"Firecracker" is definitely an appropriate description of our little Abigail as of late. She is toddling around a lot more these days. We don't see the 'Abby scoot' around the house as much - well, at least from Abby. Rachael has taken to the scoot, so we see it from her now (sigh). Abby has also figured out how to climb onto the stepstool in the bathroom so she can play with the water in the sink. She can push the button and open the dishwasher. I'll walk into the kitchen and see her playing with dirty silverware, just as casual as can be. And her assaults on the trash can continue. We call her our Dumpster Diva. Although this week she also figured out how to open the toilet lids with one hand, and throw things in the toilet with the other, so she now has a competing obsession. She is pretty smart and pretty strong-willed. If you ask her about going outside, she will walk to the door, and then come back and fuss at you if you do not proceed in a timely fashion.

Her male sibling counterpart, Joshua, has been busy as well this week. He's decided he likes the feel of dirt on mommy & daddy's sheets, so he goes outside, grabs handfuls of dirt, then runs into the house and dumps it all on our bed. Little pigpen then congratulates himself by rolling around in the dirt covered sheets. He has also developed a toilet obsession. He always want to play in the little pool or with the slip-in-slide in the backyard. And if you don't honor his requests for water play, he finds alternatives - one being the toilets. On Monday he also found a bowl of jello that had not set in the fridge, and decided to bathe in jello. He was streaked with red the rest of the day. He is also loving his popsicles, and opens the freezer constantly to make a grab. One day most of the items in the freezer had defrosted thanks to Joshua's continued assaults (sigh).

Jacob is just being Jacob. He'll be watching a good movie on tv, and will roar at all the other kids if they even think of coming into his vicinity. Then we turn the movie off, and he roars more. He's decided summer school is not for him - he'd rather be at home watching movies. But when he's not going to school he's bored, bored, bored. Kinda like all kids, I guess.

Rachael really enjoys picking out books at the library. She has one in her hands now. Lately, she will sit by me, touch my tummy, and say "mommy's baby."

..gotta go. Joshua is launching another full-scale assault on the fridge..

Lil' Firecracker, Ladybug girls, and Ham

Pictures of pool party (with pj's on), Appalachian baby, and Guess who the girls are smiling at? Their daddy!

As I type, I am watching Abby climb up the brick step at the base of the fireplace, then use the step as a booster to climb into the chair next to the tv. She's also walking more around the house. You can pretty much tell when she's walking, even if she's not in your line of vision, because she starts squealing. She's quite proud of herself. We are supposed to have a cool front tomorrow - rain/storms and high of 88. The paper today said that so far we are having the warmest temps in the past century, and summer starts Wednesday!

Saw the baby yesterday on the sonogram. I don't have any good pics to share because it was moving around like crazy. Deren can already feel it kick when he touches my stomach. It's fun to have an active baby. All it usually takes is a popsicle and it's doing sommersaults. I told Dr. Bass that Deren would kill me if I found out the sex of the baby, so she's not to tell me anything. She gave me a funny look and said "Is Deren okay?" I laughed and told her that Deren just loves surprises, and especially with this being our tie-breaker baby, it will be a neat surprise. Everything looks good with the baby - it's measuring on target.

With the warmer weather Joshua and Jacob have been loving popsicles. Joshua opens the fridge an average of every 5-10 mins to beg for a popsicle. Won't sign for it, of course, just tries to grab and run. We're teaching both boys the sign for popsicle, but Joshua's motto has always been 'why should I sign when I can take!'

Rachael has a new word in her vocabulary - library. Abby likes the library, too. She'll go to the door to the garage and pat on it because she wants to get in the car to go to the library. It's so cute to see them enjoy it so much.

I told Deren I've had my last grocery shopping trip with Rachael. I am not a fan of grocery shopping, and what should have been a 1/2 hour trip today extended 1 1/2 hours. It was misery. Every 2 ft "mommy, another grape" or a full-scale attack on the cookie/juice/cereal aisle. She wasn't horrible or anything, I just wanted out of that store! We got home minutes before the boys' bus arrived. By the time I finished with lunch, grocery, and dishwasher unloading it was close to 3pm. I sat on the couch to be woken up a couple minutes later by Abby's cackling - she was sitting on the chair by the fireplace by herself and as proud of herself as can be. Oh, she is Joshua's little sissy, alright!

I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. For the meatballs I chopped up green bell pepper, onions, and garlic. I put 2 roma tomatoes in the food processor. I added 2 tsp of parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp of salt and black pepper, and my ground beef. They were pretty good. Hopefully no heartburn tonight (crossing fingers).

I know most people do a daily blog, but let's face it - I'm tired! (insert whiny voice) . Typing, and thinking about something to type, requires too much energy on most days. I've been getting up before 6 each morning to take a walk before the sun comes up - it is really hot - in the mid to upper 90's most days lately. And the boys' bus arrives at 7:20, so I need to be back in time to help Deren get the boys out the door.

Rachael is adjusting to not being in school. I've been taking her & Abby to story time at the library twice a week, and she enjoys it. She also likes to pick out books. I'm pretty impressed with her. I can look at rows of books and not see anything particularly interesting. Rachael can look at the same rows and pick out some great books. I keep Abby in the stroller, because otherwise wild child will try to pull everything she can off the shelves.

Speaking of wild child.. some of her latest accomplishments include: climbing up the slide and going back down on her own, figuring out the buttons on the dishwasher and the answering machine. She is quite a handful. Whenever she's outside she makes a bee line for the dirt and any standing water. Sort of/kind of/exactly like her big brother Joshua. And she can create trouble like you wouldn't believe! We're thinking she may be even more of a challenge than Joshua! Needless to say, she is getting quite tired of hearing the word "no!" throughout the day.

Rachael Mae is still bossing and ordering everyone around.

The boys get home from school after 12. Then they each work with an ABA therapists for 1 1/2 Mon-Thurs. Both are doing well, and both are testing the limits with the therapist. Maria & I are taking Jacob on weekly field trips. He came so close to getting a dvd at Target yesterday, then through a tantrum at the cash register. So no movie - poor Jacob.

Deren took Jacob and Rachael to the local movie/grill to see Cars last Saturday. He said both the kids were so enthralled with the movie that he fed them bite by bite like babies because they wouldn't take their attention away from the movie. McDonald's has Cars' toys in the Happy Meals, so we will be visiting the golden arches quite a bit over the next couple weeks.

I have a doctor's appt tomorrow morning. I'll be 21 wks, and expect to have a sono, but will not find out boy/girl! Dr. Bass let it 'slip' last time, and I'm going to beg her to not this time around - we both are looking forward to our surprise baby in October!

Wow! Just saw it's been awhile since I've posted. May was a bit hectic. Well, all months are kinda hectic here. I guess with me feeling lazy was added to the picture the posts just didn't happen.

Abby went to the doctor of her 1 yr check-up on May 10th. The doctor was pleased with the gains in her weight (18 lbs 7 oz), height (30") and strength. We went to the lab for her re-tests afterwards. The following Monday we got the results - Abby's alkaline phosphatase levels were completely normal. They are now attributing all the abnormal levels from Feb to the rotavirus she had - nasty bug (grumble grumble).

The boys & Rachael finished school last week. They are all a bit confused. Rachael keeps asking for her backpack and the bus. Joshua, at first blush, is enjoying sleeping in. But he is later completely out of sorts from the lack of routine and boredom. Jacob is in tantrum heaven. He asks for a movie, then it's not the right one, then it's not on the right tv, then it's not on the right player on the tv, then he changes his mind and wants another movie, then I say "Forget it," and walk away (process repeats approx every 1/2 - 1 hr during the day).

The boys did break up the monotony by breaking out with head to toe rashes. Turns out they have Fifth disease. I had to go to the OB and get my blood drawn to test for antibodies, since Fifth disease can be dangerous to fetuses. No worry there.. (sarcasm inserted). I heard back from the doctor 4 long days later - I have antibodies, so the baby should be protected. The great (once again, sarcasm inserted) thing about Fifth disease is most people don't know they have the virus until they break out with the rash, which usually starts on the cheeks. And by then they are no longer contagious - they've already unknowingly spread their 'love.' So we're still watching and waiting with the girls. The rash appears about 2 wks after they've contracted the virus, so it will be about mid-June before we know.

Other than that, we're passing around much-more-mundane bugs this week, a cold and a mild stomach bug. Deren and I are starting to wonder if we'll again see the day when all of us are healthy at the same time.

My mom called the Thursday before Memorial Day and said she needed to hug some babies, and wanted to come visit. So Mamaw and Papaw joined us for the holiday weekend. They didn't balk at the rashes (and man, did the boys look bad!). They chased, tickled, hugged, and (even better, in the boys' minds) filled the inflatable pool up with water each day. Rachael has become our in-house princess. She likes to go outside and supervise her subjects "No splash, Jacob, No splash, Josh!" And woe to the subject who errantly splashes the princess! Abby, on the other hand, competes with Joshua for Pigpen status. They both love the water and the mud. We had a really nice visit. Hopefully my parents would agree, although between babysitting and yardwork they worked like dogs.

And FINALLY, I wanted give everyone an up-to-the-minute update on Abby. She started taking some steps (on her own, sans push-toys) TODAY! Of course, she does everything in front of daddy first. She just loves her daddy! Every morning it's, "bye bye dadda!" She really lives up to her namesake, 'father's joy.' Last week she had another weight check. She's now 19 lbs. Another pound or two and she'll be in forward-facing seat! Which is good, because she's getting pretty cramped in her rear-facing seat. Both the OT and nutritionist from ECI have been thrilled with her progress. It's been such a blessing to watch her!

Oh, and one more exciting event today! Mr. Jacob started jumping with both feet in the air while watching a Little Einstein video. He's been trying to jump for years now, so it's really an exciting accomplishment. He seems to be really proud of himself. And Abby started saying "want Rocket" for the Little Einstein videos, today, too. My cute babes!