Really?!?

Today was one of those days where it may have been a good idea not to get out of bed. But since it is almost bedtime again, I guess it can only get better from here. And the weather tomorrow is supposed to be great - so I just keep telling myself tomorrow will be great too.

First Abby decided to help me with the baby afghan I am working on. Her version of helping involved taking my scissors and chopping a big hole right into the center of it. Cool trick, right? So, I had to spend some time taking stitches out far enough back to tie in a piece of yarn and restitch the hole closed. In the amount of time it took me to fix that granny square I could have made two more. I should have known that she'd grab the scissors, but since I need them very frequently for the pattern I had them down next to me.

After I got done dealing with Abby's creativity, Maize decided to get sick and throw up on Abby's doll blanket and zebra toy. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I was on the phone and holding a baby, so I couldn't really grab her and chuck her out the door like I normally do. At least Abby didn't get into the "dog yuckies" and I just was able to grab most of it up on the doll blanket and throw it all away.

And it rained most of the day, so I had a bored out of her gourd little girl. I had to rearrange our furniture because she decided to climb over the back of the futon and walk along the window sills. Not really the best use of the sills and not a safe habit to start once we have the windows open during the summer. I liked the old configuration better, but you have to prevent unnecessary damage to children and window screens any way possible.

Best for last... Abby actually used her potty today, so tonight I put her back on it 2 hours after she had last had a diaper change. She was still dry so I knew she had to go pretty quick. 30 minutes later I gave up and put her diaper back on. I don't think I even had it velcroed before she was peeing in it. I swear this kid will be wearing a diaper to kindergarten. Oh well... then it will be her teachers problem and not mine.

Big Sister/Little Sister

Olivia can finally fit into her little sister shirt, so today the girls wore their shirts. Unfortunately they had to wear them under sweatshirts since it was chilly and rainy all day.

Steve had the day off (it's Native American Day), so we enjoyed a day of playing with dad and had lunch out with Dr. Moody and his wife Dina. Abby really enjoyed some special time with Daddy.

Interrupted

So I got interrupted when I was posting earlier by a little person who needed a new diaper. She normally doesn't want a new one but this diaper "spilled" - or in big people terms it leaked all over the floor and her pajamas. Yuck!

We went to the park for Abby's playgroup and made it about 45 minutes before we were frozen out. It was 55 degrees out according to the car thermometer, but the wind was about 2o to 30 miles per hour, so it felt more like 40. Olivia was nice and warm in her car seat with the shade pulled up, but Abby and I were just a bit chilled.

New Toys

We spent yesterday playing with our new toys and fixing up our
backyard. Abby and I have been playing lots of games and watching
Disney songs and Sesame Street videos on the new iPod. We also planted
some lilac bushes in the backyard to create a hedge behind the
swingset and hopefully someday block out the 5 yippy dogs in the
neighbors yard. I tried to get Abby to check out the worms I
unearthed, but she was uninterested. She was too busy digging with her
new shovels for her sandbox.

We also got rid of a HUGE pile of wood that was in our backyard thanks
to Dr. Dave. Pretty soon we will have something that almost resembles
a normal backyard. And Steve installed a swing on the swingset for
Abby so she has been busy breaking that in too.

Sent from my iPod

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mudder's Day to my Momma and Happy Mother's Day to Mom O. and all of our grandmas. We sure love you guys!

We had a rather boring day at home yesterday - it rained and snowed on and off all day, so we couldn't get outside to play like we had planned. Instead we worked on some laundry and Abby had a royal ball with her dad. She had a great time wearing her lovely Belle dress from "Hannah and Emmy" and we had to peel it off of her to get her into bed last night. Olivia did what she does best right now and slept through most of the day. They are both doing that again right now while Steve mows the lawn and I am working on setting up my new iPod touch (thanks to Steve for picking out a pretty cool Mother's Day present and leaving it in Olivia's bassinet with her this morning).

We had Abby's first successful solo trip to the nursery this morning since the arrival of Olivia. She was very impressed with herself afterward since both Steve and I made sure to tell her how proud we were of her bravery and helpfulness. I'm hoping this will lead to many other successful stays on Sunday mornings. It would look awfully bad for the nursery director to be the one paged back to collect a child.

Rivalry

Abby and Maize have been fighting tonight. So far the score is Maize 2 - Abby 0. First Maize stole the all important cheeto, which we just brought home from our Mom and Abby date to the grocery store. Then Abby pulled Maize's ear in retaliation. I told her to stop pulling on Maize's ears, but she chose not to listen to Mom. So, Maize used dog language to tell Abby to stop pulling on her ear (dog language in the form of putting Abby's forearm into her mouth but not biting down). Needless to say the parties have been separated and are awaiting their mediation appointment tomorrow morning.

Almost Swinging

Our swing set is just 3 boards and 4 stakes away from being totally finished. Steve has done an amazing job putting it together - it looks great. Abby has already been enjoying lots of rides down the slide and will be swinging away as soon as we have the stakes in and the swings up. It is going to be a whole lot of fun to play in our backyard this summer. Now we just need to get a play date schedule set up.

Abby and I also did some sewing today and made a blanket for our friends Andrea and Kevin - they brought home a brand new foster child on Sunday and he needed some manly blankets since their previous foster babies have been girls. We got the little guy set up with a Tigger blanket and can't wait for him and Olivia to get big enough to play together. Now each of Abby's best friends will have little brothers Olivia's age. I have a feeling our little girl may have to be a bit more of a tomboy than her older sister if she is going to have playmates her own age.

Olivia is still growing like a weed, or maybe I should say like the running bamboo that is taking over my backyard. She is now wearing size 3 to 6 months and we've had to put away all her newborn and 0 to 3 month sized clothing. She wore blue jeans for the first time yesterday. It was so fun to dress her more like her big sister.

Building Time

We have been busy, busy building Abby and Olivia's swing set. I think between Steve and I we have all of the major structures put together and now we just have to get them connected and staked down. Abby has been having a great time watching, helping, and digging as we put up the structure. We should be able to finish it up tonight, I hope.

Abby, Olivia, and I went to playgroup at the park this morning and had a great time visiting and playing with her friends. She may be a social chicken, but she still enjoys getting out and seeing other kids. Other than the building and play grouping, we've been pretty boring around here. Doing laundry, cooking, and doing the normal daily things. Abby wants to be outside all of the time. Olivia wants to eat practically all of the time. I want to sleep basically all day, but I don't get to. The normal stuff...

New Photos on Walmart.com

Abby helped me upload the rest of the photos from March and the ones from April to our Walmart.com photo sharing site. You can get the link on the right hand side of the page to view and order them.

We had a great time yesterday playing with lots of Abby's friends and enjoying a backyard barbecue. Abby played so hard that she ended up climbing onto my lap around 6:30 and falling asleep within about 30 seconds. So I spent about 30 minutes of the party with two small girls sleeping on my lap - adorable, but awkward. I think my arm fell asleep within about 3 minutes.

Today Steve (and me too sometimes) is working on putting together Abby and Olivia's swing set. So far we have the base for the fort and the slide put together. I think Steve is out working on the platform for the slide right now, so maybe by the end of the evening we will have the slide ready to ride on. We'll have to see. The weather is cooperating and so are the little people - for now.

Happy Spring