Abby’s Birthday Party

Yep, I’m late getting this posted.  Oh, well.  This year, for Abby’s birthday we decided to be low-key and just have a little party with the 4 of us.  It was wonderful!

Abby loves “Pooh Bear” so we went with a Winnie-the-Pooh theme.
Her “friends” joined the party up on top of her presents.
I took the easy way out this year and did a simple cake (it was homemade though!) with a Pooh Bear on top and pre-made sugar flowers.

We had one of her favorite noodle dinners.
And of course, balloons!

Cake!

Presents!

She got some books, a Melissa and Doug magnetic dress-up doll,

Stacking pegs….which both kids LOVE!

And a pink Strider Bike!

She calls her bike a “motorcycle”.  It’s so cute!

I think Abigail had a pretty great 2nd birthday!

Abby’s 2nd Haircut

I first cut Abby’s hair when she was 6 months old.  Since then, I’m trimmed a tiny bit here and there, and added a few more bangs to the ones that were growing in on their own, but recently, it was time for a real hair cut!

Her hair was longer in the back and I was tired of the long pieces in her ponytails.  I thought I’d just even it out in the back, but then decided all of her hair needed a trim to get rid of the stringy, broken ends.

Half way through. 
The left side is where I started. 
Once I got to this point I started freaking out about how much I was going to have to cut off the back!

What went from a little trim in the front, turned into cutting off a good 1.5 inches off the back!  I couldn’t bring myself to make it completely straight across, so I left the back just a smidge longer than the front/sides.  I call it a modified A-line. :)

All done.

I also forgot how much hair shrinks when it dries.  The back of her hair also curls and flips naturally, so no matter what I do, the back looks shorter than the front/sides.  Even WITH my modified A-line cut.

Her hair looks thicker and healthier now, although I’ll admit, I miss the length.  Good thing hair grows!

Happy 2nd Birthday Abigail!

It’s hard to believe that today is Abby’s 2nd birthday!  Abigail was born at 4:53 pm and weighed a mere 5 lbs. 12 oz. and was 18 inches long.  I was induced 11 days early due to low amniotic fluid and it was discovered that the placenta wasn’t working all that great anymore, which is why she was so tiny and why my fluid was so low.

Tiny, beautiful newborn.

I was in love with all her dark hair!

 

1 year old

Why hello there Ambra….
Abby                                                                 Me(Come to think of it…I look like a Cabbage Patch Kid!)

And now, my tiny newborn is a big 2 year old girl!

She loves to play with her baby dolls

And loves Tot School…when I do it

At 2 years old, Abby knows virtually all of the names of the upper and lower case letters, and most numbers 1-10.  She counts up to 6 or 7 also.  She knows all the main shapes, but only 2 or 3 colors.  She is, and always has been, really good at puzzles and manipulative-type toys.  She has a large vocabulary, but needs some Mommy and Daddy (and Brother) translation for other people to understand her.  Frequently her sentences are 2 or 3 words with lots of gibberish in between.  I think her brain is too fast for her mouth!  She loves to sing and her current favorite songs, in addition to the normal like “Sunbeam” and “Twinkle Twinkle”, are “Love you Like a Love Song” and “Moves Like Jagger”.  Every morning and afternoon when I go to get her from her crib she pops up and says, “I seep (sleep) good!”.  I guess I asked her if she slept good every time so now she answers automatically.  She is a Daddy’s girl and simply adores her Papa (my Dad)!  She talks about Nana and Papa every single day and when we are with them, she is Papa’s little shadow.

She idolizes her big brother and they have great fun together…when they aren’t fighting.  She’s decided the best way to assert herself is to screech at Adam.  It’s lovely.

I am so in love with my little Abigail and can’t wait to see her as a big sister to her Baby Brother in a few months!

Happy Birthday Abigail Elizabeth!!

Baby Boy in 3D

I had my targeted ultrasound today where they measured body parts and checked everything from the different chambers of the heart, to the blood and oxygen flow in the umbilical cord to his mouth for cleft lip/palate.  It’s pretty amazing how much you can learn ahead of time if there are any problems.  Our baby boy is healthy as can be and growing right on schedule, although the tech did say that he had long legs!

So here is our little man, meet…
Jackson Mark!

I reserve the right to change my mind on his name….so don’t be surprised if I do.
But I figured if our kids are calling him Jackson, we are pretty much sticking with it.  And it’s so darn cute when Abby says “Ja-kuh Mahk!”

It looks like he’s sticking his tongue out in this one.  I sure hope so, I really do not want a third tongue-tied baby!  It kind of looks like he’s trying to lick his umbilical cord.  :)

I just love 3D images!  These are better than the ones we got of Abby and we didn’t get any of Adam, things have changed in just 4 years!

Cute profile picture of his little nose and fist by his mouth.

I’m 24.5 weeks along and time is dragging by.  This has been the hardest pregnancy in terms of dealing with things emotionally.  It is HARD taking care of a 4 year old and nearly 2 year old while being exhausted, sore, uncomfortable, and hormonal.  I am ready to hold my baby boy and I still have 3.5 months to go.

Tot School

- Adam is 4 years old (50 months) -
- Abigail is 23 months old -

We just did a few things for Tot School this week, when I found the energy.  The kids are playing really well together now, (although Adam is very bossy), and I enjoyed just listening to them.  That does end in very messy bedrooms, but I like that it fosters their imagination and sibling bond.  The structured activities we did were….

Abby did this Shape Matching file folder game 
She knows the names of every shape, only needing a reminder on rectangle.  Her pronunciation, however, needs some work.  As do her colors…. :)
 

Melissa and Doug Cutting Food set.
Abby got this for Christmas and she loves it!  The only problem is that she can’t really put the food back together so she cuts it all up, and then leaves the pieces laying around everywhere for me to reassemble and put away.  And then she finds it again…

Adam and I played a game of memory.

And then Abby had fun trying to find matches.  When she’d find one she’d yell out, “Matches!”

Adam then lead us in one of his tumbling warm-ups.
He has a tumbling class once a week and this is one of his favorite parts.  As the kids stretch, they make pizzas by grabbing ingredients from alternating legs, then sprinkle them all around the “pizza” in the middle as they reach to the ground.

Play-doh!
I don’t know why, but Adam has decided that he doesn’t like me trying to teach him things.  I finally managed to get him to hold the scissors correctly and, voila!  They worked and he snipped a snake of play-doh into pieces.  He would only do one, but I have plans to make encourage him to work on this in the future.  I just wasn’t in the teaching mood that day so it was just free play.
Abby put balls in and out of the cup.

Water Transfer Using a Sponge
The kids LOVED this!  They played in the water for a good 30 minutes until their fingers were wrinkly and freezing!

Abby also had fun pouring the water back and forth
Adam very carefully transferred all the water from one bowl to the other using just the sponge.

“Raisin Fingers!”

I had more planned, but alas, pregnant Mommy isn’t very good at follow-through these days.  And I’m ok with that.

Linking up to 1+1+1=1.

Abby the Cabbage Patch Kid

I gave a fairy Cabbage Patch Kid to Abby for Christmas and it dawned on me that in this picture of Abby at 6 months old, she looks like her doll!  I think it’s the close-set eyes, chubby cheeks, and closed mouth.  Cute huh?

Hockey Game and German Festival

Last week we went to a Utah Grizzlies game with my family.  My Dad was asked to “drop the puck”, so he let Adam do it.  He was so excited!
He got to keep the puck!

The daughter of one of my Dad’s co-workers was there and they had a grand time playing together.

Abby’s favorite spot was on Papa’s lap.  That girl LOVES her Papa!

Mmmm…Cotton Candy!

We only stayed until the end of the 2nd period.  Man, hockey is loooong!  We decided we’re not big hockey fans.  Too much down time, not enough playing.  The only positive is the fighting.  I don’t get it, but whatever.

On Saturday we went to the annual German Festival in Ogden.  Nat goes for the food and music, and I tag along.  The kids loved it though!

Adam ate an entire bratwurst.  Ewww.

Abby ate her weight in spatlze!

The “chicken dance” chicken.

Dancing to the music.

It’s really too bad Nat didn’t serve his mission in Italy.  I could really get behind Italian Festivals! :)