The Olson Family Gazette

Photos of Abbie

Over the past few weeks, I've received some confused questions about our little Abbie's photos, and how to access them on Flickr. Here's a little more information about Flickr, and why we've chosen to use it:

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the internet is frequently used by various types of predators to target children. At Abbie's age, this usually means kidnapping, but as she gets older, it will mean not only kidnappers, but all sorts of other personalities with bad intentions. So, we're erring on the side of caution and getting into the habit early on of not posting many pictures of her that any "Joe Schmoe" can access. So if you just go to the Flickr website without logging in, you'll see a couple photos of Abbie, but not nearly as you could.

Having said that, we would like all of you, family and friends, to be able to view all of the pictures, so that you can share in her growth and occasional antics (which are getting more numerous by the day!). To gain access to these photos takes 3 steps:

1 - Sign up for a Yahoo account at www.yahoo.com. It's free, and it's quick. You don't need to give them contact information, etc. Just your name, gender, birth date, and zip code (and if you're concerned about giving them your real info, just make something up). Of course, if you already have a Yahoo ID (i.e. a Yahoo email account), then you can skip this step.

2 - Let Marc or me know what your Yahoo ID is - we'll make sure that your ID is granted permission to view all of the photos of Abbie.

3 - Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/molson/ and login with your Yahoo ID and password

Once you have done this once, you will be able to view all existing photos and all future photos of Abbie. Thanks for helping us keep our little girl safe and happy!

Beth

A Few More Updates

Abbie
Abbie had her 1 month Dr. Appointment yesterday. She's 1 inch taller and over a pound heavier (10lb 13oz). She's been having gas issues, so the Dr. recommended that I lay off of dairy products for a while. I encourage everyone to go to their refrigerator & pantry and see how many products contain milk, cream, or whey........

Go ahead, I'll wait.......

Thank you for your sympathy.

Landscaping
Well, we found a landscape design lady (from a local nursery) and made an appointment. Unfortunately, by the time we got in touch with her, she was already booked clear to the end of July. It's probably better that way, so that I'm not tempting to over-extend myself doing landscaping over the next month.

Triathlon
Marc's starting to get back on the horse with his tri training. Unfortunately, one of the few times he's found to ride his bicycle, one of the spokes snapped on a wheel, which was immediately followed by a flat tire. It's a bit trickier going to pick up Marc and his bicycle when there's a car seat and a stroller already in there. But, Marc proved to be quite resourceful. It just goes to show that round pegs can sometimes fit into square holes - you just have to be able to pull apart the round peg.

P.S. Marc swears he'll get some more Abbie pictures up on Flickr soon, including Abbies first bath!

4 weeks old!

Abbie is officially 4 weeks old. That means that we've made it through 4 weeks of diapers, feedings, fussiness and sleepiness - and it's (mostly) all uphill from here! For my own future reference, and for everyone's amusement, I thought I'd commemorate this occasion by listing some of the lessons I've learned over these recent weeks:

- It's nice to have the wallpaper border up on the walls before the baby arrives, but even nicer to have baby wipes & diapers
- What the lactation consultant doesn't tell you: if you're watching TV, make sure you can reach the remote before starting to feed
- I don't need 8 hours of sleep to *think* I'm functioning normally
- Just get the stupid baby swing. It takes up alot of space, but it's totally worth it.
- Projectile poop can end up in the last place you're expecting it........
- Baby night gowns with mittens and snap fronts that can be converted into coveralls are a gift from God.
- The same baby that can sleep through a fire alarm will pop awake at the first sound of a bag of potato chips opening (thanks to Jeanne for this one).
- Find out ahead of time what functions you can and cannot do with 1 hand, so you don't try something with baby-in-hand that you'll regret.

And lastly:
- If your baby smiles at you, you don't care if it's just gas.

We have hands

Over the past few days Abbie has been figuring out that she has hands. She's been flailing them around, scratching us, and grabbing hold of my teeth at every chance.

When she was doing well with feeding, we decided to go ahead and introduce a pacifier for those times when she was a little fussy. This works well, except that she gets bored of it after a few minutes and usually spits it across the room. Last night, I had the pacifier in her mouth, she grabbed it with her hands, flung it away and started sucking on her thumb. The picture didn't come out too well, but that's what happens when you have a sleepy mom being woken up to take a picture and then feed (she was hungry, and she let us know that right after the picture was taken).

Like Vic told me yesterday (when talking about his daughter)... There's a good thing and a bad thing about finger sucking. The good thing is, you can't lose them. The bad thing is, you can't lose them.