Pirate Princess Eden

Totally made this... like everything else for this party.  How did I find the time?  It's called 3am people.  That seems to be the only time I can get stuff done. By the time I get home from my free labor, make dinner, take baths, get Eden ready for bed and actually get her to stay in her bed, it's about 11pm.  So that's when I do the things I need to...

This year was suppose to be a "small" low-key party.  Last year I went a little overboard making all the kids capes and in the process drove my husband crazy.  I told him I would tone it down a bit, so I only invited one group of friends (so I apologize if you didn't get an invite).  Well, one group of friends turned out to be 23 kids!  How does that happen?  I only sent out 11 invitations!  Well, once I tallied up the head count I realized that my house was going to be WAY too small, so my wonderful sister in law offered her house...and I'm not one to decline.

Party Details:
Once all the kids arrived, they split into two groups and headed out on a treasure hunt...

Ye found me map, a treasure a waits,
so gather together all your shipmates.
Follow the map and you will find,
that "X" marks the spot to the treasure of mine.

First, travel to Scurvy Forest and beware,
for hanging around is your 1st pirate item there.

 Next, it's off to Shipwreck Island, and careful while you steer,
for it's there you will find the 2nd of your buccaneer gear.

 Now it's to Mermaid Falls where you'll walk the plank,
be sure to grab your final pirate item lying near it's bank. 

 Last it's off to Jumpy Bumpy Forest where you'll rendezvous with the other buccaneers,
and it's there where "X" marks the spot will appear. 

The treasure hunt led them to a treasure chest pinata filled to the brim with candy, toys and all things pirate.  Once the party started and all chaos broke loose, my camera was set down never to be picked up again.  I am quite ashamed to say that I have ZERO pictures of the party, so I'm hoping grandma and grandpa snapped some shots for me.

After the kids filled their bags with treats, it was time to sing to the birthday girl.  All the kids gathered as the cake was revealed...

That's right people, I've got MAD skills!  Don't ask me...it's just a gift. It flows in my veins. Eden was tickled pink. She was so excited that Bucky was her cake (side note: Bucky is the ship on Jake and the Neverland Pirates).

She was a bit emotional and whinny all day, but hey it's her birthday and she'll cry if she wants to.  Eden used her own money to buy the figures for this cake and after she blew out the candles she gave all the figures away to her friends!  I was like "What are you doing?!  Are you sure?"  She was all "Ya, mom, they can have them... it's okay!"  Well, once we got home she cried her eyes out because she didn't have her pirate crew anymore....

After cake we did gifts.  Eden made out like a bandit!  The amount of gifts was crazy!  We have some pretty awesome friends.  By the end, the only person watching Eden open gifts was her cousin Landrie because she was the one handing her each present.  The other kids got bored after about 10 minutes and so they went off to play.  I'm not going to lie, I went throw her gift and put aside about half of them and said "Thank you! Christmas shopping done!"

As the kids started to leave, I made sure they took home their thank you/party gift...

The kids were able to pick a ship and fill it with edible gold! Ya know, I'm awesome like that and like to send the kids home with as big of a sugar high as possible!

 The chocolate gold coins were a big hit.  All the kids wanted them.  When the party was over Eden was VERY upset that all the chocolate gold da'blooms (side note: gold da'blooms are what pirates call their gold) were gone and she didn't get any!

So low-key, it was not.. but it was a crazy, chaotic blast, like all birthday's should be.  Next year, family party...I think.

Photo Shoot Pictures

Three Whole Years

THREE whole years have passed since they put a squishy little baby in my arms and told her she was mine.  THREE years ago my life forever changed.  THREE years ago I became a mom and have be grateful for every single minute. 

I remember lying in the delivery room as Eden made her big debut.  I remember how the nurse told me that needed to take her to the NICU right away because she wasn't breathing great and I remember telling Les "Don't you leave my baby!"  I remember walking down to the NICU after I was all stitched up and looking at my baby all covered in wires and a plastic bubble over her head...

I remember only having 15 minutes before I had to leave for shift change and the panic I felt to have to leave my baby...again.  She had only been in the world for 30 minutes and all but maybe 30 secs of it had been away from mama.  I remember putting my hand on her little belly and touching her little face and telling her that she needed to start breathing really good so that she could come back to the room with mama.  I remember telling her that me and daddy loved her SOOO much and we needed her to get her O2 sats up so I could hold her and love her. I remember talking to her until the nurse told me I had to leave. I remember asking her to give Eden a binkie because I felt like it would help calm her down.

I remember how I felt sitting in my room at 4:30am just staring at the clock, waiting until I could go back down to the NICU and see my baby again.  I remember how I called the nurse exactly after 20 minutes had passed and asked if I could come back down.  I remember how the nurse told me that she would bring Eden to me because she made leaps and bounds after I left and they felt like she just needed her mama.  I remember how hearing the nurse refer to me as "mama" for the first time just felt right.  I was meant to be a mama...always have been.

Now three years later my little baby doesn't NEED her mama like she used to.  She can tell me what she thinks and what she wants and MAN she knows how to get her way.  Most days now end with me locking myself in my room so I can get a break but I wouldn't change it for anything. 

If you know my family, you know that birthdays are BIG...like really big.  I've been asked several times why I spend so much time planning birthdays when Eden's not even going to remember them and my response is always the same.  The day she came into the world I became a mama.  I found my purpose. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me and I will celebrate that day, not only for her but for me, because she is my joy and every year I am so grateful that she is mine. I want to celebrate and remember that day for the rest of my life... and in true Hutchison fashion... we either go big or go home!

8:30am - Breakfast in Mama's bed WHILE watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates. 
Menu:
- bacon (baby girl LOVES bacon...like her daddy)
- hasbrowns
- chocolate chip pancake (in the shape of a 3...of course)
I lite the candles and walked into the room singing happy birthday and Eden just smiles the biggest smile.  She waits impatiently all year to have that song sung to her and so on her birthday I make sure I sing it as many times as I can.  Every time, without fail, she LOVES it!

9:00am In Bed Manicure
Eden loves it when I paint her nails.  She always holds REALLY still and makes sure to tell me every couple of minutes how great a job I'm doing and that her nails look "beautiful!".  She loves to help me blow on her nails and she spends the next half hour or so very carefully  using her fingers as to not ruin her beautiful nails!

10:00am Make-up Chair and Hair
While I got really for the day, Eden decided to keep me entertained by running in and out of her room as fast as she could through the crate paper I hung from her door.  She couldn't figure out why I put streamers on her door.  I kept telling her because it was her birthday and she would always add "and because I'm your baby..." 

11:15 Birthday Photo Shoot
We traveled on down to FotoFly for a birthday photo shoot.  This was the first time that Mitzi Torgerson didn't take Eden's pictures.  She lives in Vegas and I'm so sad she moved away.  I love Mitzi's photos and so I was a little skeptical on how these were going to turn out.  Well, the lady who took Eden's pictures did a great job.  Eden just laughed and squealed the whole time.

12:30pm Lunch at Great Harvest
While we were waiting for our photos to get edited, Eden and I headed over to Great Harvest for some lunch.  I told Eden we were going out to lunch because she was the birthday girl.  I told her she could have anything she wanted for lunch and that she would even get to pick a treat.
Menu:
- half a grilled cheese
- chocolate milk
- sun chips
- GIANT oatmeal chocolate chip cookie

After lunch we went back to FotoFly and picked up our free 11X14 print and our CD.  The fact that I got my pictures same day turn around...dealsies...we'll go there again!

2:00pm Doctor's Visit
Why not pack as many things into one day as you can?  I mean it was the only day I had off from school and so I made the most of it. We visited Dr. Lash and showed him how big we are.  Eden is in the 90th percentile for height and weight (which is where she has ALWAYS been).  She showed Dr. Lash how she's dances, flips (a.k.a somersaults) and doesn't stop talking.  He was quite impressed! We even ended the visit with a request for a shot.  Eden told Dr. Lash that Doc McStuffins (a Disney channel show about a little girl who is a toy doctor) always gives her patients a shot.  Dr. Lash said no shots today but he would put some medicine in her nose (a.k.a FluMist) and that seems to sufficient.

3:30pm Mini Golf
Eden has been BEGGING Les to take her golfing.  We weren't sure if we'd be able to take her golfing today since it was suppose to rain, but luckily the weathermen don't have a clue what they are talking about and we made it.  Eden had a blast.  She didn't want anyone to help her.  She wanted to do it herself.  She would hit the ball a total of 3 times and then pick it up and put it in the hole.  After the full 18 holes she told me "I'm good a golf!  I'm better than daddy!"  She then asked to go golfing at the driving range.  Les told her she needed to practice more and get better, to which she replied "I am better, daddy.  I am a good golfer!"

After golf we finally made it back home where we spent the rest of the night playing with new toys and putting away all the new clothes.  The night ended with me tucking my big girl in bed and kissing her goodnight.  She didn't made a peep and when right to sleep. 

I can't believe three whole years have passed!  My little shadow is starting to venture out on her own and doesn't need to be glued to her mama all the time.  I can't believe that my little baby is now carrying on full conversations and giving me a piece of her mind.  I love that she can play pretend and I sort of love that she can do everything by herself.  Like getting dressed or feeding herself or going potty all by herself. I'm the luckiest mama around because I get to call her mine.  Three years ago I became a mama and I have loved every single crazy and frustrating moment of it!

27 Week Follow-up Ultrasound

Today I went in for a follow up ultrasound.  At my 20 week ultrasound they saw what they called "echogenic bowel"  That's when the baby's bowels look brighter than they are suppose to.  It's a soft marker for a million different things, including Down Syndrome or Cystic Fibrosis.  Today they wanted to see if the baby's bowels were still bright and they wanted to look at the baby's kidneys, but first let's look at this ADORABLE face...

The ultrasound technician first took the baby's measurements to make sure he was thriving.  According to this head and belly I'm measuring a week ahead.  His femur was measuring right on track and overall he was looking great.  She took lots of different views of his bowels and kidneys to give the radiologist a lot of different views.  She told me that his bowels still looked a little bright but not nearly as bright as they did on my last ultrasound.

She kept saying "I'm not impressed, not like I was with your first ultrasound."  She kept reassuring me that I was going to be JUST fine.  Because his bowels were still showing brighter than usual and I was paranoid about Down's or Cystic Fibrosis, she took at a look at other soft markers to try and help reassure me.  Usually Down's babies have short femurs, heart abnormalities, abnormal hand folds, a fat pad at the base of the neck and an under developed nasal bone.  My baby had none of these things and so the technician was very confident that he doesn't have Down Syndrome. The technician also didn't see any signs of thick mucus which is common with cystic fibrosis.

So what does all this mean?  I asked the technician... "So what do you think?  Should I still be concerned?"  She told me that she definitely would have said I had echogenic bowel for my 20 week ultrasound but she wouldn't be so confident saying that this time, just because they weren't bright enough to raise any concern in her mind and after looking at all the other markers she wouldn't be worried, but that she isn't sure what my doctor is going to think and worse case scenario is that I get another ultrasound in a few weeks.  However, once I enter the 3rd trimester, baby will start producing meconium and meconium shows up bright on the ultrasound.  So bottom line, we still don't know if there is anything to be concerned about.  We are just chillin' in no man's land.

Next, the technician looked at little man's kidney's.  She said everything seemed to functioning correctly and the baby was producing urine like he should.  However, his left kidney looked like it had two ureters coming out of it instead of one. The technician tried to look at a few different angles but my little guy did NOT want to cooperate at all.  He kept turning and moving around.  The technician said that because everything looked like it was functioning correctly, I shouldn't be concerned.  She told me worse case scenario is that the baby will have to have an ultrasound right after he's born to confirmed that he is voiding correctly and having two ureters does happen and doesn't mean anything is wrong.

So again...we are just in the waiting game.  Bottom line, baby looks healthy and is growing great.  I'm still worried. I just want my baby to be healthy but I'm going to try and not get stressed out and just wait and see what my doctor says.

After all the diagnosis was done, we spend some time looking at my cute baby boy in 3D.  Can I just say, I don't know what it is about ultrasound technicians, but they are obsessed with little boys' units. They LOVE to look at them.  The technician even got a little creative this time and I was DYING!
Meet baby's snail...

She's all "Look!  a little snail is crawling up his leg..." We kept trying to get a good picture of baby's face but he was just cuddling up to my placenta, perfectly content...it was adorable and I'll take any picture of my baby's face, even if it's just half of his face.

The baby's hand or foot was always right in front of his face so we didn't get any great shots but I still just ate them up.  At one point, he was sucking on his big toe.  It was adorable!

baby is VERY flexible! The technician called this shot the "Go Yoga" move.

This is a picture of him playing with his foot and blowing bubbles.  This is a top view.  His head is on the left and he's holding his food with both hands...adorable right?

Bottom line? No matter what, IF anything is wrong with my little boy I already love him to pieces and NOTHING is going to change that.  Cross your fingers and say a prayer that all will be okay and let's hope this mama's little heart can take the worry for 3 more months.

Crazy Life and 26 Weeks

Man, where have I been?  Why has it taken me so long to update my blog....oh that right, I'm a crazy person these days!  My life consists of work, cleaning the house, finishing our basement, more work where I actually get paid, oh yeah, and planning a birthday party...No big! I can't believe I'm 27 weeks.  I'm just a week shy of my 3rd trimester.  Where has the time gone?  At my last doctor's appointment I was informed I would now be coming every 2 weeks.  I asked my doctor if she was joking, she wasn't.  What a pain every 2 weeks is.  That's a lot of time I have to get off.  Who has time for that?  Definitely not me! It's also a reminder that this baby is coming soon and I still have LOADS to do before I'm ready.

This week I have an ultrasound that I'm a little nervous about.  At my 20 week ultrasound they saw some bright spots in little man's tummy.  It's called echogenic bowel.  Basically what that is, is when the stomach or bowels look as dense as bone or cartilage.  Apparently it's a marker for like a bazillion different things (including cystic fibrosis and down syndrome) and so my doctor wanted me to have a follow up to see if it was still present.  My doctor didn't seem to concerned.  She told me it happens quite often and usually means nothing but they like to keep an eye on it just in case.  Well, being the naturally paranoid pregnant person that I am...I stress.  So cross your fingers for me!

The rest of this week will be spend putting together the final touches for this little girl right here.  Can you guess the theme?