Olivia Hits the Big 6 Months!

Little baby Olivia turned 6 months old on Friday! She is growing up so fast! I may have missed posting about her milestone, but we didn't miss taking her picture so we could remember what a chubby cheeked cutie she was at 6 months old.

We had a very busy weekend (what's new?) with company coming over on Saturday morning and heading to friends on Sunday afternoon to watch the Lions get robbed. Saturday morning we met the Dinger family. Dr. Dinger is the new dentist for the tribe that Steve works for. He has a lovely wife and two kids, so Abby enjoyed having some new playmates for the morning on Saturday. Then the girls practiced their "touchdown" shouting skills watching the Michigan/Notre Dame game (Go Blue!). We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

Olivia enjoyed her first dairy queen blizzard this week. It was chocolate ice cream with brownie and cookie dough pieces. She had a whole face full and probably ruined some pajamas, but she thought it was well worth it.

Oh... and our fall colors are just starting to come on. I love this time of the year. Until I have to start raking...

Oh Well... Go Blue Anyway!

Abby was hoping to feel like this after the Michigan/OSU football game. Unfortunately...
she felt more like this.

But she did enjoy wearing her Michigan warm-ups (Thanks Grandpa Scott!) and she looked good doing it. Now that football season is over for her, Abby is going to have to start learning her basketball lingo, since touchdown really won't work when watching Michigan Basketball with daddy or Michigan Hockey with Grandpa Scott.

We've been really busy, but we are still finding time to squeeze in some random fun. Like colored water bubble baths and Veggie Tales movies. Abby also has been working on not throwing her food onto the floor - Friday night she had 3 time outs for doing that trick before she was excused from the table. I'm pretty sure she only ate about 3 bites of dinner that night, and she did about the same at lunch today. She has suddenly developed an aversion to eating what I put on her plate, but has no problem eating the same foods if we take her out to eat. Weird...

Two Turkeys

We have one turkey cooking in the oven and another cute one who is finally taking her nap. Abby and her dad enjoyed their usual lunch date today and watched the Michigan/UCLA basketball highlights on SportsCenter. Abby wishes her dad would have stayed up with her to watch Michigan win, but they both slept through it, so all they have is the highlight reel.

Tomorrow Abby is going to experience her first Michigan/Ohio State football game. Unfortunately Michigan will probably lose and she will be watching the game in the home of an Ohio State fan, so she will not be able to yell at the t.v. and throw toys at it. Bummer...

If anyone has a pattern for an easy dog sweater to knit or crochet please let us know, poor Maize is freezing to death when we put her outside. Even her paws are getting frostbit and then we have to watch her limp around until they warm up. Abby doesn't like that, so I am trying to crochet up a dog sweater with some scrap yarn. We'll see how this works.

Abby would like to remind you all of her favorite two words during football season "Go Blue"... Have a wonderful weekend :-)

Eating More Cookies

Abby sure loves her cookies! She doesn't ever turn them down, even after scarfing down a whole tub of baby food. She is sure a character :-)

Abby watched her first Michigan/Michigan State football game, but unfortunately it was not the type of game she wanted to see. Oh well, at least Grandpa Harley's team won. More importantly, Abby got her first light saber at Walmart today. Her dad told her to pick the red one, so apparently she is going to be Darth Vader for Halloween. But I have a feeling that she is going to be a little kangaroo instead and that the light saber will be used in the passing out of candy.

Abby and her dad did lots of other fun playing today and she also got to take a warm bath. Unfortunately our house is pretty cold, so the bath was cut short by shivering. But before she got wrapped up she did have a good time with the tub toys.

Boyne Water Baby

We are back from Boyne and we had a great time! Abby had lots of fun with her Grandma and Grandpa and really liked playing with her Aunt Hannah and Aunt Emily. She also had fun with Uncle Nate and Aunt-to-be Courtnie. We all had lots of good times in the pool and in the hotel suite. Abby did lots and lots of splashing in the pool all three days and even played until she was asleep in my arms in the pool on Sunday. She was one tired girl last night.


Abby got to do lots of new things this weekend. We let her play in the fountains in the kids pool, ride down a waterslide, and cruise in the lazy river ride. She really had a great time in the water, especially in the kids pool. She is quite an inquisitive girl and was checking the whole place out. She did a lot of splashing too.


We also were able to ride to the top of the ski hills on the chair lift. We rode up Friday night to have dinner at the little restaurant on the top of the hill. It was a beautiful view. In a few weeks it is going to be even better with all the fall colors. We rode up again Saturday afternoon so we could hike around on top of the ski hills and check out some of the slopes. Abby was very good on the chair lift, which is good because being 20 something feet above the ground with only a small safety bar is a little nervewracking. It is a good thing we had the carrier to strap her in with.

We hope Emily had as much fun on her 13th birthday weekend as we did! And... Michigan even beat Wisconsin in football. We were really excited about that too. Go Blue!

Fruit, Fall, and Football

Our fall leaves are starting to appear - I am not sure if I am excited about this or not. I'm sure Abby won't care and Steve is inside all day at work, so it doesn't bother him either. It seems way to early to me for the leaves to be changing - especially since my Asiatic Lilies just started blooming.
Abby tried out bananas for the first time today and decided that she liked them quite a bit. She really gobbled them right down. It is the first fruit we have found that she likes to eat. Hopefully she will learn to like the other fruits too, but for now we are just glad she is a good veggie eater. Abby's been learning a lot about football in the last two days. First she got to watch lots of college football, including Michigan's win. Grandpa Harley even was here to teach her about football, but she mostly spent time warming back up to Grandma Lorraine. Today Abby's dad tried to get her to watch the Detroit Lions, but she decided to take a nap with her mom instead. It was much more exciting.

Tonight this little squirt is going to have her bi-weekly bath. I'm sure that will be a fun treat for her. She was great in church again and has had a fun afternoon, so we should be able to have a nice bath too. Hopefully she won't have a big splash party like last time!

Let's Go Blue!!

Yay for football season! We hope our team impresses us today!
We've got our gear all ready - including the Michigan wind suit. Now... we must clean. Grandma Lorraine will be here this afternoon (and we just found out this morning). Lots of work to do today!

Our Beach Adventure

Campsite Report Card:

1. View From Campsite (see photo above)..........A+

There was a totally unobstructed view of Lake Michigan from our campsite. There was about 75 yards of stony field full of wildflowers and lots of monarch butterflies between us and the water. It was beautiful! If you click on the photo to get the original sized version you can really appreciate the great view we enjoyed.

2. Camping Facilities..........................................................B-

The outhouses were clean and well stocked and for an outhouse not totally unbearable. The sites were well spaced and probably half had a spectacular lake view. Our site (Number 8) was a little small and we had to put our big tent partly on the drive, so it was a little stony underfoot.

3. The Beach........................................................................D+

We picked this location because it was on the beach, but the shore behind our site was rocky (large boulders, not Lake Superior stones). There was a small amount of sandy beach both to the east and west of the campground, but it was narrow and the water was no more than knee deep for at least 100 yards out. Abby appreciated the super warm waves, but Steve and I were disappointed.

4. Our Fellow Campers..................................................................F

We came home a day early because we were tired of listening to a bunch of out of control teenage girls and another family with at least 4 kids who were up and screaming in the middle of the night. There was also an inordinately large number of dogs running loose and trying to dog fight with Maize, who was restrained at all times as per campground rules.

So.... we had a good time camping. We forgot a few key items, but otherwise Abby thoroughly enjoyed her first camping experience and her first lick of Pop Tart, which happened to be a Michigan Wolverine Pop Tart. But... eating soup without spoons and sleeping without pillows was not the most fun.

We all enjoyed the hammock - it's a good thing I insisted Steve get me one when he was in Guyana a few years ago. Abby had a great time swinging and even Maize enjoys an occasional snuggle in the hammock. And it's a great place to read a book or two.

And Abby in the last two weeks has decided that she loves the water. She didn't like Grandma Mary's pool, but she was instantly a fan of waves washing on her legs. We got lots of smiles and giggles, even when we sat her down in the water. We even put an umbrella up right in the surf to keep her from burning so she could play longer.

Unfortunately our football team lost, but Abby still loves them. And she was mighty glad for the camping sweat suit that Great Grandma Jennie got her. She wore it during the day and over her pajamas at night too!

Lake Michigan Here We Come

Picture from the internet of Little Hog IslandWe are headed to the beach near Little Hog Island this evening. We can't wait. Last night Steve loaded up our car, so all we have left to do is wait for him to get done with work.

Abby did great with her second set of shots. She didn't get any fever and wasn't grouchy at all. The only sign that she had any shots is the red marks where they gave the injections. She is a real trooper.

And... tomorrow is the start of a very special season in this household - Michigan football season! Since we are going to be camping we have already set up the tivo to record the football game. We LOVE our tivo - it is probably the best piece of electronic equipment we have ever purchased. It is WAY better than the average dvr's that the satellite dish companies provide since I can access it from anywhere in the world as long as I have internet and tell my machine what it needs to record. And it searches listings for me based on keywords - which we are currently using to increase Abigail's collection of Disney movies. Yesterday we taped 101 Dalmatians from tv onto the tivo and then from tivo onto dvd with that dvd recorder Steve got us. We are having lots of fun with technology!

Abby and I are going to play and play today so she is ready to take a ride tonight. We'll update you again on Monday evening or Tuesday :-)

The 24 Week Check-In

Steve, Sparky, Maize, and I are watching the Capital One Bowl and hoping that Sparky will not be embarrassed to wear all of the maize and blue gear she has. While we had a great time in Florida, it is wonderful to be at home and back to a more relaxing pace of life. I sure get tired quickly. I also seemed to develop what my brother's affectionately called "cankles" (when your calf and ankle are indistinguishable) from traveling, but I can now see both ankle bones, so I should be back to normal soon.

Sparky may have been the only Obreiter in this house that was awake when midnight hit last night. I was out by 8:30 and Steve was asleep before 11. Even Maize was snoring long before 11. If Sparky was awake, she was being well behaved and let me sleep until about 4 a.m.

This week's stats: My belly measures 42 1/2 inches around (about 1/2 inch in the last two weeks - I didn't measure last week, so we aren't sure when the stretch happened). Sparky is about 12 inches long and 1 pound 5 ounces. I'm sure that is a mere fraction of her final weight. She's been busily beating me up from the inside out. I've decided she must think that gym class is a daily requirement. We've started piling up all of the clothing that people have given Sparky - she is already well stocked until at least 6 months (and I am sure for much longer since most of her gear is still at my mom's house).

Happy New Year to you all from the four of us!

Week 18 - Almost half way there...

Now that Steve is home again, we can get back to the weekly photographic update. I am back down to 40 1/2 inches around (down a half inch from last week). I am blaming the loss in circumfrence on the flu bug that I had last Friday. I was definitely knocked out - I ate lunch on Thursday and didn't eat a real meal again until lunch on Saturday. It was a very long couple days...

We are going to see the doctor on Wednesday. I'm sure it will be rather uneventful, but I am looking forward to hearing the heartbeat again. Now that I've felt Sparky moving it is much easier to get worried that you haven't felt movement in a while. I'm sure the little kicker is just fine, but it's nice to feel the little guy every once in a while.

Our family is all trying to get healthy so we can travel to Hastings for Thanksgiving. After my big sickness on Friday, Maize got really sick and ended up going to the vet for kennel cough. We had a whole lot of dog cough up and puke to clean up this weekend, but we are finally getting that under control too.

Other than our little adventures, things are going well. I feel good and haven't had a problem doing any of the things I've wanted to do. I survived the last football game of the season, including the really long walk from the dental school to the stadium and back. Unfortunately Michigan couldn't make our last football game as students a win - but then again you can't win them all.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family who we won't be able to visit with this holiday season! With love - Jen, Steve, Sparky, and Maize :)

Welcome Home Steve

Steve came home, so Sparky can now sleep (or at least let his mom sleep) in peace. Sparky's newest trick is moving around so that it feels like a million worms are crawling around in my stomach - a very odd sensation.

Sparky is getting pretty heavy, or something like that - my legs are achy at the end of the day and I've got a pulled muscle in one of them. I'm hoping that it clears up before the football game this Saturday. I also reached the too big to sit at my desk with a pillow behind my back milestone today. The pillow was nice for extra lower back support, but with it in the chair I was just too far forward and too out of balance to sit comfortably.

One week until we see the doctor again - it should be a relatively uneventful visit, but the ultrasound is only 3 weeks away. I am voting boy but Steve is hoping girl. We shall see...

Week 13 Update

Tomorrow (or today, depending on whether you listen to the nurse or the doctor) is the start of week 13 - the end of month 3 of pregnancy and the beginning of month 4. Lots of big changes for Sparky this week. We have now officially gotten past the most critical part of pregnancy (and most of the risk of miscarriage). Sparky's primary teeth have all formed by the time this week starts, so I've been getting extra calcium and keeping up on floride to give our little one the best teeth posssible (for his father's sake).

Sparky received his first gift from someone besides his grandmas and great-grandmas. Today a co-worker brought me a very cute little chicken suit. Of course, she didn't have any idea about our little chicken thing - so it was even better. After all, one doesn't really advertise that they were the champion chicken showman at the Barry County Fair. We will have to make Sparky wear his chicken outfit on a visit to the farm next spring to see his Aunt Emily's little rooster.

And now... for the information you've been waiting all week for. My belly is 39 inches around during the evening. I still lose an inch or two during the night, but it only takes an hour or two for the belly to pop right back out the next morning.

We survived the Cirque Du Soliel, the Michigan football game, and the baby shower for baby Roth last weekend. Next weekend will be Sparky's first trip to Hastings and his first Hastings High School football game. We are looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family and a weekend of some rest and relaxation.

Stretching and Soreness

I had more stretching of the muscles in my abdomen and soreness today. On the brightside, this means that it was probably not the football game last weekend that made me so sore. I am of the opinion that too much shopping yesterday was probably the culprit, along with Sparky's growing (and probably moving). I headed to Lansing yesterday to meet my Mom, Aunt Sue, Hannah, Emily, Meghan, Elaine, and Laura to do some shopping. It was a great time catching up with them and finding too many good baby bargains. Sparky, whether a he or a she, will not have to wear the same outfit twice for at least the first month or two or more. There are shorts, shirts, bathing suits, and in great abundance. It was a lot of fun to spend the time with my family and to enjoy planning for this new little life.

Since I was sore all day today, Sparky and I will be working up to the football game again on Saturday. I think I may have a football addiction. Steve may have to drop me off at the stadium and then walk down by himself, but I think I can make it. I have a feeling that Sparky will be a Michigan football fan right away too. Afterall, at least two of the new shirts are Michigan shirts, with coordinating shorts. And now... after that attempt at "relaxing" this weekend, I will probably be heading off to bed at a very early hour.

Check-Up #1

I went to prenatal check up number 1 this morning. It was rather uneventful. I had heard horror stories of the humiliation I would have to endure, but this was rather painless. I remembered to tell the nurse that I am a fainter when it comes to needles, so I got to lay down during the draw and was able to get right up and walk out without the ususal dramatics. Of course she said after the poke I wouldn't feel a thing, and of course I could feel the darn needle the whole time. I'm sure I will be donating blood to the lab everytime I visit, so I guess I will just have to get used to the whole get-up, but that doesn't make it any better.

So six vials of blood later I was told to come back in two weeks for the visit with the doctor and all of the poking, prodding, and checking. The nurse gave us the estimated due date of April 22nd, which is the same date I had calculated. Check back on September 26 for all the cool stuff, like the heartbeat.

Tomorrow it is off to the Michigan/Notre Dame football game. This baby is destined to be a Wolverine. Hopefully the team can pull off a win so that Sparky doesn't try to escape the game again and stretch my belly out even more. It will also be the first time we spend with Steve's classmates after announcing the pregnancy, so I am sure that a lot of belly rubbing will be occuring - I might as well get used to it now since I am sure it is going to happen a lot during the next seven months.

Morning Sickness

At 5 weeks pregnant I thought I was doing well and wouldn't be dealing with morning sickness, but I was terribly mistaken. I spent three entire days strecthed out on the couch, trying very hard not to be ill. I then decided to start keeping track of what was "safe" to eat. So far the very short list is toast, bananas, pizza, raw vegetables, grapes, and milk. This could be a very boring diet for the next few months.

Other than the intermitten morning sickness I have been feeling fine. Steve and I have been trying to keep active in anticipation of next Saturday's kick off to football season - which will require lots of walking and standing.