Christmas time = my mom in the hospital

It seems that for as long as I can remember while growing up, my mom always seemed to be in the hospital during Christmastime. This one is no different. Mom was not feeling so great so I took her in to the ER last night and they kept her. I had a very strong feeling they would. She was scheduled for a heart cath on Tuesday as we had been going to the doc for the last few weeks and mom's pacemaker didn't feel right. So rather than wait til Tuesday when the exam was scheduled, we went in to ER and they are planning on doing the test tomorrow morning. Kinda throws a wrench in the plan of things, but hey, what can you do. Hopefully all will go well tomorrow and there will be no setbacks.

Just some Pics

Not a lot is happening and just wanted to post a few pics of my sweet little Abby. She is growing up right before my eyes.

Abby's First Birthday Party

Abigail was invited to her very first birthday party. One of the girls in her class (Maddie) was turning four and Abigail was invited to the party along with a bunch of other kids in the class. I plan on keeping the invitation and scrapping it someday. There was a bouncie house and real live ponies at the party. It was a day of all kind of firsts for Abby as she has never ridden on a pony and never jumped in a bouncie house before. She loved every minute. The next birthday party sure will have a lot to live up to.

Santa is coming to town!

We took Abby to see Santa at the mall tonight and she loved it. Before we left the house as we were getting her dressed, we told her we would be going to see Santa. All she talked about after that was going to see Santa. Daddy says she told him she wanted a dollhouse. After looking back on last year's pic of her visiting Santa, I realize once again that my little girl is growing up way too fast.

The Red Princess

Wow. Today was such a trying day of being a parent. But as I put my little girl to bed, I can't believe it's possible to love her even more than I did yesterday.
We put up the Christmas Tree and all the ornaments and it is nearly impossible to keep a 2 year old from wanting to pull them all down. Maybe with a little work at it, she will realize we don't have to redecorate the tree every five seconds.
Anyways, there is a little red nutcracker that was on the tree and Abby decided it was gonna be her favorite. She kept referring to it as the little red princess. She watched TV with it, she ate her dinner with it, she wanted to bathe with it... So you can just imagine how crazy it must have been when the red princess went missing. Could not find her anywhere. Now it was time for Abby to go to bed and all she wanted was her red princess. So I started tearing apart her room and emptying toys bins and looking under her bed. Then she told me the red princess was in the box. I becoame even more perplexed and kept searching her room. Finally inside the ball bopper the red princess lay between the pink and green ball. When I shouted with enthusiasm that I had found it, Abby began to giggle and say, "Mommy found the princess." I was the hero and now she could finally go to bed.

The Tree Lighting in Anthem, AZ

It's definitely starting to feel a lot like Fall/Winter around here and it's certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The weather is getting a bit nippy here and it's time to start pulling out the sweaters and sweat shirts.

Last night we did something a little different. We decided to go up to the outlet stores in Anthem for the Christmas Tree lighting. What fun! We took Abby's cousin Leah with us and the girls had such a fun time playing together. They rode in Abby's Wagon and Abby was giggling and smiling the entire time. Many more outings are planned with her wonderful cousin in the future. Can't wait. They are pretty close in age and it would be really special if they were to have a great friendship like I remember with my cousins as I was growing up.

A Lot has happened since last post

Wow. I guess it's been a while since my last post. I'll try not to let that happen again. Where to start...

Abby was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes Sept 29th, 2010. It has been a little over a month now and we are trying to manage this horrific disease that strikes kids for no apparent reason.

She had been acting kinda crabby for a few weeks prior to diagnosis and was constantly asking for more water, juice or milk. In addition to that potty training had become nearly impossible as she was soaking a ton of diapers and peeing her bed. After a few weeks of wondering if this was just a 2 phase or if something was really wrong, I took her to the pediatrician. Fortunately, I went with a urine sample that they tested and it was off the charts. They then did a finger stnk and couldn't actually get a number on the meter. All it said was high. So my Dr. told me to take her to Phoenix Children's so they could run some more exensive blood tests and that she could be wrong but that more than likely Abigail had diabetes. I even had a dentist appointment later that day for Abby and my doctor told me that I would probably want to cancel that. So off I go to Phoenix Children's with paperwork in hand and I'm frantically trying to call my husband. I get a hold of my mom and tell her what's happenening and then get a hold of my husband and tell him I'm on my way to Phoenix Children's. He leaves work and before I know it his sisters Tina and Becky, and brothers Joe and Pete all arrive in the ER. We were very fortunate to have them with us.

Turns out we have caught Abigail's diagnosis very early as it could have gotten much worse. She could have been in DKA which is diabetic ketoacidosis. With how high her blood sugar was she should have been lethargic and pretty much comatose. Fortunately, she was not.

So we spent almost 4 days in the hospital learning all about type I and insulin shots and checking blood sugars and ketones. A lot to absorb in the time we were there. I slept in a hospital bed with my baby every night and when she went to sleep I would just cry.

She is such a trooper through all of this. In the beginning she would pull away and not want to be poked, but now when we get ready to test her sugar she says, "Let me see your finger!" And she will even count 1,2,3 when it's time to do the injection. Kids are so resilient. It's me that isn't so much.

I hate that we will have to do this for the rest of her life. I hate that she will have to go through this and not be a "normal" child. I hate this so much, it's tearing me apart.

On a good note though, she will grow up with this and it will be second nature for her. She won't know any different and she will learn how to take care of herself and be responsible. I hope.

Converting the crib

Wow. Hard to believe my little girl is growing up. She is getting so big so fast. Last night she successfully managed to crawl out of her crib. 3 times. All of which I was right there to catch her. Nonetheless, I did not get much sleep last night as I kept wondering if she would once again attempt her Houdini act and fall on her head. So this afternoon we finally made the conversion from crib to toddler bed.
As for this evening when going to bed, she did just great in her new bed. She didn't even get out of bed once to play with her toys. Way to go Abigail!
Some of Abigail's other great milestones lately is that she will now feed herself, finally she is drinking water out of a cup, she read to me parts of her Froggy Learns to Swim book, she puts her own shoes on her feet, and we have started to use the potty chair or as she says, "p,p,p in the potty chair". What an amazing little girl I have!

Family Bike Ride

Here in Arizona, the end of May usually means some really warm weather. Not yesterday. What a beautiful day it was with temps in the mid 70's and a nice breeze. A perfect day for a bike ride. So we packed up the bikes and set off for the Scottsdale Greenbelt. Abigail loves to ride in her chariot and is oh so cute with her helmet and sunglasses.

Big Camera Scare

Today I almost thought I would lose my mind. I was getting ready to go to a party and was getting my camera ready. I knew that the memory card card I had it it was pretty full and I had not downloaded all of the photos from it yet so I didn't want to delete it. So I attempted to insert my larger memory card and then the camera decided to stop working. If the camera is not reading the memory card the camera basically becomes a paper weight. I futzed with it for over an hour and even called the camera shop. When I did that, I found out this is a common problem and sometimes the pins get bent. It's a problem that can cost over $300 to fix. I thought I would cry. Instead I continued to mess with it and see if I could fix the bent pin. Sure enough, I did. I FIXED IT! I was so happy and off to the party we went. Here's a pic of my sweet angel in the pool.

Happy Mother's Day Everyone

I know it's a day late, but wanted to make sure I said Happy Mother's Day to All Mom's out there. I had a great one. First, Andrew, Abby and I went out to breakfast at The Eggery. It's a yummy place for some really good food and reminds me a lot of Patty's Eggnest in Seattle. I loved that place. Anyways. Breakfast was really good and Abby loved her Minnie Mouse Pancake. After breakfast we went to home Depot and I was able to get my mom a Shephard's hook for the backyard and some hanging plants. My mom is truly a plant freak. And surprisingly enough after getting back home, we cleaned the house for 4 hours. It was awesome. Who would have thought that cleaning on mother's Day would be a good thing, but it was really awesome. Later in the evening, my sister and my brother came over to share Mother's Day with my mom and we grilled ribeyes and had the best salad ever. It was my 3rd Mother's Day and I look forward to spending each one with my baby girl.

Hello All,

I have decided to start a blog in hopes that those who have followed Abigail in my emails will be able to follow her closely and watch what a wonderful little girl she is becoming. My sweet little angel.

Abby has started to give kisses with sound effects and all. She will even pull your head in close and say "mmmmwah". It is the most precious thing I have ever seen.

Recently we celebrated her second birthday at the park. Friends and family joined us for this special occasion and Abby had so much fun. I was glad that it was not windy like the year before and I was able to hang my birthday banner. This banner will be hung every year until she's 18. I sure hope she likes it.

Here are some pics from her party.