Today is my daughter’s birthday and the Little Bean is growing up at an alarming rate. I mean, I’ve listened to Don’t Blink, but jeezy-peezy…I can’t believe she’s having another birthday. She was just born.
I think about where I was at, those short years ago:
- Worn out from a very difficult pregnancy.
- Burned out with baby blues and putting down a beloved dog.
- Losing parents.
- Not writing.
- Not really even dreaming very much – I’d gotten my baby dream and I couldn’t see much further than that.
No matter how tough it is at the time, you always get through it.
And I’ve gotta say it: This kid ROCKS. She’s just a really nice person 90% of the time, so I feel very blessed. All that anguish surrounding her birth was worth it.
Her latest milestone: She was in a wedding last weekend. I put some of this up on Facebook, but the pictures are so cute, they need to grace the blog too.
Our flower girl
FINALLY liking the dress.
This amazing, shy-in-front-of-crowds girl, walked herself down the aisle, placing petals with the precision of a structural engineer.
Sure, I had to lean into the aisle and coax her a bit, but she got very serious about the job. The same dress she originally refused to put on, I had to pry off her afterwards.
Now mind you, the answer all weekend was a flat-out NO. (see below)
Me: You’re going to be in a wedding tomorrow!
Her: No.
Me: You have a very important job today. You’ve got to put down flowers so the bride knows where to walk.
Her: Maybe tomorrow.
She was having NO part of any of it.
Then she saw the other flower girls’ dresses and realized she wouldn’t be doing all this wedding business by herself. There were other kids involved! So maybe she could get her hair curled and put on that confection of cuteness.
Have you ever in your life seen this much tulle on one couch?
And she did.
Yes, both her parents cried. And we didn’t blink.
What have you seen a loved one do that was over-the-top brave? What about yourself…have you hitched up them Big Cowbell panties and taken a leap? What was it? Enquiring minds LOVE to know these things here at More Cowbell!
Note: We’re having Thoughty Thursday a day late here, thanks to a procedure I’m trying to forget. (I’m fine, and now my colon has made its’ television debut. Blurgh.) Feel free to share your procedure stories too, since those require great courage (and some really big panties).
~ Jenny
Jenny Hansen's Blog 
I did the whole PROCEDURE thing recently. Isn’t it wierd that people actually perform colonsoscopies as a profession? Next time someone is hating their job they should think about that!!
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I’m with you one that one. My gastro doc is an odd little man. Nice, but odd, and oh-so-precise (which is exactly how you want someone to be when they’ve got a tube up your hiney).
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Happy, happy birthday to your precious girl. I hate to break it to you but it’s going to go faster. Cherish the fact that you can still pull her into your lap and love on her. There comes a day when that no longer works.
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Nooooo, say it isn’t so, Deb! It’s too fast as it is. I just don’t like it AT ALL. 🙂
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Kids always surprise me with their strength and tenacity when the chips are down. My daughter had leukemia when she was 4, which involved a lot of procedures like spinal taps and shots and bone marrow aspirations. She was a champ thru all of them. She drew the line, however, at taking cough medicine. I remember one time Dave and I holding her on the counter and trying to get her to take it. We ended up splattered in cherry red Robitussin for our efforts and had a very pissed off 5 year old. She was a scrapper then and still is 20 years later. 🙂
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Well, that Robitussin stuff is NASTY. You’d think they could make the stuff taste better! So glad she made it through a very tough medical issue and came out the other side!
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She is a tough one, that’s for sure. Still hates cough medicine tho…lol
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Isn’t it amazing how it take 400-500 points of adult to hold down one 30 pound child? I can see this scenario perfectly, as I’ve got one of those too. I love a scrappy kid. 🙂
And I’m SO glad your daughter is all better!
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Jenny, your little bean really is a bundle of adorable! A sofa full of tulle really cracks me up. 😉
Glad your procedure went well! I’ve sort of been putting off mine…
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P.S. – Happy Birthday to your not-so-little one! 😀
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Stop putting it off! The sooner you get the first one out of the way, the sooner you get the 5 years of peace. 🙂
And yes, the sofa full of tulle slayed me. We had to have them push it down so we could see their cute little faces. She’s VERY excited about this birthday, as it’s the first time she really, really gets that it’s *her* day.
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OMG! Little Bean is adorable! Look at her showing off in that twirl of tulle. It’s a dang good thing she’s not shy like Mommy.
My Little Bean of a granddaughter turned thirteen this year. Tomorrow I get to take her for our Glowie/Sydney Birthday Shopping day. It’s a tradition I started way back when
I had moneyshe was five.Odd…
The expense of these shopping adventures increases exponentially with each year she adds to her age. Especially now that we’ve added mani/pedi to the day’s itinerary.
Not odd…
I’d stop eating before missing one of them.
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Awwwww. A Glowie Day! I want a Glowie Day!!! It sounds magnificent, and how wonderful that you two have turned it into your own growing tradition. I wish my babykins had a “Glowie.”
And if you think she’s cute in all that tulle, you should see her in her cowgirl outfit, courtesy of her Auntie Gloria. 🙂
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I want to share how much I admire my youngest son, now 13 yrs old. A few months before he turned 11, he got very sick – high fever, vomiting, intense abdominal pain. They thought it might be his appendix, but it turned out to be an obstruction in the connection between his kidney and ureter on one side. The months that followed were filled with uncomfortable (even painful) procedures, doctors’ visits, missed school days, more sickness, and then finally the robotic laparoscopic surgery to fix the problem. He developed a post-surgical fever and infection and had to stay in the hospital longer. It hurt to move, it hurt to pee – and the pee was wild colors, I have to tell you, all you can do is laugh about that. He had to take a lot of medicine, drink water on a schedule, pee into a measuring container…the list goes on.
He missed three weeks of school and since he is in an advanced academic program, that’s a heap of work. There really wasn’t much he could do ahead of time. He couldn’t do P.E. or soccer for a while, even after he was back to school. Lots of follow-up doctors’ visits, ultrasounds, and round 2 of other uncomfortable tests to make sure he was healing.
He did such a great job, stayed sweet-tempered and funny even though I probably would have been crabby as hell in his shoes. There were plenty of times when it was scary and overwhelming, but he trusted us and his doctors, and did everything we asked of him. He is my rockstar!
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I remember all this, and man what a trooper he is! I’m impressed that he did all this, without complaint. That’s a brave fantastic little man you’re raising. 🙂
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Oh my goodness, complete utter adorableness!!! What a little princess! Have a wonderful Mother’s Day, Jenny! 🙂
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Thanks, my dear. And YES, she’s high on the Adorbz Scale. LOL.
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She is a total cutie pie! And brave, just like her mama. I’ve had that procedure to which you refer. Afterwards the doc said two things. First, “Clean as a whistle!” I smiled. Then, “Because of your family history, you should have this done again in five years.” Me: “It will take a lot longer than five years for me to forget how miserable this was!”
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Thanks, Kassandra!
On *the procedure*: I’ll bet that second statement wiped that smile right off your face. It’s best to just put it out of your mind until the next time. Truly. Congrats on your fab intestinal health…and isn’t THAT a statement I never thought I’d type?! 🙂
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God, I wish I could’ve seen little bean do that – how adorable!!!! One of the toughest things I’ve done recently is going in for the second foot surgery, as soon as I was through the 6 month recovery from the first. KNOWING what I was facing, I cried all the way to the hospital.
But now it’s all past, and life is great. BGP’s come in handy, sometimes.
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I still think you were totally brave to plow right into that second foot surgery. *I* was proud of you. I totally would have wanted to do both at the same time and be done. (And yes, I know that wasn’t an option.
And I’ll make sure to upload the photos to something you can browse when I see you in July. 🙂
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Don’t even talk about procedures to me. Avoiding as long as I can. (Think my next one is going to be a hysterectomy due to painful endometriosis. How’s THAT for TMI?)
Your little girl is *so* cute in her tutu. I just love it. And, yes, life passes so fast. It’s just…I don’t know.
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Catie, take it from one of experience in these things. Get the surgery before something even uglier turns up and changes your life forever. Do it and do it now. 🙂
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That’s not TMI at all, because you probably needed both myself and Sharla saying, “Do it NOW if it’s recommended.” It will save you tons of pain and hassle.
And, as you can see from that couch photo, the amount of tulle going down that aisle was astonishing. 🙂
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I cannot believe its her birthday!!! Omg!! So amazing! She is such a beautiful child. Just like her momma.
I remember when Dallas had to have an EEG and a sleep study at the Denver Children’s hospital. What a weekend. We had to keep him awake all night so hopefully he would sleep during the test. I remember getting lots of soda and playing silly games in the tiny hotel room. Then there was the huge hospital to navigate and finally the dark tiny room with a bed and lots of flashing lights from computer towers. Dallas had to endure hours of testing with a nest of electrodes semi glued to his scalp; poor kid hated it. The folks tried to keep me entertained with a Goosebumps book about a carnival that comes alive and eats its patrons. Bad timing. I’ve never read a scarey book since. Then I think Dallas and I both passed out on the drive home.
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Oh my goodness! I didn’t know you stayed overnight with him. That’s amazing. And I’m not a huge fan of scary books either. After I read Dean Koont’z INTENSITY, I had to pull all my drapes and sleep with the lights on. 🙂
You’re going to be here in less than 6 weeks!!
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Jen, you have a precious doll-baby on your hands. One day you will be going to “her” wedding. Now that’s a gut-wrencher.
I have no real surgical stories except for the one a little over a year ago that made me a cousin it — ok, not really. But as a woman, it kind felt like that. It was surgery of necessity and one that my doc of years ago had suggested. I wish I would have listened way back then. I would have avoided all the problems of the past year. Ah well, hind sight and all that. 🙂
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Oh my goodness, Shar…I didn’t know that your doc had suggested it “back in the day.” That’s a bit gut-wrenching all on it’s own.
It was a fantastic weekend, filled with joy and sweet memories. And I know her own big day will be here before we know it. Although, if she waits as long as I did, Hubs and I will be hobbling down the aisle on canes. 🙂
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Right before I read this, my almost-6-foot-tall son came over and gave me a hug. I can’t believe he’s so big! Wasn’t it yesterday I had him on my lap and was reading THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR to him?
I love those pics! The mass of tulle is precious! With two boys, we’ve never gotten to do the frilly thing. But I love having sons, so no regrets. Enjoy Little Bean and her birthday weekend!
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Wowzers…little you has an almost 6-foot young man? That’s amazing. Mine is all about Disney books. I’ve never gotten her interested in the Very Hungry Caterpillar, but we have it. Thanks for reminding me to try again. It would be better than a 60+ page Pocahantas book!
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She is so big snd so adorable! I think of you always around mother’s day–you went through so much for this baby. I also have had the procedure–I woke up during it. Not fun!
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I know, Kathy…where does the time go? How’d she get so BIG. And SHUT THE FRONT DOOR, you woke up?! That’s just evil. I have another pal who did as well. They conked me and I was grateful.
I just got the word that I’m clear and fabulous for 10 years. I don’t have to get one in 5. Whew. 🙂
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Jenny —
Your little bean is as OMG beautiful as she is OMG courageous. Just like you.
Hope I get to hug your bean sometime!
I’m excited that I get to hug you and immerse your brain on my mountain in October!
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Sweet, Margie!! I was just telling the Hubs how excited I am about October with you. 🙂
I hope you get to hug my bean too. Small chance will be in July. She’ll be in San Antonio with me when I go cheer Laura on at the gala. Laura knows…the only thing that would keep me from that Saturday gala is a hip surgery. But right now, I’m slated to GO!
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I love it! The tulle, so much cuteness. My sister sent me my 5 year old niece’s dance photos and it was one smile, one funny face, and then a total melt down folded over on the couch. She wasn’t having any more either. LOL. My sis is trying to find matching tulle dresses for her two girls to wear to Joe’s and my wedding. I didn’t know what she meant til I saw your pictures. How cute! I’m glad Baby Girl liked twirling in hers. 🙂
Happy Mama’s Day, Jenny! *hugs*
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Thanks, Jess! And just in case you want a similar mountain of tulle (she takes custom orders in terms of colors. 🙂 ), here is the link. The vendor was fantastic to work with.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/167494216/baby-maize-light-yellow-and-gray-couture?ref=favs_view_4
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Thanks!
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Your daughter is just too cute! Get her in movies! Commercials!
Happy Mother’s Day Jenny!
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Awww, thanks Phil! I’ll tell you, we thought about it when she was a baby, but that ship has sailed. Every time I try to get a photo of her these days, she’s all “no pictures!”
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She’s a natural diva already!
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