A Lesson in Baby Measurement

Olivia went to the doctor's office again yesterday since the eye drops they gave her for her irritated eyelid made her whole eye red and swollen. Turns out it is an abnormal reaction to the medication, but she is fine now and the next dose only made her a little red and swollen, so for now we are supposed to keep giving it to her. But that's not why I'm typing this...

On Tuesday Olivia measured 24 inches and 16 pounds. Yesterday she measured 26 1/2 inches and 15 pounds 12 ounces. Now the weight loss is easily explained - she had a wet diaper and a very full belly on Tuesday and a dry diaper and empty tummy on Wednesday since she had next to no appetite from having shots the day before. But I can't really explain how she grew by 2 1/2 inches overnight. So I guess the moral of the story is, the nurse taking the measurements on your baby could be worth an inch or two in the total height. So... maybe I'll write down the average size in her baby book.

A Review of our Trip in Pictures

All of the Hodges Great Grandkids. Abby just woke up from a nap (not her idea), so she was crying :-(
Jack and Great Grandpa Harley
Abby learned how to swim on her own with a floating jacket. She swam circles around the pool for hours and hours.
Abby and Aunt Hannah, who styled her "princess hair"

Abby, Olivia and the Newland cousins with Grandma Von and Great Grandma Joy

Abby, Olivia & the Newland cousins with Grandma & Grandpa Obreiter and Great Grandma & Grandpa Gamble.
Olivia and Great Grandpa Duane Baker
Isaac Hodges - our newest nephew. We love him! We don't have a picture of just Emma yet, but we will be getting one soon when she and Jack come to visit their favorite Aunt :-)

Olivia's Stats

Olivia had her 4 month checkup and shots today (ouch!). She was 24 inches and 16 pounds. That's quite a stretch from her original 19 inches and 7 pounds 11 ounces. She sure is growing up fast! She was flirting and smiling with the nurses right up until the point when they laid her down to check her out. From then on it was irate screaming and "talking." I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but this girl is quite the talker.

A Funny Traveler

Abby and Olivia have been great travelers so far on our week long
journey to visit family in Hastings. And funny. On our ride down Abby
sang, watched movies, and cracked us up. First, in her most pathetic
voice she asked me if I would hold her on the couch so that Grandma
Mary's puppies wouldn't bite her (and to hold her up so her cousins at
Grandma Von's wouldn't get her either). I didn't hold her up and she
had fun with them all. She also made Steve laugh hard at the Wendy's
drive-thru when she said, "Roll down my window. I will order. Give me
a Diet Pepsi.". She keeps our travels interesting.

Getting There...

Abby did a #2 in the bathroom today all by herself. And I want to emphasize the all by herself. She went in without telling me, had her pants off, and couldn't figure out how to get onto the big potty, so she went on the floor. At least she knew what room to use...

Olivia has slept in her crib the last 3 nights and has slept all night. Hooray!!! Now I just need to start sleeping all night again.

A Comparison

Abby and Olivia in the same pose at roughly the same age. Just for fun :-)

All Nighter

Olivia finally slept from 10 p to 6 a last night. And she woke up 4
months old. It's about time she had a full night's sleep - it only
took 9 weeks longer for her than Abby. So, you'd think that Steve and
I also got 8 hours of sleep. It's too bad you'd be wrong, since Abby
tried to sneak into our bed in the middle of the night and had to be
moved back into her bed. At this point I'm fully expecting not to
sleep an entire night again for about 18 years.

Olivia got her very own bumbo seat yesterday and she loves it. Who
knew a piece of foam could be so handy. The seat allows her to sit up
without being held so that I can be on the floor and play with both my
girls at the same time. For a first child I could see going without
one, but for a second child or beyond it is definitely worth every
penny.

And speaking of pennies... the bumbo is another example of the need to
check wal-mart's online price. It was $5 cheaper to buy it online with
site-to-store shipping than it was on the store shelves. That makes me
pretty disgusted. So far we've found this also to be true with DVDs
and tvs as well. Just a word to the wise and check your online price
before you buy.

Yesterday Abby made it 2 hours in big girl underpants. She used the
potty twice, then I didn't remind her soon enough and lunch distracted
her so she had an accident. But... she has gone pretty consistently on
her potty for 14 days in a row, so I'm pretty happy about how we are
doing, except that she refuses to do her # 2's on the toliet. So we
still have a long way to go...

Do I Have Food on My Face

It has been hot and humid all week. So hot we don't really feel like doing anything. And mostly too hot to sleep. So... with Olivia being days away from 4 months old (when we gave Abby her first meal), I thought to myself, if I feed this kid maybe she will sleep all night and I won't have to be awake in the middle of the night in this miserable heat. Wrong. Instead, she fills her little belly in the evening and wakes me up even EARLIER at night. So weird! But, Olivia is a champ at her rice cereal and, as you can see by comparing pictures, she is a much neater eater than Abby.

Other than feeding kids, which is practically a full time job, we've been busy putting our home and lives back together after the scabies invasion. I finally have all the furniture and toys back into their homes. Now I just need to finish the laundry, which was a humongous pile since one person's entire dresser got sent down the chute. But I think I have only 4 or 5 loads left. If it weren't so humid I'd be working on them today. Instead I might just melt. Or maybe make some homemade ice cream. Hmmm.....

Parade of Terror

We took Abby and Olivia to the local 4th of July parade and fireworks
tonight. Apparently Olivia is terrified of loud noises (like car
horns, semi horns, and emergency vehicle sirens). So terrified that
she screamed at the top of her lungs for a solid 20 minutes. And the
parade was so loud we couldn't even hear her. I felt terrible, but we
were on the far side of the street and would have needed to cross
through the parade to get home. Now we know for next year that we need
to either skip the parade or pick a seat on the other side of the road.

Luckily both girls seemed to enjoy the fireworks... kind of. Abby only
liked them after I told her that the fairies from Sleeping Beauty were
making the colors. Olivia snuggled with Dr. Alice and didn't cry, so
we are going with calling it a successful outing. Now let's hope they
are so exhausted that they will sleep all night.

Big Girls

My baby is no longer the youngest in the family. We are happy to have a brand new niece, but now Olivia has to be a big girl to make room for the new babies. I don't think she'll mind too much. In fact, in the next few days she'll be starting rice cereal. Wow... time is flying!Here's a cute Olivia smile. Of course, we can only get one kid to smile at a time, so I have another "model pose" picture of Abby for you.
Abby has finally figured out the potty training thing. She is finally using her potty all the time when we are home, but nothing outside home yet. At least it's a good start! And yesterday I finally got both girls to take an extended nap at the same time so that I could get some yard work done. It was great!

We are still working on de-mite-ing our house. Hopefully sometime mid-week next week we can spring our furniture from lock down and get it steamed well to kill anything that's left hanging out (and hopefully make it all smell a lot less like dog). It is going to be a lot of work, but in the end we should have a cleaner, mite-free home.