Abby, Zoë and Enzo

It was another hot day, and to our surprise it was just as hot at "our" beach as it was at home.  Usually there's a 5 or even 10 degree temperature difference.  Abby and Zoë didn't waste any time changing into their swimsuits once we got on the sand.  We brought our sand toys this time, and there was plenty of sand for the girls to run and run on. 

At one point Chris directed Zoë to go pick up a big piece of seaweed and put it on Abby, who was calmly standing with her feet in the water, facing the ocean.  This sparked some chasing and tons of giggles.  The water was absolutely freezing, but I tried walking out a little with the girls anyway, to get them to jump some very tiny waves.  Before we knew it 40 minutes had went by and we told the girls we had to get ready to go home for dinner.  Of course it took another 10 minutes for them to finish 'rinsing their toys'.

Zoë, Abby and I went to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday present for Anna Claire today.  First we stopped at Wal-Mart to pick something up, and then it was off present hunting.  The girls had in mind the sort of thing they were looking for, knowing that Anna Claire is in to crafty type things.  Of course though, they found many other things that caught their eye.  I was surprised though, at how thoughtful they were being of the purpose of our trip.  At one point we saw a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff, and Abby said, "Mom, look at all of this.  Anna Claire likes this stuff!"  It was however all just "stuff" that I'm sure she could do without.

Abby and Zoë like the present we got Anna Claire so much, that they've asked me to put it on their wish list for someone to get them when they turn five.  I told them that it's not the type of present that's good to have around once they have a baby brother in the house, so Abby decided that Anna Claire would be more than happy to invite them over to share the present.

The girls and I went to Anna Claire and Andrea's again this morning.  First we hung out in her room for a little bit, and got to see a couple of the new things she'd received for her birthday, which was yesterday.  Then we went outside to play with some new stuff they'd put out in their back yard.  Andrea had found a  used play kitchen, which was in good condition but had been used outside, so it was perfect.  She also had a little water table she'd found at one of the resale shops, and all three girls had a blast.  Before playing, we sat on the porch to have a snack we'd brought over, then it was play time.  They made up so many silly little games and got quite wet.  Their favorite game was to pretend they'd made a giant mess all over the 'kitchen' and the adults came in to find the 'bakers' baking and making a big mess.

The day started out gloriously for the girls because they got to wear dresses.  Strap dresses with no shirts under or tights.  After church was a practice for their musical, it was a long practice.

After nap and a stop at Wal-Mart, where the girls got new sunnies!, we went to Reanna and Corey's.  Abby and Zoë are having a sleep-over tonight.  Chris and I were getting ready to leave and Reanna told us that Corey had thawed some meat, which there is lots of frozen because his cow he'd been taking care of is now in the big freezer, and was going to cook burgers and had thawed enough for Chris and I to stay for dinner.  So Chris and I went over to Somersworth to the big Wal-Mart there to pick up a few things and then came back.  Chris washed the car while I prepared the burgers and the girls had a blast playing.  Grampy arrived too and we all had dinner in the back yard.  After dinner we walked to get ice cream cones.  When we got back it was 8:00 so Chris and I headed out and let the girls get ready for bed with Auntie.

A little before 9:00 I called to see how the girls had went to sleep, they'd woken up way too early this morning and had a busy day, I hoped they'd go down well.  Reanna was still reading to them, Grampy had read to them too.  At about quarter to 10p.m. Reanna called, Zoë wanted to say good-night.  I guess the girls had to be separated and this really upset Zoë.  I said good-night to two weepy girls and then asked Reanna to move Zoë back in with Abby once they fell asleep.

Today we worked on some things around the house.  We also made an apple dutch cake in the bread maker.  Daddy and Abby took a trip to Home Depot to get a new faucet for the sink.  They got back just in time for dinner, then we worked on fixing the sink.  It was quite exciting to have water pressure again!

Daddy and Abby had made a detour on the way home from Home Depot, and at evening snack time Daddy made everyone banana splits!  There were, of course, bananas, strawberry swirl ice cream, chocolate ice cream, little mini brownies, even whipped cream and cherries on top!

This evening after dinner clean-up was done, Zoë and I headed out to have some one-on-one time at the library.  Abby was pretty upset, but as Zoë and I were preparing to leave, I heard Daddy ask her if she wanted to watch a movie with him.

Unfortunately when Zoë and I got to the library, it was closed.  We were hoping that we'd see the sculpture that was to be set up there today, but it wasn't up... two bummers.  We saw the site where it looked like it was to be set up, and a couple of guys sitting around, taking a break maybe?  Zoë didn't want to go right home so we drove around into town and saw where the "Inside/Out" sculpture is and then went home.

I'm just loving home made lately!  This morning Zoë, Abby, and I, got the bread maker busy making a sandwich bread.  It was ready in time for lunch.  I made some egg salad and we also put tomato and lettuce on our sandwiches.

When we got home from the grocery store, Daddy started right in on cutting yellow squash, onions, garlic, and celery for making pasta sauce.  Abby and Zoë were happy to help him stir the ingredients in the pot.  Our kitchen smelled so good with the aroma of fresh bread and home made pasta sauce!  For dinner we had pasta with the sauce and some more of the yummy bread for dipping in the sauce.  We have three full jars (good thing we saved the store bought sauce jars) left over.

Abby and Zoë got some more time at home with Daddy today.  I had a doctor's appointment, this time with my primary.  I had told Chris that I wouldn't mind taking the girls with me since it should just be a quick visit, but I was glad that they had stayed home.

Saturday night I felt a little pinch of something biting me on my stomach.  I lifted my shirt to see a litte pin head size welt, where sure enough I'd been bitten by something.  I didn't see a bug, and didn't think much of it.  Over the next couple of days the spot has turned into a red circle that keeps expanding.  So, I went in to the doctor this morning and waited for so long to see her.  I was the only one in the waiting room and got taken in quickly enough, but just had to wait and wait to actually see the doctor.  The nurse even peeked her head in after a while to apologize for the wait.  After my two minutes of actual doctor time, I was sent a couple of buildings over to get my blood drawn to check for a lyme titer.  Hopefully I'll know early next week what the results were and if I'll have to start some pregnancy friendly antibiotics or not.

It has been so wierd lately.  Every day has been one that starts of really overcast and feeling like it will rain any minute, but then the sun comes out for a while.  Then, in an instant, it's all dark outside as if it's been raining all day.  Some days we do get some showers here and there, but others are just tricking us.

This morning I had a doctor's appointment close to lunch time, so the girls just stayed home with Chris.  The sun came and went several times just on my way there, even raining very briefly at one point.  I expected it to be raining when I came out from my appointment, but it was sunny and nice... very ood.

"Overnight Art" is happening in Portsmouth.  It's a project where local artists from the seacoast have come up with sculptures and they are being placed in various places around Portsmouth "overnight"through the end of May.  They will stay up through the end of August.  The first one that we noticed is called "Giant Ant" and it's located in Market Square.  On May 14th one called "History in Liquid Motion" was put up.  On the 16th "Umwelt Bench" was put up.

Yesterday we took a photo by the "History in Liquid Motion" and today we got one at the "Umwelt Bench", we were going to get a photo by the "Giant Ant" but when we passed it, it was missing its head.  We're not sure if it was vandal or construction work related.  The other sculpture we wanted to get a picture by, one that was to be put up today, we couldn't find.  "Umwelt Bench" was set up in the park, so we walked down and got some pictures and then the girls got to have a good time running all over the place.

The other's are set to be out May 21st and May 23rd.

We made our own laundry detergent last night, and tried it out today.  It worked really well, any stains I'd pre-treated and washed had come out, the whites were nice and bright, and the laundry smelled fresh.  Chris and I had seen this on a site called "The Simple Dollar" and decided to try it out.  Here are the ingredients for a batch that does 52 loads of laundry:

1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
1 bar soap
Approximately 3 gallons water

We already had the borax, finding the washing soda was surprisingly difficult (we ended up finding it at a local grocery store), and we bought the cheapest most natural bar soap at Wal-Mart... Ivory.  The way the costs per load of laundry work out, nine loads using the homemade detergent has the same detergent cost as one load of the store bought detergent.  We made half a batch this time around, just to test things out.  When this is gone, we plan to make another batch, probably a full one this time (if we can find a big enough container).  The money we save, plus the fact that we've ommited a bunch of junk in our detergent, and also the fact that it works well, has won us over to home made detergent making.

For full directions (including photos) as well as the full price break down, go here.

It seems we've been at the Valley's a lot lately.  We went over this afternoon and enjoyed the company of Reanna and Corey as well us Uncle Tommy, Liz, and Grampy.  Reanna and I prepared some kabobs to go on the grill as well as some other veggies, while Grampy read story after story to Abby and Zoë.

After dinner there was some more story reading, and then we decided to stop at the ice cream stand down the street.  Given that it was already past 7:00 p.m. we decided to just get the girls in the car and drive over, while everyone else walked.  Abby and Zoë were thrilled when I came back to the car with a 'princess twist' ice cream in a cup for us all to share.  They've actually been talking about this very flavor of ice cream lately, remembering from when we got it one time here last year, and that's without any of us reminding them about it!

We went to Wal-Mart in search of washing soda.  I had called before going to ask specifically for this... not baking soda, not the arm&hammer laundry detergent, but washing soda.  I was told they had it, of course we couldn't find it when we got there, so I was tracking people down to ask about it.  While I was off on my search, Chris had both of the girls.  They had wanted to be in the cart, so they were both sitting in it when he walked five or ten feet away.  At this Zoë shouts at him:

"Hey Dad!  You forgot your kids!"  Laughing, Chris asked "Where?" and Zoë answered, "Right here!  Come and get us!"

Today's appointment was quick.  The woman said that we'd just do the cervical length check instead of also doing all of the measurements on the baby.  The cervical length was 4.4 cm, which is very good.  While doing the length check, we were able to see the baby's head a little bit.  I had asked when the next time they'd look at the baby would be, and she wasn't sure.  When we were done, she asked if I wanted to do a quick peak with the belly ultrasound to see the baby... I didn't hesitate to agree.  We took a quick look, he's looking good and developing so quickly!

Working on picking out a name for this baby has brought up discussions about the choosing of Abby and Zoë's names.  Chris and I go back and forth about this, him saying that he chose the names and me saying that we chose together.  We finally worked it out to where we both agree about how picking the girls' names came about, and I've been asked to write down my agreement about how things happened.  The reason I'm doing this is because there's a certain name Chris just brought up as a choice for this baby that I wasn't in agreement with... Fernando.  He said he wouldn't back down and take this name "off the table" unless I put in writing the agreement we came to this morning.  So here it is...

Chris and I both liked the name Zoë, and that was the first name we agreed on, before we knew the sex of the babies. (As a side note, we just could not agree on any boy names, we had actual agruments over them.  We did have a handful of girls names though.) Chris had the idea then to do an 'A' name and a 'Z' name so we'd have A to Z.  Once we found out both babies were girls, we were agreed on Zoë and had to pick an 'A' name.  I suggested the name Abigail, but Chris didn't like it that much and said just Abby.  I said that maybe we should at least put 'Abigail' on the birth certificate to give her more options, but he said that he'd like to do the names with four letters/characters for the first name, and eight for the middle name.  (Spelled Zoë when the umlaut is available, the acceptable spelling is Zoee, as the letter "e" is used immediately after the umlauted letter, when the umlaut is unavailable.  Thus making Zoë's name fit the 'four character' criteria) The reasoning behind this is that his favorite number is eight, and when you add the first and last name, they equal eight.  The middle names are eight.  When you add those together it's sixteen, which is evenly divisible by eight... any way you work it, it all adds up to the number thing.  For the middle names Chris was suggesting things that ended in a long 'a' sound, but close to what we finally agreed on.  I said that I'd like a 'hard' sounding ending since both first names ended with the short 'e' sound.  So, we agreed on Caitlynn and then Jaquelyn... but the spelling was still up for discussion.  I liked the spelling of 'lynn' for the ending (as apposed to 'lin' or 'lyn') which Chris agreed to for Zoë's middle name, but since it would make Abby's middle name nine letters instead of eight, I agreed to drop an 'n'.  And that is how we agreed on Abby Jaquelyn and Zoë Caitlynn for the names of our baby girls.  We had their names set by week 25 of the pregnancy.

Now for this baby's name.  It's been the opposite issue that we had with the girls as far as boy and girl names.  This whole pregnancy we haven't heard any girl names we really liked, but have thrown around some boy names.  We tried to come up with some names that began with a letter near the middle of the alphabet, so we'd have  beginning and end and one in the middle.  None really grabbed us though.  We've actually just had one name for the first name that was ever truly in the running, the others were just ideas.  When I was pregnant with the girls, one of the boy names Chris suggested was Vincenzo (Vin-chen-zo), a name he'd like since he was a teenager.  I'd never heard the name and looked at him like he was crazy and veto'd it right away.  This time when he brought up 'Enzo' as a choice, it had grown on me and I liked it as a name for our little boy too.  I thought, yet again, that maybe we'd do 'Vincenzo' just on the birth certificate, (it is eight letters after all) but Chris wanted to just do 'Enzo'.  Also, a couple of years ago I'd heard the name 'Giovanni' and really liked it and it has stuck with me.  We talked about some different options such as Giovanni Vincenzo, Vincenzo Giovanni, or Enzo Giovanni.  'Giovanni' isn't Chris' favorite, but he said that he'd agree to it as a middle name.  I lucked out that it's eight letters.  So, before this child is even born, we have it in writing that Chris picked the first name and I picked the middle name, this baby's name will be Enzo Giovanni.

At church on Sunday, Anna Claire had said that she'd like to have a play date with Zoë and Abby.  Abby suggested Monday, but that wouldn't work since Anna Claire has school on Monday mornings.  So Anna Claire suggested Tuesday.  Andrea said that they had kindergarten registration first thing in the morning, but that we could meet up at 11:00.

So, Abby, Zoë, and myself walked over to their house this morning, where Anna Claire was already playing with some toys in the sandbox.  We sat out in the yard for a little while with the girls playing pony's in the sand, then went in for some lunch.  Andrea made some organic macaroni and cheese, with peas mixed in.  Anna Claire calls this "babysitter noodles" because she usually only gets it when she has a babysitter.  The girls also got to have juice boxes, another thing none of them get to have often.  I had brought carrots, raisins, and sandwich triangles. 

After lunch the girls all played dress up for a while, before needing to clean up to have some special applesauce before it was time for the girls and I to walk back home.  Everyone was sad that it was time for us to leave, but they decided that next time we'd like to have Anna Claire and Andrea over to our house and have Anna Claire stay for a slumber party.

We took the swim masks out of the packages this evening and sized them for Abby and Zoë.  The girls wanted to wear them into the shower to try them out.  So we brought them up and got set to use them after the shampooing.  Unfortunately the girls were just being too rowdy and lost the priveledge of being able to try out their goggles.  They'd like to try again next time, but this time they'd like to wait until they get to have a bath and try them out in the tub.

It was time again for the mother's of multiples sale this morning, so off I went a bit early to try and be at the front of the line of people waiting to be let in.  Reanna met me there, but didn't get there until a little bit after everyone had been let in, and unfortunately  couple of things that she'd been hoping to find were already taken as I hadn't known all what she was looking for.  It was much bigger this time than the last couple of times I've gone, both with the amount of people there and the amount of things being sold.  It's always held in the same elementary school, usually just in the cafeteria side, but this time the movable wall was open and the gym side was being used as well.

Once I felt like I was probably done getting items, I looked over at the lines to buy and they were so long, I just couldn't believe it!  By the time Reanna and I made it to the front of the line to buy our items, I'd been gone for about two hours... I never take that long at this sale.  I ended up getting a Boppy Pillow, a double headrest for the infant car seat, some plastic lined bibs, about five summer outfits for 'little brother', and a bikini for each of the girls.  One swimsuit, a really cute one from Old Navy that looked like it had never been worn, was just a dollar.  The other one was from the Gap, and was just fifty cents!  I ended up spending just $13 for all of the stuff.  When I got home and showed Chris and the girls what I'd bought, Abby said to me, "You just got us the two swimsuits and nothing else is for us?".  Ummm, yeah, the effects of having a little brother are apparently already sinking in and he's not even here yet.  I did explain to her that she and her sister didn't need any more summer clothes, and I looked for sandals but there weren't any for them and she seemed content with that.

Zoë and Abby came down this morning and saw their new bikinis sitting on the couch.  Needless to say, they were very excited.  Grandma Cindy had told me that her and Papa Norm would like to buy them for the girls, so she called into the store last night and paid over the phone and then after the girls were in bed, I drove over and picked the suits up.

Abby already has it all figured out, she told me that when it's really warm beach weather she's going to wear her bikini and her pink polka dot flip flops.  The girl has a plan.  Her and Zoë spent the morning drawing pictures of themselves and each other in the swimsuits, at the beach with the swimsuits, anything to do with them wearing the suits.  They also talked a lot about when we're going to be able to go to the beach to use these suits.

Abby and Zoë measure the weather by what clothes they are able to wear.  I'll tell them the degrees and then they'll ask if that means they can wear a dress or at least capri's.  We're working on getting them to understand the degrees, and I guess if figuring it out by what they're able to wear helps them along the way, then that's just fine. 

A little funny about this... the other day Zoë was asking what it was going to be like out for the day and I told her and she said "Wow, that's like,  holy crap warm!"  It was pretty funny, especially since it was actually pretty chilly that day.

Today was a "capri weather" day, but by the afternoon it had cooled off so instead of going to a playground we went to rumble tumble.  Zoë and Abby were happy that Dakota was going to be there to play with.