Bye bye grammy!

For some reason I wasn't able to figure out how to slide my pictures down, so you will get to see those before you read about what we have been up to :)

Abby and my mom connected and bonded this past week so much! Abby responds well to her name and has smiled a few times for grammy. My mom is awesome at changing poopy diapers -something that both Abby and I appreciate!

AJ loves to throw rocks into the pool! Between the rocks and Maggie laying in the water, it gets pretty dirty by the end of the day! AJ loved the water park at the zoo when we went on Monday!

Here is grammy and AJ hanging out in the backyard. They were deep in conversation when I interrupted them for a picture. Here is our father's day picture - pictured below is Adam, AJ and Abby, "papa" (Gordy Giles) and great-grandma Giles.

Great-grandma Giles enjoyed holding Abby when we were visiting Adam's dad for father's day.

Abby started crying and AJ ran over and said "it's okay Abby"... I was so glad I had my camera handy!

Abby is such a snuggler - I love it!!!

Here is AJ just "chillin" by the pool with grammy.

AJ loves to balance on the border at the park. He is very coordinated!

I love her smiles - and especially when she laughs. Isn't she cute?

My mom bought this ridiculous hat for Abby - and it has matching "shoes/socks" too :) Poor thing was a great sport!

I can't tell what color Abby's eyes are going to be. Right now they are very similar to AJ's when he was born - a bright blue in the middle and a little darker around the outsides. I swore the other day they were turning brown, but now I am not so sure.

I am so blessed to have had my mother visit and help out this entire past week. I don't know what I have done without her (and am not quite sure what I will do without her starting tomorrow!). She has helped me in so many ways, I am forever grateful to her. The most helpful thing my mom has done over this past week has been to spend countless hours with AJ outside and to continue to help him adjust to our beautiful addition to our family. AJ had a bit of a difficult start to the week, getting a few extra time outs than normal and always wanting to be on my lap, especially if Abby is nursing (which continues to be very frequently - she nurses for about forty minutes at a time about every two hours now). By the end of this week he has almost completely stopped whining and only got one time out today so far, and none the past two days.

This week has physically been much more difficult for me. I ended up getting mastitus (spelling?) on Wednesday in the middle of the night, and was in much pain most of Thursday, although I did start to feel better by Friday. I also realized I threw out my hips during labor and needed to start seeing a chiropractor. My back is getting better, but I feel like an old lady hobbling around! Again, thank the Lord for my mom being here - the timing couldn't have been better. She watched AJ while I went to the dr.'s, to get my prescription and to the chiropractor. She even brought me my meds and water throughout the day!

We have spent a lot of time trying to arrange our toys in the back so AJ can be content with staying just back there instead of venturing to the park for our outings, and that has been a huge success! AJ loves to sit by the kiddie pool with his feet in the water, and especially likes to slide into the pool from his little slide. He is awesome at watering my flowers - which is very helpful since my hands are usually full :) He continues to do a wonderful job with Abby - he is so gentle with her and recently has been really wanting to hold and carry her. I have let him hold her, and you can just tell how proud he feels when she is in his arms.

It will be interesting how this next week goes with flying solo, but I am sure things will be fine once we take the plunge and just go for it :) Here are a few pictures from this week. I tried to have a little photo shoot for Abby today to get a picture for her announcements, but none were "just right", so I will need to try again another day :) Enjoy!