Easter

A fantastic Easter!!  I loved spending it with family.

Easter baskets from Nana to Sam and Elli

Abby found 10 eggs!

Coloring Eggs

From Nana

 Yeah!  We got some eggs!

Standing Champ!

Easter was fantastic!  We got to watch Sam and Elli run after eggs.  Have a great dinner with family and new friends and that was all on Saturday!

Sunday we spent time with the grandparents!

And we surprised them with an Easter egg hunt! Three eggs for each grandparent and a present hidden for them!  Steve hid the eggs and I hid the presents.  Steve made it really hard to find the eggs.

Opening the gifts....

 A bug catcher for Abby and Bubba

 A Disney pop up toy for Grandpa

 A telephone for grandma because she always lets Abby play with her phone.

 "Let me tell you about my day....." - Abby

 A wooden kitchen set for Nana

 And surprise!  Momma hid a gift for dad-o.....A Michigan Outfit!

 Well, a dress makes it hard to crawl....So we had to take it off....She stands up all the time!  

(poor kid, her onesie is too short for her...) 

Opening Day!

Today was the first game of the season for the Detroit Tigers!  Yah for baseball!  Abby wore her baseball dress!  And....Amber put in pigtails, how cute!

 You can't even see her pigtails in this picture, but her face is hilarious!

 Those little pig tails are so tiny!

 Look, it is a home run!!!!

 To get a perspective on how small the pigtails were....

 Then Amber captured my favorite part of the day on camera...Kisses from Abby...

 And "love" from Abby....

It is my favorite when I lay on the floor, Abby starts laughing and crawls towards me, smushes her head to mine and then starts giving me kisses!

I mean, who couldn't love that from this kid???

Our Days

Our days are busy!  You would think with a 14 month old and a mom who doesn't "work" there would be plenty of free time...Not so.

It seems like we are ALWAYS going to PT.  You  have a PT that comes to the house once a week, but we also go to a PT twice a week in addition to the one at the house.  We have to drive about 35 minutes to get there because that is the service our insurance covers....It is a LOT of driving, but worth it.

In addition to the PT we have appointments with the Physical Med and Rehab doctor, the specialist who makes the insert for your shoe, OT evaluations, and our regular pediatrician appointments (which are fewer now that you are over a year).  For the past few weeks you have had 4 "appointments" per week.  We are hoping that will slow down once you get your inserts (there are three appointments to get that all squared away - we have done two of three) and after your immunization appointment and quarterly appointment with the Physical Med and Rehab doctor this week.  I am hoping that once you walk we won't be needing to go all that often...we will see.  The good news is that you "topped out" of OT...You are doing everything they need to see you do and we won't be re-evaluated until June!

Right now we are working on getting you to stand.  You have your feet taped most of the time to pull them outward so you don't stand on the outsides of your feet (which is what you like to do).   You got measured for SMO's - an insert to put in your shoes to hold your foot in the correct position.  Whenever people see the tape on your feet, they say, "What happened to her feet?"  So, I try to keep socks and shoes on you all the time.

You also have these big plastic shoe/boots you wear at night to encourage your foot to stay straight.

You are OK at PT.  You are very much a toddler who doesn't like to do what she doesn't want to do....So sometimes that makes working on stretches, making you stand, etc. kind of difficult.  But, Alison (the PT) and I just laugh sometimes and say, "Oh Abby...It's OK..."  and we hold you in the position we want you to be in.  You still haven't learned that we are bigger than you and will work to make you do what we want....

However, you really LOVE going to PT and all the nurses, receptionists, and patients love seeing you.  Since we go every week at the same time, we usually see the same people. And, they have the BEST toys there...Lots of the kids wave at you.  I also bring you some pretty great snacks.

It's a pretty incredible facility.  Lots of rehab going on there with people of all stages, stroke victims, kids in wheelchairs, kids like Abby, older, younger, and the list goes on.  They have a pool and incredible machines to let people learn or re-learn how to walk.  We are very impressed with what goes on there.

14 months! (yesterday)

Abby, 14 months have gone by, that is crazy!

You are adorable.

I love it when you lean in to "cuddle" when you get really happy about something you lean your head in and rest it on whatever part of the other person's body that is closest (my leg if I am standing up, my shoulder, my head, etc.)

 You give us this look all the time and it cracks me up....It's your serious face.

 Grandma and Grandpa got you a swing for the back"yard" and you LOVE it!  You always laugh and cheer when in your swing, it is too cute.  Dad-o took some great pics of you on your 14 month bday!

(And the super cute fuzzy vest was made by nana....)

You LOVE these girls. Whenever we see them you smile really big and start bouncing up and down.  You even said "Sam" last weekend!  The girls spent the night and went in your room when you woke up in the morning.  I was changing your diaper and you looked at Sam and said, "sam!"  Sammi was so cute, she said, "Cookie, Cookie, she said my name!"  Of course, I cried.  You have a pretty special relationship with that Sammi girl.

 Such a big girl!

 Our trip to Dayton..This was the first time you stood on your own (you let go of the table and ate a cracker!) at Larry and Julie's house.  We were so excited!

 We even got to visit great grandma Klenke!

Momma's favorite part of the day: when you laugh and cuddle with me as we wrestle on the floor.

Dad-o's favorite part of the day: when you wake up and have your bottle on the couch as we watch the news.  You are super cuddly then.

Right now you are watching Baby Signing Time, you love these videos....They are signing a song about signing "more"  I just looked at you and you signed "more".  Who says TV doesn't teach our kids new things?  haha! Well, you have been signing "more" for a long time, but you made the connection that they were signing about more....

You are a sleeping champ and I love that.  I always panic a little when you wake up at night because I am so used to sleeping through the night.  You are in bed by 7:00, and don't wake up till 7:30ish.  I LOVE it!

You still nap 2x a day...We tried to change that up and move into one nap, but you still need two.

You are an eating machine...yesterday you had curry chicken, mangoes, bread, and a bit of cheese for breakfast....We don't really follow the "breakfast" rules around here.....

Whenever something falls on the floor you say, "Uh oh" so cute.

You are starting to stand!  It is so fun.  Just yesterday grandma was over and you would stand up, squat down, sit down and then start clapping for yourself.  You are getting used to the idea of standing without the couch and may walk eventually.

You furniture walk everywhere...we have you go back and forth along the couch, ottoman, and coffee table...When you finish we let you hold our phone or the remote for a second and you are thrilled!

You really like to feed yourself and would prefer to do it all yourself.  That makes it tricky when feeding you yogurt...Because when we give it to you, it is an absolute mess!

You play catch, color with crayons, play "love" (i.e. rub your head into my shoulder), you blow on your food, try to put your own shoes and socks on, quack at the ducks, say "dog" when we see one, and sometimes hold our hands when we pray (other times you push our hands away....).

You melt my heart baby girl.  I love you.

Sweet tooth

I....Have a sweet tooth....Not like a "I like sweets" tooth....a "If there is chocolate around I can't control myself" sweet tooth.  The worst thing was when a kid in my class would bring me chocolate or cookies or something delicious they made as a family the night before...Sometimes I would eat it in the morning (this was pretty much a guarantee if someone brought me dark chocolate)...while doing AM attendance...I know, that is horrible, right?  Especially when I was teaching the kids about healthy habits!  Maybe we should have had a lesson on self control and I could be the "bad example!"

It's horrible.

One thing that has been able to pacify my sweet tooth is a spoonful of peanut butter.  Now, I know PB isn't great for you, but at least it has some protein in it!

So, I went on a search to find a recipe that gave me something sweet without just eating chocolate...Here is what I found! http://luxhippie.tumblr.com/post/5276760473/healthy-peanut-butter-banana-oatmeal-cookies

Peanut butter, banana, oatmeal cookies with no sugar (maple syrup instead...but we get real maple syrup here in MI) and whole wheat flour!  They are doing the trick today!

I halved the recipe and didn't use any chocolate chips (those don't belong in my house, because if they do, I will just eat them....I know, terrible). Abby's going to hate living here because I can't keep anything sweet in the house or I will eat it.