1 Month Old

Abby's "birthday" was yesterday and her 1 month appointment today. I guess I shouldn't be too worried that she seems to spit out more than she drinks -- when you start at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and then weigh 9 lbs. 13 oz. after a month, you must be getting something! So she's definitely thriving. And I'm thriving more now that she generally sleeps for longer periods at night. My parents and brother will be arriving today to spend the weekend for Abby's blessing!!




Happy to be 1 month old!!

Grand Debut!

I did it! Yesterday I went to a primary training at the church ALL BY MYSELF WITH THE GIRLS! That's the first time I've been out with them and without Chopper. Then today it was back to church and so that was a new experience. There are several areas I need to stream-line. Carrying a diaper bag, an infant carrier, and my church bag with my Primary stuff is a pain! So I'm going down to the bare essentials. I feel the need to simplify! But it was really good to get back to church and everyone was very excited to see Abby. I should've probably taken pictures, but . . . oh well. These are just from the past week -- good shots of my beautiful girls. It still sounds so funny to me to say girls or kids in the plural. But I love it!

I scream, you scream

We all scream for ice cream! Chopper got an ice cream maker for Christmas and he has been dying for the weather to warm up so he can start trying recipes. First one: blackberry ice cream. Now technically, with the eggs and the fat content, it's really a custard. But regardless of WHAT it is, it was really good!

First haircut

I don't know if this really classifies as a first haircut. I cut off Megan's "rat tail" before she was a year old and then I've also been cutting her bangs for a while to keep them out of her face. But her hair has gotten so scraggly and we decided it was time to have a real cut. There wasn't much we could do given her reaction -- lots of screaming and fighting to get out of the chair -- but her bangs got a real trim and then the back was evened out a little bit. The hair dresser kept making comments about what the other "stylist" had done wrong. Hmmm, that stylist was me. I guess I need to invest in a flowbie!


It took the DVD "Ice Age", a lollipop, and M&Ms to get her to have her haircut and she still screamed. I don't think it was the haircut necessarily, rather I think it was the strange woman invading her space -- she has a lot of personal space! Plus she kept talking really loud telling her it was ok. She's not deaf, just upset! Oh well. I think it turned out ok but I don't know that I'll be doing it again anytime soon!

For Megan's future amusement

If you don't like body humor, stop reading now. But I had to post this because I think it's funny-cute and because someday I'm going to want to tell Megan.

Megan is getting pretty good about telling me when she's stinky -- not wet though. The other day she announced, "stinky, change diaper?" So I got out all the stuff and we started to change her diaper. When I took it off I discovered she wasn't stinky after all and I told her so. She says to me "no, just a farp". Which is what she calls farts, toots, whatever. I had to laugh pretty good over that one.

What to say, what to say

I don't have a lot to report right now. My days still consist of eat, sleep, and change diapers. It's still hard to go out and do anything because Abby wants to nurse about every hour to hour and a half! So the highlights of my week have all happened in the house . . .

Megan has been throwing major crying fits and tantrums AFTER her nap! I thought that was supposed to happen before! It makes it worse to try to console her, so the other day I just let her cry for an hour and eventually it ended. But despite how crazy it was making me, I actually wanted to laugh at one point. Through her tears, she was trying to do something and it wasn't working. It took me a minute to figure out that she was saying over and over "it doesn't work, sweetie, it doesn't work!" I had to laugh and then I wondered about the ramifications of her talking to herself! And using the same terms of endearment that I use! And as I've paid attention over the past few days, she only uses those terms of endearment (sweetie, hon) when she's talking to herself. Hmmm, at least she'll have good self-esteem!

Also, this is funny but also a good example of government waste. Chopper got promoted! Why is this funny? Because he hasn't actually worked in several months while he's been on disability for shoulder recovery. And yet the government has seen fit to advance him. And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, in tough economic times it is good to have a government job. And also why our taxes are ridiculous.

Prodigy in the Making

Grandma Gasser brought Megan crayons and coloring books when she came to visit and we have seen a drastic improvement in Megan's artistic abilities!


Ok you know we're kidding right? Chopper drew the picture and then got Megan to pose for it of course. But she has really enjoyed coloring and I HAVE seen an improvement -- she's consciously trying to stay within the lines!

My mom left for home today. Of course she'll be back at the beginning of May for the baby blessing with my dad and brother in tow (yay!), but it is still really hard to see her go. She and I are really close and I have loved having her here. Plus, now the hard work really starts right? I need start learning how to balance 2 children! Day 1 -- they've both slept all afternoon! I know that this will probably be a very rare occurrence! It will good to work out our routine as a family again -- but we'll all miss her. Megan will miss having another person to play with and being able to kiss all of "Grandma's medicine" (remember it's kissing with the nose so it was really worse for Grandma than Megan!) and try on her shoes. They've been sharing a room so we'll see what happens when she wakes up tomorrow morning and Grandma's not there!!

Chopper and Megan planted flowers in pots for our balcony the other day. Megan now requests to go play in "the garden". I hope we can keep them alive -- flowers can be expensive!

Weight Check

Abby weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. on birth and the day after we came home from the hospital checked in at 7 lbs. even at the doctor's office. Today we had a weight check and I am very pleased to say she's at 7 lbs. 15 oz.!!!!!

There is no question about how well this girl eats, that's for sure! And happily for me, all that nursing has gone 10 times better than it did with Megan. In fact, a lot of things are easier the second time around -- I'm just generally more relaxed and less stressed. That's probably a good thing, after all, learning to juggle 2 will be a whole new ball game!

Oh, on another note, Chopper has finally entered the active job searching phase of this whole process with the Department of Labor! Keep us in your prayers that we'll be able to move on with our lives soon!!

Happy Easter!

Even though I love General Conference, I miss regular Easter Sunday stuff when GC falls on Easter Sunday so we've been doing some fun activities all week. This was Megan's first year to really dye eggs and she really enjoyed it -- she has a thing for eggs right now, probably they're too close to balls. We did it outside since our weather has been so beautiful and it was fun to see how excited she was by the whole thing.





On Sunday, we gave her an Easter basket, had an Easter lesson (that lasted approximately 1 minute and 37 seconds -- ok I didn't time it but that's really about how long it was) and then we made stained-glass flowers for the windows. That idea came from my friend Jamie (thanks!!) and her blog and it went relatively well. It's just shapes on contact paper and then you put little squares of tissue paper all over the contact paper and ala peanut butter sandwiches!! (I watch too much Sesame Street) -- stained glass windows! Megan might still have been a little too young -- she was frustrated by the fact that SHE kept getting stuck to the contact paper! But it was a fun activity.




Megan got bubbles in her basket -- it's been since last summer that we've played with bubbles and the excitement and joy on her face was just priceless! I love having children! Of course she's also been "terrible two" lately. I don't know if it's the change around here with Abby, Megan does not do well with change. She really seems to like and have accepted Abby but I think she's struggling with the difference in our home. But every one of us has gone through it and we're all fine so I guess it's just learning how to redirect her for good and helping her adjust!



Abby had her first bath and screamed bloody murder through the whole thing. She had another last night that she did really well with. The girl is the messiest eater I've ever seen and constantly has milk dribbled somewhere! She also growls at me when she nurses. Megan honked. I'm not kidding -- she sounded like a baby goose. And now Abby growls. I'm raising a menagerie here!


And then I forgot to post this picture. It's one of my favorites from the hospital when Megan met Abby. Poor Chopper, outnumbered but loving it!

I didn't do Easter dresses this year with everything going on but I'm already excited to do coordinating ones for next year!!