to death if I had to wait for him to finish his filling before he came to rescue me.

Abby, meanwhile, was enjoying her time in a parent-free zone. She was laughing and waving at me while I watched her through the french doors (thank God we have those!). I'm pretty sure this was all one big plot. First she had the world's stinkiest dirty diaper, which required immediate removal to the outdoor garbage can. Then she made sure I got stuck outside with the diaper. And she proceeded to pull out her ponytail, take off her shoes, and otherwise undo all the progress I had made toward taking a little girl to her playgroup. Maize, on the other hand, was freaking out. I think she realized how dangerous it could be to be trapped in the house with only Abby.

Needless to say, we now have multiple sets of extra keys outdoors. We had loaned our extra set to a friend who watched Maize in September while we traveled and hadn't gotten it back yet. But now there are many places where I can get a set of keys if I need them. So Abby is out of luck on locking me out.

I enjoyed my birthday yesterday, but got reminded again of why Steve and I don't even bother trying to watch grown-up movies or t.v. anymore. We put on a movie we had wanted to see (we knew it had very little if any swearing and only a little violence, which Abby doesn't notice because she only listens and doesn't watch most of the time). We didn't get to watch much - first it was "color with Abby" and then it was Mr. Potato Head time, then it was "read Abby book." I think we ended up pausing the movie about 20 times. And we had both read the book the movie is based on, so although we liked the movie, we thought that the book was much better and knowing the story ahead of time made the movie less interesting. Don't act all surprised - I have gotten Steve to read some books for pleasure. I know it seems like a stretch, but he really has been reading more.

Happy Birthday to Mom

I got an early morning wake up from Abby this morning. Not really the world's most wonderful "happy birthday," but from Abby I will take an early morning wake up call. Abby ended up snuggling with us from 3:30 a.m. on. I'm pretty sure she is having some of the same sinus and congestion issues Steve and I are having and just can't vocalize it.

I'm celebrating my birthday by doing a dinner make-ahead marathon. So far I've done beef and bean enchiladas and turkey alfredo. Abby has been helping me and standing on her "helper stool" watching me cook. She should be well versed in cooking by the time she is old enough to actually use the stove. Unfortunately, while I was in the middle of my cook off I realized that everything I had made so far would be banned if I test positive for diabetes again on Wednesday (actually, it would be the next week since I'd have to fail both tests before I got the label back). So, I'm hoping all my cooking ahead for weeks when I am tired isn't in vain. But if it is, then I guess I'll have a lot of cooking done for when Baby Sister arrives.

And... by the way, there are only 100 days until her due date. That means only about 93 days until the c-section and only about 4 weeks until we see the surgeon and hopefully set the c-section date. Abby is getting excited to meet her little sister and I am very excited to get this pregnancy behind me and my aching back :-)

The Party Pictures

Here are a few of the pictures from Abby's actual birthday. The weather was so wonderful yesterday that we went to the park after having dinner and cupcakes. And today was great again, so we played with Abby's new bubble mower outside, but it wouldn't bubble. So we have to see if we can trouble shoot that mower when Steve gets home tonight.

One Year Old!!!

We survived the first birthday - here's to many more! We have new pictures to upload tomorrow, but for now Abby is demanding mommy's full and complete attention. Or ELSE!

First Birthday Tomorrow!!!

It's hard to believe that exactly one year ago today I was in labor just about to have a small, sweet baby girl. What a difference a year makes! Abby has gone from 8 pounds to over 22 (we will get the official weigh-in on Friday at her 1 year checkup). She can walk, is starting to talk, feeds herself, and is a wonderful friend to Maize and her dolls.

Abby took her birthday money from Great Grandma Jennie & Great Grandpa Steve and her gift card from our friend Erin and went to Wal-Mart this morning. She picked out a dog groomer little people set and we also found some new Dr. Suess books, since they are her favorites. And she also got new t-shirts and socks since she has outgrown her 18 month sized onesies. What a huge girl! She also got a Crayola color wonder set, so she should be able to color without wrecking any of our things. We can't wait to test them out and show off Abby's art skills.

It's a great day in the U.P. today - almost 60 degrees! So nice that we will probably take a little walk when Steve gets home. Maybe we'll even have a little birthday dinner downtown for Abby tonight since our tomorrow is going to be busy. But we have to make sure that we have enough time to make the birthday cupcakes for Abby to enjoy tomorrow. We are planning to share the extras with her Dad's fellow employees. For now I'd better get back to playing - Abby is climbing her chairs trying to get to the coke can on the end table, could be dangerous!

A Wonderful Weekend

We made it home last night after a wonderful weekend visiting family and friends in Hastings. Abby had some great birthday parties (3 of them) and enjoyed her first Easter egg hunt. We have lots and lots of pictures, which are going to be posted on our flickr site, since it is much faster than posting them here. Here's one of the pictures of Abby eating her second birthday cake. She mostly just picked the M&M's off the bunny's bow tie.

Abby got fun gifts and we got a new baby horse. She still needs a name, but we are pretty sure she is the most beautiful horse we've ever had!

13 Days

Abby's birthday countdown is on :-)

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa Harley!

Sorry it's one day late.

We have some new pictures to post later today, but first we need a nap and shower. We just wanted to make sure to send happy birthday wishes to Grandpa Harley!

Countdown to One

I woke up this morning and realized that we only have about 3 weeks until Abby's first birthday. It seems so unreal - she is growing up way, way to fast.

I took Abby's picture yesterday while she was watching traffic go by out the front window. I think it may be one of the most beautiful pictures of her that I've taken. We have a lot of really cute ones, but this is definitely my favorite.

We are finally back to normal and getting caught up. I still haven't even started tackling the laundry - that is this afternoon's project. I had too much to put away and had grocery shopping and such to do yesterday, so laundry was low on the priority list. Plus I spent most of my time on one of my biggest daily priorities - playing lots and lots of games with sweet Abby.

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa Steve Osgood! We wish we could be down to help celebrate Grandpa's birthday, but we will hopefully be down in Hastings this coming weekend, so we can give him a birthday hug and kiss then. Until then, Abby taped a special birthday message for him.

Abby doesn't get to take her morning naps anymore, at least for a day or two while we try to figure out why she keeps waking up at 4 in the morning. We are hoping she is just sleeping too much during the day and not taking the morning nap will solve that problem. She is getting bigger, so we bet she can make it all morning just playing. I, on the other hand, may not be able to make it all morning after being up around 4 a.m. for the last 4 mornings. That is just too early!

Abby has survived one wicked bout of diaper rash. Something she ate yesterday morning must have been a bad idea because it make her little insides sick and she got the worst diaper rash in her short history. It went from nothing at noon to broken skin by 1:30. Luckily our great doctor's office was super helpful and got Abby some prescription diaper rash cream ("Magic Butt Paste"). She is now feeling good again after a whiny afternoon and evening. We are guessing that the yogurt covered cranberries were the culprit, since everything else she ate yesterday was previously eaten and successfully digested. I guess we'll have a whole bag of yogurt covered cranberries up for claims when we come to visit on Friday night.

11 Degrees and Sunny, Wind Chill - 15

That is our forecast for today. No snow, we hope. We had a good day yesterday on my birthday. Abby was a little crabby, but when you are getting a new tooth that sort of thing happens. She also ate Shrek (or a whole mouthful of green beans without swallowing any of them). She is a really silly girl and she really, really loves her green beans!

We got some projects started yesterday and Steve finished a major one. We now have shelves in the bathroom closet that had previously been totally empty. It was a tricky fix, with it being a triangular closet and all, but Steve did a great job at getting 3 usable shelves into it. He's pretty handy, even if he doesn't know it!

We also started the new car search last night by driving around our local dealerships so that we can hopefully take a few vehicles out for a test drive next weekend and figure out what we like and don't like. So far the Ford Escape is our favorite from the outside, but just like people, the inside is usually most important. It was hard work scraping the snow and ice off the windows in the car lot to see what was available. And tinted windows over the spec. sheets wasn't too helpful! Plus riding around in the car was a good nap time for Abby, and she really needed it.

Abby learned how the ride the horse both forward and backward, but it is still bucking her off every once in a while. She is still learning that you can't lean over to grab things while riding the horse, so we've had a few bumps along the way. She always wants right back on her pony though, so she must be pretty tough!

Clean Sweep

We did a little (okay, a lot) of cleaning and reorganizing today to make room for new things and put some old messes away after 6 months of laying around. It was hard work. Abby's room is now sparkling clean, toys on the shelves, clothes in the dresser, too small things in the box. Whew... She was a great helper! Not only that, we got our room clean too and Steve is working on a set of shelves for the bathroom closet that was empty (just a big open waste of space). Soon our towels and sheets will be moving out of my bookshelf and into the closet so that our books can move out of Abby's room and into our own. That's a lot of moving for a little place like this.

We are retiring the 1998 Buick LeSabre that I've been driving since law school started. It died in the driveway before we could leave for the Christmas holiday and the repair bill was to close to the value of the car to make it worth spending the money on the poor old thing. So it is on to the great car hunt for us. So far we've decided we like cars and suv's better than crossover vehicles, so I don't think a Ford Edge or Flex will be ending up in our driveway anytime soon (unless we get a great deal that is). We are going to have to plan some extra time to go out car shopping since there aren't too many options up here. And test driving things with a toddler carseat, which is harder to switch from car to car, is not going to be that fun either. Poor Buick... we were planning to keep her around for a few more years.

Tomorrow I hit 27 - no big plans for my birthday since there isn't anything all that exciting we can really do up here. Maybe a baby free trip to the grocery store and some chinese takeout. Have a wonderful Sunday :-)

Dear Miss Manners...

Abby has been working hard on her table manners. Sometimes they work and sometimes an entire animal cracker gets jammed into her mouth (and then hangs out of her mouth while she gums it). She is, unfortunately for Maize, getting much better about not sharing her food with her dog. That is a very big step!

We are still home alone until 10 or 11 tonight, so Abby and I are headed off to bible study by ourselves. We also have to remember to bring the bacon and sausage for our weekly potluck dinner, which is breakfast foods tonight. And the birthday present for Abby's friend Madison who turned 1 year old today! Wow... I am going to be making several trips to the car. And we are going to start that car early - it is less than 10 degrees outside today. Brr....

Happy Birthday Mohawks

Abby tried to talk her dad into getting a birthday mohawk when he went to get his haircut, but he went for the traditional style instead. That didn't stop Abby from sporting her own mohawk. We tried to get the picture, but her hair is a little too fine for it to capture well on the camera.

Here's another picture that didn't make the Christmas card cut. We are still waiting on the ones that made the cut to come back from being printed, so we aren't going to get the Christmas cards out for at least a few days. By tomorrow I'm sure we will have a few lovely photos by the Christmas tree, which Steve is picking out while I type.

And speaking of Steve, he loved the birthday presents Abby and I picked out for him. He's got two great warm sets of pajamas, a new sweater, and a new video game. Plus there is college football and he didn't have to work. I think that adds up to a great birthday in his book!

Big Helpers

Abby and her friend A.J. were big helpers today while she accompanied me and some other ladies from our small group to Christian Freedom International's store to help make some holiday gift baskets with items from around the world. They had so much cool stuff - we probably came home with more of it than we needed. We especially loved the handmade baby sling, which was apparently really comfortable since Abby fell asleep in it while I was making bows and wrapping filled gift baskets. We both had a lot of fun.

And now for the planning of Steve's birthday festivities. Since he had to get up at 5:30 this morning to shovel our driveway and scrape off both cars, I'm sure part of his big birthday plans includes sleeping in as late as possible. I'm sure Abby and I will be happy to oblige him and probably make him some breakfast in bed :-)

Happy Weekends!!!