Miscellaneous pictures from September

A list of fun things in life would definitely include jumping on the trampoline in the rain. Eden loved it!

A little baby drool down the feeding tube never hurt anyone, right? Eden definitely didn't know this was happening or that syringe would not have lasted long in his possession.

Eden is a purse/bag kind of girl. Most times she has a bag or two in hand, filled with any number of random things. This particular day she couldn't decide which bag she liked best, so she had a whole hand full when we got out to the car.

We went to the zoo with Annie, Lydia and Grace which was tons of fun.

The day before we left for Denver, I made a spur of the moment decision to cut Eden some bangs. It was a great decision because she looks so adorable and so grown up!

Bentley - 5 months old!

He is so stinkin' cute!! I love this boy to pieces.....

Starting at 7 weeks, Bentley was sleeping 7 or 8 hours a night. After a month or so we had a rough patch, (maybe a growth spurt?) and he started waking up to eat a couple times a night again. For the past two weeks though he has been sleeping beautifully - about 10-12 hours straight! It's amazing... I feel like a new woman. :)

He loves baby food! So far I haven't found anything he doesn't like which is so amazing! I'm grateful that feeding has gone so smoothly with him since day one. It's such a huge blessing!

He still absolutely LOVES the bath! The only way I bathe him these days is putting his baby bath inside the big bathtub because he loves to splash out all the water. I usually end up refilling his tub a time or two before bath time is over.

He loves Eden so much. He loves to watch her and laugh at her, and even if she isn't being very nice, he still has the biggest smile on his face when she is around.

Lately Eden has been undressing him whenever I leave the room. He is usually really patient with her attempts, but even Brad has a hard time getting him dressed so it's safe to say Eden struggles. Before long Bentley starts whimpering for help so I have to come to his rescue. :)

Bentley now has a passport so he can go to Mexico with us next month. His passport picture is hilarious! I'm not sure what's up with that lazy eye :)

I've heard from a few people now that Bentley looks like baby Jack Jack from the movie "The Incredibles" so now we know what Bentley's costume will be for Halloween!

I just can't express how much I love this boy. He has brought so much joy into our home and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the tremendous blessing he is.

Preschool and Grandparents Day

For the first week of preschool, I went with Eden because her nurse wasn't available to start yet. Even with me there, she was nervous to be there and interact with the kids, but overall she did really well and seemed to be enjoying it.

On her third day of school (the second week) her nurse Becca started going with Eden. Becca is so sweet and good to Eden and we are so grateful that she is working with us!

The first two days with Becca (and without me) were a little rough in the beginning. When I say rough, I mean she cried, coughed really hard, and then threw up.... both days. Ugh... But once she got that out, within 15 or 20 minutes, she was just fine and would join in with the class and do really well. I'm so grateful Becca would step in and help her with both her medical needs (like suctioning)and she would also do so well to help Eden not feel scared.

This week she wasn't sad at all when I left her and was running away to get to class. I'm so grateful she enjoys it and I've already seen so much social interaction progress with her! I'm bummed she will have to miss the next three weeks of school while we are in Denver, but hopefully the transition back into school when we return will go smoothly.

A couple weeks ago they had Grandparent's Day at the school. I'm so grateful that both of my parents could come and support Eden (and I). She loved seeing them there, and I think they were pretty entertained as well.

In the beginning we all just enjoyed a little snack and Eden told grandma and grandpa about school. This was on her second day of school with her nurse, so she was still nervous to be away from me so you'll see the darn blankie is also there with her.

Once we were done with our snack, we moved into the Chapel area and the Pastor came and read a story about the Creation of the World to the kids. After the book the pastor got out his guitar and they all sang "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".

Once that song was over the kids stood and faced the audience and sang another song. For the first half of the song Eden stood with her back to us, facing the other kids. It was pretty funny. Her teacher finally got her to turn around and then we watched as she sang the rest of the song. She was pretty proud of herself.

She loves the projects they do at school and insisted we take her picture with some of her masterpieces.

Grandma and Grandpa Justice, we celebrated you from afar and know you would have come if you were here! Grandma and Grandpa Malarsie, thank you so much for coming! We love our grandparents!

Cinderella Shoes and Eating

So obviously eating has been a horrible nightmare with Eden. She continues to struggle and fight against most everything I try. I give her food at each meal, and offer her snacks whenever I'm eating something, but I'm lucky if I can get her to take a couple bites.

So as we are preparing to go to the intensive feeding therapy in Denver, I was curious to try one more experiement to see if getting her really motivated would help.

A few weeks ago we were at the Disney Store and Eden saw some Cinderella shoes that she really wanted. She continued to talk about them for weeks so I decided those may be the key to "bribing" her into eating.

With every bite she swallowed, she could put a sticker on her chart and when the chart was full she would get her beloved shoes. It took 4 days to get 49 bites, but today with lunch she got enough stickers to complete her chart. She was so excited!

She couldn't get those shoes out of the bag fast enough.

Even during this experiment, she continued to refuse anything for breakfast, and either lunch or dinner would be awesome, with the other meal being pretty rough. I'm not sure that this will help create any habit of eating, but at least now I know that with the right motivation she will at least eat something! This was definitely the most she has eaten in a four day period. It gives me useful information to take to the team at the intensive feeding therapy next week.

It's a battle I will continue to fight! As I type this, she is laying in her bed clapping the heels of her shoes together and watching the lights flash. :) Cute girl...

Fun projects

Eden loves projects, and unless I have an extra thing or two lined up each day, we both go a little crazy! :)

She is still really intrigued by squirting vinegar into baking soda and watching the bubbles. So this particular time, I put different colored candies in each little hole and she had to squirt in the matching color of vinegar. It kept her pretty entertained for a little while.

On a whim, I also recommended she paint the stepping stones that she walks on to get across the gravel to get the mail. She thought that was fun and now gets even more excited when she goes to get the mail each day.

Gak is always a fun ingredient for any project.

And while we are working on all these projects, Bentley continues to master the art of thumb sucking.

Eating the Ensign

When I left my visiting teaching appointment, Bentley was asleep in his car seat so I slide my Ensign next to him and carried him out to the car. By the time we got to the grocery store, he had woken up and proceeded to devour quite a few pages of the Ensign without ever even making a sound. Clever little guy....

Sweet Eden

The world would be a better place if it had this many little Eden's running around... :)

Friends

For the first 2 1/2 years of Eden's life, she wasn't exposed to kids very often because she would always end up really sick and in the hospital. Now that her health is much more stable, I've been doing as much as I can to get her around kids and interacting in a social setting. School and been so good for her and she is already acting much more confident around kids.

I'm grateful that the Pickett girls are such good friends for Eden to hang out with.

Just recently Eden has started going down slides by herself, but before she always wanted someone to hold her hand going down. Grace had been going on this slide a few times, but as soon as Eden noticed she assumed Grace needed help. It was really cute to watch Eden grab onto her hand and "help" her go down the slide. And Grace just went along with it :)

Thanks for being such great friends Lydia and Grace! Love, princess Eden...

Practice with my new lens

I definitely need more practice figuring out this new lens, but I sure have two cute models!