Garden Flower Wachs

Eden and I went to Pumpkinland today with a bunch of other mommies and their kiddos from our ward. We enjoyed it immensely, although, the animals at the barnyard area were very stinky.

And while Eden didn’t seem to mind, I take issue with the scents that assaulted my nose today. They were gross. On the positive side, Eden did say “turkey” when she saw the birds. If I can get her to repeat it, I will be amazed and also capture it on camera so that we have proof that she actually does say words that are recognizable.

We walked through a tall corn maze- a first for both mom and Eden, and then went through a non-threatening lighted tunnel for kids. It was cute, kinda creepy- but not scary- and Eden didn’t care for it very much. She started to cry a little when we walked through the flaps and into the darkened rooms.

Her favorite part remains the animal part. She just LOVES animals. We saw bunnies, turkeys, geese, roosters, chickens, goats, peacocks,  and lots of lovely bees and wasps that are either dying out for the season or looking for a warm place to live all winter long. Either way, I was happy to have them gone.

On our way out, we stopped and looked at the bright orange pumpkins, took some pictures with them, and then I let Eden choose some gourds and mini pumpkins to bring home. She seemed to think that the Indian corn was neat, too, because we brought home 4 cobs of it. (It really is beautiful, and at $1 an ear, we can use them year after year for decorating, so it wasn’t that big of a deal to get a few for harvest time.)

Happy Harvest time! We’ll post more photos and videos as soon as we get them uploaded.

As a mom, I knew I would say one day, “Time had flown by.” I never imagined it would be this soon. Maybe it was Eden’s recent birthday, maybe it was because I just looked at a bunch of her newborn photos, maybe it is because she is growing at a speed I can not yet grasp, but whatever the cause, I can’t believe how grown up she is. My beautiful baby Eden is a year; she’s walking, babbling, feeding herself, climbing up onto everything, throwing toys into the toilet, drinking from a big girl cup and learning new things everyday. I wasn’t ready for this to happen so fast.

We’ve posted her latest photos in the picture gallery of this webpage. Hope you enjoy them. She sure loved having her photo taken… especially the ones with her birthday treat!

Sending our you all our love. We’ll see most of you soon when we come visit!

… the long awaited photos are here. Check them out in the Photo Gallery! And, as always- comments are welcome and appreciated- so tell us what you think!

Love to all,
The Wachs Family

P.S. – To those who haven’t heard; we are buying a condo here and we are so excited to be owners. We’ll keep you updated as things progress.

This morning Eden was eating her breakfast and as soon as she finished one of her “toast sticks” she looked up at me, then at her plate on the kitchen table, and then looked back at me and said, “More.” I asked her, “Do you want more?” To which she responded, “Yep.”

I thought it was a fluke.  But then, she looked at me a couple more times and said. “More. More. More.”

Yep, she is brilliant. I knew she would be, but it is nice to have it confirmed. We’ll post pictures ASAP. Things have been busy, but we’re taking the night off tonight and should get them posted.

Eden’s been toddling around while holding onto our hands for the past couple of weeks, and a couple days ago she decided that she wanted to walk along the furniture. No problem, I thought. She did great for the first few steps. Then she got so excited that she was doing it that she threw herself back onto the floor and smacked her head. OUCH! She screamed and I nearly cried because I felt like a bad mom. But then I remembered something: She has to learn. There is no other way. It was a good lesson for me as to why we sometimes feel hurt; we have to learn.

I’m thankful that Jesus teaches me through motherhood daily… and I’m thankful that He loves our family enough to let us make mistakes, too. It’s was a great reminder.

Something else she’s learning is to make more than one sound at a time… and stick her tongue out while doing it- Thanks Aunt Sandy! Yes, she has learned it! But it’s cute.

Wade’s also been downloading photos from our camera onto our computer. They should be up tonight or tomorrow morning. They’re cute, and we’ll post another blog as soon as they go up so everyone knows they are posted and ready for viewing.

Last week we drove out to the canyon that used to be in our back yard so we could play a little bit in the snow. It was freezing! I was worried about Eden getting to cold, but she LOVED it! She really does enjoy being outside. So we bundled her up, bundled up ourselves, grabbed her favorite Wooobie and headed out for a little hike. Well, then Wade and I had this idea that we should have brought a sled to pull her on. So we walked back to the car. Meanwile, Wade’s brain was working on how to make a sled out of what we had in the car. And he did! Eden loved it, too. She laughed and smiled while we were pulling her around. We’ve got some pictures that we’ll post tonight.. and a VERY cute video of Eden.

It has been quite the week for our family. We found ourselves in the ER with Eden on Wednesday. She’d been throwing up a little. Then a little turned into more and then more turned into 15 times in an hour and 10 minutes. We were just going to take her to the doctor, but when we got there, she had continued to throw up and he said we could take her to see him, but he would likely just send us to the ER and we would be double billed. We opted for one bill and took her to the ER.

She was a good little patient, though. She got some medicine for anti-nausea and anti-vomiting and did much better. The diagnosis? Gastrointestinal virus. In short, the flu. She was on her way to dehydration. Poor little Eden. We were told she could only have Pedialyte, juice, clear broths and clear liquids for the first 24 hours. Then it was the “BRAT” diet for the next 24. She didn’t mind it at first, but was waking up in the middle of the night to eat because she was so hungry. She did sleep a lot, too. But when we tried to then re-introduce formula and solid foods she wanted the sugary Pedialyte. All that work for no sugar and then she HAD to have it! It’s been hard to convince her that the once-loved peas are still yummy even though they don’t have sugar added to them. She’s doing much better now that she has realized that when she felt better she was no longer going to get everything she wanted- exactly when she wanted it.

So after a 3-hour ER visit, a trip to Wal-greens to get her prescription and the necessary fluids, 3 full loads of laundry to get her clothes- our clothes- her car seat cover and straps, and all of her blankets and burp cloths clean we finally could relax a bit. She slept contently while we also caught a couple of naps to try to recover from the craziness of the day. Oh yes, and we treated ourselves to Carl’s Jr. burgers, too. I am sure that helped.

Our friends and family have been a great support. The ward here has really rallied around us to make sure that we’re doing alright and that Eden is being taken care of on all sides. We’re so blessed to have a great support network out here. Many of the ward members here have become like family for us. We didn’t think that it was possible, but with God all things are possible. Thank you to all of you, near and far, who have kept us in your prayers and called us to check in. This has been an unexpectedly crazy time in our family, and we appreciate all the support and love you have given to us.

Eden cut her second tooth on Jan. 5 and we are just now getting around to blogging about it! Things have been busy around here. Eden and her friend are going to have a little play date today, and both mommies are excited! (This may be more for us right now, but at least the kids will learn how to share, right?)

We’ll post some new photos of this playdate tonight or tomorrow morning. We’ll see how things turn out!

So we forgot to mention that Eden got her first tooth! She was a champ while teething, and she did it while we were in Michigan! She’s great, isn’t she? So now she has one cute little chomper on her bottom gum line- and she’s getting another one. She’s been sleeping a TON and not eating as well as she normally does. She’s been VERY snuggly, which isn’t out of the ordinary for her, but the constant comforting is not usually needed. Poor girl. Teething can be so hard!

Especially when compounded with her very first ear infection! Yuck! It’s not fun. She’s been doing as well as any baby would, but she just hasn’t been herself lately. She was a little off in Michigan, but it only worsened when we came home. She started to tug at her ears a little bit, but I wasn’t sure if it was discovery or if it was discomfort, so I watched and waited. She has also been using her pacifier a lot more, so I knew something was up with her. Her eczema has also been redder and rougher than usual, so we wanted to make sure that we were doing all that we could to help her skin heal- and to make sure that it wasn’t an allergic reaction to something we fed her. So we called our pediatrician, and got the nurse-on-call. She advised us to go straight in to the InstaCare. We packed up Eden, gave her a snuggle and I slid into the back seat with her so that she wouldn’t feel abandoned. (She’s usually pretty good about riding in the backseat by herself, but since she’s been sick, she’s had a really hard time when I leave the room.) When we got there, we signed in, payed our co-pay and waited for about 5 minutes until we were taken back by a really nice physicians assistant. He talked to Eden and let her play with his stethoscope while he was trying to get her pulse. (And wow! Was that ever difficult on a 7-month-old baby who wants to play because she is out, but should be taking her nap!) Then the doctor came in. He was from Chicago and told me the difference between a Yankee and a Damn Yankee. I apparently, am the latter. Anyways, he then proceeded to talk to Eden and ask Wade and me about ourselves and “our story.” He told Eden all about his grandson who was her age and that in a couple of years we should introduce them because “he is a very handsome young man, and a beautiful girl like you deserves a handsome man.) We just laughed. He was great with her! He also let Eden pretty much do what she wanted so that she could get comfortable. And that is exactly what she did! She pulled at his coat, and tugged on his pens, eventually loosing the stethoscope around his neck and getting it to her mouth. She’s so curious! He sat her on my lap, kissed her forehead and then looked in her ears. That was the hard part. She cried as soon as he touched the right one. And it was confirmed when he looked inside it- it was bright red. He gave her a little tongue depressor to play with and gave us a scrip for Amoxicillin. Gross. As soon as we picked up the medicine from the pharmacy and opened it to give her her first dose, it brought Wade and me both back to our childhood memories of being sick. Yuck. No fun at all. But Eden loved it. She’s really good about taking her homeopathic medicine, though, so this shouldn’t have come as a big surprise to me. IF this stuff doesn’t work, we’re going to take her to a homeopathic doctor and have her treated there. And either way, she’s going to be eating a TON of yogurt to kill off the yeast that is infiltrating her body right now through the medicine.

We kept her home yesterday and she slept like a champ for most of the day, and as soon as she took the medicine she seemed to feel better. But then last night Wade had to wake her up from her nap- otherwise she may have woken up at 2 a.m. and thought it was dinner time! This morning wasn’t much different. She slept until 8:40. She is usually awake at 7-7:30. I tried to get the two of us out the door for church, and after succeeding in that, the car failed to start. Rats. It’s also -5 degrees right now where we live. It’s freezing, and probably not best for Eden to be out in that kind of weather- even if she is on medicine.

So, we’re just going to stay home today and let Eden heal. She’s a tough little fighter, so I think she will feel better in no time.

We’re back in Utah after a great stint in Michigan, but we’re exhuasted! We saw so many family members, and had so little sleep that we’re playing catch-up now. But it was well worth it! It was great to see everyone. We regret that we couldn’t see more people. We tried our best to see everyone, but there just wasn’t enough time.

Wade’s family made it up to Michigan from Kentucky, too. It was ncie to see them: Clay is growing up more every day; Amber is amazing us with the projects that she can finish so quickly; Shawan and Doug are settling into being grandparents and seem to being doing well, also. While they were in MI, we went to Frankenmuth- a little German town north of where my parents live. We ate at the world-famous Zenders, went to Bronner’s- only the largest Christmas store in the WORLD!, and stopped off at St. Julians winery. (They’ve got the best sprakeling juices!)

We met Anne, my biological mom, and her children for lunch at Zenders, too. It was so good to see them. Only Libby had met Eden, so it was good for them to all get to see her. (And Eden loved the attention!)

As for Wade and me, we were pretty sure we were expecting again until yesterday evening. Aside from that, we’re getting ready for a New Year’s Eve fondue party at our condo. Our friends Erin and Nathan will be coming over tonight to enjoy some non-alcoholic mixers, sparkeling cranberry juice, and 3 courses of fondue! Hooray! And, thanks to Eden’s uncle Clay- we are going to mix it up with the game Fact or Crap. Oh yes, it is going to be great. All the while little Eden will be fast asleep in her snuggly bed. It’s great that we can still get away with this because she is so young.

My house awaits a mop and some dusting cloths before Eden wakes up from her nap and is ready to eat lunch. Thank you all for a wonderful Christmas this year!