Eden LOVES makeup. She does a pretty good job applying it herself, never too crazy and over the top. :)
Like most little girls, she is in love with Elsa from "Frozen" and the song she sings "Let it go". She sings it over and over again and knows all the words perfectly. She also takes it very seriously and learned from her Sunshine Generation class to open her mouth big and wide when she sings so she can be louder. She has definitely got that part down. :) Before she got an actual Elsa dress up costume, she used one of her church dresses with a blanket tucked in the back as the train of the dress.
We went to Payless to find Bentley some new church shoes and she got very distracted by the big high heels. I watched her for a while as she tried on pair after pair and these tall black sparkly ones were her favorite, even though she never dared to stand up straight once she had them on. She was very disappointed and sad that I wouldn't buy them for her.
She still loves to do any kind of crafts or projects. This particular day she was using baking soda and colored vinegar to make a bubbly and colorful Valentine's heart. This picture is particularly cute to me because it shows her cute outfit which she picked herself and would pick to wear everyday if she could. I also think she has the most precious and beautiful face. I love her.
Whenever Annie and the girls are over, Eden always makes sure she gets some good play time with Claire. She loves to make her smile and laugh. I'm so excited to see Eden with her baby sister - I think she is going to be so great with her!
In the last few months Eden has really started to enjoy having a friend play with (that's NOT me!). It's been such a nice transition. Not too long ago I would talk about inviting a friend over to play and she would always say no, but now she asks to play and have someone over, or she even asks to go play at Makalya's house sometimes. I have been so happy with the progress with her social skills. She does get intimidated if it's a group of kids and will usually withdraw and come back to where I am, but she is making significant progress and I'm so happy! She has also made good progress at school and has a couple girls that she consistently plays with when they go outside. Earlier in the year, she would often sit in a chair on the patio and watch the other kids play, but now she goes out and plays with friends. It makes me so happy to know she is overcoming some of those fears and anxieties. She still needs more time to gain more confidence, especially in group settings, but she has made great progress. Academically she is doing amazing and is learning so fast.
Eden and Bentley have also become better friends and it makes me so happy! Don't get me wrong, they definitely fight and have some rivalry sometimes, but they actually play and laugh together now which is great progress. She can be very thoughtful and sweet with him and hearing them laughing and playing together is definitely one of my favorite things.
Eden loves to play dress up and has lots of dresses to choose from. Her favorite is her Elsa dress though and that's the one she is most often wearing.
Eden is very loving and affectionate. She especially loves her daddy and has him wrapped around her little finger. :)
She is such a good eater these days that I still find myself marveling over her tremendous progress. I can't believe that about 1 1/2 years ago we were at the intensive feeding therapy in Denver and we left there with her still refusing to eat anything. Now she is really good about trying new things and will usually eat pretty much whatever we give her. She definitely has a sweet tooth and loves to share treats with her daddy in the evenings. It's such an amazing miracle, one of the many that we have seen with her.
She loves her cousins so much and is always making things for them.
She still wears some 3T clothes, but is mostly in 4T. She wears a size 7 shoe still which is pretty tiny for kids her age. Her hands and feet are small and adorable.
As part of the family Christmas gifts, I printed out blog books which contain all the posts and stories from our lives from 2009 through 2012. Eden has probably loved them more than anyone. She loves to sit and look through the books and see all the fun pictures. She quite often asks us to read the words to her, and asks lots of questions about what's going on in some of the pictures. We have had quite a few good conversations about her history as she has come upon some of the pictures of her in the hospital after surgeries, etc. She doesn't seem to remember a lot of it, which I think is a good thing, but despite some of the pictures being a little tough to look at, she doesn't seem fazed by it at all and is actually quite proud of herself. It's been really neat going through the books with her and telling her more about what's gone on since she came into our family.
As far as current medical stuff is concerned, it has been pretty smooth sailing for a while. The opthamologist continues to monitor her optic nerves for swelling. She is on a medication for it and the last time we were there the swelling was down and everything looked good. She has another follow up this week, which is the first in three months, so hopefully everything there will still look good.
She still goes to speech therapy weekly but has made tremendous progress with her articulation and speech. She has some issues with "S" blends, but with more time and practice that should work itself out. Her therapist feels like there really isn't a lot to work on until her trach comes out. At that point she will need some therapy to help her with her breath control and speaking while exhaling, things like that - but overall she is doing amazing.
We are still waiting to hear back and find out details, but I think the plan is to be in Denver this April to get her airway checked out. When we saw Dr. Prager last fall, the plan for this spring was to do a bronchoscopy to measure her airway and check for growth. He also wanted to remove some scar tissue at that time. If all looked good, and her airway has grown, he was planning to remove the trach. So we may have some HUGE changes this spring, but we won't know until that day what will happen. We are anxious and have guarded optimism. :)
Eden brings so much joy and life into our family. She has, and continues to teach me so much. She is so amazing and fun and has such a generous spirit. I love her to pieces and can't imagine our family without her.
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