MEK

Within a matter of a week, I had two great-aunts, a great-uncle and a grandmother in the hospital. It seems that now, everyone is on the mend (MEK--Ill come back to this in a second). It was very touch and go for a while with my grandmother, Maw.
She went in for a somewhat routine, low-maintenance procedure and ended up in the ICU. Its a matter of opinion whether or not the doctor may have caused the complication during the procedure or not. She spent a little over a week in the ICU, was moved to IMC for another week before waking up last Monday morning feeling like a new woman, and like she had been in a bad dream. She literally woke up a different person. The change, the transformation, was unbelievable! I couldn't believe when I saw her last night the change I saw in her from the time before.
She is now in rehab, and making progress. Maw's dear friends, The Rodins came in from St. Louis to see her, so my Aunt Kathy arranged for any family that could to come up to the hospital for dinner with Maw and the Rodins. After dinner, my aunt Julia put on a "concert" with the piano since Maw is such a music buff. My Uncle Leon (Maw's brother) who is also in the rehab recovering from a back procedure came down for the "concert" wearing his pj's. Now, these weren't just any pj's. This 90 something year old man came down wearing pj's with lipstick kisses on it! I wish I got a picture, but my camera is on the fritz and not working. Maw and Uncle Leon sat next to each other holding each others hands. It brought tears to my eyes to see them there for each other.
I hope that when I am 90 years old, my brother and sister will be there for me, holding my hand every step of the way. I don't know what I would do without Ethan and Rachel, they know me about as well as I know myself. I can always lean on them, call them for advice, help, or a laugh.

Going back to MEK.....MEK is an acronym for M'iritz hashem, Ephschahar, Kena Hura. The first two words are Hebrew and the third is Yiddish.
My great-grandmother, Mamma Shcmidt used to use them individually, and Maw combined them into their current form of MEK. It means if G-d wills it, perhaps, and without a hex, kind of a magical phrase to ward of any evil or bad. Its used throughout the whole Kruger side. So much so that there is a street called MEK Drive off of Mesa, there are for boys with the initials of MEK, Eli being one of them. The other MEKs lovingly call him Quatro since he is the fourth MEK....so far. And MEK has been used many times when talking about Maw's progress with this hospital stint.

MEK is a special phrase in our family and one that is very dear to my heart.
Please keep my grandmother in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy and healthy recovery!

Party! Party!

We threw Eli his first birthday party on Sunday at our house. Naturally, it was a train theme:) I cant believe we were throwing our baby is FIRST birthday party!!!! This first year went by like lightning! It reminds me to slow down and enjoy everyday, and every milestone because life goes fast.


The weekend started off with Eli staying with my parents on Saturday night so that I could get some stuff done around the house, run a bunch of errands, and frankly, so I could have a little down time, sleep in, shower when I want, and turn the music up loud as late at I want!
Rachel came over Sunday morning to help with some last minutes details, run my last few errands, and make sure I didn't leave anything out. I couldn't have done it without her!
So my friend Brooke, who by the way is the best baker Ive ever known, so generously offered to make the cake for the party. The conversation when something like this:
I want to make a train cake. Really? Like how do you mean? Have you ever made one before? Do you have a picture? A recipe? Or just some vision you are storing away in your head? No, Ive never made one before, I'm just going to wing it, I have an idea in my head. OK, I thought, but I'm buying cupcakes in case this is a disaster. But really I knew Brooke would pull it off one way or another. Everyone she told that she was attempting to make this cake had the same reaction, skeptical!
And look what this little lady pulled off..
You may not see any big significance in the first picture, but Lauren is in it! All week long she had been e-mailing me, and calling me apologizing for not being able to come in from Dallas for the weekend. She really went for the lie, giving me specific reasons for not making it, how she planned on shipping his gift, calling me the morning of to say how much she wishes she was there. And then she was hiding in the car with Brooke when the cake arrived. I couldn't believe she was here! I screamed so loud, jumped up and down, and hugged her about a dozen times, I'm sure all the neighbors peeked out their windows in horror when they heard the screams! The party was already off to a good start.

Aside from my cousin and his two boys who showed up two hours before the party started because he wrote the time down wrong, the other guests started to arrive.

It was now time to sing Happy Birthday, and Eli's first real taste of sweets was the cupcake at his birthday party.....he wasn't so sure about it at first...

Hmmm...what do you want me to do with this?

Maybe if I touch it.....it looks yummy...

Alright, I am going for it....

And with a little help from my cousins, I can really dig in...

This is pretty good...

Yum!

Really? Its all gone? Why cant I have another???

Sometimes it seems impossible to get a good picture where we are all looking at the camera, but we made some good attempts for a family birthday picture.

Dear Eli

Dear Eli,
366 days ago your dad and I were sitting in the living room when something crazy happened. You decided you were ready to meet the world. It wasn't until 15 long hours later that you decided to show your sweet face. By the time we thought this was actually the real thing, we scrambled around the house, it was 1:30am, neither of us talking to each other, just getting everything we needed for the hospital, both acting like we weren't nervous. I would stop and breathe through my contractions which were at that point, very strong and then go on with my packing. We knew our lives and our world were about to be turned up side down. As we left the house we acknowledged that when we returned, it wouldn't just be the two of us anymore. You would now be a part of our little family, the three of us. I had waited for that day for so long. I just couldn't wait to meet you.
We were excited, and nervous and everything in-between. We had been planning for your arrival for 40 weeks. You would think that would be enough time to prepare for your arrival. In some aspects we were- we had all the baby gear under the sun, your room was painted, cleaned and ready, your name was picked out and we couldn't wait to meet you! But I don't think anyone could have prepared us for all of the sleepless nights, all of the questions we would have about the different colors of your poop or how excited we would get over a poopie diaper, or a sneeze, a smile, a point, a giggle,or the tremendous amount of joy that you would bring to our lives.

When we finally met you...you were perfect.

You were so tiny, and delicate, and perfect. I couldn't believe you were ours, forever. All ours. Still to this day, I sometimes wonder how we got so lucky that you are ours, we get to keep you. Your parents arent going to knock on the door any minute to pick you up...WE are your parents..wow, I still cant believe it!

365 days ago, you captured the hearts of our family. You can not imagine how much love and joy you have brought us.
You have taught me that I have an ever expanding heart. Everyday I wake up thinking I couldn't possibly love you anymore, but I do, everyday, I love you more!

Before you came, I was well-rested, in shape, my hair wasn't constantly in a ponytail, I slept in on the weekends, and I had no idea how much I could cry in one year! I cried because it was 3am, and you had been crying for two hours and we couldn't get you to go back to sleep, because it was 3am and I was rocking your warm body in my arms and I sat in awe of you, overtaken by the love I feel for you, or because you were giggling so hard it brought me to tears.

You have made me slow down, and notice many things that I had taken for granted--every bird that flies over head, every flower we pass gets the attention of your pointer finger, fans are hugely entertaining, Tupperware can entertain for hours, and balls never get boring. You remind me to explore the things that we all take for granted, the grass, straws, leaves, taking a bath, and smiling at strangers for no reason, only to make someones day.

I love listening to you talk in the car, and to watch you kick your legs and have a grin from ear to ear on your way to the bathtub, I love the way you snuggle with Larry when you sleep and hold on to him for dear life, I love the way you will humor me and "moooo" like a cow, and play peek-a-boo during every meal time. I love that you do the "thumb test" on everything and how you love to "work" with the newspaper. I love that you love to be scared, I love your huge smile, and the excitement you show me every single morning when I come to pick you up our of your crib. I love that you think its hilarious when we brush our teeth, and I love to watch you dance, and I love sharing my oatmeal with you in the morning.
You amaze me. To watch you grow and learn, and smile, and point, and crawl, and walk. I love you with every beat of my heart.
I can not believe it's been a year, the best year or our lives.
Happy Birthday to our little man, my Pumpkin, Bigs, our sweet baby boy. I cant believe its been a year!!!