Abby is starting to fight back

Two days ago I was blow drying my hair while Jack and Abby were watching Dora.  The next thing I knew, Jack came running into my room because Abby bit him.  He loves to bother her and until now she has just yelled. Well, I think she has realized that she can fight back. Later on that same day she knocked him over. Today she pushed him. Finally, she is old enough to fight back.

First hot day of spring 4/4/11!

I was so excited the first day it was officially hot outside.  Mainly because I had gotten Abby some really cute clothes at consignment and I was so sick of looking at her winter clothes.

Jack and Abby were playing with their new bubble blowers.  It was the present Jack picked out for being so good on the plane.  He picked Diego and picked Dora for Abby.  They were a big hit.

Creek Time

Jack and I decided to check out Nana & Pop's creek for the first time this spring (4/4/11).  Throwing rocks in the water seemed to be the hot ticket item. Another exciting thing was the worm Jack found under a rock.  He created a little area for the worm to live and kept giving it other rocks to crawl under since he took the worm's rock and threw it in the creek.

Checking out the water

Mr Worm!

He really liked him

I had to remind him to be gentle, we didn't want to break Mr Worm

Mr Worm's new home

The boy LOVES water

Glenlake Park

March 29th, we decided to head over to Glenlake Park  It was a fun day.  It was also freezing.  We had the park to ourselves.

Nana's cake

Since Abby had her adenoids out on my mom's birthday, I was sick and had just gotten back in town, I didn't have much planned for Nana's birthday.  Nana was coming over to help with Jack and Abby on March, 22nd (since I was still sick) and I thought I better hook up Nana a little.

I labeled the post Nana's cake because anytime you tell Jack it is someone's birthday, he always asks, "Well, what kind of cake do they want?"  I mean, there are important things and then there are IMPORTANT things.  Cake is a biggy to Jack.  So, I went to Publix and got Nana a cake.  I got her my favorite type of cake only because I didn't get a birthday cake this year, but that is whole 'nother post.  My favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Super Yum.  Anyway, we had a small celebration of Nana's birthday on the deck.  A good time was had by all.

Jack had to lick a candle

And what Jack does, Abby does

Famous birthday person lick the candle shot (Jack couldn't get close enough to the cake)

Jack eying some cake

Dada helping out

Adenoid Removal

After much deliberation and thought, we decided to have Abby's adenoids removed.  The big date was March 21, 2011 (yes, on my mom's and Grandmother's birthday, I needed an easy date to remember).  It was also the morning after we got back from Vermont AND we had to be at Scottish Rite Hospital at 6:30am AND I was still sick as a dog!  I mean REALLY?!??!  We got there on time and of course, had to wait.  Abby couldn't have anything to eat or drink past midnight, but could have breastmilk 6 hours before surgery.  Our surgery time was 9:30am, so I set my alarm to wake up at 3:30am to nurse her.  I dream-fed her so she wasn't starving when we got her up.  Actually, she might have already been up.  This was the time period when she was waking up every day, FOR THE DAY at 4:45am.  She is lucky we didn't sell her on the black market.

After waiting for over an hour at Scottish Rite, they finally called us back.  First I need to say, the staff is AWESOME there.  They really go out of their way to accommodate you and your child.  The plan was to give her versed and then wait until she got drowsy to bring her back to start the IV, etc.  It is amazing how fast that stuff works.  They gave it to her and within minutes she was spaced out.  She was pretty happy because Dora was on.  I mean what more could a girl want while all juiced up? 

Of course when they took her out of the room, I balled.  Doug, being the lovely man that he is, asked me why?  Um, they just took our daughter to operate on?!  I guess he just thought I was handling everything so well.  He really is a love as then he trekked to the cafeteria and brought us back some food.  He brought me hashbrowns which he knew would perk me up and it did.  We were hardly done eating when Dr Batkha came in and told us he was done.  That the surgery went well.  I was amazed.  It had seriously only been about 20 min. 

They brought Abby in a few minutes later so she could recover with us.  They immediately put her in my arms, I tell you again, the staff is awesome.   Of course, once she started to really wake up, Abby became her normal spitfire self and wasn't a happy camper.  She started pitching a fit if anything touched her legs, like cords or her gown or anything.  I tried nursing her at first, but she had no interest.  It wasn't until she was with me for a bit that she had a little interest in nursing.  She really loved the apple juice with ice, that wasn't watered down like I give her.  After a bit, she went from my arms to Doug's and then finally settled on the bed.  She was really angry about her IV and wanted it OUT.  She even tried to pull it out, so we had to get the nurse.  They wanted it in a little longer in case she needed something they wouldn't have to restick her.  At that point, 2 clowns walked in and started performing tricks and playing music.  Abby was not amused until one of them started doing a trick with his thumb.  He had a red light to make it look like the oxygen sensor she had and kept making it disappear and reappear.  That made her happy.  They stayed for about 20 minutes.  They were great.  Finally she could get her IV removed and we were cleared to go home. 

We were warned that she might throw up on the way home.  Well, it was mentioned, but not like it was a big deal or that it would happen.  Of course, on 285 about 20 minutes from the house, Abby projectile vomited all over the car.  Lovely.  They had given me a barf bag, but if I had known that it was probably giong to happen, not that it "might" happen, I would have sat in the back with her.  Ugh, what a mess.  We finally got home and she seemed to be doing great. My mom, Nana, was watching Jack, so she helped me clean up Abby.  I can't remember now if we put her in the tub or not since she was still so out of it.   Anyway, she got cleaned up and had a snack.  She ate like a champ and then went down for a nap like usual.  The resilience of children amazes me.  I am just so thankful to God that she did so well with the surgery.

As for a follow up.  Her night wakings have gone down.  Here lately, she has only gotten up once a night to nurse and then will sleep until 7:30am, which is a miracle.  She isn't snoring anymore or gasping for breath, so everything seems to be working.  Perhaps one day she will sleep through the night and until 7:30am.  A mama can dream, right?

Watching Dora, waiting for the versed to hit

And, there it is.

My poor drugged up baby girl

She wasn't a fan of the drug, right after this picture she had to lay down

Operation Split Rooms! UPDATE

So, yeah, totally didn't make a difference.  Abby was up at 5:45am with Jack at 6:00am.  He flew into our room and proceeded to start with a tantrum.  Like every morning.  It's a good thing I love him.

Operation Split Rooms!

Tonight (4/14/11) we put Jack's mattress in the playroom to see if they would sleep better separated.  Lately they have been waking each other up in the morning.  I am curious to see how the science experiment works.  Will update tomorrow.

Pancake dinner at St Thomas More

Jack, Abby and I headed to St Thomas More for a pancake dinner.  We decided to hit the playground before dinner.  The super awesome thing was Abby had a total blow-out diaper and I didn't have a change of clothes.  Luckily, Denise's friend, Stephanie whom I am friends with came and had an extra change of clothes in Abby's size.  Talk about lucky.

Vermont

So, I am WAY behind on posts.  We went to Vermont March 15th - 20th.  I fell at the top of the first slope I attempted to snowboard down and then got sick the following day.  I am about to play catchup.

We flew to Albany, NY, got a rental car and drove the remaining 2.5 hrs to Plymouth, VT.  Jack & Abby were angels on the flight.  It was about 2 hrs and they behaved really well.  I was getting a little nervous at first because Abby was pitching a FIT before we even started moving.  Luckily, I thought to borrow Denise's DVD player so we were set.  Dora and Diego saved the day.  Literally.  Once we got to Albany, we had to wait almost an hour for the car seats we had ordered.  They brought the wrong ones, broken ones, etc it was a total Charlie Fox.  Plus, we were in a parking garage with 2 little kids who had been couped up in an airplane, so they wanted to run.  Not a good place due to all of the cars.  We finally got on the road (in our BRAND NEW Ford Explorer!) and again the DVD player saved our lives.  They did both take naps on the drive to Plymouth, which was nice, so we had a little break on the way there.  It was crazy to see all of the snow on the ground. 

We finally arrived in Plymouth after a couple of hours.  Nathan and Jill were wonderful the entire trip.  They bought a pack-n-play and a booster seat so we wouldn't have to rent or bring one, it was so awesome.  Jack and Abby felt right at home immediately. We had to get out the snow boots and snow gear as soon as we got there so they could go outside and play in the snow.  It really wasn't all that cold out, which was strange since it LOOKED so cold out. 


The next morning Doug, Nathan and I went snowboarding.  They hired a snow boarding instructor to help me remember what I was doing.  It had been 15+ years since I had last been snowboarding.  I should have started on the learning area, but didn't, jumped on the lift with Meesha and went to the first slope.  Big mistake.  I immediately slipped and landed right on my tail bone.  I hit so hard it knocked the wind out of me.  Then from that point on, any time I fell I was in agony.  So, instead of taking 15 min to get down the mountain, it took me over an hour.  I did finally get down though.  Meesha was so patient with me.  I was ready to throw my board and have a Jack style fit.  (For the record, I am writing this a month later and it STILL hurts).  When I arrived back home I walked into the house and heard total pandemonium.  Graham greeted me in the dining room with "Jack got attacked by Gator (their den terrier) and I had a hard time pulling him off".  Um, yeah.  I was a little nervous about what I was going to find.  Abby was hysterical for no good reason and went beserk when she saw me and Jack was crying.  He seemed ok, he had a bite mark on his eye and some bruising on his arm.  He was a trooper and didn't cry much.  They bandaged his arm and stuck a bandaide by his eye to make him feel better.  Jack decided at that point he didn't like Gator.  I didn't blame him.

I woke up the next morning sick as a dog.  I felt just awful.  I couldn't remember the last time I was that sick.  My vitamin D & E had failed me.  Jill was so awesome to hire Meesha to come over and help me with the kids so Doug and them could go snowboarding.  Doug didn't want to, but it made no sense for him not to when we flew all the way there to snowboard.  So, off he went.  I did get to see my good friend, Grace and her husband, Matt Emelett.  They drove down from Waitsfield to visit.  We were going to go to lunch, but I was so sick, I didn't want to go anywhere, so Meesha made us lunch.  We had a great visit.

We pretty much just hung out the rest of the trip.  Jack and Abby played in the snow.  We had extremely warm weather, to the point where Nathan was only in shorts, working on his tan.  It was awesome.  I will have the pictures tell the rest of the trip.

I must mention the flight home.  Both Jack and Abby fell asleep, but that wasn't the remarkable thing.  The remarkable thing was when Doug asked for 2 screw drivers and got 4, FOR FREE.  Talk about the hook-up.  Oh, and the ultimate lovely thing was I left my car keys in Vermont.  Luckily, Dell, the bestest person in the world, dropped my keys off at Hartsfield so we could drive home.  What a trip!

Flight to Albany, NY

Killington, VT

Me & Meesha

Nathan

Doug

Downtown Plymouth, VT

Gator bites

Gator again

Abby playing

Playing in the workshop

Jack vacuuming like usual

The greenhouse

Snow!

Nathan, Jill & Doug

Jack couldn't stop touching the plants

Rockstar!

Grace!!

Jack working the shovel out on the back patio

Matt!

Abby

Meesha brought over a snow ball maker

It was a big hit

Snowball man!

He did complain the snow made his hands cold

The snow had already melted a lot

When we arrived, there was no grass, it was all snow

It was so warm on the patio, Abby didn't need shoes

She loved all  the snow balls!

Jack was leaving snow balls around for her

Relaxing on the patio

It started getting cooler

Jill had all the gear for us to borrow

Sick me

The snow suits came in SUPER handy, as did the boots

They had fun

Snowball fight!

I hope this snow suit fits next year

Abby looking cute

Sexy man

Aunt Jill always helping out

Tuckered from a week in the snow

Ah, Dora

Chillaxin'

Dinner time

Nathan and Jill are awesome cooks

Gator bite 4 days later

Poor Jack

Out for a walk

Plane time again

Jack was mesmerized by the toilet, "that goes very fast" on the plane

Why Doug scored 4! free screw drivers