Eden - Eleven Months

Yesterday morning I had a moment of panic as I was pulling Eden's 11 months onesie out of the drawer.  That drawer that was so full just a few short months ago now has a little 12 months onesie sitting all by itself.  I know this is so unbelievably cliche'... but how did this happen so quickly?  How is my little baby girl going to be a year in just one month? 

I notice her body slimming and lengthening, getting ready to exit babyhood and enter the toddler years.  She's already capable of throwing quite a fit when she doesn't get her way (something I didn't think I had to deal with just quite yet).  I know this is stupid to say also, but she's a little human.  Yes, I know she's always been a human.  But it's just that recently her little personality has blossomed.  She's a tiny little person with a will of her own. 

She initiates games of peek-a-boo with me by holding a blanket over her face and then jerking it down and grinning.  She dances when she hears music (which is the cutest thing in the world).  Even though she's been clapping her little hands together for a while, she's learning when it's appropriate to clap.  I took her with me to watch the school Christmas play the other night.  We were in the very back so that Eden could crawl around and eat cheerios without disturbing everyone, but as soon as the play was over and the audience burst into applause, Eden sat straight up and started clapping along with everyone.  Although she still hasn't taken those first steps, she can stand up from the middle of the floor.  When I put the dog and cat flashcards in front of her, she can point to the right card when I say "cat" or "dog".  She can climb all the way up the stairs and into her room so she can get more toys.  (Don't worry - I am RIGHT behind her, which I think annoys her.)  There's so much more, but those are my favorites.

Two things that haven't changed going into this month - she still puts EVERYTHING into her mouth, and she STILL sucks at sleeping.  I'm so used to no sleep though that I'm not even tired anymore. 

She had a good day yesterday for her 11-month celebration.  I took her to the Children's Museum.  I love, love, LOVE the Children's Museum.  LOVE IT!  It's the second time I've taken Eden to the Tot Spot.  It is SO NICE to have an entire padded room made just for babies to let her roam around in.  I don't have to chase her constantly saying "No, no, no, don't touch that, no, you can't have that."  She can just go explore.  And play with other babies.  My mom got her a membership to the Children's Museum for Christmas, so we will be going back a lot in the next year.

She's turning the light on and off in this box. 

At the top of these padded stairs was a slide.  I think she was a little terrified the first time I pushed her down it, but after that she happily went down about five more times.

My little girl wants me now, so until next time...



Mornings

I always put Eden down at night in her crib, but somewhere in the middle of the night she wakes up, and I move her to our bed.  She spends the remainder of the night snuggled between me and Dustin.  During the week, she wakes up when Dustin's alarm goes off, and then she and Dustin play while he gets ready for work... she speed-crawls across the bed to get closer to him when he's walking across the room, he uses his shirt to play peek-a-boo, they throw a sock back and forth a couple of times, etc.  Then he swoops her up and kisses her goodbye.  I enjoy watching this so much.

But weekend mornings are something special.  On the Saturdays and Sundays that Dustin is home, Eden wakes us up around 7, and then we all spend a couple of hours just relaxing in the bed.  Max and Drake join us as well.  Eden happily crawls all over us, giggling over the fact that we're all in bed.  To me, it is bliss.  It is absolutely my favorite time of the week.

 Baby Girl couldn't be bothered to smile this morning.  Dustin's cell phone was too interesting.  I LOVE how she is propping her little foot up on Drake though.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Yesterday morning we woke up to a cold, windy day.  Finally!  Unfortunately, I was too sick to care.  All three of us were sickies yesterday.  Eden, who was back to normal on Saturday and Sunday, woke up on Monday with a runny nose and another slight fever.  Dustin and I were miserable right along with her.  In anticipation of the cold front, we had invited friends over days ago for chili, hot chocolate, football watching and a fire.  Yesterday morning I uninvited them, traded the chili for chicken noodle soup and had ice cream instead of hot chocolate for my sore throat.  (oh, the irony!) 

Today I'm feeling much better (though I can't say the same for the rest of my family).  The first thing I did this morning when I came downstairs was make marshmallows to get ready for my hot chocolate.  Marshmallows are one of my most favorite things to make - they're so easy, they're soooo much better than the store bought kind, and they're fun!

Eden always plays in the freezer while I cook.  It's the only way I can get anything in the kitchen done.  I'm not sure what's so exciting about it, but all I have to do is open the door, she lets out a little excited gasp, crawls on over as fast as she can, and is completely occupied while I do my thing.

Once the marshmallows were done, Eden continued on with her daily routine.  Every morning Eden likes to torment Max.  Max lets her crawl all over him and steal his bed, but he's NOT happy about it.

 

We also made this over the weekend:

 

 

I saw it on Pinterest (of course).  They never tell you on Pinterest just how hard something is to do though.  It took THREE people to hold Eden down.  Yep, it was Eden versus me, my dad and my stepmom.  It took many tries, we had to wipe the plate off many times and start again, but in the end we were victorious! 

 

Eden's little feet prints are just being captured all over the place.  A few days earlier, my dad had a concrete slab poured at his house and Eden got her handprints and feetprints done there too. 

 

 

Baby Girl is going to be walking before I know it.  She has this little dinosaur toy that was handed down to us that she LOVES.  She hasn't figured out how to turn it though, so she just walks until she runs into something and then looks at me and waits for me to come turn her, and then off she goes until she runs into another wall or piece of furniture or in this case my house shoes.

 

 

Dustin keeps making fun of my house shoes and calling me an old lady.  He's just jealous because he doesn't have any.

 

Eden got really good at walking with her dinosaur over the weekend.  Dustin got home on Sunday night from a hunting trip while Eden was in the bathtub.  I was so excited to show him how good she was though, so I got her out of the tub and stood her naked little self at the toy.  And off she went.  I have NEVER seen anything cuter ever in my whole life than her little nakey booty walking around the living room on that toy.  We're talkin' so cute that I thought my heart was going to explode.  And I swear she knew I was trying to show her off - she had a little swagger in her walk and kept glancing over to grin at Dustin.  Ah, I wish I would have had the video camera going. 

 

A few months ago, Dustin cut into an avocado to find the seed had rooted.  We decided to plant the seed and see what happened.  I watered it for a few weeks and then eventually forgot about it.  But lo and behold, just recently it popped up through the soil.  I'm so excited, and I had to bring it in last night because of below-freezing temps.

 

 

We should have some avocados in about 5 billion years.

 

 

Dustin put Christmas lights up in Eden's room, and I think that's the sweetest thing ever!

 

I finally drank my hot chocolate tonight while watching a movie with Dustin.  He's relieved because now maybe I'll shut up about my dang hot chocolate. 

 

And my Christmas tree makes me so happy that I burst into a Christmas song every time I walk by it.  I don't think there's any time of the year that I enjoy more.  At night, when all the other lights are off except for the glowing lights coming from the tree, I want to cry because it makes me so happy.  That's probably weird.  But true. 

 

And also, my baby is really cute.  Even with a runny nose and puffy eyes.

 





The Little Kid In Me

As soon as I woke up the day after Thanksgiving, I was ready for all things Christmas.  The Christmas music was going, and I made my first batch of fudge when I got home from my mom's that weekend.  More than a month ago, I studied the calendar and saw that December 1st fell on a Saturday.  PERFECT!  Dustin has been working like crazy and traveling a lot lately, but I showed him the calendar, explaining verrryyy carefully that there would be no hunting or traveling that weekend, that this was the weekend that we would decorate the house.  I started making plans.  I told Dustin that we would be chopping down our Christmas tree this year (we always have a real tree, but usually we just buy one already cut down), and I had daydreams of the three of us searching for the perfect tree...  Eden would be dressed in a little Christmas sweater and the red booties I bought especially for the occasion.  I would wear this sweatshirt (my new Christmas Decorating Day sweatshirt for all years) that I had ordered a few weeks back with black leggings and my black Uggs.  I would take cute pictures of Eden sitting in front of the chosen tree, Dustin would chop it down, and we would haul it back home where I would spend the day decorating the tree and the inside of the house while Dustin put the lights up on the outside.  Christmas music would be playing, a roast would be cooking... Dustin would come in that evening, put the star on top of the tree for the finishing touch, and we would eat dinner.  After Eden was asleep, we would snuggle up on the couch to watch the first viewing of Christmas Vacation for the year while drinking hot chocolate.  Then I would fall asleep to the warm glowing lights shining in through my window.  Sounds lovely, right?  As December 1st got closer and closer, I was just so darn excited!  I have always loved Christmas (who doesn't?), but having Eden has made ME feel like a little kid again about the whole thing.

FIRST of all, I must have forgotten where I live.  December 1st brought with it 84 degree weather.  I. Was. Pissed.  There would be no Christmas sweatshirt or red booties!  Being the "all or nothing" person that I am, I threw a small fit and decided that if we couldn't wear our cute Christmas-tree-cutting-down clothes, then I didn't even want to go cut down a tree!  Who wants to go cut down a Christmas tree while wearing shorts for crying out loud?!  Dustin decided we would just buy the tree at Lowe's when we went to buy lights.  Fine, whatever.  I got a roast going in the crockpot, dressed Eden in a red onesie and a freakin' pair of shorts, and off we went to buy a tree and lights.  Despite the fact that we would not be cutting down the tree, I was still all happy and excited.

SECOND of all, I didn't realize that by December 1st, most of the Christmas lights are sold out already.  What the heck?  How early are people decorating?  I thought we were on top of it doing this on the the first day in December.  We searched the shelves of Lowe's high and low for the kind of lights we wanted, but no such luck, they were all out.  We got our tree and headed across the street to Wal-Mart to look for lights there.  You see, I wanted CLASSIC lights.  I do not like LED lights (on my house... they look fine on other houses... a house built in the 1800s needs the classic lights).  I wanted the old-fashioned, electricity-sucking lights.  Apparently so did everybody else.  Wal-Mart was sold out too.  And there's nothing like Wal-Mart on a Saturday to really put you in a good mood.  Off we went to Home Depot.  Guess what?  All sold out.  Dustin asked the guy if they would be getting in another shipment.  No, they would not.  What the heck?  Seriously?  It's December 1st!  By now, neither of us was in a very good mood from fighting traffic and crowded stores, and Eden was over being put in and taken out of her car seat over and over.  But hold on!  Dustin had a friend who was coming to town from Huntsville later that day!  Dustin called the Home Depot in Huntsville and found out that they had 32 glorious boxes of the lights that we wanted!  Allelujah!  Dustin called up his friend and asked him to go buy us 15 boxes of Christmas lights from Home Depot.  I kept trying to talk into the phone, explaining which lights he was to buy and stressing about 15 times "NOT LED"!  I made sure he wrote it down.  I can be a little crazy like that.

By the time we got home, it was late afternoon.  Hmmm.... this was not going as planned.  So far I had a naked tree from Lowe's and... that's it.  Dustin got down my boxes of Christmas decorations, and I put a few things out around the house while Dustin got our tree situated in the stand.  And that's all.  It was time for dinner and to put Eden to bed, and that's all we managed to accomplish on December 1st.

I wasn't very happy. 

After Eden had been put to bed, and I had even crawled into bed myself to read a book, Dustin's friend showed up with our lights.  A little later, Dustin came to bed and announced, "Um... We have a small problem with the lights... They're white."

Well apparently, I had been so concerned with explaining NOT LED, that I forgot to specify that I wanted colored lights.  I. Was. Pissed.  Not at the friend, it wasn't his fault, and I'm so grateful that he took the time to get us any lights at all.  But at the whole stupid day.  My day did not happen at all like it was supposed to, and so like a spoiled child, I threw a fit.  I started going on and on about the STUPID HOT weather, how it WASN'T hot chocolate drinking weather, we DIDN'T cut down our tree, practically NOTHING was decorated, I WASN'T falling asleep to Christmas lights through my window, and now when I do get lights up, they're going to be WHITE!  (Nothing against white lights, I just prefer pretty, colored, fun ones.)  Dustin, to his credit, tried to console me (when he really should have told me to grow the F up) and offered to put in a Christmas movie.  I flat out refused.  "If I can't have hot chocolate and Christmas lights, I don't even want to watch a stupid Christmas movie.  Eden's first Christmas is RUINED!"  I was being completely ridiculous.  And even while I was being ridiculous, I knew I was being ridiculous, but I couldn't stop.  I went to bed still fuming about the whole dang day.

The next morning, I was ready to admit I was being ridiculous.  We laughed it off, and set about getting the tree decorated.  I had a new attitude.  I decided that instead of moaning about how it wasn't hot chocolate weather, I would just find a Christmas drink more suitable to Texas.  Dustin went off to the store to buy us the ingredients for Grinch Spritzers (lime sherbert, sprite, maybe some vodka).  He came back a little later and informed me that this just really wasn't my year.  The store, of course, was out of lime sherbert.  I handled it much better this day though, and I was perfectly happy eating the Blue Bell's Peppermint ice cream he had brought me instead.

The three of us happily decorated the Christmas tree together.  Just kidding.  I decorated the tree while Dustin pretended to be interested while he really was watching the Texans game, and Eden ate tissue paper.  The (white) lights were eventually  hung (and they look pretty good if I do say so myself) and finally everything came together.  We even watched Christmas Vacation.

I was so worried about making sure this Christmas was absolutely perfect because it's Eden's first, but really, I had it all wrong!  You see, this Christmas doesn't have to be perfect because it's Eden's first.  This Christmas will ALREADY be perfect because it's Eden's first.  I hope our family creates lots of memories cutting down Christmas trees and decorating for Christmas in the years to come, but Eden will of course be taught that Christmas is not about trees and lights and decorations, but Jesus obviously - and also to NOT act like Mommy when you don't get your way.

Ignore the Christmas tree skirt situation going on here... We currently don't have a skirt large enough for the stand, but I'm working on it!

*****

Baby Girl is sick right now.  Besides a stuffy nose and the sniffles back in May, this is the first time she's really been sick.  She has a fever, and her nose is running all over the place.  There's something so incredibly pathetic and sad, yet sweet about a sick baby.  She looks up at me with watery eyes and snot all over her face and grins, and I just want to laugh and cry at the same time.  Last night she clung to me with her warm, feverish body as I rocked her to sleep.  Oh, how I hate that she feels bad, but I take so much pleasure in doing little things to make her feel better - cool washclothes, head rubs and lots of cuddles.

After my post about our Thanksgiving, my mom sent me a message that included these words:

Right now you are that special little baby's entire world. YOU. It will not always be this way. She will grow up. She will make friends. She will go off to school. She will have her own life someday. But for now, YOU are it. And it is an honor that not everyone is awarded. When the nights seem long, when the days seem long .... just think back to when you were pregnant. Those first 15 weeks when you were so sick. Those days seemed forever, but now they are only a faint memory. You were pregnant for 37 (?) weeks ... and at the time, it seemed forever. But now? A quick little lapse of your life. One day, this too, will be a memory. Hold on to it now with everything you have.

I'm learning that motherhood comes with some not-so-easy days.  I could say more, but I think my mom just said it perfectly.