Five And Two

I have been thinking about reviving this blog for awhile now but have struggled with where to start. Instead of reliving the past 5 years, I have decided to just pick up from where we are right now.

As I write this Abigail is 5, of course she would be mad if she knew I told you that because according to her she is "5 and a half". She is in kindergarten this year and doing VERY well there. She is also taking pre-ballet dance class every week on Wednesday and also is in faith formation classes at our church, St. Theresa's on the same night. Wednesday's are busy.

Abigail just finished up her first season of basketball and she had a lot of fun. She had really great coaches and improved a lot from start to finish. I was very glad that she enjoyed basketball and not so secretly hope that she doesn't lose her passion for it anytime soon.

Abigail playing some good defense

Bridget is 2 and oh my goodness is she a busy body. She has a fantastic vocabulary for her age and loves to read books (or should I say have them read to her). She is also very fast and very daring, which is often not a good combination. She was given the nick name "Dozer", short for bulldozer, at daycare when she was quite young because she runs over anything that gets in her way.

Coming off of a year that involved taking a picture of Bridget every day for a Picture-a-day scrap book that my wife is making, we have been taking it easy on pictures for the last month. Just last week she finally started showing interest in smiling for the camera again.

We made a snowman without getting cold

Our life is far from perfect, and I am certainly not the best dad in the world, but this is our life and I wouldn't have it any other way. Many days, it feels like success to just get everyone through alive and in one piece, but there are so many great and happy moments mixed in.

If you are still with me, my guarantee to you is that I won't sugar coat any of it. I will share the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows as they happen. Enjoy!

Happy 1st Birthday Abigail

I can't believe it! We have made it 1 year and everyone has survived!

The last 2 months have been busy as usual. On March 16, we closed on our new property and I have spent 3 weekends since then down there with my parents working to fix up the cabin and prep the land for hunting.

On St. Patrick's Day weekend, Erin and Abigail traveled to her parent's house. They went to the parade and spent time at the park. Abigail got her first chance at swinging in a baby swing and loved it!

The weekend of March 31 - April 1, Erin's parents came to visit for Jessica's birthday. Abigail did a great job when we ate out at a deli on Saturday and as always, enjoyed all of the attention she got.

On Easter weekend, my sister, Melissa, and her kids came for a visit and we did an Easter egg hunt in the living room (it was too rainy to go outside). Abigail loved playing with her cousins, especially sharing her ball popper with Brycen.

On April, 21, we had Abigail's 1st birthday party. Once again, she loved all of the attention and enjoyed opening all of the presents and cards. So far, it seems that her favorite presents are the sunglasses from grandma and grandpa Weiler and the pillow and blanket that came with the doll bed from grandma and grandpa O'Connell. She tried pear salad for the 1st time at lunch and despite my hopes that she wouldn't like it (so there would be more for me), she loved it. She didn't seem to care too much for the cake, although she did lick some of the frosting, and wasn't interested in making a mess of it either (which I think disappointed both grandmas).

On Saturday, April 28, we took a day trip to Iowa City for my cousin, Mathew's, wedding. It was a good time and Abigail did great! She slept on the way there and the way home. She was a little noisy during the ceremony, but nothing that a little walking around at the back of church couldn't fix. She didn't want to take a nap between the wedding and reception, but that ended up being ok as she did great at the reception. She ate 2 dinner rolls on top of her normal dinner food and some of the fruit that came with the kids meal. Her cousins kept her entertained until we left for home.

On her birthday, we let her sleep in and wear her PJ's around all day. Her 1 year old pictures were scheduled for 4 and even though the photographer was running behind, Abigail was very patient and did great for her pictures. She got a treat, some graham crackers from her Easter basket from G&G O'Connell, for dinner and loved it! She got to Skype with both sets of grandparents and great grandma Engelmann called to sing her happy birthday. We will be going out to eat with my brother Paul, and his family this Friday to celebrate Abigail's birthday as well. She is such a special little girl.

Here are a few of the things that Abigail has started doing since my last post. She is feeding herself finger foods very well and we have started having her eat most of the items that are provided for lunch at daycare. She started drinking whole milk and is a champ at drinking from a sippy cup on her own. Just yesterday (her birthday), she decided that she can hold her own bottle, just in time for us to be done with them. She is crawling as well as going between crawling and sitting up on her own. She can pull up to standing against an object. She likes to walk around on her knees using any toy or box as a "walker". She is going through a phase right now where she is tries to bite us. She has started giving us kisses. I'm sure there is much more, but that is all I can think of right now.

My favorite things right now are her laugh (which I can get out of her pretty much whenever I want) and when I pick her up from daycare each day. As soon as she sees me in the doorway of her room, she gets so excited and if she is playing, she will crawl as fast as she can over to me. I love that little girl!

Scooting Along

As always, a lot has changed since my last post. For starters, Erin and I put an offer in on a 26 acre property with a cabin on it located near Ottumwa, IA and it was accepted. We should be closing on the property in the next few weeks. I look forward to having a place for Abigail to go to experience nature as she grew up. For me, it was Grandma and Grandpa Zobeck's farm when I was young and uncle Bruce's farm as I got older. I hope that she will have even more great memories then I have.

We have spent a lot of time at home over the past couple of months, but time still seems to be flying by. Erin's parents came for a visit the first weekend of February to celebrate Erin's birthday and they ended up staying to watch the Super Bowl as well. Abigail take her 2nd trip to a restaurant that weekend (Rock Bottom Brewery) and did very well sitting in the high chair with us at the table.

At the beginning of February, Abigail came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth virus. What a nasty illness that is, sores all over her body as well as in her mouth and throat. It hurt so much to swallow that drool would run out of her mouth at an alarming rate. Erin and I took turns staying home with her that week and for the most part she was a trooper and gave us plenty of smiles and giggles between all of the sleeping that she was doing.

Abigail and I enjoyed several days together by ourselves as Erin had conferences in mid-February and spent all day the following Saturday at a scrap booking retreat. Unfortunately, Abigail had some sort of stomach bug that was causing her to projectile vomit on occasion that week. It got to the point that I was nearly afraid to feed her at all. Luckily, that passed after about 4 days and many rolls of paper towels later. Yuck!

The last weekend in February we made a trip to my parent's house in Evansdale. Erin was having a girls weekend with my high school friends and we got our taxes taken care of. I also did some shopping with dad for some items we need for the land/cabin. Abigail did great showing Grandma and Grandpa all her new "tricks" and of course did her best to get at everything she shouldn't.

This past weekend, I worked in the garage on building a toy box for Abigail to give to her for her 1st birthday. So far it has turned out great! I just have to complete the staining and put on a couple of coats of polyurethane and it will be finished. It is a large toy box, 36" X 20" X 20" so hopefully it will hold most of her toys for awhile.

Abigail has made some big strides over the past couple of months. She started with being able to scoot backwards while on her belly (but she still can't go forwards). She then figured out how to scoot around on her bottom using just her legs. Now she is on the go all of the time and we have to block her in whatever room we want her to be in. She is doing well standing while holding onto things (i.e. the recliner, couch, etc) and is starting to try to pull herself up. Ironically, she now does not like to lay on her back at all and immediately rolls to her tummy. Her favorite sleeping position is on her tummy, up on her knees with her arms tucked under her.
Just in the past week or so, she has started to get up on her knees while on her tummy and rock back and forth  so I think crawling is not too far in her future.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Abigail had a great 9 month well baby visit at the doctor. I don't remember the exact measurements off the top of my head, but she has gone from 13% to 31% in weight and 1% to 30% in height as well as 30% to 63% in head circumference. The doctor is very pleased!

The Holidays

I know, I know, it has been a looooong time since my last post. For the last few months, I have been working on a very critical project at work that has included a lot of stress and no free time so I just haven't gotten around to posting another blog entry.

For starters, A LOT has happened since my last post but I will still try to keep this as short as possible. For starters, we celebrated Thanksgiving at our house this year. My mom and dad came down for a long weekend and my sister Brenda and her family stopped in to celebrate with us on Thanksgiving day. We had a great time and I really enjoyed getting to cook my 1st Thanksgiving meal. 

The following weekend, Abigail and I headed to Waukon, IA to stay at my Grandma and Grandpa Zobeck's house for deer hunting. My mom watched Abigail while we hunted and Abigail did very well. Grandma and Grandpa really enjoyed getting to spend a few days with her and she just seems to be the life of the party wherever we go. I think Erin had a hard time with being away from Abigail for so long, but it all worked out and she was very excited to have us come home the following Wednesday. As for me, it was a great experience that built up my confidence in travelling with Abigail. She did so well sleeping and being happy in new surroundings.

Erin's parents came to our house for the 2nd weekend of December to work on stuff for Grandma Engelmann's 80th birthday party the following weekend. I cooked a ham with cheesy potatoes on Sunday for a big meal and a good time was had by all. 

The 3rd weekend of December, we traveled to Bettendorf to celebrate Christmas with Erin's family on Saturday and Grandma Engelmann's 80th birthday on Sunday. We some how managed to cram Erin, Abigail, Hunter, me, and all of our belongings and Christmas presents into the Corolla for the weekend. Once again, Abigail did great and the weekend was fun. She didn't quite figure out the whole unwrapping presents "thing", but she really liked to pull the tissue paper out of gift bags and play with the boxes. The one thing I learned from this weekend is how different the holiday's are with kids. I'm not saying it was bad at all, but there is a lot of stress added to the situation and there seemed to be little time to sit down to relax and enjoy the time with family. 

For Christmas weekend, we stayed home and it was awesome. On the Thursday before Christmas, we took Abigail to see Santa at Bass Pro and she really enjoyed it. Abigail got a little better at opening her presents too. We made a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas eve and attended 4:00pm mass, something that I will never do again. Mass was crowded and we actually had to sit in the hallway, although we were lucky because a lot of people had to stand. I think next year we will check out 7:30am mass on Christmas morning. 

My sister, Brenda, and her family stopped by for lunch on the Monday after Christmas and we got to see how well their baby girl is scooting around on the floor. On Friday, we had my brother, Paul, and his family over for dinner. I made burgers, using the new burger press that Erin got me for Christmas, french fries and corn. We had a great time with them and their 2 kids really enjoyed playing with Abigail. I played a few rounds of Uno with the kids as well.

For New Years weekend we headed to my parent's house to celebrate Christmas. We had planned to have Lori Reynolds and her family stop over for a visit, but an illness in their family put an end to that idea. Instead, dad and I spent Saturday grinding deer meat and we made it to mass Saturday evening in Gilbertville. After mass, we ran into my youth minister from high school and her family so they were able to meet Abigail for the 1st time. On Sunday, my sister, Melissa, and her family came to celebrate Christmas with us. We spent the day eating, playing, opening presents, laughing, and having a great time. With no set schedule, and no where to be, the day was very fun and relaxing. The kids were a joy to watch playing and, as always, it was great to spend time with Melissa and her husband, Mike. 

As you can guess, Abigail is doing a lot of new things since the last time I posted. Abigail can now roll over both directions. She is saying both "mamamama" and "dadadada" along with A LOT of other noises. She can reach really far to get at a toy or other object that she is interested in. She really likes playing with the rattle balls that Grandma and Grandpa Weiler got her for Christmas. She can scoot in a circle on her butt and on her tummy. She isn't crawling yet and shows little interest in remaining on her tummy for very long now that she can roll over whenever she wants. She is drinking well from a sippy cup and is now eating 2 meals a day along with her bottles (fruit or veggie for lunch and fruit and veggie for dinner). She can wave hi/bye, do "so big", clap, and give a high five. She giggles and smiles a lot, but still has her crabby moments when she is getting tired. She likes being startled and playing peek-a-boo and she really likes being bounced, jiggled, and thrown around. I have started taking Abigail grocery shopping with me each week and she does a really good job, I think there is so much for her to look at that she is just in awe. I'm sure the ease of shopping will not last as soon as she becomes more mobile. 

I can't believe that she is closing in on 9 months old, in fact, Erin and I were already discussing plans for her 1st birthday. Time is flying by, but we are having a lot of fun!

Difficult Month with A LOT of Change

So it has been quite some time since I last posted. This has nothing to do with how Abigail is doing and everything to do with Erin and I being sick. During the month of October, there was not a single day that one of us was sick and several where both of us were. During this same time, Abigail got by with just a little cold. Erin and I are both in agreement that we have no idea how someone could manage to be a single parent, that would seem to be an impossible amount of work and would require and endless amount of energy.

Luckily, we are on the mend now (for the most part) and Abigail has been making some huge strides in development. The second weekend of October, we traveled to Evansdale for UNI Homecoming. Abigail spent time with Grandma and Grandpa O'Connell playing in the leaves while Erin and I went to the game and out to dinner.

Grandma and Grandpa Weiler visited the following weekend and Abigail got to experience the Des Moines farmer's market and Arcadia in Ames (a little cafe that a friend of Erin's owns). Then on October 22 - 23 we headed to Kansas City. We spent part of Saturday visiting my sister Brenda, her husband John, and their daughter (who is only 6 days older then Abigail), Jocelyn. Then we spent the night at John and Susan's house (Erin's Aunt and Uncle) before heading home on Sunday. Abigail did great and traveled well.

After returning home from KC, Abigail had rice cereal for the 1st time and loved it. She has now moved on to 2 meals a day that include rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, squash, or carrots and she is such a good eater.

The 1st week of November was a busy one as Abigail had 6 month pictures taken at Sears on November 1st, then had her 6 month well baby checkup on the 2nd. Both went very well. At her 6 month appointment she was 23 3/4 inches long and weighed 14.1 lbs. The doctor is starting to get a bit concerned about her weight, so we have started to add rice cereal to all of Abigail's bottles to add calories. She also switched her off of Zantac for infant reflux to Previcid which seems to be helping even more as her spitting up has nearly disappeared.

A lot has happened over the last month in the way of development. Abigail is now sitting up completely unsupported and playing with toys. When put on her back, she will roll back and forth from side to side but won't quite roll over yet. She has rolled over a couple of times from her tummy to her back but doesn't do it very often. She can pass toys from one hand to the other and has figured out that if a toy is out of her reach, she can pull the blanket she is on to move it closer to her. Most of her time is spent laughing, smiling, and more recently screeching. One week during October, she enjoyed sticking out her tongue and spitting...nothing like getting a baby spit shower in the afternoon! Of course, everything is a chew toy right now, her favorite being her fists. She loves to play with her feet but surprisingly doesn't put them in her mouth.

I am really starting to look forward to the holidays and Abigail experiencing so many firsts. She was a pumpkin for Halloween (thanks to aunt Melissa for the costume) and helped me hand out candy to the kids. My parents and my sister Brenda's family will be visiting for Thanksgiving (the 1st time ever I will get to make a Thanksgiving dinner). Then of course, Christmas and all of the fun that goes with that season. So much to look forward to over the next couple of months!

On the downhill slide to 5 months

In 1 week, Abigail will be 5 months old...wow.

Over the past couple of weeks, life has gotten back to normal (well, as normal as it can get with a baby in the house). Abigail's feeding has stabilized and she has gotten through her constipation issues. She did come down with a cold that caused a few miserable days last week, but she is now over that too. For the most part, she continues to be a very happy baby and is still sleeping very well both at night and for naps (even unswaddled).

I guess the big news doesn't have to do with her at all. Over the past couple of weeks, I have finally started to overcome the guilt of leaving the house for some time "off" to do some of my hobbies and the things that I love. Last Wednesday, I tent camped with my mom and dad at Lake Belva Deer (in near freezing temps) and spent some time fishing. That was my first night away from Abigail since she was born. I expected it to feel weird.  Although I missed both her and Erin, I think that trip is exactly what I needed to overcome the guilt that I have been feeling. It actually made me feel "normal" again (whatever that means). Last weekend, my parents came to our house for my birthday, so naturally, my dad and I spent time fishing. It was a blast! It is so fun to watch my parents interact with Abigail and see how much they love and care about her. This coming weekend, Melissa and Mike will be stopping by for supper Saturday evening so they will have a chance to see Abigail again too.

Over the past couple of weeks, Abigail has started to try to mimic faces that we make which can be quite entertaining. She also tries to mimic some sounds as well. Tummy time continues to become less of a chore as she spent about 30 minutes straight on her tummy a couple of nights ago. Every time she is on her tummy, she seems so close to rolling over but she still hasn't. I feel like she has been close for a month now, but there is no rush from me. She has also figured out how to grab the pacifier out of her mouth and put it back in. It certainly isn't a fluid motion, but she can get the job done as long as the pacifier is within reach. Last week, Erin said that when she put Abigail in the car to go to daycare, she didn't have a pacifier in her mouth, but when she got her out at daycare she did.

I have also discovered another perk to no more swaddling, and that is sleepers...oh my gosh does Abigail look cute in a sleeper:)

Although the doctor said it can take awhile for the teeth to actually show up once a baby starts teething, I'm pretty sure Abigail is on that track. We are going through several bibs a day to soak up all that drool.

This week Abigail moved up to the next room at daycare. I really like the staff in that room and it seems that there is a greater focus on development and play over the last room, which was focused more on feeding, diaper changing, and sleeping. She now has 2 nap times in her crib and gets to spend time with play mats and in an excersaucer (which she loves).

I think that is all for now.

Troublesome Month and Great 4 Month Well Baby Checkup

As mentioned in my last post, we were having some issues with Abigail eating and the consistency of her stools.  Well, I'm going to lay out a time frame for you as we continue to see repercussions of this issue.
August 2: We discover mucus in Abigail's dirty diapers
August 4: We take Abigail to the doctor's to get checked out. The nurse practitioner believes it is a GI infection and will pass. Told us to call if it is still happening on Monday
August 8: Still have mucus in the stool. Call the doctor and she has us switch Abigail to Soy Formula
August 19: Mucus is gone, but now Abigail is having issues with spitting up and vomiting (often several hours after eating). Doctor okays switching back to regular formula
August 20: Abigail vomits after eating in the morning and eats very little for several days (although nothing else seems to be wrong)
August 22:  After 3 days of not eating much, we call the doctor with concerns of dehydration and schedule an appointment for the next day.
August 23: Doctor thinks the spitting up and not eating well are both related to infant reflux recurrence (She says reflux is usually at its worst around 4 months old). Suggests going back to sleeping upright and keeping her upright as much as possible. Also suggests trying to feed her a little less and prescribes Zantac to be taken twice a day
August 29: Reflux symptoms subside but mucus returns to her stools
August 31: Abigail's 4 month well baby appointment. Doctor is happy with her progress in the past week and suggests trying to go back to Soy formula since that eliminated the mucus the first time.
September 2: Successfully start Abigail back on Soy formula
September 5: Now 2 1/2 days since her last dirty diaper, Abigail is showing signs of constipation (Straining, crying and a little bit of hard stool). After getting suggestions from my mom and the on call doctor, we give Abigail some prune juice.
September 6 (Today):  Abigail wakes us up around 3am with a full diaper (although it is still quite firm, it was good to see her pass that much). She went back to sleep until her feeding at 5:30 and didn't seem to be straining and wasn't crying like the previous day. Erin fed her some more prune juice before dropping her off at daycare.

Hopefully the battle with her GI system is coming to a happy end soon, but it has made for some stressful moments in the past month.

On a good note, on August 31st, Abigail had another well baby appointment and the doctor is very pleased with her progress. She now is 11lbs 14oz putting her in the 15th percentile for weight (up from the 10th at 2 months). She is 22 1/4 inches long and her head circumference has jumped from the 3rd percentile to the 40th percentile. The doctor is convinced that we have been feeding her upside down. Short of rolling over, she is meeting all of the expected milestones for a 4 month old (I might add that she is getting close to rolling over, just not quite there yet).

Abigail loves to smile at us and it warms my heart each time she does it. We are starting to discover ways to get her to giggle but most of the time giggling ends in hiccups. She is still sleeping very well at night and napping well. Another milestone was reached last Friday night when Abigail started sleeping at night without a swaddle. I was worried that she might wake herself up during the night if we didn't swaddle her, but so far those worries seem to be unfounded (I don't count last night due to the constipation that she is dealing with).

This past weekend we spent in the quad cities. On Saturday, we drove up to see my sister and her family and had a great time playing with her kids. Sunday, we met them at the I-Wireless Center for the Ringling Brother's Circus and it was a blast. I think that the loud noises and busy atmosphere got a little overstimulating for Abigail, but she did a great job and eventually dozed off with Erin holding her. As for me, I absolutely loved the circus and can't wait to go back when Abigail is older.