Peter Pan

Nana got a fancy new book at her house. It's a pop-up story of Peter Pan and Anni, especially, LOVES this book. She requests it every single time we go to Nana's house.

For the past few nights, for a reason unknown to me, Anni keeps unzipping her jammies and pulling her feet out of them. When I go up to check on her, she's just got her arms in her jammies and is usually shivering, unless she's still awake. This was a complete mystery to me until last night.

After we got the girls in their jammies, we were sitting on the bed reading books before bed. All of a sudden, Anni jumps off the bed and starts undressing. She gets her feet out of her jammies and announces, "I am Peter Pan!"

Remember the scene in Peter Pan where Wendy has to sew Peter's shadow back onto his feet?

Here's our Peter Pan. I think she's much cuter than the original.

Halloween Part 5

What better way to do some pre-Halloween celebrating than with some Halloween cookies:

Dana did the big Jack-o-lantern in the back

Halloween Part 4

Wednesday night was Abby's turn to show off her Halloween dance skills. She was very excited to do some tapping in her genie costume!

Here's our genie:

And here's the video: Sorry, you'll have to just tip your head again.

Surgery Update

Abby had her follow up renal ultrasound on Wednesday morning. Her urologist requested an ultrasound a month after her surgery, just to make sure everything looks good after the procedure. The ultrasound showed no swelling in or around her kidneys, which was great! Now, she goes back in 3 months for another kidney dye test. If the test shows no more reflux, then Miss Abigail gets to stop taking her medicine!

Fingers crossed!

Halloween Part 3

On Wednesday, Anni and Daddy went to her school in the morning, while Abby and I went to Children's for her follow up renal ultrasound. Anni got to wear her ladybug costume again. Here are some shots from school that day:

Anni and her friend Adam
An attempted group shot

Our little bug

Halloween Part II

Tuesday evening, Anni had her Halloween dance at dance class. We invited all the grandparents, aunts and uncles and some friends down to watch Anni shake her groove thang. There wasn't a whole lot of actual dancing involved, but it was still pretty cute.

Here's our ladybug:

All the dancers

Here's the video from the dance. Sorry it's sideways...I can't figure out how to get it rotated. Just tip your head to watch the cuteness. :)

Halloween Part 1

At Preschool Growth on Tuesday, Abby's class got to wear their costumes. After circle time, we did a mini parade down to the Community Ed offices and showed all the workers the fancy costumes. The kids got to march down the hall, shaking their maracas. For their efforts, the ladies in the office had some fancy Halloween stickers to hand out as treats.

Here are a couple pics of the group:

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is one of Dana's favorite holidays...aside from Pheasant Opener, it's probably the top of the list. He gets excited about carving pumpkins and costumes and all the good stuff that comes with the special day.

This year, Halloween is a little more fun in our house. The girls are old enough to understand about getting dressed up and going trick-or-treating. And they really got into carving pumpkins. Dana carved them each a princess pumpkin, true daddy that he is.

Here's the crew:

Sharing Time is Happy Time

The other day, Dana took Anni to her school while I took Abby for her follow-up ultrasound at Children's. On the way home from school, Dana stopped to get some cheeseburgers so he and Anni could have a picnic for lunch. Dana gave Anni some Cheetos with her cheeseburger and had some of his own with his burger. True to form, Anni ate all her Cheetos before touching her burger and as soon as she finished her Cheetos, she moved on to the ones on her dad's plate.

Dana: Anni, those are Daddy's Cheetos!

Anni: You have to share, Daddy!

Hopes

This past week/weekend, the girls and I got hit with the flu. It was not pretty. Luckily, Dana was home to run interference with the munchkins, so I got a chance to take some extra naps.

At some point, Abby decided to play dress up, so she came upstairs to put on her princess dress. She's pretty self-sufficient when it comes to getting dressed these days, but she can't get the backs of her dresses fastened, so she asked me to help me. I was still in bed, so I told her to come over closer to me to I could fasten her dress. As she turned her back to me, she said:

"I sure hope you don't frow (throw) up on me!"

Conversations

Last night, the girls were eating their dinner and talking quite animatedly about what was in their tummies. Then, they moved on to the contents of other peoples' tummies:

Anni: I got noodles in my tummy.

Abby: Me too!

Anni: Daddy gots Cheetos in him tummy. And Mommy gots a baby.

Abby: Yep!

Long Day's Night

Well, Anni had a first last night. Not a fun first, not a pleasant first, not an unscented first. It was an eventful night for Anni, Dana and I. Little Miss seems to have some sort of bug and this one did some damage to the tummy region. Anni, for the first (second, third and some extra) time - threw up. Like I said, not a pretty first, but a first nonetheless.

She still isn't feeling well. A slight fever. Not eating. Drinking a little bit. And definitely lacking in the energy arena. Hopefully she'll be back on her feet soon. In the meantime, hopefully she'll take a nap...because there's some laundry that really can't wait to get washed.

Mr. Baby

For those of you who don't already know, and I don't think there's many, if any, of you, Baby Schmidt #3 is a boy! We found out a few weeks ago at the ultrasound. Dana is over the moon and Abby still wants a sister. Anni just wants to rock the baby and to be able to touch his head.

Mr. Baby had his monthly check this morning and everything looks good...aside from the numbers on the scale when I'm forced to stand on it. (Shudder) His heart rate was about 140 and he was kicking like a mad man in there. He kicked so hard a couple times, the Doppler literally lost contact with my belly. It was pretty funny. The doctor thought everything looked and sounded good. Back in another month for another check and the diabetes test. After that, we'll be up to appointments every 2 weeks, which means delivery time is drawing near!

Elizabeth Schmidt

A couple weeks ago, a dear friend of mine came to stay with us for a few days. Elizabeth Schmidt, as the girls have dubbed her, was a huge hit with the munchkins. Each morning, they got out of bed and wanted to go downstairs and sit on Elizabeth and watch cartoons. And, despite her general fear of tiny people, Lizard was only too happy to comply with their requests...and went a little crazy with the presents too!

Dancing Queens

Around the time school started this Fall, the girls also started dance classes. Anni has ballet class from 5-5:30 on Tuesday nights and Abby has ballet/tap from 6-6:45 on Wednesday nights. Both girls are really enjoying their classes and I'm happy to report both my girls have the confidence to march right into class, sit in the circle and do what their teachers instruct them to do. Most of the kids in Abby's class can do the same, but most of the 2-year olds are still having a hard time letting go of mom or dad. These parents then have to accompany their kids into the classroom and a lot of the time, have to do the activities with all the 2-year olds. Thankfully, Anni doesn't need her prego mom to come into class and run up and down the floor with her. Phew!