My Little Helper

Olivia is going through a stage where she wants to help me. She puts dishes in the sink, things in the trash, she even helps bring groceries in from the car. The bread may or may not have resembled a limp dishrag, but that's ok. She helping!

She loves our new washer,
but does not like that she can't climb inside.

Abby has no interest in doing laundry,
none at all...

Little Business Woman

Abby loves loves to draw, write, color, anything with a pen. She is beyond eating the crayons or pens. She wants me to draw things for her and trace her hand all the time.

She was a bit too quiet in the dining room the other day and I went to investigate.

She was busy with the bills

Lots of bills...

"Can I help you with something?"

Olivia is more interested in the candy...

New posts

I am working on a few new posts. I know...finally!!

Back to our regularly scheduled programing

We are all well (knocking on wood). It was a rough 2 weeks there. Everyone is feeling much better. Gary finally had to go get an allergy shot to feel better.

Abby, by far, was the worst hit and took the longest to be herself. I have never seen her so sick.

She did a lot of sitting around looking pale.

She fell asleep anywhere and everywhere
in the middle of the morning most days.

In my arms, in the car,
in her chair...

while climbing onto the couch...

No kidding, I came into the living room
to check on her and this is how she was.

And what was Olivia doing? She was feeling better and full of mischief, wanting so much to wake up her sister!

Oh MY, she was full of it.

Abby is still not 100% better. She is still coughing some and still clingy, clingy, clingy! She is going through a huge stranger danger phase. She cries big scared tears whenever a stranger comes around, and by stranger I mean ANYONE who does not live in this house. This includes by friend Farrell, her Uncle Jonathan, our friend Sarah; she even takes time to warm up to her Grana whenever she comes every Tuesday and Thursday.

She also wants me to do everything for her. When Gary tries to get her out of her chair or wipe her face or change her diaper or push her in the swing, or anything, she immediately says, "NO! Mommy!!!" Then she babbles and shakes her head saying, "No, no, blah blah blah, Daddy!" with her forehead creased in a frown. Oh my! Please tell me this is a phase, a very short one.

Olivia, on the other hand, is talking and repeating everything. I can't even keep a list anymore because she says several new words a day. Today she busted out with, "Where my nack? My NACK????" and "I go pooop!" The way she says poop is just the funniest thing! I hope I can get it on video.

My babies...are not so much babies anymore...Thank Gawd!!

Sickness Abounds

Quickly...

We took the girls to the Dr. yesterday.

Olivia has bronchitis, Strep throat, and the beginning of pink eye. She is in a spunky mischievous mood this week. Holy toddler behavior, people!

Abby has pink eye in both eyes, bronchitis, Strep throat, and a double ear infection. Poor girl. She feels horrible. She tries to smile and play, but mostly she is just limp in our arms. She is not impressed with Olivia's behavior since it is pointed at her most of the time!

Strep throat!! Again! We had a good run. We have an appointment at the end of the month with the specialist. Their first opening was the 30th (!!) I am really not sure where we go from here. They are on 3 different prescriptions and the antibiotic is for 20 days. Plus, they got steroid shots to help with the wheezing. They did test negative for RSV, thank God!

Zachary is much much better. Gary is over the flu but not his allergies. I am coughing and loosing my voice. We are both exhausted beyond belief. The girls are not sleeping and Abby is literally clinging to one of us all the time. Olivia was having no one but me tonight.

We just need me not to get sick and for Gary to get better so we can take care of the sick ones.

Please...please...

Potty Time!

Well, well, well, lookee here!

Yep, it's that time. Actually we got these about 2 months ago. We thought Abby, especially, was ready. She was showing signs of knowing when she was going and staying dry. She would tell me before she went. So we thought we should go ahead and strike while the iron was hot, you know?

We planned on them sitting on the little pottys before and after their bath. Good plan, right? Yeah, Abby refused refused re.fused to sit on the potty. Not even a little bit. Stubborn little thing. Meanwhile, Olivia sat right down and went potty. And she continued to want to. She doesn't want to wear regular diapers anymore. She wants a pull-up. She tells us when she needs to go and she has even pooped in the potty!! Abby has gotten into it now, but only recently. She is doing really well, too and has pooped in the potty as well!! Yay, girls!!

Of course, we are still a long way from success, but we are saving some serious cash because we actually have some totally dry days. Here are some cute pictures I got of them in their pull-ups.

Look at that proud look

Wow...I can't believe they are old enough to be ready for this.

Makes My Monday - Spring

Before I get into the real reason for this post, I'll fill you in a little about the state of our household. We had a great, long run of no sickness. Well, no more. Zachary had the flu last week and then an ear infection over the weekend. Gary had the flu, too and is having a horrible time with allergies. The girls checked out fine with negative strep and flu tests (YAY!). Abby did have a fever today, so we are wondering if she has the flu now. Their allergies are also really bad, too. I have been fine besides allergies. Holy Moly, pollen is crazy bad! The normal count is 120 and we are at 5000! We are using our weight in kleenex right now.

But now, on to what makes my Monday.

Spring

That's what Makes my Monday. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed the coming Spring like this year. Last year was a fog and the year before that I was hugely pregnant and not getting out much at all. But this year, oh this year. We go for walks, we spend so much time outside and with the windows open. I am loving this Spring!

My flower bed out front is coming along nicely.

The roses are budding
All of these...

will turn into this...

All these...

will turn into this...

And so many others are in the process of coming back. I still need to go get a few new annuals to fill in. One of my favorite things is this little statue we got when we found out the girls were indeed girls and not 2 boys or a boy and a girl. I love that we found an older brother reading to his younger sisters.

Another favorite...

I bought it during a time when Peace was very important to me, about 5 years ago. It has moved from garden to garden and it makes me happy whenever I look at it.

But really,

what really and truly

makes my Monday


is...

...my little mama bird is back,

for the 4th year in a row.

You can read about last year here, and the year before here,

I cannot wait to watch the building of the nest and the babies!! This year you can see that I hung a birdhouse there beside the hanging basket. I thought maybe they would be more comfortable in a house, you know?? But, it looks like they will build in my hanging basket again. Yay! Because this way I can see the little baby heads poke up to be fed.

Yep, pretty much loving Spring.

Play along with Cheryl over at Twinfatuation

Easter

Wow - the weather has been absolutely gorgeous here the past few weeks. We have been spending lots of time outside. The girls continue to ask to "go bye-bye in da caw" every day. They want to go see "moo-moos", "la-las"(goats), and ducks. Is it a sign we go out to eat too much if Olivia asks, "Eat?" whenever we get in the car??

Easter was lovely. A wonderful beautiful day. It started with our yearly tradition of following jellybeans down the stairs to find our Easter baskets.

As you can see by Zachary's pale face, we did have one downside to the day. He was running a fever, but we loaded him up on Motrin and Tylenol. At his insistence of feeling better we continued with our plans.

Olivia enjoying the books from her Easter basket

Books??
You know there are jellybeans in here, right?

We headed to Gary's parent's house.

There is a cool horse tire swing the girls LOVE love to ride.

Ready to hunt Easter eggs!

Abby jumped right in and began putting eggs in her basket.

Olivia got into to it, too.

Then it was the big kids turn to go.
And go Zachary did!

The girls, especially Olivia, wanted to abandon the hunt
in favor of the bounce house.

(Notice the cute sandals were soon replaced with comfy tennies)

So to the bounce house we went

Taking a break to play with cousin Lily
The girls were enamored with her!
They were all about touching and smiling and watching her!

Grandma got a pinata and all the kids got to take a turn.

And pretend there is a picture of Olivia here.
I didn't get any good ones of her.

So now I am busy trying to resist temptation. There is candy everywhere!