Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Welcome Baby Ellie!

Congrats Dave, Carolyn, and Quinn!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Abby's back... and better than ever!

Thank you all so much for all your concern and prayers for little Abby. She's officially back and business and actually a little bit better. Abby is naturally a very sweet, happy, and funny little girl but for some reason ever since the hospital Abby has given us an extra dose of sweetness and good behavior. She's started giving us more kisses, lets Mike brush her teeth, eats well, etc. This extra good behavior reached a climax on Friday night.

We have a weekly babysitting exchange and it was our turn to tend two other babies on Friday evening. We were bracing ourselves for a pretty crazy couples of hours, only to be greeted by almost 2 hours of complete silence! One of the boys, Matthew, was completely silent and still the whole time as long as Mike held him (which he did). The other little girl, Grace, is a very well behaved little girl and she just crawled around. Then, there's the X-factor, Abby. I have no clue how or why this happened, but Abby got one of her little books, sat down, and "read" it for OVER AN HOUR! If you know Abby, this is nothing short of a miracle. She just sat there, flipping the pages back and forth, saying a little phrase each time she turned the page. We just sat there in awe. Mike video taped her for like 2 minutes because he couldn't believe it (listen to the inflection in her voice when she reads).

Also, Abby has started to admit when she goes "poo poo" so we decided we should warm her up to the idea of the potty. She's getting there. Watch and enjoy.


Thursday, January 15, 2009

Monday, January 5, 2009

Startin' off the New Year with a Bang!

Well we've had an interesting weekend. Poor little Abby woke up saturday with a high fever, vomiting, and rapid breathing. This scared us pretty bad so we took her to urgent care where we were told she had pneumonia and needed to be admitted to the hospital. So we took her there and the poor little thing had to have an IV in her hand, oxygen in her nose, and an oxygen detector on her foot. Her new nickname is Tubes! She did surprisingly well, with all the tubes in her. However she cried and screamed whenever a nurse or doctor came in. We were supposed to fly home to houston this morning, but they didn't discharge her till this evening so we'll try to get home in the next day or two. She's doing better now, but still will have a while to fully recover.

Mike figures he held Abby for around 8 hours on Saturday. This was around hour 4 or 5.


One of the few things Abby liked to drink during the whole ordeal was "funny juice". She was both repulsed by and strangely attracted to its new tingly sensation.


There were a few positives that came about during the whole experience. Abby gave Mom and Dad some major cuddle-time and Jilly got a sassy new haircut.


Rocking little Tubes to sleep didn't leave much time for Mike to shave his overgrown lumberjack beard. Not sure if this is day 1, 2, or 3. Kind of hard to tell when you wear the same clothes. I guess judging by the greasiness of Mike's hair we're still only looking at day 1.


Abby waves with her little splinted iv hand.


In the last month or so Abby's vocabulary has rapidly expanded, but there are a few words that for some reason or another she simply refuses to say. "Elmo" was one of those words. That is until she came to the hospital. With her tired droopy eyes looking up at us she would reach up her little splinted hand and faintly cry out "Elmo, Elmo", hoping that maybe her furry red friend would have the power and benevolence to save her from her current state of misery. Thank goodness for Elmo.


It takes more than an IV, a splint, and a couple of tubes to stop Buggies from meticulously stacking her blocks. Abby 1, pneumonia 0.


Not exactly the modeling picture we were thinking on sending to Gerber. Our darling Abby has definitely stuck better poses.


Abby is but a few hours from being released. She assures us she is in good spirits with a thumbs up as she watches Elmo and eats fries. Life is good.




If this video doesn't absolutely yank at your heart strings, you have no heart with strings to yank. Poor little Abby.

And finally: Thank heavens for good insurance!