Isaac and Abby

Well, this is my first official post. What am I saying? Official or not, this is my first post. I finally decided that I need to start writing -- and I'll figure out how to put pics up and other fun stuff later. But you have to start somewhere, right? And I need to give Monique something to read so she'll start visiting my site again! ;-D

It has been quite a busy two months. I say busy, but even then all I can account for are 8-10x7x8.5x2 feedings, give or take a few; at least that many diaper changes; the more than occasional blowout; probably just as many hours of rocking and burping and coaxing through gas bubbles and constipation cramps; and, unfortunately, about 1/2 to 2/3 as many hours sleeping. ;-D

Take away all of that, and I can only attempt to put into words the millions of reasons -- infinite, if you will, and thus unable to put into a mathematical equation -- that I am completely in love with my family.

First of all, Abigail. The first thing that stole our hearts with Abby was her very well formed nose. I know it may sound silly, but she came into this world with the cutest little nose! Add to that her very large blue eyes, her somewhat olive skin tones (not sure where she got that from), and her cute little ears that stand out from her face just enough to stand out without it being so much that you think, "Wow - she has really big ears!" Yeah, she has a little pixy face, whatever that means. For some reason, that's just what comes to mind when I look at her. She is just a cute little girl in every way.

Abby started out being a very "colicky" baby. I cry even as I write this just thinking about the last eight weeks with this precious little girl. She has had a difficult time adjusting to this mortal tabernacle that her spirit has recently occupied in a new, unexplored way. And that has been hard for her and also hard on me, not going to lie. I remember many nights that she would wake up screaming, and I would go to the crib or the cradle and look into her face and see her whole face scrunched up in pain. It was awful! And many times I myself broke into tears at the mere sight of her discomfort. We would cry together -- which, as is generally the case with females, has led to some very intense female bonding in the wee small hours of the morning -- and then I would just sit and hold her and rock her and go through the bicycle motions with her legs to try to help her work through it. I write in the past tense, but the truth is that we are still doing all of this to try to work through it; but it's getting better!

Our first friend in working through all of this was Daddy. I remember the first week after we got home when Dave was just getting ready for his first day of school. He came in while I was feeding her and asked, "Can I burp her--- puhlease?!!!!!" My heart melted and I laughed and told him that of course he could. And that was neither the first nor last time that he came to my rescue with this little girl. Abby loves her daddy!!! The next friend in working through this little kink was Grandma White. She was followed by a bottle of gas drops. Then Monique came and put in her share of nights just rubbing and coaxing and rocking this little girl. Now it is a swing that an angel of mercy gave to us a few weeks ago (thanks, Shawna!!!). I'll put her in the fetal position in the swing, bundle her up really well, and let her just try to work through it while the swing does the rocking. And she has stolen all of our hearts as we have tried to ease her transition into this world.

Aside from that, though, things with Abby have just started to get really fun. She is one of the cutest, most fun to watch babies in the world! She will sit, sometimes for five minutes or so (which is a lot for a newborn) and just smile the biggest smiles, coo the cutest coos, and make faces that would make you think she was talking to you with the best of them were you to view it on a silent movie. A few times we have even gotten some giggles! It's so cute! And, yes, to our delight we have found she has her mom and Grandpa White's dimples! ;-D Lucky girl! She's well on her way to stealing many a male heart - her daddy's being the first! At Stake Conference on Saturday night, I think she was even singing the closing song with her dad. It was just so incredibly fun and just so cute! We can't get enough of watching her during those moments and even watching her constantly in anticipation for those moments.

Next is Isaac -- our little man. If you were to spend two minutes with him, you would soon see why we call him our little man and that there couldn't be a more accurate or appropriate description than that for him. He is seriously one of THE cutest little babies ever!!!! His smiles don't come as often or as easily as Abby's, but when they do they just steal your heart! His whole face -- generally serious with a furrowed brow that lets you know he is working on solving all the world's problems and cannot be disturbed -- relaxes, and you see this cute, sweet little boy in him come out for just a moment. However, I'm kind of glad that we have the furrowed brow moments. It just adds that much more personality to our little baby boy. You could literally sit and watch him for hours, watching his various "thinking at you" faces, as his daddy calls them. And you would laugh the entire time. Again, I get jealous when other people get to sit and watch him and quickly cue in to not miss a single moment of his glances, looks, furrowed brows, and occasional smiles.

Isaac is more of the strong, silent type already. He has also struggled with the gas and constipation, but instead of crying through it, he just furrows that brow and concentrates silently until he either falls asleep or works through it. Sometimes when you hold him, you can just hear the bubbles rumbling through his tummy. Other times, more than an hour after I have laid him down and thought he was asleep, I'll go in and check on him only to find that he is wide awake and "thinking." Consequently, he has become a self burper! It's really funny! He'll be eating right along and then back off a little, burp, and get right back to eating.

Sunday night we were at our friends' house and I looked over to see David staring at the top of Isaac's head. He said, "Look." And I looked over to see his heartbeat in the soft spot on the top of his head. It was really crazy! Oh the fun things you don't think about getting to see when you're a parent.

As I said before -- I am in love with my family: David, Isaac, and Abigail. They steal my heart day after day, over and over again!