A random mix of fun, awesomeness, lame/so ridiculous its funny, lack of sleep and insanity

Fun

Natalie and Joseph Smith came to visit and help take care of the bebas. We had a fun time hanging out with them, playing Pirate's cove, eating milkshakes and watching the Middle. 

 Awesome

I like this one because it looks like Abi and I are flashing gang signs.

Lame/So Ridiculous it was funny

Nichole made these apple cinnamon strudel muffins the night Natalie and Joseph came. Here is the story: When Nichole's parents were here they accidentally dumped out our scented oil air freshener things. They felt bad so they bought us a refill but it didn't fit right. So Nichole's dad managed to dump the oil into the old ones. Later Nichole tried doing the same thing using a knife to pry it open. She ended up cutting her finger off and splattering oil and blood everywhere. (Ok, she didn't cut her finger off). But, a lot of the oil ended up getting soaked up by the silicone cupcake liners, unbeknownst to us. So, when Natalie took a bite and Nichole asked her what she thought, she said, "very flavorful...do they have soap in them?" We had a good laugh, especially since I had already eaten two and thought they tasted fine. At first we thought it was just due to my lack of olfactory prowess, but not all of the muffins were bad.

 Lack of Sleep/Insanity

We love Emily and she loves to cry...especially between Midnight and 5 AM. 

Result: We try to get sleep whenever and wherever we can. 

We try to prevent Emily from sleeping all day by taking all her clothes off and laying her under the fan. Doesn't work. 

Poor thing. I can only imagine what she is thinking, "Get me out of this body! I want to go back." It's got to be terribly frustrating to be a baby. 

I just thought this picture was funny. 

The insanity continues...Last Sunday we decided to get out of the house as Nichole and Abi had been quarantined all week due to Mano, Pie, y Boca. We made a trip up to the temple only to realize when we got there that the gates were locked. So we just walked up and down the sidewalk in the blazing heat.  As we were getting ready to leave, Nichole thought it would be funny to put Abi in the back of our car (which is a hatchback) and pretend like she was going to ride back there on the way home. Well, Abi didn't realize it was a joke and proceeded to freak out when we tried to put her into her car seat. She quickly pulled the "potty" card as she knows that if she uses this we can't afford to call her bluff. So, after trying a few different ideas, Nichole opted to take Abi's pants off and hold her out over a rock.  She wouldn't squat anywhere because it was too hot. She got burrs stuck in her underwear and she was just screaming her head off. I sat in the car with Emily eating Pringles and thinking about how incredibly sleep deprived Nichole must be. I drove over and suggested maybe we could make an exception with the carseat for 30 seconds and drive over to the McDonalds. Nichole didn't give up though, and managed to cajole Abi into her seat (bare bum and all) before we drove over to the Subway and took her to the bathroom. 

Here's a picture of Abi torturing Emily.

 More Fun!

We recently discovered that there is a free public pool complete with a really cool playground less than 3 miles from our house. How we didn't know about this for 4 years, I have no idea. 

She's not quite ready to go swimming, but we thought we would come prepared anyway. 

Love Emily's face in this one. 

Love Abi's face in this one. 

Abi loves to swing

More fun and awesomeness!

Here Abi and I are at the Pioneer Day picnic eating some pie. 

We had lots of fun as there was stick pulling, arm wrestling, a pony, and a pie eating contest. Funny, I don't recall too many stories about the pioneers having pie eating contests. 

Look at that pioneer woman!

Lately Abi has been asking for "brownies" all the time. By brownies she means miniature hershey's candies. She earns the for sleeping through the night without waking us up to go potty. I also recently taught her how to "raise the roof".

The trifecta of awesomeness: 1. Abi eating celery 2. My shirt 3. Emily's chubbiness

Hand Foot and Mouth

One day before Emily turned two weeks old, my parents left. I cried and felt sad and overwhelmed all day. Then the next day, things seemed better and like I would make it. Then on Wednesday, Abi showed her first signs of Hand Foot and Mouth, and then the longest 2-3 days of my life occurred. Even though it felt like one long day... probably because I didn't really sleep. 

What is Hand Foot and Mouth Disease?
According to the CDC's wedsite: "Hand, foot, and mouth disease is a common viral illness that usually affects infants and children younger than 5 years old. However, it can sometimes occur in adults. Symptoms of hand, foot, and mouth disease include fever, blister-like sores in the mouth (herpangina), and a skin rash"

What does it Look like?

Skin rashes, with blisters, normally found:

 Around the mouth

 Inside the elbows (or on hands)

 On the backs of knees, and on the feet.

A side note: Abigail has become very hard to take pictures of lately. 

How do you get it?

Again from the CDC's website: "It is possible to get infected with the viruses that cause hand, foot, and mouth disease if you swallow recreational water, such as water in swimming pools. However, this is not very common." Umm, except we live in Texas where to survive in the summer we swim alot, and kids swallow swimming pool water. And so every year Hand Foot and Mouth goes through our Nursery at church. This is most definetely where Abi got it, and it's not really surprising as she always has her hands in her mouth

And so I stayed home (and am still staying home as we are not quite out of the contagious phase), quarantined with an itchy, fevery, miserable two year old that only wanted to be held, and a 2 week old that only wants to be held and fed. My tasks? To care for Abi and Emily, and to keep Emily from getting sick. Both of which seemed impossible. The fact that Emily has not shown any symptoms,  (yet) is a miracle, because Abi loves Emily and it is impossible to keep her away.

We made it through Wednesday and Wednesday night, and then came Thursday. The rashes had gotten way worse and Abi scratched every blister until they bled all day long. And then she didn't go to sleep until about nine o clock at night, complaining of itchies, and then awoke at 12:30 and screamed until 3:30, when I finally got her to calm down, and held her until she fell asleep, and then Emily woke up to eat. As I lay down at 4:00 I realized that I had been up for 24 hours without any rest, and then I cried. But then I slept for 3 hours, and surprisingly felt much better. And so it goes.  

Jeff was able to stay home on Friday (as he didn't get much sleep the night before either) and my sister and her husband Joseph arrived and we spent a fun day together, eating breakfast at I-hop, catching up, taking care of little girls, and take a long nap in the afternoon. 

I am grateful for priesthood blessings, which Jeff and Joseph gave to Abi and her rash is much improved. 

 The morning after Abi's longest night yet

Some more pics of Emily's Birth-day!

Here are some more pictures of the day Emily was born. What a special day for our family.

 Here I am in the parking garage of the hospital just before 6 am! 2 for our second child! I am tired and excited!

Here I am meeting my sticky Emily for the first time!

look at her strong body! Even the nurse commented on how strong she looked

7 lbs, 6 ounces, 21 inches long

She had a couple low temperatures, and so we had to really bundle her up! Then she had to have extra heel pricks to test her sugar.

One Proud Papa

 One lucky little girl!

After they took her to the nursery she started having trouble breathing, and had to go to transitional nursery for extra care and chest xrays. Nothing was wrong and her breathing improved. I was feeling quite anxious though, so they wheeled me down to see her and try and feed her. She was soooooo sleepy, so nursing was a joke. But at least i got to hold my girl. Look how tired I am! It is always SO hard for me to sleep after I have my babies. I am so excited that I can't relax, but so exhausted that I am no good to world. 

Jeff picked up Abi, and they spent the night at home without me. My first night without my Abi-girl. I really missed her. She looks pretty happy to be back with Papa!

The next day we all got to go home  The hospital teased us around 1 saying everything was done and we could go home, and then left us sitting and waiting for hours. Finally the nurse said the hearing test hadn't been done, so we waited for a couple more hours and then finally got to come home!! We chilled in my hospital room, and Abi and Emily bonded, we watched some Curious George, a tiny little bit of news on the George Zimmerman trial (before I made Jeff turn it off), ate snickers ice cream bars, and drank some odwalla juice.

 Abi was so sweet and curious, and loving

 I hope to always remember the wonderful grateful feeling I felt this day when Emily joined our family. So grateful for the beauty of creating a family, and for Jeff being a wonderful father and husband, and for my two beautiful sweet girls.

Lists of Ten

Ten Things we love about one week old Emily:

1. Her chubby cheeks
2. Her sweet squeals, and soft cry
3. Her mid-sleep smiles
4. Her tolerance of Abi's rough love
5. Her solid little body, she is alot more solid than Abi was, and is already past her birth weight. Hooray for one less Dr. appt!
6. Her calm personality
7. Her light brown hair that gets so curly after a bath
8. Her sleepy wake up face
9. Her long toes
10. How she fits right in and makes our family feel more complete

* one memorable thing/ not so favorite thing about newborn Emily: Her favorite time to poop is mid diaper change. Has surprised me quite a few times. What a mess!

Ten Things about Abigail since Emily was born:
1. Loves her baby sister. Loves to lay by her, on her, tickle her, pat her, squeal in her face, bounce her in the bouncy chair. She loves it when Emily's eyes are open, and is always trying to wake her up. She will run up to her and say "Kiss the baby." and will give such sweet kisses to her. She loves to hold her and sit right next me while I'm feeding her.
2. Counts to 10. All day long. Skips the number 1 and the number 6, but counts everything. Bites of food, stairs, crayons, toys, etc.
3. Has stopped going to sleep easily. Breaks my heart. I hope this phase passes soon. Also wakes up every night at least twice. For a few nights she would wake up in the middle of the night asking us to read her a Garfield book.
4. Taken an interest in songs. Wants "another song", and wants us to sing them again and again. Her current favorites are "I'm a little teapot", and "Once There Was a Snowman"
5. Will thankfully play with playdough and color with markers and crayons for hours at a time.
6. Always comes and finds me when I am nursing and sits by me, and keeps me company
7. Still rocking the potty training. No huge regression.... (as I expected with the new baby being born)..... yet.
8.Has grown up so much. Doesn't ask for me to hold her as much, and will walk down the stairs by herself.
9. Started screaming... (happy screams). Oh my.
10. Has proven to be such wonderful big sister.

10 Things we are Grateful for:
1. My parents coming and saving our lives. This recovery has been harder than the first, and adjusting to baby has been different than with Abi, and has involved much less sleep! My mom has taken over meal prep and has helped me with everything I need, and has been so patient with my sleep deprived state. My dad has put together a shelf, and been so great with Abi, and they have both been so generous and kind. We went to the Bridge Natural Cavern Safari with them. It was SO fun. We saw giraffes, and rhinos, and zebras, and lots of other animals I can't remember the names of. There was also a petting zoo which was fun. Abi's favorite was by far the Giraffes.

2.Jeff's job allowing him time off. He got a whole week, the week of Emily's birth and before my parents
arrived, and it was so wonderful. I couldn't have done it without him.
3. Jeff getting extra work on the side. A huge blessing.
4.Sonic Half off Shakes after 8. :) Jeff's favorite right now is Oreo Cheesecake
5. My sister coming in a couple weeks
6.Jeff's family coming in about a month
7. Sleep, in whatever increment it comes in.
8. Ibuprofen
9. Technology which lets us talk/video chat with family.
10. Our healthy and happy little family. We are most grateful for that.