Welcome to Holland

For some reason today I am feeling very sad for my sweet, hearing impaired little girl. I really don't get like this very often. After all, there has been so much hope, and nothing but success stories since the day she was born. But, every once in a while, I just get very sad that she will always have to work a little harder than the rest of us.

So, I'm posting this poem (which we've all heard) in honor of my baby girl, and this busy, crazy, wouldn't trade it for anything life she has given us.

"Welcome to Holland"

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Parents Day at SJID

Today was Parent's Day at Abby's school. When I first got the information, I misunderstood and thought it was only during breakfast time. I found out a few days later it was an entire day event where parents could go to the school and meet with other parents, observe the kids day, eat lunch with their child, and then attend some informational seminars in the afternoon. Well, since I only found out it was an all day event at the last minute I wasn't able to take the day off. So I attended from 8am to 10:00am this morning.

I am just amazed at how structured the little 3/4 year old preschool class is. They are so cute, and know their routine so well. When they first get to school, Abby's teacher does hearing checks. She has each child take a turn and go stand by "Brooke" (Brooke is a lifesize doll that they use for a lot of activities in the classroom). The teacher then goes thru the Ling sound drills (oo, ee, a, m, sh, s and other sounds). As she says each sound, the child repeats. She takes a long pause before one sound for each of the kids and when they hear the pause they say "nothing". It was very cute. Brooke is about 10 feet away from the teacher. It was exciting for me to see Abby hear each and every sound from 10 feet away (even s and sh)!!

The next thing they do is circle time where they sing a little song about each child who is at school and they do their calendar time with day of the week, Month, and date. Abby is really doing well with counting and counts to 20 pretty consistently.

After circle time they have an event each day. I'm not sure what each of the daily events are, but today was story time. Abby's teacher has several books sitting out, all related to winter and cold weather. The kids picked out a story and Gina read it, pausing for them to fill in blanks (they've heard these stories a few times). Then, they go to the table for another event (today was show and tell).

Long story short, after 2 hours of sitting activities, they finally get to go and play. Their playtime is also structured by having certain things set out for play. This month they are learning all the language around winter. So they are learning words like snow, scarf, mittens, earmuffs, etc.

Abby was very proud to have her mom there today. She was acting a little shy because I was there, but for the most part she did really well. She is such a hard little worker and now I better understand why she is SO tired in the evenings and on weekends!

A Brand New Year

When I created this blog, the sole purpose was to keep friends and family updated on Abby's Cochlear Implant Surgery and the progress she made following that surgery. Later, it turned into a Family blog, but if you think about it raising a child with a disability is a family process right? Actually, raising any child with or without a disability is a family process. My goal this year is to be much better at keeping this blog up to date, and to take the time to celebrate the successes that Seth, Abby, and our family have throughout the year.

So...here goes....

Seth Robert is half-way through kindergarten. How he got to be 5 1/2 years old so fast is completely beyond me. I love seeing him grow and I love the sweet heart and spirit that he has. He is very active and hard to get to sit or stand still at times, but he has one of the sweetest hearts of anyone I know. Seth is always thinking about ways to help people. He loves to give, he loves to help, and he loves being a blessing to anyone and everyone. He is beginning to ask some very deep questions and challenges his dad and I to look deeper to find answers to those questions at times. My prayer is that his heart will always stay so tender and he will continue to love others so much. Seth is also beginning to read, tell time, and do addition. It is so incredible to watch my baby boy turn into a big boy.

Abby is half-way through her first year of Preschool and is at 18 months post Implant surgery. She is getting so big. Hard to believe my baby is almost 4. Abby works so hard. So many times I feel so sorry for her having to start school at such a young age, and having to work so hard just to do what the rest of us picked up by mere observation (speak and listen). On the other hand, I am so incredibly proud of her and so thankful for the determined spirit that God has given her which pushes her to succeed. I'm also very thankful for the resources that are available to her and the progress she has made in such a short time. I will try to be more diligent in posting about the specific milestones that she accomplishes.

Seth (big) - Seth is turning 30 this month! I'm very excited about this because we will be in the same decade again, well at least for a few years :) He is an incredible husband and dad and I appreciate so much how involved he is with the kids. He has taken on some really large home improvement projects this year, but when do we not have home improvement projects going on around our house?

Me - well, not much to say here. I work, I clean, take care of the kids, do laundry : ) In all seriousness, I'm hoping this will be the year to return to my 'normal' self. Ever since having the kids my life has become so busy that I have kind of forgotten to really take time for myself. Not in a selfish way, but in a 'keeping my sanity' way. I joined a program at the YMCA starting this year in which I work out with a training 3 hours a week. I cannot believe in just 1 1/2 weeks how much better I feel. I pray for some of the determination my sweet daughter has so I keep up with this : )

OK, so I promise to keep this blog updated more regularly. And, I will post pictures. I promise!!

Love to all,
Hannah

Abby's Birthday

OK, So I haven't posted in 3 months...I don't know where the time has gone.


We've had a busy few months. Abby's birthday was April 25 and she turned 3. She is SO big.

She had all of her cousins and friends over for her Cinderella birthday party. She had lots of fun and was very excited about her presents.


Abby also LOVED her cupcakes as you will see from the pictures below.







Yes, that IS blue icing on her hands, not fingerpaint!

Abby got lots of great presents, but her favorite present was her Spiderman helmet and kneepads that her brother got for her. Seriously, the girl LOVES Spiderman. Here she is riding her princess bike, with her Spiderman gear on.


Seth also had a birthday and he turned 5 years old. I will post pictures from his party later. He is still waiting on his present from Mom and Dad. It is a HUGE surprise and we are looking for the right one. Sorry to leave you hanging, but I'll post once he gets it.

Sigh of Relief

I haven't posted about this because I was trying very hard not to worry too much until we found out what was going on.

For the past couple months we have been noticing that Seth hasn't been hearing as well as normal. It was kind of strange because it didn't seem to be consistent. One day he would hear me call him from the next room, and the next day he wouldn't hear me talking to him from 3 feet away. We really started to get concerned when other people started mentioning that they were noticing it as well.

So, Abby had a 6 month post-surgery appointment about a month ago, and I took Seth along hoping that Dr Clary would look at his ears even though he hadn't had a hearing test at that point. Dr Clary, being the wonderful, caring Doctor that he is, did look in Seth's ears while we were there for Abby's appointment. He said that Seth had quite a bit of earwax plugged up deep in his ear canal (sorry to be gross). He wanted us to put drops in his ears for several weeks before attempting to remove it.

Even knowing that this was most likely the cause of his hearing loss, and that it would be temporary, I was still worried. Having one hearing impaired child, I kept thinking what if Abby's hearing loss is genetic, and just now showing up in Seth at the age of 4 1/2. During the month that we were putting the drops in his ears, we also got a note from his teacher that he didn't seem to be hearing well....and just as luck would have it, his school had a vision and hearing screening in which he failed the hearing portion of the test. Talk about stressful!!

Well, today was finally the big day that we had our follow-up with Dr Clary. I told him about the failed hearing test and that the results were that Seth was hearing at about a 35 decibel loss. Thankfully Dr Clary was able to remove all of the wax from his ears and commented that the amount there was could certainly cause a hearing loss at that level.

We left the Dr's office with a HUGE weight lifted off of my shoulders for sure. As we were walking out I whispered Seth's name from behind him a couple of times, and each time he turned around quickly....he also asked me why the elevator bells were so loud as we got on the elevator. I have no idea how long his ears have been 'plugged' but I'm so thankful that this was all the problem was.

We still plan to schedule him a follow up hearing test, but I have no doubts he will pass it!

I think I have the "Flea"

We were leaving church today, when Seth Robert started sneezing several times in a row. After about 5 sneezes he says "Mom, I think I have the flea."

Knowing he meant the flu, we played it up with him for a couple of minutes...telling him he couldn't play with his dog or he might give him fleas...he couldn't go to school and spread fleas.

Finally we told him he doesn't have the FLU...something in the air was just making him sneeze.

What Next!!??

The last couple weeks have been full of stress and not much fun for our family. We certainly need to schedule something fun to make up for all of this.

1. All of us had a stomach bug (each about a week apart).

2. Boeing laid off 10% of their IT department last Friday. The days leading up to that were very stressful, but thankfully I'm not affected by the layoffs. This is the first time I've been through the possibility of layoffs in my 11+ years at Boeing. It is very sad to see peers and friends who will be leaving in about 2 months.

3. Abby got sick yesterday. A few weeks ago when we all had the stomach bug, Abby didn't have a very big 'case' of it. I guess she made up for that yesterday when she couldn't keep anything down for about 10 hours.

Now for some fun!

This week is going to be beautiful and I plan to get outside and enjoy it! I think a trip to the Park would do us all some good : ) Tomorrow is my grandma's 92nd birthday. Can you imagine living 92 years! We will go to Waterloo tomorrow to celebrate with her. It will be fun for the kids to see all of their cousins from my side of the family.

I realize I haven't posted any pictures here in a while. Maybe I can work on that this weekend too!!

Vacation For Mom!

Well, Kind Of. I'm in Seattle all week this week on business. I have joked with my friends that it's like being on vacation even though I have to work. It's kind of a nice break to have no one but myself to take care of for a whole week : ) It helps a TON to have such a great husband who is able to take care of everything with the kids so I don't have to worry while I'm gone.

I haven't gotten to do much while in Seattle, except for the nightly eating out. I'm traveling with my boss, and he has the car : ) I am perfectly fine it though as I've had lots time to read, watch TV, and other things I don't normally get to do.

Last week was quite the crazy week. Both of the kids had a stomach bug and Seth and I each had to miss a day of work to stay home with them. Friday night, I woke up around midnight with the same stomach bug. It's amazing how quick the kids bounce back from being sick, and how long we as adults are down. I think I stayed in bed a total of about 20 hours between Friday night and Saturday night. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be able to make my flight on Sunday, but luckily woke up Sunday morning feeling great!

I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend with the family when I get home.

6 Months Post Implant!

This post is long overdue!

The kids and I were off the last two weeks of December and just returned to work and school on Jan 5. However, I somehow could not find the time to get a post in during that time : )

When I started this blog, the purpose was to keep everyone updated on Abby's surgery and follow up speech and language progress. I've been really bad about keeping updates about Abby's progress. I think sometimes I just take the things she is doing for granted because despite her hearing limitations, she is a very normal child. However, when I really think about what she is able to hear, understand, and speak compared to many other people in her situation, her progress just blows my mind!

So, let me see how much I can get everyone up to date on Abby. She has had her Cochlear Implant for 6 months now, and it has been turned on for 5 months (almost 6). Words cannot describe the progress she has made in the last 6 months. Her vocabulary contains (I'm guessing here) at least a couple hundred words, and most of those words are understandable not only to Seth and I, but to others as well. She is becoming much more clear in some of the words that she knew before the implant as those 'gaps' in the words that she was not hearing before her implant are now being filled in with her ability to hear so much more through the implant. For Example she has always called Seth "Brother" because in the word Seth all she could hear was 'e'. Brother started out as some 2 syllable word starting with a 'b' sound; something like 'bu-u'. Brother now sounds like 'bu-der'...much more like you would expect a 2 year old to say it. She also tries to say Seth now...it is more than just 'e' but I cannot really describe how she's saying it. What is so cool at it is that now she knows she is hearing something before and after the 'e' and she is trying to repeat that. We are still working on the 'th' sound because that one is also new to her, but she does have in in some words like 'toothbrush'.

Another sound that we are really working on is 'S'. She does not seem to be responding consistently to the S sound, however it's kind of strange because on occasion she will say the 'S' sound. Her speech therapist thinks she is hearing it, but just hasn't connected yet that it's a sound because it is such a soft sound ( I know that probably sounds crazy and all of this did to me when we started this journey, but I do understand what she means by that now : )

Over Christmas we were doing something and out of the blue Abby counted to 10! I had no idea she could count to 3 much less to 10 so of course ever since then I've been setting different objects out for her to count and she consistently counts to 10.

I will try to be more consistent in tracking Abby's progress on this blog. I also want to take some time to write Abby's Story from start to present. I think it would be helpful for other mom's ( and dad's) of newly identified hearing impaired babies to see the possibilities and normalcy their children can have with this disability!

Too Cute

Here is a cute, funny fact about Abby. When there is snow falling from the sky she points and says 'it's nowing,' and when there is snow on the ground she points and says 'Marshmallows.'

How DOES Santa do that??

Last night was the official opening of the Holestine fireplace this season and Seth and Seth Robert were going to build a nice fire. They were stacking the kindling wood into the fireplace (before lighting it) and I noticed Seth Robert kept leaning in and looking up the chimney.

Finally he says "Dad, that chimney sure is dirty. We will have to clean it or Santa will get dirty." Then he looks again, "Dad, how does Santa fit in there, and how does he not get burned?" The wheels continued turning, "Dad, we will have to make sure we clean the chimney AND not have a fire the night Santa is coming. I guess he will have to use magic to fit down the chimney."

I love the innocence of believing in Santa!

Still Here!

Yes, we are still here! I cannot believe it has been over a month since I last posted.

It's been a very busy month (but aren't they all). The kids are still doing great in school. Abby is consistently saying 's' (Sarah) and is working so hard on her speech and vocabulary growth. I had a progress review session with her therapist earlier this week. I was a little disappointed to see that her verbal communication is at that of about 18 - 21 months (she is now 30 months old), but at the same time she is continuing to grow and learn everyday. She has about 100 words that she can speak now, which is really great. One really cool thing I've noticed is the kid can really carry a tune. She can sing the itsy-bitsy spider, and although she doesn't know all of the words, you can recognize it by the tune. That is really amazing to me. She has really adjusted to her schedule at school and LOVES all of her friends and teachers. Every day on the way to school she tells me everyone who will be there.

I also had a parent teacher conference with Seth's teacher this week. He is doing great academically in school. He recognizes all of his letters, knows the sounds for most of them, and is learning to write his letters. I would say he can write at least half of them. He is at the age where he is asking me to spell everything so he can write it down. One area he is having a little problem with is being able to sit still (surprise surprise). They try to really break things up so there isn't too much sit down time all at once, but we need to work on that. This is a kid who can't even sit still thru dinner and has to be constantly reminded to keep his behind on the chair, feet in front of him, etc. I remember my area to work on when I was that age was 'talking'. I used to talk too much in class, so I guess (hope) he'll grow out of it. We are talking about getting him into Karate. We didn't want to start the kids in extra-curricular activities at too young of an age, but he is now 4 1/2 so I think it's time.

I have some good news this month as well. Many of you know I've been in a really crazy situation at work. I don't want to go into details, but we had a management change earlier this year, and it has not been a good change. There are several people in our work group trying to get out of the situation, and I was lucky enough to find a new position. I start this Friday, and will be working on a new system. This system will eventually support all of the Billing for both Boeing Commercial and Boeing Defense. It's excited because I've not been involved in the commercial side of the company before. I'm really looking forward to the change and to learning something new. I will also have a desk at the office for teh first time in about 5 years! I'm excited about this because 5 years of working virtually is a LONG time without daily face to face interaction with people. I will be going in 3 days a week and working from home 2 days a week. Like I said, I'm excited, but I'm a little scared about schedules. I'm sure it will all work out, but it will be yet another change to our schedule.

Guess I should update about big Seth too. This is November, so it is his time to go hunting with his dad. He was gone last weekend and will be gone this weekend too. Sounds terribly cold, and boring to me, but he loves it and looks forward to it every year. He didn't get a deer last weekend, but ironically he got one on his way home from work Monday. He was driving behind a lady who hit a deer, so he stopped and he and another guy drug it off of the highway, it was still alive. Seth still had all of his hunting stuff in his truck from the weekend and was going to kill it (I won't tell you how...OK, he was going to cut it's throat) when a cop stopped. So, the cop shot the deer and gave Seth some kind of conservation donation paper and told him to take it home. DISGUSTING!!!!!! So he cut up the deer and let Seth Robert watch him. OH, I sure lived a sheltered life as a child. I cannot imagine watching someone cut up and animal. I'm just thankful the kids and I don't eat deer meat. I prefer my meat packaged and processed thank you very much!

Beautiful Days!

I love Fall. I love waking up to cool mornings, leaving the windows open all day, and listening to the bugs in the trees while falling asleep at night. The weather the last several days has been absolutely perfect.

We are having a bonfire tomorrow night and have several families coming over. I'm really looking forward to it, and the cool evening weather will be perfect! I cannot wait! Other than the bonfire tomorrow, we don't have a lot of plans for the weekend. I'm hoping we can take the kids to a Pumpkin Patch this weekend and take advantage of being outside in this beautiful weather.

Birthday Pictures

OK, so I'm only about 5 months behind with this, but we finally finished Abby's 2 year and Seth's 4 year old pictures. There are so many cute ones to choose from....thanks to having a mother in law as a photographer (http://www.janeholestinephotography.com/), we did this over a couple months, and a few shoots!
Here are a few of my favorites. Now, I just have to figure out what to order!!!


Here are a couple of Seth.....

and here is Abby.....


And this is my favorite...it doesn't get sweeter than this!

6 years? Really?

Yesterday was Seth and my 6th year anniversary! Time flies so fast. Seems like just yesterday I was waking up at 5am to be at the gym by 6am for our early morning workouts. Of course, that all changed after we got married and I wasn't so motivated since he was right there beside me every morning.



Now it is 6 years, 3 houses, and 2 kids later.....Time really flies! Here is one of my favorite snapshots from our wedding...

Settling In

I think we are all finally settling into our school time routine. Seth LOVES Jr Kindergarten and is learning so much already. I am really impressed with the program his school does for JK. They are doing a kindergarten curriculum and next year, in kindergarten, they will be doing an advanced curriculum. He is certainly tired when the day is over. In the afternoons he goes to PEP club (extended care) and he has finally resigned himself to take a 30 minute nap. That helps him not to be wiped out completely in the evenings.

I took Seth to the Magic House the day before he started school. I had to laugh (as I could related well) to one of the factoids posted on the wall; "The average four year old asks 437 questions a day." How true, how true. It seems Seth is starting to contemplate the meaning of life and asks some really tough questions. The other day he asked me if you get to pick who you marry. I asked if he had anyone in mind, but he blushed and said he did not : )

Abby is also settling in. She is growing so much in her speech. She is continuing the N, P, and still working on TH. Just the fact that she is working on TH means she is hearing it now, so that is really great. She is also using S more and more often. I've noticed it most when she says "ou-si" (outside). I am so amazed at her ability to adapt to all the changes in her life this last few months. She is definitely my miracle girl!

I love this time of year. The weather is beautiful and we can start counting down till Christmas !!!

Crazy, yet Exciting Times

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Abby has been in school for two full weeks now. It took her some time to adjust. The mornings go fine, but the afternoons have been really hard for her. Afternoons are lunch time and nap time, and I think she is just so tired by lunchtime, that she's just completely crabby. Anyway, she is starting to adjust better so hopefully things will just keep getting better.

SO for the exciting times part of this post....Abby has made several new sounds in the last week. I have heard an "S" (eeese A.K.A Cheese), "th" (look at THAT), "P" (POP). She is really starting to speak so much more, and so much more clearly which is so exciting! She works so hard at getting the words out as correctly as she can. Poor kid will keep repeating us as long as we keep saying words over and over again. You can tell she really wants to get the words right.

Work has also been crazy, but don't want to waste anyone's time listening to that mess. But, tomorrow I have taken a vacation day so I can spend the day with Seth Robert. Tomorrow is his last day before school starts so we are going to do some fun things (and run some errands) tomorrow. I think we are going to try to go to the Magic House if they are open in the morning. So here's what's on the agenda tomorrow: Take Abby to Speech 8:15, drop her at her class 9am, Appointment at Fontbonne University 10am, Magic House and lunch, Seth's "Meet the Teacher" time starting at 2pm, pick up Abby from school at 3:15. It will be a busy (but FUN) day.

I still have Abby's first day of school pictures to post. I'll post them when I post Seth's in the next couple of days. Hopefully things will settle down a bit and I can start updating more often!

First Day of School

Monday was Abby's first day of school! We had an open house early on Monday morning where I got to meet her teacher, some of the other parents, and all the kiddos. As hard as it is to leave a 2 year old in 'school' it is also SO exciting for me because I know Abby is going to grow so much in her speech this year while she is there. I know this because Seth Robert attended the Toddler class at St Joe's 2 years ago when he was 2. He was a hearing peer for the hearing impaired kids. He only went 2 mornings a week but by Christmas, he had grown so much with his speech. I know part of it was normal development, but I also credit much of it to the great therapy he got by being a part of the class at St Joe's.

Anyway, back to Abby's first day......I couldn't believe how easily Abby let me leave her in her new class. When I had to leave I said 'bye Abby' and she said 'bye Mommy' and ran off to play. I was worried about nap time as she has never slept on a cot, but apparently she was great with that too! She has been really tired at night and I even had to wake her up this morning at 6:30 (she's normally up by 6am like clockwork). Tonight I put her to bed by 6:30pm...and she was asleep by 7pm. Hopefully she will be fully rested tomorrow!

Back to school has been tiresome for me too! Probably because I stay up way too late watching Olympics : ) Last night I was up late watching USA win the gold AND silver for balance beam...it was awesome. Anyway, getting the kids and myself ready and out of the house on time is a little stressful. I am very thankful that Seth's hours have changed and he is here until 7am and does a TON to help me get the kids ready for school.

Seth Robert starts school 2 weeks from today. He will be in Jr Kindergarten from 8:15 to 11:30 then extended care from 11:30 to 3:30. He is so ready to go to school. His aunt Faith has been watching him the last few weeks and he is going to gymnastics on Thursday's so that is a really fun treat for him this last few weeks of summer.

I will post a pic of Abby on her first day of school later this week. I think she was most excited about her Princess lunchbox and her book bag than anything. Ahh, the simple joys in life!

Lots to talk about

I haven't posted in a while so I have a lot of catching up to do.



First, here is a really sweet picture of Abby in her Big Girl Bed.


And here is big brother snuggling her to sleep one night. The pictures are a little grainy as we took these with the lights off. As you can guess it ended up with lots of giggles and no sleep until we broke up the party.


Next week starts the first day of school for Abby. After thinking about how hectic our schedule is going to be we decided to make a few changes. Seth has school from 8:15 - 11:30, and he will stay in extended care from 11:30 - 3:30. Abby has school from 9am to noon. She will be in extended care at her school from 8:30 - 9am, and then from noon to 3:15. I have gone back down to part time hours. 35 hours a week/ 7 hours a day, and will just work while they are in school.

So going to school is quite the experience. I had a ton of forms to fill out and had to get Abby's immunization and other Dr records. I have to take time off work just to get all the right forms signed by the right Dr's : )

I'm excited about Abby starting school, and I'm so glad we made the decision to keep her there for extended care everyday. She will be with speech therapists and other deaf educators all day long. It really is the best place she could be!


Seth starts school Sept 3. I know that's really late, but they lengthened his school day by 30 minutes so they will still get out by late May.


Exciting, busy times!

Where's my baby?

I have been asking myself this question all week. This week it seems Abby has suddenly gone from a baby to a very grown-up, Big Girl! Here are all the Big Girl milestones that she has accomplished within the last week.
1. Moved to the Big Girl (toddler) bed. This was a bit traumatic, as Abby does not like change. She was fine with the toddler bed coming into her room, but was VERY upset about the crib leaving. She got over it pretty quickly and now gets into her big girl bed at bedtime and stays there until she falls asleep.
2. PeePee on the potty! This was a one time thing, but Abby was so excited about it. She is well on her way to potty training. I think as soon as we take the time to work on it with her she will be trained in no time.
3. No more Paci. Abby hasn't taken her pacifier during the day for a while, and all of a sudden this week she decided that she doesn't need it at bedtime anymore.
4. This is my favorite! Abby got her ears pierced last weekend! She has little pink diamonds and she looks so cute with them. The experience was not as traumatic as I thought it would be. She did cry for just a minute after the first one, and of course then knew what was coming with the second one. But, once she saw them in the mirror, she was very proud!
So, no more babies for me! They grow up so fast it's unbelievable.

I'll post some pictures of Abby with her new earrings later this week.