Need Versus Want

Does anyone have a good way to explain the difference between the words "want" and "need" to a toddler (and a baby too... but I'm willing to give her the benefit of her age and not scream because she doesn't understand). Today seemed to be an all day battle over listening and responding to what I was asking. For example, I want to sleep later than 6:30 a.m., but it's not a need. And today it didn't happen since Abby decided to crawl into my bed, kick for about 30 minutes, and then loudly announce that she needed breakfast (which she consequently did not eat, so it must have been a want, not a need). I, personally, needed coffee. Not wanted... needed.

Then there is my favorite recurring dialogue:

Me: "Abby, do you need to go potty?"
Abby: "No, I don't want to."

Two minutes later she pees her pants (or worse...). We did this at least 3 times today. Apparently when I ask if she needs to go potty what she is hearing is more like "Abby if you want to use the potty that would make mommy happy, but you can also pee all over yourself and the floor since you are insisting on wearing big girl panties... your choice." Ugh!

Apparently "you need to take a nap" is also not translating well. Fortunately "stay in your bed or I will give you a spanking" was heard loud and clear, so eventually Abby did take her nap. Olivia... not so much. She is going to be one crabby baby later this evening.

The Great Melt

I've been racking my brains trying to figure out what to get Abby for her birthday. We didn't want to spend a whole lot on birthday presents, since a new swing set and play place is in the plans for this summer. Boy this girl is hard to shop for - she has everything a kid could want or need. Last night I took some well deserved personal time to go out and do some birthday browsing. I was met at the door by Abby, who could have cared less about what was in the bags and was only worried about the fact that I had princess wrapping paper with me.

Abby is acting like she feels better today, but her nose is still pretty runny and stuffed up. She's a tough little lady. In fact, I don't think she would have taken a nap today if I hadn't physically placed her into her bed and then laid down in "mommy's princess" bed (also known as the second twin bed in Abby's room).

Baby Sister is still trying to escape and Abby is still plotting and planning with her at every chance. I hope that Abby still thinks her little sister is cool when she is outside of my belly. Last night Abby randomly put her hand on my belly and got a nice, swift kick from her little sister. Unlike the last few times, when she was majorly freaked out, Abby thought that was pretty darn funny. So today she's been pushing on my belly hoping to get kicked again.

On a weather note, we are supposed to be above freezing for the next 7 days (at least) and we are having some major melting going on. I can almost see the whole deck again (and all the "presents" Maize left on it this winter) and the yard is getting some pretty thin spots where the grass will be showing soon. Now it's time to start planning where we are going to place gardens and swing sets and all of those fun things we couldn't do since we moved a little too late in the season last year. I'm even thinking a fire ring would be a nice addition... but then again maybe too dangerous for Abby.

Making Up For Yesterday

Abby decided to make up for yesterday's lack of napping by taking an early morning power nap. So, I enjoyed some personal time from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. I am trying to make Abby her own kitten hat, but I think the one I am making is going to be too big. We shall see. And this morning I did some customizing to the set of curtains we had for Abby's room. We bought pink sheers and then blackout curtains, so I had to sew the sheers onto the liners and then we put a butterfly ribbon to hide the seams (and match the sheet set Abby has). They are starting to look pretty cute!

We are trying out new Disney movies today. So far we've watched The Little Mermaid and we just got started on 101 Dalmatians. It was time for a change :-)

Only 2.5 days until Daddy gets home!

Operation Sleep and Grow

Abby has grown a whole inch since turning 18 months - putting her up to 33 1/2 inches. She is getting pretty tall! We've been keeping track on our old, nasty door to the basement and we wanted to take a measurement yesterday because we are pretty sure she is on the verge of a huge growth explosion. Lately Abby has been sleeping 12 or more hours at night and napping 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours each day. And on top of that she's been putting away food like she has a hollow leg. Steve had to go through the line a second time at Taco Bell on Thursday because Abby finished all her food, tried mine, and was still hungry. She ended up eating two entire cheese roll-ups and about 6 bites of taco.

I, on the other hand, need to be doing more of the sleeping and less of the growing. I'm figuring out today how fun an upset stomach can be with a little person inside wiggling around. And yesterday got to bag up all but 5 pairs of my maternity pants because they were just too uncomfortable in the waistline. It's a very good thing that I just stay home with Abby, who doesn't really care what I am wearing. She's going to be seeing the same things over and over and over for the next 11 weeks.

Sweet Victory

We only had 10 minutes of crying and door pounding before she gave up and put herself into bed. When I was gone Steve got her to sleep at nap time almost instantly, no crying... I don't know how he did it. He must be the baby whisperer.

And since we got Abby into bed I've been cleaning up around here, since it is a big, huge mess! So far I've managed to clean off the surfaces, which seem to be super clutter catchers. And I realized that Abby stole one of the votive holders in my 5 candle holder, so I have 4 of 5 glass pieces... ugh - that thing could be anywhere!

And now... back to cleaning since it is going to be a crazy, busy, and emotional few days. Yesterday we lost a friend we had made up here, so there will be a funeral to attend. It is of course Michigan vs. Ohio State weekend and the Lions vs. the Browns, so there will be football viewing parties to host. And it is an Angel Food distribution weekend (we are almost done with the project - after December we will have our weekends back). So, needless to say we will be busy and won't have much time between events and such to clean back up.

Napping Battles

We are having a nap time power struggle for the last few days. Today I am letting Abby stay up as late as she can handle to see if that will make her so tired she falls asleep without the massive amounts of crying and door pounding. She's asking to take a nap now, so we will see how this experiment works...

Daylight Savings Time = BAD!

We are not enjoying daylight savings time. I have been getting less and less sleep lately from the pregnancy. So when Saturday night rolled around we tried to keep Abby up an extra hour hoping that would help her make the "fall back" switch. Wrong... Instead I was up an extra hour and still up at her normal time (8 a.m, which was now 7 a.m., on a Sunday morning when I don't need to be up until 9 a.m.). We are still fighting the fight. She was super sleepy and ready for bed at 8 last night, rather than her normal 9 or 10 p.m. bedtime and she woke me up at 4 a.m. this morning.

I really need a nice long nap, and this string of icky weather we've been having has been just what I need to help with napping. Now I just need to get rid of the rest of the things I need to complete, so that I can actually take advantage of the nice napping weather.

Abby has been singing to us lately. She is really funny. Today she was singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. It went about like this... Twinkle star wonder are. She is pretty much adorable. She also loves to sing Jesus Loves Me to me, mostly in the car. She insists that the radio be off before she sings. And, if she doesn't like the song on the radio, she sticks her fingers into her ears and yells out "change, change" until I switch songs. It is hilarious!

Stinky Dog Kisses

Abby has been particularly enjoying dog kisses lately. Last night I was snuggling her after she jumped head first off the couch and noticed a very doggish smell coming right off the top of her head. She must have been letting Maize groom her or something. They were back at it again this morning and Abby was cracking up. What a nut!

Abby has recently discovered lotion and is now obsessed with getting it rubbed onto her. I think she likes the rubbing more than the lotion feeling, but I'm sure that the lotion feels good on her dry skin (I know... I have terrible dry skin in the winter too). She keeps finding me bottles of lotion and bringing them to me. I now have quite a collection of lotion bottles. She is going to be quite a girlie girl someday I am afraid.

We are waiting for the little princess to wake up from her nap. She has in the last week been putting herself in bed. I just place her in her room, get told to "go away," shut the door and leave. She plays for a little bit and then makes her way into bed. I always go check on her within 30 minutes to make sure she got into bed and to leave her door open so she can escape when she wakes up. It's been working out well so far, which will be a big help when I have a second kid to put down for a nap too.

Toddler Bed

We had a rough first night for the toddler bed and an even rougher nap time, but Abby is making up for that with her sleeping last night. She is still in the bed and working on her 9th hour of sleep!

Night one lasted until 2:30, when I woke her up by getting up to use the bathroom. I got her back to sleep in the toddler bed for about an hour, then she woke up again and ended up in our bed. To her credit she is getting two molars in (they are breaking through enough to feel) and they are cleaning the blast furnaces in Soo Canada during the midnight hours, so it basically sounds like a plane is taking off from our front yard all night long.

Nap time is going to be our biggest challenge with the toddler bed. We normally either let her fall asleep snuggling us or get her pretty close to asleep at night before we move her, so that transition goes fine. Her normal nap routine used to involve just plopping her wide awake in her crib and she would settle herself down and be asleep within a matter of 5 minutes. That obviously doesn't work when she can just let herself out of the toddler bed and start playing with her toys. So, we will have to do some more thinking on how we are going to get nap time to work.

We've Reached The Point Of Exhaustion

We have finally reached the point where she just can't party anymore. Finally, we wore poor Abby out so she would take an afternoon nap. We just didn't expect that it would be in her high chair during her lunch time. And she went down fast - it was no more than 2 minutes while I was putting away the lunch supplies. And now... I am going to use her nap time to catch up on my much needed rest!

Finally!!!

So here it is - Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort. We are mere hours away! By Sunday afternoon you will find Abby and I relaxing in the kiddie pool :-)

The bags are packed, they are sitting by the door, and we are almost ready to go! And we cannot wait - especially me! So we are going on vacation for a whole week - no posting until February. But we promise lots and lots of pictures of Abby's first trip to the beach and her first trip to Disney. Maybe even her first plane ride - we will see how that goes. She is really going to miss Maize. She has been chasing her around and harassing her at every opportunity lately. She will get right up to the couch or chair where Maize is sleeping and scream right in the poor dogs face or pull her ears. I think Maize will really enjoy her dog-cation as well.

So now, I have to try and get Abby to take a nap, which she wouldn't do yesterday, and run down my checklist once more so we have everything we need for our trip. Just thinking about it makes me tired!

Terrible Tuesday

We are having one of those days today - the terrible kind. The kind where you didn't get enough sleep the night before and the day starts way too early. Also the kind where your dog wakes you up from your nap right after you get to sleep. And the grouchy kind - we are all grouchy. And the cabin fever kind, with the weather too cold to leave the house and no car to leave anyway. And finally the kind where you don't feel good, but you still have to do everything you normally do because there is no one else around to do it.

This afternoon has to be better because it can't get worse!

And so that I don't have more of these terrible days, just a friendly reminder about the rules for calling our house.

1. Please try to avoid calling during nap times. They are always the same time of the day, every day, like clockwork. 10 am to noon and 2 pm to 4 pm are Abby's naps. Unless it absolutely can't wait, I'd appreciate your assistance in keeping her asleep by keeping our phones quiet.

2. After 9 pm we are all trying to get ready for bed and to get Abby to sleep. Unless the world is going to end if you don't call us right then, we would all appreciate our quiet, uninterrupted time for our nightly routine and Abby's bible story. One phone call when she is just about asleep adds 30 + minutes to our routine while we get her calmed back down and asleep again.

Now we know all of you, our family and friends, have watches and clocks and such, so if you want to avoid reading grouchy posts in the future, check them before you call!

We are going to make attempt 2 at getting the Buick back into our driveway. There was too much ice on the windshield for Steve to drive it last night, and, since it will be running straight off the battery and not recharging it, we won't be able to run the defrost on the drive home, so getting the ice off has to be done before the car is started. We will see if we can get it done tonight, otherwise we may be having it towed again. Then is the big process of trying to decide what to do with the poor old girl. If anyone wants a project and wants to tow the car away from here, let us know!

Leaving...

We are going to be leaving sometime in the next couple hours for Hastings and there is still quite a bit to do, but I needed a little sit down break. Abby finally cried herself to sleep an hour ago, since she would not go to sleep for nap time in any of the conventional ways. She was really tired, but wanted to watch my every move since I was doing different things today.

And so, we are almost ready to hit the road. I had a video of Abby's room to post, but I can't find the cord to link the camera and the computer and I don't want to waste a lot of time looking for it. So it will have to wait. On the bright side, Abby and I found the best sale ever! We visited the fudge shop and they had a 75% off sale, plus salt water taffy for $1 per bag. Talk about a bargain! For $12 we got 6 bars of fudge and 2 bags of taffy. Over the summer the same amount would have bought us about 2 bars of fudge. It is going to be a very yummy thanksgiving, that is if the fudge makes it south of the Mackinaw Bridge ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I don't think I really need to tell you all what I am thankful for, but just in case you are wondering here's the short list:

1. A very healthy, happy baby girl (Abigail)

2. A wonderful husband who works hard so I can stay home

3. Not being pregnant and not having diabetes anymore! (I loved the end result, but the whole pregnancy thing stinks)

4. A wonderful family and extended family who make a super support system

5. A free, democractic country, even if I don't agree with some of our leaders, it is good to know that democracy rules here. Thanks to Joe and all the other soldiers who work hard to keep our country free.

Tomorrow is Halloween Already?!?

Ahh... where did our week go? Tomorrow night we are hosting a Halloween party for our small group and I don't even have half of my to do list done. For example, we need to get packed ASAP! Saturday morning is going to be busy enough, so we need to have our stuff together. And we need to clean. And we should probably decorate. And we should probably have a way to entertain our guests. Oh... and food. Ahh... What are we doing wasting time on the computer you may think. Frankly, I am thinking that too, but Abby wants to watch Little Bill and she was rudely awakened from her nap an hour and a half early by her dog, so she is nice and crabby. So she is doing whatever makes her happy until I can get her back to sleep.

We also have to make a trip into the office later today to see Steve and all Abby's friends that work with her Daddy. Plus she got the dentists some dental Halloween shirts for tomorrow and we need to deliver them. We will be glad to be in Hastings next week, where we don't have to host anything.

They All Fall Down

The leaves that is. We had a windy, rainy night and now our backyard is covered in leaves. You can't even see the grass in some spots. Yesterday we had quite a few leaves down on the ground, so we tried to do an Abby photo session, but she was all out of smiles unless Maize was around, and when Maize was around she was right in the way of a cute picture. Oh well.

Still no teeth, so Abby's still been having some random crying fits and ornery spells. But honestly, even with a couple of fits per day she is still the happiest and mellowest baby I've come across. She's pretty serious a lot of the time, but she also has a slight attention hound habit. We had dinner out last night and she was waving her arms all around and smiling at anyone who would look. That was accompanied by giggles and chatter. It was pretty funny. Abby also ate her first french fry. She is getting good at chewing so if something is pretty squishy she can manage it with some supervision. She's not quite ready for crispy McDonald's fries yet, but she can handle the steak cut ones. Although french fries are probably not going to be on her regular menu once she is big enough to crunch on real veggies.

Today is our moms and preschool playgroup and then AJ is coming to play, so we are going to be busy. Hopefully we will have a fuss free day. Yesterday was good except when she woke up crying during her afternoon nap. She wasn't even awake when I first got to her, so I'm sure it was a bad dream or something. She has a few of those where she cries out in her sleep. She must take after her dad who also talks and walks in his sleep sometimes. Maize barks in her sleep too. I am surrounded...



















18 days until we get to visit our friends and family in Hastings. Yipee! Abby and I are glad that Steve doesn't mind when we take extra time to visit family when he can't. He's the world's best dad.

Tired Thursday Follows Wild Wednesday

Abby and I are tired. We had a very fun, very wild Wednesday with Bailey and Katelyn McDonald. Abby wasn't too sure about her big visitors at first, but after a few minutes she decided that having a 5 year old and 4 year old to play with wasn't too bad. Especially after they started passing Abby animal crackers (I was watching her to make sure she didn't choke). We also got a trip to Burger King and to the library. The big girls were really good, but Abby was so tired by the time they left that she slept for 2 1/2 hours and still went to bed early.

Today we are just hanging out around the house and resting up in case Steve decides to take us to Mackinac Island this weekend. Abby and I caught him checking rates for the different hotels on the island, but we know that he didn't book anything and that there isn't any plan to take Maize to the kennel - we think. Either way we are going outside to enjoy the great weather we are supposed to have this weekend.

And, since we've been too busy to take pictures, there isn't any lovely shots of Abby to post, but it is pretty outside and our leaves out back are falling now too, so maybe tomorrow there will be something cute to show off. Happy Thursday!!!

Testy Tuesday

Abby is in one of her special moods today. She doesn't want to take a nap - thanks mostly to Maize who woke her up right after I got her to sleep. I tried to get her to nap and even laid down with her, but it was mostly crying and playing with her feet interrupted with sort bursts of sleeping. Since she is in rare form and I have some remnants of food poisoning or some other illness we are quite a pair. Luckily she is enjoying her exersaucer on her own and is relatively happy for now. We will see how this works out tonight when Steve gets home and Abby's not had a good nap. I think she is getting very close to having teeth come in because she is getting much harder to get relaxed and sleeping.

Over the weekend we got to take Abby into the pool at Weber's Inn where we were staying. She hated the pool at Grandma & Grandpa Hodges house, but it was probably the temperature and not the water. She loved swimming at the hotel. Of course it was typical Abby - straight faced and not looking to excited - but the splashing and 45 minutes in the pool without a whine were a good sign for her trip to Boyne this weekend to waterpark with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Scott, and Aunties Hannah, Emily and almost Aunt Courtnie and Uncle Nate. If we could have only had Uncle Dan, Aunt Mel, Uncle Glenn and Jack along too it would have been a perfect family retreat. We'll have fun just the same but we miss those guys!

Tomorrow night Abby is going to have her babysitter Kitty come over and spend the evening with her so Steve and I can go on a real date and to a meeting at church so that we can become official members of the church we have been attending. Considering Abby's recent seperation anxiety I am keeping my fingers crossed that Kitty won't be pulling out her hair by the time we get home.

A Much Needed Nap

I finally got Abby down for her first nap of the day about 2:30. She had been awake since 8:30 this morning. It was not a good start to our day. I hope she sleeps another couple hours so we don't have crab for dinner. I am planning on steak, but no one in this family enjoys a surf and turf dinner.

As a reward for getting her to sleep I got to finally start the dishes and the laundry that I had planned to do this morning. Ugh. I hate housework. I don't get paid enough to do all this. Tonight we are going to try to seal more windows - we have 3 of the 17 downstairs windows sealed and we still have 10 windows upstairs after that. That's a lot of windows seeping cold air into this old and relatively uninsulated home. Brr...

There are cute pictures of Abby in her baby swing, which we just got fixed after a wire falling loose in the move (3 months ago). The pictures are still on my camera, so I'll have to post them later tonight or tomorrow. You can just imagine loads of Abigail cuteness in a swing with a big smile and a warm sweater.

Would Anyone Like a Nap?

Because apparently no one here would like one, so we have a free nap to give away. Instead, the boss wants to watch t.v. while sitting in her exer-saucer. It is going to be a great night...

Late tonight Steve's mom and dad will be arriving for their chance to spoil Abby for a couple days. We are looking forward to visiting with them and showing them around The Soo. I don't believe Steve's mom has ever seen the locks or the other neat things this town has to offer. We should have a very nice time, as long as Abby doesn't decide to be Crabby Abby.

We've got the bags all pack for Abby and I to head back to Hastings with Steve's parents on Sunday. It's hard to pack for a little one for a whole week - who knows how many outfits she will manage to mess up beyond wearing in a single day. Not to mention guessing how many packages of diapers she will go through and whether or not she will use an entire package of wet wipes. Good thing there is a Wal-Mart in Hastings for any last minute emergency needs.

And now... back to cleaning, since the Obreiters are much more into clean homes than the family I grew up with. I probably should remove the "dog hair dust bunnies" and clean my kitchen counters off.

Ice Cream Sunday

Another lazy Sunday down the tubes :-)

We did some cleaning so Wade and Sarah can stop in this week. We don't like cleaning much, so there was a bit to do, especially in the mail processing department. But, with Abby's assistance (in the form of a nice two hour long nap) we got it all done. She was very helpful.

Abby was also a little angel in church this morning. Lots of smiles, some sleeping, no noise and most importantly no dirty diapers. One of the couples from our new small group was convinced we had met them somewhere long ago - it took a while to figure out that they just recognized us because Abby had very loudly filled her pants a few Sunday's back. Thankfully she is over that habit.

And now little lady Abby is getting ready to sleep by resting on her dad's lap and sucking her thumb. She is really good at that trick now. So, maybe Steve and I need to hurry and get some of the ice cream out of the freezer :-)