Abigail's Turn

This girl warms my heart so much. It's interesting the things that I can do with her that I could never have done with Olivia. Abigail will be presenting me with a whole new set of challenges, however. For instance, she can already unscrew the jar of Cetaphil lotion ( I unfortunately discovered today.) Her superb fine motor skills, concentration and determination are gonna get her into trouble, I can tell. LOL! I had to warn Olivia not to leave a half eaten Milky Way within reach. Yep, found her with a chocolate face earlier. I'm gonna have to put safety latches on all the cabinets. Never did that with Olivia.




We got some new guppies this week for our fish tank and Abigail loves sitting and watching the fish. So relaxing.




She also discovered Olivia's baby Butterscotch and is in love!




And, say it with me. . . Awwwww. Gotta love bedtime stories with daddy.




Logan definitely had a hand in choosing just the right addition to our family. She is such a blessing.

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Smarty Pants

Maybe all kids are funny, but Olivia cracks me up every single day!! She has to be one of the funniest kids I know.

The other morning, the first thing out of her mouth was:

Mom, I have a bone tail which is kinda silly because I don't have a tail!

Yep, but it's called a tailbone. :-)

She was so angry that her birthday napkins came with Grumpy Bear colored purple. She said," Everyone knows that Grumpy Bear is blue!" I had to show her the picture online to prove he was blue when I ordered him. LOL!




Today, out of the blue, she said, "I just feel so bad for Pluto." ( I was thinking Mickey's dog, but then she continued.) They told him he could no longer be a planet because he was too small and I just don't think that's very nice! The questions that followed made my head spin.

How big is Pluto?

How big is earth?

How far away is Pluto?

Are there other dwarf planets?

Man, I should have paid a lot more attention in science class. Thank goodness for Google!! So blessed with this super smart girl!

Yep, she's my smarty pants!


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Abigail Harper

Abigail went to her first movie yesterday, Despicable Me 2. She did pretty good. I never would have dreamed of taking Olivia to a movie at 8 months. She would not have sat still and because she projectile vomited almost every bottle, I never fed Olivia in public.




This girl is super stubborn though and if her mind is set on something, she doesn't give up. For instance, at the movie she wanted to pull the straw out of my cup. And she would not give up, even when I put the cup on the floor. And she is surprisingly really really strong!




Abigail loves her big girl baths! She has loved baths since she was a newborn.




And loves her food, of course. She had her eye on Olivia's grilled cheese and would not give up until she accomplished her goal. Score! I'm hoping she will not be as hard headed as my husband!

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My Techy Girl

She is already getting lessons on the iPad from big sissy. She is drawn to electronics! Seriously, if there is a phone, computer, remote control, etc anywhere in the room she will bypass any toy to get to it. She has already called my dad, posted to Facebook and texted one of my friends. At 8 months. I'm a little worried. LOL!


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Olivia's Bad Day

My sweet Olivia had the worst day today. We woke up to find that our pet fish, Rooster, had died. At least he went peacefully in his beloved pineapple house.



We also went outside for a walk to find that her yellow flowers, the marigolds that she got me for Mother's Day, had died also. She was surprisingly really sad about that too.

And then. . .this happened!



How did she get a gash across her eye? Well, I'll explain it in the words that she used to describe it at the minor emergency.

"Well I was curious and went downstairs to the storage room to see what daddy and the plumber were doing. And I tripped and fell on the hard floor and hit my head on a fan."

Blood everywhere! Nice gash on her eye and pretty good bump on her nose.



About 4 hours later, I noticed that it was still bleeding, so I took her in to have it looked at. Thankfully, she didn't need to have stitches.



She was such a trooper! Here is hoping that tomorrow doesn't include any deceased fish or head wounds!



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Monday, July 29, 2013

Well I made the silly mistake of trying to sell Olivia's old infant bouncy seat and suddenly she is extremely attached to it. LOL!

This is how she watched tv today.





Goofy girl! She is convinced that she still kinda fits in it. Olivia also got upset about selling an old gaming rocker.



"Not 'ole Blacky! (Apparently it has a name now.) I'll give it a few weeks and try again. LOL!

Hmm, and this happened today.


We decided to go to a park today. I checked the radar and all of the rain looked north of us. But, 2 minutes after we got there, it started raining. The three of us stood under a really large tree, which helped at first and then it really started raining! And then it REALLY started raining. So, we decided to make a run for it. Of course, this particular park is quite a ways from the parking lot, so the three of us were drenched by the time we reached the van. LOL! And today our hot water heater isn't working, so we couldn't even get nice, hot, warm showers. But, somehow it was a really nice day.

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Olivia News

So proud of her! Today she learned how to pump her own swing. So, all she wants to do is swing now. She is so proud of herself.

http://youtu.be/-TK1sk9yjL4

http://youtu.be/rGaoZJgMZoI

Olivia also tipped the scales at 33 lbs! We have worked so hard to get here. I bought some of these forks/picks last week to surprise her with. I think she will love them and it will really help her eat more. Right now she likes to eat with toothpicks.




She loves her kitty Kelsey. A lot!



On Friday I picked up her school supplies. Wow. Kindergarten. When did that happen? We talk a lot about school and I think she is feeling a bit more comfortable with the idea. She is just amazing!



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Fun At The Park

Abigail could have stayed in this swing all day!





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Tobey + Abigail

Tobey, our cat, can drive a person insane. Daily we play the " where did Tobey vomit today?" game. He chases my feet, he gets on the tables, he tries to eat your food if unattended for more than 5 seconds. He lays on top of whatever you are working on, he is always underfoot. . .the list goes on and on. But there is not one ounce of meanness in his body. No matter how many times he gets in trouble, he still loves unconditionally. Abigail had a death grip on his tail the other day and he simply looked at me like," Um, could you make her stop?" The other two cats prefer to stay away from the baby. Tobey simply adores my girls and that erases all of the annoying things he does. Well, most of the time. :-) Love him!




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My Funny Girls

Hmm, why is it when Abigail is actually sleeping and Olivia is having a sleepover with her cousin and I could be sleeping. . . . I can't? Drives me insane! Thought I would share some particularly comical things that have happened this week:

Abigail is obsessed with my phone, so I often just hand it over and let her play with it. The other day while she had it, I heard my dad say,"Hello? Hello?" LOL! She had somehow called my dad. So, if you get a weird call from me, it actually might be from Abigail.

The other night Olivia said,"To devour means to gobble up food!" Thanks to Word Girl, her new favorite show, her vocabulary is exploding!



And when we were leaving the eye doctor today, Abigail cried when I took the appointment reminder card away from her. So I grabbed her a business card to play with while we were walking out. I didn't realize she still had it until we got home and I found that she ATE half of it!



I thought she seemed a little too content on the way home. Holy cow, crazy girl! She will officially eat anything! She does have her first official tooth, though. Just gotta remember to write July 22nd in her baby book, bottom front left. ;-)

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Eye Appointment

Olivia had her follow up eye appointment today. In the words of her eye doctor, her eye surgery was very successful! In her glasses, she also sees 20/20 out of each eye. Great news all around!


Her kitty also sees great in her glasses. ( Olivia recently discovered that her first pair of glasses fit her kitty perfectly.) And, now that she is almost 6 years old, many kids wear glasses. And those that don't, want to wear glasses. This was not the case when she was 1 1/2 years old. :-)

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Monday, July 22, 2013

Olivia has a very special place in her heart for the elderly. She is absolutely fascinated by them and what they were like as kids. Daily she asks questions about her great great Aunt Mary, her great grandma Wanda and great grandma Mabel. Most are questions that I don't know such as "what was their favorite toy?" Or "who was their best friend?" So, we devised a questionnaire to send to them with all of Olivia's questions. She is so excited to learn more about them.

Today we were able to visit my grandma (great grandma Wanda) along with my sister-in-law and my cousin's wife and our kids. My grandma was able to see four of her great grand kids all together. (She has two more in Colorado and two more due in December.) My grandma lives in assisted living and it's really quite a beautiful place. Everyone has their own apartment with common areas throughout. Olivia really enjoyed seeing where everything was.



I have yet to tell my grandma this, but Olivia paid her about the highest compliment possible. Whenever we go to the zoo or Exploration Place or the Y we always tell Olivia (when she doesn't want to leave) that we have a membership so we can come back whenever we want. Tonight at dinner, Olivia asked "Can we get a membership there so we can go back whenever we want?" So, yes, I believe we will be visiting more often. ;-)

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Pinky

Well, Olivia has almost had her hamster for a year. He is such a sweet little guy. Seriously, he's like the best hamster ever. As you can tell, Kelsey loves him as well. This is her favorite spot. They often "kiss" through the cage. I think they would be one of those odd animal couples (ya know that are different species and best friends) but I'm not brave enough to put them together. Even if she didn't hurt him, she'd most likely snuggle him to death.


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8 Months

Abigail is 8 months old today!




I believe she is around 18 lbs. Abigail loves to eat just about anything. She sits up like a pro and can get most anywhere, but still isn't crawling. She can push up on her arms and get up on her knees. . .just not at the same time. Abigail still wakes up about 2 to 3 times per night, which is kinda exhausting. Her two bottom teeth are just about to push through. What a blessing she has been in our lives! Happy 8 months, baby girl!
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Chuck E Cheese

Well, I managed to go almost 6 years without my daughter knowing that Chuck E Cheese's even existed. We were invited to go hang out there with a friend today and I thought,"What the heck." LOL! And, I gotta say, it was the most fun I've ever had in a place that smelled like pee. . .and sweat. It was so so hot in there! But, I thought their pizza was even good. Maybe I was just hungry? Olivia had so so much fun! And Abigail was an angel, as always.




The little boy we met up with was concerned that Olivia was only going to want to play girly games. Psshhh. Olivia can keep up with the best of them. LOL! In fact, I think she wanted to ride the monster truck more times than he did. And she enjoyed shooting the spiders too. They both get along very well and are just too cute! Robby has a little sister who is about 11 months, so Abigail has a friend too.




Speaking of Abigail, she is pretty easy to keep happy. Give her food or electronics.




But, just don't take her breadstick away!



Or her remote! LOL! Who needs a girly girl, right? At least Abigail lets me put bows in her hair!



And she is so precious when she sleeps! Look at that lip! Love my girls so much! It was so wonderful to see Olivia running around today with her friend having a blast! She was having so much fun, in fact, that she didn't even notice the ever present stench of urine. Or maybe kids never notice when lured away by games, toys and rides. Haha!

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Hunger Games

This child has no problems eating! LOL! In fact, she finished a big bowl of regular Mac n cheese. I mashed it up a bit, but she had no problem eating it. And wanted more!

Olivia is doing very well. Since beginning feeding therapy and starting on an appetite stimulant, she has almost gained a pound. This is more than she has gained in the past year!! I briefly saw a 33 flicker on the scale! I'm so proud of her! And she is such a great big sister. They played puzzles for the longest time today.



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Hope

These past few days have been very trying for my entire family. I apologize that I cannot go into greater detail than that. I have prayed many prayers and the majority of them have been centered around hope.

Hope in God's love for us.

Hope that there are brighter days ahead.

Hope that God never forsakes us.

Hope in God's promises.

What does this world hold for us if we do not have hope?

Tonight I was getting the mail and received an envelope from the March Of Dimes. It felt a little bulky and I was curious as to what it was, so I opened it in my car before I went inside. In the envelope was a bracelet with the word: HOPE



I proceeded to bawl for what seemed like an hour (although I think it was only about 10 minutes.) I cannot put into words the comfort that it gave me as if God was putting his own arms around my shoulders.



No matter our circumstances, I choose to believe there is always hope.

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Family Pictures