Can A Mom Get A Break Around Here?

And lately the answer has been no. But that's okay - like I told Grandma Jennie, there will be plenty of time to rest when I'm dead. Or when they grow up and move out. Then I'll probably wish I was back to the craziness and exhaustion that has defined my last few days. In fact, as I am typing this, my children are both confined in Olivia's exersaucer and jumper (yes... Abby climbed into the exersaucer again and she can't get out. I am leaving her there for now. It is safer).

So... our craziness started Saturday. We took the girls to Mackinac City for the day with the intention of getting Abby some winter appropriate shoes of some sort and we heard that the Hush Puppies store was having a sale. It was a great sale, so great that they were all out of Abby's size. But we had a good time being tourists and checking out the other stores. Sunday was also busy - we attended the birthday party of Abby's friend Autumn and tried to get cleaned up a ready for a busy week. And I committed myself to helping our friend Andrea with two extra emergency foster kids (she already has 2 adopted foster kids and another that she has permanently and will be adopting). So yes... I willingly put myself into a situation where there would be 7 kids and 2 adults with all the kids under 5 and two of whom didn't speak English. It was a hard day to begin with, then my friend Kimberlee called to tell me that the doctor thought her water had broken and she needed someone to take her two little boys so she could go get that checked out. So... 9 kids, under 5, two who can't communicate with Andrea and I. Yep... I'm tired. Still. Luckily, Kimberlee's water hadn't broken, so we are still waiting for that baby to arrive in a few weeks. And the Spanish speaking foster kids were moved to a Spanish speaking foster home near the school where the little boy attends. But boy, did that day wipe me out.

Olivia hasn't helped matters any. She has reverted to newborn sleeping habits at night. She is up at least once, and some nights twice. And if I don't nurse her, she is not going back to sleep. We tried Monday night to get her back to sleep without nursing. After 1 hour I gave in and fed her. After 2 hours she finally was sleeping soundly enough for me to lay her down. Grr..... Some days I wonder why she can't get with the program. It wouldn't be so frustrating to be up in the middle of the night every night had she not slept for 11 hour stretches just a few months ago (for like 9 weeks). I know she can do it. I don't know how to get her back into the sleeping habit without depriving the rest of us of a lot of sleep. The Ferber (cry it out) Method does not work for this child. So yeah... I definitely have 2 strong willed children. This could be a long, long 18 years.

And all of that only brings me to Tuesday, when my willingness to watch Kimberlee's kids for a dentist appointment and house viewing turned into another 5ish hours of extra children. They had a lot of fun. Maize, maybe, did not. I am happy to have them around to entertain Abby, but it makes resting or getting anything done impossible. Abby loves having "her boys" Rian and Huron over. She even thinks they are her brothers. So, we'll keep them around. Then she can have 2 "brothers" without me having to have 2 more kids.

Now onto Thursday and Friday and then Trick or Treating. And maybe by December my life won't be so crazy busy. Or Olivia can sleep through the night. Or something...

New Year, New Underpants

Abby is starting out the new year by trying out big girl underpants for the first time. So far we've made it one hour without an accident, which is actually about 45 minutes longer than I thought we'd make it. She just plain refused to put a diaper on, so we figured it would be a good time for her to learn that going potty in underpants in not the same as going in a diaper. This way she will either potty train quickly or agree to put her diapers on without a fuss. A win either way in my book right now.

We are ringing in the new year with a little living room clean up and a lot of resting. I think I started out with a cold, but probably now have a great big fun sinus infection. Since I have to see the doctor on Wednesday next week for my regular appointment I am going to try to tough it out, but it's been a rough day. I had been just dealing with nighttime breathing trouble and congestion, but I now have all day issues along with sore teeth, a headache, and overall blah feeling. Oh the joys of pregnancy and the inability to hit up the medicine cabinet.

Abby was very good at the New Year's party we went to last night, although she did fall asleep around 11:30 and missed the ball drop (but then again, so did the rest of us since we were playing a board game). Abby has been getting braver and braver around people and actually played a little with her babysitter Kitty at the party. She also demolished almost an entire red pepper and probably a pound of veggie dip. She sure loves her condiments. And, to make my day a little better, she slept in until 10 a.m. this morning after her late night escapades.

Week In Review

We have had a busy week and are looking forward to the holidays next week and some much needed downtime. We've had lots of playing, partying, and cooking this week.

On Monday Abby had a play date with her friend A.J., including some yummy lunch. Abby and A.J. are starting to really get into playing with each other, which as a mom is so much fun to watch. They have the funniest conversations with each other while they are playing - most of it isn't understandable to me, but they sure seem to know what they are saying to each other.

On Wednesday we hosted Steve's office Christmas party. Abby had fun with the assistants and other dentists and even got to help open a present. She was mostly shy, like normal in big groups, but she did let some of the assistants pick her up and did give a few tours to her new friends. And she got to eat some goodies, like cheese and crackers and cheesecake. And we ended up with two animated goodies and lots of packing peanuts (she only tried to eat two of them).

To round out our busy week we went to the Christmas party for the crisis pregnancy center (CareNet Pregnancy Center of the EUP). Abby had fun playing with her friend Sophia from church. Sophia is almost three and enjoyed greatly playing with "Little Abby". It cracked me up since we have another friend who has a baby named Abby and so we are used to calling our girl "big Abby" and their daughter "little Abby". The reversal of nicknames was fun for a while. And Abby was on her best behavior - she really impressed the other ladies at the party. And we were semi-successful on our first cheesecake (it was softer than I would have liked, but since it wasn't baked it had a different texture than many baked cheesecakes). It tasted wonderful though, so that makes us for a multitude of little shortcomings. The next time I try this recipe I am going to put it in a baking dish instead of trying it with a springform pan.

Party Weekend

It is snowing again. And of course, we have a silly winter weather advisory (news flash... it is winter in the UP, it snows, a lot). So... apparently I should be out shoveling some of it before it gets too deep (2 to 5 inches says the national weather service), but instead I'm thinking about all the fun we had with Abby this weekend.Friday night we had friends over so Abby had lots of little playmates. She is just starting to get to the point where she wants to play with other kids, not just next to them. They had lots of fun playing with the toy kitchen things. On Saturday we went to Maddie's birthday party (one of Abby's two best friends). All her friends were there again, so we got to watch the girls have another great playtime. And, Abby ate all of her ice cream, all of my ice cream, and none of her cake. So I got double cake and she got double ice cream. Not a terrible trade-off.

Yesterday Abby really went to work and made dozens and dozens of cookies at the Drockton's house. She had lots of fun visiting "Doctor Dave", Jackie, and the girls. We did have some minor moments of confusion when Abby couldn't tell which big girl was Kitty, but we got over it pretty quickly. Abby enjoyed playing with all the doll house pieces and parts that the Drockton's had. She was in little girl heaven. And we brought home a lot of delicious cookies, candies, and fudge. It's a good thing there is snow to shovel or my waistline would be expanding faster than allowable.

Here's some funny stuff Abby's come up with lately. She now asks for a "family hug" - aka mom and dad hugging her at the same time. She also continues to tell her dad to kiss her mom (I still think some money is secretly changing hands). And apparently Abby isn't really a big fan of Christmas cookies - she loves oreos, but she won't even try most of the cookies we made yesterday.

Abby Obreiter

Abby learned how to say her last name today. It is hilarious and quite a mouthful for such a small lady. She also learned some awesome dance moves from our friend Craig today while Steve was hosting the guys for football Sunday (we also did football Saturday, so we are basically hosted and footballed out).

Tomorrow Abby is going to her first real, non-family birthday party. And it's at her favorite place, McDonald's play land. We are very excited to go celebrate her new friend Jordan's birthday. We met Jordan at Abby's swim class this summer and now we go to the same playgroup, so they have lots of fun playtime together. We'll have to see how Abby does when someone else gets to open presents and is the center of attention. I'm hoping a happy meal toy will keep her occupied enough.

New Year's Resolutions

Abby had a silly start to her new year, and we all hope you had a great start too! We spent New Year's Eve with Dr. Dave and his family, Dr. Bruce, and Dr. Alice and everyone had a wonderful time. Abby was especially glad that she got to have 2 whole slices of cheesecake, approved by Dr. Alice, the family physician. She was also awake when the ball dropped and when Robbie Knievel did his big motorcycle trick. And after all that partying, Abby was sleeping in as late as possible this morning!

We are making New Year's Resolutions again, even though we don't usually achieve them. Here is Abby's list:
1. Learn to walk and finally catch Maize
2. Learn to use a spoon so she can feed herself ice cream and cheese cake and not have to share it with her mom.
3. Learn enough words to boss everyone around

Jen's list:
1. Read through the entire Bible at least once this year
2. Lose the last 10 baby/law school pounds
3. Learn to make knitted (as opposed to crocheted) baby blankets

Steve's list:
1. Lose more weight than Jen does
2. ???
3. ???

Another exiting note to pass along, Abby learned how to dismount from her riding pony. Now she just has to figure out what to do once she gets off and how to get back on.

Photo Diary of Last Weekend

Here are a few more photos from in front of the Christmas tree this past weekend. On Sunday, since it was above freezing for the first time in a long while, Abby got to wear her fancy fur coat and hat to church. She was a real hit. She also tried out her "Kiss Me" shirt - although she wouldn't smile for any pictures when we had her in it. Oh well...

We had some of Abby's friends over today for the "Time Out For Moms" Christmas party. We had a nice time doing the reindeer paint project, playing, and watching a Christmas movie. Abby really loves playing with other kids, especially her friend A.J. We didn't have as many kids over as we expected, so there are a lot of extra cookies for Steve and I to eat :-)

Only 9 days until Christmas... Yipee!!!

Finger Paint Fun

Abby made some finger paint art today so we could remember how little her hands and feet were this Christmas. She was somewhat helpful, as you can tell by Rudolph's crooked antlers.

It was another super cold day in the U.P. It was so cold that our car locks and doors were frozen shut when we tried to run to the store. Luckily I was able to blow on the lock and get the doors open with a lot of tugging. Burr.

We are hosting a Christmas party tomorrow for the moms with preschool and young elementary children from our church. It should be a lot of fun and Abby always enjoys playing with other children. Her good friend A.J. should be there and we are praying for a snow day so that her other friend Maddie can come too. We hope you all enjoy yourselves tomorrow and hopefully you can have some yummy Christmas treats too!

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.

The 6th Month Celebration!

We had a party at dinner for Abby's 6th month last night. Abby and her best friend Maize shared some yummy strawberry cupcakes. When we say shared we mostly mean that Maize stole Abby's cupcake crumbs off Abby's lap, the floor, and the table when we were too busy with the camera. Abby didn't really like the cupcakes since they crumbled too much before she could get them into her mouth.



Here's a special video from last night after the party.

The Midweek Update

Apparently the doctor thought things were moving along well enough on their own, so no induction for us this week. I will be working very hard in the next few days to get this baby moving out. On the bright side it means I may not have to spend the entire labor and delivery process hooked up to an IV (I have a HUGE needle phobia), so it's not all bad. I've also been having lots of contractions if I am walking or moving around a lot, so hopefully that is a good sign.

Maize is still enjoying Maize week and we've made it to Steve's big dinner event, so after Steve sees his last patient this afternoon our schedules are clear for a baby. Any prayers for a quick delivery in the next few days would be greatly appreciated by all of us.

Best to you all today!