Until the band-aid disappeared

Today was Abbi's 18 month checkup. Waiting for them to call our name, there was a play station in the middle of the set of chairs and there was a mirror attached...she got so excited she kept looking in the mirror and saying "Abbi" it was so darn cute. She weighed 22 lbs 12 oz which is not a whole lot for a one and a half year old with her nine month appointment she weighed 19 lbs. So her percentile is rapidly declining, her head circumference as well has not grown very much. The doctor after commenting that she had dropped and that this was normal, says she is tall! She is still in the ninety fifth percentile for height, though in the fiftieth for her weight. She is 34 inches tall! Almost three feet!
The nurse came in after the doctor had left and gave her a hepatitis A shot, something new for this age. Alona didn't have one at 18 mos. Of course she freaked out when given the shot. She did not want to lie down. She kept screaming afterwards, and was a little antsie when trying to get her clothing back on. Though the moment that I put her shorts on and pulled them up, the band-aid was no longer visible and the screaming ceased. Wow instant memory loss, just cover up the band-aid and she totally forgets it all. That was the funnest thing to watch.
Tonight before putting them to bed Abbi comes up and says, "Eyes". She had Paul's glasses for work and wanted me to put them on her eyes.

Over Zealous

At the end of July Ruth took me shopping for fabric for a baby blanket. By the first week in August I had all of the squares cut out. On the 19th while Abbi was sleeping I convinced Alona to play with play-doh and spent two hours sewing the squares together. I wasn't as hard as I thought that it would be. Then Friday night I tied the blanket, Marta had given me some yarn and a needle and shown me how to tie it. It was fairly easy to just pin it, I didn't need to put it on frames or anything. It went really fast with the tying. I was able to pick up more bias tape that I needed at the store on Saturday and I bound the blanket, staying up past two in the morning on Sunday to finish. Kacen isn't due for two more months, so don't ask me why. I just have this urge to get lots of baby things and to have the house all done and to finish the blanket like I did. Hopefully this urge doesn't last the next eight weeks I don't have the energy to keep going or the money to buy that much baby stuff. Now I just need to wash the blanket, I hope that I did a good job and that it doesn't fall apart!

Single Digits!!

Yay, so today is the last day of my thirtieth week! I now have less than nine weeks left of pregnancy which makes it seem like it is closer. But yet it still seems a ways away being that I am still not in the month that I am due yet.

I am already having braxton hicks contractions and sharp lower back pain. which I did not have until later in pregnancy with my other two. I am glad that I know the difference or I just might be freaking out. Paul says that: "I look like I am going to tip over", maybe backwards. It was fun tonight in the check out line at wal-mart Kacen got the hiccups I was thinking that he can't be kicking down there if he is already head down like the doctor said yesterday...and then it started to get rythmic, so yep he is head down and he gets the hiccups. So far I have gained twenty seven pounds and I now start going to doctors appointments every two weeks!

Realization-"Reality"

So me and Paul went and toured a birthing center as well. Knowing already that our insurance would only cover half of the costs. It was real nice, the midwife seemed more personal compared to an ob. They actually took the time for you and would give you a chance to actually think if you had any questions. Not like my doctor yesterday who took less than five minutes in my room. The midwife would actually be there for you, not just pop in for five minutes of the delivery...more like a friend, a helpmate.
There was a big jetted tub in one room, nice beds in all the rooms. Here is a picture of one of them. The nice bedding is actually removed and replaced with different bedding while you are there. The pretty stuff is just for show.They feed the father and mother before and after birth with food from Marie Callendars, mmm. With a hospital you have to wait hours to finally get food and of course there is none for the spouse, you have to run out and buy it. They said that they only kept you after the delivery for about four hours, that sounded nice. No nurses waking you up and annoying you every five minutes, pushing on your stomache and taking your blood pressure. You really get no sleep in a hospital with how much they wake you up to do stuff, it would really be nice to be at home. I also liked how they said that the baby is not taken away from its mother, he is kept in the room with her at all times. Not taken down the hall to a nursery an hour after birth without his/her mother in a little plastic bed on wheels(at the hospital they do not let you carry the baby down the hall you have to push the baby in the plastic bed, its protocal). And the father can go with to the nursery, I'm not sure if the mother can.
I really liked how you get to be in control of your own birth, feel what is right for you and the midwifes help with that. Doctors don't quite do that.
We do have one other insurance, medicaid. But the birthing center does not accept the plan of medicaid that we are on. And after talking to three or four ladies at medicaid, they will not switch us to the one that the birthing center takes. The cost of half of the birthing center is about $2200. More than what we have. So the debate, do we put ourselves in debt with nothing to fall back on so that we can have the birth that we want or do we just go with the safer option of having a small surplus of money, and going to the hospital where you have to coherse them to do things your way and sometimes you will get the results that you want. It sucks at times to be an adult, to outweigh things and know that you can't do it your way, you can't totally be happy. Paul has stressed to much about the money, for once it wasn't me. So I know that I need to go to the hospital and make the most of it and do things the way that I feel to all of the points that they will allow. I will just have to think of the most positive things that I can think of from the hospital. Umm...well with my first baby they gave me free stuff, maybe they will do that again? There is a television, but if I go in when I want I won't need it. And no matter where I go I will end up with the same results, my beautiful little boy in my arms!! Thats the most positive thing that I can think of.
So while we were touring the birthing center, Kelly took the kids home with him and they watched Toy Story. Kelly was surprised when I got there and he was talking about Alona watching the movie at home, when I told him that they don't watch much TV not even movies at home on weekdays he seemed very surprised. HE wondered what I did with them. Marta had gone to the chiropractor, hopefully she is feeling lots better. I think that she said she was. Right after Marta got home Kelly went right back to work on a van. Alona asked why is he going to work again? Marta said, "Because thats what he does."
Abbi kept saying turkey , turkey so I took them outside while Marta cooked dinner. The girls jumped on the trampoline. Alona actually jumps now! Before she would just use one foot at a time in the air and one on the ground to jump, she actually jumps with both feet in the air now.
After dinner Marta took the girls on the 4 wheeler and the on the trampoline again. They had a lot of fun, Abbi was very attached while there. She loves all of her grandparents and clings to them.

Canning

So after seeing the tomatoes on Monday and how they had drastically gone from ripe and delicious looking to gross looking juices and a little mold on a few of them I knew that I had to do something fast.
So I looked up spaghetti sauce canning recipes on the internet, after I had found a salsa recipe in my cookbook. I printed out both recipes and went to the store. Last night I spent an hour after the girls had gone to bed and started, I boiled the tomatoes until the skins were ready to come off. And then I spent an HOUR peeling off the skins and taking out the seeds. Probably a bit too meticulous. I was able to clean up and get to bed a little after midnight. Then today while Abbi was taking a nap and of course Alona didn't want to rest for one second, in fact she said..."My brain tells me that I should play." I was able to finish the recipe, cook it all together put it into jars and process it during Abbi's two hour nap. It made four pint size jars of spaghetti sauce.
I still have a little more than twenty tomatoes left that aren't gros looking yet. I am debating whether or not to make a small batch of salsa, that will keep me up for awhile. I am supposed to return the canner tomorrow.

Waffles, Wagon Wheelbarrows and Tomato Pickin

On Wednesday night Ruth dropped off postcards and newsletters that I said I would help her do for her job. A great way to earn a little extra money especially with two birthdays coming up and a new baby. Any little bit helps. I stayed up until almost two o'clock Wednesday night working on putting labels and stamps on them. On Thursday while Abbi was sleeping I spent two hours on them and once again Thursday night until a little after one a.m. I finally got all of the newsletters sorted by zip code and was finished. Ruth seemed a little surprised that I had them finished already. Though I wasn't able to take them back to her on Friday due to an uncontrolled event. We arranged to come over on Sunday for dinner and drop off the newsletters.

So we went over there tonight at about 6:30 and what did they have waiting for us, Waffles! Alona had talked to Grandpa on the phone I think that it was Tuesday and told him that we were having waffles. It must have been wishful thinking, because we were actually having beef enchiladas that night. It was delicious, I think that I actually forgot to tell Ruth, but her homemade syrup tasted great! There was chocolate milk, bacon and hashbrowns too! I love hashbrowns and don't get them very often. Neither of the girls touched more than one bite of their dinner.
Ruth read Dr. Suess books to Alona, she love this. Alona has been getting about two books a week from a book subscription that her grandparents have given her. We read those books a lot. Grandma took Abbi outside to pick flowers, Abbi came running in and handed me a flower. I got the white ones, then Abbi kept the orange ones, we asked her to smell them and she kept putting them up to her mouth and blowing. For some reason she thought this was smelling. It was really cute. Now that Abbi can say her own name, when we would call her name she would say "Abbi" instead of coming when we called her name.
We then went downstairs and looked through the collection of vhs-c tapes that Val had of us. We got to watch the one from picking out Halloween costumes last year. Abbi was so little, and Alona was so much younger it really is hard to believe.
We went outside and had ice cream sandwiches. Abbi was more into it than Alona. Alona ended up leaving half of hers on the table. Alona had a plastic sword and went up to Val and Ruth and just started hitting them, she thought that she was playing. But I think that only works if the other person has a sword too. They played with the golf clubs and then Val put the girls in the wheel barrow that he had and pulled them around the block. Abbi came back saying vroom, vroom. Paul played darts with the girls.
While all of this was going on I was enjoying picking tomatoes. I know I even think that I am weird, I find picking tomatoes to be fun. I was able to pick many of them and found that I was much better at picking tomatoes than I was at growing them. My tomato plant that I planted from a little seed back in February is still only a foot tall, while the tomato plants that I must of picked a hundred tomatoes off of were a couple of feet long. Paul really didn't like the way that they smelled, but I did. I like the smell of "fresh" tomatoes, it brings back great memories and the tomatoes at the store don't have that smell to them. That real tomato smell.
Alona came over and wanted to help, so she came over and started picking the little tomatoes. She was real adorable she would only pick the real little ones. And she wanted to bring them home and share them with Chrissy and Jean, 0ur next door neighbors. Their little girl picks all the red tomatoes the moment that they appear on the vine. She is out there checking all the time and she eats them right off like an apple. I am not sure if her parents have gotten any yet. Alona came up to me when she was done and showed me the bag of tomatoes that she had, she was very proud. She had picked them all by herself. I had even said that she should pick just the red ones, and she did an awesome job as you can see.
Ruth sent us home with all three of the grocery bags full of tomatoes that all of us had accumulated. Wow a lot of tomatoes! I was just enjoying picking them, I was not expecting or even thinking about bringing them home especially that many. I guess that I will look up how to make salsa, spaghetti sauce or something. I have I think about fifty pounds of tomatoes.
Abbi fell asleep on the way home but of course woke up the second her door was open,she has taken over an hour to get back to sleep so far. I am so grateful for Paul, he doesn't seem to mind putting her to sleep. And then Alona complained on the way home that she was thirsty, she stayed awake the whole time so that she could come home and have two glasses of water.

Just dropped in

Friday afternoon there was a knock on the door. I had no clue who it could be. Alona wanted to answer the door, I asked her to wait. I told her that it could be a stranger and that if she wanted to open the door mommy or daddy should be there.
So she answered the door and much to my surprise...it was Miriam, a friend that we have had since we lived in the apartments where Alona was born. I was stunned, just stood there and starred. I was like, what you're supposed to be in South Carolina. She had been living there for the past nine months and had just come back a week ago. It was great to see her, to be able to talk to her about life and what had been going on. I was glad that she was back and was happy to see things working out for her. I was speechless for most of the time and wish that I could have thought of more to say.
Alona did not remember Hannah at all, but she enjoyed plaing with her none the less. It had been more than a year since we had seen them. The girls had a lot of fun playing. First we played outside for the first hour and a half coloring with chalk, playing on the swingset. Then we came inside, she is still great with kids. She read them stories and played with them while I cleaned up the kitchen and made lunch. They all had chicken nuggets, I was sad that I wasn't able to share with Miriam, there were only nine chicken nuggets. I gave three each to the oldest girls and gave Abbi a chicken patti. Don't get me wrong I offered her other food that I had, and us adults were able to eat just not the same as the children.

The girls were able to play with play-doh and and were really good at cleaning up messes. They played in Alona & Abbi's room with, and Abbi learned how to climb Alona's ladder up to her bed but of course does not know how to get down. They enjoyed playing sword fighting with sticks up on the bed.
When Paul got home and we were getting the girls ready for bed. We said the first article of faith. Alona remembered most of it and said it by herself. Abbi when telling her the words repeated them almost word for word back to us. WOW!

Cut Down to Size

Alona for the past two days has said that she wanted her hair cut. With her saying that "it hurt, it hurt" before the brush even touched her head and Abbi pulling her hair all of the time. She said that she wanted it short. Even though moments after cutting it, she says "Mom, it still blows in my face." Who knows if she was completly satisfied. But she went and looked in the mirror, and didn't want to come out of the bathroom.
I took her yesterday to Fantastic Sams, which is a sponsor of locks of love and they charged regular price to cut and take Alona's hair. So sorry to say we couldn't do that couldn't afford it. So I came home and looked up their website and it said that anyone could cut the hair and send it in but it had to be a minimum of 11 inches. I got a measuring tape and measured how much hair that she had if put into a pony tail, it measured 10 inches, not enough to donate.
So this morning, after cleaning up and getting ready for the day we cut it. I am not the most talented hair stylist , but I think that it turned out okay even though it is uneven in spots. Atleast Alona was able to voice that she liked it!

Changes

Tonight Abbi was telling Alona goodnight, and she said.."Sweet Dreams, Luv You." That was so cute and the sweetest thing. And for her thats big, its like an entire sentence never been done before. I am pobably one of the only people that would have been able to understand what she said, but hey she said it. It seems like mothers are the only ones who understand their children, which is good, atleast someone does and a good thing it is the mother.
Also Yesterday was the first time that she said her own name, YAY! She used to say Alona's name when asked to say Abbi. She ate her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich today! I wasn't able to take a digital photo, the camera is in the car that Paul takes. But I got it on a disposable camera. I remember that with Alona the first time that she ate a PB&J the bread got stuck to the roof of her mouth, and I had to stick my finger in her mouth and dislodge it. Abbi ate the entire section, none of it ended up on the floor which is where the majority of her food has ended up lately. And she even tried it, she has been so weary about bread, hasn't wanted to touch the stuff.

Night Out Against Crime

This is Magna's night for fun during the summer. They have different booths and activities to teach the community about safety. One of the booths had child identification kits, they also had fire safety information. They have the k-9's there doing demonstrations on dummies and a helicopter that was actually deployed in Iraq was there with the pilot and he let by-standards come and take a peek around and on the inside of the aircraft. Abbi was too little for that one, but Alona got to see. There were booths from companies that were just trying to get business as well, like this new dance place opening up I think that would be a great thing to put Alona into. Now to stretch our budget. The girls got their faces painted and had free cake. There was a drawing and all of our names got called. Alona got that frisbee that she had been wanting which had a free mcdonalds combo meal attached and also some animal crackers. Two days later me and the girls went to mcdonalds and we were able to all be fed off of one combo meal! Abbi got a licorice rope, great gift for her. She loved it and Alona wouldn't touch it. I got a gift certificate and a big cow shirt.

Grandma's Party

Sunday we went over and celebrated Marta's birthday with her. She cooked a nice meal. I really liked the potatoes, the toast was good too. Who knew something pre-packaged would be so good. Natalie, Andy's girl-friend came over as well. She is real nice and friendly. She brought a great treat, cheese cake. Now I am not one that has a thing for cheese cake in fact it usually leaves a not so welcome taste in my mouth...but this cheesecake mmm it was goood.
Alona drank her orange soda and ate about two bites from her toast, but she is still not a potato girl and for some reason didn't want her chicken. Abbi didn't want any of it, both girls ended up migrating down to grandma. Abbi has a very short attention span while I was eating she also managed to play with the dog food and water, and also spill a good puddle on the floor from the five gallon jug and when I would not let her use a glass to play with the water she decided to throw it on the floor and break it into many pieces.
So Marta had three cakes, the cheesecake, a cake with lots of icing and her own special piece smothered with a glaze and a strawberry. And she shared all of it. She blew out her candles in one breath, she says its cause she's a singer.
The girls really enjoyed going outside. Abbi knows how to say turkey now and was calling the turkeys and the chickens by that name. One of the turkeys kept going for the shiny loops on her belt, it startled her when it actually got ahold for a moment. Aunt Tami fended them off with her shiny ring.

Sleepless

I am so utterly tired. It is even hard to hold my head up, but the moment that I lay down I just lay there and think, and think, cough cough, and think. I have been sick now for about six days and this is my third night with practically NO sleep how am I to go on? Paul gave me benadryl on Saturday night...ah that was nice, I slept more than I have in I swear years like ten hours. But he has them somewhere(I think) and I have no clue where. I am soo tired, when he gave me that medicine on Saturday, I was so dopey it was that step right where I needed it to be beyond what my body would let me get to. Even if I found it now and took it, how would I ever wake up, my children wake up in FOUR hours! Well these are my rambling thoughts...hmm... maybe I should try sleeping sitting up I seem to be more drowsy this way. :)

Roy Days

Saturday we were able to go to Roy and made it just in time for the parade. Going who knows how fast since the speedometer in the nissan is broken, it only took a half an hour to get from Magna to Roy. Yay, my sister was there early so she had a spot right at the curb. During the parade there were a few people on horseback and they came right up to us and let the girls pet them. All that Alona could reach since I could not lift her was the horse's mouth, Abbi was able to pet it up on the mane. There were a few floats that came by that had dance routines or music. Abbi would start dancing to those and get really close to the floats, Alona would join in once seeing Abbi. The ones that had dance routines Abbi would start clapping and then a couple of times I had to chase her down because she would start following the floats clapping. We didn't bring any grocery bags so when they would pick up candy they would put it on the blanket that we brought or Abbi would give it to me. One lady came by and put a cute little bear into Abbi's hand, she didn't know what to think. She just stood there starring at it in amazement. My nephew was able to get a frisbee the first time that one got thrown out. After that Alona really wanted one, they got thrown out to the crowd once again and did not make it by us...Alona even ran up to the float and they did not thrown one her way. She came back crying and hysterical because she wanted a frisbee and they wouldn't give one to her.

Afterwards we went to the carnival, we weren't able to go on any of the rides for lack of cash. But there were a lot of booths that were able to look at and with some activities. The fire-fighters had a smoke house that Alona was able to go in and they were given out what it looked like really old stuffed animals and of course Alona had to have one. They gave her some coloring books about fire safety. Roy water gave out coloring books and crayons, and one booth gave Alona a notebook after she spun for it, and when Abbi spun the spokes and landed on glue they gave her some crayons (thinking that glue wasn't good for a one year old)! I may not believe all of what other religions offer, but it was nice that they were there supporting the community. They gave out free bottles of water, that was really needed. They did free face paintings for the girls and gave out popsicles. Alona chose to have a heart with wings and Abbi had a sun.
Their aunt Crystal got them both little toys, I have found that the noise that the toys make are obnoxious when their dad gets ahold of them. The toy also blows bubbles and is a whistle. Alona got Nemo on hers and Abbi got a duck. We went back and visited with Crystal at her house for a little while and then I dropped Alona off with Grandma and Grandpa at the Layton Park so that I could go and get Paul and enjoy the rest of the day/night with him. I took Abbi with me hoping that she would take a nap on the way home. Well of course she didn't take much of a nap, but was really good the whole time.
We went back to Layton Park and were able to have dinner with Val, Ruth and their ward. Alona must have had a lot of fun, when we got there Alona was at the park playing and had her own little setup under a tree...a chair, toys the whole works. I think that in the third trimester my stomache is starting to shrink. It seems like I barely at and I was stuffed. It was kinda amusing to watch, for lunch Abbi ate her hot dof real and Alona wouldn't touch her food. And then for dinner, Alona ate her food really good and Abbi wouldn't touch hers not even the chocolate that I tried to offer her.
We all had fun swimming. From the moment that Abbi got into the pool she was shivering and she did not want to be removed from the water. Alona and Abbi both had fun being carried around by their dad and grandpa. And enjoyed being thrown in the air. They both had to have a towel when getting into the car to go home, Alona even took the towel off of her grandpa's back so that she could have one.

BitterSweet

Detachment really does not sound like a great word. In some ways it is relieving, this past Sunday I left Abbi in nursery as I have done many times before. But usually, oh five minutes or so after leaving her I hear screaming from the hall and it preceeds to get closer and closer and I know that it is her. This Sunday, I kept waiting and waiting for her screaming to permeate the hallways and it did not happen. It was a little nice to actually enjoy the lessons that were there though it was a little different. I had gotten so used to nursery and staying in there with her I had been quite accustomed to it. Even though while in nursery I wanted to be in my regular class, now that she had let me go I wanted to be with her isn't life funny. It made me a little sad, my baby is growing up.
She also for the past two nights has fallen asleep by herself. Well I have been with her for a minute and then I leave the room she quiets down for the most part and then I am able to pick her up and take her to her bed. She did require rocking to sleep every night while whining and wiggling and sometimes being mean, I wanted her to be able to not need to be rocked to sleep every night by the time that the new baby came. It looks like I just might get what I asked for. It is nice, but sad.

Pouring Rain

Yesterday at about 10:oo a.m. is when the storm hit us. Alona went to go look outside and told me that it was raining at about 9:30, then at ten o'clock I could hear it. I went and opened the door, it was as if someone was pouring buckets of water down by our doorstep. In all of about ten minutes we had more than an inch and a half of water out there and our drain was not working very well. Thank goodness it stopped before getting into the house, I could not get the plunger to work as Paul had suggested when I called him in the midst of it. Thanks to the storm, Abbi now knows "thunder". She also enjoyed just reached outside of our door and having her very own wading pool to splash around in.