I "Mite" Go Crazy

After about 10 days or so of Abby having an itchy rash on her underarm and elbow and Steve starting to get one on his hand, we decided yesterday that we had better take Abby in to the doctor's office to see what was going on. It was a very disturbing discovery - scabies, caused by little mites burrowing into her skin. Eewwwww............................

So, 24 hours later we have either closed off or washed everything that was made of a soft surface (clothes, toys, furniture, bedding) and steam cleaned the floors and hard surfaces. It may be overkill, but we don't want Olivia picking up her own infestation. A lot of things that Abby had worn or touched also got ironed, just to be safe. We figured in a week we'd bring the other stuff out, vacuum it or wash it and put it back away since the lifespan of a mite is apparently 3 to 4 days if it doesn't have it's human to feed on (yucky, ick, ick, ick!). So we are having an experiment in living without comfortable furniture. And we wrapped all our mattresses in plastic, since we are pretty certain that Abby picked up her "den" of mites from the hotel bed on our trip to Fargo.

On a positive note Abby is doing great potty training for her number ones. The number twos... not so much. But, at least she is either telling us or going herself when she needs to pee. That is a big improvement.

Olivia's Video Debut

Earthquakes and Other Random Events

Yep... I really mean earthquakes. We apparently experienced one that had an epicenter about 500 miles away. Neither Steve nor I felt it, but lots of our friends did. I was trying to put Abby down for a nap and she was walking all over on the bed during the earthquake. I think that combined with the fact that we have a cinder block house made it unnoticeable for me. Steve was working on a patient and was concentrating on what he was doing, so he didn't notice it either. But Dave, Steve's co-worker, saw the waves from the earthquake ripple across the belly of his very overweight patient. I can imagine it was a very weird experience (and probably hard not to laugh, which would have been pretty mean).

So... other than being earthquaked, we have been trying so hard to potty train. Abby had one morning where we tried the drink until you have to pee every 15 minutes method. She went 14 times in the morning, then decided that "I can't" (said in her most whiny voice). So... we are back to refusing to sit on the potty chair after her recording breaking morning. Ugh...

Olivia laughed at me for the first time last night when I was blowing raspberries on her belly. It was just a little laugh, but it was pretty adorable. She is still trying hard to flatten out the right side of her head. I can't seem to figure out how to keep her from rolling over onto it in the night. I've tried the sleep positioner, rolling blankets under her right side, putting her to sleep on her side, basically everything I could think of. No luck.

As for Abby, here are her best lines from the week:
"When I grow big like a mom I can drink coffee and diet coke."
"I am going to get my waffle (it is 3 steps away). I will be back in 3 minutes."

And finally... we are all having cabin fever since Summer didn't get the message that it arrived already. We have had rain, rain, and more rain. We took advantage of the nicer (warm but way, way windy) afternoon yesterday and went to the park with Autumn, Little Abby, Mrs. Hood and their foster boy. Abby had a lot of fun with her friends. And it was great to see people since we've been stuck inside and have had snotty nosed kids. I'm hoping their noses are dry soon.

Another Whirlwind Weekend

We are back from another whirlwind adventure of a weekend and came back with 4 surprises. The first three were new area rugs for the house (since we have all wood floors). The 4th was runny noses and whiny girls. I'd rather have left that surprise in Flint. But the rugs are heavenly - and were a steal at the Pottery Barn outlet (50% off the regular outlet price, plus 40% off for the weekend area rug sale - the blue was was even more reduced for "stains" which we can't find). So the playroom has a huge blue 100% wool rug and the living room got an even bigger (8x10) bronze one. They have provided a nice place for the girls to play on something softer than hardwood.
And... they made it a whole 12 hours before Abby spilled something on one of the new rugs. She and Olivia had adorable matching dresses on for church, then Abby pulled the lid of her sippy cup and got milk all over herself and the rug. Thankfully, wool rugs cause liquids to bead up on the top so it cleaned very well.

These dresses below are not Sunday's dress, but they were adorable in their blue and white stripes. And this is Olivia's first picture with Maize. She made it over 3 months without her first dog picture... I'm slipping.
Olivia is still working on belly time and still does not like it, but thankfully she hasn't "spilled" (i.e. puked) on the new rugs yet. She is getting close to rolling over, but she really doesn't put much effort into her attempts to rolling. She either lays down and goes to sleep or she cries and whines until I flip her over. But she does LOVE to play on her back and hit her toys if we hang them over her.
Abby continues to crack us up, although today was one of those days where I just wanted to put myself into a time out and stay there. She was up until 11 p.m. last night and I had to wake her up at 10 a.m. so that we could try to get back onto a normal schedule. I didn't let her nap today, so by 6:00 p.m. she was pretty crabby. She finally crashed at 7:45, so I'm hoping a good night of sleep will get her back on track after her busy weekend. But even with her and Olivia being quite grouchy today, she did give me a good laugh. She crawled up next to me and said "I am growing big like a mom. Then I will drink coffee and diet coke." I guess she has noticed my caffeine dependency. Maybe someday, when I am not sleep deprived and exhausted, I will be able to kick the habit again (after all I have gone totally caffeine free twice for extended periods).

We headed down to Flint on Friday night for a whirlwind rendezvous with Grandma and Grandpa Hodges, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Emily, and my cousin Meghan. Abby and Olivia hung out with Grandma and Grandpa while the big girls and I went to see the Backstreet Boys in concert (so not my thing... I'm not a concert person and I'm definitely not a boy band person). We barely got back into the car before a HUGE storm hit - thanks to my mom for text messaging the warning to Hannah and Emily so that we knew to leave the concert early and avoid the downpour. On the way home from Flint Saturday morning I took the girls to Birch Run to the outlet malls with the grandparents and aunts. That is where we scored the deal on the rugs and Abby and Olivia also got some goodies. They have enough clothes for at least 3 girls...
So... that was a lot of catching up to do. And, over the weekend we celebrated Father's Day with the world's best daddy. Abby also made her very first present - a custom photo mat for Grandpa Scott (and Grandpa Roy may just have one waiting for him too... just maybe). She was pretty proud of her artwork.

Wet and Wild Wednesday

It has been so wet and rainy around here today. We even had standing
water in our backyard - yuck! So, to make up for being stuck inside,
Abby has been extra wild (read screaming and running in circles). But,
since we were stuck inside we did manage to put new pictures on walmart.com
for you all to enjoy and order if you are so inclined.

I'm almost caught up on laundry. While I've been folding Abby has been
entertaining Olivia. That has resulted in some funny remarks. Olivia
was crying yesterday and her cries sounded like she was saying mama,
so Abby was convinced that Olivia was able to hold a full conversation
with her since she could obviously talk. Today Abby was "helping"
Olivia do tummy time. Olivia frequently spits up during tummy time and
today was no exception. So, as I was paying bills I heard "mom come
here. Olivia spilled.". That is apparently Abby code for spit up.

Fargo is Far, Far Away

Well... Steve and I can cross North Dakota off the list of states we haven't seen (my list is much, much shorter than his). It was a lot of driving, but I think we all had a good time. Except maybe Steve for the hours he had to spend in a very boring and apparently terrible class on pediatric dentistry. We made a circle trip out of our driving adventure - we only covered the same road twice for the first and last 60-ish miles of our adventure. We headed to Fargo by way of Minneapolis last weekend. We stayed the first night of our journey in Menomonee, Wisconsin. The next morning we packed up for the Mall of America in Minneapolis. We had fun checking out the mall, but were a little disappointed by the fact that it was basically just an over-sized mall. I guess Steve and I were both expecting more one-of-a-kind shops. We did have fun visiting the "doll museum" (aka the American Girl Store) and had planned to take Abby to the aquarium, but she got too tired. The highlight of her time in the mall was finding a barbie doll sized "Beast" to go with her Belle dolls. She's had lots of fun with that guy since we picked him up.

Our hotel in Fargo (the Ramada) was really nice. We had a great time at the pool, which had a kiddie pool and also a water slide. Abby and I went down the water slide once, but that was enough for her. She really had fun in the pools and the "hot pool" (aka hot tub). While Steve was in class the girls and I had to find ways to entertain ourselves, so we did some shopping and afternoon naps. We also checked out the Red River Zoo. I would not give it particularly high marks. There weren't very many exhibits and about 1/4 of them didn't have any animals that we could find. Abby is pretty petrified of animals too, so that didn't really help our zoo experience. The one animal she did like was the Russian red squirrel, so we took her picture next to it. I think we spent about 45 minutes total seeing every exhibit in the zoo - that gives you an idea about how small the place was. And it was in the 60's, cloudy, and super windy. So... if we ever decide to go back to Fargo I am going to be skipping the zoo and heading to Scheel's sporting goods instead.

After Fargo we headed to visit Glenn, Melissa, and Jack in Brainerd, Minnesota. Abby and Jack had a great time playing together, which was really fun to watch because it was the first time they were able to really play with each other and interact instead of just playing in the same space and fighting over toys. They jumped, stickered, and played with cars and dolls. And they've both been asking about each other since we left so it must have been lots and lots of fun. We also got to see Melissa's baby belly in person and hoped that Baby H. might sneak out early to meet us, but no luck on that. We can't wait to meet him or her and our other new cousin Isaac when they are born in the next few weeks.

Yesterday we made the LONG, LONG drive home from Minnesota. The 10 hour drive took us 12 hours, which isn't too bad for a two year old girl and her baby sister. We even stopped to see Agate Falls in the U.P. on our way back. But by the last hour of the trip the girls were pretty exhausted, we had a bit of a meltdown from both, and my back was killing me from having a very compacted seat (my seat has to be all the way forward for Olivia's carset to fit into our car). It was fun, but we were tired and sore from the big adventure. So today we slept in as late as possible, got the refrigerator restocked, mowed the jungle that used to be our backyard (it was mid-calf deep in spots), and started on the gigantic laundry piles.

So now we are back to normal, at least until Friday when the girls and I head down to Flint to take my baby sisters to a concert and visit with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Scott for a night. Busy, busy, busy!

Flu? No Thank You!

Well... the drain cleaner has come and gone and he couldn't get to the spot where the clog is. So, Steve and our good friend Trevor are going to cut the pipe and put a clean out in for Mr. Dean, then he will be back for a second attempt. So I have water all over the basement floor since the laundry had to get done. Especially after Abby developed the flu. Lots of dirty clothes, really fast.

Abby started feeling yucky after breakfast on Friday and attempted her first meal tonight. We are hoping she's about over it since we have a 9 hour drive to make tomorrow for the first leg of our North Dakota/Minnesota adventure. Stay tuned for the exciting updates of Abby and Olivia's big road adventure!

"He Will Put A Band-Aid On My House"

We have a drain cleaner coming today to clean out our drain that is backed up (it's only the kitchen sink/garbage disposal and washing machine on the line). The drain guy who is coming out today has been here for the same problem before since he is the only drain guy in town. So... hopefully by the end of the day I will be able to do laundry without all the water ending up on the floor. Then possibly we will move some furniture down there so we can hang out someplace cool when it gets hot this summer.

So, since I knew Abby would be freaked out by a strange guy entering our home later today, I told her that our house was broken and that a special man would be coming to fix it. I also had to go down into the basement to clean up and little and didn't want her down there with all Steve's tools and yucky water on the floor, so she needed an explanation of why she couldn't come down and help me, which she normally does. Our Abby is one smart cookie. After I explained all that to her she looked at me and said "Our house is broked." I told her she was right. Then she told me to fix it, so I explained to her that I couldn't but the special fixer man could. So the next thing out of her mouth was, "he will put a band-aid on my house." Way too cute not to share.

In other news... Abby can now draw pretty good circles. I am trying to teach her how to draw an "A", but we are having no luck. Olivia is enjoying her jumper and Abby has only been scolded 3 times for shaking it too much for a baby to ride in. I'd say that's pretty good.

Flat Head Therapy

Olivia is developing a flat spot on the right side of her head, so she
is in flat head therapy until her perfect little cranium is rounded
out again. We didn't really notice the flattening until it was quite
flattened. I feel pretty bad about not catching it sooner, but luckily
it's still a very reversible thing. So Olivia is only allowed to lay
on the back or left side of her head for the time being. And she's
also spending more time in her jumper and exersaucer, which seems to
be fun for both her and Abby.

We are leaving for Fargo and Minnesota in 4 days. I have a lot of
laundry and packing to do in order to get ready. I'm hoping that we
have a very uneventful drive. We are thinking about detouring to the
Mall of America on the way out, so I am looking forward to my first
trip to the mall since November if my memory serves me right. It's one
of those places I've had to learn to live without since moving to da UP.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to all of our friends and family who have served us in the various branches of the military! I am so thankful for brave men and women who are willing to put their lives on the line for me and my family - especially our own heroes Joe Nichelson and Ron Widerberg.

We have been enjoying a relaxing weekend with our little family. On Saturday we took the girls to the beach (Sherman Park) here in town before heading to a graduation open house for one of Abby's babysitters (Kasi) who also happens to be the big sister of Abby's little girlfriend Autumn. She had tons of fun running around the open house with Autumn and came home nice and sweaty. She's also figured out that drawing on herself results in a bath. And since she loves baths we have caught her drawing on herself 3 times this weekend. She no longer has access to any markers and I think all the pens have been stored too. She is too smart for her own good.

Sunday after church we took a little drive over to Deer Park, Michigan to go to Lake Superior. We took a top secret two-track to get back to the section of beach where the Sucker River meets the big lake. Abby had so much fun playing in the river and digging up the sand. The pictures from our adventure got posted yesterday (see below). Even Olivia loved having her toes in the water. She kept stretching her legs to find the water when I was sitting on the riverbank holding her. Since it has been in the 80's here for almost two straight weeks the water in our lakes and rivers has been exceptionally warm. It's like August water in May. So weird. One sad thing about the unseasonably warm and dry weather we've had this year is how dry a lot of the lakes and rivers have become. We drove by Muskellunge Lake, which is on the way to our favorite campground, and it was down a lot. So much that some sections of the lake were totally dry.

Today Steve and I are celebrating our 7th anniversary. We aren't doing a very good job of doing anything too special. Just the basic weekend type hanging out. We had lunch out (at Taco Bell - Abby's favorite) and went to Wal-Mart for groceries and supplies for our road trip next weekend. And I've been working on laundry and trying to figure out what is going on with our basement and water. Every time I do a load of laundry we get about 2 gallons of water on the floor, but we can't for the life of us figure out where or how it gets there. I've even sat and watched the pipes for a whole load and can't find a leak anywhere. I'm beginning to think I need to call in an expert.