I Learned This From My Mother

I have an awesome mother - how awesome I did not realize until this week when I had 7 kids to take care of at the same time. Now, she may have only had 6 children, and there was a little more space between us than between the group I've had lately, but still... my mom is amazing. I don't know how she survived it, or how we survived it for that matter. This little girl is the reason I've had 7 kids under my roof on and off since Wednesday. Her name is Felecia and she is the little sister of the whole bunch of big kids that have been staying with Steve and I. I have three wonderful friends up here in the frozen north, but of the three I spend the most time with Kimberlee - we go to church together, live closest out of the bunch, and I have a backyard that her boys often need to blow off some steam in. On Monday she had an emergency c-section and we added Felecia to the bunch of babies that come and play at our place. Except that Felecia, like her soon-to-be best friend Olivia, has been giving us a big scare and spending some time in the NICU. She's making major improvements, but there isn't a definite timetable for her to be home. So, until then we are on-again off-again parent stand-ins for the rest of her brothers and sisters. We are off this weekend after a long couple days of entertaining and comforting kids who were really missing their mom.

So here's my happy bunch (from left to right: Huron (2), Nia (11) Nikomi (11), Olivia, Rian (3 1/2), Abby, and Evelin (9). They've been really awesome and the big girls have been super helpful. And we've even learned how to take care of Evelin's insulin pump and manage her diabetes - I hope we NEVER have to do that for one of our own kids!In the middle of all the crazy I took Olivia in for her check-up and flu shot. She was a healthy 18 pounds (50th percentile) and was up to 26 1/2 inches (25th percentile). And she was super friendly and inquisitive, so we got the all clear, good job, looks like she's doing great from the doctor. He'd even forgotten she'd been in the NICU since she's done so well since coming home. We are certainly blessed beyond measure. She is going full bore on the army crawling and stealing of Abby's toys. It won't be long and she'll be crawling for real - she's already up on all fours, she just has to figure out how to make her limbs go. It's amazing how fast she's growing up. It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital.
Abby has been enjoying having some round the clock friends and her first slumber party. It was her first and last co-ed sleepover and all 3 toddlers did fine after some initial tears because the boys really, really missed their momma. The three of them really love each other, so I've had a fun week listening to them play together and enjoy the company of a kid from another family. Pretty soon they are going to think of each other as siblings instead of friends - Abby had already been calling them her brothers for a few weeks.

Abby's also doing good potty training, although she's had a few accidents with all the chaos and me forgetting to remind her to run in and use the potty. But she's back to staying dry all night, so I'm betting we will be done with the pull ups full time in the next few weeks. She sure is growing up fast.

Halloween Hangover

We had a lot of fun on Halloweekend. It is a lot more fun with a girl big enough to be excited about trick or treating and understand the idea of going door to door and saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" to each house. Abby had a great time. We had a party and went trick or treating with all her best friends. When I say we went trick or treating I mean Abby and Steve - Olivia slept through the entire costume part of the party. Now the hard part is regulating the candy consumption, since we had quite a bit of leftover candy (I may have overdone it with 4 bowls...).

Olivia is getting quite close to figuring out crawling. She's been practicing picking her belly up off the floor for the last couple of days. She's going to have me running around chasing her soon. And I'm going to need to get my baby gates up before I want to. Olivia's also working on night 3 of the Cry It Out method of sleep training tonight. I wish she could have been easy like Abby, who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and never stopped after that. Olivia, on the other hand, has been up once or twice each night since about 6 months (we had that brief interval from 4 months to around 6 months where she slept all night, so I know she can do it). We started Sunday night with the CIO plan. Olivia woke up at 11:45 and after Steve checked on her and put her back into bed she cried until after 2:00. It was a long, long night laying in bed listening to her cry. I hated every second of it, but I hate feeling exhausted even more. Last night she woke up twice, but only cried for 10 or 15 minutes each time, so I'm hoping after another night or two she will have the system figured out and will just put her little thumb back into her mouth and go to sleep.

Abby is still cracking us up. She has been really into barbies and dancing lately, so we had a barbie dance party last night. She had all her barbies lined up around one of Olivia's blankets and they were all taking turns dancing. She also dances at any opportunity (music on t.v. shows, songs she makes up, even the nintendo wii dancing game). I think dance class will be in her future - and I know her dad is not looking forward to all those dance recitals.

9 Months Old!

Here's another good picture from Abby's sled ride the other day. It has been too cold to do more than dash outside into a pre-heated car the last couple days.

I was trying hard today to decide which was harder - the first nine months of Abby's life, carrying her around inside and depriving myself of sugar and caffeine and cold medicine, or the second nine months. They both have been new and exciting times with lots to remember. But I think in the end the rewards from Abby after birth outweigh any of the things that have made it challenging at times.

Two nights ago Abby and I were looking at a book with pictures of our family in it. I asked her to point to Mommy and she did. She also found Daddy and Maize. She is still working on learning the rest of the family. Right now Uncle Dan is her favorite one to find in the pictures - maybe because he is so much taller than all the rest of us! She is getting to be the smartest kid on the block. She sometimes uses words to get the message across, like today when she said "up" after she was finished eating her breakfast (she wanted me to pick her up out of her high chair) and last night when she told Steve "hug" so she could have a hug from her daddy. Slowly we are working on new words, but sweet, shy Abigail won't preform her words in front of other people yet. She also wouldn't climb the stairs yesterday when I was watching her. I figured it would be better for her to learn to do it with some supervision, since we are going to have stairs and she is going to have to use them if she wants a bath. We will have to keep working on that one.

Stay warm! We are enjoying lovely sun with our sub-zero arctic temperatures, so at least it looks beautiful outdoors. But we do have a lake effect snow advisory for 5 to 8 inches by tomorrow morning - YIKES!!!

Riding An English Pony

Abby has decided that her new pony has an English saddle, so she has been practicing her posting. For those of you who aren't up on the language of a horseman, posting is lifting yourself out of the saddle every other stride while a horse is trotting. Abby is getting very good at this portion of horseback riding. In fact, we have had no falls and Abby has not been bucked off in 2 whole days. She has really been practicing this horse riding thing!

















Our back porch bird seems to have disappeared. Perhaps it got out the same way it got in. If not, I'm sure I will find it when I take the recycling to the recycling station this weekend. I'm hoping it's option one.

We made Maize a dog bed yesterday with our new sewing machine. She liked it so well she slept on it for two whole hours before she went back to sleeping on the couch. I also finished a pair of fake "Ugg" booties for Abby, but they were still a bit tight, so we've started on some ballet flat booties instead. The first one was pretty big, so I may have to make a liner to help keep them on. And, besides all the crafting our floor must be cleaned so Abby the escape artist doesn't accidentally eat anything she shouldn't on her adventures outside the living room. So much to do, so little time!!!

Army Crawl

From last Friday. This is Abby practicing her crawling. She is even better now!

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I think the above statement would accurately describe our weekend so far. We have been running, running, and running some more. First we were out late Friday night at bible study, and Steve was home late from Lansing. Then we had a cookie baking party Saturday afternoon, Steve went to the Lake Superior State U. hockey game Saturday night, and Abby and I spent the evening with a friend. We are all wiped out from that big day!

I don't know if any of you have the same problems at your Wal-Mart, so if this doesn't sound like your average trip be glad. We have an abundance of Canadians who cross the International Bridge to shop at our Wal-Mart (even though there is one on their side of the bridge as well) and so no matter the time or day, our Wal-Mart always seems to be unusually busy. Today was no exception. I think I waited in aisle gridlock for at least 5 minutes in the dairy/soup aisle. I cannot wait until the Super Wal-Mart opens - at least then there will be more space for all these people to fit into...

Abby is still working on perfecting her crawling skills. She was getting around the McDonald's house pretty well last night before she fell asleep. She still hasn't figured out how to get the knees and hands moving together so that she doesn't end up in a faceplant, but I bet it won't take her too long to figure that part out. She's already figured a lot of new things out in the last couple days. And she only has one scrape so far, so we should still be having a photogenic Christmas.

And now for the weather update... it is the first day in about 3 weeks above freezing, but we are getting a snow/sleet/freezing rain mix, so I think I'd rather have the fridgid temperatures and snow that that yucky stuff. There was at least 2 inches of slush in the Wal-Mart parking lot. We've got about a foot of snow in most of the yard (more where it has been shoveled and piled). So if you are dreaming of a white Christmas, I know where you can find one. I'll gladly trade if you can guarantee me 75 degrees and sunny...

Home (Almost) Alone

Abby and I are hanging by ourselves tonight while Steve is down in Lansing for a dental conference. But do not fear, we have an extra guard dog tonight to help keep us safe. Actually... we are dog sitting for a friend, so Maize and Jessie are having a dog slumber party and Abby and I are chaperoning them. And since Abby enjoys dogs it works out well for everyone, except maybe me who has extra dogs to watch and no one to help entertain Abby so I can wash dishes and such tonight... That must mean we need to go out for dinner and Abby would especially enjoy watching kids at the McDonald's play land.

Anyway, Abby has one Christmas outfit that is not a beautiful dress, so she wore that the other day and we took some Christmas tree pictures. She is mostly trying to figure out how to get the candy canes off the Christmas tree and then how to get the candy cane taste into her mouth. Luckily for us she can't get the wrappers off, yet. Today Abby was working really hard on crawling on her hands and knees and I was working really hard on taping her, but she is a ham and quit trying as soon as I turned the camera on. She also pulled herself into a standing position all by herself, but then she let go and took a nose dive right into the side of the couch. Ouch... I guess it's a good thing that we have hard skulls - Abby's seems to get a lot of use lately.

Hopefully by tomorrow we have some great crawling footage. If not you can just imagine this... Abby on her hands and knees, followed by Abby extending her legs straight up (think triangle, since that is what she looked like), followed by a second attempt to get on her hands and knees, then bouncing up and down on her hands and knees, but all with no forward or backward movement...

New Room!

Abby has a new bedroom! We will try to load up a video tour later. Steve and I decided that the 10 degree temperature difference between our upstairs and downstairs was fine for two well insulated adults, but that Abigail had better live downstairs. So now Abby has her own playroom and bedroom downstairs and the extra bed is sharing a room with our exercise equipment.

The new room did not make Abby happy enough to sleep in her own bed all night. She has a little congestion and a runny nose, so she was up in the night to have a bottle, a snuggle, and some vicks vapor rub for babies. But other than that little incident we'd have to say that Abby loves her new room.

Yesterday Abby started working really hard at learning to crawl. She now flips herself from sitting to a crawling position, but then she stalls out again and lands on her belly. One of these times she is going to get the hang of it and will be off like lightning after Maize.

A Welcome Home Present

We made it home last night to a snow covered driveway, and the snow is still falling. It is so beautiful! Abby and I say bring it on, as long as we can watch it from the warmth of our living room.

We had a wonderful week down visiting in Hastings, but it was really good to be home. In fact, Abby did some of her best smiling and playing last night when she got her toys back. She can be quite a ham. While she was gone Abby reached one (and a half) milestone that we were really looking forward to. We now have a mobile girl, but only in reverse. Abby is a very proficient backwards scooter now and she is trying harder and harder to get going forward. Abby also almost has her first tooth (the lower right central incisor). It is just right there and you can definitely see the edge of it about to come through. Maybe by tomorrow we will no longer be parents to a toothless wonder.

We got to do lots of visiting in Hastings - Abby got to see almost all her grandparents (she only missed out on Grandpa Roy and Great Grandpa Duane who were in Florida and Great Grandpa and Grandma Gamble). She also got to see all her first cousins and her new second cousin Camree Kissinger. It was really fun. And we got to go shopping, to Aunt Emily's basketball game, and to Great Grandma Jennie's flower shop. As you can guess, we were super busy and now Abby and I are both ready to just spend a few days playing barbies and watching Handy Manny.

Abby also learned screaming this past week. Not the crying type of screaming - we are talking more about the Braveheart style shout of defiance. Oh joy... We have a lot more pictures to share, but you'll just have to wait until another day to see a few more.