Catch-Up

Okay... so I'm behind. Quite a bit. We've had a busy few days. Abby and Olivia had a great time with Great Grandma Jennie and Grandpa Steve and Great Aunt Ruth. Abby even let Aunt Ruth stay in her room without putting up a fuss, so we were pretty proud of our little lady.

Olivia had her first trip to church Sunday morning. She did great. Abby did not do so great in the nursery. She had a little bit of a breakdown over being left, but she did make it the whole service without us being called back to collect her, so that's not bad after 5 weeks of missing church. I'm sure after a few weeks she'll be back into the routine and not freaking out when I leave her. Or then again...

Olivia also had her first stay with our babysitter Kitty. She and Abby did great - Kitty still had all her hair and was smiling when I got back. It's nice to have a baby sitter who can handle Abby and still think having Olivia around is a bonus (she called the night before to make sure I knew she was totally okay with having both girls since I had been considering taking Olivia with me to the service for Uncle Jeff's dad Bud Mansfield). Since both girls did so well I guess Steve and I will be taking a date night soon.

So all of that gets you through Sunday and Monday. Then we got to today... play group day. Abby and I were excited to get back to playgroup and to get outside at the park to play. We packed Olivia up for her first trip to playgroup and the park. We got into the car, which Abby has lovingly dubbed "Big Black" and took off. Then we got rear ended by a college kid who was running late for class. He got to be a lot later by the time I called the police out to make a report since my bumper now has two big cracks in it. Luckily no one was hurt and since he was going less than 5 miles per hour and I was parked the damage was pretty minimal and the air bags didn't deploy. Olivia slept through the whole incident and Abby didn't really care although she kept saying "that kid knocked down Big Black." She has a funny way of expressing herself sometimes. So we finally made it to the park after all that excitement. Abby had a great time and played all over the playground without being clingy. She was really excited to see all her friends and I enjoyed visiting with the other moms. I'm hoping our next trip out is much less eventful.

Ballerina Time

Abby had an opportunity to go watch her two babysitters (Kitty and Susie) and their sister Sadie perform in LSSU's dance recital this afternoon. She had a great time. She was very excited about being able to wear her fancy "Belle girl" dress and "nursery" shoes (translated: a white dress with multicolor polka dots and white patent leather shoes). She even let me put a bow in her hair. And boy did that girl strut around the Fine Arts Center. She did nap through part of the recital, but when she wasn't sleeping she was having a good time and her running commentary was cracking me and our friends up.

Olivia skipped out on the recital and watched some baseball with her dad. I'm pretty sure he was pretty relieved to get out of watching the dancing. He was also pretty impressed with both girls, who let me sleep in until 8 a.m. Steve got to sleep until 9 because I made sure to get the girls downstairs pretty quickly once they both were up and making noise. We both needed a morning where we could "sleep in." Once upon a time we would sleep until 10 or 11 on a lazy Saturday morning... that was a long, long time ago.

Matching Shirts

Abby and Olivia wore their matching shirts for Olivia's first trip to Daddy's office. Abby was pretty excited about the matching shirts.

Training Day

Abby decided yesterday would be a good day to start training Olivia, so we worked on "Go Blue" and the proper form for "Hail" to the Victors. Abby was very excited that Olivia has gotten big enough to wear her Michigan shirts. We had to put away most of Olivia's newborn sized clothing since her torso was getting too long for it. We also are using the very last of the newborn sized diapers up (they should be gone today).

We are looking forward to an unexpected visit from Great Grandma Jennie and Grandpa Steve, Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeff (and boys). We aren't excited about the purpose of the visit (Uncle Jeff's dad Bud passed away - he was a really great man), but it will be nice to see them all. That is one benefit of being in Sault Ste. Marie - every once in a while Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeff are around to visit his family, who mostly live in town. I'm sure Abby will be very excited to see her "Candy Grandma."

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.

Doctor Day

Our whole family made the trip to the doctor's office for Olivia's one month check up (she'll be one month on Saturday - time flies). Steve planned on keeping Abby at home for the appointment, but Abby insisted that she needed to go visit Nurse Ellie. Olivia is doing great! She weighed in at 9 pounds even and was 21 inches long. That puts her in the 50th percentile for height and weight of a full-term, one month old baby. I tried to pull up a preemie growth chart, but she is off the charts for height and weight based on her gestational age. It's hard to believe it, but tomorrow was supposed to be her birthday.

So... the other big news from the doctor's visit was his opinion that there is no longer any reason why Olivia can't participate in normal life with us. That means Abby and I are breaking out of this popsicle stand as soon as possible. I'm thinking a trip to the park is in order, since Abby loves being outside and the backyard is under construction. The doctor even looked at me like I was crazy when I told him we had kept Olivia in the house basically since she came home, with the exception of one walk and the three visits to his office. Abby will be very excited when she realizes we aren't just sitting around this place day and night anymore. Not that we have lots of exciting places to go or anything... it's just a relief knowing that we can go if we decide to.

And... just for Great Grandma Lorraine, we've decided to give an old lamp a new lease on life as a brushed nickle lamp. We decided a face lift was in order and the fixtures in the room the lamp lives in are all brushed nickle, so the lamp has a shiny new coat of paint and will soon have new wiring. After 50 plus years we thought it was time.

In Retrospect...

Putting the grass seed down was not such a great idea. It shrunk our available play space significantly. This may be the end of house arrest... I can't handle Abby whining to get outside and enjoy the nice weather much longer.

Easter Egg Hunting

We took advantage of the nice weather this morning (it is now raining and supposed to rain tomorrow a bit too) and let Abby have her own Easter egg hunt, since we will be missing the Easter egg extravaganza at Great Grandma Jennie and Grandpa Steve's house tomorrow. Our small group had brought by an "Easter" basket for us as a gift and it had lots of great things like diapers, wipes, candy, bedtime body rub, and filled Easter eggs. So we took those filled eggs, filled a few more that I picked up at the store, and sent Abby out into the backyard to hunt eggs. She found one, opened it, realized it was full of candy, and decided she was all set. It took some major coaching to get her to pick up another egg, but after about the 3rd or 4th one that she found and opened she realized that there was lots of eggs and lots of candy available. It was pretty funny. So was her egg hunting outfit. I love how she refused to wear her "fuzzy boots" all winter when they would have kept her feet warm and has recently decided they are the best shoes ever. It makes life interesting around here... we never know what is going to tickle her fancy.

Olivia decided to pass on the egg hunting fun and took a nap instead. We picked up some gas relief drops for her (she was and is a gas passing champ) and we have all been sleeping much better in the hours that we are sleeping. It has really solved her grunting/moaning/groaning all night long problem. So it must be working at making her feel more comfortable, although it isn't really preventing the gas passing. So while we are sleeping better, we are for some reason also getting up much more frequently. I think she must be about to grow a ton since I was up about every hour and a half to hour and forty-five minutes last night. I was really hoping for the every three hour schedule, but it was not happening. I'm hoping we aren't in for many more nights like that. She has been back on the two to three hour schedule during the day today, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Since we've got the gas problem about under control, Olivia decided it would also be a good day to have a plugged tear duct. So her eye looks crusty and yucky, but it doesn't seem to be bothering her and she doesn't have any signs or symptoms of sickness. We are keeping a close eye on it, but other than needing some extra washing it seems to be manageable.

Steve and I are starting to find a routine for dealing with a newborn and a precious little lady who is hitting the terrible twos with all her might. Our only problem this weekend is exhaustion coupled with an ill dog (digestive issues... worse than having to clean the biggest diaper blowout). So we are pretty tired... to the point where I remembered to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer and then walked up the stairs without starting the dryer. Whoops. I did manage to get a nap for a whole hour, so that should help. I think another nap is in the plans for tomorrow - the weekends and having Steve home are so much nicer.

A Long Walk

Steve had today off, so we took our girls on a long walk in their double stroller to enjoy the ridiculously warm (76 degrees) weather. They lasted about 5 blocks before they were both sleeping. I'd say that makes the new stroller a keeper. We also spent a lot of time outside enjoying the weather and making dirt "princess" castles with Abby.

Besides our outdoor fun, Abby and I met her friends for brunch at Burger King. She had lots of fun seeing her friends and enjoying some time out of the house. I also enjoyed visiting my friends, who just happen to be the moms of Abby's best friends - it's great when that sort of thing works out.

First Real Bath

Olivia had her first real bath today at the same time that her big sister Abby was washing up. We just put the little tub right next to the big tub so that I could see both girls and then we did some major scrubbing.

Olivia also had her first playtime outside. She rode in my baby carrier, so she was pretty much snuggled up next to me and with the new moby wrap carrier I have she was totally covered in fabric. Abby had a great time with her sidewalk chalk and we all enjoyed the 65 degrees and sunshine. I even planted some seeds so I'm counting on the weather staying warm enough for them to make it.