Dear A-

We’ve had a bit of a rough week.  Daddy had bronchitis and even though you’re over your ear infection, you still have a horrible cough.  Antibiotics make you have such bad diaper rash too… you scream when I change your diaper.  You slept better last night than you have in a very long time though- only coughed yourself awake once at about 3am!

You’re just waking up from your 1 nap of the day- you slept about 1.5 hours. I was really, really hoping for at least 2.  We still don’t have a good schedule going since I was in the hospital a few weeks ago.  I guess it doesn’t make sense to try now since you’re going to have a  little brother tomorrow!!!  Yay!!  We are supposed to call the hospital at 5am to make sure that there’s a space for us… Grae should be here by lunchtime!  I’m so excited.  I can’t wait for you to meet him!

Nina is coming up this afternoon after she finishes teaching school.  She should be here at about 7pm and will be here with you during the (hopefully) one night we’re in the hospital.  I can’t wait to be at home with you, Daddy and Grae.  I’m so glad Nina’s staying a week to help us.

I love you, Aidyn.  I love you so much.  I’ve really been soaking up your “tisses” and “hug”s that you ask for lately.  I love it when you squeeze my neck.  You are such a sweet, precious little girl.  It seems like you’re growing up exponentially fast these last few weeks…  I can’t wait to see you grow even more in your role as Grae’s big sister.  He’s one lucky boy to have you to watch out for him.  I hope you two become really good friends… and that you always, always keep me in the loop, too.

Well, my love- I’m going to get you and cuddle with you in the bed for a few minutes before we get a snack.

                         You’re my girl.
                                                           mommy

Aidyn,

      Things are finally getting back to normal. Thank goodness.  …just in time for your brother to come too, probably.  Oh well, at least we’ve had a few normal days lately before things change again!  I’m so excited to meet Grae- and I think you are too.  You point to my belly and say “brother” “Grae” “baby” a lot.  You give him kisses and hugs too.  You’re also pretty much obsessed with Seeger- he’s 10 weeks old now.  You ask for him all the time… and ever since you saw Shanna pick him up, bounce him and say “shhh”… you do that to all of your dolls and stuffed animals.  Sometimes you just fold your arms and bounce them while you “shhhh”… so ridiculous!  I love you and your goofy little self…
      You’re saying 3 words together now- but the 3rd word is always “daddy”. Ha!  “Thank you, daddy. Bless you, daddy. Hold it, daddy.  Come on, Daddy” …even when he’s not here!  Sometimes I wish you’d say mommy… but that concept hasn’t sunk into your sweet little head yet… oh well.  You saw a red truck parked in a driveway today while we were heading down the road and you shouted “Truck!  Daddy!” Ha!  The truck really did look like Daddy’s too.
      You are such a little sponge these days.  I have to be really careful of what I say- you will usually repeat the last 2 syllables of whatever I say.  Doesn’t matter what it is… you say “gracious” and that’s way better than “oh, dosh (gosh)” which is evidently what I say when things don’t go exactly as I planned…  I love when you say “yes ma’am”.  You are really obedient too- there are definitely times when you aren’t.. especially when you’re either tired or hungry; but most of the time you do what I ask you to do.  You’re such a blessing, little bit.
      I hope you adjust well to baby Grae when he gets here.   I love you so much… and I love him too.  I can’t wait for you to hold him and kiss his little face.  I think you are going to be a very good big sister.  It’s so exciting to think about this summer and all the fun memories we will make as a family of 4!
      Here’s one of my favorite pictures from the maternity photo shoot we did about a week ago.
 

   

                                                         
 

Dear Sweet Pea-

I love you so much.  I think I could just hold you all the time… if you’d only let me…

We finally got to come home from the hospital yesterday after a 5 day admission for preterm labor.  Out of the strict bedrest, horrible drugs, not being able to see straight and swelling- the worst part about the last week was being apart from you almost 24/7.  I can’t believe how much I missed you.  I couldn’t even hug you for the first 3 days because the medicines made my muscles so weak.  I don’t think I will ever be able to tell you how much I desperately love you…

You stayed with JJ and PawPaw most of the time daddy and I were gone- but they all got a stomach bug and Uncle Michael had to take over one day- Daddy started laughing when Uncle Michael called to ask which way the tabs went on your diaper.  He had never changed one before- and he changed a dirty one!! Ha!! Your Great-Aunt Jenny helped when JJ was sick and Great-Aunt Brenda is playing with you in the living room while I rest in bed at home now.  We are so blessed to have them so close by- and that they are willing to help us. 

I know it was hard on you this last week- you know things aren’t normal and even though everyone did a fantastic job taking care of you, it’s still not the same as being home with us.  You’ve started throwing more temper tantrums- I think you just need to get back into the normal swing of things.  I’m so glad we’re back together now- even if I can’t take care of you by myself, at least we’re here together again.  The blood pressure medicine I’m taking 4x a day for contractions makes me so dizzy and sick- but you have been so sweet through it all.  You want to lay next to me with your head on my belly… and you keep giving Grae kisses.  You are about the sweetest little girl I’ve ever seen. 
.
I can’t wait until our little family is all home and healthy… just a few more weeks and we’ll be there.

Lots of love, Sweet Pea.
                                           -mommy 

Aidyn,

Here’s a tip: Hacking into peoples’ xanga account is a lot easier when they have their password stored on the computer.  In case your wondering… this is a letter from dad. 

I thought I would write you a letter and just tell you how great God is because of some of the things that have been going on in our lives right now.  It may seem like an unlikely time to do that, considering you’ve been sick for about two weeks with two different viruses back to back.  But that’s kinda why I’m writing. 

The other night, mom was at work and we were getting ready for bed.  You were exhausted, not to mention your viral rash was as bad as it had ever been.  I did my best to get you ready for bed in a fun and comfortable fashion like mom, but you know I never was as good as her.  After you screamed while I put your lotion and pajamas on, I carried you into the kitchen to get the milk that you were begging me for.  As usual, I brought you back to the bedroom and held you as you drank your milk.  The lights were lower than normal, because I was going to try and rock you on to sleep.  About half way through your milk, you looked up at me and said, “Bi-ble”.  I thought my heart would melt.  Now I know that you probably just said that because your normal nightly routine includes bath, milk, bible, brush teeth, then bed in that order, and you realized that we left a step out.  Even so, I have to believe that when God heard that single word with that cute little baby accent, he grinned just as I did and was pleased.  I know that you don’t understand very much at sixteen months, but I believe that your unknowing devotion to the routine of reading the Bible glorifies God.  Not only does it glorify God, but it encourages, and sometimes embarrasses, me.  In a moment when you were as tired and as pitiful as I’ve ever seen you, you called out for God’s word, rather than drifting off to sleep.  Sometimes I have trouble disciplining myself to reading my Bible on a sunny Saturday.

So Aidyn, even when you are sick, God should be praised.  Even in the tired times, God is great.  Even when life is tough, God should be glorified.  Praised for His grace that is freely given for our faith.  Great because He’s called us to a unfailing hope in Him. Glorified because He loved us so much, He sacrificed His precious baby, so that we could be redeemed.  You reminded me of that, through your simple discipline to our nightly routine, and you can barely say “Bi-ble”.

Your mother is probably the reason you can barely say Bible, and definitely the reason why you know the routine.  I’m so thankful for her devotion to the Lord, to teaching you and to our family.  God is Good.

I love you so much it’s crazy.

Dad.

Dear Aidyn-

You are such a goofy little girl.

I am totally in love with you.
At breakfast today we were eating “chee- o’s” and when you were “ah done” you started asking for some “min-it” (music) and one song specifically. We have a CD of the youth praise band and you love “Revelation Song”- you sing “oh-wee oh-wee oh-wee” when the music starts- trying to say “Holy Holy Holy”.  That song and “Better is One Day” are your favorites.  You run around in circles with your hands in the air- but only for those 2 songs! SUCH a blessing to my heart. I love watching you praise the Lord- even if you don’t really know exactly what you’re doing now- You have such a beautiful heart.  I love how you say Jesus… “Jeeeee- zus”

We pray every time we sit down to eat and you know I usually end with “…and bless it to our bodies”- sometimes you cut me off when I’m saying “bodies” to say “Ah-men”. Haha! I love it.  You ask to read the Bible when you’re drinking your milk from the sippie after bath time.  I love that you love reading it- and that we have made it part of your nighttime routine.  All three of us (four including Grae!) cuddle up on the couch to read about God’s goodness.  We just finished reading about Adam and Eve leaving the garden last night.

Also- I think you’re either getting a cold or your cuspids are coming in… you’ve been so whiny today!  You didn’t take a good nap at Kristin’s yesterday either and were even more clumsy than normal- You were running around in circles and knocked your forehead against your toddler bed… then about 20 minutes later you were trying to climb onto our bed and fell again! That time you hit your right eye though- now you have your first black eye.  It’s swollen and bruised… you look like you’ve been abused! I was crying with you by the time daddy got home around 6:45 because I was tired too… I hate working all night long.

Just wanted to document the events of the last 24 hours… I love you, kiddo. Hope you go to sleep soon and get a good second nap so we don’t have a repeat tonight! 

Lots of love,
                       
         

Dear A,

So much has happened in the last month and a half!  You have 12 teeth now- and I think you’re working on your cuspids.  The only baby teeth left to come in after those are your 2 year molars!  You talk all the time- my favorite is when you say, “Uv-ee” for “love you” and “hoe-mee” for hold me.  I can’t count all the
words and phrases you say now.  You’re getting much better with utensils too- your favorite is the fork.

Christmas was so much fun- you are an expert at opening presents!  You would get every single piece of paper and tape off the box before you would open it… and forget about tissue paper- you know there’s something better in there!  Ha!  We went to Mimi and Paw Paw’s house for Christmas Eve like always.  We ate and had a blast with everyone.  When we came home, you were so over-tired we almost put you to bed without opening your pj’s.  …But when you saw another present to open, your attitude changed dramatically. We gave you a bath like always and you sat on the couch while we read a story… and you drank your very last bottle.  You’re using a sippie cup for milk at bedtime now. 

Christmas morning was so much fun. You woke up like always- not knowing anything was going on. I had the video camera on you from the start- you were SO excited when you saw another present to open in the living room. It was the pillow that goes on your toddler bed.  After you “loved” the pillow, I asked you where the it went- you tried to put it next to your stuffed animals on the hearth.  I told you to bring it back to the guest bedroom… When you saw the bed, you shouted, “bed!” and ran over to it.  We had to help you up but then you laid down on it and smiled really big.  So sweet.  We also got you a reclining car seat- it’s amazing.  I got a double stroller for when Grae gets here.  It was a really fun Christmas morning.

      
 
The best part about it was when Daddy and I were making breakfast- you pulled all the chocolate out of everyone’s stockings and carted it around with you- you wouldn’t put it down! You even chewed through the plastic of one snicker’s bar and had chocolate all over your mouth. It was hilarious and so incredibly cute.  When we went to Grandma JJ’s and PaPa’s house, you got an insane amount of gifts.  You have a tent that’s set up in the living room with all your toys inside, a barking puppy from Great Aunt Jenny that you adore, lots of soft, warm clothes, a bench with your name on top, a barbie 4 wheeler, a red 2-seater wagon… and I can’t even remember the rest. It was ridiculous. And so much fun.

                  
This is you saying, “Shhhh”.. we’re practicing for when Grae gets here!   – and this is your bench!            

I love you so much, Aidyn.  You are fantastic- and so much fun.  I am working tonight and tomorrow night- they told me I can’t split up my weekends at work anymore.  I’m feeling really sick about being away from you 2 nights in a row… I wish I could keep working Fridays and Sundays like I had been.  I’ll need to sleep most of the day tomorrow so I won’t see you much at all this weekend.  Just a few hours tomorrow.  I’ll miss taking you to church too… But it’s only 10 more weeks til baby Grae is supposed to be here- then I’ll have 12 weeks of nothing but you, me and baby Grae! I am so excited about that. 

Well kiddo, I’m gonna put some more pictures on here and then go write a note to baby Grae too. It’s been way too long since I’ve written to you both. Life has been so incredibly crazy lately. 

Sweet dreams in your nap…. I hear you snoring now…
Tons of love,
                       ~ mommy

Dear Aidyn,

Happy late Thanksgiving!

         I’m so thankful for you, kiddo.  We went down to my parents’ house to celebrate this year. It was a lot of fun to see all 4 of your cousins, Nina, Papa and Uncle Andrew.  GG and Great-Grandpa were there too!  We had some guests from Nina and Papa’s church as well.  Their names were Becky and Dustin.  
         You’ve been sleeping 12 hours at night pretty consistently from about 8-8.   You are only drinking about 4-6 oz of milk from a bottle every day.  I think we are going to go to a sippie of milk in the next week or so.. then you will be a bottle-free baby!  You have your milk on the couch with us then brush teeth before bed.  You LOVE to brush your teeth- you will put your fingers in your mouth and move them up and down if we say it’s time to brush!  You go to bed awake and hardly ever make a sound!  You’re also taking 1 nap a day now, usually from about 10:30-12:30. 
         You have 8 teeth- 6 on top and 2 on the bottom.  I check every now and then.. you laugh at me and stick your tongue out when my finger’s rubbing your gums.  You know 9 body parts and will say 6 of them.  You’re still obsessed with bellies.  I think because mine is getting bigger… You repeat a lot of things I say now- you will say “ree da bit” when asked if you want to “read a book”… you know a lot more words too!  I’ve lost count… but I would guess that you say about 40 different words now.  We’re working on “L” sounds.  You are so funny.. you stick your tongue out to try… then usually make a “D” sound.
         There are so many new things going on with you… you are so sweet- you give daddy and me kisses all the time.  You kiss my belly every time I say your brother is in there.  I love you.  You are so smart and funny… you have started crawling again, just for fun.  You love to crawl under/through anything… my legs, a cord, the table… and you are so proud of yourself too!

I love you, Aider Gator.
                       Sweet dreams.
                                                      mommy

Dear Aidyn-

Sweet thing, you have had such an attitude lately.  Your new favorite thing to do is scowl.  *sigh*  You still smile your beautiful smile… but you furrow your brows and frown a LOT lately.  I usually laugh at you when you do it for nap time… because baby Grae kicks while I’m rocking you and you are not a fan.  Haha!  You have turned into quite a little mimick lately too.  You will try to copy most everything I say and do.  It’s definitely got me saying lame things like “hiney” and other stuff that I used to laugh at my mom for doing.  Life is SO different with you around!

You have picked up more words… It’s hard to keep track of them now!  You say “light”, “nana” for banana, “bite” when you want to eat, “bubbles” and you even said “brother” on Daddy’s birthday.  It was as clear as a bell too.   We went out to the Japanese steak house and you were absolutely rotten.  In your defense, it was late and you were tired… but you are some kind of drama queen, my goodness.  You can flip-flop in a split second- from smiling and laughing and cooing to squealing this horrid sound.  And then you scowl.  I am just trying to be patient with you, tell you “no” and sometimes it works.  You’re just so young… it’s hard to know what to do!

Your new moves- you dance anytime you hear any kind of beat or music, will run in place if we say “happy feet” and it is SO cute.  You also throw both of your hands over your head when we say “touchdown”!  Haha!  You love your daddy so much… but you love me a lot too.  There isn’t much better than hearing you say “mommy” when I pick you up from the babysitter’s or when you see me after your naps.  You are so precious to me.  I love you so much.

We got the professional pics from your party- they turned out so great!  I will have to put some in a letter soon. Life has been so crazy lately- it’s hard to keep up with the things I have to do, let alone the things I want to do. 

Halloween was fun- you didn’t end up wearing your costume that day though!  I must say that you were the absolute cutest bumblebee ever.  We went to Gran Jan’s for dinner and when we got home, it was raining.  We didn’t have any trick-or-treaters because of the weather and I figured I wouldn’t put you in your costume if we weren’t going out.  You got to wear it twice though!  We went to Halloween Palooza downtown and Trunk or Treat at Shanna’s church.  You had your first hotdog there and loved it!  You also found a random little girl to love on… you just walked over to her and laid your head on her shoulder!  It was so adorable.

You really are a very sweet little girl… when you want to be.    You are very loving- quick to give someone a hug if they ask you.  You will run up to daddy and me randomly and hug our legs too.  I love hearing you say, “aww-wee” when you’re loving on us.  My favorite time is the weekend when daddy gets you up in the morning and brings you back to our bed.  You roll around and go back and forth, loving on the two of us.  It’s going to be awesome when baby Grae is here… more lovin to go around.  Ha! 

I love you so much, Aidyn girl.  You are my heartbeat and I love to be with you.

                     ~

Dear Aidyn,

You are going to have a little brother!  I am so excited I can hardly stand it!

We had our second emergency room trip in a week’s time last night.  This time it was for me and the new baby.  I really thought we were losing him… our heart rates were both up.  Mine was about 112 and Peanut’s was in the high 160s.  He’s normally in the 140s and I’m in the 80s or so.  They did an ultrasound to check on him and everything was perfect!  That’s how we found out so early that he’s a him.   

I was having really bad cramps that felt like contractions.  It hurt so much I was in tears… Daddy brought you back to check on me.  I tried to be really tough so you wouldn’t see how much I was hurting, but you knew something was wrong.  You started reaching for me and crying.  I held you for a minute, but had to give you back to daddy when another cramp started.  You cried so hard…  When we left for the emergency room, you were laying in the living room floor sobbing.  I hated to leave you… it broke my heart to see you so sad.  I know it’s because you were scared.  Daddy’s discipleship group guys were there and they watched you for a few minutes until Shanna got there to take you to her house.  She said you were still sobbing and pointing toward our bedroom when she got there about 5 minutes later.  She took you to her house to play with Cooper… they had made a bonfire and you got to taste your first roasted marshmallow!  Shanna said she could barely give Cooper a bite before you were begging for more and that you were very impatient while the marshmallows were cooking. 

GranJan picked you up from Shanna and Curt’s house a little bit later and brought you home.  She said you did great going to bed.  We got home around 12:45am.  I was still cramping, but not nearly as bad as it was when we left for the hospital around 7.  I’m just so glad that we’re all ok.

You’ve really wanted me to hold you a lot lately.  You love to sit in my lap… and for some reason you think I’m a jungle gym these days!  Oh… and it hurts so bad when you put a knee or a foot into my belly.  Especially with as sore as it is today…

Oh darlin.
You’re sleeping in your bed now… Daddy did a great job putting you to bed.  You had your first date night out with him tonight at his old high school’s homecoming football game.  He said you had a blast!  GranJan showed you off and you drank out of his water bottle and loved watching the football players.  He said you didn’t care too much for the cheerleaders.  Just the football players.  That’s my girl.  I stayed at home.  I was supposed to rest, but I got an itch to cook instead.  We have about 2 gallons of soup, mashed potatoes, country style steak and 2 loaves of bread that I made tonight!  I can be so productive sometimes when you’re not here…  I love you, and love having you here with me, but lately you want to be a part of EVERYTHING I’m doing.  It makes it very difficult to cook or clean in the kitchen when you want to hang out in between me and the cabinets…

Anyway.
Sweet dreams, my sweet girl. 
I love you.           
                      

Happy late birthday!  I would have written to you on your birthday but we’ve been really sick.  You and me both, kiddo.  I didn’t even get out of bed and you cried for most of your real birthday. Bummer, huh?  But!  We had a fantastic party last Saturday.  You had your alligator cake, balloons, pinata, a blow up moon-bounce, great hamburgers and all the friends and family you could ask for!  You were perfect with your cake.  You poked the alligator’s eyes…tasted them… tasted a little more… and then wham!  Your hands were full of cake and you were smashing it into your face!  So funny.  You were LOVING all the attention too.  You did your “so strong” face and everybody laughed so hard… so you kept doing it!  So funny.
Here’s some highlight pics of the day that Nina took- we’ll have professional pics in about a week or so!

  The moon bounce was a really big hit!                              and so was your alligator cake!

       
   You got your fill of sugar….                                                  relaxed a little…

    
and then it kicked in!  Hahah!  This is the “So strong” face!

 
and here we are.  Happy family of 3… for about 5 months anyway!

Well.
After all that- then getting sick for about 4 days, we took a trip to the emergency room last night.  The 3 of us were playing on the couch… I sat you up and all of a sudden- *pop!* your wrist made this nasty noise (I felt it too!) and then you started screaming.  I was so scared… I didn’t even pull on you very hard!  After about 15 minutes of you crying, reaching for your wrist and not moving your arm, we decided to take you to get an x-ray of your arm.  To make a long story short, your bones are still mostly cartilage so they didn’t show up very well.  Since they couldn’t tell if something was fractured or if it’s just sprained (and since you still weren’t really using it well after a couple of hours), they put this HUGE bulky wrap around your arm.  It’s about 2x the size of your other arm and seriously looks like you’re related to Pop-Eye the Sailor Man. (On your right side anyway)    We’re going to take you to the doctor tomorrow and have them check it out. I hope it’s ok.

I love you so much sweet pea.
You’re still so congested that I had to hold you for your morning nap.  I rocked and rocked and rocked you because every time I tried to lay you down, you started coughing and sneezing and crying.   After about an hour the benedryl kicked in and you were able to sleep without congestion waking you up.

You’re the most precious thing on earth to me.
I love you more than words.

    ~