Two Teeth

Olivia finally got her bottom front teeth after days and days of crying and carrying on. Now let's hope we can get a full night's sleep!

Sometimes Happy...

Olivia, who has up until the last week been an incredibly happy baby, has had a very bad week. We can barely see her two little front teeth that just about have made it into her mouth. I'm praying they hurry up and pop through so that the poor girl can get some relief and I can get some sleep at night. She's been either happy or shrieking for about a week. I've been beyond exhausted for about that same amount of time.

We had a really fun week this past week. We got to witness the adoption of our friends' foster daughter and celebrate her adoption into their family. She'd been with them since she left the hospital, so it was exciting to finally (18 months later) celebrate that she was official. We also got to enjoy visiting with Great Grandma Lorraine and Great Grandpa Harley. They hadn't been up to see the new house yet, so we had fun showing them around and the girls loved playing with them. Abby was pretty bummed out when they left Sunday morning and has been checking for their car out the window just in case they come back. We took them to the must-do tourist spot in town (The Antlers Restaurant). While we were having dinner Abby fell asleep at the table. She almost fell out of her chair, but we caught her in time to let her sit up on my lap and sleep. It's amazing the places that little girls can fall asleep.

And... for the "Abby-isms" file of things I need to remember, we had the following play out this weekend:

Abby was playing with her dolls and wanted to put her doll's bottle into the fridge, since I had just put her milk into the fridge. Her toy fridge was upstairs in her bedroom. She took the bottle up and then came down and this conversation happened.

Abby to me: Can you bring my fridge downstairs?
Me to Abby: You need to ask your dad if that's okay.
Abby walks across the room to Steve.
Abby to Steve: Can you bring my fridge downstairs?
Steve to Abby: If I bring it downstairs you won't have any toys in your room.
Abby walks across the room to me.
Abby to me: Dad said yes.

Oh are we in trouble....

I'm Gonna Eat...

Anything, says Olivia. She had her first chunks of real solids
yesterday - Wendy's chicken nuggets and mandarin oranges (ripped into
itty bitty pieces of course). Today she had banana, cheese, and sugar
cookies. Now that she understands eating her little mouth is gaping
open the minute she sees food.

Super Sitter

Olivia started sitting up unassisted on Thursday of last week (I know... it's Monday...I'm busy). She's up to a minute or so before she grabs for sometime and takes a dive. But she really, really enjoys the view from the upright position and loves being able to interact with Abby. Olivia is also right in the middle of getting some teeth, or something, I hope. Last night she had a bad night, so she and I ended up spending the second half of the night (after 2 am) sleeping together on the couch. I'm hoping that is the last night of such nonsense. I need my sleep too...

The girls stayed with their favorite babysitters on Friday night so Steve and I could enjoy some adult conversation (and Dairy Queen without having to get some for Abby). Abby is getting better about staying with a sitter or at the church nursery with each attempt, we are still waiting for the day when she doesn't cry about it. Olivia, on the other hand, could care less. She is just a flirt, so anyone is generally fine unless she is tired.

This weekend Steve, with the help of our friend Mr. Dodge, removed the big, rotting, brown shed from our backyard. Or maybe I should say cut it up, since one wall completely fell in when Steve started taking things out of the shed. We found some interesting treasures inside including a really old, really tall men's schwinn bike. It's free to the first to claim and remove it from my back yard. Thankfully we don't have to worry about the shed falling down on our children anymore, but I think I may have to take some time out soon and go pick up any stray nails and screws that are left out there.

Olivia Hits the Big 6 Months!

Little baby Olivia turned 6 months old on Friday! She is growing up so fast! I may have missed posting about her milestone, but we didn't miss taking her picture so we could remember what a chubby cheeked cutie she was at 6 months old.

We had a very busy weekend (what's new?) with company coming over on Saturday morning and heading to friends on Sunday afternoon to watch the Lions get robbed. Saturday morning we met the Dinger family. Dr. Dinger is the new dentist for the tribe that Steve works for. He has a lovely wife and two kids, so Abby enjoyed having some new playmates for the morning on Saturday. Then the girls practiced their "touchdown" shouting skills watching the Michigan/Notre Dame game (Go Blue!). We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

Olivia enjoyed her first dairy queen blizzard this week. It was chocolate ice cream with brownie and cookie dough pieces. She had a whole face full and probably ruined some pajamas, but she thought it was well worth it.

Oh... and our fall colors are just starting to come on. I love this time of the year. Until I have to start raking...

Whoa! Where Has Time Gone

Okay... so a week later, and I don't really know how the week flew by so fast. Except for maybe the fact that we were away from home for the holiday weekend and that I've had some extra crabbiness around here due to teething children (both of them - lovely). We had a great time down-state visiting family and managed to see all of the grandparents and great-grandparents again. Steve and I also went to our 10th class reunion. We can add that to things we will never do again - both because there won't be another 10th reunion for that class and because we paid a lot of money for bad food and no program or slide shows or anything. We did get to catch up with some friends, but it certainly wasn't 70 dollars worth of fun or food. Oh well...

Abby is officially over napping except on days when she has been really busy or she was up late the night before. I'm not sure I like this new phase of life. I need my naps too! But, we are learning to make it workable. Olivia, unfortunately, hasn't been napping well lately either. I think the travel threw her off her schedule, so she's been extra crabby since she's been missing her 3 hour afternoon naps (and she also doesn't want to miss out on anything anymore, so that complicates things). She's generally the happiest kid in the room, but with the teething and the lack of naps she's been off lately.

Now that we are home for a few weeks in a row again, we've been getting back into the swing of having friends around. Last night Olivia and her little friend Hugh discovered each other and rolled across the rug to get together. It was pretty cute to watch them discover each other and try really hard to get within reach of the other. Olivia also had some quality time with Wyatt (whom we've been told has laid claim to her, so apparently she is not available for your sons). It is great to have friends with kids the same ages as our daughters - they have such a great time with their little playmates.

Entertain Olivia

Some Second Child Musings

Olivia is a short 9 days away from the 6 month mark and that got me
thinking about how differently we've patented her. Some of the
differences, like laying her down to fall asleep in her bed by
herself, have been very intentional. Others have been out of
necessity, like letting her hang out in the crib so I cab shower with
Abby getting at her. And some are just the product of "been there,
done that". Either way, I've noticed that we've been a lot more laid
back with her - especially in the area of hoovering watching for
milestones. And being a lot less cautious about letting her interact
with bigger kids, mostly because there is no way around it.

A Bowl on the Table...

Is worth a mess on the toddler, right? It is in our house anyway. We have some bowls that have a handy little suction cup on the bottom. They work great for keeping little people from picking up their bowls of sloppy, wet cereal and walking all around the house. At least I thought they did. Then Abby tried to pick up the bowl to drink the milk out of her cereal and the entire bowl of cinnamon toast crunch ended up coming down on top of her. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe for a minute or two, then I took her picture, then we cleaned up the mess.

We also cleaned up a very big mess inside. We had a bathroom with a major ceiling mildew problem. Part of it was pre-existing, but the rest was our own creation from not running the vent fan so that we didn't wake up Abby any earlier than she got up on her own. Needless to say after scrubbing the ceiling with bleach and repainting the whole bathroom, no one in this house will be showering without running the vent fan. But, the bathroom went from a blah (and dirty) light blue to a fabulous "Tinkerbell" green, so I think it was well worth the effort in the 80+ degree heat.

Olivia and Abby are both cutting teeth. Abby has her last two molars just about through and Olivia has been chewing her fists for a solid 3 weeks. They both also developed snotty noses over the weekend, which for Abby has always been a sure sign that the teeth were just about through. No coughs, no sneezes, no fevers, just icky running noses. I hope their little teeth hurry in - Olivia kept me up most of the night since she couldn't lay flat to sleep and she is definitely too big to be crammed into an infant car seat, even if it is the most comfortable way for her to sleep. So, after keeping me up all night (I'm operating on maybe 3.5 hours of sleep today), Olivia took a big long morning nap. Of course, I had to stay awake to watch Abby who is wearing her big girl panties today. So far no accidents... I hope she can keep that up.

Welcome Home to the 1437th!

The local troops returned from their deployment to Iraq this afternoon, so I hauled Abby and Olivia out in the cold, windy, almost rainy weather to stand by the road and watch them come home. We don't know any of them personally, but I wanted to start teaching the girls early to value the sacrifice of our military. We are looking forward to "Uncle" Ron to be home soon too - I'm sure "Aunt" Meghan is even more excited that he will be back! Abby really enjoyed watching the soldiers come back through town. They had a police and fire escort along with dozens and dozens of motorcycles from the local VFW. We waved our flags and I talked to Abby about how special it was that the soldiers would protect her. We also had a little lesson about the American flag and how one star was for Michigan, where we live.

Olivia screamed for most of the parade. She really hates loud noises. I can't even yell at Abby or Maize without making Olivia cry. And she didn't want to nap today, so that only made her more irritable. But she did love holding onto the flag like her big sister. And she had fun playing with Abby in the double stroller. They are getting great at entertaining each other.