Abigail-
I don't like hospitals, when I get old I am going to die there.

Madison-
Abigail and Madison were playing and Abigail verbally told her to sit and the  followed with the sign for down. Madison immediately followed her sisters instructions. It is so sweet how she adores Abigail. Even if Abigail won't play with her she just wants to be near her. :-)

Sweetness All Around

Madison is doing great at starting to put things back in buckets and containers. She is constantly handing one of us something and saying something to us when she does as she looks right into your eyes. Makings of a great communicator. :-)

Abigail is a riot. As she was painting she kept saying "cute". Last night when I got her and Maddy some clothes on sale she pulled them out of the bag and would hold it up and say cute. Mind you if she doesn't like it she will let you know without hesitation. I've held things up to her with an immediate response of "no way"!

She absolutely loves coloring, painting, arts and crafts and birthdays! She likes making things for people. 

Coloring a picture for Anna's birthday. 

Madison playing with the little gear toy. It lights up and plays music and she was dancing to it. 

Abigail told me she was going to work and closed the back door to the dining room/laundry area. When I tried going in to see what she was doing, she told me to "go away, working". So when she was done she opened the door and said "home" and put all her work stuff on her table.

Just a side note. Got this little outfit for such a deal and it looks so cute on her! She put it on this afternoon and started to model it for me spinning and hand movements to highlight the shirt. Love her such a sweet heart!

The little colored cups and painted flower box filled with various things such as a flower clip, party blower, etc...are her work things. :-)

Bill playing with Abigail before we all get ready for bed. She loves to play rough and get flipped etc. Madison is starting to enjoy it too and always wants in on the action.

Abigail's first night gown. She liked it so much she said she was a princess and dancing. When she put it on she said "Madison princess" and went to the dryer to find her night gown. :-)

I was able to get Madison down for her nap but Abigail. For the past few months Abigail has been fighting it but clearly needs one when she gets upset about the smallest things or a little too rough with her sister. Rides in the car no longer seem to guarantee a nap so now resorting to some quiet time. I am sure all our appointments and stuff don't help with the normal routine despite our efforts. So quiet time it was for her and I, as I so wanted to just hit the pillow and sleep. :-) Instead she cuddled with me and brought over 30 DVD's upstairs so we could play them on the computer. We had a little snack of cantaloupe, cheese sticks, organic cheese crackers (these really are yummy and she liked them this time), and milk. Love it when she cuddles with me!

Things are a bit chaotic (what else is new :-)) with selling the business (the crazy hours), no sleep for any of us (various issues with girls, pain, business hours), issues with our house, me having some medical issues and tests for the past few months and possible surgery. Not looking forward to the MRI but if the results are good then great! Lord it is all in your hands! Funny someone asked Bill how all were through a text and he said stressed. They asked why? We have about 5 appointments a week (upto 6 at times), medical issues with me along with Madison and add to it her not eating or making any improvement in this area at all,  Madison pulling out her g-tube a little more than we would like (although this last time it was me as it got stuck on car seat!), Abigail going through some things, Bill selling the business and soon down to one income as he stays home caring for the girls, me in severe pain at times (like as I write this I am in severe pain and can barely walk as I get ready for work), so much more but really how much do you have to list. Guess you just don't understand unless you live it. Let's add me working full time again and hearing rumors of my funding getting cut as I become the sole income and insurance carrier with another open heart surgery coming up. No stress not at all. :-) I will say this, God is faithful and He has it in His hands. Does that mean you don't get stressed? I've been through enough in my life to know you do but you lean on God and He has it all under control. We are at nature control freaks so it is normal to be a bit stressed plus lack of sleep contributes to the stress quite a bit.

1st Day at Nursery and 1st Day at 2 and 3 year olds - Church

Big day for the Hanson girls. All three of us! :-) We started by brining Madison to the nursery at church. Phew, this was a hard one for me but I knew Madison would warm up immediately to the gals in there. Thankfully Megan Volz was in there and greeted all four of us with a warm inviting smile and open arms to receive Miss Madison. I told her I was a bit nervous because Madison has only been with Bill, Me or my mother-in-law. We chose Saturday night because it worked well around her feeding schedule on the g-tube and overall our schedule. We wanted a smaller group for each of the girls for various reasons, more calming and less germs and viruses! 

As you can see Madison was studying Megan right away and they connected. 

 Next was Abigail. We tried many months ago to all go to service and bring Abigail to her classroom but a little girl had a runny nose. They thought it was allergies but we couldn't take chances with Madison so we had to pull her from the class. As you can see by the picture above she wasn't handling us leaving very well. She wanted Bill or I to go with her. Thankfull Katie Wherle was there and greeted us with a big smile and offered to take Abigail from me if I picked her up and promised to call if she cried more than 15 minutes. I had a difficult time hearing Abigail scream and cry as we walked away.

Gulp, it was a hard evening in service for me and I cried during praise and worship and constantly thought about the girls in service. Bill didn't quite understand my struggle so I am very grateful for a big God that does!

I left service a few minutes early to get Madison's feed started and give her meds. We had a few visitors Andrew and the Cours stopped by to say Hi. Lisa's timing was perfect because usually Madison is so squirmy it's hard to give her meds but Lisa being there distracted her. :-) It was nice that Lisa could see her because she hadn't seen her since the open heart surgery last year in Boston.

When I picked up Madison, the ladies were so impressed with Madison's ability to scoot around so fast. :-) Try running after her with a pole and her attached to a feeding tube. HAHAHA. They said she did great!

Lisa and I walked over to pick up Abigail and Aiden (her son) who was also in Abigail's class. Abigail looked a bit scared and confused when she saw me at the door. Poor thing, her personality is so much like mine in so many ways! Katie said she did great, she didn't sing with the group but watched. One of the young workers handed me Abigail's picture of David that she colored. In the car I asked what she did and she said "sang" and I said what else and she just had this cute little smile and would look up at the sky and say ummmmm. She seemed to enjoy it. When she went in the car seat she said "do again?" so that means she had fun. I saw this little rainbow sticker on her shirt so I asked her about it she just said "doctors". She is so use to going to the doctors and getting stickers that she must automatically associate stickers with doctors!

A tired looking Abigail! So proud of her she did great in her first day of class and without a nap! Yahooo Abigail!

Madison also looks tired with only a 15 minute nap today! So proud of Madison too!

Great job girls!

Here is Abigail's coloring of David! Way to go Abigail!

Abigail was all excited to go back outside after service. Grabbed my hand and kept pulling me to come. She wanted to see the sun again! She kept asking God "light on" as we were going to church because she could see it wasn't as bright as earlier. Such a sweetheart! "God, please light on now." She just loves the sun, moon, starts, and can't forget lighting and thunder!

Finished the night at Burger King with a cone! The girls fells asleep in the car and went straight to bed and I got a few minutes to write this. Thank you Lord Jesus for a wonderful service and that my girls did so well! To God be all the glory and honor!

Madison 16 Months!

As I write, I realized I didn't get a photo of Madison yesterday! I left my camera home and as usual it was a non stop day. Some how I usually manage to get a photo in! Sorry sweet Madison!

Anyway my baby girl is 16 months old! We are just a few days away from her 1 year anniversary of open heart surgery (June 6, 2012). It is amazing how God has brought us this far! I am trying to concentrate on all the wonderful things because when I think back to those days of prepping her for surgery I get very emotional. Probably because I know unless God chooses to do a complete miracle in her we have to do it all again and it makes me just want to burst out in tears!

Any hoot, time to press on. Today we had a lovely day starting with Abigail wanting to go into the little baby pool we have in the back yard! She just loves being outside any chance she can and the pool is her favorite right now! I haven't seen Madison in it yet but Bill tells me she equally enjoys it as he tried on Friday. She loves the bath tub so I wouldn't expect any less from the pool. The heat and humidity have been a bit much so the little pool come in handy.

We went to the Fish Family Farm yesterday after an open house in Bolton that was right around the corner. Didn't bring my camera because I figured I didn't need it for an open house. Note to self, always bring the mini camera! This was the first time we went to this particular farm and it was nice just being out in the fresh air on actual grass! When we walked up to the fence all the cows started walking towards Abigail, I mean the entire heard! Those poor cows look like they are carrying quite the load of milk! Being a Mom who is still pumping milk for my baby Madison I understand. :-) Bill and I laugh because Abigail seems to have a friendship with the cow Lucy at Northwest Park. Every time she goes Lucy comes up to her and usually "moos" for her unlike other people we've seen walk up to her. In this case it was probably time for feeding or something because the entire heard came and just walked by us. With the exception of one, she came right up to Abigail and stopped and greeted her. So cute!

The open house was nice. Unusual to have one on a Saturday. We so want to move, but God's timing not ours.

Abigail at dinner was a riot. I moved her fork to the left side and she didn't take to that too well. She instructed me that it doesn't go near Daddy and quickly moved it to the right side again telling me "here not near Daddy, OK!" She said it with such authority and was quite upset! No nap for Miss Abigail doesn't always go well. She is in this stage of not napping for the past few months unless you drive around and that isn't always possible. So we have resorted to quiet times with her as Madison still gets her one nap in.

Madison absolutely loves to scoot around! Bill has been working with her on identifying nose so she is picking it up as we work with her. I had the opportunity to read with her a bit yesterday and as I read about chicks and butterflies she would point to them! Awesome to see! She tries very hard to communicate by making great eye contact and being very vocal at you waiting for a response. Points at everything and talks along with the pointing trying to tell us so much.

A Day in the Life of a Toddler

Abigail putting a barrette in Madison's hair.

Abigail said "picking up Daddy at work".

Abigail said "keys please, you stay."