Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Forty

Highlight of the Week

Well, we’ve been sick, again.

It’s been a rough week. Braelynn came down with a cold (thankfully this time, it truly seems like just a cold & not croup like a few weeks ago) on Wednesday. By Wednesday night, I could feel it creeping up on me, and I officially got it on Thursday. On Friday, Leander started to show signs of having the cold too. Thankfully, he seems to have the mildest case of us all – as he’s just a little bit sniffly here and there. Braelynn & I are still fighting it though. The worst part for me is that I can hardly take anything with breastfeeding Leander – I can’t really take any cold medicine & the list of herbal/essential oil things I can take to help shorten the length of the cold is very slim. Mama’s simply should not be allowed to get sick. Needless to say, the last few days have been full of sitting on the couch, watching lots of tv shows & movies, and being overwhelmingly thankful for WalMart Grocery Pickup (so I could order tissues & tea & dinner and have Derrick simply pick it up on his way home).
Thankfully, all of our appointments (see below) were at the beginning of the week, and by Wednesday, we didn’t have to leave the house.

Yes, This Happened

• We went to visit Derrick’s family last weekend & had quite the car ride home. We knew that the weather was going to turn icy, so we left as soon as we could, hoping that we would avoid the ice storm that was coming in, but unfortunately, we didn’t leave early enough. Needless to say, the last 2 hours of our trip were a little bit “sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat”. Thankfully, we made it home without incident – I’m so thankful that Derrick was driving!
• Taxes for 2018 – done. BOOYA.
• On Monday, I decided it was time to get back to “normal” life. Braelynn & I went to story time at the library almost every single week last year, but we haven’t been back since Leander was born. I’m a bit crazy, but I like to keep my babies in for as long as I can when they’re first born (especially since I’ve had 2 winter babies – right smack in the middle of cold & flu season). So, I knew I wouldn’t be going anywhere for the first 6-8 weeks. But, we’re now past that point, so I figured it was time. I didn’t realize that it was President’s Day on Monday – which means that most schools aren’t in session and that always means that story time is much larger than usual. We ended up not even getting a seat in the story time area! It was so fun though to walk into the library & instantly have everyone so excited to see us! It was like we were celebrities. It felt really good to get out of the house, even if it was just for an hour. It also felt really good to go somewhere with both kids on my own – to kind of prove to my head that I could do it. Of course, I think we probably picked our colds up from the library – so, as good as it was, I’m not sure that it was worth it.
• As if I need any more signs that my little boy is growing like crazy, I had to break out the next size prefolds this week. If you aren’t sure what “prefolds” are, they’re the insert that goes into a cloth diaper cover. And for reference, I used “size 1” prefolds with Braelynn for a solid 6+ months before I had to get the next size for her. Leander is just coming up on 3 months and he’s already there.
• Braelynn & I had dentist appointments this week. I am so proud of my big girl!! This is the 3rd time she’s been to the dentist to get her teeth cleaned and she was actually excited to go! She hopped right up into the chair all by herself and then proceeded to get her teeth cleaned all by herself. They did both of our cleanings at the same time, so I could only hear Braelynn on the other side of the wall – she was having a blast. The dental hygienist who cleans her teeth is super upbeat & positive and just kept praising her & telling her what an amazing job she was doing. Our dentist office is so wonderful – they have little nicknames for everything & told me from the beginning that their goal with little kids is to simply make it as fun & positive an experience as possible, to lay the foundation of good dental hygiene. Well, they’ve definitely done their job – because Braelynn loves the dentist! I am so proud of her & her “shiney” teeth!
• Let’s not talk about all the grey Abby’s starting to have show up in her face – today’s close-up photo really shows it all off. She will be 9 years old this summer – but let’s not talk about that!

Feeling Blessed

So, on Thursday night, Derrick was watching a YouTube video listing the creator’s top 1,000 roller coasters. Yes: one-thousand. It was quite the video. I just listened, but my curiosity eventually got the best of me & I ended up sitting down next to Derrick to watch the last 300 coasters.
Around number 200, Derrick asked me: “What coaster do you think will be his number one?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know.”He pressed, “No really, what do you think?”I shrugged again, “I don’t know!” And then I tossed out the first “big” coaster that came to my mind: “Intimidator 305.”
He laughed at me. “Yeah right. It’ll probably be Steel Vengence or something like that.”I don’t usually stand a chance at beating Derrick at roller coaster “trivia”, so I said, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
As the numbers rolled down, we sat on the edge of our seats to find out what this person believed to be the number one coaster in the entire world.
And that’s when we heard: “Gentlemen, start your engines!” (the opening track to Intimidator 305)
Needless to say, I was instantly on top of the world. I actually guessed it correctly!! I WON. Not that it was a competition, but WOW did I feel good – I still feel good.
I’ll never beat Derrick at “roller coaster trivia” ever again, so I’ll just be holding on to this story for the rest of our lives.