baths are the best babysitters

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It is a beautiful thing I have discovered now that my sweet Chloe is a little more sturdy in the tub. These girls love to bathe together. It's the best babysitter now to get us from dinner time to bedtime. I just sit and supervise while they splash and entertain one another. I really shouldn't be so surprised to find how much they love bath time....I mean it's one of my favorites places in the world as well. I love to watch them interact. I'm still pleasantly amazed at how quickly sibling relationships develop. Chloe can't speak and understands very little, and Abigail is only 4 but the unspoken understanding between the two kids is so precious to watch. Abigail is the bossy leader and yet somehow Chloe can absolutely hold her own w/ what she does and does not want to participate in. Again, I'm sure down the road we'll have our little battles but for now their simple innocent friendship is so wonderful to witness.

pool therapy

Abigail proudly announced,..."I'm 4 now so I can go under water", and the little stinker did...a lot



"Blah blah blah mommy,....it's hot"







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Well we had a great time w/ our buddies tonight. We got together w/ our limey buds Chris and Natalie at our pool and just had a blast together. Brian was in a great mood cause he sold his first house in his new job so it made for a perfect summer night w/ friends and family. We mutually encouraged Katie and Abigail to work on their swimming but both girls still have some soggy nerves to overcome before mastering it. Chloe and Annabelle didn't seem to mind doing their own thing. We ate some of our favorite Gracies pizza and just enjoyed the kids and the water. good times.

9 months

evidently NOT into the cute hat look like her sister did



Well there's a whole lot of sweetness going on around here. Having a great summer. Chloe is a very different baby from our first one. I know Abigail got into some trouble but this little monkey has a particular knack for trouble. She likes to push her boundaries, test the limits and all while killing you with those big baby blues so you can't fuss at her. Abigail never seemed to do those baby things that didn't make sense. But this one!? She tries it all. Last week she pulled a table on top of herself, luckily God was watching and it didn't hurt her. Then I caught her sucking on the end of my phone charger..while it was plugged in! Brian said she must have liked how it made her tongue tingle. She likes to pick the socket covers off and then stick her fingers in the holes. She insists on standing and banging on the glass doors we have that cover our gas logs, no matter how many times we and even Abigail lift her to the other side of the room. Screaming "NO" and clapping don't seem to phase this little stinker. She just shoots you a glance (on a good day) to acknowledge she hears you and to insure that you realize she doesn't give a flyin flip that she's doing something bad. She's my little challenge. I love it! I pray for that entire team of angels to help me keep an eye on her. She seems to be fearless, the faster you spin her, pretend to drop her, throw her in the air the better she likes you. She's eats positively everything that she shouldn't. If it's laying around and it strikes her curiosity it goes straight into her mouth. It scares me to death. Keeps me and the Bit on our toes for sure through the day. At least Abigail's mature enough to help me police her. She absolutely lights our days though. Brian is so insanely smitten with her. He can't get his hands on her fast enough when he gets home at night. And she beams ear to ear when he comes in the room. No one seems to get to her quite like her sister though still. These two have a special bond already. I love to watch their relationship develop. We're having a ball w/ our little Chloe bird. Can't believe how fast we're plowing through the first baby year. Makes me wish I could hit pause sometimes and slow this process down. Loving every minute!

Happy birthday Abigail

ok she took this pose because I reacted so much when she struck it as a joke, it's a little scary I know!
The night before preparations lasted about 2 hours but Brian and I had so much fun getting it all together,
Abigail had the important job of taste testing the cake
frequent calls to Christine helped us along























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Well we had an awesome time celebrating the big 04 today. Since we haven't done a party for her since she turned 1 we decided to do it up right this year. We've so enjoyed our pool membership this summer we thought we'd opt for a Mickey Mouse beach luau. We mixed school, work and church friends along with our family and it ended up such a special group to celebrate the day with. Brian and I planned the event and were probably more excited about this party then she was. We bought favors and inflatable palm trees, banners and balloons to decorate and get everyone in the spirit of the party. We had press on tatoo's for the kids and individualized beach pails w/ toys for each kid. Fish cut outs hung from the ceiling and streamers lined the walls and doorways. It was a blast to just for once , go all out! One thing we had the most fun with was the cake. We had to do a Mickey cake per the Bit's request and I must say we did a bang up job for not having a clue of what we were doing. It took us 2 hours the night before and a lot of taste testing w/ green stained fingers before we called it a night. He took pictures on his cell and sent them to his mom and sister he was so proud how it turned out.
The birthday morning we got up and positioned for present time and anxiously awaited her waking up to show it to her. She got her much anticipated purple fluffy pillow and purple bedspread that she picked out. Abigail's room got the shaft when we moved in last year. I needed to focus on Chloe's nursery and starting from scratch for the baby room and so we just kind of threw the Bit's room together. I promised her we would get around to doing it up right like she wanted and so now we made good on our promise. We have her so draped in purple now, ruffles and polka dots finally now it looks like our purple ballerina princess Abigail.
The party started at 4 and it went off with out a hitch,.... except we forgot forks. So other then a bunch of 2-5 yr olds eating cake w/ their fingers we had a blast. Abigail was in heaven w/ all of her friends from different circles all in one setting. Her church buddies, school buddies and her other BFF's Katie and Lilly were all together. I couldn't have been happier with the turn out. Little Chloe did amazing w/ all that madness and for that many hours. She played contently in her walker desperately trying to blend in w/ the big kids. More then once I had to pull her walker back when she'd try to take off to the water in a crowd of older kids trailing behind. It was so sweet. She giggled and clapped when she would get someone's attention and her grandparents on both sides kept sure she wasn't neglected. We wrapped up and swam all the way up to 8 o'clock. It was a huge success! I really think it'll be a birthday for Abigail to remember which is what we wanted. Our special little Bit, can't believe she's 4!! How did we get to 4?? Such a special kid, she's a joy in our lives for sure. Happy birthday little lady. You deserve it.