Bye Blogger, Hello Wordpress

I have a new home. So that means that this blog is being laid to rest. Ciao blogger, it's been a slice.

Please join me over at:

http://turgeonexpansion.wordpress.com

See you soon!

Boo to Blogger

So, Blogger and I are in a #'s battle. I think Blogger has won. Blogger limits private blogs to 100 members. And I'm honored to say, I apparently have much more people than I thought reading this blog (blush, blush). The absolute outpouring of support and enthusiasm to continue following our family's story has been amazing. Applause to you, adoption community, you rock!

So, of course where does this leave this blog?

Yeah, huh, I have no idea. I pretty much cannot go private, because the amount of e-mails and comments I have is way over the 100 mark. And I want all of you that sent me messages to come on over to the dark side with me.

Now, do I continue and more sensitively censor what I put on this blog, which makes me sad, because this is my outlet to voice our families trials and tribulations and I think that the amount of people who have written to us about how similar of adoption stories we have, or support or etc....makes me so happy. This blog's purpose when I began was to be a journal, a place to seek support and get resources from others, to keep people informed of our adoption progress. It makes me happy to log on and read comments or e-mails from people around the world. It puts a smile on my face to know reading about how we brought our daughter home is helping another family get through to the end and have their family home. It brought me through so many sad, rainy days when we were waiting to hear who our daugher was to click on this blog and see our cheerleaders rooting us on.

The change for wanting to go private is a very personal decision, that was difficult to make, but was made this past week. It's not one of paranoia now that Eden's home, just to clarify that.

Some gals I know are on Word Press and then I can password protect posts.......But I'd have to check that out a little more to see how it all works....

In a nutshell, still no clue what to do. I will keep you posted of what's shaking down our way. Thanks again to all of you who e-mailed me and left comments, when you click on your e-mail and it says you have 97 messages in one day, wow. Makes a girl's ego grow just a tad. Excuse me, I'll turn sideways to fit throught this door. Just kidding!

Going Private

This blog will be going private on Thursday.

Please e-mail me or leave a comment with your e-mail address for an invite.

See you on the other side for our invited guests.

Step By Step + #400 Post

This is my 400th blog post since I began this blog back in spring 2007. And I haven't even ran out of things to talk about. Amazing.

Speaking of amazing.

You know these lyrics from a song back in the day:

Step by step
Oooo, baby

That's my baby! WALKING!!

Eden has been getting braver and letting go of the furniture and us to stand by herself and WOW, she took 1 step this afternoon into her mom's arms. Then 2 steps this afternoon. And then 3 steps this evening. I was so excited I almost peed my pants! Good thing Kris's cousin was over and I got him to record her walking to me it was so cute. Of course, being a diva, she can't just simply stand and walk. She has to stand, flail her arms about in a random fashion, while yelling "gadilly, gadilly, ga, ga, blahggggggaaaadadaddad gadilly gee". After getting worked up, and being fairly wobbly, she then decides to venture those little feet into a walking position. Funny. If I didn't have dial-up internet I would post it. Boo to dial up!

Now will she actually keep up this walking business or simply shelf it for another month or 2? You know the baby's interests last approximately 5.793 seconds.

Captain

The vocabulary of the baby has expanded exponentially this weekend from just saying da-da.........to......................wait for it...............................

"bye-bye" with a wave (of course with her hand facing herself watching her fingers move).

After camping with our friends this weekend and chillaxing..........

with punching the clock & taking a shift of being captain of the boat.....

she retired her sea legs for a snooze on the ships floor....

Yep, Aha, Sure

What to say.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Hmmmmmmm.....

Maybe it's best not to say anything at all.

We're off camping this weekend. Our plans for this weekend were ahem, disrupted.

For those of you with blogs....

Do you ever feel that the only way people actually talk to you in acutal life is through the blog? I know that many "people" read this blog and never comment and will never actually pick up the phone or visit with us because they saw it on the blog and why bother? We know what's going on with you and we'll make decisions about the basis of what's on your blogs, so who needs you anyway. And even if we did talk to you, we'd still make decisions about you based on what we know and who we talk too....

Bah humbug.

11 Months Old

Eden is 11 months old today! One more month and she'll hit the big 1 year mark.

Everyday, little baby, you amaze me how fast you grow and change. You are crawling all over the place, into absolutely everything you can get your hands on....drawers, cupboards, the toilet (dad, you need to watch much more carefully!). How you spot the tiny crumb or speck on the floor to eat, is beyond me. Your eyesight is impecable. You are pulling yourself up to a standing position with the help of furniture, a toy, my legs. You walk along the furniture while standing as well. One day I even saw you from the kitchen up by the coffee table, standing, but obviously conducting your imaginary symphony at the rate your hands were moving, while simultaneously singing/screaming/talking/ya-ba-da-ba-doing.

Your little budha belly is slimming down with all your moving and shaking these days. This week I even had you standing without holding on to anything for about 30 seconds before you had a wipe-out. Great job! You have 4 teeth, 3 on bottom and 1 on top these days. You're almost out of eating all types of baby food, but your mommy keeps pushing it to get rid of the jars (ha!). I know you would much rather just eat big people food. You give kisses anytime we ask for a kiss. And you especially love to kiss Yonas's picture on the china cabinet. Eden, you give high-5's to us, know how to show how big you are when we ask you and have the most infectious laugh and smile. We love you so much. We could not have been blessed with a more special daughter.

Shall we copy the words of the oh-so wise Jerry Mcguire...You complete me! Cuz you do! Love you pumpkin!

And the Doc Says...

Just call it the big "M".

Eden has developed Molluscum on her face, arms, hands, legs and feet. She has little red bumps all over the place and today the doctor confirmed what I feared. It's a pox virus, somewhere she picked it up from another infected person. We're not to pick at them because darker skinned children are more prone to scarring than caucasion children. Our doctor told us there's not much to do to treat it and it should run it's course in a couple of weeks-months. They're not very severe, quite tiny and not very raised. Here is a good link to read more about it.

And then yesterday we also visited the hospital. When we came home from Ethiopia, we saw a pediatric infectious disease specialist at our provincial university to have Eden checked over. He had given us a bazillion requisitions for blood work and said you might as well wait until her provincial health card comes in to have her blood work done. Well, that came like 2.5 months ago. Yeah, I was putting it off and putting it off because I knew she would cry and then I would cry and it would just be a big crying production. I finally worked up the courage to take her to the lab yesterday. They put a numbing cream on her arm for about 30 minutes and then we came back and had her blood taken. Oh, my poor baby. With 2 of us holding her down and her wrapped up in a blanket mummy style so she couldn't move they poked and got 3 vials of needed blood from her. She cried the whole time they did it with big crocodile tears running down her face and mine too. But, as soon as they were done and I picked her up, the crying did cease. I don't expect any issues with her bloodwork, but one thing off the list.

I also saw the doc today. For the last couple of weeks every morning when I wake up my hand is completely numb and my knuckles ache all day long. When I heard the words...."you're not going to like what I tell you"....my heart skipped a beat. I'm sick, it's a tumor, no it's carpal tunnel, you'll have to take my hands. I'll have a hook. I'll be the hook mom. The others will pont and laugh...."there she is, the hooker" (no pun intended).

Here is the official diagnosis:

"Baby Carrying Disease"

Ha! It's called I carry Eden funny..... with my wrist and hands wrapped around her therefore making my wrists, knuckles and hands super sore. I need to adjust my posture and carry her more with my elbow. It's typical in new moms with heavier babies. What? Are you calling my kid fat? Just kididng, I love her rolls, they are extra kissable! Ok, ibprofen and a muscle cream it is.