Easter

Get ready for photo overload!  Consider yourself warned.


We had a fabulous and very laid back Easter this year.  We did a photo shoot the day before Easter with MckMama (any of you who follow other Mommy-Blogs will know of her).  It went really well and we should be getting the CD in the mail soon, so I'll be sure to share!  


We had a great time coloring Easter eggs.  Emma was ALL into it, and Abby supervised the operation.

Easter fell on Brad's 30th birthday this year, which he was very excited about (NOT!).  We woke up to see all of the loot that the Easter Bunny left the girls.  They were both pretty excited!

We headed to church and met Mimi there.  The girls did great!  They both made it through most of the service, though Abby was sleepy, but not sleepy enough to fall asleep.  We all took turns passing her back and forth/wrestling with her.  Emma even prayed out loud with the priest once.  :)


After church we went to Mimi's to have Easter lunch and an Easter egg hunt.  It was Abby's first egg hunt and she loved it!  She went down for a nap as soon as it was over.  The girls dresses were baby shower gifts from Brad's parents when I was pregnant with Abby.  They wore them for some professional photos when Abby was about 4 months old - and they still fit! Abby's is a 6 month size - told you she was tiny!

These are some of my favorites.  Love how sneaky Abby is while snatching sister's eggs!

After an awesome lunch we headed back home for a nap before dinner with Brad's family to celebrate his birthday and Easter at the same time.  He ended up with 2 cakes that day, so he can't complain too much!

It was a really nice Easter.  I honestly don't remember Easter last year.  My Dad had just passed away and it was all a blur.  This one was much better, though we certainly missed him every second of the day.

Playing Catch Up

I've been such a bad blogging mommy lately.  I've just been SO darn busy that I barely get a spare moment.  And when I do, there are ever so many things that I need to do.  The girls take a nap around the same time each afternoon, which provides a tad bit of a break for me, but it's rare these days.  Abby's naps are sometimes super short and as soon as I get Emma down and laundry started, Abby's up.  I personally think that she just wants some one on one time with Mommy to play!  

I'm going to do a bit of catching up over the next few days.  Abby is nearly a year old (AH!!!!) AND Emma will be 3 before we know it.  It feels like it was just yesterday that we brought each of them home from the hospital.  How on EARTH are they so big!?!?!

A really nice weekend.

This weekend was just really great.  It was energizing, refocusing, and family-driven, which we really needed.  We had a really challenging week last week.  It was full of late nights, cars breaking down, sleepless nights (thank you, Abby), and going through the motions.  So often lately I feel like we just put one foot in front of the other.  We don't get out of the house enough, leaving to have dinners with family, grocery shop, or just run errands when necessary.  We go through the motions of the day, exhausted and completely devoid of energy or inspiration in the end.  We NEEDED a great weekend to adjust our focus back to where it should be - on our family.


Brad had Friday off as a furlough day, but it was pretty much a disappointment that threatened to ruin our 3-day weekend.  Due to tons of errands and lots of school stuff for Brad, we ended up just staying around the house.  


Luckily enough, I won tickets to a show at the Center for Puppetry Arts on Facebook, of all places.  We had to wake up early, shift naps around, and do some seriously strategic planning, but it was all worth it in the end.  I regret to say that I don't have a single photo of the day.  Photography was strictly prohibited in the entire place, so I didn't even bother to bring a camera.  It was SO much fun!  We saw "Space!" which was a little too educational for my taste, but the girls loved it.  Both girls made it through the entire show!  The stadium bench seats were perfect, and Emma was able to see the stage easily from her seat.  Abby made it until the last few minutes when she got so excited that she started talking to the puppets.  Brad took her out for a few minutes of a break.  Just about that time, Emma told me that she needed to go potty.  We grabbed the rest of our stuff and made it to the bathroom (our very first public restroom experience!).  There, she touched everything in sight as I scream/whispered - DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!!  It was pretty funny, after the fact.


As we were heading back to the theater, Brad came out and told us it had just finished.  So much fun!!  We got to see a real Big Bird, Ernie, Kermit and Rowlf (from the Muppets).  Lots of other puppets from the Jim Henson collection as well.  


We headed home for a nice long family nap.  It was just an awesome day.

On Sunday we decided to venture to Stone Mountain (where we had planned to go on Friday) and ride the Sky Lift.  For those of you who haven't been, it's a large trolley-type car that goes up the side of the mountain on a cable system to the top.  We rode to the top of the mountain and got to walk around and see the city.  It was SOOOO windy! 

The girls had such a great time.  Abby stayed snugly and warmly in the Moby wrap, which was perfect for the trip.  Emma scared the crap out of both of us several times.  Brad decided that we might need to invest in a leash for her for next time.  :)  

Brad loved how Abby's eyes got HUGE every time she looked out of the cable car.

It was so great to re-charge and spend some quality family time.  We really needed it.  Now if we can just make it through another long week full of late work days for Brad and this God-forsaken time change, we'll be doing good!

8 Months

Yes, as has become typical with these posts, Abby is, in fact, 9 months old now.  And yes, I am just now getting around to doing her 8 month post.  I know, I know.  I'm sure she'll hate me forever once she's old enough to know how post-dated her monthly update posts were.  She'll live.  I'm certain of it.

Anyway.  Abby at 8 months.  It wasn't a terribly exciting month, but we had a few "firsts."  Abby caught her first real cold.  Emma got it first, passed it to Abby, and then to me.  It was pretty rough.  Low-grade fever, congestion, runny nose and NO sleep.  The best part is that she had just really started to sleep through the night with some regularity when the shit hit the fan.  It took an act of God to get her sleeping again, but I'm happy to report that she's back on track now.

She wants to be put DOWN all of the time!!  She will arch her back, wrestle, fling herself backward, and do the worm in order to get you to put her in the floor to play.  Once in the floor, she gets up on all fours and rocks backwards, or just commando crawls to whatever she wants.  And she's FAST!  What she lacks in size, she makes up for in speed.  She's hell on wheels and you can't turn your back for a second.  Her favorite mission in life?  To get into Emma's potty.  And she's stealthy about it.  Little stink.

As much as she wants to get down to play, she also adores me holding her.  I think she'd be content to ride around on my hip for about 95% of the day.  She doesn't like being sat in her exersaucer or her swing for more than a few seconds, and she's the first one to let you know how displeased she is with the situation.  I told my mom, when she's grown up and has had one baby, I'm going to get her back for this.  I'm going to wait until that baby is about 18 months old - you know, REALLY good and busy, and I'm going to buy her a monkey.  Not just any monkey.  One that wears diapers and screams when you put it down.  And one that smears food all over its face while you feed it, and fights like a cage fighter when you try to get him dressed.  I'm going to make her carry that monkey around all day while she chases her other child around.  And I'm going to laugh.  Really hard.  :)

She's also eating like a horse.  Brad wants to come to her next check up so that he can find out where her hollow leg is.  Seriously.  She eats like it's her job.  WAY more than Emma ever did, and Emma outweighed her by about half.  She eats 4-5 ounces of fruits/veggies with oatmeal mixed in at each of her 3 meals.  She also eats a ton of Gerber puffs, Baby Mum Mums (her personal favorite), and other finger foods.  She nurses about 5 times a day.  She likes rice, cut up cooked veggies or fruit, and rice cakes.  She's a hawg.  Not a "hog."  A HAWG!


The funniest part is that she's still a peanut.  There are a couple of tiny leg rolls, but she's still SO skinny and small.  My aunt Claire says she'll fool you because she looks like such a tiny baby, but she ISN'T!  She's got a lot of personality and if the food's not coming fast enough, you'd better cover your ears.  

She is in 6 month clothes.  She can wear 6-9 months, but 3-6 still fits comfortably.  She's in a size 2 diaper (but she's still in a size small diaper cover).  Not sure what she weighs, but I'd be willing to bet it's not even 16lbs.

She loves her big sister, but big sister is rough when they play, so she's a little scared at times!  So is her mommy.  Emma wants to roll around and rough house with her, but is still learning that she's small and easily hurt.  


She has recently decided that it's hysterical when someone pretends to gag.  She's got the best laugh ever.  

She adores the remote control, just like her big sister did.


She still looks just like her mama, and more and more like her Grandpa every day.  Every now and then I take a picture and look back at it and my breath is just sucked away - she looks SO much like him.  That has been such a blessing for me because I am so devastated that he never got to meet her on this side of heaven.  I just know he would adore her so much.  


This month has not been particularly busy, but Abby's been busy growing like a little weed.  How on earth has it nearly been a year??  I'm planning a joint party for Abby's first and Emma's third birthdays.  SO hard to believe time has flown that fast.

Potty Training!

I haven't written about this yet, for fear of jinxing it.  Hell, I'm scared to say anything even NOW!  Emma is pretty much potty trained!  This is week 3 or 4, though I can't remember exactly.


We bought her a potty about a year ago, knowing that we'd need it "someday."  We tried twice, (once for a good 3 days, once for about a day) and were pretty unsuccessful.  She didn't seem to have the awareness that she was going at all, and would get VERY upset if she saw her prize (usually an M&M) and didn't get it.  She just wasn't ready.


And then one day, she was.  I changed a particularly nasty diaper and, whilst trying not to gag, said to her, "You know what?  We're done with this.  You're a big girl and you can use the potty now."  I put a pair of the itty bittiest panties you've ever seen (either princess, Yo Gabba, or Minnie Mouse) on her, and she did it.  I don't even think she had 1 accident that first day.  She was SO proud of herself!!  She's only had a handful of accidents at all and the ones that she has had,  have been because she was distracted.  She's clearly still learning to listen to her body.


I can't tell you how proud I am of her.  She figured it out almost instantly and there's been no turning back.  Her potty sings to her as soon as she goes, and she's thrilled with the sense of control it gives her.  She isn't trip trained - in fact, she will almost ALWAYS say "no" when you ask if she needs to go.  She knows when she needs to, and either tells me or just goes and sits.  She's such a big girl.  She also uses a toilet seat reducer ring on our toilet, though the little potty seems to have a bigger draw for her when we're home.


She has pooped several times on the potty, and has only had 1 of "those" accidents.  She often waits until after naptime and goes in her diaper before I get her up.  She's still diapered for nap and overnight, as those diapers are SOAKED when she wakes.  


I thought I'd go ahead and add a picture of her "doing the deed," as I'm sure she'll appreciate me for it someday.  HA!  Emma, if you're reading this as an adult, be sure that I wiped your little butt and washed your diapers enough times over the course of your 2.5 years to earn the right to post as many pictures of you sitting on the potty as I want to.  And I DO want to.  I will, however, spare you the picture of the first time she pooped on the potty.  Nobody wants to see that.

7 Months

I'll admit it.  I'm a horrible mother.  My last post was when Abby was 6 months old, and she's now 8 months old.  In my own defense, life FLIES these days!!  I usually don't get around to taking her monthly photos until the very end of the month anyway, but this last month just completely snuck by me.

I'll add in some fuzzy phone pictures (just about all I have this month!) and hope it suffices.

So what was Abby up to at 7 months?  A lot!  

She is sitting up pretty well, but has decided it's pretty pointless because she can now get up on all 4s and rock!  She seems to think I'm going to allow this, but she's mistaken.  She's been forbidden to become mobile until she turns 3.  Or maybe 4.  We haven't decided yet.

She's eating like a COW.  Seriously.  She eats a minimum of 4 ounces of baby food (around 2 jars, if she were eating processed baby food) and has come to discover the joy that IS "puffs."  She also loves Baby Mum Mums, which I have decided are God's gift to mothers.

She is still spitting up MUCH less than she was, now that she's on Zantac.  We are loving it.  

I'm not sure what she weighs, but I imagine she's still in the 14lb. area.  My joke these days is that with Emma, we played "count the rolls."  With Abby, we play "count the wrinkles."

She is finally in size 2 diapers, though she's still cloth diapered all the time.  We haven't bought a single new diaper.  She's in all of Emma's old ones.  Talk about saving money!

She wears 6 month, or 6-9 month clothes.  Technically, she still fits in 3 month and 3-6 month, but I have a TON of Emma's clothes to go through with her.  Emma's first winter, she was in 6-9 or 9 month clothes.  Abby's a full size below, at least.  As luck would have it, Emma literally had more clothes during that season than any other, and more than she could ever wear.  I've pulled out several outfits with tags still on them, so they're new to Abby!  I had 2 Rubbermaid boxes of 6-9 month clothes.  Ridiculous.

She had her first diaper rash this month and it was BAD.  We think it may have been from too much yogurt.  Still not sure.  A friend recommended Calmoseptine cream, which was a godsend.  We also did lots of nekkid time and some soaks in baking soda baths, as you can see.  

I re-discovered, during that rash, the biggest reason I hate disposable diapers.  In one day, she had 3 diaper explosions.  RIDICULOUS.  Had she been in cloth, none of them would have occurred.  Not to mention, I wouldn't have spent $10 on a stupid pack of diapers.  

She's still swaddled to sleep, and shows no signs of breaking loose.  We have tried to leave 1 arm out a few times, and it was a nightmare.  Just not worth it.  Emma proved to us, she won't go to preschool in a swaddle blanket.

She has been a pretty good sleeper at night, but naps have been shot to hell.  For some reason, she has decided that she only needs 1-1.5 hour naps in the afternoon, and no evening catnap anymore.  Mommy knows that she really needs more like 2-2.5 hour naps.

She ADORES her sister.  Emma can make her laugh harder than anyone else.  The love is so mutual these days.  Emma adores Abby and CONSTANTLY wants me to hold Abby up so she can dance with her.  She also likes to tell me where to "put" Abby.  

They take "sister baths" pretty frequently now, and both love it.  

I'm sure no one will be interested in this, but I thought I'd mention it for my own memory's sake.  Abby is a poop machine.  She spent the first half of her life maybe going once every 2 weeks, if we were lucky.  Now, it's a minimum of 4 times a day.  Seriously!  

She's coming into her own, so to speak.  She's got quite a personality, and it's pretty funny!  She tells you what she wants and when she wants it.  She DOESN'T wait well.  If she sees me getting her food ready, she starts complaining about how long I'm taking with it.  She's a mess.

She loves her food.  She particularly enjoys avocado, sweet potato, and pears.  She also loves peas, butternut (or acorn) squash, peaches, applesauce, bananas, prunes, and carrots.  All of those are mixed with baby oatmeal in order to thicken them.  She tolerates green beans.

She had her first REAL solid food this month - pizza crust.  She insisted that she needed it, and I was tired of listening to her yell about it, to be honest.  Second-child syndrome.  I don't think I ever would have handed Emma something like that to make her stop yelling.  Got to be honest!  She thought she had died and gone to heaven.

Month 8 update coming soon!!  :)