Sometimes she's sweet...

...and sometimes she's sassy.

Artwork!

I especially love this one because they called me over and said "Mom, look! We worked together!" Eden drew the pink girl, and Holland added the dog ("Zippo"), the sun, the sky, and the grass :-)


Holland did this one on her own. It's a self portrait. She added a headband, bangs, freckles(?), and even a belly button. She is also walking Zippo, but told me that he "is flying up into the air!" Funny, funny girl.

Cycling Is Fun!

Last summer we started talking about getting a bike for Eden. I did a little research and asked around a bit, but somehow the summer got away from us and we never got that far. Eden's home PT mentioned that there was a little girl in our town who had a bike that she thought might work for Eden, so last fall I contacted her mom and asked if we could borrow it to try it out. These adapted trikes are so pricey that I really wanted to try one and see if it would work before I invested a ton of time and money into getting one. So, we borrowed it, and it worked. I figured that I had the winter to really figure out how we would go about getting one for Eden. She was excited about the prospect, and let us know that she wanted a pink Littlest Pet Shop bike. Of course.

Before I got too far along in the process, the mom who had loaned us the bike called me and told me that her daughter was outgrowing it and probably would not be able to use it come spring. She asked if we wanted it, and I said, "absolutely."

Fast forward to about a couple months ago. I went and picked it up, and Eden became the proud new owner of a blue and green Freedom Concepts Discovery bike. Well...at least she was the owner and she would ride it...I don't know about proud. It wasn't exactly what she had envisioned (it wasn't pink), but she WAS a good sport about it.

In the meantime I hatched a clever plan, and called up a couple of my super industrious, creative-type friends. I asked if they thought they could turn this into a pink bike for Eden and they told me to bring it over! So, I dropped it off and a week later it was pretty and pink. Ron spray painted the bike light pink and dark pink, and Amy even made pink glittery beads for the spokes. They also cleaned it up and tightened up all the parts so it was a much smoother ride.

I took Eden with me so they could see her reaction, and it was everything she had hoped it would be. We put her on it and she literally TOOK OFF! She was flying on that thing, around and around their little cul de sac. We joked with her that the color pink must give her super powers. She told us that that the bike was just a lot faster without the "string" (the rope pulley that was holding the pedals up).

So, it IS faster without the pulley, but without it her toes were pointing and the pedals were scraping the ground. After getting it home, we decided to try it while wearing her taller orthotics. This worked like a charm. Now she is able to fly around on her new pink bike...which I also decked out with some Littlest Pet Shop removable stickers, a pink flower horn, AND a bell.

Instead of spending the summer learning to pedal a trike...we're gonna spend the summer really RIDING. We took it to the park a couple of weeks ago and she rode about a mile easily. She was riding circles around Holland:-) It honestly makes my heart sing to see her riding that bike. Eden has the PINK Littlest Pet Shop bike that she had dreamed of!

Special thanks to Amy and Ron, and everyone who helped make her dream come true:-)

Top 20 Reasons Moms of Kids with Special Needs ROCK

Yeah! What she said!

What's Up Wednesday

We're still here!

I just returned home from my 4th annual Hair Posse reunion trip. This year we went to San Francisco. It was four days of awesomeness where I got to see a whole bunch of my favorite people in the world...High School friends Jessie, Donna, Lisa, and Maggie. As a total bonus I also got to see some of my family (Aunt Katy, Uncle Keith, and cousins Abby and Drew). I love them all and had such a great time visiting!


It was a much needed break from reality, and timed just right to give me some respite right after March for Babies and right before the girls got sick with another snotty/cough virus. It started with a slight cough the day I came home, and just this evening has evolved into the start of breathing treatments and TLC with Eden. She'll probably have to stay home from school tomorrow... Hopefully we'll weather this one quickly and be back to our regularly scheduled program soon.

Work is crazy as I try to wrap up all of the end-of-the school year referrals, but I won't complain since I only have 19 more wake-ups before the end of the school year, and I still have a job in the fall.

I am working on a big, exciting, surprise post featuring Eden riding her new pink bike. Stay tuned for that and be ready to be amazed yet AGAIN. I'm not kidding. It's so flippin amazing and exciting that I can't stand it! She just needs to get well so we can get her riding again! I can't wait to show you all!

We Marched for Babies!

Thank you so much to all of our wonderfully generous and supportive family, friends, and blog readers!!! Team Holland and Eden was able to raise $6,186.00 for the March of Dimes, making this our best year yet. We couldn't have done it without you!

Celebrating Life

In just 3 short days we will once again participate in March for Babies to help raise money for the March of Dimes. This will be our fifth March, and over the years we have helped to raise over $16,000 in honor of Holland and Eden.

April gets to be a very busy and stressful month for us. John and I both have deadlines at work (tax season and end of school year referrals). Throw in a little pneumonia, Operation Feed Yourself failure, PMS, and a yearly girls trip (for me) scheduled one week from tomorrow, things start to get a little crazy. It happens every year that I start to lose my fund raising mojo. I have to reevaluate and ask myself, "Why am I doing this?"

So, why are we doing this???

First and foremost, we are doing this because we don't want other babies and other families to have to face the trauma, grief, and life-shattering reality of extreme prematurity. The March of Dimes is leading the way in bringing awareness to issues related to prematurity, and in funding research targeted at our personal goal of seeing fewer babies born too soon, and improving the care of babies in the NICU so that the long-term negative effects of prematurity can be minimized.

We also walk out of gratitude, for the role that the March of Dimes has played in making Holland and Eden's survival possible, and in celebration of their lives. There is still not a day that goes by that I am not reminded of their early birth on some level. There is also not a day that goes by that I do not remember how truly lucky I am. There are still many nights when I go into their bedroom to check on them before going to bed. I listen carefully for the sound of their breath and tears will spring to my eyes...because they are breathing...so calmly...so quietly...so peacefully. I don't take that for granted and I am forever grateful.

We walk in memory of the babies who did not survive, and for the parents who grieve their loss. My heart truly aches for those families, and I have shed many, many tears for them.

We walk for all of those reasons. We also walk because it gives us a sense of community and purpose, and a sense of giving back. We walk because we want to instill all of these values into Holland and Eden. We want them to understand the impact that their actions can have on the world. We want them to do their part.

We don't want them to take their lives for granted.

We want them to celebrate their lives!

John and I made our donation today. We donated 100 dollars for each pound that our babies weighed at birth. Won't you help us celebrate Holland and Eden's lives by donating a dollar (or 5...or 10) for every pound your baby(ies) weighed at birth?

Or give up that Venti Latte for just one day and donate $5 to our team in the hopes that someday fewer babies will be born too soon.

Every little bit counts!

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed so far. We read all of your comments and feel so lucky to have so many people, both in real life and online, who care so much about our family.

THANK YOU!


PS. Notice the new haircuts??? Aren't they adorable?!?!

Full Disclosure

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that yesterday we had a major setback in Operation Feed Yourself. We lasted 12 days. Eden lost one pound, Holland a pound and a half. After too many meals of them just sitting and staring forlornly into space, and too many entire plates of food scraped into the trash, I lost my nerve (and maybe my mind).

So, yesterday we fed them all 3 meals and they ate great.

We are going to take a week to regroup and come up with a new plan.

I can't help but feel like a failure.

The PMS is not helping.