Baby in Heaven

Baby in heaven how my arms ache to hold you;
Kiss you and cuddle you close to my heart.

Baby in heaven how my ears want to hear you;
Soft sighs, happy coos, so sweet and so dear.

Baby in heaven how my eyes long to see you;
Tiny hands, little toes, every small part.

My baby in heaven O how I love you!
My arms feel so empty, my eyes full of tears.

But baby in heaven I know that God holds you;
Gently and tenderly close to His heart.

And baby in heaven someday I will see you,
Hear you and hold you, hold you so near!

We're Going to Save so Much Money!

It has been officially two weeks since I decided to go ahead and let Abby potty train herself. If you recall I said I would and hold back my joy until she made it a week with no accidents. Well, this past week Abby has had only one accident and that was my fault because sometimes I am not a perfect mother! Yesterday I used our last diaper for Abby at naptime and now we're down to just Pul-ups for when were out in public and naptime/bedtime and panties for at home! We are going to save so much money! At least for the next 6 1/2 months!

Abby even has managed to stay dry at night! I've been thinking about not putting a Pul-up on her at night but I really hate doing laundry and it would be just my luck the night I decided not to put a Pul-up on she'll have diarrhea or something! Did I mention I hate laundry? I really do! I don't mind loading it or anything I just hate the endless folding and putting away part!

I am so proud of little daughter! She even went for the nursery workers at church yesterday! My eyes tear up just thinking of it! Both my girls constantly amaze me! They are both smart and charming, at least most of the time, they are also normal little girls who tend to do naughty things but we still love 'em!

So we're going out to Michigan for a visit with Great-Grandma, Joel's parents, and all the uncles the first week of May and I feel very sorry for my husband. Between me being pregnant, and two little girls with itty-bitty bladders I have a feeling we're going to be stopping a lot. Poor guy! At least he'll have yummy yummy Grandma treats to munch on when we get there! I know I'm looking forward to them!

P.S. We got the collapsible potty chair in the mail a week ago and I love it! It is the single best invention for small children ever, EVER! :)

The Amazing Abby May!

Well, Abby has been going potty like a big girl for a week now with minimal accidents! I just can't believe the little girl potty trained herself in a day! I cannot take any credit for it! She probably figured it out by watching Katie but still, I've never heard of any kid potty training so fast, seriously, it was ONE DAY! Now she has had #2 accidents in her bed because she wouldn't keep her diaper on at naptime but that hasn't happened for a few days now! She even tells me when she has to go when were in public and takes great delight in going in the public restroom! Poor Katie has a fear of foreign pottys, mostly due to the attomatic flushers that don't see her because she is so small and go off when she's still sitting on them! When it happened to Abby she thought it was funny! Of course she also thought it was funny to reach in the potty and touch the hose that squirts out the sanitizer! I made sure we washed really, really well after that particular incident!

So I ordered Abby a special collaspable potty seat for when we're out in public (for those of you that don't have little girls let me tell you it is very hard for them to go with no potty chair without dribbling all down their legs and on their pants!) and her very first package of Pul-ups for car rides, public places, and church and big girl panties! We let Abby choose which panties she wanted and she picked some frilly, "Curious George" ones! :) She loves Curious George which is funny since one of my nicknames for her is "George" because she is so curious herself!

My little baby is growing up so fast! The only thing she has left from her baby days is some baby fat!It's a good thing we have another itty-bitty baby on the way! I'm not ready to leave babyhood yet!

We're Hungry!

I saw that phrase on a maternity shirt a year ago and now I wish I had it! I am sooooo hungry! Ravenous! My poor Husband can attest to it as he has gone on a couple of late night Burger King runs of late. Now I don't buy into the whole you can determine the gender of your child by what you eat because I craved completely different things with Katie and Abby. With Katie I couldn't get enough Strawberries (which I hate!) and Braunschwager. Abby I wanted salad (anything that had large quantities of lettuce!) and green apples. With this little one I want beef! Beef, beef, and more beef! For those of you who don't know I can't really handle more than a few bites of beef at a time unless I want to spend some unfun time in the bathroom. However the magicalness that is pregnancy has suspended my beef intolerance and I can now gorge myself in the yummy, greasy, perfectness of it! On one of Joel's Burger King runs they got my order wrong and instead of a Whopper Jr I got a burger with three patties, bacon, and a special sauce. It was divine! I ate most of it (I shared a little with my dear husband) and didn't feel even the slightest tummy twinge! MMMMM! Just thinking of it makes me want one, or maybe two!

I don't remember being this hungry with the girls. Maybe I just don't remember but I know Katie gave me the worst morning sickness and my appetite just wasn't there for the torturous five and half months of throwing up! Same with Abby, although the morning sickness only lasted four and half months with her. With Baby Cabbage I feel disgustingly sick but also ravenously hungry! It's not really fair! I say pick one baby! As soon as my tummy has digested a small amount of my last meal I feel hungry enough to eat a bear! I've heard that women pregnant with boys eat more who knows!

We've also been teased that twins are on the way! If there are two babies that means the amount of food needed doubles too, right? Joel actually got pale when the girls were talking about it at church! I wouldn't mind twins at all (I LOVE babies!) but I don't think our checkbook would! I have an ultrasound scheduled in May so we'll find out soon enough!

Until then I'm enjoying dreaming about the little one growing in my belly and how amazing and miraculous the forming of a child is! I remember with Katie thinking as she was born, "I can't believe they let us do this!", it was so mind blowing to actually see a real baby come out! The first thing I said was, "It's a baby!" I don't know what I had been expecting, a puppy?! Right now my little itty-bitty baby has a heart beat and her brain is already working. She is approximately 1 inch long and weighs 2 grams (same weight as 2 M&M's!).This week her fingers and toes will will form. Last week she looked like a baby manatee now she looks like a teeny-tiny human baby! So much happens so fast! This is one of those things where God really amazes me! :)

Katie has added Baby Cabbage to her nightly prayers. It brings a happy tear to my eye to hear her sweetly pray, "Please keep the baby safe; please help the baby to grow and big and strong, and please help me to be a good big sister!"! A little while ago we bought a little Eeyore wrist rattle for the baby because I really wanted to buy something that I could cuddle but its hard shopping when you don't know if the baby is a boy or girl! Fortunately Winnie-the-Pooh characters are great for boys or girls! So now I have a nice soft baby toy to cuddle and dream on! :)

Well, its almost dinner time so I must close! I wonder if there's any beef in our freezer? :)

Abby Breezy Bum

My Abby May is an adventure! If something shatters she is the first little person that pops into my head! Now Katie can do plenty of mischief but usually only as a follower, Abby is the criminal mastermind! Example: It never occured to Katie that crayons and markers could be used on anything except paper. The first time I gave Abby a crayon she decided walls, doors, toys, and herself were also great options to make pictures on! Katie tried it once and then was upset because the mark wouldn't come off the toy box while Abby loved that the marks were now permament!

So I really shouldn't have been surprised one morning when I found Abby in her bed, with no diaper in sight, sleeping on a puddle! Abby has decided that she is done with diapers! She takes them off almost as soon as I put them on no matter how much I punish her! I'll be doing the dishes and the little thing will run by giggling madly,unencumbered by her bulky diaper. Now her little bottom and chubby-wubby legs are extremly cute but the puddles she makes are not! Below is a picture of Abby from Saturday with no diaper in sight!

Abby has expressed an interest in the potty for the last couple of months but I had been putting off potty training. She's still so young that I didn't know if she would understand completely what she was suppossed to do, plus I feel disgusting since I am in the middle of terrible morning sickness! I really didn't relish the thought of sitting in th bathroom with her for hours on end! My nose has become as sensitive as a doggies and bathroom smells I really can't handle right now! I did do a trial run a couple weeks ago and set Abby on the little training potty and kept her there by reading her all the books in the house until she pottied. though she did go potty it kinda frightened her so I thought we'd wait until after our trip to Michigan in early May.

Apperantly Abby has decided to take matter in her own hands. She's decided to potty train herself whether I help her or not. Yesterday, she refused to wear a diaper and sat on her potty every fifteen mintues or so. She actaully made it to the potty twice, the other times she dribbled her way to the potty and had no more pee left to put in the potty which tramatized her greatly! She does not like peeing on herself!

So by mid-afternoon yesterday I gave up and let her run around with no diaper and helped her run to the potty whenever she said or shrieked "I potty!"! Abby has always done big motor skills early but I didn't think she'd beat Katie with potty training or that it could go better then it did with Katie who stayed dry overnight the second night of training and learned to go #2 in the potty the very first day and has never had a #2 accident and only half a dozen #1 accidents!

This morning I found my dear little daughter with no diaper on but her bed was dry! When I found the diaper it was dry too! Could it be this easy? Did my daugter just potty train herself in a day? Am I that lucky? Has God chosen to smile upon my poor nauseous existence? Are we going to have actaul spending money if we don't have to buy diapers? It's too much to take in! I'll hold back my joy until she lasts a week! Until then I'll sit back and enjoy watching my little breezy bum girl as she runs for the potty!

Baby Names by Katie

So the other day it occured to Katie that we should name the baby. Now if you know my Katie she generally names things for some physical attribute like "White-White" the doggie who has two white patches. I was really looking forward to what she would come up with but first we had to have a conversation about gender.

Whenever anyone asked Katie if she thought the baby was going to be a boy or a girl she would reply"Just a baby!". Apparently in Katie-land babies aren't boys or girls, just babies, until they reach the age of 2 or so and then become "big girls" or "big boys". When I asked her if Abby was a girl she looked unsure, then finally said "yes" but she didn't look convinced! So I explained to her that babies are boys and girls too. I mentioned the little baby at church who was a baby and a boy at the same time and little Bethany who was a baby and a girl too! She took this all in and thought about it for a few minutes before accepting the idea. Then we got back to discussing names.

I asked her whether she thought the baby was a boy or girl and she said "girl!" becasue she wanted another "Sisser"! So I asked her what girl name she thought would be nice for the baby. She exclaimed with great happiness "Katie Rose!" and then did her happy dance! I tried not to laugh and then told her, her name was very nice but the baby should probably have a new name so we could tell them apart. She accepted this and then fell into deep thought. After a moment she got a big smile and shouted "Lady Bug!" and then burst into a fit of giggles! That girl is obsessed! Lady Bug Mitchell. Hmmm...sounds like something a movie star would name their kid! Maybe she could be friends with Apple or Coco!