Christmas Eve

I've decided that Christmas Eve-night is my favourite.  I like putting out cookies and milk for Santa and then sending Catie to bed all excited for the morning but the rest of the night is really the best.  I love putting together presents for her, setting them out just right so she'll see them in the morning (that darn Santa gets the credit for the best presents).  I try really hard to buy fun stocking stuffers so I love the moment when I get to remember what I bought and get them all in that sock.  There's last minute straightening and trying to cram in as much Christmas music and movies as you can because you know tomorrow it's all over.  The anticipation builds for so long that tonight, after every one else is asleep, this peace before the excitement is my favourite time and this year I'm savouring the moment..

Eden's Stocking

I crafted!  It's amazing!

Last year I made our family new stockings, you can read about them here, and see the awful old ones.  It was kind of a shame, I knew I was pregnant when I made them but no one else did (not even Brad) so I couldn't make an extra one without giving anything away, which meant this year I needed to make a stocking for Eden.  I had been smart though and I at least cut the stocking shape out last year so I had somewhere to start from.

I decided to make her a reindeer and I'm thrilled with the way it turned out.

 I think Catie's and Eden's stocking's look particularly cute together.


And the families.. still kicking myself for writing Brad and Laura instead of Mom and Dad but it will survive another year, perhaps I'll change it next year.

(My nativity looks amazing on the mantel hey?)

What the Girls Wore #90

Are you ready for the most photos I've ever posted at once?  This is to make up for the last couple of weeks with no posts at all.  It's long.

She's growing up so fast and is turning into such a lovely little girl.  If only we could get a handle on potty training.

She loves to sit in the bumbo.

That lip hey?  It kills me.

Finally... I've been waiting for years for her to be interested in colouring and this month we finally got there.  She loves her markers though her love of colouring got distracted when she figured out she could stack the markers.

Such an awesome milestone... She weighs enough to move to a booster seat and I love it.  She has tons more freedom in the car and it's way easier to get her in and out.

Yet another hospital photo.. I'm sure you all love them by now.  She's fine though, no infection, just a rough hospital visit.

We went out for breakfast as a family and had such a lovely time.  Both girls were very well behaved.

We started using the exersaucer and she loves it, spends quite a bit of time there.  She's even started jumping and playing with the toys.

She's getting so good at grabbing and bringing to her mouth.  I love all this growing up, it frankly can't happen fast enough for me.

Dressed for the day.

My two girls.

We went to Magrath for their Hometown Christmas and one of the activities was fishing for toys.  Catie pulled up her snowman hand puppet, took one disdainful look and declared, "I don't like it."  There was no convincing her otherwise and the organizers graciously gave her something else.

We ate hotdogs, scones, apple cider, visited the chocolate fountain, went for a horse drawn sleigh ride and saw Santa.  A fun night.

Grandma bought the girls Christmas dresses.  Their both sparkly and leave glitter everywhere.  This photo doesn't show the dresses very well so I'll try harder this Sunday when they wear them again.

Sleeping Eden in church, love that.

Happy in the exersaucer

Arms like an airplane... gymnastics has taught her all sorts of great things.

I usually take these photos after a really difficult day when a sleeping Eden is the best sight I've ever seen.

Despite her crankiness she really does smile a lot.

Still at the hospital.

This month we introduced Geoffrey and it's been amazing.  She loves to hold onto something when she falls asleep, in the past it's been my fingers or the ribbon to her soother with ends in her pulling it out.  Geoffrey's ears and arms and perfect for her to grab and she usually falls asleep with them clutched in her hands.  We love Geoffrey.

Hanging out.

I bought bubble bath for Catie's stocking and then couldn't wait to give it to her so I broke it out early.  She loves it.  Baths have become a whole new activity.

For three days in a row (until she peed on her dress, potty training is awesome) she was a princess in her sparkly dress and purple cape.

This is her new favourite place to play. She climbs in and closes the door.

Playing with Eden.  She learned how to roll recently.  If you put her on her back she almost instantly rolls to her tummy and then gets upset that she's there.  So you flip her over and she repeats the cycle.

Finding her toes.  I love when babies play with their toes.

My nap buddy

We recently discovered that our nearest Boston Pizza has kids night on Tuesday's and they hire a magician who also makes balloon animals (and hats).  This Tuesday was a Christmas party with Santa and reindeer noses, colouring sheets, gingerbread houses and a Santa parade.  We'll probably become frequent Tuesday visitors.

So there's our month at a glance... hopefully I"ll become a little more consistent.

Our Latest Hospital Visit

All right, it's time for an Eden update.

Since the last time I wrote here she's been hospitalized again and been on antibiotics twice more.  I've been getting pretty smart about this thing so when she started to seem off I collected a new urine sample and took it to the lab.  But the urine culture takes 48 hours and of course for this test the culture was ready on a Saturday at 6:00 so there was no way to find out the results.  At 10:00 that night she started to get really fussy, I knew they'd be able to look up the sample at the hospital so off I headed.

While we waited for the doctor the nurse took a new sample.  The doctor came, looked up her sample and it was clear but they'd tested the new sample and it wasn't clear.  So we started the admitting process all over again.  The'd give IV antibiotics until the culture is back and they can send us home with oral medicine.  They took us up to pediatrics where they took a urine sample by catheter because it's a lot more reliable and inserted an IV.

Now here's where I kick myself.  You think that nurses know exactly what they're doing so you shouldn't question but I"m getting really comfortable with collecting a urine sample and I was really uneasy with the way the nurse went about it.  She didn't put on gloves, she didn't clean Eden before she put the bag on and to top it off she didn't know which way the bag went on.  I had to tell her.

With the sample collected from the catheter they were running a urine culture but they hadn't planned on doing another analysis so I requested one.  It was now 3 am and finally time to let Eden get some sleep, so I calmed her and got her down and then I raced home to shower and pack a bag for the next two days.

I got back at 5 am where they now had the analysis back and it's clear, no sign of an infection.  So because the nurse took a poor sample Eden now has an unnecessary IV and we can't go home until the doctor comes in to see us later in the day.  Poor Eden had such a rough night, between 10:00 pm and 3:00 am she slept for about 20 minute.  A nurse would just touch her and she'd start to sob.  So my poor lady cried all night for no reason.  We waited at the darn hospital until 5:00 pm until we were finally released.  12 hours later.

Definitely not my favourite hospital visit.  All so very preventable.  But on the bright side, at least she doesn't have another infection and they got the sample back before they gave her any unnecessary antibiotics which are so hard on her system.  So we're back home, she's fussy like usual but infection free.