Stuff

Last Sunday after church I noticed that Eden's eye was a little red a swollen, like this:

I thought she'd bumped it or something.  But the next morning, the eye was completely swollen shut, and upon closer examination I found what looked like a sting or bite in the corner of her eye.  After a quick trip to the nurse and a good dose of antihistamines, we decided not to worry about it.  After a full afternoon of playing in the dirt, this is what our beautiful little girl looked like:

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We had a rainy day today and spent a little while in the backyard.  Z can do this for minutes and even hours.  Who knows what story lines are running through his head.

Meanwhile, Eden looked for an ocean for her baby turtle and sang songs:

"Jesus Loves Me"

"Hush Little Baby"

From the Past

July 2011 -- Learning the alphabet

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Eden goes to a daycare two days a week.  The other day I was there to pick her up, and as usual she ran over with a happy cry when she saw me.  She had a small stuffed bear in her hands, which she immediately showed to me, saying, "This is my baby bear.  Her mama work all day.  She miss her.  I take care her."  Ouch.

Last week Nathan was helping Z with some math homework -- a word problem involving adding up the number of birds in a tree.  As Z thought about it, he closed his eyes tightly and made fists with his hands.  Nathan said, "It's ok if you want to use your fingers to figure out the answer."  To which Z responded, without opening his eyes or unclenching his fists, "I am using my fingers -- they're in my cabeza!"

The Quilt

In 1945 the ladies of the Winchester, KS Reformed Presbyterian Church held a baby shower for their pastor's wife, who was expecting her second child.  As part of the shower, each lady made a quilt square, which was given to the expectant mother to be stitched together to make a quilt for the new baby.  The pastor's wife was my grandmother, Winifred Elliott, and the soon-to-be-born baby was my mother, Kathy.

The quilt blocks were beautiful, but, not surprisingly, Grammy did not get them quilted together before the baby was born, and she certainly didn't get them quilted together after the baby was born!  She did accomplish the task many years later, but since her daughter, Kathy, was much too big for the baby quilt (since she was, in fact, all grown up by the time the blocks became a quilt), the quilt was promised to Kathy's first daughter when she got married.

While some suspected the great day would never arrive, I did actually get married and inherited the quilt.  I put it away for the day when I would have a daughter of my own.  And tonight, Eden for the first time goes to sleep under the Winchester quilt.

Thank you, dear Tabithas of the the Church, who in 1945 made a quilt for the new baby, who became my mother.  I was married in their church building 58 years later, and cover up my daughter with their handiwork 68 years later.  I hope she will be so surrounded by the Church all of her days.

Eden with her beautiful quilt.

Eden picked out this square as her favorite, which is wonderful because Minnie Belle is actually one of the few makers of the quilt I actually met.

Eden points out another square she likes -- this time an elephant.

Our Little Cassandra

Two nights ago Z helped me make dinner and was a wonderful assistant.  He wore my apron while we worked, and when supper was ready he had to really wrestle with it to get it off.  When he finally rid himself of the apron he ran through the dining room shouting, "I'm free!  I'm free!" with great joy.  Eden, who was sitting in her highchair, watched him run by and then muttered forbodingly under her breath, "But you're NOT free!"  Scary.

A Day at the Zoo

Today was Z's first day of 1st grade!  I took him to school this morning (he'll carpool with friends from now on), and he just acted like an old pro.  His first grade class lined up beside a kindergarten class -- oh the kindergartners!  They are so little and scared!  I'm glad Z was so brave last year, because I was not!

But with Z off to school and me still not in school, Eden and I decided to hit up the zoo.  We had fun!

Eden and the Kookaburra -- "Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra"

Feeding the ducks was the highlight -- see the videos below!

What a big girl she is becoming!

Popsicle Sticks and Papu's Birthday

Tonight we had popsicles for dessert and then a contest after to see who could throw the sticks the farthest.  Z usually won, and maybe it was because of his willingness to yell something crazy each time.

And it is also Papu's birthday -- Happy Birthday Papu!!