Eden’s lump is slowly shrinking. The blood has pooled a little down in its nadir, and the skin around it is drying. We don’t know what strangers think when they see it. I keep getting nervous about what people have going through their minds. Everyone is too polite to ask about it. I wish they would just ask. Eden entertained the whole bus though when we took the Park & Ride to Oxford. She kept diving forward in my arms so that I would lower her upside-down where she could play with my shoes. The night before she finally learned how to dive out the side of the stroller. Now we’re going to have to watch her whenever we go walking. The last thing we want is for her to jump out onto pavement. We also don’t want to be catching her when she dives out, because then she’ll never learn that it’s dangerous. We need some way to instill some fear into her without getting her hurt. How do you do that anyway?

The last two weeks have been so good for Eden’s motor skills. She can squirm around the floor to get to her toys now. She can raise herself up to her hands and knees in a crawling position. At dinner last night, after I set her on the bench on her stomach, she managed to claw her way up to the table. We think we will see her crawl soon. Her other new skill is that she tries to blow her nose on any fabric that comes in contact with her face. She scrunches her lip up into her nose, and blows through her nostrils hard, both in and out over and over again. Also today we’ve seen her doing a She-Ra pose, where she holds her arms out in front of her, and flexes so hard her hands shake.

We had a scare with Eden, but everything looks like it will be OK now. She has a lump on her neck, right in the center below where her Adam’s apple would be. It didn’t seem like a big deal. It was hidden by her many chins. Yesterday the skin got irritated so that it turned red. Suddenly it looked like a pretty scary lump.

I tried to get an appointment with our pediatrician, but he was out of town. Elisa visited a different practicioner, and then they sent her to the Kinderspital. At the hospital they took three ultrasounds of Eden’s neck. We had to do our best to follow along with what was going on. They mostly just spoke German. We also had to do our best to restrain Eden while they examined her. She likes to be independent, so she hates to have her head held still. She wore herself out screaming. 🙁

In a thyroidal duct there is a cyst left over from her development. It’s kind of common for a baby to have one. This one got infected though, and swelled into a grape-sized lump. They brought all the doctors in to see our little celebrity. Eden’s white blood cell count is fine, so the infection hasn’t spread. Eden has been happy, and she hasn’t fevered, and it doesn’t hurt her to have the lump touched. The surgeon eventually decided to administer antibiotics for two weeks. Then after that, the cyst will still have to be removed, just to make sure it doesn’t get infected again.

So we are going to give Eden antibiotics out of a dropper twice a day. We are still going to leave for London on our vacation this Thursday. As soon as we get back, we’ll take her in for surgery. The surgery isn’t supposed to be dangerous or worrisome. Since it’s at a teaching hospital, Elisa and I are hoping that there is a way for us to observe. Are we crazy? 🙂 The Swiss like to keep an eye on their patients, so Eden will probably spend a few days in the hospital.