And MANY morrrrreeee!!

*ahem*

excellent singing skills, I know....

Today, is my very own special Mommys birthday!

I won't tell you how old she is, because, well, I guess when you become 'older and sophisticated', it's not polite to do so....whatever...

BUT you can stop here and ask her yourself, and while you are there, maybe wish her a happy happy day!

I love you so much momma and am so thankful for the special bond we share. You mean the world to me and I'm so lucky to be able to call you 'mom'. :)

Oh, and here's a little happy birthday wish from Liv: ffgjtggghjj jkll; lwerty 8iop[]ggxfcfvf!!

We love you NANA! :)

It's a bouncing baby.....

Kidney stone?!

Ugh....

Last Wednesday I woke up at 3 in the am to what mysteriously felt like labor pains. I woke up and tossed and turned for a good hour feeling that crampy feeling in my baby maker and lower back. Initially I figured, 'eh, it's just the baby growing again', because often times I get a little crampy when that happens.

It started to get a little worse over a short span of time, so bad that I could not sit let alone stand in one spot for long. I spent the next hour pacing the living room floor and leaning on the couch doing breathing exercises.

Then it hit me.

I suddenly had that 'I feel like I have to poop, but I know I really don't need to' feeling. Most women that have gone through labor know this can be a tell tale sign for the fact that yes, you are in labor. NOT a good sign for a pregnant gal who is a mere 18 weeks along....

I immediately called my doctor at 5:00am and woke her from her precious, comfortable, un-crampy slumber and described in detail what that last 2 hours had been feeling like. She told me she would be in the office at 7 and to just show up, but if it got worse, to go into the E.R. immediately. She explained that sometimes these can be signs of kidney infection or stones, or a good old bladder infection.

FABULOUS.

After getting off the phone and trudging back up to bed, I realized, this was in fact NOT getting better and I was scared. And in pain. And scared.

Nana came down to stay with Liv while John and I raced over to the E.R.

You know what my favorite thing in the E.R. is? The fact that they feel the need to ask you every question in the book right down to your preference over ketchup or mustard, while they know full well that you are a pregnant woman 18 weeks along who is experiencing incredibly real labor like feelings. I guess the deep breathing and tears and leaning on the desk with eyes clothes just didn't give them the sense of urgency I thought it would. Maybe next time I'll scream, 'WHY IN GODS NAME DO YOU CARE WHETHER I PREFER BOXERS OR BRIEFS? GIVE ME SOME FRICKIN DRUGS!!'.

Yes, I think that might get the job done.

Eventually I was hauled back to a room and was immediately given some wonderful pain meds via IV. Beautiful beautiful pain meds. I heart the pain meds.

We then heard the babys heart beat. I cried tears of joy. I don't think I realized how worried I was about it until we actually heard it. John had the biggest grin on his face. The baby was good.

They then wanted me to pee in a cup. Because of the fact that I had been on the toilet for the last 2 hours thinking I was needing to poo, I couldn't pee a decent amount of urine into that tiny sized cup to save my life, so while chug-a-luggin' on a nice big cup of water, they wheeled me down to the ultrasound tech to check on baby and take a peek at my sexy little bladder and kidneys.

No really, they were HOT.

After all was said and done, everything looked great and after seeing what appeared to be a small amount of fluid in my right kidney combined with the traces of blood that was in my urine that I was finally able to squeeze out, it was confirmed that yes, in fact, I had kidney stones.

*sigh*

I'm proud to say that by the next morning I was the proud mother of a precious little kidney stone. *grin* I felt like I should have named it or put a little bow on it's head. But instead I sent it on to the lab. Bummer. I had such high hopes for my little rock friend.

ANYHOO...back to the ultrasound. We got to see the baby. Not like a tadpole-ish looking blob taking up residence in my uterus, but an actual baby. We saw the precious profile. We saw feet and toes and fingers. We saw perfection.
Which got me thinkin'...if I can see toes and fingers, maybe she can see a wiener or a hoo-ha?? You better believe I harrassed her until she looked. Oh you better believe it.

She looked.

She knew.

We now know.

IT'S A GIRL!!

Another girl!!

Oh crap, I'm so friggin excited. Aside from the fact that this will save us so much money due to 9 18-gallon buckets of clothes I have of Olivias to pass down, aside from that, it just felt right-for us to have another girl.

John had been secretly half-crossing his fingers for a boy, because, well, what man DOESN'T want a little boy to rough around? But the second she told us to expect a girl, Johns face grinned wider than I had seen in a long time. That was so cool
He later told me the same thing-that it just seemed right for us to have another girl. Like it just fit perfect for us.

And he's right. Because he is SUCH a good dad to the little girl we already have, to think that I'm going to have two of the luckiest girlies in the world to have a daddy like him. *sigh*

My little teeny-bopper groupie

Livie and I are sitting here watching Oprah today. I was pumped about the segment on The Roloff family, because I secretly *LOVE* that show and heck, they are from Oregon, so shoot, doesn't that make ME famous in someway?? :)

Well, the last segment on the Oprah show today is The Jonas Brothers. The newest teen singing sensation. Evidently they are being compared in greatness to the Beatles.

Ish.

Well, they start singing this wave your arms in the air and cry kind of song and this is what I hear from Liv sitting next to me on the couch:

"*sigh* He's really good.....I think he likes me."

Ummm...WHAT?!?

Thats my girl!

You know you are watching entirely too much T.V. during the day when you catch your 3-year-old singing along to the carpet store commercial song....AND the bedroom furniture store commercial song....OR when she hears a song on a commercial that she recognizes from her dads guitar hero game and she begins strumming her air guitar and rocking her head up and down, like, HARDCORE....

I guess I could just say we are just supporting her musical skills for when she joins the opera or becomes a one-woman band later in life?

Yes. I'll stick with that excuse....

A precious baby

My heart is hurting so bad for my dear Katie friend and her family who just recently gave birth to their precious son Henry. You can read more about it here, but the gist of it is, he had some difficulty breathing shortly after being born on Friday and is continuing to have a hard time.
I have come to appreciate Katie and the awesome bloggy friendship we share. She's such a wonderful mommy.
I can't imagine how scary that would be for a momma to witness this with her precious baby, but as I told Katie, God has him wrapped in his arms and is continuing to stick by their side through the scary stuff.
Please as you think of it pray for this sweet family during this scary time, pray that they will be surrounded by a true peace.

Love you Katie girl :)

The proof is in the puddin'...

Here they are, you know, those pics I promised in the last post, but didn't deliver on...

The before shot:



A few action shots:




Side view of the finished product:



TA-DA!

Somewhat of a 'hairy' situation

I've been avoiding this post. I needed time to 'think about' what I've done.

I committed a horrible crime.

In fact, I'm certain some may say it could be a form of child abuse.

I, Abbie, cut my daughters beautiful hair. On purpose. Into a short bob.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. And there is no mistaking that SHE and everyone who has seen it loves it.

I'm just dealing now with the fact that I have cut those precious curls which at one time took up residence on my babys mostly bald head. Her very first hair. I cut it. Off.

*sigh*

I had been dealing with wanting to do this for some time. It was just getting so scraggly and if we missed a day or two of washing it, you would swear a rat had begun paying rent somewhere in that mess of a nest.
So, Monday night I headed over to my moms house (for moral support of course) and amidst tears (mine) I began hacking away.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I actually layed awake in bed most of that night begging for forgiveness from the hair gods and trying to ward off panic attacks at the atrocity that had occurred earlier in the evening. I was SICK at what I had done.

Now I'm better and can't get over how absolutely freaking darling she looks with her new 'do' and how well it brings out her sassy little personality!

*note: hair gods, if you are listening, I DID save a few curls in a plastic baggy. I felt kinda creepy weeping and digging through a pile of a small childs hair, but I did it so you wouldn't curse me early with something awful like bald chunks or thinking that blue hair would be cool well before I'm ready for it. Thank you.*

AWWW CRAP. Blogger won't let me upload the pictures right now. I'll try again a little later!

Wait, what?? Was that SUNSHINE?!

Rain Rain go away
Come again another day (Or never for that matter)
Little Livie wants to play (And mommy wants her out of this house)
Rain Rain go away

This 'Spring' if thats what you want to call it, has been a tad bi-polarish, if you will.
We started the Spring with snow. SNOW! Did you all get that?! We didn't even hardly freaking get a flake of the stuff this Winter!
Then, all of the sudden, last weekend, the skies parted and...BAM!! 80 weather. I didn't stick around for more than a day before the rains came, yet again, but it WAS here!

I HEART WARM WEATHER. Why in heavens name we ever left Vegas, I will never know.

So we (I) took major advantage of the beautiful weather and forced Livie to play in the Sprinkler.

Evidently she's not much of a sprinkler gal.

She would much rather just stand around and look good in her cute polka dot suit.

Eh, who could blame her. She WAS pretty darn cute:

Happy Birthday!!

Carter, who had the privilege of making me an auntie for the very first time exactly 1 year ago, celebrated his birthday today. We actually celebrated with a big family party yesterday, but today he is officially the big 1!!

Yesterday he celebrated in style by planting his very first kiss on none other than...ME!! I felt so honored. *sigh*

I love you Carter, and I never could have imagined how much joy it brings to be an aunt! Especially to a kid as freaking great as you are!

You've got a friend in me!

This is SO WAY overdue, but last week, I got this incredibly touching and totally AWESOME bloggy award from my Katie-girl!

It meant so much to me because I received it on a day where I was feeling particularly down. My little Katie friend has seemed to really sense those down moments with me lately-even just via internet-and she has been a huge blessing to me.

So thank you my dear pregnant buddy!

I would love love love to pass this sweet award on to Jenny and Kim.

Both of these awesome ladies are the greatest little bloggy friends a girl could find.
Each of them never fail to keep a smile on my face and I hope to be just like them when I grow up-because they are SO much older than me. Like WAY older.

HAHAHAHHAHA Oh, I kid.

The chicken, or the egg??

Ok, I may lose a few readers over this, but here goes:

I'm generally a pretty smart gal. I know my stuff. Most of the time. However, I'm completely baffled by this:

Do chickens have sex??

I have never seen a chicken doing the nasty, of course it's not like I'm out LOOKING for freaky chickens, but still.

How do those darn eggs get in those chickens??

I know I could have googled this Very Important Question, but I thought I would ask you, my genius readers, because y'all look like an extremely educated bunch.

Oh, and I forgive you if you think I'm ridiculously stupid. It's worth the risk of finding out the answer to this question that has been plaguing my mind.

I'm just cool and willing to sacrifice like that.

Schools out....forever!!

I've been tagged for a meme by my darling friend Carey.

I was never, oh how should I say this, academically advanced in school, but let me tell ya, if they would have graded purely on being a little social butterfly, I would have rocked the 4.0 without a doubt. :)

5 classes I wish they would've taught in school:

1. The art of using the 15 item and under line at the grocery store.
C'mon people: IT'S NOT THAT FRIGGIN HARD!! Count the dang items in your cart. If you can't count, get someone to do it for you. Just don't let that someone be me, I'm obviously in this line for a reason, I'M IN A HURRY.

2. How to birth a child painlessly
Enough said.

3. Make up application 101
FYI: that orange line under your jaw line?? NOT PRETTY. Learn how to blend ladies, just learn how to blend.

4. Geometry. Algebra. All Math.
Oh wait. They did teach that in school? Oh. Nevermind. Did I mention I was really good at the whole social thing??

5. How to end sales calls: FOREVER!
I'm pretty sure that calling me 5 or 6 times a day (no joke) to inform me via automated message that my car warranty is about to expire (which it's not) isn't going to get to me to give you all my god forsaken personal information thankyouverymuch.

So-called peer pressure

It went something like this:

Livie: 'whew! Mom, lick my finger! It's really sour!'

Me: 'Um, no, I really don't want to lick your finger.'

Livie: 'Cmon! It's sour! You'll really really like it!'

Me: 'I really don't feel like licking your finger, Liv, but thanks anyway...'

Livie: 'Ooh! Ok, then smell my feet! (says this as she proceeds to stick her foot up in the air)

Me: 'Ew! Why?'

Livie: 'Cuz, they're really really stinky! Smell em!!'

Me: 'Gross, Olivia! I'm not going to smell your feet!'

Livie: 'But, whyyyyy??'

Me: 'Because I don't really like to smell stinky feet. No, I'm not going to smell your feet, thats disgusting.'

Livie: (in TOTAL teenager fashion) 'UGHHHH! Fine...'

Wow. Seriously, who's child is this??

You ready for this?

Are you sure??



Ok, here it is....


Don't say I didn't warn you....


BAM!!



15 weeks, people. 15 weeks, and showing NO sign of slowing down....
*sigh*

Just an uppity update of sorts.....

For those of you who are as mathematically retarded as I am, I thought I would translate my little countdown baby on the side of my blog page for you:
One hundred and seventy-some days until the baby comes means I'm now 15 weeks along! *whew*

For as much time that has passed since I first discovered I was 'knocked up', I'm certain I should be like 13 months along by now. WAY overdue.

Many of you have asked how I'm feeling...and I gotta tell ya, as soon as that 12 or 13 weeks hit, I miraculously felt quite a bit of the pukiness subside! I'm still UN-FREAKIN-BELIEVABLY tired 24/7, but I'll take that over being best friends with the porcelain god ANYDAY! I'm fortunate enough that Liv is still young enough that she takes naps daily and any genius knows that Livie taking naps=Mommy takes naps. I tend to still feel a bit yucky in the late afternoon/evening, but it's SO much better than it was.

In other news on the home front: My jubblies are still growing at rapid speed. God loves me.
My stomach on the other hand has seemed to pause right at that 'oh, is she chubby or pregnant?' stage. God laughs at me.

Speaking of knockers: I'm going to tell you a humiliating story, which is one of those that I now can look back on and laugh about. YES, those kinds of stories really DO exist!!

I believe it was about a month or two after Liv was born that I decided to don a halter top and skirt and take her down to the pool at our apartment for some nice relaxation in the summer shade. We both enjoyed being outside for a time but then that paranoid 'I'm going to suffocate my baby in this heat' fear came over me, so we packed up and headed back to the car, but not before stopping by the office to drop our rent check off and show off 'the new baby'. We stayed and chatted with the nice office ladies for quite sometime, then said our goodbyes and made our way back to the car.
Now, let me share this little side note before I continue with my story: I never breastfed Olivia. It was just a personal choice I made: I just didn't want to, and I have not regretted it since. Well, apparently your boobilies don't just 'shut off' all production EVEN AFTER TWO FREAKING MONTHS. APPARENTLY my knockers were pissed off at said decision that I had made regarding not breast feeding and decided to play a cruel, cruel joke on me.
So, here we are wandering back to the car and I stop to unlock the car door and happen to glance at myself in window, and *GASP!!* I had a GIANT wet spot RIGHT on my left knocker!!!

OMG.

I guess I should clarify that it was no longer wet but a dried wet outline on my shirt which meant that it had been there the ENTIRE time I was talking to those delightfully child-free office ladies.

*sigh*

And so motherhood reared it's ugly head at me quite early on, and has not relented in other ways since....