GroshLink

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We rejoice in your standing with us in prayer for our family and by God's grace we have a good report to share with you.

Join us in praising God for a smooth Wednesday morning ear surgery for Eden. She was wobbly in the afternoon while trekking around and was up for a few hours in the middle of the night.  But she was ready to go Thursday morning, maybe a little too much for us today ;-)  Pray for us to be careful not to have water get in her ears.

Note: During the surgery, God even provided a 'perfect baby' as Lily slept, smiled, and feed without a cry the whole morning!

Shalom, Tom & Theresa

Pray for a safe and quick out patient Wednesday morning ear surgery for the restoration of Eden's ear tubes.

Eden's sisters and her cousins have been a great blessing to her this summer.  The other day her cousin Firas coached her the length of our first floor.  Today she was trying stairs on her own, i.e., without me holding her but right next to her, en route to playing Barbie with Hayley and Ellen.  Praise God!  Can't wait to see how far Eden can travel when we're at Camp Hebron next week for InterVarsity's Mid-Atlantic Regional Staff Conference.  Pray for Eden's continued development and that soon she will have the strength for stairs and will run with the joy of the Lord in the fall!

I spent the morning chasing Eden around the MoviEtown complex during the showing of Finding Nemo by a children's camp, thereby confirming my suspicion that Eden's NOT ready for the theatre.  Overall the theatre experience wasn't bad as Ellen and Hayley enjoyed not only watching the film (again), but also helping w/Eden.  It's such a blessing to have Ellen and Hayley help out with the little things in life, which add up even more quickly as Eden gains greater mobility. 

Pray for Theresa as she deals with a full afternoon/week of activities, particularly as I have a number of appointments this week.

As we prepare to bring Baby Lily Joy home today, Eden reminds me she's a big girl.  She most definately is and it is a great joy to see her cross short distances unassisted!  We can't wait to see Eden run and play, but hope that she focuses on where she is going, something which she doesn't do when navigating the halls with her walker.  Last night Eden played with her baby dolls endlessly and she added another to her bedside assembly.  From what we saw in the hospital yesterday, we'll have to fend off a would-be three year old mommy.  Are there any childcare training classes for her age?

No Way, Jose!

I'm not sure why she latched on to this phrase in particular, but we hear it multiple times a day and it always makes me chuckle. Sometimes it's followed by sleepyhead which in Edenspeak sounds like PeePee head. So please don't be offended if you're on the receiving end of that one. I'd really like to come up with a snappy response; something in the vane of See you later, alligator. After a while, crocodile. If you have a suggestion let me know. You betcha, Juanita is the best I've come up with so far. Sometimes she'll yell No way, Jose! For no reason at all, like she did recently in the lobby at church when a program was going on in the sanctuary. She followed that by singing Ring Around the Rosy at the top of her lungs.

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We're going to have to rename this thread shortly as over the past two weeks Baby Eden has become a Big Girl.  Eden reminds us this time after time as she's learning to walk to the van while holding mom or dad's hand, to travel down the hall from the kitchen to her bedroom, to go down the basement steps, to sit in her new chair at the table during meals, and to run around our local assembly's lobby area with her walker.

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Eden says the funniest things sometimes.  This week she's been telling me that the bathroom is sad.  "Why is the bathroom sad?" I ask.  "Because he's sick and has to go the hospital!"  Of course!  Silly Mommy.  She's in a hospital obsession phase right now.

The other day at lunch a fly was buzzing around us.  She kept shooing it and telling it not to eat her food.  Then she said, "Eat your own food, fly!"

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I knew this day would come and I've been dreading it. But it's gone remarkably better than I anticipated. A few days ago we moved Eden out of her way-too-small portacrib and into a toddler bed. Her first sleeping attempt was for naptime and after 1 hour of coaxing and discipline, she fell asleep in her bed. I kept the crib in her room to use as a back-up. At one point I told her she was going back to her crib, and actually put her in there, but the pitiful plea she gave me to peep in mah big gurl bed! was so heart-wrenching I relented. The first night she slept pretty well in her bed. I think I only had to go in to her room once, when she turned on her light and called for Mommy at 4:30am, announcing to me, It's time to get up. Oh no, I responded, It's not time to get up. She actually went back to sleep until the more reasonable hour of 7am.

Last night was a little rougher. Eden required 3-4 visits in the middle of the night. She's taken the admonition to stay in your bed! so seriously that if something falls out of her bed (cup, blanket, doll) she won't get out of bed to pick it up. We're still trying to work that one out. She also fell out of bed several times last night. She didn't do that at all the first two times she slept in the bed, so I don't know what that's all about. We haven't yet located the little guards that came with the bed. We're also trying to convince her that if she falls out of bed she can put herself back into bed without help.

Today she fell asleep for her nap after an hour of protesting. I finally had to wake her at 5pm and she was precariously close to the edge of her bed, head pointed towards the floor. I literally caught her when I woke her up or she would have slid head first into the floor. For bedtime tonight she settled without any visits from mom! Hallelujah for small miracles! I guess next step will be to move the crib out of her room and into the new baby's room. But it still comes in handy for time-outs... [Theresa, 4/11/2008 10:40:17 PM]