August's Random Ramblings

ABIGAIL:

• At VBS Abby sang a song to the tune of Funky Town.  It was supposed to go: "Talk about Him, Talk about Him, Talk about Je-sus."  The first couple of days she would come home and sing, "Taco party, taco party, taco party Je-sus."
• One morning as we were getting ready to head out the door Abby made a strange request for pancakes.  (I say strange because she rarely wants anything for breakfast.)  I explained to her that I didn't have time to make any but I could make her a frozen waffle instead to which she replied, "Well, I guess that will have to do!"
• Abigail has taken a huge interest in cooking lately and she really enjoys watching cooking shows. One night as we were flipping through the channels, she said "Hey its my girl!  Let's watch this."  She was referring to Giada De Laurentiis.
• The girls and Andrew came to the doctor's office to take part in the ultrasound of the baby.  When Abby saw his spine she said that is one of his bones, right?  The technician said, "yes, its the baby's spine it goes all the way from his neck down to his tailbone."  And Abby said, "I don't have a tail!!"
• Abby was playing Polly Pockets one afternoon and organizing their closet.  She informed me that she had to get all of "the hookers (hooks) organized!"

OLIVIA:

• She calls her swim suit a swim soup.
• The girls and I were jamming out to Laurie Berkner in the car one day when Olivia suddenly said, "I no like Mommy sing!"
• Olivia pretty much says EVERYTHING Abby says, she is like a little parrot and just adds "too".  The other day we were at the store when Abby told a worker she was a ballerina and of course Olivia had to add, "I am a ballerina too!"
• Abby has been obsessed with pillow pets and really wants one for her birthday.  Whenever we talk about it we all sing the song, "It's a pillow, its' a pet,"  and Olivia always sings..."its a pillow pet!"  And then says, "I wanna Doggy, sister wanna unicorn!"

Dayton Dragons

Dayton has a minor league baseball team called the Dayton Dragons.  We had heard great things about the games and we were finally able to check one out.  It was a lot of fun, and very family friendly.  We bought lawn seats which was perfect for the girls because they were able to run around and not disturb anyone around us.  We would watch for a little while then go for a walk to check out some of the food, souvenir shops, and they even had some bouncy houses for the kids.  We will definitely be going to some more games in the near future!!

Fifth Third Ballpark

Olivia sporting her new Dayton Dragons hat.

Abigail's kissy face pose with her new Dayton Dragons hat.

The girls "heckling" the opposing team.  Just kidding, they just went for a closer look at the players.

The girls by the bouncy house.

Olivia and Daddy enjoying the game.

The girls picked gigantic popsicles as their treat from the ballpark.  They were huge!

Oh My!!!

Road trip to Kentucky

My good friend Becca and her kids were in Louisville, KY visiting her family and invited the girls and I to visit for a few days.  Since Louisville is only 2 1/2 hours away from us of course I said yes.  We packed up the van and the girls and I took a little road trip for a few days (Andrew would have come but we went during the week and he had to work).  Anyway, we had a fantastic time visiting, catching up, and keeping the kids busy with lots of activities including swimming, a trip to the bounce house/gym, The Children's museum, and an ice cream outing.  Olivia LOVED Becca's daughter Hailey who is 15 months old, and Abby and Wes hit it off right away chatting away in the back seat of the van whenever we went anywhere!  We had such a good time and its always fun getting together with Becca, I really wished we lived closer....someday maybe!!!

Abby feeding the horses that are boarded on Becca's families property.

Olivia liked the horses from afar, but wanted me to hold her when she got a little closer.

We had plans to go to the Louisville Zoo but changed our minds when we woke up to 100+ degree temps and very high humidity.  We instead opted for the Children's Museum and the kids had a great time and we were all able to stay nice and cool!

This was the poop demonstration, Wes was a bit intrigued by this display!

Olivia building her sandwich puzzle.

Wes with his sandwich puzzle.

The little mailman, so cute!

We had the chance to get up close and meet Elmo.

Abby and Wes loved Elmo, Olivia and Hailey only like him from afar!

I thought Wes was going to give himself a hernia trying to blow up this balloon!

Watch out! Olivia is behind the wheel!!

Looking at the bubbles

** I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of baby Hailey or of Becca and I.  Oops!!!!**

Dayton Celtic Festival

A couple of weekends ago we went to downtown Dayton for the Celtic Festival.  We got there pretty early, while they were still setting things up so we decided to take a paddle boat out on the river.  It was fun paddling around with the girls and I think they enjoyed it as well.  When we were done we headed back to the festival and grabbed a little snack and seat to watch some of the Irish dancing.  Both the girls loved watching the dancing.  After that we walked around and looked at some of the stuff the vendors had to offer and then ended up at the kids section so the girls could play some games.  Our timing was great, because just as the girls had finished up the games it began to pour and we were out of there!  

On the paddle boats....we will definitely be doing this again, only $6!!

Playing by the fountains

Olivia's Trip to The Dayton Children's E.R.

A couple of weeks ago I took Olivia to the pediatrician for a diaper rash gone wrong.  What started out as a rash quickly turned into a very hard, large, painful bump on her bum.  Upon examination of the area by the doctor we were quickly told that we needed to take her to Dayton Children's E.R. to have the area  cut and drained.  It turned out the area was infected and caused a large abscess.  We were warned that depending on what they decided at E.R. she might be admitted over night.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  My Mama instincts were spot on and had I waited to take her to her original appointment we had made for few days later we would have been faced with surgery and a hospital stay for a treatment of IV antibiotics.  But, because we caught before it got way too big they were able to take care of in the E.R. and treat with outpatient antibiotics.  In order to drain the abscess, Olivia had to be strapped into a a papoose (straight-jacket) to keep her from moving, and then she was given a shot with a local anesthetic to numb the area, and then the doctor took a razor blade and cut into the area to squeeze and drain it.  Olivia was brave but when they started cutting, she (and I) started crying.  She kept saying over and over between cries, "all done, please Mommy!"  It was enough to break my heart!  But, all is well now and we made it home in time for dinner!

Butterfly House at Cox Arboretum

After doing some research I found a MOPS group in our area that will be starting up meeting in the fall that we will attend.  In the meantime they do a few summer play dates and we decided to tag along on one so that we could meet some of the other moms and kids.  We went to Cox Arboretum which is a beautiful park with a very cool butterfly house.  We were able to explore the gardens and then we headed over to the butterfly house to check out all the different butterflies and caterpillars.  When we'd had enough of that we continued on to the maze.  It was a great way to spend the morning (and did I mention it was all FREE?)  We were able to meet some of the other MOPS moms and we are excited to start MOPS in the fall!

Abby and Josh getting up close and personal with some of the butterflies that they were able to handle.

Olivia walking around the gardens

Josh (hiding), Eliza, and Abigail

Pretty blue butterfly

Abby didn't want to be in the picture on the butterfly bench so she took mine and Olivia's picture.

Then she changed her mind but there were lots of other kids on the bench!

Abby and Olivia in the hedge maze.

Orchardly Park

One of the best things about the Dayton area are all of the parks that are around here.  Orchardly park was recommended to us by a friend who used to live in the area and after 2 different attempts to find it, I guess the 3rd time was a charm.  We finally found the park and boy am I glad we did.  This is one of our favorite parks in the area.  It has some great playground equipment, a splash park, a sand-box area, picnic tables and flushing toilets (important for the pregnant lady!)  We love to go there and the girls will play for hours, I think the sand-box is their favorite area but they make good use of everything else as well.  Thank you Tammi for the tip on this wonderful park!

The girls playing in the sand

Hi!!

Going down the slide

The girls LOVE the teeter-totter.  It did not take them long to figure out how to do it all by themselves and they just fly on it!  It makes me a little bit nervous (especially Olivia) but they have so much fun on it.

Cooling off in the water.

Time for a picnic lunch....what a great day!