Friday, April 30, 2010

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

We took Abigail and Sarah to the Children's Museum for the first time. We were in town for a Doctor's appointment and thought we'd make an afternoon of it and head to the museum afterward.

Abigail was like a kid in a candy store, or a kid in a children's museum. It was hard to get Abigail to slow down. She wanted to go off and try out everything. While I went off to feed Sarah, Abigail went with Daddy to check out the Peep and The Big Wide World exhibit. What I didn't know at the time was that this exhibit featured a ton of water and sand activities. Abigail was a little wet after this experience.

We went to a few other exhibits before landing at the special Curious George exhibit. Abigail was so cute when she made it to the George statue in the middle of the exhibit. She walked right up to him on the bench and grabbed his arms. It was like she couldn't believe she was meeting him. Abigail also enjoyed going down a rocket slide that was part of the exhibit.

The last exhibit we visited was a room full of one of Abigail's favorite things: bubbles. The first thing I noticed was that the floor was covered with soap! Abigail wanted to get right into things. I was hesitant to let her try and make bubbles on her own, but she actually did really well.

Abigail wasn't too excited about leaving. Once she was OK with leaving, she said "bye bye George" about half a dozen times as we left the building.

We had such a blast and look forward to checking it out again!

Photo Fridays 04.23.10

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Sitting Up

I have been trying to give Sarah opportunities to sit up lately. Up until yesterday she seemed very unsteady. She would either want to try and eat her toes, or go for other toys on the ground. But this time I placed a toy that was more at her eye level to keep her looking up. She was able to sit up for quite a while and had a chance to play with her sister.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Before and After

A lot goes on during the time between when I put Abigail down for a nap and when she falls asleep. Today was no exception.

I thought I'd take pictures of the girls' room after we cleaned it up this morning. I anticipated being able to take after pictures to give people an idea of what Abigail can get into at "nap time".

First of all, check out her bed-plenty of opportunities to occupy her time before sleeping. However, it isn't enough to keep her from getting out of bed and finding more options.

I'm not sure how many times I had to put her back in bed today. Lately it hasn't been that bad, but today it took about an hour and a half until she finally fell asleep.


And now for the after pictures.

Little Garden Update

Remember those seeds Abigail planted? Well, I'm glad we planted as many as we did. Long story short-out of dozens of seeds planted, five little troopers have sprouted!


Ok, now for the long story.


I was feeding Sarah about a week ago and Abigail was watching Curious George. George was learning about gardening. Abigail was inspired. She made her way to the dining room saying "wattter" over and over again. My "look at this Abigail" efforts were fruitless, I could not keep Abigail out of trouble with words alone. Next thing I know, she's walking into the living room with egg carton and sippy cup in hand.

She placed the carton on the coffee table and watered the plants. It was cute, really. But then things got scary when she moved the egg carton to her doll stroller and back. At this point I was able to take Sarah to her room and put her down for a nap.


I thought about taking the egg carton on the way to the girls' room, but wanted to avoid a screaming protest from Abigail. Well, I should have taken it. Abigail made her way back to the dining room with the carton. Only this time she used one hand, so the carton was perpendicular to the floor and there was a trail of dirt where Abigail had been.

Thankfully, though, the pots remained untouched and a few seeds have sprouted. We're looking forward to watching them continue to grow and bloom!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Patriot's Day

This past Monday was Patriot's Day, the holiday remembering the Battle of Lexington and Concord. When I worked in my Government job it was just another work day. Jonathan, however, had the day off! We joined our parents for a cookout followed by some hang time.

My cousin, her husband, and her daughter joined us. Her daughter is only about a month and a half younger than Abigail, so they keep each other entertained. During our visit I could see how they could get into mischief with each other. Where one ran, the other followed. Where one grabbed rocks, the other grabbed rocks. Then came the leaves, etc. They had a great time.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Six Months!

Sarah is now half a year old! I'm not going to say it. Okay, I will. She is growing up so fast!

Sarah is rolling around like a pro. Abigail would often roll onto her belly and then use her arms to move in a circle (like the arms of a clock). Sarah, on the other hand, just keeps on rolling until she finds something interesting. She keeps me on my toes and helps me make sure I keep things tidied up.

She loves going after Abigail's toys, but really loves to grab a hold of the baby wipes. She'll pretty much go for anything within her reach. A funny thing happened the other day during Abigail's nap time. She was playing with one of her toys when I handed her one of Abigail's (her Elmo phone). I tried taking the phone away and giving her other toy back, but she wasn't happy about that. This is the first time I've seen her prefer one toy over another.

Sarah is still falling asleep on her own at night. Initially she would sleep for a long stretch, eat, and sleep for another few hours. Lately she's been waking up twice a night. I'm thinking she's going through a growth spurt. Our mornings are fairly predictable schedule-wise. Our afternoons are a different story, but that's fine.

Before I know it she'll be crawling all over the place and I'll go crazy keeping her out of things. Maybe Abigail will help me ;-)

Fun with Dirt

We gave Abigail (and Sarah) little pots and flower seeds in their Easter basket. Today Abigail and I planted the seeds.

Now, normally our little projects are quite messy, so I am right behind Abigail, watching and attempting to control her every move. This time I let her at it and I was impressed at how well she did!


Abigail started by putting dirt in an egg carton. Then we added seeds and more dirt. Then came the water. Abigail wasn't ready to be done though. After all, there was still dirt left! So, we did the same thing with her Easter pots.

Hopefully we did everything right and we'll see little plants shortly.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

New Wheels

In July 2005 Jonathan and I purchased our first vehicle together-a 2005 manual Ford Escape in sonic blue.

We've had really great times in that car. We took road trips to Northern Virginia and back again. We also made our way to Ohio, Michigan, and back with a stop at Niagara Falls. We took this Escape to the White Mountains of New Hampshire where we camped out for our first wedding anniversary. The blue Escape carried two nervous almost-parents to to the hospital before Abigail was born. Such great memories!

Well, yesterday we traded in this lovely Escape for a minivan. Yes, I am now officially a minivan mom. We now have a 2007 Chrysler Town & Country. This vehicle should make for more comfortable road trips. Plus, when we go out with Nonna, others can tag along!

I look forward to the new memories that will be made in this vehicle.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Going on a Safari

The nice thing about having two girls is that we didn't have to get a whole new wardrobe for Sarah. Sarah gets to wear pretty much everything Abigail has worn (minus a few really cute dresses she missed out on because of the weather).

One outfit we just put on Sarah is a cute little Elephant Safari outfit. Of course we had to get a few pictures. I thought it would be fun to post pictures of Abigail in the outfit and Sarah in the outfit. So here you go:

Here's Abigail at just under 4 months old (and let me add, as I was looking over these "old" photos, I could not get it into my head that Abigail was once a baby!):

And now our little Sarah Beth at just under 6 months:

Friday, April 9, 2010

Going Nuts

My parents watched Abigail for a bit last night while Jonathan and I ran an errand with Sarah. Abigail had a great time, but her night took a turn for the worse on the way home.

Right before we left, I grabbed a chocolate chip cookie to munch on and gave Abigail a tiny piece. No biggie-until our ride home.
Abigail got fussy. She started grabbing her ears and rubbing her nose and eyes. Her nose started running and her eyes were watery. By the time we got home we saw that her face was blotchy and her face looked swollen.

Long story short, we talked with a nurse, administered Benadryl, and she fell asleep. Her symptoms started to improve.


Those chocolate chip cookies had walnuts in them, so I suspect a nut allergy. After running things over in my mind while trying to sleep last night I realized Abigail had a pinch of another cookie with walnuts in it last Thursday. She tugged at her ears a whole bunch and fussed, but that was it.


We took Abigail in for follow-up this morning. She had blood work done. We left with an EpiPen and a referral to an Allergist.
What have I learned so far from last night: it's a good idea for mommies and daddies of toddlers to have Benadryl on hand. Also, God took care of our Abigail when we weren't sure what was going on. I'm sure things could have been a lot worse if this really was an allergic reaction to nuts.

We'll find out more hopefully once the test results are in and once we are able to see an Allergist.

Man, it is not easy being a mom!

Photo Fridays 04.09.10

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Coffee

I wasn't really a big coffee drinker, that is, until I had a "real" job and even more so when I became a mom. Jonathan was definitely not a coffee drinker until after we got married. Now, coffee is a part of just about every morning. We don't go overboard, just one or two cups a day. Just enough to help us out in the early morning ;-)

My mom got me a new mug for Easter, it has a funny saying:

Whoever made up the phrase "Sleep like a baby" could NOT possibly have had a baby.

Thankfully, though, I can say with confidence and joy that Sarah has been sleeping like a baby! For the past five nights she has (1) fallen asleep on her own and (2) slept for stretches lasting 7-8 hours and (3) going back down for another 1-3 hours!!!

We're still working on a consistent nap schedule. She's usually down a little over two hours after she's up for the day, but after that anything can happen. So everyone is getting a full nights' sleep!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter Sunday

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter. We had a great day spent with our family and church family.

We started the day bright and early when Abigail gave us our wake-up call. We went to church early for breakfast, followed by a GENESIS Kids Easter Egg Hunt. This was Abigail's first hunt. She didn't quite get the gist of it. As soon as she spotted an egg, she would immediately open it to see what was inside. She had fun anyway.

After church we headed over to have Easter dinner with family. Here Abigail had her very own Easter egg hunt. Though, I'm sure Sarah would have wanted to join her if she was able. This time she knew just what to do. As soon as she spotted an egg she kept repeating "egg, egg, egg", then she'd grab it and place it in her basket.

After the egg hunt we feasted on ham, potatoes, you name it. Abigail wasn't a huge fan, but she did try a few things out. She was a fan of dessert though, she at quite a few strawberries from a fruit tart.

We couldn't have asked for better weather today. We're looking forward to more spring weather and the chance to go out and enjoy it!