Elinor!

In case you're not on facebook and mostly are my mother in law (whom has been complaining about my dead blog- and rightfully so) I thought I'd share this ad.  It came out yesterday and features our own little Elinor.  It's been shared by over 150 people in 24 hours, that means it's been seen by thousands of people on facebook.  I'm proud of my little girl doing her cutest to raise awareness for Rett Syndrome, made possible by our good friends across the pond at curerett.org.uk


Also- I've really been wanting to get back into blogging and have some great blogs in my head I could write, so stay tuned, I just might.

Angel

There's more

Solved

I got the call from Elle's geneticist yesterday, they finally found something in the latest test.  Our sweet little girl has a "rather unique mutation" of the Rett gene.  So now we know.  The search is over.  Can't say we are surprised, but I am rather shocked at finally having an answer.  We know very little right now, Dr. Carey is arranging a meeting for us with him because he wants to go over these findings in person with us.  We will know more in a couple weeks.  Crazy!

Thanks for all the support and love we have felt from family, friends and strangers.  You all make this journey easier and thank you Elinor, for being the sweetest, brightest little star in our lives.  We couldn't love and adore you more.   We are so grateful for the honor of having you as our daughter, you truly are a special little girl and enrich our lives in ways we never dreamed.

Well, off to post this in Lollipops and Crisps, this news was too big to only share there.

Lollipops and Crisps

Elle's blog is now officially up and running.  On occasion, I may double post (same blog post here and there), but I THINK I will be posting just pure Elinor updates on the other blog and Elinor shenanigans over here.  At the moment it is almost purely double posts, so if you've kept up with this blog, at the moment it is pretty much just cut and pasted blogs relating to Elle's medical journey you've already read with the exception of this one.

Sorry for the fact that to keep up you'll have to follow both blogs, but I just really feel that this is the way to go from here.  I appreciate all my readers and hope you enjoy both blogs, I really enjoy writing them.

PS there is a link to Lollipops and crisps on the side of my blog, but for the record, the url is : http://ourlittlelittle.blogspot.com/.  (Some stupid, emo teenager took the url "lollipopsandcrisps" to make a stupid blog she wrote like 3 posts and declared that she hated it.  Now the url is gone forever.)

I am still rankled over the waste.

Cheers!

Emily

Just Like Heaven

*Before I write this post, I thought I would just make a small request to my readers.  I am going to be sharing some religious views I have that mean a great deal to me, so I ask that you treat them with respect while on my blog.  Being respectful of everyone's religious ideals is something I personally take very seriously and strive in my own life to always do, so I just ask while here, you do the same.*

Alright now that's out of the way, I thought I would use this post to share a few of my thoughts on what is going on with my youngest daughter, Elinor.  If you are a regular reader, you already know the story of where we are with her and how we got here.  If not, I will briefly sum up the journey we have had.

When Scout was 18 months old, I was pregnant with a crazy difficult pregnancy that made me feel terrible all the time.  I even threw up a few times a week (for those that know me well, you know what a big deal that was).  I felt terrible, I bled quite a bit, had migranes and I was measuring big.  I went to the doctors  a few times while bleeding to see if I was miscarrying and they always found a heartbeat.  So they sent me home.  One day they couldn't detect one, and did an ultrasound and during that ultrasound we were told that our baby had passed away and that I might get cancer from this pregnancy.  They took the baby that next morning using a high risk procedure that was supposed to cause me to hemorrhage and definitely need blood transfusions and  there was a chance of a hysterectomy.   I woke up to find out that miraculously I didn't even need a transfusion.  The doctor was quite surprised.  After testing, they found out that I was really pregnant with twins, one baby was perfectly normal, the other was a complete molar pregnancy that was made out of abnormal cells that eventually suffocated the twin and invaded my body with abnormal cells (that is what causes the cancer and the need for chemo).  The way they test whether you need chemo or not is to test your hcg hormone with a blood test once a week until it is gone, or starts creeping back up.  Every week mine fell and fell and against all odds, it went to zero naturally.  I say against all odds because for women with a cmp and a twin, they almost always end up needing chemo.  In fact, my hcg on surgery date was 1.8 million which is the highest I have found on the internet, and I think I am the only woman I have seen that came down from the same sort of situation without chemo.  This was exciting for many reasons, but mostly because the time line it took me to get to zero (almost 7 weeks) gave me the green light to start trying for another baby right away.  The loss I had at 19 weeks pregnant made me ache for a baby in my arms as quickly as possible.  Plus, Rob and I had plans to get Scout a sibling quickly.  Two years went by and there was no baby.  The doctor's couldn't figure it out.  Molar pregnancies aren't supposed to cause infertility.  They finally figured out I had a messed up fallopian tube and put me on Clomid.  After 3 months of that, I was finally pregnant!  I was shocked and we were overjoyed.  This pregnancy felt more like Scout's, I felt great, everything was going awesome, but I was nervous.  The last one was such a giant fiasco, you can't help but be scared.  During the ultra sound we found out we were having another girl and we (especially Scout) were overjoyed again.  That summer we had a scare with her heart beat, she had an arrhythmia.    After some specialists, we found out that it wasn't a problem and it went away. 

Birth day came and I was induced.  When she came she had the cord around her neck, and was blue.  She had a terrible first apgar, but a great second one.  The first day she didn't want to nurse and the nurses made a huge deal out of it, but when she finally got hungry, she nursed away like she'd been doing it her whole life.  We took her home and marveled at the sweet little baby we had.  She was the sweetest, quietest little thing ever.  She slept great.  She didn't want anything to do with a binkie after she was about 3 weeks old, but that was ok, she didn't seem to need one.  She started sucking her tongue instead (I didn't know that was what she was doing until much later).  She didn't seem to be able to figure bottles out, which wasn't as ok as the binkie thing, but we managed.  She started using her feet in interesting ways.  She would hold a toy in her feet and play with it with her hands.  Kind of weird, but very entertaining.  She didn't do things as fast as Scout, but I was determined not to compare my kids, so I let her do things on her time.  We managed to get her to sit by herself reasonably well by 9 months.  She finally figured the bottle thing out at 11 months (just in time!) When we got to her first birthday, I shelved the worry that she wasn't crawling yet (let alone walking).  We chalked it up to her being so dang happy and content no matter what she was doing.  She didn't need to go places, she was just fine where she was.  She was so happy!  She started laughing 6 weeks earlier then Scout did.  Her laughs were almost always reserved for Scout.

By 15 months and nothing having changed, the worry was getting harder to ignore.  I finally mentioned my fears to my doctor (they were about the cord being around her neck at birth, I was secretly fearing that she had suffered brain damage).  We took her in for a neuro exam with her ped and she did fine.  He mentioned that we could contact Kids on the Move (they are a program with our local school district that help kids 0-3 that are developmentally behind).  He suggested that these people could maybe get her moving and they often observe more then a doctor that only sees a child during an office visit.  So we did and they accepted her in their program.  Right away, they could see that something wasn't quite right with her.  This started a chain of testing, including appointments with Primary Children's Medical Center in Genetics and Neurology.  We were scared, but couldn't imagine she was really bad off.  After a few more months though, I started accepting that we were probably looking at something more then a child with a few learning disabilities.

After talking to her Geneticist, we basically found out that we were most likely looking at a child that had severe mental and physical challenges.  Because of her history and a few other clues (including her extreme sweetness and happy demeanor) the doctor figured she had Angelman's Syndrome.  He also thought it could be Rett Syndrome.  We took her home that day and a feeling of peace and acceptance washed over me.  I was ok with this.  I knew we would have a different life then I had planned, but somehow, this was ok.  Elinor was the nicest baby I had ever been around, so how could it not be ok?  As of now, she has had two Angleman tests (both normal, which knocks out 80% likelihood of that one), one rett test (normal, I don't know the odds) and an MRI which also was normal (that takes away any chance that we are looking at brain damage and tells us what she has is strictly genetic).  We are facing more genetic tests to isolate the genes that Angleman and Rett effect.  Where we go from there, is most likely no answers.  

I do know one thing.  Elinor is exactly the person she was meant to be and she is exactly where she was meant to be.  We went through a lot to get her here and I am grateful every hour of the day that she is my baby.  She makes me feel so good when she is around, it's like she radiates this feeling of peace and love that really soothes my soul.  I don't know what I ever did without her.  Shortly after finding out all this, I came across a sister of an old friend's blog that has a daughter with cerebral palsey and she had a quote on that post I read that has changed my life.  It is from a book called "The Water Giver", a book written by a mom that had a son with sensory issues and pretty big learning disabitlites and she really really struggled with that and they did not have a good relationship.  At 15, he was in a skateboard accident and suffered severe head trauma.  He was in a coma for months and during this time, she totally changed and when he woke up, they had a beautiful relationship from then on, because she learned to accept him for who he was.  She ended her book with this (which is the quote I liked so much):

"Motherhood is about raising -and celebrating- the child you have, not the child you thought you would have.  It's about understanding that he is exactly the person he is supposed to be.  And that, if you're lucky, he just might be the teacher who turns you into the person you are supposed to be."

I have no doubt in my mind that Elinor is going to be one of my greatest teachers.  I like how she said person instead of mother, because I feel that Elinor is here not just to make me the mother I need to be to my two girls, but the person I need to be to come even close to reaching my potential. 

My church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or "Mormons") has some very fundamental views on Heaven and this life on earth.  We believe that we are spiritual beings that are currently living a life on earth and when that life is done, we will go back to living the spiritual life we were living, with this earth life just being a tiny part of our eternal life.  This is the Lord's plan for us.  As part of our spiritual journey, we need to spend some time on earth as a very important part of our plan (important, even if it is a comparably short time).  It is, for lack of a better term, a test.  We are being tested on this earth to see how well we do.  How we treat our fellow man, and how we treat God.  We are experiencing things we can't experience anywhere else, mostly temptations and having free agency to make our own choices.  We can only hope that we do ok here and make some right choices now and then and then move on to greater things after we are gone.  Our families on earth are our families in heaven and have the opportunity to be together forever some day.  

We believe that sometimes there are spirits that are perfect.  They somehow are beings that don't need to be tested on earth.  I am a person that needed to come to earth to go through the ups and downs and choices and to prove myself worthy of living a life in heaven with God, etc.  Elinor needs no such test.  She is there already.  She has a free ticket to heaven (as do I believe, some babies that are taken before they have the opportunity to make choices and live a life here, also included are people that mentally have no way of being accountable for their choices).  A huge part of this "plan" is to gain a body, even if it is just for a short time.  Some babies are taken before they can even take their first breath.  Some, come to this earth for us, not them.  That is what we believe Elles is here for.  She doesn't need this, but we need her.  We need her to teach us that life is about so much more.  I am sure she has a lot to teach anyone that will listen. 

I don't know what the future brings for Elinor.  I don't know how far she will go in life.  I don't know if she will ever walk.  Chances are that she will never talk, we might get a few words out of her if we are lucky, but it looks like she most likely won't develop any real language skills.  If she has rett, I really don't know where our future could lead, she may loose the ability to even feed herself or use her hands with any purposeful movements.  Or, and this one fills me with the most fear, she could stop making eye contact with us.  Although, she used a spoon pretty good for the first time this week and we are over the moon about it.  Her hands seem to have a little more control then they did a few months ago.

That is another gift she's given us.  I can't describe the feeling we get when she accomplishes something.  What a wonderful feeling it is to see her overcome her limitations and progress.  I don't want to discredit the awesome milestones that Scout has reached.  That is awesome too, but with Elle's limitations, her triumphs are grand indeed.  It's a different feeling and makes me feel a joy I can't describe.  I am so grateful to be able to celebrate a child's little advances in such a way, they each feel like a miracle and miracles are special things to witness.  I look forward to her many triumphs to come.

One of the most remarkable things about all this, is that I have a daughter that I will meet properly only after we have both passed.  I will most likely never have a conversation with her on this earth.  When she sheds this earthly body, she will be whole, and have a sound mind and be able to do anything and everything she can't do here with her limitations.  What a reunion that I have to look forward to!  (But hopefully not for a long, long time........I can wait 60 years or so.)

I think Elle is going to (if I let her), change me in ways I needed to be changed.  What better motivation could I have to be the best person I can be, then to have this shining example of goodness and such a beautiful spirit in my own home?  I am not the person I should be, I make mistakes every day and wrong choices.  I don't do all that I should be doing.  But I want to do better, Elinor more then anything I have ever come across in my life, makes me want to do better.   It gives me pause and makes me feel so humbled that Heavenly Father trusted me to raise one of His special spirits.  I only hope I can endeavor to live a life that makes me deserving of her, and raise her to make my Heavenly Father proud.  I bet she was hard to let go of, maybe that's why it took so long to get her here. 

Untitled from Emily Pugh on Vimeo.

This is a video my brother Matt and his wife Bronwyn (B) made for Elinor.  Thank you so much you guys for making this video for our special little one.
I hope you all like it and can get a glimpse of the joy we feel living every day with this beautiful girl.

Gone

Well, most of it anyways.

My favorite part is that it has made the neck that much more kissable.

(The broccoli on the forehead adds a nice effect, eh?)

A fast for the little little

(I posted this note on facebook tonight, and thought I would post it on here also, just to get it out there as much as possible.)

We have decided to have a group fast for our sweet little Elinor this Sunday (August 7th). We love this little girl so much and think it appropriate to have anyone that is interested, come together and fast and pray in her name. She is currently going through testing right now and we are anxious to find out what these tests will tell us. Getting a diagnosis is proving to be a long road, and we are really hoping to get answers- we are getting to kind of a critical time in this process (different directions to go, etc.)

If you don't fast (or even know what that is) and would still like to participate, we invite you to say a prayer in her name that day. Even if you don't pray and would like to participate, you could meditate or send thoughts and good vibes her way. We are spiritual people and believe in the power of a group of people sending prayers and energy in the name of someone they care about.

We couldn't adore this little girl more, and we feel so lucky and humbled to have been chosen to be her parents. We are prepared to be at peace and accept whatever life is going to hold for her. We also know that the Lord says that we need to ask, so that is what we are doing. We ask that Elinor may reach her full potential in this life and be the best she can be. That she has the opportunity to shine and teach us what she is here to teach us. That her little mind and body can work together to accomplish great things. As her mother, I feel a peace when I am with her, that makes me want to hold and cuddle her forever to maintain that feeling. I want that to last our whole lives. As her teacher, I need to know the things I need to teach her and the persistence and the fortitude to do it. I need to understand her and listen to what she needs me to know. That Scout may be blessed with the continued maturity to be the big sister Elle needs her to be. It is these things we are praying for, including a miracle (if that is in store for her), for we believe in those too.

We know that whatever happens, things will work out how they are supposed to, we have a lot of faith in that. Thanks for your time and support, and thank you for loving our little E, I know she is pretty easy to love, but it still fills my heart when I see the evidence of the love from those around her. It means a lot to me.

I am attaching all the comments from the facebook note here (I wanted them on my blog where I can see them instead of buried on a facebook note). It also became kind of the place where I posted a few updates from Elle's doctor.
I also included the original pictures on the note (when I pasted the note to my blog, I was on the notebook- so didn't have access to all the pics on my pc. Turns out, you can copy and paste pictures right from facebook notes to blogger. I'll have to file that away as useful information for the future.)


Susan Wright Rydman, Amy Zussy Modracek, Erin CampoBasso and 5 others like this.

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  Ian Anderson Sending love Em. Thinking of you and your beautiful family.

  August 3 at 12:36am ·
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  Rachel Hill Count me in- I believe in the power if prayer, and especially the power of fasting! And whenever I have held your daughter, I feel a great peace and a deep level of spiritual communication with her- she is more than meets the eye! Love to you and your sweet girls!!!

  August 3 at 12:55am ·
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  Wendy Johnson Roberts Our thoughts will be with you. With a loving Mom like you, and a loving family both immediate and extended, I know she already has a miracle. She could not ask for a better situation for getting the support she needs. She will do very well!

  August 3 at 1:51am ·
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  Benedicte Chung I'll join in prayer from across the Atlantic on Sunday. E just looks PERFECT, and so loveable as you say...and also so much like Scout! I love your note, as always. a truly wonderful and super strong Mum you are xxx

  August 3 at 4:35am ·
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  Rachel Kelley Conditt Your girls are beautiful, Emily and so is your heart. I will definitely say some prayers!

  August 3 at 6:39am ·
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  Beth Croasdaile Adorable pictures! Your girls have amazing eyes and hearts! I'll be praying for you all.

  August 3 at 7:02am ·
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  George Wright I'm in!

  August 3 at 8:09am ·
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  Megan Scott Richardson thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to help!! love to you all!

  August 3 at 8:32am ·
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  Bronwyn Starlight Wright Those pictures are soo cute. We 're in!

  August 3 at 8:55am ·
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  Amy Wright Phister Love and prayers, as always, from us. Your strength, attitude, and love is truly inspiring, Em. We love your family so much.

  August 3 at 9:48am ·
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  Erin CampoBasso Many prayers headed your way!! Thinking of you all and sending lots of love xo

  August 3 at 10:00am ·
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  Emily Wright Pugh I am amazed at the outpouring of love and support! Thanks so much everyone, bless you all.

  August 3 at 12:21pm ·
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  Laura Chatterton Chaffin We are here for you all the way from the West Coast! Anything in the world you need you let us know.

  August 3 at 1:07pm ·
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  Jenny Baich Powell You guys will all be in our thoughts and prayers!!

  August 3 at 10:22pm ·
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  Jeanine Walton I am sending you love and prayers! Please call me if u need to talk medical stuff! Love u guys!

  August 3 at 11:00pm ·
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  Lorri Hubbard Wotherspoon The Wotherspoons are in and sending love and good wishes from T-town.

  Thursday at 8:12pm ·
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  Emily Wright Pugh Colin Farrell was on David Letterman tonight and talked pretty extensively about his son with Angelman's Syndrome. Pretty cool! Kind of wish that Colin Farrell wasn't the celebrity that has a son with the same condition they think my daughter has. That means I have to dislike him less. (He did a quick imitation of h is son that look remarkably like Elinor! It was really funny.)

  Thursday at 11:16pm ·
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  Jeanine Walton Wow Em, Angelman's! When will u know for sure? There is varying degrees so I know she will get best care and has the greatest parents and family. I will totally be there for you and my resources at my hospital:-)

  Thursday at 11:33pm ·
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  Emily Wright Pugh

  I'm not sure- she had a simple Angleman's test (that detects like 80% of the cases) and it was negative. Then he did some other test that we thought was a complete gene sequence, but it must not have been because what ever test he just did, that came back as normal. We got the test results from the lab, so they had no information except the actual result, so Rob called Dr. Carey and left a message. He called back the next day while Rob was in the shower (ARG!) so he left a message and explained that he recommends a complete gene sequence now, and is going to talk to her neurologist about doing an MRI too. That was two days ago and he said he would try calling again to explain more fully and we haven't heard from him yet.

  Friday at 12:18pm ·
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  Emily Wright Pugh Rett is the only other thing he seems to be even considering right now. Angelman's fits much better to all of us though.

  Friday at 12:19pm ·
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  Jennifer Peddy Berg Oh my.....lil E looks so much like younger Scout...and they both look so much like you. Beauties!! I will definitely send some positive thoughts to lil E. Stay strong sweetie - you are an amazing mom to an amazing little girl.

  Friday at 8:00pm ·
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  Jeanine Walton Whatever she has you will handle it! What a special little angel!

  Friday at 9:31pm ·
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  Emily Wright Pugh

  Dr. Carey called today and it looks like we will be scheduling an MRI for her on Monday. I am also grudgingly giving the possibility of her having Rett more weight. She definitely doesn't have classic Rett if she does have it, it would be a variation. Also, she has had two different Angelman tests as of now- one that catches 70% of the cases and one that catches 80% of the cases. If she has Angelmans at this point, it would be a mild case. After the MRI, and depending on the findings, we will be doing a complete gene sequence on the genes that affect Angelman's and Rett. We were also reminded a few times that we still may not have a diagnosis after all this is done. So that is the update. Kind of unsettled, but doing ok. We went to a pool party this evening and Elle had a fabulous time splashing around, she absolutely loved it. It was a nice end to a uncharacteristically grumpy day for her.

  Friday at 10:25pm ·
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  Benedicte Chung Em - this is really unsettling and you are dealing with it remarkably well. I have just looked up the 2 syndromes - I really hope you get more certainty and a diagnosis soon. In the meatime, prayers tomorrow, MRI on Monday, and lots of strength to you and Rob. Thinking of you lots, Love you xxxx

  Yesterday at 3:29am ·
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  Susan Wright Rydman

  We are in for the fast/prayers thing Em. Cam's family is also in. Lot's of love and support going out to you this weekend. I am so impressed with how strong you and Rob are in dealing with this. I The thing I'm going to focus on most this weekend, is just getting a firm diagnosis. Whatever that diagnosis is, we can move on from there. Ellse is such a sweet, wonderful, loving, beautiful little girl, we are all lucky to have her in our lives. I can't wait to go to the new Muppet movie with her in November. We are going to take her, right?

  18 hours ago ·
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  George Wright Doing so as I write now. Does that make sense?

  6 hours ago ·
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When you have a minute (or 13)

I came across this on youtube and I used to watch this show all the time (when we had Discovery Health) and this is one about a baby with Angelman's. It was so interesting to watch and I saw so many similarities to Elles. Although this little girl has had more trouble eating then Elles. Also Elle doesn't or didn't scream a lot. Once in a while she cries without any real symptom wrong, but never for long. I would guess this baby was crying because she had a harder time eating and was hungry or in pain. Anyway, you guys should watch it, it's very interesting. I didn't include the first clip cause it is labeled differently and is hard to find, plus it's just about her long crying jags and puking (it does talk about her smiling all the time at 2 weeks old!) anyway, her first few months are different enough to Elles that you really aren't missing much.

Another clue??

I've been doing some research on Angelmans (shocker, I know) this week and put something together that I found interesting. One symptom that can go along with this syndrome is "sensitivity to heat" and my brain dismissed that immediately as a sensitivity to hot water for whatever reason and I thought, "nope, Elle doesn't have that one", if anything, she seems to be more tolerant to hot water then most kids. She seems less sensitive to all pain to be honest and always has.

Yesterday she took a late nap and it was a kind of chilly day and after she was sleeping I bundled her up real good with her big soft blanket cause it just seemed like a cozy thing to do. About 45 minutes later she woke up crying really, really hard and was really upset. I went up there and her little body felt very warm and she was inconsolable. I turned on Sesame Street and held her in my lap. After about 3-5 minutes she calmed down and was fine. My wheels started turning and I started thinking about other times in the past when this has happened and I had actually thought to myself, "she really does not like to be hot" and it wakes her up sometimes, and she is really upset and I have put it together in my mind a few times that the reason for her fussing is that she was too hot. I didn't know why or think much about the fact that it upset her so much.

So, when I remembered reading about sensitivity to heat, that's when I realized it didn't say anything about water, just heat. So I further googled and found out some interesting things. Some kids with Angelman's have a sensitivity to being hot and from research they have done, they have discovered that it doesn't have anything to do with core temperature or mess with it, they sweat properly, so they can cool their own bodies down like any other person, it seems to be connected with the nerve endings of the skin. Angelman's has many symptoms relating to neurological problems, so they think that this is related, and it is just a weird sensation thing to the skin surface.

Upon further contemplation, I wonder if this is why she has never cared for blankets on her legs, wasn't that enthused about being swaddled back in the day, it may explain some of the middle of the night wake ups when she wakes up very upset and I don't know why (this really isn't often, but out of character to her mild ways). I am a little nervous as to what this may mean for summer time and park/zoo visits and the like, but I didn't notice anything out of doors last year, so that's encouraging. It may not be a huge problem. I wonder if even being hot outside, natural cooling works fine, as opposed to being wrapped up in blankets and not being able to break free. Who knows, but this is definitely something to watch and keep in mind for the present and future, especially because I am relatively sure it actually causes her pain. One of the many adventures that await us, I'm sure!

Elles cooling her heels about 3 days old.

Mommy Guessed Wrong...

I put her down for her nap today, and when I went upstairs about 45 minutes later I heard her gabbing away, laughing and kicking her crib bars. I wondered- has she even slept? I let her carry on for another 20 minutes and then plucked her out and let her play with her basket of toys until her appointment with one of her therapists. By the time the therapist came, I had forgotten all about the nap incident, but she did get fussy. I got her her favorite cereal to snack (Pops), and she munched on them happily through the appointment. About the last 10 minutes she would have bursts of sadness and I attributed it to just snacking when she wants something substantial like a sandwich. So when Aly left, I put her in her chair and while I made her sandwich she was still fussy, which I attributed to being impatient being in her chair with no food. I gave her her sandwich and left for a few minutes and didn't hear a peep out of her. When I popped my head in, I found out why:


Mommy guessed wrong.
I should have known, I know. But I really wasn't certain she hadn't slept, just guessed that it was a possibility she didn't.



I like how she still made an effort to eat some sandwich (and to gather as much of it as she could to hug while she slept.) When I picked her up, she didn't even open her eyes, but did manage to finish chewing up what was in there and swallow it.

Haircut Follies

I made the dubious choice on Saturday night to trim Elle's hair. I was so done with her hair being in her eyes I made the rash choice to do it myself.


Disclaimer:
I have never claimed to have any idea what I am doing when it comes to cutting hair.

Infant hair is no exception.


Poor little thing has no idea what she is in for.


Still happy-
(Doesn't know enough that mommy is about to butcher her poor little hair.)





Before







After.


Yeah, I made every cliche mistake in the book (Hmmm.
Let me just even it up a little over here. Oops.)


Mommy is sorry Elles, but you're still the cutest little thing on the block.


And it isn't that bad if I brush it a certain way.



I'm actually pretty proud of the back.



But I was wondering if Scout is too old to blame on a secret game of barber shop?



Rob said that it isn't nice to blame that on Scout.