My Olivia

Man, I love this girl! She is at that stage where she can't tell me that she loves me enough. And she tries to find the right words, so she says things like:

My heart beats like thunder for you.

I love you with my whole life.

I love you the most much and Abigail loves you the least much. (She was trying to convince me to put Abigail in her crib and play with her instead.)

She is still struggling a bit with having a baby sibling, so I try to make her feel extra special. She looks forward to the weekend because she gets to sleep with me. We are planning a trip to the circus soon along with a vacation just the three of us. I hope both of my girls always know how loved they are.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Olivia has struggled with eating all of her life. Lately it has gotten worse and she has started gagging after eating. It's frustrating as a mom who has always known of this difficulty and yet doctors shrug it off. So we wait until her weight gain starts to be distressing and then decide to do something. Anyway, she goes in for an upper GI X-ray on Tuesday. What I believe is that she has esophageal stricture, or a narrowing of the esophagus. This can actually be caused by scar tissue due to things like a ventilator and NG tube. This would explain why she can't swallow certain things like meat and carrots. An hour later, I always discover she is still chewing on things like that. It would also explain why she tells me that she has a froggy stuck in her throat after eating and her difficulty gaining weight. Add to that some oral aversions and the fact that she never put things in her mouth as a baby and no wonder she doesn't eat. I'm slowly learning to never underestimate a mother's intuition. And it doesn't hurt that we are switching to a new doctor who listens a little better. Please keep Olivia in your prayers so that we can help her eat better, grow and continue thriving!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Today was just a fun day. . .nothing really specific, just fun. We started the morning with a puppet show for Abigail. Those two are really interacting now. It is so cute.



Abigail is really taking an interest in toys too. She loves to bat at them. I always have her firefly on the side of her crib and the first thing she does when she wakes up is play with it. At 4:30 am when she woke up, it wasn't there and she got really mad. So funny! It's back now though.


We are finally getting on somewhat of a schedule too and that has been wonderful. Abigail has no problems sleeping 6-8 hrs per night. Of course, if I went to bed sooner that would help. She's a good eater AND a good sleeper! That never happens. She does not take good naps though, just like Olivia.


She is just as cute as can be and on the verge of laughing any day. I'm so blessed with my girls.

And we had sausage and tortellini soup for dinner. I still need to do a blog post on emeals. I can't rave enough about them! After over a month of meals, there have only been 2-3 that we haven't liked.


Jodi- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Bumbo

At least one child likes it. LOL!

Kitty Kelsey

Last night Olivia was having a hard time going to sleep so I let her kitty Kelsey stay in the bedroom with her. When I woke up about 1:30, I opened her bedroom door to let Kelsey out and they were snuggled up in bed together. I left the door ajar so she could leave when she needed to and that cat stayed with Olivia all night long. This made Olivia so happy this morning. However, Olivia just came to me crying asking how long Kelsey would be here. How old is she? When was she going to die? Don't know what brought this all up. She loves her kitty, though, and Kelsey loves her just the same.

Thank You

Thank you to the very special blog reader who sent me my giraffe overalls. I'm wearing them today.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

I always say that Abigail has eating days (where all she does is eat) and sleeping days (where all she does is sleep.) Today was definitely a sleeping day. How I got blessed with such amazing girls, I'll never know. While Abigail slept, I was able to spend a lot of time with Olivia playing with bath toys, Play Doh and coloring (of which she literally took an interest in yesterday.) Ryan worked all day yesterday, so he got a day to recover. And, I made delicious crock pot lasagna that even Olivia enjoyed. Pretty good day.

New Bath Toys. . .

that she doesn't want to take in the bath. She doesn't want to get them wet to risk having to throw them away too. LOL! She loves little things like this. She could look through an Oriental Trading catalog all day. I love her sweet, innocent heart.

Sisters

Logan

When I read this, it really spoke to me. But, I also thought of Olivia and how she will always know that she's growing up without her twin brother. She survived and he did not. I am so incredibly grateful for the children I have on earth with me. I couldn't survive without them. He's always with us and wants us to be happy. . .so I smiled and sighed and took a big breath.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

A few days ago, we had to throw away quite a few bath toys. My attempts to keep them clean were futile. Those darn squishy ones are impossible. Olivia was VERY attached to her bath toys. When we threw them away, I about cried because Olivia said,"Good-bye bath toys! I will never forget you." The only way we got through that sad ordeal is to order new bath toys. Well, some of them came today and you would have thought it was Christmas. She ran in to take a bath with them. LOL! And I purposely got baby ones so that they can be for Abigail too. Also, some advice about the squishy bath toys: When we get new ones, we are hot gluing the holes shut so water can't get in them. They won't squirt water anymore, but at least they won't get moldy.

Olivia also had a dr appointment today to check on her ears and her swishy noises. Her ears looked good and at this time we don't have to see an ENT. We are also switching to a new doctor because hers is resigning. Olivia met with her today and really liked her!

And Abigail wore her first pair of blue jeans today. They are also Olivia's first pair. :)

Just Pictures

Monday, February 25, 2013

I have a lot of cute Olivia stories today. First, let me say that Olivia's cousin, Izzy, has always called my dad Papa Cars because his favorite movie is Cars ( and he works in an auto repair shop.) So, story # 1:

Olivia has a teddy bear named William. Well, it was mine that Ryan bought me after we got engaged and then he lived about 1.5 hours away for the last three semesters of college. Olivia and I were talking about how that is Ryan's middle name and it was also Logan's middle name. Then, I asked her if she knew that it was Grandpa Glunt's first name.

She said," I thought his name was Bill?"

So, then I asked what Grandma Glunt's first name was.

"Mary," she said.

And what about Grandma Sailing?

"Pat."

And Grandpa Sailing? We were on a roll. But, she looked stumped for a bit and then said, "Cars?" Haha! Cracked me up.

Story #2:

We were sitting on the couch this morning and I have a plant that I bought in February 2001 when I moved out into my first apartment. Her name is Hilga. She asked why I named my plant. LOL. I explained that plants were living things. We went on to talk about how plants need water and sunlight to survive. This afternoon I walked by her room to find a fake plant by her window. Aw, she must have realized it wasn't getting any sun. I never did check to see if she watered it. Next lesson will be the difference between real and artificial plants.

The second picture just shows my new free car seat canopy. I only paid shipping on it. Love it!

More Snow

Yep, you guessed it. Another snow day today and my sissy is out of school. I don't know what all this talk is about playing in the snow. I can't think of anything more enjoyable than a nice warm bath!

-Abigail

Back In The Day

Here is our snow igloo from Feb 1983. I realized I was five, just like Olivia. So fun!

Another Fun Snow Day

One of my fondest snow memories growing up was the igloo that my dad built us in the backyard. Even our dog enjoyed it! Well, today my dad built an igloo for his granddaughters. They loved it! Too bad Abigail is too young to enjoy it.

My 1 Lb Miracle Enjoying the Snow

Sorry this isn't working. I'll get it reposted tomorrow.

So Fun Snow Day

Great, great snow day today. Olivia and Ryan went out after lunch and she had the time of her life. She just kept saying,"This is the life!" I have a cute sledding video that I'll try to get posted later. And it's rumored that we might get another foot of snow on Sun/Mon. Wow, I really wish I owned a pair of snow boots.

Not So Fun Snow Day

I'm so frustrated today. We got over 14 inches of snow (second most snow fall on record here ) and I was inside with a sweet baby screaming in pain. Olivia should have been outside having fun and making memories. At least there is always tomorrow. Ryan had to work (from home at least) and I couldn't put Abigail down. I literally stood for hours with her singing Rockin' Robin. For some reason that's the only song I found that soothed her. LOL! I don't know what's wrong. I had continued breastfeeding (and got my supply up) and barely supplemented with regular Similac because I had really thought my antibiotic was causing the problem. That was a mistake. We have her back on Alimentum only. She refuses the powdered kind, so we have to get the ready to feed kind. Maybe it is a dairy allergy or maybe it is reflux. You can hear something coming up right before she cries. And the more she cries, the worse it is. She's on Zantac, but it hasn't been weight adjusted and honestly, it did nothing for Olivia. She needed Prilosec or Prevacid. Abigail has a 99.5 temp and has barely slept all day, so maybe she has a touch of something (although they tell me a rectal temp isn't a fever until 100.4.) She is miserable! I feel so bad for her and so bad for Olivia as I know she hasn't had a fun day. Please pray that we figure out what is going on! I just need answers. :(

Looks like tomorrow is snow day #3, so maybe it will be better.

Snow Day

Olivia’s preschool was canceled this afternoon as were a lot of other schools around.  We are expecting around 10 inches total by tomorrow.  Olivia was thrilled as we haven’t had a decent snow since she was 3 years old and she doesn’t really remember that.  I was thrilled because I really needed a day at home to do nothing!  And we did nothing!  We stayed in our pajamas all day, watched Netflix, cuddled and played. 

Olivia played with Abigail too!  I put her in the swing so that I could eat lunch and she started fussing a bit.  So, Olivia sat down on her step stool and talked with her.  Then, she ended up putting toys in front of her and singing and dancing.  Abigail loved every minute of it and when Olivia would get up to go get something, Abigail would cry.  It just warmed my heart. 

Daddy got to come home from work early and Olivia got to go outside to play.  We are hoping to get a snowman built tomorrow. 

While Olivia and daddy were outside, Abigail and I were staying warm inside.  And this little girl had one full, happy tummy.

Later tonight, on her 3 month birthday, she showed off her mad skills.  Look at that head and arm strength!  So proud of her!

What a great snow day!  Looks like tomorrow is a lot of the same.