Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with lots of family, food and fun!! Meme and Granddad were so kind to host again this year! We all had a great time. We also celebrated our precious Abigail's birthday!! We certainly have a lot to be thankful for:-)

Our Thanksgiving crew:-)

Sweet girl!!

My new favorite picture:-) Love these two so so much!!

Happy Birthday to Abigail!!

Make a wish!

A new Curious George book! How perfect! 

Awww...snuggies for George:-)

Thank you so much for a wonderful Thanksgiving and for making our baby girl's birthday extra special:-)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sweet Baby Girl!!!

Our baby is 3!! Can you believe it??? So crazy!! Seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital! Now we are getting ready to register her for preschool!! What?!? We are NOT ready!! Ahhh!!! Our life was certainly changed for the better 3 years ago. Abigail is such a joy to be around and we just can't imagine our life without her.

Seriously just want to eat her up!!

At 3 years old, Abigail weighs 30.5lbs (50th percentile) and is 37.5 inches tall (60th percentile). Abigail has certainly come a long way from being in the less than 5th percentile for height and weight when she was born, to now. What a change! She is primarily in 2T clothes (starting to wear some 3T) and is a size 6.5 shoe. Her voice...it is just the cutest! We want to bottle it up and keep it this way forever! Some of our friends say she sounds like a little chipmunk. Either way, don't change it, baby girl!! And her hair....boy has it grown this year!! Still holding off on a haircut:-)

Biggest milestones this year: potty trained, getting rid of the binkers, sleeping in a big girl bed and riding a tricycle (her big girl bike)!! I was dreading potty training her. I don't know why!! It wasn't a piece of cake, but it wasn't too bad. Then getting rid of her binkers....oh my. We thought it was going to be awful!! Abigail loved that thing!!! But...it was a cinch! Learning to ride her big girl bike...no stress at all. We knew she would do it some time. We had actually just finished making the comment of how nice it would be for her to be able to ride her bike before her brother was born for when we go on walks and then just like that!!! It happened!! And then we have sleeping in a big girl bed....we were not worried in the least. We thought it would be the easiest of milestones for the year. Maybe that's where we went wrong!! It all started off so well and then....wah wah!! More on that later!! 

Abigail has one of the most fun, happiest dispositions of anyone we have ever met. Her smile, laugh and all around love of life is just incredible. She keeps us laughing every day at the funny things she does or says. There is not a day that goes by that we are not rolling on the floor laughing at what just came out of her mouth. She certainly keeps us on our toes!!

Abigail's favorite toys right now are her duckies. She has 7 and has given most of them "names." Her favorite, whom she has named Abigail:-), goes almost everywhere with us. Abigail's "names" are hilarious. The only toy that has a "real" name that she made up is Moses the ducky. The rest are either Mommy, Daddy or the name of the item (ie just plain ducky or baby doll). Side note....Mommy ducky is holding a cupcake and Abigail said she named her Mommy because Mommy is sweet and likes to eat cupcakes too! Awwww.....just love her!! Daddy, of course, is the very cool (and handsome!!) boy ducky who we recently found out is a murse! Who knew?!?  Every night, she asks Colin to watch over her duckies while she sleeps. Abigail instructs Daddy to keep them in his pockets until she wakes up and they are one of the first things she asks for when she wakes up (from Daddy: they are actually on my lap now as I read this post)! We told Abigail for her birthday we would take her to Toys R Us so that she could pick out one toy....Out of ALL of the toys in the entire store, she picked out a $1 snowman ducky!! Made Daddy so proud!!

Abigail is still a wild child and loves anything that involves flying high up in the air, jumping, being thrown up in the air or in circles...you name it. As soon as Daddy walks in the door, she is asking him to "pick up dance" or jump on the bed.....One of her new favorite things to do is jump on the trampoline at the indoor playground we go to almost every Thursday. Our little dare devil!!

Sleep...we are so excited to say that we sleep has returned to normal!! Ahhh!!! It seemed to take forever, although it was less than 2 months, but when you're in it.....We got some excellent advice from a family friend that gave us a plan that we felt would work with our Abadabs. Here is the gist of the plan...I finally moved out of her bed (phew!) and went and sat in the chair in her room. The rule was I would stay in the chair until she fell asleep as long as she was quiet and laying down. If she wasn't quiet and laying down, then I would get up and leave the room, and we made sure that she knew it was her choice. That part was big. It gave her control over the situation, which seemed to make a huge difference. I had to leave the room maybe 10 times throughout this process so she definitely picked up the "rules" quickly. We slowly moved the chair closer and closer to the door and then we moved the chair out in the hallway and then to our room. Now we can go back downstairs like before. We also got her an "Ok To Wake" toddler clock which Abigail LOVES!! She is able to get out of bed once the clock turns green. The clock has been a HUGE help for us!! The whole process with the new plan took about 3 weeks. Abigail is now sleeping SOOO much better and is totally back to her happy, energetic self!! We could not be happier!!

Abigail LOVES music! She sings and dances constantly! One of her favorite things to do is to run around the house while singing. Abigail likes some "normal" kids songs like Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy, Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes, any and all of Daniel Tiger songs...and then there are the songs that crack us up....Roar by Katy Perry, Shake It Off (which Abigail swears is Shake it Up...and don't even think of correcting her! Oh how I've tried!! haha) by Taylor Swift, Night Changes by One Direction and Wild Child by Kenny Chesney to name a few. She can even identify tons of different artists on the radio even if she doesn't know the song. Way better than we can!!

Abigail is also a big fan of the Food Network! Every weekend, we cuddle in bed and turn it on. One of my all time favorites:-) Abigail's absolute favorite is Bobby Flay. Well...outside grilling Bobby Flay...not inside Brunch with Bobby Flay! She likes his pool! Some of her other favorites are Pioneer Woman, Barefoot Contessa and Trisha Yearwood. So glad Abigail has taken an interest in cooking! Every parent needs a sous chef!!

The only other TV show that Abigail really watches is Daniel Tiger. We discovered this show during the beginning of my first trimester. Boy was it a life savor!! Abigail is not so much a TV watcher. Or a sitter for that matter!! Being nauseous and a rambunctious toddler don't always mix! Thankfully we found this show and it bought me some moments of calm and quiet! It's actually a great show and full of lots of wonderful lessons for kids. Abigail is constantly singing all of their songs!

One of Abigail's biggest loves are books. She loves being read to, "reading" to herself, flipping through the pages...any and all of it! Her favorite right now is Curious George. We have read most of them. Abigail can even "read" the entire Curious George book word for word. It's over 25 pages!! Abigail does a pretty good job of entertaining herself. Most of the time, if she is quiet, she's in the playroom reading. It's the cutest!! 

Like we said above, Abigail learned to ride her bike this year!! Yay!! She went from not being able to pedal to flying wildly around the house. Abigail is always asking us to move all of the chairs in the kitchen so that she can go as fast as possible without any obstacles!

Abigail is quite the little fashionista! She loves clothes, jewelry, makeup....you name it. She picks out Colin's outfit almost every day and night! Abigail certainly has her favorites and will sometimes pick the same shirt every. single. night for Colin to wear. She likes what she likes!! For her birthday, she requested Colin's orange short sleeve polo. Very specific!

So far she's not seeming too interested in sports, despite our "encouraging ways!!" Abigail does, however, get very excited about gymnastics and ballet so we're looking into that for the Spring. How exciting!! She also loves dancing, so who knows!! We could have a girlie girl on our hands!!

Abigail is getting very excited about becoming a big sister! She talks constantly about all of the things she is going to do with her baby brother. Abigail loves to feel my belly when he kicks and give him some tickles to make him laugh:-) Abigail's most recent favorite is to give him LOTS and LOTS of kisses. She loves her baby brother<3 Of course, Abigail lets us know that she is not going to share everything with her baby brother, but.....Abigail has, however,  volunteered to change all of his diapers! Score!! Whenever we talk about going somewhere she'll say "Don't forget about my baby brother!!" Love her!!

We love you, sweet baby girl, more than words could ever describe!!  You are just the sweetest, most loving little girl ever. Those cheeks....we could kiss them all day long!! We are so honored to be your Mommy and Daddy!! You will always be our baby girl:-) xoxo

Visiting Santa!!

It's Christmas time!! Get excited!! One of our favorite times of the year! We've been talking to Abigail about going to see Santa Clause for a while. Last year we just walked by Santa and she cried hysterically!! So we took the hint and just waved. This year we (aka me) really wanted to take her. She seemed sooo excited, but we all know how that can go....they are totally fine until you get there and then....!!!

We decided to go early this year. Well...honestly....my wonderful hubby will do (and does!!) just about anything and everything for his family, but the mall....definitely not one of his favorite places to hang out, especially around the holidays!! So....we got there first thing in the morning. Only two people in line! Wahoo! The theme was Charlie Brown/snow castle. Abigail loved it!! They have "snow" falling from the castle. She was rolling around in it and everything. Kids love a good mess!! And then we got to Santa....

Abigail immediately wanted to be picked up. Who can blame her?!? I'm sure it's quite intimidating for a child! We told her we would take pictures with her so she wouldn't be by herself. Santa was awesome!! So incredibly kind and patient. Santa asked Abigail what she wanted for Christmas. Abigail told him that she wanted a green ducky. What??? First time she's mentioned that!!! And in pink and orange paper! Specific! Guess we still have more shopping to do! Then when it was time to take pictures, he gave us tons and tons of options. We started with me holding Abigail, then Colin and then she just sat by herself on his lap!! Colin and I were shocked!! Yay!! It was such a fun day! Abigail immediately said she wants to go see Santa again:-)

It's Cold, But We're Outside!!

Thankfully for Abigail she got her daddy's warm blooded nature! Me....not so much!! I'm even colder pregnant!! Is that even possible?!?

Helping Daddy sweep the never ending leaves!!

Yes, Colin is wearing a t-shirt. I have on a long sleeve shirt, a fleece AND a jacket over top!!

Cool Dude:-)

Our Fabulous Moms!!

How lucky are we to have the best mothers/grandmothers in the world?!? First we had our wonderful Meme come and stay with us for a couple of days and then our Nana Banana came to stay. They are SO incredibly helpful! What would we do without them?!? Abigail just adores them. (Colin and I do too!) It is sooo nice to have the extra pair of hands! Thank you SO much, Meme and Nana for all that you do for us!! We love spending time together!!

I had my 3 hour glucose test and Abigail didn't want Mommy to be "all by herself" so she wanted to come! Thankfully Meme was here to help entertain her!! Ps. Abigail said Mommy was very brave while getting her blood drawn:-) AND they were my good luck charms!! No gestational diabetes this time around!! Yay!!

 Nana, Abigail and I went out to dinner with Ali, Michelle, Karen and baby Hartley....Abigail is smitten:-) She was loving all over Hartley!! Getting Hartely her binkers if she needed it, giving her snuggies....she is going to make the best big sister!!!

Our Little Chef!

Abigail really enjoys helping out in the kitchen, especially if it involves making desserts! Abigail can scramble a mean egg too:-) I told Colin that we have to get me, I mean Abigail haha, an Easy Bake Oven next year!!

Being Thankful

This weekend was very bitter sweet. Colin was supposed to leave to Paris for his annual business trip less than 24 hours after the horrific attacks. We were terrified for him to go. The decision not to go was made only a few hours before he was supposed to leave. Our heart goes out to everyone in Paris. We spent the rest of our weekend just being together and being thankful for every minute we get to spend with one another.

First up, a little Thanksgiving craft: Thanksgiving turkeys made out of oreos and candy! I'll let you guess who picked this activity?!?

Tada!!

We let Abigail decide when we would decorate for Christmas. Abigail said she wanted to do it this past weekend. We were planning on doing it when Daddy came back from France, but since he was home.....:-)

 Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Paris.

Quote of the day

We went to the maternity store the other day, which is one of Abigail's favorites because they have a playground in the middle. Seriously, why don't more stores do this?? Makes it soo much easier for us to shop! Just what the dad's want, right:-) Anyways, Abigail went into one of the dressing rooms and pulls out that velcro maternity belly, puts it on and says "Mom, am I a woman now???" She is such a hoot! Never a dull day with this one:-)

Our Little Guy's Heart

When Colin and I started talking about having another child we were sooo excited at the thought of adding another little one to our family. Our only concern (other than ALL of the other concerns that come along with having children!!) was having another child with a heart defect because Abigail's heart defect is genetic. We talked to several doctors and were informed that while we had an increased risk of having another child with a heart defect, it was only a 3-5% chance.

When we found out that we were expecting another child, we were completely overjoyed. Of course the fear of our second child having a heart defect loomed, but mostly we were ecstatic and over the moon about our little bundle of joy. Just to be sure, we immediately talked spoke to all of our doctors, including our cardiologist who told us to come in between 18-20 weeks for a fetal echocardiogram. 

About 6 weeks ago, we had our first fetal echo. Everything looked great. Very promising. The only area of  our baby's heart that our cardiologist could not see was the area where Abigail had her defect (of course!! Isn't that always how it works?!?), but we left feeling good and reassured. He told us to come back in 4 weeks so that he could check our baby's heart again.

The following week we had our 20 week anatomy ultrasound. Everything was going great. The technician said that everything looked very textbook and then she got to the heart. She was spending a lot of time looking and finally we asked if everything looked normal. She explained that the atrial septum is like a door that opens and closes and she just can't tell if it's closing all of the way. Colin and I looked at each other and our stomachs dropped. The technician said she was going to show the pictures to the doctor and then would be right back. As soon as the tech left, we both hugged each other. We knew.

About 10 very long minutes later, the doctor came in and asked to rescan me herself. All of a sudden she stopped, looked at us and said in a very matter of fact voice "Your son has ASD." We lost it. We just could not believe it. How could this happen?? And twice?? The thought of having to go through everything again is/was agonizing.

We called Abigail's cardiologist as soon as we got home. He was just as shocked as we were. He tried to reassure us the best he could. Our next appointment was not for another 3 weeks, so all we could do was pray and wait.

At the end of October, we went in for another fetal echocardiogram. Needless to say, we were very nervous. The echo seemed to take forever. After it was done, our cardiologist took us in another room. He very sadly told us the news. Our little guy has an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). He has a primum ASD (there are 3 types), which is the same type that Abigail has. He also has a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). Abigail also has a VSD, but it is very small. At this time, they believe the VSD our little guy has is small too, but it is hard to tell for sure. Our cardiologist is also unsure of which, if any, valves are also affected. In many cases of primum ASD, other valves can be affected due to the location of the hole. For Abigail, she had a tear in her Mitral Valve that needed repair. Obviously going into this appointment we knew that it would most likely be confirmed that our little guy has an ASD, but we held out hope that we would hear differently. Unfortunately that is not the case. We definitely were not prepared for finding that he also has a VSD.  Our cardiologist went over in great detail what all of this means and what treatment we are looking at in the future.

Our sweet little guy will need to have open heart surgery anytime from when he is born til just over a year. Most likely it will be between 4 months to 15 months of age, depending on his condition and the size of the VSD.

Colin and I have been through various stages of grief, from shock, to denial, to devastation and I think now, acceptance. There are so many things in life that are out of our control. We can ask why and how (which we have done numerous times) but it still doesn't change our situation. Do we wish that our sweet children did not have these defects and have to endure the emotional and physical pain of open heart surgery? Absolutely. If Colin and I could change that for them, we would in a heart beat. But for reasons unknown, God has chosen us to have these two absolutely precious children that also have heart defects. All Colin and I can do is pray and love our kids with everything that we have. We will do anything and everything to make sure that they have whatever they need, which includes the absolute best medical care. We are so lucky have a team of doctors and nurses that love and care for us and our kids. Many people do not have that so we are truly thankful. Most importantly, we have a strong faith in God and a wonderful support system filled with family and friends.

Colin and I have no doubt that our little guy is a fighter just like his sister, Abigail. When we had our last echo, our cardiologist commented that we were going to have our hands full because he was all over the place! He's a squirmy wormy, just like our Abadabs!

This has been a very difficult time for us. We are so filled with joy to be welcoming our little boy into the world, but we are also scared for what's to come. Thank you so much to everyone for all of the kindness and support you have given to us throughout all of this. We ask for your continued prayers.

Fall Is Here!!

Fun With Fruit Loops!

Abigail loves to do art projects, especially when it involves yummy food. We made a rainbow out of Fruit Loops and, of course, had to make a necklace for our girlie girl. Reminds me of those candy necklaces we used to wear!

If This Is November, We'll Take It!!

It's 80 degrees out so we thought we'd take Lamby out for a stroll. Gotta love all of the leaves! Oh yeah and we cleaned them off yesterday!! Out of control!!

Mmmmm...Donuts!!

I really wanted some white powdered donuts the other day so I picked some up at the store. Healthy, I know! I think Abigail enjoyed them just as much as we did!

One More Of Our Ladybug!

Abigail's New Bff:-)

Meet Ali's precious baby girl, Hartley. Ali and I have known each other since we were born. So crazy that here we are almost 35 years later with two baby girls of our own. Hopefully Abigail and Hartley will be friends for as long as her mommy and I have:-)

Happy Halloween!!

Last year Abigail really enjoyed Halloween last year, but this year...she LOVED it!! Abigail loves any holiday that involves candy!! She totally "got"  it and was ALL about it! Abigail probably could have trick-or-treated all night!!

Abigail was a ladybug again this year. Her 18 month costume still fit, so we went with it! Next year she said she wants to be a ballerina. :-)

Abigail kept telling us that we could not eat after her because she is "sick!" She knows that when one of us is sick, we do not eat after each other so this was her excuse for not wanting to share her candy. Hilarious!! And brilliant!! We wish we would have thought of this when we were younger!! This girl is such a hoot! She did share with us, though, without us asking:-)

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!!