Abby Update

Well, we went to the hospital yesterday to get Abby's test done. She had an upper GI test. She had to drink barium and get x-rayed to see what is causing her to throw up all the time. We went in to the hospital at 10:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 5:00 in the afternoon. It was supposed to only take a couple of hours. Yeah...right. The poor little one. She didn't want to drink the barium. I've had this test done before and I can't blame her. The stuff tastes like melted chalk. Poor baby...screamed bloody murder. They then put a big xray machine over her and tried to hold her down while she squirmed to get away. After a couple of minutes of that, they decided to put the barium in her stomach via tube. The tube went down her nose. I, of course, was crying too. I had to see Alex get a tube stuck down his nose before and it is devastating to watch. I didn't even want to get this done to her. It just wasn't fair. So after this ordeal, they took an xray of her stomach every hour to see it go through her system straight through to her colon. It took 7 hours. She did good after the initial barium because she never had to drink that stuff again. It was mama's milk from that moment on. All this torture and x-ray exposure for what? N-O-T-H-I-N-G! They found nothing wrong with her. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that she has nothing wrong. But her pediatrician was sure it was something not good and so told me I had to get this done to find out because it would get worse if nothing was done to correct it. Great...yet another test. But the problem now, is that we still have no idea why she is throwing up so much. I am just worried that all that x-ray exposure is bad for her and that it might have some horrible side-effect down the road. Great...like I need another worry on my mind. Anyhow, she's a happy baby and a chubby one too so unless she is hurting, I guess we will just plan on doing a lot of laundry. They called me today and said to start her on cereal to try and thicken up her stomach contents in hopes of making it harder to throw up. So tomorrow we start rice cereal. Here's hoping...

Monkey See Monkey Do

I say that I have two little monkeys. And they do so live up to their titles. Alex is of course the bigger monkey. Abby is still a bit small to be as crazy of a monkey as her big brother but it is only a matter of time. Now that Alex is understanding more and getting into more, he has really learned to mimic the many things I do. From sweeping and cleaning to words and gestures. No...not foul gestures as you may have initially thought. I try to keep my foul gestures down to one a month. ha ha ha. Anyhow, his newest monkey-see-monkey-do moment has got to be the oddest thing to date. He has of course taken an interest in babies. Baby dolls are very interesting to him. I actually have one that is as old as I am. It was mine when I was a girl. Much to my amusement, he carries it around with him and has grown quite fond of it. Well, of course this would be natural for him seeing as how he sees me toting Abby everywhere. He is just doing as mommy does. Cute, right? Yeah, it was. Until he jumped on her head and her head popped off. So I proceeded to go out and bought him a glow worm. Remember those? Hello 1980's! They make a new version of them and he saw one at my friends house and loved it instantly. So I decided to replace my ancient baby doll with a new 'baby doll'. It worked and he loves it. He carries it around, hugs it, kisses it, diapers it (which is hard to do as it has no legs), and sleeps with it. Cute again, right? hmmm...so I thought until the other day when it went to the most abnormal level and went from cute to uh-oh-is-that-normal-cute. He proceeded to sit on the couch and lift up his little shirt and...*sigh*...proceeded to pretend to breastfeed his glow worm. Yes...monkey see, monkey do. Needless to say, I got a picture. I'm sure this picture will embarrass him one day in the future, but until then, I'm watchin' what I do.

Cute...in a wierd sort of way.

Long Time No Blog

If you are a reader of this blog, you are probably wondering why I haven't been adding posts in a week. Well, the life of a mom can be pretty crazy as you may well know. It's funny how I had plenty of moments to Blog when Josh was gone, but lately time was not a luxury I had. And to be honest, I have NO idea where my time went. I'd blink, and it was time for bed. So let's catch up shall we?

Abby is happily looking at Penny.

Abby had her four month check-up today. I have been concerned about her excessive spit up. To top it all off, the last three days, she has been spitting up with bile mixed in the large pools of milk I find on the ground. I mentioned that to the doctor as a side note. Well...my side note turned into a massive part of the appointment. He said that bile was never a good thing in spit-up land so he ordered an upper GI test that will require her to go the the hospital for a day. Ugh. I was really hoping to avoid hospitals with her. We have had enough of that with Alex. Guess I won't get that wish. There are a couple of things it could be, one of them requiring a surgery. So anyone willing to pray for her, please do so. We don't want surgery on our baby girl. she is just so little still. Anyhow, other than that major bit of news, she is all well. True to form, she is weighing in at the 90th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Where these large babies come from is beyond me. I'm not big, and neither is Josh. Alex is also in the 90-95th percentile for weight and height. Wierd.

Alex is trying out his new kitchen here.

Alex has been busy with a new toy. Well..i say 'new' but it is really used. If I haven't mentioned it yet, I LOVE Craig's List. It's a website where you can buy and sell just about anything. I have gotten a ton of stuff from there for the kids. And this weekend I went to pick up a play kitchen. Alex has been really getting into the pretend play phase and he LOVES the kitchen. He spends a couple of hours a day playing with it. I really just wanted to buy it to keep him busy until his birthday in hopes of getting more new toys for him to learn on. Turns out that he thinks it's the best thing in the house right now. It was a whopping $10. Awesome! I also proceeded in getting him a power wheel for his birthday from craig's list. I'm getting eager though. I want to give it to him now, but I must wait two months until his birthday. He's gonna love it.

Otherwise, not much exciting has been happening. I'm still eagerly awaiting a day out and have yet to find a perfect time to have it. I really was just saving my day for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie. It was supposed to come out in November. But the stupid movie makers decided they wanted to make more money so they pushed the release back to next July of next year. *grumble, grumble* SO not fair. My Potter-head friend and I are very disappointed. I guess mommy's day out will just have to wait.

The Amazing Minds of Children

Children amaze me. Every day it seems like something that Alex or Abby does, just amazes and inspires me. It seems like every day is something new with them both. This week has been a busy week for them. They have been showing me all their new tricks. It's wonderful to witness each thing they do. And the other day, my friend asked me if it is just as exciting the second time around. I said that it is. When Alex first rolled over (he was an early roller), I was amazed and so proud. When Abby rolled over (also an early roller), I was just as proud and amazed. So here we have the new discoveries we have made this week.

First up, Abby is laughin'! She has laughed before, but only small giggles of a laugh. Almost nothing really close to being an all out laugh. But last night we had our first belly laughs. And who other than Alex was the one to make her crack up. It was so hilarious. I was laughing too. I was giving Alex his bath and Abby was sitting on my lap watching him. He started splashing around and she starting laughing. And it went on for about five minutes. I think they could have done this all night. She was entertained by Alex and Alex was laughing at her reaction. The water was getting cold so I had to stop the fun and games. But it was the perfect ending to a long day. I think I was smiling all night afterwards.

Next up we have a couple of fun Alex moments. He is learning SO fast. It's mind boggling how fast he picks things up now and just how observant he is. I was worried for a bit about his speech. He really didn't say too many words and it made me wonder if he was having some problems. But in the last week, he has picked up on the average of 10 words a day. He is so excited to learn new words. He used to never even try, but now he will point to something and say, "This?" he wants to know what it is called and as soon as I tell him, he tries his hardest to repeat it. It's so cool. He has taught himself just about every 'learning toy' we have now. He has mastered all the shape sorters, puzzles, stackers, buttons, and whatever else we have. So for his birthday we are hoping to get some new teaching toys for him. But what REALLY knocked me over happened a couple of days ago when we were playing with his wodden blocks. You know the kind with letters and numbers on them? Anyhow, he was picking them up and as he starting showing me them, he starting spouting off the letters that he was picking up. He picked up a 'K' and said K. I thought it was a fluke, so we looked at all the letters of the alphabet and sure enough...that kid can recognize about 10 or 12 letters. He will see letters on books, toys, and anything he sees and tell me what they are. I had no idea that kids his age could regognize letters and actually get them right. Amazing. The funny thing about that is that I really haven't been teaching him letters. I sing the alphabet song a lot, but no visual aids are present. He also regognizes some of his numbers too, colors, and some shapes. This is why I love to be a stay at home mom. It's the best job in the world.

Crabby Cats

Precious Poopsie and the object of her affection

Josh is once again gone on a work trip and we are once again in the 'missing daddy zone'. And really, it's not the kids that miss him the most. Believe it or not, it's the cats. When he is gone, even at work for the day, the cats seem to miss him dearly. Now, of course this makes me jealous in a way because it was I who raised them...changed the litter...fed them...and nurtured three of them back from their deathbeds. So naturally they would mish Josh the most. (please note sarcasm) Anyhow, there is really just one of them that is completely lost and devastated at Josh's absense. Leia. The precious princess just can't seem to live a full life without him. She won't go to anyone but Josh unless she is beyond desperate. At which point she will come to me for affection. I call her Josh's precious poopsie. At one point we thought we might have to get rid of our kitty family because of a diagnosed cat allergy with Alex, but turns out that he doesn't react to them much if at all. (if you are wondering how that is possible, it is because he has been with them since birth and has developed a tolerance to thier specific dander. We aren't sure about other cats as of yet.) But as you can see by the picture, Leia needs her daddy. We think that if she were to be without Josh for too long, she'd eventually die from not eating. The whole lot of the cats don't want to eat as much when daddy is gone. Wierdo cats. I am never away from them for more than a day. I can't imagine they would care though. How annoying. Until he comes home, I guess they will just have to settle for me and the kids. Wierd cats.

Poopin' Monkeys

Poopin' Monkey #1

Poopin' Monkey #2

Warning...the following entry is about poop. If poop in any way disgusts you, gives you the eebie-jeebies, or in any way offends you, I recommend you skipping today's blog entry.

Okay. So, is poop one of those things that is taboo in the world? Should I not talk about it? I don't know. But what I DO know, is that until I had kids, I never knew that poop would be so important. Yes. That's right. I said important. You can tell a lot about poop when it comes to babies and kids. Shoot, there is actually a chart in the "What to Expect the First Year" book that gives you a color/consistency chart when it comes to the gross little biohazards. Apparently, it is such an important subject that it requires it's own section in books. Three years ago, I wouldn't have expected to be happy to see the transition of poop from tarry black to pasty yellow. So on to my poopin' monkeys. As you probably know, babies do three things initially. Sleep, eat, and poop. And believe me...that is the honest truth. At first, it's every time you change a diaper. And if you breastfeed, which I am naturally doing, they get to a wierd place in diaper land where they just stop going. At first you think, "Is she constipated?" No...she's not constipated. It's natural to only go once every 3 to 7 days if they are breastfed. But in between those poops, it starts getting crazy. You know that they gotta go and that the plumbing is getting backed up in there. I mean, the intestines can only hold so much, ya know? So here I am at this point in the life of an infant. Abby is four months old and as of yesterday she had not had a poopy diaper in 5 days. I found myself eagerly changing her morning diaper in hopes of finding the minor explosion that was bound to happen. I fully expected to be woken up by the thunderous rocket blast coming from the crib. But after day five, I'd almost given up hope of finding the little...um...surprise in the diaper. So last night, I went to bed and was woken up at 4:40 in the morning to the sound of the crib bumping into the wall. I peeked into the crib to find my little girl who was so full of energy and so incredibly wide awake that she was lying on her back literally running. Her legs were super-speed and eyes were WIDE awake and a smile on her face to boot! She was rip-roarin' ready to go. I looked down at those bright eyes and knew she was ready to eat which of course only meant one thing. The poop fairy had visited us at last! The diaper was brim-top full and to be honest, i'm quite surprised that the sheer force of that explosion didn't blow a hole straight through her onsie! 15 wet wipes later, she ate...and ate...and ate...and finally decided to burp her gratitude. She was still wide awake of course and I gazed into her bright eyes and said, "Heck no! You are goin' back to sleep." She disagreed and so I kissed her, placed her in the crib and said, "Mama's goin' back to bed. Wake me when you get angry." I went back to sleep so I figure she must have too, because at 8:00 she was starting to wake back up. What a little monkey. But now that the big poop is over, I suppose we will start the countdown for the next explosion. Bring it on!

Of course Abby is at that beautiful age when she WANTS to have a clean butt. Believe it or not, they do eventually grow out of that. Or at least, mine did. Alex...poopin' monkey number 2...has a completely opposite response to the poop fairy. When he goes, he he will take off running at warp speed across the house. He hides under whatever object he can so as to avoid the dreaded diaper change. I can't imagine why though. The odor that follows him around is like sticky glue. It attatches itself to the walls. I'm not kidding either. You walk into a room where he is an hour after he's been changed and the smell is still in the walls. But still, I'm happy that he goes. Better out than in!

Welcome Home Jeremy!

WELCOME HOME UNCLE JEREMY!!

My brother is back from Iraq and we are all happy to hear from him! It's great to know he is back just in time for his baby boy to be born. How exciting! I can't wait to see the little kiddo when he gets here. So welcome home, bro! I'm so proud of you!

This is Feist on Sesame Street.

So Josh is gone again for work and we are already missing him. It gets pretty crazy around here sometimes, but we seem to do pretty well all things considered. I get dinner invites from my mom and my friend Mandy. It's nice of them to accomodate us. But the week is bound to be even grander now that Sesame Street is new. That's right...you heard me. I base my week on the joy of Sesame Street. Since Alex has been interested in Elmo and Sesame Street, we have seen nothing but constant reruns. And today was the joyous day when they started thier new season. Big deal, right? Well, it sure was to Alex. Abby of course couldn't care less. But up until now, we get our viewing entertainment from YouTube and last week, they posted the new musical number from Sesame Street on there. It is Feist singing a kid-friendly version of her song "1-2-3-4" If you dont' know who she is, you might remember it from a cell phone commercial. Otherwise, you can go to YouTube and search for it. It was the first song he ever loved and now that she was a guest on sesame street, that made his day. The look on his face when he saw it come on this morning was priceless. He is used to seeing it very tiny on YouTube and this morning it was on the big TV screen. Woo-hoo! As you can see, he was beyond thrilled. This is him dancing along.

This is the happy-happy-joy-joy Sesame Street dance.

Abby has a new found joy of scootin along the floor on her belly as best as she can. She is still awful small to be getting mobile, but bless her heart. She sure tries her hardest to get moving. She just turned four months old today. So as I reflect on the last four months, I can't believe how much she is changing and how I feel that she is growing so fast. She has almost hit her 6 month fun zone. That's the month that I truely believe that babies become 'fun'. Not that they aren't fun before, but they get thier big jump into personality land at six months. That's the magic month for Josh. The kiddos dont' seem too happy with him until that age. I think it's boobie thing. Mommy is the best for a long time until the magic age and then Daddy is dandy-fine with them.