The sweetest words to hear

Abigail & Mitchell are typical brother & sister, they love each other, but they get on each other's nerves quite a bit! Being close in age, I think this makes it even more difficult and they tend to fight quite a bit, but I chalk it up to being siblings. I have a younger brother and we use to fight horribly, actually until we were 18 & 16!! So, I know that fighting comes with the territory.

However, the other day, I heard & saw the sweetest thing between our children. They were playing separately and Mitchell walked by Abigail to get to something else. Abigail got down from the table (she was painting) and just out of the blue went and gave Mitchell a kiss & said "I love you Mitchell", then she went & got back in her chair. Mitchell stopped what he was doing and went over to where Abigail was sitting, he laid his head on her legs and said "I love you GaGa" and kissed her leg. It was so sweet to witness this random act of love between the kids! I have never doubted that they love each other, but when you see the fighting all the time, it's nice to see the actually display of affection!

I am so happy that they have each other and to know that they will grow up knowing about love and how to show it to each other & to those around us. It warmed my heart to see the love that they share & the bond that they have as brother & sister, it makes all the crazy times a little easier to bear!!

It's hard when Mommy is sick!

I have not been feeling well since last Fri, running a high fever and just feeling all over yucky. I finally broke down and visited the dr yesterday and I have strep throat! I never would have guessed that since I don't have a sore throat or blisters, but the dr said you can still have strep without those symptoms, since the other symptoms I have are also related to strep. So, I am now on an antibiotic and the dr said to drink plenty of fluids and get lots of rest--sure, that is so easy to do!!

This is the problem, as a sahm, I don't have sick days or personal days, so when I am sick and need rest it is difficult to get that. Steve is not able to take off any this week, so I am left taking care of both kids on my own, even though I can barely drag myself out of bed! Now usually, Steve is really good about taking off when I am sick, he is a great hubby & Daddy, there are just other circumstances going on at work right now that make it impossible for him to take any time off. Just bad timing for Mommy to get really sick!

So, hopefully I will get a little rest in between taking care of the kids and just pray that they are super-cooperative the next few days. Because I do have a great husband, he comes home and lets me go straight to bed and takes care of dinner, cleaning up and taking care of the kids all evening, even after he has had a rough day at the office! What a great man I married! I hope that my antibiotic kicks in soon and I get a little energy back because when Mommy is down the whole house suffers!

Abigail's 1st Day of Pre-School!

It's true! Our little girl is growing up! Abigail attended her 1st day of preschool today. She will be going Tues & Thurs from 9-11:30am. Normally, I will just drop her off since her school offers a drop off/pick up service, but today Steve & I took her in, thinking that she may be a little nervous, but we were wrong! She walked right in like she owned the place! She was so excited she could hardly stand it!

We had already been to the school a few weeks ago for orientation and found out that Abigail's teacher is actually one of our neighbors, which was so nice! So, Abigail was already familiar with her teacher and her classroom. This past weekend we decorated her preschool bag with iron-ons & jewels (or as Abigail calls them "diamonds") that she had picked out. All weekend she kept asking when was it time to go to her school!

She had so much fun at her first day. She was so excited to show us all the cool things that she had made, including learning how to write an upper & lower case "A" and making an apple tree that said "God made the apple tree". She was very enthused about tearing up the paper to make the leaves for the apple tree & then getting to glue them on. She also used ink on her fingers to make the apples, she was so impressed!

We are so happy that Abigail is enjoying her school and her time that is just her own. While Abigail is in school, Mitchell & Mommy also get to enjoy their own special time, which is so great! Mitchell was sad today when she left and kept looking at her carseat in the van and saying "Ga-Ga seat, Ga-Ga cool". But he adjusted and enjoying spending some time alone with Mommy.

It is so hard to believe that our baby girl is growing up so fast and becoming such a little lady! We are so proud of her & look forward to the rest of her yr of preschool!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Steve's birthday, so the kids & I made him a cake. Abigail decorated it while Mitchell supervised! We surprised Daddy and everyone got to enjoy some yummy cake! We were so excited to celebrate his birthday because we have the best hubby/Daddy in the world!

Mitchell in the hospital

Everything is okay now, but we had a big scare 2 weeks ago with Mitchell. We noticed on Monday night (8/11) that he had what appeared to be a small pimple on his lower back/tailbone area. When I felt it, I could feel some hardness under the surface. At this point, Steve & I were fairly certain it was the start of an abscess because just last October Abigail had one under her arm. After going to the dr on Tues & Wed and it not getting any better, but actually growing quite rapidly, we were told on Thurs that Mitchell would have to be admitted to Children's Hospital for surgery & IV antibiotics. It was one of the scariest things we have had to go through as parents! Before going to the hospital on Thurs, Mitchell was running a 104 degree fever, was very lethargic and could barely walk and could not bend over, he was in too much pain. It was heartbreaking to see him in that much pain!

We were admitted on Thurs afternoon, the surgeons came in Thurs late afternoon and determined that the abscess would have to be opened up and packed to get the rest of the infection out (our pediatrician had lanced it in the office on Wed, but there seemed to still be quite a bit of infection still there). They did the surgery Thurs around 8pm, he did not go under anesthetic, but instead they put a topical numbing cream on the abscess. I stayed in his room while Steve went into the surgery with him. It only took 10 minutes and he came out a much happier little man! The surgery immediately made him feel better, as the pressure from the abscess was so painful. For the first time in 3 days, he was playing and eating again! It was so nice to see his smile again!

The doctors decided to keep us in the hospital until Saturday afternoon, so they could keep Mitchell on IV antibiotics and monitor his open wound. Mitchell was discharged on Saturday afternoon with oral antibiotics to continue at home. He still had the packing in, but they wanted to make sure that if there was any infection left that it would be able to drain on it's own. We went back to the pediatrician's office the following Monday and had the packing removed.

Mitchell is still recovering, but is doing great. His appetite is back in full force and he is up playing and laughing like his old self. He still has a bandage on and the wound is still healing, but it is looking better & better each day!

Steve & I were so proud of Mitchell during this entire ordeal. He was such a brave little boy the entire time. He was always telling the doctors & nurses "thank you" even after they would do something that hurt him. He went through a great deal, but tried to always keep a little smile on his face! We are so thankful to God that He healed our son and that He is still healing him now!!

Some Mitchell translations

I thought it would be fun to record some of the different words that Mitchell uses at the time for certain things and some of the things he is saying right now. He is talking really well now and a lot (I must here "Mommy" 1000 times a day!) But he still has some words that need some translation, here are a few of them I can think of!

GaGa= Abigail
Oh-Ah-Ah= Monkey
Ni-Nite= His crib
Babi= Paci
Bawk-Bawk= Chicken (Abigail also used this one!)
Jooge= Curious George
Melmo= Elmo (another that Abigail used)

And on to some of the funny/cute things he has said to us in the past few weeks:

Mommy, I go poopy (as he points to his bottom and sure enough there is a dirty diaper!)
Mommy, eye hurt (he did have something in it that was irritating his eye)
Mommy, I go bye-bye

He is also very big into animal sounds right now. He can make the sound for snake, bear, lion, frog (my personal fave), kitty, doggy, elephant, and monkey.

So, all in all, our baby is growing up! He is getting too big, too fast! Last night we found out that he knows how to blow his nose, another step to needing Mommy a little less every day and that makes me sad! He is our big boy, but he will always by my baby!

Some Abigail funnies!

I could really write a daily record entitled "Abigail Funnies" because our daughter is a drama queen and says some pretty funny things, and she is only 3!! So, I thought I would share some recent funnies that happened yesterday in our house!

Unfortunately, the funny things that came about yesterday were during a temper tantrum that Abigail was throwing over not wanting to eat dinner or the dinner that I had fixed. Here is the conversation that took place between Abigail & I at the dinner table:

Abigail (crying & sobbing): I don't want to eat my sandwich!
Mommy: You have to at least try it, you can't just eat your veggies.
Abigail: But I will just eat the bread, okay?
Mommy: No mam, you have to try the whole sandwich, then if you don't like it you can just eat the bread.
Abigail: No mam, I will just eat my carrots!

At this point, Steve & I are busting out laughing, even though we try not to do that when we are being stern or disciplining either of them. But this was too funny not too, she was so upset and being so serious all at the same time!

The next funny came after she had calmed down from the dinner fiasco. She was upstairs putting on her princess outfit; tiara, high heels and all! I was up there and asked her if she was coming back downstairs to play with Daddy & Mitchell. She said "No, Mommy I am going to be a princess in my room for a while, I need some time to myself!" Wow! What do I say to that! I think she is definitely 3 going on 15 and we are in trouble down the road!!