Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam

Claire's first Sunday as a Sunbeam

Funny of the day-12/31/09

Setting: Getting Claire out of the truck.

Claire: "I can't walk."

Me: "Do you need me to hold you?"

Claire: "Yeah. I have swine flu."

My Christmas surprise

Ha ha! No, I didn't all of a sudden have a baby! That little, tiny, precious angel is Laurel, Jordan's fourth baby.

Jordan called me on Wednesday and we talked for a while. Then she told me she had to go because they had arrived at the restaurant they were going to have lunch at. A few seconds later, we heard a knock at our front door. Lo and behold, it was Jordan's family! A wonderful surprise! We went to lunch and then took the kids to, where else, Chuck E. Cheese. Claire was so sad to see her cousins leave for Pass Christian. All was well on Sunday, though, when Jordan's family went to church with us and then stayed for a few hours to have lunch before heading back to Beaumont. Claire had an absolute blast and kept saying over and over that Laurel is "so cute!"

Cole, Claire, Lilly, and Leila

If anyone is interested, I have a video of Claire from Christmas morning on Facebook. It's MUCH easier to get video on there.

Want to know a secret?

If you ever need Claire to fall asleep really quickly, just put a hard boiled egg on her eye and rub her head for 2 minutes. It's worked like a charm, although not intentionally, for the past 2 nights.

We don't put hard boiled eggs on her eyes just to get her to go to sleep or for fun. It's actually because she has two styes on one of her eyes that won't go away. Her ophthalmologist said to put a warm compress on it for 20 minutes. Washcloths don't hold heat for that long, so he suggested using a hard boiled egg because they retain heat for a really long time.

Hmmm, now you know two secrets.

Okay, Facebook got me

Sometimes it is so much easier to post a few pics or a status update on Facebook than it is to write up a whole post on Blogger. But, since this blog is serving as my journal right now, and since I can't let Claire's birthday go completely unBlogger-posted, here goes:

Claire's actual birthday was the 1st, but since her party was on the 5th, we just celebrated with pumpkin pie.

Claire's party started off with crown making.

Then we decorated "Snow White apples" and "Pocahontas leaves".

Then the kids had to put Cinderella in her window.

Then Claire opened her presents, but I'll spare you those pictures. Then it was time for cake. Mmmmmmm, yummy whipped cream frosting, sugary deliciousness!

Claire had a wonderful birthday and thinks that she gets to celebrate it every other day. A friend invited us over to house for playgroup and when we got there surprised us by having a little party for Claire.

Claire had "Parent Watch" at ballet on Monday. It was so fun to watch the girls put on a show for us. I did get 2 videos of it, but the quality is so poor I'm not even going to attempt to post them. Claire had lots of fun, though, and kept turning around to see if I had my camera up and pointed at her. She's such a camera hog! She does a great job listening to her teacher and following instructions. I'm so glad we were able to put her in dance this year and I love her teacher!

What a week!

Last week was one CRAZY week! After church last Sunday, Claire and I loaded up the car and drove to Beaumont, Texas, to be there when Jordan had her fourth baby, Laurel. I guess Claire was so excited to be there she was really just bouncing off the walls AND THE FURNITURE. She fell backwards off a recliner and landed on her head. She cried and cried and about a half an hour later said she wanted to go to bed. Even though it was her normal bedtime anyway, I kept checking on her and joked to Jordan that I better make sure she doesn't have a concussion. Well about 2 hours later Claire woke up screaming and started throwing up. My mom had just walked in the door from the airport and off the three of us went to the Emergency Room. Claire had a pokie (blood drawn) and went on a roller coaster (had a CAT scan). Everything came back normal except for the fact that her symptoms proved she had a mild concussion. Claire put on a good show for the ER staff singing Disney princess songs and doing her impression of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. We were there until 4 a.m. It was fun. NOT!

Jordan went to the hospital really early Monday morning to be induced. There were some complications and Laurel had to be taken to the NICU. She ingested A LOT of blood and fluid which had to be siphoned off and she was given antibiotics. The doctor also found that she has a ventricular septal defect (a hole in her heart), but that it will hopefully close on its own at around 12-18 months. Laurel is still in the NICU, but she should be coming home tomorrow (Nov. 23).

Jordan came home from the hospital on Tuesday and my mom went to an urgent care that night with severe back pain and found out that she has degenerative disc disease and that two of her lower lumbar vertebrae were pitched forward pinching a nerve. After an eventful (trust me, it was EVENTFUL) trip, she (and Roy who was so nice to take her and didn't know what he was in for) made it home REALLY late that night.

Jordan had something interesting, and by interesting I mean disgusting, happen on Friday night and Roy had to rush her to the Emergency Room. I won't go into detail about what happened, but Jordan might. Go here to see if she does. While they were at the hospital, Aidan (and family) arrived to join the fun.

Saturday was our early Thanksgiving feast and a feast it was. I'm too afraid to get on the scale, but I'm sure that I gained a good 10 pounds just on Saturday.

As with all good things, our vacation came to an end today and Claire and I made our long journey back to Slidell. We only got to see Laurel through the NICU window twice, but she sure is a cutie and I wish we could have stayed longer to hold her and to take at least one picture of her. I guess I'll have to plan another trip SOON for that!

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm turning 18 again. That's the age my brain is stuck on. I'm looking forward to seeing what Brian got me since this is the first year that he is making me wait until my actual birthday to open his present. Hmmm, I hope he's not making me wait because he never got me anything and is picking up something from the gas station on the way home from work.

**Update: Brian got me the four books in the Twilight series. It was on the approved list of birthday gifts I gave him a month ago.