Dress Up

I think Abigail is now transitioning into 1 nap a day.  On Monday she slept in the morning but then wouldn't take an afternoon nap so yesterday I kept her up until 1:30 and she took a long afternoon nap.  She was MUCH MORE pleasant late yesterday afternoon . . .so we will see how this goes.

So during Abigail's afternoon nap, Emily enjoyed playing dress up.  Every half hour or so a new princess would join me.  First Cinderella came and asked for a snack while I finished up work:

 

Then a ballerina dressed her bear up like Tinkerbell:

 

This kept her quite busy.  By dinner time Aurora joined us at the kitchen table.

I really am going to miss these days when this phase of our life passes . . .

More outdoor time

First off I wanted to update that Abigail took a couple of steps on Friday night (2/25)!!!  I tried to get her on camera but if she thought anyone was watching her she wouldn't walk.  But at least we are making some progress.  She took a couple of steps on Saturday and today as well.  In unrelated news, Abigail has also cut another tooth on the bottom so she now has 7 teeth!

The weather was nice all weekend.  On Saturday we met some friends for lunch and then went to the park.  The kids had fun running around and Abigail enjoyed sitting in the mulch and eating it : )

When we got home our neighbors were outside so we visited with them for a while and Emily was introduced to push ups!

That brings back great summertime memories from my childhood!!!!

On Sunday evening the girls played outside and Joe grilled out and against Joe's wishes we ate dinner outside : ) : ) : )

 

 Abigail can't walk but she LOVES to get up on the couch and climb all over it.  Here she is playing peek a boo with her daddy:

 

 I love her face in this picture:

 

 Emily was afraid she was missing out on something fun so wanted to join them:

 

 Today Emily wanted pigtails so we decided to give Abigail pigtails too!!!

 Abigail kept playing with the camera bag so Emily told me she would get Abigail to look at the camera:

 

Today we got outside before the rain came.  The girls enjoyed writing on the driveway with their chalk.  Abigail did a good job mimicking Emily writing on the driveway:

 This afternoon we had some bad weather.  So for a little while the 3 of us hung out in the bathroom.  Emily was stuck to me like glue and crying that she was afraid that a tornado was going to get us.  Abigail was crying because she didn't like us all crammed in the bathroom with the door closed : )  After the storm passed I started cooking dinner.  Abigail was so cranky by this point that nothing made her happy.  So I got the joy of fixing supper with a crying baby clinging to my legs.  I tried putting her in her chair with some snacks but that just made her mad.  So I'm now enjoying a quiet evening with the kiddos in bed.

Emily's checkup

I took Emily for her 4 year checkup today.  She was blissfully ignorant of what was going to happen at the end of her appointment . . . .3 shots.  Joe stayed home with Abigail so I enjoyed sitting quietly in the waiting room with a happy Emily and enjoyed watching her talk cheerfully to the nurses and doctor.  I knew this would be the last checkup that would be this peaceful at the beginning.  Emily weighs 32 pounds and is 40 inches tall.  She is healthy except for some dry skin.  We are very thankful for a healthy big girl! 

I had forgotten how easy it was to take an older child somewhere without toting a baby with me.  We had an enjoyable time together  . . . until the nurse stuck Emily's legs.  Bless her heart.  I felt so guilty not giving her a heads up but I knew how bad it was going to be once it happened, so knew I was doing the right thing.  After her shots Emily wailed all the way to the sucker box and then all the way out the door to the parking lot.  I got her in her car seat and tried to give her the sucker.  She cried as hard as she could and told me she "couldn't eat or drink or do anything but cry".  So I drove home holding her sucker.    She also said she "never ever EVER wanted to go to a check up again and she wasn't going to be able to do ANYTHING today".  I asked her if she wanted to go for a special treat today and she said she just couldn't do it.  I also had to carry her in the house.  After a few more minutes of crying she told us she thought she could try to eat something.  We took her to "Chick a Lave" and let her get an ice cream. She limped around for the rest of the day and wouldn't bend her legs but at least there was no more crying : )

So now I know that next year won't be so pleasant before hand.  She told me the next time she had to go to the doctor she was going to cry the whole way there and wasn't going to be able to stop . . . nice.  At least after her 5 year old shots she won't have to get any more until she is 11. 

So much drama people . . . so much drama!

Enjoying the nice weather!

It has been SO NICE to have sunshine and warm weather this past week.  The girls and I decided to have a picnic lunch on Friday afternoon and enjoyed several hours playing in the back yard:

 

Abigail had fun playing in the grass:

 

While Emily enjoyed playing in her play house:

 

Abigail is starting to stand a lot more:

 This weekend she started standing on her own.  She can now go from a sitting position to a standing position with no assistance.  She stands there for several seconds and then pats her belly and you can tell she is really trying to take a step . . . but nothing yet.  We are so glad she is getting there though!!!

 On Saturday we all went to the park together to play and had lunch:

 

 Emily and Abigail had fun going down the slide together:

 

 Emily didn't want to play on the playground much because there weren't any other kids that she knew there to play with.  So she kept trying to get Joe to play Peter Pan with her and wanted to fly around.  She is definitely in a phase now where she wants to pretend play all the time:

We sure hope this warm weather is here to stay!!!!  Bye bye winter . . . we don't want to see you again until next year : )

Kid Free Weekend

Joe and I really don't celebrate Valentine's Day.  We are the Scrooges of February and see it as a way for businesses to get you to spend money . . . . but . . . .

We had a GREAT weekend together while my parents kept the girls.  We definitely spent extra money this weekend because I only prepared one meal out of 7 this weekend!!!!  What a nice treat that was . . . see how happy we are enjoying our Kid Free Weekend:

On Friday I met Mom and Dad halfway to drop off the girls and then drove home.  I did some grocery shopping for the upcoming week and picked a friend's child up from Girl Scouts . . . but then I went home and layed down on the couch and read magazines until Joe got home from work . . . nice.  It's amazing to me the mundane things you enjoy doing once you have children . . .  just getting to lay around and read a magazine in the late afternoon was a treat!!!

Here is the gist of our boring but oh so fun weekend:
Friday night we ate Mexican.

Saturday we SLEPT LATE!!!!
Ate pancakes at a local breakfast spot
Ran some errands
Ate some sushi
Got some ice cream
Went home to watch a movie.

Sunday we ate breakfast at home
Worshipped at a mega church close by (I've always wanted to know what it would be like to worship at a church that seated 10,000 people . . . now I know)
Ate some steaks at local steak house
Took a Sunday afternoon nap
Went to see a movie and eat some popcorn
Got more ice cream . . .
. . . . and then because we could . . . we decided at 9:00 at night to go eat pizza and drink some wine/beer.

So nice!  We loved the fact that we could sleep in our own bed and enjoy all the places in town.  I met Mom and Dad again on Monday for lunch and got our babies back : )  Mom requested that we not plan another weekend until Abigail was walking . . . toting her around wore them out!  

So our quest to get Abigail to walk has just stepped up a notch!  Thanks again Mom and Dad for a great weekend!  The girls had fun with you guys and we enjoyed a much needed weekend together.

P.S. My mom snuck in some "I Love Grandma" t-shirts in their suitcase!

Learning to Talk

In the last couple of weeks Abigail has started saying several words.  It is SO FUN to watch this age where you know they understand you and they try to communicate back:

 

 She can say "hi" and "bye" and then waves.  She says "Dada" for Daddy and once said "Mama" : )  I think the other day she was trying to say "sister" for Emily but I wasn't quite sure.  She says "cracka" for crackers and "plee" for please.  She also can tell you the sounds for these animals:  Dog "rararara", cat "meeeo", horse "weeeee", tiger "ra", and duck "she makes a sound almost like donald duck". 

She can also point to her toes, hands, ears, eyes, nose, hair, and belly button if you ask her to.  Her favorite thing to do is stick her finger in Joe's ears : )

She is definitely becoming a daddy's girl just like Emily.  Now when Joe comes home from work she crawls as fast as she can to the door and squeals and hops up and down until he picks her up.  Sometimes if I go to take her from him, she grabs hold of his shirt and grunts at me : )

She has also been sitting at the table with us for about a week now instead of using her tray for her booster seat:

She has done really well eating from her plate and leaving the plate alone.  I think she really likes feeling included at the table.

Abigail had her 15 month check last week and she weighs 20 pounds, 9 oz and is 30 1/4 inches long.  She continues to be in the 50% for her height and 25% for her weight.  She is still crawling and we are hoping that she will be walking soon!

Emily continues to be a big help to me with Abigail.

Emily loves to pretend play all the time now.  She has imaginary friends that are over at our house all the time and she loves to also play with her princess dolls and fairies the most.  She has started trying to write out letters of the alphabet and so far can draw E,M,I,L,Y,T,O,A,B,C,D,P.  She has also gotten better at coloring in the lines on drawings.  We are also learning how to deal with a more independent child over the last couple of months.  I know that just goes with the parenting territory but it's been hard for me.  I have a child now who argues with me about everything and tells me "I won't stop crying until you let me do what I want", etc.  I didn't want to deal with these type things until she became a teenager : )  She is very strong willed and gets obsessed about certain things and it's been a power struggle between the two of us . . . . I wonder where she gets all that from : )  She is still a joy and I do try to cherish these sweet years that I have with her where she still has all her childhood innocence . . . I know that will be gone in a couple of years when she starts school.

The other day she told me that "God made beds for people but he made a chair for PawPaw to sleep in".  Then we were at the store the other day and the cashier asked her where she got her beautiful eyelashes.  Emily smiled at her and the cashier said, "Did your mom give you those pretty eyelashes".  Emily said, "No, God did"!  So glad to know she is making a connection with God and what He makes . . . even if it is beds and chairs for people.

I also started my doll clothes assembly this weekend.  In addition to the underwear I am also partially assembling these pants that are made out of women's knee socks.  She buys these type socks:

 

then she cuts off the ends and sews them together to make these pants:

So cute!  The finished pants have an elastic waist but because I don't have a serger yet, all I'm doing for her is cutting the socks and sewing the in seam for her to finish.

I finished 28 pair of socks and cut out 100 pair of underwear and elastic last night . . . so tonight I will start with the underoos!

I also finished this dress for a friend's birthday. They are Georgia fans . . . can you tell!

 

Bye Bye January!

Although we are thrilled that Emily turned 4 in January, we would like to say good bye to this month with your snow storms and your broken legs and the mean nasty stomach bug that swept thru our house this weekend!  We want February to be filled with well bodies and warm sunshine : )

Thursday night I went grocery shopping and then packed so the girls and I could leave first thing Friday morning to go to my mom's retirement luncheon in Montgomery . . . but waves of nausea woke me up from my pleasant slumber at 3:00 a.m. . . . it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I made it downstairs so I wouldn't disturb Joe  . . . but the heaving woke him up at 4:45.  So Joe took off work on Friday to take care of the girls and I tried not to move for the next 12 hours.  It was awful!  I haven't been that sick in about 8 years.  I finally was able to sit up a little about 4:00 Friday afternoon and came downstairs . . . and found Emily complaining about her stomach.  I told Joe to get the puke bucket ready because it wasn't going to be long for Emily.  Sure enough she got sick about 15 minutes later.  Here's where she stayed for about 48 hours:

 

 On Saturday, Emily and I felt good enough to lay on the couch and I could take care of Abigail's basic needs while Joe went to work.  But he got home Saturday night and a couple of hours later he was sick too.  So Emily and I camped out again downstairs while Joe quarantined himself to our bedroom.

On Sunday I had enough energy to start disinfecting while Emily slept on the couch and Joe stuck to our room.  I got everything hosed down with Clorox and Lysol and washed tons of laundry.  The second Joe moved out of our bedroom, I put on a hazmat suit and disinfected our bedroom and bathroom.  I hate that we missed the gorgeous weather this weekend but was thankful that it was warm enough to open all our windows to move fresh air thru our diseased house.

Sweet Abigail made it thru the whole affair totally fine.  I am thankful the Lord allowed Joe and I to get sick at different times, because if both of us had been that sick at the same time then Emily really would have had to put these skills to work:

She actually fed Abigail some yogurt on Thursday night . . . ironic that she practiced these skills right before the plague.  Emily doesn't realize how close she came to having to feed her sister for real : )