We gave it a go on an Easter photo shoot of our own. Not too shabby for amatures. I love taking pictures, especially of our cutie pie! One of these days I am going to invest in a larger lense and take some photography classes from Grethel. But until then we will just have fun playing around and being "wannabees".
I had dinner with several of my dear friends Friday night. We had a delicious meal at Iguana Grill. From top left - Nicole Gaumond, Candace Shotts, Melissa Bailey, Kristina Wildsmith, Amanda Sanders and Me! We had a great time catching up and spending time together.
Photos of our baby in her first hospital gown. She loved the wagon ride home from Children's Hospital.
I had to share these with you. Edie is talking up a storm lately. Everyday she makes a new sound, face, gesture - something we have never seen before that makes us laugh. She is so attentive (or as attentive as a 14 1/2 month old can be) while being read to. She loves the pictures, the words and especially the books with something she can touch and feel. It really amazes me when I read to her the "touch" books and with out ever pointing them out, even the new books, she will reach out and directly touch the "fuzzy" parts with her fingers. We have really made it a point these past few months to read to her several times a day.
These videos are of Edie doing the flash cards from the Your Baby Can Read Series. (Sandy, I promise I will bring them to you this week....and sanitized. As you can see Edie likes to kiss them). And to Ashley, my dear Speech Therapist friend, please excuse my terrible accent. I never notice how "country" I sound until I hear myself on video. AWFUL!!!
We had a very busy, great weekend. Saturday we went to our neighbors for their babies 1st birthday party. Edie LOVED playing with all of the other little babies and Scott and I LOVED seeing her playing with them. Maxwell had a sports themed party, which is appropriate since his dad played basket ball at UAB and his mom was a Golden Girl at UAB as well. They are a big sports fan family! Maxwell's mom made the cutest little party favor bags which was filled goodies including two baseball shakers. Which Edie LOVES!
Saturday night we had over some of our best friends, Jimmy and Vanessa Walters and their newest addition Audrey for dinner. She is precious. She never made a peep. The guys watched the games while V and I talked baby talk. V is about as interested in sports as I am, which is hardly any. However, I am going to make it a point this year (I think) to learn more and get more involved in Alabama football. Speaking of.....anyone who is interested, our friend Jason Quick is putting together a crawfish boil for the A Day Game on the 18th. He will also be raising money for a charity in honor of Edie. We ABSOLUTELY have the greatest friends! So come and tailgate with us for a good cause before the game!
Sunday we went to church where I heard the greatest message ever. I have never heard a message as clearly as I did this past Sunday. The Pastor of our church is so smart. He makes things so easy to understand, so clear to me. I finally feel like I really know what "Good Friday" or as he put it "Bad Friday for Jesus" means. My heart ached as he told us of how (in detail) Jesus suffered. I know how much I am loved by the Lord, it is obvious in everything he has done in my life and I am so grateful. I can't wait until Edie is old enough to understand how much he loves her too! We put Edie in the nursery again this Sunday. When we went to get her we were all smiles seeing her sitting in the floor playing with another little girl. The ladies told us she was sooo good - "she just crawled around and played with everything".
Sunday night we attended an Easter Program at one of my dear friends, Robert and Angela Taunton's church. They both played several parts in the play. It was a really nice, professional production. I loved the choir. These people could sing! Edie loved the lights, the music and watching all of the people go back and fourth from stage to stage. It really kept her entertained. She was so cozy in her daddy's lap. She just sat there watching until she eventually fell asleep.
Tomorrow will be one of Edie's biggest days yet. (Mommy and daddy's too) Edie will be getting tubes. I would be lying if I said I were not nervous - I am. But, I know that God will take care of her and she will do great. We have to be at Children's downtown at 5:45 AM. Surgery will be at 7:45. We have been told that the procedure is quick and easy. I am counting on that!
There is no stopping her now! Edie is crawling EVERYWHERE and is in to EVERYTHING!! I have to search the floors over everyday making sure there is nothing that Edie can put in her mouth and eat. Thus far she has tried eating dust/fuzz balls, dog food, paper, leaves, grass, dirt, carpet, the plastic thing off of the door stop, jewelry, hair bows, etc., etc., etc. Every time I turn around she has something else in her mouth. Thankfully she has not swallowed anything out of the ordinary "yet" or so we think.
We took a trip today to Clanton to see Aunt Kelli, Wyatt and Wesley and baby on the way. BTW Kelli is having a baby girl! She is due to arrive in July and Edie will no longer be the runt of the bunch. We are excited to have another girl, not so sure Wyatt is though. I think he would rather a little boy.......maybe one day soon. Kelli has also started a blog! It looks like she started it back in October and never shared with me. It is the "Homeschool Adventures" blog so if you like you can now catch up on my big sis and her two & 1/2 munchkins.
Our mom has had an embroidery machine for a few years and we have recently purchased the pretty fonts, appliques and monogramming cd's to go along with it. So Kelli and I tried it out today, doing it the Chastain way (learn as you go). I made a cute monogrammed shirt for Edie, ruined a pair of Edie's shorts trying to make a matching - smaller monogram, almost ruined my beach bag doing my initials and did o.k. on (a) pillow case (now I have to do the same on the other one). So all in all it was a good day of monogramming. Edie played with Wyatt and Wesley all day. She was pooped once we got home. She ate, had a bath and went straight to sleep.
Speaking of sleep.....we have had some weird nights lately. Edie has been waking up several times during the night crying. We are not sure if she is having nightmares, having a growth spurt, still has fluid in her ears or it is because she is getting a new tooth. One of her back molars is coming in. I have given her baby orijel a few times - but I try to use it only when necessary (I read it is not good for babies). I am excited for the new tooth, I just hate they have to hurt so much. Hopefully the pain has passed and Edie will soon be back to sleeping through the night again.
Saturday we stayed around the house trying to get Edie's new playroom in order. We have a few more things to do yet. But once complete I will share some photos. Sunday Scott played golf and Edie and I went to Pratville after church. (By the way, I decided to put Edie in the nursery at church as opposed to taking her in the service as we normally do. This is usually her nap time so I thought she would just sleep. The ladies said she wanted nothing to do with sleeping or eating. All she wanted to do was play with the other babies. When I went to get her she was in the floor still playing. So sweet. She misses her buddies at MDO.) Back to Pratville - we met Nan and Pawpaw and had lunch then Nan, Edie and I went to see Uncle Zach's new house. It was a short visit - but we had fun getting out and just enjoying the pretty weather.
It seems like forever since I last posted. We have been so busy it has been hard to find the time to sit still long enough. I had a video of Edie I intended to share but for some reason the card is not working. So as I was looking though the old photos this one caught my eye. Scott took this picture of Edie when she was about 3 1/2 months old. He sent it to me while I was on a trip, my first trip, after being back to work. She looks so cute, tiny and peaceful. I can not believe how fast time goes by.
We celebrated Scott's 34th birthday this past week. Edie and I got him (us) tickets to Cold Play who is coming in May. Scott was very surprised and excited not only to get the tickets but to learn we will be having double the fun... we will also be going with some of our dear friends - Jimmy, Vanessa, Russell and Stacey. It should be a good time especially since we have not been to a concert in years.
Edie has also been grandparent hopping for the past few weeks. Edie and I went to Nan and PawPaw's for a visit a couple of weekends ago. We both spent the night Friday night. Edie stayed on with Nan Saturday night and went to church on Sunday. Then this past weekend Edie spent the night with Gigi and Giddo and went to church with them on Sunday. Scott and I played both weekends having dinner with friends and doing things around the house. Speaking of.....we are now in the process of turning our kitchen table area into a playroom for Edie. We are going to replace the chandelier with a ceiling fan and we have removed the kitchen table and have replaced it with a small sofa. We are going to add a small chair, a rug, some toy baskets. Don't get me wrong. We LOVE Edie and her 100's of toys, but it will be nice to have an area for her toys so that our company is not tripping over them as they walk through the front door. It will also be a lot easier to watch her play while I cook (whenever that is). So I am excited!
Another FANTASTIC thing that happened recently. Allie's mom Sandy was kind enough to lend us a copy of Allie's My Baby Can Read video. It is a learning video which includes flash cards and a book. Each flash card has a word on the front. When you pull the tab on the card an actual "real life" photo of the word pops out. Edie was so fascinated by these flash cards and book. I believe I went over them three times in a row while she studied each photo and word. When I would get to the Tongue flash card and pull on the tab to show the picture of the girls Tongue, Edie would stick out her tongue and wiggled it around! Se is AMAZING!!! Scott and I were so proud of her! Edie loves to read books. I have been reading about 4-5 books to her each night. She loves to turn the pages, say "ooo oooo" and sit in my lap while I rock and read to her. My dear friend Kristie form Florida mailed Edie a book about LuLu the Ladybug last week. Edie loves the illustrations in the book but she also LOVES the black and red dots on the back cover of the book. Every time we are in her room she will immediately crawl over to her book basket and pull out the Ladybug book. She will then sit and tap it saying "ooo, ooh, ooo". She is too cute!
Scott said Sunday night that "God could not have given us a more perfect, precious baby...we are blessed" and it could not be more true.
Edie has had a rough month being sick from a cold and two double ear infections practically just a few weeks apart. We have kept her out of MDO for the past few weeks until she is completely over everything. I can not help but think that all of these sicknesses has come from being in MDO. Edie was literally sick once until she turned one, which is when we started her in MDO. I know we can not keep our children in a bubble and eventually they will get sick - but I do hate seeing her feel bad. It is the most helpless feeling when your child is sick and you can not fix it.
One other thing Scott and learned from all of this is you must refrigerate your babies antibiotic. There is a tiny label on the bottle which we did not discover until Sunday night that reads "must refrigerate". Aha! This must be why the medicine is getting darker and darker each day! And to tell the truth - her medicine for her last ear infection I am sure was supposed to be refrigerated as well. Which we did not do. Anyway we panicked and called the pharmacy right away. We learned that 1. It will not hurt Edie and 2. Without being refrigerated it is not effective after 72 hrs!! Poor Edie......no wonder she got another ear infection. The first one probably never completely cleared because the medicine we were giving her was useless.
So we had a follow up visit with her ENT yesterday. He wrote her ANOTHER perscription which we will refrigerate!! And he advised us that Edie would need tubes. I have to say I am torn. On one hand I do not want to jeopardize Edie's hearing, speech and balance in any way. But I can not help but wonder....did the fact that we did not refrigerate the medicine have anything to do with the 2nd round of ear infection? Should we finish this perscription and see what happens? She may do great and never have another one. I know that over 90% of typical and non-typical children have tubes but the thought of making a hole in Edie's eardrum scares me. Dr. Davis's daughter also has DS so we do feel totally comfortable with his decisions because he is so aware of Edie's needs. So I know I just have to trust that this is the best thing for Edie and tell myself tubes are no big deal anyway. Right?
Edie was feeling better so we decided to take advantage of a gorgeous day Saturday. We went the the Chili Cookoff in Homewood benefiting the Exceptional Foundation. I do not know a whole lot about this program but I do know it serves teenagers to adults with Special Needs. They offer everything from educational courses, to art classes, to physical education. They had a great turnout for the event. Edie turned lots of heads - it could have been the cool wagon with the canopy she was riding in that caught their eye. But we are convinced it was just because she looks so darn cute!!! She had a great day being outdoors!
Sunday we had the miracle of about 2"+ of snow fall to the ground. I was very sceptical of the predictions of snow for Sunday, but it really did happen! We put Edie's snow boots on and took her out to play before it melted. She looked so cute. We wanted to make a snow angel with her - but we were too afraid she would get sick from the wet snow.
I know our family in Arvada, Colorado are laughing at us right about now. Aunt Shirley, Uncle Jim, Kelly and Jolie see way more than 2" of snow every winter. They even continue to drive their cars - while we on the other hand stay indoors, buy milk and bread (before the snow comes of course) cancel church, school and other activities due to a couple of inches of snow. Really even just the threat of snow will close Birmingham down! Although it did snow heavily for about 30-45 minutes it was melting by noon and every ones lives were getting back to normal.
This is as close as we come to our family's snow days in Denver. Although not as heavy and linger some - it was still fun while it lasted.
It may not be all that easy to see b/c it was recorded with Scott's cell phone -
but hopefully you can make out the important parts! Edie is still learning how to sit.
Edie is crawling!! Both hands and both knees!! She is also pulling up!! We are so proud of her. She started last week when we neglected to put her hip pants on. I believe this gives her more freedom to move and to feel her body when moving. Therefore our therapist advised we could discontinue using the hip pants for now unless we see Edie pulling up between her legs. Which means doing the splits to lay on her tummy instead of going to her side to lie down.
Edie is also pulling up on her toys and on us. She stands so easily now it is incredible. She is up and then down all day long. She is so proud of what she is doing....just as are we. Last week when I met with her ARC OT and her Bell Center PT - they both commented on how well Edie is doing. The ARC OT said she and the ARC PT joke all of the time saying "did someone forget to tell Edie she has DS" and The Bell Center PT commented on how well she was doing for just being 13months. It feels so good when a professional on the outside says such wonderful things about Edie. It confirms our feelings of accomplishment and it keeps us motivated so that Edie may continue to prove the statistics wrong. But to tell the truth, it is not us, it is Edie who is so wonderfully motivated and determined to overcome the text book stats. We continue to be in awe of her. Edie has honestly had maybe only 2 bad days in her 13 months. She is too perfect to be true, her love is never ending and her outlook is so impressive. We are truly in love and truly blessed.
P.S. Edie is also saying "iggy" or "gigi" or "mindy". We have not figured out which yet...but we know it is a word. She is also signing "all done" we hope to download some video of all of the great things she is doing soon!
Sunday was the finale of the 2009 Mercedes Marathon. "Team Ladybug" did great in the relay running in just over 4 hours! It was a beautiful day - to share with our friends and family. Edie, Charlie and Carter were all bundled up as they watched the runners and played with their red balloons . Although were were unable to see everyone run we did catch Scott on his last mile of the run. We are so proud of Scott, Mindy, Jimmy, Matt and Eric for what they accomplished. I was inspired by all of the PIT runners who passed by and thankful to them for supporting our babies. We are now looking forward to the 2010 race where we are planning to have several "Team Ladybug" relay teams and 1/2 marathon teams! So get your running shoes on!
Bergen invited all of her friends to her birthday party a few weeks ago at Kindermusak. The babies had a lot of fun playing music on the drums, singing, eating cake and playing together. I have been very interested in Kindermusak (not sure of spelling) for a while. This is a service they offer to all children in various locations around town. The children and parents join others and play instruments and sing songs a few days a week. I know Edie would love this. The group that is closest to our home does not offer groups until age of 18 months. So we have a little while longer. It was nice of Bergen's parents to host Bergen's party at one of the locations and give us a taste of what it is all about. Bergen is in the top left photo with Edie beating on the drums - she is too precious. Happy 2nd Birthday Bergen!!
Scott, Edie and I are very fortunate to have so many wonderful people in our lives. One in particular is Stacey Day. I met Stacey a few years ago through some mutual friends and she has quickly become so special to me. She spent countless hours designing the invitation to the fundraiser and most recently, countless hours designing our "Team Ladybug" shirt. Which could not have turned out to be more perfect and I am thrilled to wear. The final phase of our fundraiser will take place this Sunday February 15th. Scott, Mindy, Jimmy, Eric and Matt will join thousands of other runners at 7:00 am for the Mercedes Marathon. Edie and I along with many other family and friends will join our team (later in the day) and cheer them on to the finish line. We will be sporting our team shirts as proud supporters of "Team Ladybug" and The Bell Center. P.S. It is not too late to sponsor our team. We will be accepting donations through February 23rd. So if you can please sponsor our team and the 26 miles they will be running by making a donation of $26 - just $1 per mile. Please pass on Edie's link to someone who you feel would like to contribute to this special cause.
