Abby, Zoë and Enzo

We went to the grocery store after dinner this evening, not the normal time for us at all.  Abby and Zoë thought it was really funny that we were going when it was dark out already.  They had taken a nap today, and I let them sleep longer than I was going to, so I knew they'd not be ready to go to bed at the normal time tonight anyway.  The girls also thought it was humerous that the store hand-outs were their evening snack.  The had a munchkin from the in-store dunkin' donuts, and a piece of cookie at the end of the trip, from the bakery area... yes, a well rounded meal.

When we left the store Abby said, "We came out when it was dark outside!"  We reminded her that we went in when it was dark outside.

Today during Sunday school time there was a first meeting for a parents discussion group that will be happening once a month, so I let Abby and Zoë know that I'd be doing that while they were in Sunday school.  I was kind of nervous, since I'm always with them in Sunday school (as I'm one of the adult helpers), but I asked the girl who helps lead the group, Alyssa, to come and get me if there was any need and also asked one of the little girls,Maran, who is 8, to make sure they stayed with Alyssa and so on and so forth.

Just as my group was ending, I heard the kids coming down the stairs having finished with their class.  I went ahead and let Abby and Zoë go down to the fellowship hall with the other kids before I followed behind to go get them.  They were both so excited to tell me everything that had happened during Sunday school.  Today's rotation room was computers, so after re-capping about the boy's lunch, "And we said 5 barley loaves, and that was right!  Then we said two fish, and that was right!" exlaimed Abby, they started talking about, I think the battle of Jericho.  The girls were talking about Galilee and then the wall coming down and what they tried to do on their computer game.

Abby and Zoë already love talking on the phone. Tonight, when Nonna called, Zoë answered the phone. She talked on and on with Nonna about anything she could think of. Abby was anxious to get her turn too. They talked about what they had for dinner, what they were having for snack, and anything else that came to mind. They are working on remembering to wait until the person on the other end of the line is done saying something before they begin (excitedly) saying what they want to say, and they're getting pretty good at it.

How they behave when we're on the phone is another story.

We were going to go to the Children's Museum for the free family fun night with Leann and her kids again, but Leann ended up not being able to do it.  That was alright, because Reanna and Corey ended up coming over.  The girls always love it when Auntie is there to do their 'get ready for bed' duties with them, someone different to do night time stuff is always fun.  They got some rough housing in with Uncle Corey too.

Before Reanna and Corey arrived, the girls played 'cake' with us and they were trying to get anyone and everyone to play the game so that they could participate in it too.  It's been a while since we've played, and once we did it seems to be all they can think about.  The game and the fact that we have a new calendar hanging in the kitchen with a new cake every month, I think has got Zoë in the baking mood, she said to Chris, "Daddy, let's bake!"

On the 30th I had another positive on a home pregnancy test, then yesterday I went to get the pre-natal blood work up.  Today the Dr.'s office called to confirm that the blood work came back positive.  I got my first two appointments scheduled.  The first one with the nurse practitioner on March 10th and then two weeks later on the 24th with my doctor.

I had to go get some blood work today and the girls were all concerned about it.  They stayed home with Daddy while I went, and he let them watch a movie.  Before I left, both of the girls were asking me if it was going to hurt and what kind of band aid I was going to pick out.  Zoë asked, near tears, why I was going to have to go get my arm hurt.

When I got home the first thing I was asked was, "Did you get a cool band-aid?" Zoë and Abby were quite dissapointed to see that all I got was some medical tape over a cotton ball.  I assured them that it didn't hurt too badly and that I was fine.  They also wanted to know all about the lady taking my blood.

It was that time again... Abby and Zoë just love their story time.  Today was about taking a bath and they got to do fun wiggle games in between.  After the stories, each child got a yogurt container with a hole poked in the side.  Then they got straws to put into the hole, then a circle of fabric, which Ms. Mary got wet first, and a rubber band to put it on tightly over the top of the container.  Next, Ms. Mary went around and put some dish detergent on each child's piece of fabric and rubbed it around, then the kids blew on the straws and made neat bubbly towers!  It was so funny watching all of the kids try and get it.  Zoë made a ton of bubbles, Abby had a little more difficulty.  I think because her hole was bigger than her straw she wasn't getting enough air into it, not to mention she kept her mouth tightly around the straw when she inhaled too... oops.

Zoë and I ran some errands this morning, while Abby stayed home with Daddy.  Initially Abby was very upset that she was going to be staying home, but when she found out that she was going to get to play hullabaloo herself, she was excited.  I set it all out and got player part ready, and Abby told Chris so many times that he'd need to make sure he monitored her.

First Zoë and I went to the city hall, then to the post office, then to the bank, then to drop a package at the parcel room.  Zoë was a big helper on all of the errands, and asked about what we needed to do at each one.

I got a positive on the ovulation predictor on the 15th and then this morning I got a faint positive on a home pregnancy test.  I'll wait a few days and test again.

Zoë and Abby got to have a movie night with Daddy.  I had planned on getting them to bed early because they were up early and didn't nap and were very cranky.  Reanna and I were to meet at Friday's to get some appetizers, then go to Coldstone to use my birthday coupon for free ice cream, but I wasn't going to leave until I had the girls in bed.  After I brushed their teeth and they got their jammies on it was still a little early for Abby and Zoë to get in bed, but I was just going to read some extra stories. Chris decided to let them go downstairs to watch a movie and said that he'd put them to bed after.  I was a little skeptical, but let them have their fun.  As Abby was walking downstairs with Chris she said, "I don't mind staying up late."

I gave hugs and kisses and went on my way, and only borrowed the cell phone from Kate, who ended up going with Reanna as a surprise, once to call home.  It was when we were done and I was going back to the car, and Chris said everything went fine and the girls were sleeping.  When I got home he told me that they stuck to their deal they'd made with Daddy, and didn't whine about not getting the Bible story or extra story after their movie, they made sure they put on plenty of lip stuff to make up for it though.  And they went to sleep pretty uneventfully.

The new session of story time started up today, so of course Zoë, Abby, and I were there.  We got there early, which even though we left the house in plenty of time, I thought we might be late because it took forever to find parking... busy day in the area I guess. 

Abby and Zoë picked out a few books and we sat to read while we waited.  Pretty soon we heard the story time bell chime and off we went.  Abby and Zoë went right in, got their name tags made, grabbed a carpet square, and sat down right in front of the stool where Ms. Mary sits to read.  Today's theme was bed time and going to sleep.  We heard some cute stories, did some fun movement songs, and then got to decorate door knob hangers at the end.  Abby and Zoë are definitely not shy in the story time room anymore.  They were answering questions, dancing around, picking crayons and stickers... how they do love their story times.

We got stuff from two Grandma's today!  First, we stopped at the post office on our way to the grocery store, where we got lots of yummy produce to blend up, and there was a package from Grandma Cindy (via Amazon.com)  I was surprised that it was there already, because it wasn't due to get to us until the 28th... it was almost a week early.  As soon as I got in the car the girls asked, "Is it hullabaloo?"  They knew that Grandma Cindy had tried to order it previously for their birthday but it had been out of stock, they've been waiting for it ever since.  Thanks Grandma Cindy!

When we got home from the grocery store and all situated, we set up the hullabaloo game and played a couple of rounds.  As we were setting up we heard a knock at the door, it was the mail man with a pacakge from Nonna!  We set it aside long enough to play our game and then opened it up.  There was something for everyone inside.  Abby and Zoë got heart shirts, and lip stuff, and all sorts of goodies to eat.  There was a share bag for them as well, with more snacks and fun stuff, including valentine's cards to give.  Daddy had some goodies too, a hat and assortment of food stuff.  Then there were Mommy's goodies.  There was a neat bag good to hold wet stuff, a calendar with a different cake recipe every month, of course coupons, and some other neat things.  There was also a birthday card, which I had special permission to open early, holding gift cards and more coupons... hooray!  Thank you Nonna for all of our goodies!

We've really become aggitated with UPS.  We waited all day for our blender to be delivered. This is the second blender, as there were some conflicts with the voltage on the first.  The first one, which we were tracking, never even got delivered the day it went out for delivery.  Sure, there was snow that day, but UPS was definitely delivering that day, we saw them pass our house at 5:00 p.m.  As the evening drew on, and then the girls were in bed and we still didn't have it, we tried getting a hold of the local sorting facility.  The 800 number was no help, didn't have any way of getting any local numbers for us and couldn't tell us anything besides exactly what we could read online.

This time, before we knew which service would be delivering the package, I called FedEX and UPS both.  I told both that I didn't yet have a tracking number, could they look up the information by my name and address.  FedEx did this right away, checked their express and ground based on my address.  Unfortunately it wasn't sent FedEx.  UPS told me they had no way of finding the package without the tracking or reference number.  I asked again, "Even if I give you my name and address, you can't see if there's a package coming to me?"  Nope, but gave the helpful advice that I should call the sender to get the tracking number and track it online... thanks.

They must have changed their route, because we used to get packages, even from UPS, much earlier in the day... though then they'd sit in the truck and just throw it up onto the porch as long as it wasn't too heavy.  We got the package this evening, some time after dinner.  I asked the guy if we were last on the route and he replied, "Almost".  We looked at the box... reference # 2 was my name.  So please, if you have something to send us and can help it, don't send us packages via UPS unless it is the last option available, they are really not our favorites these days.

We had an appointment at the community campus again, and got some fun stuff this time.  First, we got some Tom's of Maine kids toothpaste, then the girls got to each choose a book.  Abby chose a 'first reader' "Biscuit Visits the Big City" and Zoë chose "10 For Dinner", which is fun and has lots of adding.

After this was a not so fun part, where the girls both had to get a finger prick to test their iron levels.  They've never been nervous for this before, but Zoë heard her say blood and remembered the shots on Tuesday and was all freaked out.  Abby went first, and cried more than expected, but got a cool band-aid and was fine.  Zoë was standing behind the table out of my reach crying, "I'm nervous, I'm nervous!"  I got her into my lap and had to struggle to get her arm outstretched.  She was pretty much hysterical, especially when the woman squeezed the blood out into the tester.  The good news is that their counts were higher than needed (must be all those greens my girls are fond of) Abby's measured at 14.1 and Zoë's measured at 14.4. (normal range for this age is 11-13)

Next, Abby and Zoë got to play with one of the ladies doing some games from the new fitness kit.  The kit we got to take home has a nice spiral bound book with different tabs for ideas of games to do to get our bodies moving, as well as build on some developmental physical milestones and some quiet time activities.  It also had some fun things to get us started on the games.

Abby and Zoë have been just about as excited as Chris and I to receive our new blender.  Unfortunately it came and is not the normal voltage.  It reads that it's 240 v., not what we were supposed to receive.  So, we took a trip to Home Depot to get the supplies needed to get an outlet hooked up to use it with. 

Of course, as soon as we got to the store, Abby and Zoë needed the bathroom.  As we were on our way back to meet Daddy after finishing in the bathroom, Zoë was all turned around and concerned.  She said, "How are we going to find Daddy?!  We're on the other side from him, how are we going to get to him?" 

It ended up that there was some confusion as to wether or not our blender is actually 240 v. or if it's mislabled, so now we have to wait to see how it's going to be resolved.  Abby and Zoë keep wondering when we're going to start blending up our fruits, veggies, and leafy greens!

Abby and Zoë were slightly shy when Alex, the nurse, came in to begin Abby and Zoë's four year check-up.  Of course, both Zoë and Abby were chatting up a storm in no time.  She asked some general questions, asking more to them than to me.  Then it was time to get their stats. 

They were both the same for height and weight.  I'm not sure the scale was accurate, but they weighed in at 31 pounds, so they have seemingly gotten over that 30 pound mark.  Their height is 38 ³/₄ inches.  They also did a vision test.  Since Chris wasn't there to take one of the girls out of the room while the other did the test, the nurse had them do it together.  First they both covered their left eyes and started out on the bottom row.  They took turns answering one after the other.  Zoë was all flustered and got a couple "wrong", but after doing the other eyes, she tried Zoë out again and she was fine.  Next was the hearing test, which they both passed with flying colors.  She said that most kids their age have a hard time with the thumb up and down method (she had them give a thumb up when they heard the beep and then put their thumb back down until they heard a beep again) and was surprised how well they did with that.  Then they got their blood pressure taken, fine as well.

Next Anne came in.  We haven't seen her before, as she's normally at the Hampton office.  While the girls were waiting for her to come in, they were able to color on the paper covering the exam table.  They both wrote their names near them so that the dr. would know who they were.  Abby also wrote 'the' and some other letters.  Zoë wanted me to draw a cinnamon bun.  Anne was surprised that they both did this, and especially impressed with Abby's penmanship.  They were just very animated with her and talked a LOT to her.  Everything that Anne asked if they knew how to do, they were able to do.  She was super surprised when she saw that both of the girls were already skipping too.  They were able to do the standing on one leg and the hopping on one leg.  She was also glad to hear that they liked a variety of foods.  She asked Abby what her favorite vegetable was and Abby said, "Broccoli" and when asked her favorite fruit she said, "Strawberries".  When Zoë was asked she said, "Asparagus" and "Oranges".  Then Zoë said, "Hey, I smell oranges in this place!"  Anne had had a clementine before seeing us.  Anne noted that they wouldn't be able to start Kindergarten in the fall and that they'd have to wait a whole year after that.  She said they are definetely already at a Kindergarten level.

We got the results of the urine culture for Zoë, it came back fine.  Anne recommended making a follow-up appointment for Zoë in a few weeks, for her adhesion.  We can talk about the possibility of seeing a urologist then.

There weren't any mandated shots this visit, but she did recommend getting the hep A shot, which we wanted to get them started with anyway, should we be able to travel later in the year like we want to.  Once Anne left the room, I explained to Abby and Zoë that they'd be getting one shot.  They were both a little concerned about this, but I told them it was no big deal.  Just one quick shot.  Abby began to get very nervous about the shot as we waited, and Zoë kept telling her "Abby, it's no big deal.  It's just a quick 'woop' and then we're done"  Zoë ended up going first, Abby sitting clenched fist beside us, and of course Zoë cried, which made Abby start crying.  She was terrified, and I had to pull her on my lap, then fight her arm out of her sleeve.  Both girls cried for a few minutes, but were alright by the time we were picking out stickers.

Today was the day we were supposed to be in Portsmouth Herald.  I hadn't had a chance to get out and find the paper yet, before it was time for Abby and Zoë's four year check-up.  As I was getting Abby and Zoë out of the car at the pediatrician's office, a nurse was walking from her car up to the building.  She said, "Hey, cute picture in the paper." I said thank-you and that we hadn't had a chance to see it yet.  I didn't think about the paper again until we got home from the appointment.  Fred, next door, stopped me as we were getting out of the car and said he was bringing something out for me.  He brought out the paper, and when I told him we hadn't seen it yet, he showed me the picture and gave me the paper!

It began snowing very early this morning and just kept on going.  We ended up getting around a foot (seemed like maybe a little more).  We had a slow morning getting ready.  We made sure we had our warm clothes on.  We also made a birthday call to Grandma Cindy.  As we were getting ready to go outside to shovel, Andrea called and we decided to head over to her house and walk to the park to go sledding.

Well, the girls and I set out, but of course the sidewalks weren't shoveled, so it was slow going as the snow was already very deep for the girls.  We made it to the area in front of the fish market and then stood for a moment to figure out how to proceed.  As we were standing there, a car pulled up along the snow bank and a guy got out asking if he could take our picture for the Portsmouth Herald newspaper.  I made sure he was really a news guy (not that I was worried, but you can never be too careful these days)  He got some photos of us, took our names, and when he got to me he asked my relationship to the girls.  When I said 'Their Mother', he stopped writing and looked at me and said, "Oh, you look so young".  Thanks mr, come back and tell me that in another ten years, I'm sure I'll appreciate it a lot more then.  After we got closer to Andrea and Anna Claire's street, I lifted the girls over the snow bank and we walked along the side on the street, since it was not a busy road.  We jumped into the snow, where the sidewalk should have been once, just to get out of the way of a car.

Once at Andrea's, we decided to play in her back yard, there was no way I was trying to walk to the park after all our trudging!  She had a little hill, that we actually had a lot of fun sledding on, especially with our 'twister' disc sled.  We also played with beach toys in the snow, which everyone thought was just silly.  After about an hour of playing, I decided we should probably start our trek home, before the girls got too tired to walk with me.  After lunch Zoë was relaxing on the couch with Daddy and ended up falling asleep.  I snuggled Abby a little in the reading area, and she fell asleep for a while too.

We went to feed the birds at the park today, who were very hungry.  Mostly the seagulls came, just a few pigeons.  The birds loved the cereal we brought, and were lined up on both sides of the boardwalk and in groups all around us.  On the way back, we saw a seal!  I had just put the camera away, so I missed the good shot of it going up and into the water, when we got a really good look at it.  It went under and just as we were about to leave, we saw its head bob up out of the water, then we saw another one!  There was also a big ship being tugged along, and some sort of military plane flying over head... quite a walk in the park today.

We went out to the grocery store today and it seemed like the shopping trip that just didn't end.  First we took longer than anticipated in the super Wal-Mart, then we stopped at the other Wal-Mart to see if there was an item that wasn't at the first Wal-Mart, then we had to stop at Shaw's for a couple of produce items.  We were out so long doing house shopping so long that even Mommy was getting cranky.