| What a day |
Thanks for the prayers guys -- please keep them coming as Elijah recovers.
It was a marathon day - getting up at 4:30, nursing the kids loading them into the van (hoping they'd sleep) and driving to Edmonton. Eva and Elijah thought it was pretty exciting so giggled and goofed around for the first part of the trip until sleep overtook them. I was with Elijah at the hospital while Lance hung out with Eva in Edmonton for awhile and then back in Camrose for a bit. The surgery was delayed so poor Elijah -- and his mama -- had to wait -- but atleast his mama could eat. I had to be a pretty good distractor to keep Elijah from getting too worked up about the fact that he had any milk (not to mention any food) since 4:30. A couple times as I was holding him he tried to dive into the nursing position -- poor guy had no idea why the restaurant wasn't open. Anyways at 10am - after being at the hospital since 6:30 - Elijah went into surgery. Like Ange commented (thanks for that comment Ange) I got to go in with him and hold him while they put him under (Lance had to sternly correct me a couple times when I said "put him down" - oh dear what a horrible slip). He hated the gas and screamed the whole time - which the Dr said would happen. I just held him and sang to him. The Drs and nurses were great and you could tell they love kids.
Anyways the surgery went well and now we'll just wait and see (and pray) how it heals. 95% of the time it goes well and 5% of the time a second surgery is needed to fix things up.
We hung out at the Odegards last night. Bernell fed us his delicious homemade pizza and both he and Linda played with the kids -- it was a blessing to be fed and to have extra hands to help with the kids.
Elijah is doing way better than we expected. He actually is quite a bit himself -- lots of smiling and laughing -- that is after he finally woke up completely, he was sure dopey for awhile. This morning he woke up cheery which was a surprise since his pain meds would've worn off. What a blessing to have him doing so well.
We are praising God for how the day went and for how Elijah is doing and trusting him for the healing.
Aimee
ps. Lance did great with Eva -- who didn't get milk between 4:30am and 3:00pm. She was a really good sport. When I finally held her she was signing milk and looking down my shirt pretty ferverishly. She knew what she wanted! |
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| Please pray |
Tomorrow (Friday) Elijah has surgery. We have to be in Edmonton at 6:30am and I think the surgery is at 8:30. It is a simple procedure correcting a small and relatively common abnormality. It will be a day surgery. In sensitivity to my son I'm not going to post what the surgery is on the world wide web. I can imagine his embarrassment and outrage when he's 15, "Mom, I can't believe you wrote about that on your blog and now the whole world knows private details about my body!!!!" I'm posting so you can pray. He will be put under for the surgery so that is always a little worrisome. Also for a speedy recovery. I am praying that he won't be terrified during the time when he has to leave me/Lance and when he get's put under.
Thanks in advance.
aimee |
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| Welcome to the World |
On Tuesday evening our very good friends Brent and Jena had a baby girl. Karys. She is lovely. I got to meet her on Wednesday afternoon. She is petite and perfect. It was incredible to see such a new baby. Crazy to think that she is bigger than our babies were when they were born. Eva and Elijah look huge next to her. I am so proud of Jena - having a baby is a huge job and she did great! Jenna J - who works labor and delivery in Camrose and is expecting a baby of her own in Dec!!!!! - was working on Tuesday and got to help with the delivery. Brent and Jena said she was incredible. What an awesome experience to get to share in.
The kids and I dropped off a batch of "Apple Cheese Pleasers" at Brent and Jena's today. I thought I'd share the recipe with you. This was a favorite of ours growing up. Mom, do you remember where the recipe came from? These cookies look healthy (and do have some healthy ingredients) but rest assured that they are sweet and tasty -- Lance gave them the seal of approval.
1 ½ cups flour
1 1/3 cups margarine
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. each - cinnamon, baking powder and salt
Combine these ingredients. Then add –
3 cups oats
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 ½ cups raisins
Stir in -
2 cups chopped apple ***chop finely, I found 1 3/4 cups to be plenty
Drop by heaping tablespoon on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 15 min.
Store tightly covered in the fridge to last longest. Loosely covered container on counter.
I thought the amounts of ingredients looked wacky -- too much dry. But it was actually fine. I creamed the butter and sugar then added eggs and vanilla then added the dry stuff, just mixed with a spoon but I'm sure a beater of mixmaster would be great.
Enjoy!!!
These cookies have all the food groups (if you count cheese as dairy and protein). I admit I cheated and ate a couple of these today -- I couldn't resist.
Okay, I better go, Elijah is sick - fussy/low fever GRUMPY! and appears to need me up close and personal.
Hope you are well.
aimee |
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| Bubble Extravaganza |
Yesterday we had a party for Eva and Elijah's birthday. It was a blast. It couldn't have been more fun -- well, only if Auntie Jane wasn't in Norway.
We had the party in Jubilee park. The weather was perfect -- which was incredible since there were thundershowers forecasted and 45 minutes before the party the sky over the park had a dark foreboding look.
Bernell and Linda covered the supper -- which was delicious, of course. And greatly appreciated by me -- making the cakes and getting the activities together was enough of a job for me!
After supper we had bubble time. We gathered the kids up and I explained to them how to make bubble prints -- with a straw blow bubbles in the tempera paint/water/dishsoap mixture, then place paper on top to make a print. You can see the finished products hanging on the clothesline.
Luke making a bubble print:
Naomi and Joyce:
Sonja:
Then the wildness began. I had gathered up all sorts of objects to use as bubble wands. I showed the kids the objects - flyswatters, lenseless sunglasses, pipecleaners, cookie cutters, straws and got some of the to try them out. Dani asked which one made the best bubble - I said I didn't know, because really i didn't, but that they should find out.
The best bubble makers were the straw window - four bendy straws made into a rectangle, and pipecleaners, made into a variety of shapes. Naomi R. made a wild looking pipecleaner contraption - which nobody thought would work, it was three dimensional and had lots of pipecleaner ends poking out, also it lacked the flat surface needed for the film of soap. Anyways Harold tried many times to make it work, it looked hopeless, but finally he suceeded. Naomi looked at him and said, "See, I told you dad". Priceless.
Harold was a pro at making huge bubbles from a straw window.
Pete was pretty good too!
The kids were wild and rambunctious popping bubbles, chasing them with wonder and delight. The adults were pretty wild too. I had no idea "bubble time" was going to be so much fun and include everyone!
Lance was wild making bubbles for the kids - especially leif. In this photo you can see all the tiny bubbles from the fly swatter "wand":
Some lovely spectators:
After bubble time a soccer game it was cake and presents time.
The cakes originally said: e+e! But as you can see from the photos, the exclamation mark is nowhere to be found. It was a casualty. Wiped out on the drive over by the huge bottle of "Miracle Bubbles". I can't believe how laid back my response was to this happening. Usually this would've brought me to tears - or to berating myself for letting something like that happen. I know God prepared me for it. As I was getting ready to bring the cake to the car I went through in my head what would happen if I dropped the cake on the ground. I decided I would just take a picture of the mess and then get ice cream for dessert. Fortunately we didn't need to get ice cream, as most of the cake was still fine. Some photos:
The kids were blessed with some lovely gifts. As is usual for one years olds the wrapping paper was more enticing than the gifts so we had to prompt Elijah and Eva to notice the actual presents. Once in hand it was clear that the gifts were a hit.
Lance took some great shots of Leif -- who is expecting a new sibling any day!!
Little scarface. :)
We are grateful to have friends and family who love our kids so much. What a fun celebration.
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| Happy Firsts and AN INCREDIBLE NEW LINK! |
One year ago this blog community was waiting patiently, then impatiently, then almost disgruntledly for news about who the wigglers were. Time for a little reminiscing. Here are the wigglers one year ago:
This has been a year of firsts, here are a few of our firsts:
First time experiencing labor and delivery (I can hardly remember it, just that it was hard and wonderful and that Lance was an exceptional coach)
First time seeing a brand new grey slimey baby
First time having surgery (Eva’s C-section)
First time being parents (we’ve come along way from when I wondered what I was supposed to do with the crying baby that was passed to me because I was the mom)
First time breastfeeding (I can’t even estimate the amount of hours we’ve clocked, it has gone so well and we’re still happily going strong)
First time sleeping through the night at the same time… nope, not yet.
First solid food (bananas at 7 months)
First teeth (Eva in December – she now has six, Elijah in January, he now has four)
First “word” (ball, just in the last two weeks, for both Elijah and Eva, okay it’s really more like “ba”, but they do use it to refer to balls)
First international phone call (from Auntie Jane in Norway to celebrate their birthsday)
First time away from the kids for 8 hrs (for me it was our anniversary date last month)
First time eating chocolate (Eva on Easter, Elijah at the early 1st birthday party in BC, chocolate cake – Aimee style)
First time having coffee (Elijah scrounged a coffee-bean off the floor)
First time going on swings (Kamploops this summer on the way back from Abbotsford)
First time swimming (Naramata May long weekend)
First time playing together (playing chase in the kitchen)
First time getting having toenails painted matching mama and daughter (yesterday, rainbow)
There are, of course, so many more firsts. But if I made this list as complete as I'd like it I'd never get around to blogging. I have a calendar full of firsts - when something interesting happens I just write it down on our calendar, I may never get all those details into a baby book, but atleast they're recorded somewhere. Thanks to Bonnie Kaack for this idea.
These birthday photos are from when we celebrated in BC. We hope to have a party here this weekend.
A couple recent photos:
Eva and Grammy at Jaywalkers Jamboree
Elijah flirts with Siri at Jaywalkers
Mama and Eva's fancy toes
AND NOW...
ATTENTION ALL HUMMINGBIRD READERS. PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO FOLLOW THE NEWEST LINK ON THE LEFTHAND SIDE BAR. I AM CONFIDENT THAT YOU WILL BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED TO FIND THAT HUMMINGBIRD'S HUSBAND LANCE HAS BEGUN A BLOG. YOU MAY REMEMBER HIM FROM HIS ONE AND ONLY APPEARANCE ON HUMMINGBIRD ONE YEAR AGO, HIS POST, "POPS POST" RECEIVED THE MOST COMMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THIS BLOG. ENJOY!
hope you are well.
aimee
ps. I'm having a little link trouble - I know some of you are missing and the Abarbablog is spelled wrong and so doesn't work. I will have to try again another day. |
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posted by Aimee at 
