Abigale is amazing. I'm just in love with this kid! She's learning quickly and doing new things all the time. Here are some things that I've been meaning to post! She rolled over for the first time a few weeks ago. Paula and the kids were over and I had just laid Abi down for a nap. Out of no where, Abi just screams like crazy. I ran in there and she was on her belly. She was stuck and she hated it! I rolled her onto her back but it was like she couldn't help but roll directly back onto her belly. Each time screaming. She's rolling over all the time now and she likes her belly a lot more lately. Madalyn will get on the floor and and talk to her. Pretty cute sister time! When Michael is getting ready for work, Abi will usually wake up and be ready for breakfast. After she eats, she falls asleep in our bed. So, every morning, I get to admire her in the soft morning light. I swear, she looks just perfect. She's a very pretty baby anyway, but something about those early mornings...I love them. Abi can use her hands! Michael was hanging out with Abi the other day and they were practicing her grabbing her paci and taking it to her mouth. Now, she does that with everything. You can watch her grab something and then concentrate until it touches her gums. She's so funny when she eats! Most of the time, I can't look at her when she's eating because she will look up at me and smile. She just can't eat and smile at the same time. She will also try to sneak her thumb into her mouth when she's eating. I'll be minding my own business and then hear this loud smacking sound. When I look down she'll have that darn thumb in her mouth. Overall, I think she's a really good baby. She only cries when she's hungry or tired. She yells when she's uncomfortable. Sometimes her arm will be turned funny or her leg is under her and she just gripes at you. I think she might be a mama's girl because no one thinks she's as easy as I do. She always throws a fit in the nursery, and Michael has had many nights when he can't get her to sleep. I like that she's good for me. I feel like we have a special bond or something. We share smiles and laughs. We're friends. She's also friends with Mady. Madalyn is always trying to guess what Abigale needs and takes her toys to play with. Its fun to watch. Two perfect little ladies.

She looks like herself

Abigale is growing so fast! It seems like every second she is getting more grown up and becoming more mature. When she was born, I swear she looked just like Madalyn. Now, more and more she is looking like...herself. Of course there are still some things that the girls do that are mirror images of eachother. Here's some things Abigale does that is just like Mady as a baby: Stretching. Abigale, like Mady, will stick little booty out or point her toes when you get her out of her swing. Grunting. Both girls grunt like a man. Drool. Both my girls drool constantly. No teeth, just slober. Like I said...she is becoming her own person. For instance, when she's in the bath, she holds her knees up to her chest to avoid the water. Mady would splash like crazy. She prefers to fall asleep in her bed instead of being held. She smiles and laughs at EVERYTHING! Its so cute and wonderful. She's always chewing on her fingers. Its just great. Having these two girls is amazing. Abigale is working on rolling over and looking cutier all the time. Heres a picture of her in a silly hat.

Little Miss Abigale

I was just looking over some older posts and really enjoying remembering some of the things I forgot about Madalyn as a baby. Why am I not blogging Abigale???!!! Well, I'm going to start. Lets start with...I love this kid. She is so sweet and fun. We had a rocky beginning. It seems like when we got her home, I just didn't understand her schedule. After about a month, though, we began clicking. She was sleeping better and at predictable times and she was starting to smile. A good smile on a rough day just makes bad moods disappear. Now, Abigale is three months old. She is sleeping in her bed at night. she will usually sleep from around 9pm (or earlier)until around 7am. Then, she'll go back to sleep for another two or three hours. She's awesome. :) Here are some more awesome things about Abigale: -She loves to smile. One person that can ALWAYS make her smile is her dad. Madalyn gets her fair share of smiles too. -She hates to have her nose cleaned by that green sucker thing. I hate doing it too. Gross. -Everyone wants to hold the little cutie. She has many fans at church. -She's starting to grab things! -She likes a good butt-pat. Helps her calm down. -She can fall asleep on her own. All this to say, I love my little Abigale. Its weird, since she's been around, I love my little Madalyn more too. I'm just pretty happy with our little family. Will write more later!!!

Shhhhhh...

I'm writing this while sitting on the couch. I'm trying to cherish this time while I still can. Madalyn is old enough now that I basically get her ready, sing her a song, and then tell her to get in bed. Within a few minutes (sometimes a little longer) she's asleep for the night. Lately, she's been asking to pray for her little sister before I put here to bed. I really feel like this is genuine and not just another attempt to do something that will allow her to stay up for a  few more minutes. 

We've settled on a name for our new little girl - Abigale Maureen Garner. We both have come back to Abigale a couple of times and Maureen is the middle name of a close family friend who Jennifer was very interested in naming our daughter after.

So, Mady is in bed, Jenn is at work (Abby is obviously with her) and our dog Dakota is asleep in our bedroom. 

Do you hear that? 




Silence. 




Things have been nuts at work. I'm busy with church stuff. I'm staying up late and getting up early to get stuff done. The noise in my head with all the responsibilities swirling around, the silence is golden. 

It hasn't always been this way. When Mady was little, it wasn't always so quiet.  When Abby gets here, it won't be quiet again. But, that won't last very long. And some noisiness is great. Playing in the living room, fetch with the dog, Christmas Morning, birthday parties.

It's going to be a lot of fun. Here's to the quiet. Here's to the noise. Here's to the great and precious moments that come with each of those times. 

Congratulations it's a...

Ok, so I'm done faking it. I'm going to fully admit it - I stink at bogging. I start out with good intentions, but quickly fizzle out. It's not like there's been NOTHING going on.

This pregnancy is different from the last one. For starters, Jenn is carrying this baby in a different way.*

Jenn hasnt really been sick (which is how it went with Mady as well) but has felt generally crappy until a week or two ago. Now, she's feeling better and this baby has apparently had a growth spurt because Jenn is... having a growth spurt as well.

Jenn is still very tired. Her work schedule has her going to work from 7pm until midnight. As a result, she's not getting to bed until late and then has to get up with Mady in the morning. She tries to get a nap in when Mady takes hers, but that's not enough sleep for a person who's NOT growing another person in their belly.

Today was a big day for Team Garner. This morning was the ultrasound that should tell us what the sex of the growing baby is. So, we headed into the doctor's office to see what we could see.

This ultrasound lady was MUCH more informative than the one we had when we first met Mady. However, she didn't even let us get warmed up. I figured that she would show us around the baby for a bit and then get to the reveal.

No.

No warmup, no lead in. Nothing.

"Go ahead and lay back"
"Ok"
"So, are you going to find out the sex of the baby?"
"Yes."
"It's a girl"**

I spent the rest of the ultrasound in shock because I had not gotten what I felt was the appropriate amount of warm up before dropping the results on us.

Welcome to Miss America. The winner is Miss Nebraska. Thanks for watching.***

So, there you have it. Another girl. I'm outnumbered. Even the dog is a girl. But, we are very excited. We're still working on a name, but Mady is very excited about being a big sister. Tonight I talked to her about helping out her little sister and teaching her things like how to crawl, how to use a spoon and how to pet Dakota nicely. She said that she could teach her sister that, so I think we'll be set.

Our due date is up for discussion right now, but it'll be somewhere around the end of February or the beginning of March.




Feel free to leave your name suggestions in the comment section, but please PLEASE don't be offended if we don't use your suggestions. We have to leave a lot of options on the table, unless we want a kid with seven names. Which could be an option but we'd like to thing we are keeping our kids from unnecessary teasing while in school. That's why we spent time trying to make fun of Madalyn's name before officially naming her that. We'll do the same this time, so if you want to come over and make fun of our daughter's name, please let me know.


Thanks...





--------------------------------------------------------

*This is what she says, even though I'm not exactly sure what that means. The baby's still in her uterous, so maybe I'm missing something.

**This was Jenn's dialogue with the ultrasound tech. I was not the one saying that. The baby in my belly is not yet into the second trimester.

***I had to look that up. I didn't watch it. I swear. But, I might watch if it was that short. The point is that the build up is as important as the outcome itself. Really, I didn't watch the pageant.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Thanks for reading.