The dark ages

Perhaps we can chalk the last toomanytocount months up to computer issues... However, I just discovered that blogger has an app! Yes, I'm blogging from my phone!

We are 8 weeks or less away from welcoming miss Eliza Quinn and we are all getting more excited about her arrival!

Eden is going to be an amazing big sister ! She talks regularly about changing her diaper and wanting to play princesses with her... Now, I'm not blind to the fact that there will likely be some less than happy days during the initial adjustment but I'm excited to watch them grow together!

Tonite we are headed to Disney on Ice--VIP STYLE! got a table for 4 on the ice and we are thrilled!!!!! Can. Not. Wait!

So, does anyone still read this? I'm really just regretting that I've missed documenting here all the crazy things Eden says and how she's processing this great big world of ours.

Gonna cut it short because I don't have a lot of faith that this post will... Well, POST!

whoa

computer issues ended up being a little more intense than i expected....

making incremental progress to get this blog back on track and WOW DO I HAVE SOME CATCHING UP TO DO!

...eden's grown... basically. she's driving. well, not really. :)
...eden's going to be a big sister come early feb/late jan

yeah, that's the last chunk of time in the tiniest of nutshells.

xoxo
h

Earth to Eden's Entourage!? Hellooooo?

Oh my heavens dear friends... Life has been novel-worthy the last SEVERAL weeks. I'm sorry to have left you out in the cold (well, if you're in NC you've not been ACTUALLY out in the cold. It's been a disgustingly warm winter.) In addition to 2012 being entirely too eventful, I've also got a laptop that's out of order and a iPad that I'm unable to get pictures off of my camera with....UNTIL NOW! Well, the laptop is still out of order but I just got a camera cord adapter. :) Bear with me, folks... I'm making progress and miss blogging TERRIBLY... But if you haven't checked your calendar, I've are going to have a TWO YEAR OLD this week... Yes, thursday. And mama is in the middle of party stuff and hammering out the last few details... It's going to be a blast. Miss y'all! Will post soon! :)

last year?

wow... i haven't blogged since last year...

i'll carve out sometime to give an update on life here shortly... but not tonite :)

merry christmas

making cookies... making memories

from our home to yours!

life after adenoids & tubes

wow... yall... we seriously should've done this a long time ago... eden is doing incredibly!

she has managed to amaze us yet again at her resilience and exactly how much fun she can be when she feels good!! she has eaten meat for the first time... ever. the day she came home from surgery and woke up from her extreme slumber, she asked for some of lee's lunch (sesame chicken) and has been nearly eating us out of house & home ever since...

 pre-surgery breakfast: 1 pancake OR a bowl of cereal OR a nutrigrain bar OR some fruit...
 post-surgery breakfast: 3 pancakes, a cup of yogurt, a bowl of cereal and 3 cups of milk.

pre-surgery chickfila (a girls-night-out favorite of ours.): 1/2 order of small french fries and 2 packs of ketchup and chocolate milk
post-surgery chickfila: 4 nuggets, small fry, chocolate milk, goldfish & a squeal of delight when she received her cow watch.

see what i mean? yes, i realize she's not been out of surgery long enough to get sick or been back to school yet--but things are honestly different...i'm her mama. i can just tell. we have curbed many of the meds we were giving her--its what my gut told me to do... time will tell if that was the RIGHT thing to do... she's talking more, sleeping better... she's doing everything she was doing before the surgery--and doing it a little better.

 ah, now... let's back up a little bit. the week before her surgery, eden managed to catch a stomach bug of sorts... and share it with her mama and daddy... the day after the surgical nurse calls and says "please let us know if she comes down with anything--specifically spiking a fever"... surely she heard my sigh of relief--because my kid doesn't get fevers. her mama doesn't either. i bit my tongue, didn't call...because after all, stomach bugs are 24 hour things... fast forward 2 more days... off to the ENT for our pre-op visit... to make sure after 4 WEEKS OF ANTIBIOTIC, that her ears are clear & get the "green light" for surgery. nope. her ears were STILL infected--but after a closer exam from dr. g, he decided she was "well enough" for surgery... i've never loved those two words together more than i did in that moment. we are so so so thankful for the close attention and special care she has received from her specialists! phone calls checking on her--FROM THE DOCTOR..not just the nurse. i know i've already mentioned her eating--but i'm still in shock at how much differently she's eating! i knew she was a light eater before, but i only thought so because she drinks SO much milk... i thought because that was her "comfort", she never desired much "food food" and seemed to fill up on milk... and plus, she's a snacker--always with the snack cup in hand! hard to measure how much she eats because she was always nibbling on something....

this is really all i had to say for now... the house needs to be vacuumed & i'm ready to hit the hay... however, i'd had a few requests for a "more detailed" update... so, there ya go. i have a few pics (one of her oodling over her chickflia cow watch!), but i've not mastered the icloud for my photos yet... i'm workin' on it.

as promised...

as i was decorating the little tree tonite, i heard my camera flash go off and i found this:

an oreo-encrusted, rosy-cheeked toddler who has stolen our hearts.

it reminded me to update you patient folks with some pictures

these pictures basically go in reverse order... sorta... just go with it.

e loves snowmen... her greatgranny t taught her about these little guys and she can spot them ANYWHERE.

even in a wine cork at the junior league shopping spree... lawdy. 

she is also REALLY into her nativity set right now... "baby jeeeeesus" gets to ride in the baby doll stroller, and gets offered some of her nighttime cup of milk... she also notices that joseph has a beard like daddy and mary is the mama... "mama mary"

this girl was born to be the center of attention... can you tell?

i love this pic of these two.... seriously, two of my favorite people on the planet. 

(i have a few favorites, don't feel slighted if you weren't in this picture.)

the horn that she's holding in both of these pics makes this little squeaky noise, and whenever she blows is aunt lisa chases her and tickles her (she started this a while back)... well, just like one of pavlov's pooches, eden still giggles when she toots her own horn. the previous statement is both literal and metaphorical.

"cheese, mama"

halloween costume... did i post this already... oh geez.

daddy's shooooes

i'm lovin' her golden locks these days... her hair has gone wildddd

holiday elmo. a must-have for your holiday decor this season

this was thanksgiving day... these two fell asleep on the floor, as nershi and i were snuggled up on the sofa. the perfect morning nap before a day of FEASTING... and being thankful.

eden decided to use her bath basket as a helmet (a choice entirely hers) for her "nascoupe"

its become a morning habit on days that lee gets up with her, that nershi stays and sleeps with me... and eden comes in bed with me for a few minutes... the cherry on top of THAT sundae of love? this morning, she runs in our room while i'm playing my usual game of possum and says "hey mama, i love you" and gave me the biggest hug.. melt. my. heart.

surgery still on go... eden STILL on antibiotics (3 weeks, and counting!) and wasn't getting all kinds of better... actually, she was getting a little worse. to the point of my "call the doctor" threshold. her resp. doc (not the one operating) prescribed some steroids for her... 

you know its getting complicated when the pharmacist sends home a separate sheet of paper with the dosing   for which days (days 1-3 do this, days 2-6 do this, days 7-9 do this...)

getting a few butterflies about surgery coming up, but i think its more of a feeling of "let's get this over with" than nervousness.

also, while i'm in such a blogging mood and can't sleep (hello, midnight!)... i wanted to update on her antics and ever expanding vocabulary... i'm CERTAIN i will miss some things... she's saying a LOT these days

talking:

wow... doing this alot and is very good about using her words to tell you what she wants. some of the words she says consistently and recognizably:

hey, bye bye--all those "obvious" words, elmo, big bird, cookie (the food and cookie monster), baby, abby (abby cadabby), baby jesus, tick tock, ALLLL the animal sounds and the majority of the animals themselves, the modes of transportation (boat, truck, tractor, car, train--though most of the time she calls it a choo-choo), peaches, snack, cracker, apple, banana, butterbeans, please, juice, milk, i love you, back up, no no nershi, good boy doggie, wolfpack, most of the family's names...and her friends names, buckle, swing, she can repeat just about anything you ask her to and... she will read you this book cover to cover:

(some times i say "what's that?" and point to something... and sometimes i say "where's the ___")

she's also piecing lots of words together... probably her longest sentence so far is "bye bye socks, HEY TOES!!" as she took her socks off while in the car one day... i almost had to pull over i was laughing so hard. she's pretty consistent with 3-4 word phrases... "more juice please", "back up, doggie" (what she says to him when he's begging at the dinner table!), "daddy go bye bye"

she knows the parts of the body, most of her alphabet (she sings most of the song, and is recognizing several letters), and counted to five (repeating all the numbers) for the first time this weekend! we are working on the colors... 

she can be affectionate when she wants to be... giving kisses and/or hugs... and i love the hug we get if we pretend to cry. when disobeying, we've reached the "i'm going to count to three" stage... which works most of the time... and we've dished out a few good old fashioned spankin's a time or two (+80% of them were because she was running away from a diaper change...deliberate disobedience when she fully understands what she should be doing). at this stage, i try to be very sure that she does FULLY understand what she's supposed to be doing before she gets a whoopin'... its tough sometimes to know if they just don't understand what you're asking them or if they know and choose to do differently--i'm learning consistency is key.

she is LOVING school... i'm 98% sure she's got a little boyfriend there... its cute... for now. heh. her teachers are wonderful and i see the fruits of their hardwork and love--combined with what she's picking up from her family and she is learning SO. FAST.... i can hardly keep up. i've waited almost two years for this stage... this is my FAVORITE age. (well, so far at least ;))

this is the age that i always enjoyed volunteering for at church--the 2-3 year olds... 

little changes

Well friends, I've failed to post pictures again... Ugh. I will get to it... I promise.

Life has been full of little changes... Mostly good. I'm typing this blog from my new little love... My iPad. I never touched one until 3 weeks ago... Thought I might want one 2 weeks ago (though I wasn't entirely sure what for)... And now? Well, I'm not sure how I ever lived without the thing!! It actually makes me want to be on the computer less, but I'm enjoying reading for the first time since.... Well, since ever. Reading is so much more relaxing when I can change the font of the book I'm reading and when I can hold this zen like machine...its so much more relaxing than bending back the cover of a stiff paperback or messing with that stupid book jacket. Blah! Dad totally surprised me at the apple store with this byootee... And even let me have it early because we will have some downtime soon and spend some time in a boring hospital waiting room.

Oh yes--that brings me to my next point... Eden has seen the ENT who has recommended the immediate removal of her adenoids and putting tubes in her ears. A relief on SO many levels and yet, still a bit nerveracking. It's a path I've traveled down MANY times as a patient... But never the mama. I was relieved to know that the doctor didn't want to monitor her for weeks or months only for me to bust out my "I told you so" mama look. Her chronic respiratory issues and ear infections over the last year have led us to this point and we are ready to take action and move on to the next chapter of our lives. In the last 3 or 4 months (it's probably longer, but I'm not willing to admit it), Eden has had probably an entire week (not consecutively, I might add) of totally WELL days... That's not enough by my count.

We will keep you posted as much as possible along the way...but honestly--y'all know how I am about posting here as of late... You may get more current info through my facebook page.

In the spirit of life in general now, I decided to de-clutter the living room... Old pictures, decorations that I'm not sure why we ever crammed together on the mantle, pillows that match a little too well. Not to mention I was getting really tired of the yellow walls in here--they don't match nothing (yes, that's grammatically incorrect--but it does, however, accurately describe the yellow walls)... We needed to freshen up a little. De-cluttering. Gosh, just the word gets me to perk up! Lee sent me to target to pick out some pillows with personality... And that I did! Burgundy accents... With some yellow tones and a few dashes of orange... Not to mention the variety of textures... Fluffy ruffle-ish, embroidered flowers, and dots with a bit of sheen... It's amazing how new pillows can revamp a room! Eh, maybe I'll post pics of them one day.

It's hectic at work and I'm doing more than 80% of my Christmas shopping online. Christmas shopping is for people who have too much time on their hands and not enough hobbies. And no small children.

That's all I really need to post right now....I may catch up on my to-do list and my sleep before we elect another president.

birthday week

well, its been a great week on the birthday front, but my sweet e has been sick...its the same old same ole--except my frustration is mounting and i'm feeling more and more helpless... i choose to focus on the positive at this point. she has a great doctor who is willing to stick with us through this and work it out.

last weekend: a good almost-too-busy weekend... dinner out with friends, diaper party, etc...

monday, we had one of my favorite dishes that granny pat cooks--chicken tetrazini! when asked what kind of birthday cake i wanted this year, i asked if i could choose a "birthday casserole" instead (does that sound like a response of a sleep deprived, tired-of-eating-out mama? yes.)

tuesday lee & i had a date night to "gravy" downtown... it was f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s. (coming from the girl who isn't a huge fan of italian) and reasonably priced... we're going back. soon.

wednesday we stayed at home and kept quiet...lee surprised me with tickets to see brian regan! eeeek! :) date night... wooo hooo!!

thursday --when kiekie arrived to take care of eden, i got to go back to bed "for a minute"... two hours later i woke up and felt reeeeeejuvenated--my head on lee's pillows, my feet on my nightstand (get it? laying perpendicular at the top of the bed.). best. birthday. gift. ever. we celebrated my bday with mom & david at firebirds (another one of my fave restaurants!)

friday we stayed in again... pizza & baked ziti! (one of the highlights of my week: eden ate THREE BOWLS of ziti and ate a slice of cheese pizza that she took off of my plate... i thought we were over the worst at this point--but time has shown me differently.)

and then we arrived at the weekend i planned to do nothing... no, not a weekend with nothing planned--a weekend that i PLANNED to do NOTHING. ahhhhh! :)

we skipped church today in an effort to limit exposure to any.more.germs. and stayed home... i cleaned and cleaned and sanitized and scrubbed and opened the windows and turned on the ceiling fans on high... lysoled and cloroxed, laundered every blanket, etc... and somehow i managed to cook dinner, too! :) i enjoyed my day with eden--the weather was phenomenal... we played outside and snuggled and read books and blew bubbles and played on the swing...

i have pictures...i'll post later... i promise.

our weekend from iphone pictures

thursday afternoon we went to the jr. league shopping spree with kiekie and e spotted a "doggie doggie" and of course--she was in love. she petted him, slapped on her legs to call him...

 ...and even gave him a hug

then saturday we went to the red & white game at state... we did NOT go to the football game. it was a bit chilly and i'm not risking any more respiratory issues. no thanks.

e got to hang out with emily and mrs. wuf... and we saw/hugged/blew kisses to mr. wuf but didn't get any pictures of that.

 then we hung out and got lots of good rest and started a new sleep routine that has restored mama & daddy's sanity.

then we went to moe's for dinner and got ready for our week!

i'm not letting my guard down yet--but e's doing much better and the new sleep routine is working out swimmingly. i'm feeling so. r.e.s.t.e.d...