Here's To Ya, Robertsons

That panting you may hear in the background is Sarah, Eden and I (and if it's not us, then I don't really want to know what's going on at your house). Why the hard breathing? We just had the Family Robertson in from Phoenix for five days--Stephanie (Sarah's best friend from high school), Gary, Charlie, and Luke. Wow, do those kids have some energy. Not that it wasn't fun--we had a blast having them out here and will actually consider it a personal affront if they do not immediately move to Little Rock.


Okay, I'm kidding (about the moving, not the having fun part). Although Sarah may not be--one or two tears rolled down her cheeks as they pulled away on Wednesday.


And Eden loved Charlie and Luke. I mean, seriously loved--if she could have stuck them in the pocket of her 6-month pants to play with whenever she wanted, she would have. If she could've recorded them and played them on a 24-hour nonstop loop on TV, she would have. If she could've covered them with rice cereal, breastmilk, and bananas and eaten them up, she would have. She loved them.


We had to work a bit to come up with energy-tapping activities for three days, though. Luckily, the hotel they stayed at had a pool, so we hit that a couple times, as well as the zoo, the park, and a sweet, sweet place called The Wonder Place that should be on every parents' To Do With Your Kids When They're Bored And Crazy list. The Wonder Place had all kinds of cool stuff for kids from Eden's age up to about 8 years (or, if you're anything like me, up to 30ish). We and the Robertsons gave the place a workover for a couple of hours but, believe me, I could've stayed there all day long. I mean, the kids could. Yeah, that's it.


All in all, it was a Phenomenal visit with a capital Ph. We miss them tons and can't wait to get together again. And all that stuff about moving out here, that really was just a joke. Kinda. Maybe.

This milestone will be smeared with mashed bananas

We're back, and with nifty new gear, too. Turns out, it only took about a week without a camera for us to crack and pick up a new one. And just in time, too. It would've been a real shame if we didn't photographically document the smallest detail of Eden's newest adventure--the Adventure of Rice Cereal and Bananas.

Yes, as hard to believe as it is, Eden is already foraying into the new world of flavor. Or into the new world of Things That Don't Taste Like Milk, at any rate; anyone who has tasted rice cereal for infants can vouch that flavor is definitely not listed in the ingredients. We can't decide if she likes her new culinary options or not. She's energetic enough at first, but the faces and turned-up nose come quickly every other day or so. But who knows--she makes the sames faces when she has gas.

Anyway, here's a glimpse of the new adventure. You can judge whether she's getting more in her belly or on her shirt.

Gone daddy gone

We searched, we hoped, we prayed, we searched again, we had Molly and Chach search, we pulled our hair out in frustration, we searched one last time (just, you know, in case), and we finally gave up.

It's official: the camera is gone.

How it vanished we don't know (we were looking at it in the car near the end of the drive home, for pete's sake), but all of the lovely shots of Eden, Sarah, Molly, Florida, the beach, the pool, and my ever-expanding spare tire are gone for good. It's okay to shed a tear or two; we've already filled a few glasses-ful.

So an in-depth report of Eden's first exposure to white sand, palm trees, and southern weddings will have to wait a bit longer until we can steal some pics from Molly's camera. On the plus side, we had gotten some sand underneath the sliding lens cover that made some nasty clicking sounds when we turned it on or off, so it was probably on its way out sooner rather than later. I never liked that camera anyway. Stupid camera.

In the meantime, enjoy this photo I've managed to dredge up. It's a great shot of Eden sleeping in the middle of the night after a storm knocked power out. With no flash. And a fast shutter speed.

sad, sad post

So here's the deal. We went to Florida. Had a wonderful time. Took lots of great pictures. Drove back home to Arkansas. Lost the camera. Now we are at a lost as to what we can even post. We are on a mad hunt for the lost camera and will keep you all posted. As far as Eden's platelets... all she needed was a little trip to the beach, they're up this week to 425,000!! Hopefully she'll keep them around there, we'll see. If anyone has any idea where to look for our camera let us know, until then, here are a few older pictures of Eden- her 1st soccer picture. And her w/ Daddy.

Manic little monkeys

Whew. It's been a busy week, and there's no letup in sight. Here's a quick rundown of the latest events:

--Grampa Lair came out to visit, pulling in last Sunday and taking off early this morning. The last time he had seen her was back in April, when she was knee-high to a grasshopper (she's thigh-high to a cricket, now). Eden loved the furry white stuff on his face (although he may not have appreciated her tugging so hard on his beard), and we loved having him out for a spell.


--Monday was clinic day, where she scored a 309,000 on her platelet test. I said last Monday was her worst trip so far, but this one beat it by a mile--it was screamarific. The nurses now draw straws to see who gets stuck with "the incident maker." (I kid, I kid--at least, I hope they don't draw straws. Some of them have a hunted look in their eye when we roll in, though.)


--Wednesday we had house church at our house, where the other members got to see the indigenous Laircub in her native habitat. Ashley Chandler and Eden's buddy Brady (from down the street) came up for a while too, which Eden appreciated--the party was getting laaaammme-o with only old people around.


...and that's about it. My list of activities looks a little weak, now that it's in print; maybe you had to be there to appreciate the hectic-ness of it all. Or maybe we're just wusses.

Coming up, we've got a trip to Florida next week for a wedding; some friends from Phoenix driving in the week after (with kids Eden can play with! She's been looking forward to this, like, her whole life); and Grandma Lair flying in the week after that. If I had been as popular in high school as Eden is already, I would've been class president. Or something. So we've got this weekend to catch our collective breath and then it's party party party for a solid month. Please, please, please pray for our sanity.

Big Girl

Eden officially graduated to her Big Girl carseat this weekend. She weighed in at 22.5 lbs. this past Monday and the limit for her old seat was 22 lbs. On the upside she does seem to like it better and Mike and I were just about throwing our backs out carring her in the old one. Mike and I have also discovered the relief of Baby Einstein. For all of you out there who are saying to yourselves "Oh no, they're sticking that kid in front of the TV all of the time", I really can reassure you that we don't do it often, but it comes in handy now and again. So here are a few pictures of Eden relaxing before bed.

Mondays are for grouches

Today's number is 443,000, brought to you by the verb fuss and the adjective cranky. Yes, today was clinic day for Eden, and while she scored great (well, decently--we expect it to be high the week after a transfusion) she wasn't happy about the experience. Actually, this may have been her worst trip so far--she even screamed at the nurse, which everyone knows is a no-no, unless you like spit in your soup. Oh wait, that's waiters.

At any rate, she was not a happy camper. She hasn't been much fun to be around for the last week or so, come to think of it. I blame the teeth. They haven't popped through yet, but you can almost see the little tormentors, lying just under the surface, radiating waves of crankiness.

Eden and the Hospital, Acte Trois

Yesterday was Transfusion Day, where happy little girls with no platelets in their blood go and get topped off for a few more weeks. Last week she rocked the platelets to the tune of 78,000, so yesterday--even though technically she was just going in for another blood test--we packed bags with clothes, diapers, baby toys and grown-up toys (because who wants to spend a day in the hospital without some Mario Kart action, really?), grabbed an aunt, and headed off bright and early. Call it a sense of foreboding.

And whad'ya know? She scored 53,000. Big surprise.

So Eden got a needle stuck in a vein for the third time in her life. Her foot again, so no fun foam hand-board for her to play with and chew on and get generally sloppy. She was much less happy about this round of IVIg, as well; she had less of the "this is all so new and interesting and why does that man keep coming by with wild horses on his shirt (Nurse Tim, who wins my award for Nicest Male Nurse Ever)" reaction and more of the rockstar-ish "this again? How about a little creativity around here. This is, like, SO lame, people" 'tude. And who can blame her? If I was 5 months old and had large quantities of fluid pushed into my body from location other than my mouth, I'd probably be a little pissed too.

Bye-Bye Pops

Eden got to meet her "Pops" this past week. We are sad to say that he had to leave today to head back to Colorado. We all had a great time. We ate lots of bar-b-que, made a visit to Clinton Library and showed him the "sights of Little Rock." Thanks for coming Dad, we miss you already and hope that you can come back soon with her uncles and aunt!

down again

It seems that every time we put a post on the blog it's in regards to Eden's platelets, I guess that that's what our lives are about right now!! Anyways, they are down again. 78,000. Not a significant fall, but a fall all the same. Mike and I are beginning to think that the 200,000 plus platelets was a big fluke, we'll see. The even more downside to this is that her kidney test is scheduled for next Tuesday. They said that they'll go ahead with it as long as her platelets are over 50,000- we'll wait and see. We're about tired of having to give her amoxicillin every night and would prefer to see at least one medical condition come to a close, time will tell I guess. All that being said, here are a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment. They range from pictures of her new friend Johanna (and her big brother Julian, who we got to hang out with when Johanna was first born), to her new highchair. She's getting big.

...or not so much.

Well, that was confusing.

We said all the right things, like "we're gonna wait and see what happens," and "we don't want to make any assumptions," and "we're not ging to jump to any conclusions," but we were jumping, my friends, jumping very far. We just knew that her platelets were going to be fine--equal to, if not better than, last week's count. We had that gut feeling that this was all over and Eden could resume a needle-free lifestyle again. So how did Monday go?

90,000.

90,000? What does that mean? Apart from the obvious--that her platelets have resumed their normally scheduled programming of halving the previous week's count--we couldn't make heads or tails of it. Does this mean that she's not better after all? That two Mondays ago was a fluke? That weekly fluctuations are part of the typical recovery period? That we should go ahead and shave our heads before we go gray and bald by year's end, thus saving us the torture of suffering through it? Who knows?

Our doctor most likely does, for one, although he's not telling us much.

So I now declare next Monday the 24th the new D-Day. Surely we'll know by then what's really going on. Surely.

But I'm not holding my breath on this one.

D-Day

Today is the big one: crunch time, the semester final, the game for all the marbles. Why, you ask? Because last week was the first week that Eden's platelets rose of their own accord--from 110,000 the week before to over 200,000 last Monday. And that's without an IVIg boost, folks, which makes it the first time (in her life, as far as we know, although definitely since May) her platelets chose to stop dyin' and start livin'.

So today we find out if last week was a just fluke or if her body has finally decided that self-destruction is not the best answer.

Hold your breath, cross your fingers, and say some prayers.

A busy, busy three weeks

So I took a little vacation from the blog. Maybe not so little--looking through the old blogs, it's been around three weeks since my last post. Luckily Sarah was able to cover my slacker ways with her post, otherwise this place would've been a desert of Eden info. In my defence, though, the World Cup is on, which has driven the one or two rational thoughts straight out of my head. But I'm back and rarin' to go now, so be prepared for an onslaught of baby news--new posts every hour, on the hour, for the rest of the week, baby. And for the unaware, my tongue is very much in my cheek, because we all know some tigers don't quickly change their stripes.

So what's happened in Edenland over the last three weeks? Lets see, Eden's had two trips to the blood clinic, but she couldn't beat her old high score--her first test came short at 440,000. 440 came the week after her transfusion, so we expected it to be much higher; it had platelet clumps in the sample, though, so it wasn't neccessarily an accurate count. We were holding our collective breaths for the following week's results to be better, but it was not to be--198,000 platelets were all she could rustle up, which follows the norm lately. She goes back in tomorrow and, if she keeps the rhythm going, we expect another transfusion Monday next.

The nice thing about having to take Eden in every week is that it helps us keep perspective--there's nothing like watching two bald 12-year-olds discuss how many doses of chemo they got in the past couple of months to help us realize that we have no idea how hard it really could be. Given the choice of a million dollars, ITP, or leukemia I'd choose the million dollars, but ITP would be a close second. Okay, maybe a distant second, but leukemia or lymphoma would be an even more distant third. The point is, none of us really get a choice in the matter--we close our eyes and pray for the best, like picking numbers for a lottery ticket. It's not until we see the cancer kids and their families at the children's hospital that we realize that regardless of how long it takes Eden to get over this--or even if she doesn't--we have already won the lottery.

Let's see, what other kind of stuff has happened over the last several days? Well, as Sarah mentioned, she and Eden went to Nashville for several days (which was a big part of my blogging neglect--when the cat's away...) and had a great time. And once they left, her Nan missed Eden so much that she followed her back to Little Rock. Janet came out and spent the majority of the week with us, and we had a blast. We watched lots of soccer, where we discovered that Eden has been a long-time Portugal fan (how did that happen?)--she cried every time they missed a penalty kick against England, and I think I saw her laugh sarcastically and point when Rooney got booted with a red-card. We also watched her Nan do lots of work in the garden, which was also lots of fun for us because it meant we didn't have to do it ourselves. Heh. And we finally, finally, finally made it to the zoo, on which I'll have another post later (unless another three-week vacation happens to crop up). So, all in all, a great week.

So it's been a fun-fulled few weeks, and it doesn't stop here: we've got another clinic visit tomorrow and an auntie and uncle getting back into town tonight that have been burnin' to see their niece. And, of course, the 4th of July is on some day this week (I always forget when), so Eden will get her first chance to be freaked out by big exploding lights in the sky.

Nashville!!

Eden made her first trip this week! We headed out with Nan on Tuesday for a long drive to Nashville. Eden did great! She was such a trooper. We arrived in Nashville and had better accomadations than at home. Aunt Linda had prepared a room for us with everything we could ever need (thanks to Uncle Andy for giving up his room): a changing table, a playpen, new clothes, and best of all some baby Uggs (I can't wait till it's cool enough for her to wear them). We then got to go to Aunt Joyce's for a home-cooked southern meal that was as good as I remembered. Throughout the week her "aunts" showed Eden how to shop, eat and have an all-around good time. Eden got to show off her rolls at Aunt Joyce's pool; she loved the water! We had a great time- she was definetly worn out after it was all done. The whole trip was great and the drive back wasn't bad either; she was a great traveler. We're praying that she'll soon be able to fly so she can meet all of her family in Colorado!

A second helping of IVIg

...and another fun day in the hospital is done. Eden had to go in for another IVIg transfusion on Monday; her platelets had been declining since her first transfusion like Zima at a San Francisco art show. So we wandered in around 8 that morning and wandered back out around 6:30 that evening, full up on 10,000 people's anitbodies. Eden was a champ throughout--she was a happy, bouncy, playful 3-month-old who didn't even know she was not supposed to be enjoying it all. Her auntie Molls and her momma were troopers, as well. Her dad, however, really struggled through the whole ordeal, being forced to play hour upon hour of New Super Mario on the Nintendo DS. Oh, the horrors.