Dresses

OK. So, now that I actually have some time, I have decided to make Abby some summer dresses. I thought that it could not be THAT hard and actually they were pretty simple, but it just took time figuring out how to make them and making the patterns. I think that they turned out pretty cute. Now, it is 12:39am and I am going to bed.

long time no blog

Well...I am sorry that it has been so long since I have blogged about anything. I have so much catching up to do. It was a crazy end of the year and I am just now getting back to the old me. YAY!

Abby: She is pretty much fully potty trained except at night and nap times. She wears big girl panties all day and is such a big girl. You would not believe the things that come out of her mouth. Last Thursday, we went to Kemah with her and she played in the water (star that shoots up water in the middle of the center) and rode the train. She was sooo excited and made a lot of new friends. I am surprised how she will attempt to make friends already. She will go up and talk to anyone. I am amazed daily at the concepts that she understands and remembers. This weekend we are headed to Oklahoma for our family reunion. It should be a fun time, but a long weekend. She is spelling he name and matching shapes and colors. It is amazing how quickly se picks up things. She is putting 2 and 3 words together...this morning she said "love you daddy!" How cute is that! She is such a girl! I bought her some of those dress up shoes for little girls that go with the princess dresses. She saw them in the car and immediately said "pretty on, pretty on, pretty on" When I looked back there, she had her shoes off and foot straight in the air wanting me to put the dress up shoes on her feet. So, when we got home, I put them on her and she walked around for the rest of the night in those high heel hot pink shoes saying "pretty, daddy ook pretty" It was hilarious! If you will notice in this picture...she has her "pretty sticker" in her hand for going pee pee in the potty. We are ready for bed and she is procrastinating as long as she could.

She does not want shorts anymore, she wants "pretty ess (dress)" so I have had to go buy her several sun dresses. Her new favorite activity is the splash pad that we bought for our backyard. She would be in it ALL DAY everyday if I would let her. Check out the picture. It is so cute...It has a slide and several activities on it. So fun!

Sarah: Well, I am fully into summer and teaching 2 days a week. This is pretty fun so far, but I am learning that it is difficult to make doctor's appointments for some reason for Wed-Fri. Strange. I never had this problem before, but today I was trying to schedule a specialist appointment for Abby to have a procedure to unblock her tearduct and I have to drive to the medical center instead of I10 and Gessner because I need it to be on a Wed-Fri. Crazy! Also, my dentist said that the only open appointment to get my teeth cleaned is in August because they only do cleanings on Tuesday! Yikes! What is going on???? It has been really interesting...I am teaching summer school (ESY) for one of my students that I taught last year. He lives in a really low income trailer park. The first day that I went to see him...he was the saddest little boy. His mom said that he only sits in front of the TV all day and she can't get him to do anything else (he is profoundly DEAF! and mom only speaks Spanish!) Today when I went, he seemed really happy to see me and we were able to get a lot of work done. He is such a sweet little boy and mom is starting to pick up some signs and began to communicate with him. YAY!

Robby: He is taking "turbo Greek" this summer for summer one and the second part for summer II. It is CRAZY! I have NO idea how to help him when I have NO idea what the cards say. He seems to be doing pretty well. He made an 87 on the midterm, but is really stressed out about his final exam on Friday. YIKES! Keep him in your prayers.

BIG GIRL!

Well...Abby is well on her way to being fully potty trained! Tonight we were getting ready for her bath and she said, "potty!" I rushed her to the potty and she went pee pee AND poo poo on the potty! YAY! We did not even have her potty seat...I just held her on the potty. That is only the second time that she went poo poo on the potty! Last night, she told me "potty" and I thought that she said something else...she then continued to go potty in her pull ups. She told me BEFORE though! What a BIG Girl! We had her checkup on Saturday and she is in the 35th% for her weight (22.12 lbs) and the 90th % for her height. The doctor also said that her verbal and language skills are of a 2 year old! YAY! She is ahead of the game!

I am VERY ready for summer vacation! Only 12 more school days left! YAY! I just have SOOOO much paperwork that I need to finish in those 12 days! Yikes! I do this every year...I know what paperwork needs to be done by the end of the year, but I always wait until the very last second to do it! WHY??? :)

I am excited about church...I met with the youth pastor and he asked me to be the "coordinator for the youth leaders." Basically, I will help choose the curriculum, encourage the small group leaders, make sure that they have their curriculum and basically be the behind the scenes person that makes it tick. This will be a new journey for me and I am excited to see what God is going to do!

Update

Well...A friend of mine did a family update...I thought that was a great idea...so, here ya go...Thanks Jenn for the idea!

Robby: He is a man of many hats! He works full time for an oil company, he is in seminary full time and is working at our church part time! WOW! Did I mention that he is a GREAT daddy and husband in the mean time??? He also just made all A's on his final exams for seminary... WOW! I am so proud of him! How does he do it?

Abby: She is CRAZY! She is running everywhere, up and down stair, sliding, climbing...CRAZY! We are still working on the potty thing, but there is not much consistency between what we do at home and what is done at the sitter, so I think that we will just hit it hard this summer. She will pretty much tell you what she is thinking, so watch out! This morning she said "git my milk (bilk)" please(in sign)! Her new few words are "hold you," "rock," "Kilie" (a girl at Joann's house. She will make all of the animal sounds such as "meow," "mooo," "ruff ruff," "baa," "quack, quack," "oink." As well as "vrrrmm" when she sees a car or bus, "burr" when she is cold, "hot", "waTer(emphasis on the T) haha" "up" "down" "eat" "yummy" She is a talker! She can stack 4 blocks and make a tower, and match the circle, square and triangle in the shape sorter. Her favorite toys are her tent that Granna and Poppa bought her for Christmas and her big Ball for the moment...it seems to change daily though. :)

Me: I am READY for summer vacation! I will be teaching babies doing Parent Infant Training this summer for two days a week. I am working with our youth group at church as the "leadership coordinator." Basically, I get to encourage the parent volunteer leaders for our small groups, prepare their curriculum and make sure that they have everything that they need. We will really start hitting it hard this summer, so I will let you know how that goes. Right now, I am in a women's bible study on Thursday nights. Other than that...I TRY to work out, but not as much as I was there for a while..STILL have those 7 lbs left to lose...YUCK! It is hanging on for dear life!!!! That is about it for us! I hope that you are all doing well!

Love you all!

YEA!

Well...today was a BIG day! Joann called this morning and said that Abby went poo poo on the potty!!!! YEA! It was so funny, in the backgroud I could hear Abby say, "poo poo potty" hahaha! We are on our way now!

Diaper

OK...so this will be short, but funny! Robby was watching Abby tonight so that I could go to Bible study. After the study, I called and he said that Abby came up to him holding a diaper and he said "oh...do we need to change your diaper?" her response, "Dora (the character on her diapers) wet" he grabbed the diaper that she was holding and realized that IT was wet??? He lifted up her dress and SHE had taken off her diaper HERSELF! Hahaha What a BIG girl!

New Potty

Ok...So, I went today and bought Abby this really cool new potty. So far we have been using the seat that you put in the real potty. Well, I always have to put her up on the potty and I thought..."if she is going to be potty trained, then I don't need to have to pick her up and put her on the potty everytime" PLUS...we left her potty seat at Mimi's house and have not been able to work on it this week. SO...as you can see the "Safety First Smart Rewards Potty" has lots of bells and whistles. It sings a little song when she sits on it, then if she "makes a deposit (from the directions) it lights up and plays a little fanfare song. Then when she flushes it plays another song and stickers shoot out the side! WOW! Well...the problem is...Abby wants to play WITH the potty not USE the potty. So, she has figured out the if she puts her hand on the sensor inside the potty then it thinks that she went pee pee and plays the fanfare and she can flush the potty and get a sticker! AHHHHH! She is too smart for the POTTY! We will have to see if day 2 is any more productive...it may be back to the big potty.

She is getting over being sick. She is cutting her top molar teeth and so I think that is part of the problem. We have been giving her the antihistamine/decongestant benadryl and that seems to be helping. I however had a very strange thing happen to me this week. I have been going to chiropractors for almost 10 years and have been to some really good ones and some really bad ones. The one that I am going to now is AMAZING! Well, I go every Monday. This Monday I went in feeling pretty good and left feeling pretty lousy. Strange. Well, as the day progressed into night time and the next day, I was feeling worse and worse. I was really dizzy and my left neck, shoulder and back hurt sooo bad that I was in tears. Then, last night my left arm went numb! So, I called the doctor and he said that it was possible that when he adjusted my neck, that he adjusted me too far the other way!!! SO...now I have to take 4-5 motrin and a vicadin just to be able to sleep! So, I went back today and he adjusted it back and I felt great again! Strange how such a small thing can cause so much pain and suffering. Well...he said that probably my muscles would pull it back out of place since they were so tight and...IT DID! So, we are back on the heated neck wrap and meds until Friday when I go back. He said that I probably would not feel better for 3 or 4 days! That is a very painful mistake!!!! I was NOT impressed. But, I still trust him and he has helped me more in the last few months than others ever have.