* Little House in the Country: Life Lately

Some good friends of ours got married on September 21st. I was really excited about their wedding. I bought a new dress. I got a pedicure (a rare occurrence these days). Dustin was out of town for work, but my mom and Mark were in town for the wedding, so I had the luxury of taking my time on my hair and make-up that day while they entertained Eden. I put on my heels and walked out the door feeling like a million bucks - it was a far cry from my usual yoga pants and ponytail. We arrived at the reception and were there for mayyybbbeeee five minutes when Eden suddenly projectile vomited all over herself, me and my mom. I stood there for a second, just stunned. I had vomit all over me - literally dripping off of me and running down my legs. Others sprang into action. A friend took Eden from me and another girl took me into the bathroom and helped me clean myself off. Friends mopped up the floor for us, we stripped Eden's clothes off, and I walked back out the door smelling like puke and holding a naked baby. Eden was now running fever, so Eden, my mom, Mark and I all went back to my house where I put on yoga pants, put my hair in a ponytail, scrubbed stains out of my brand new dress and took care of my sick baby girl. She was sick for an entire week. It was the first time she had ever thrown up, and she had no idea what was happening. It terrified her. It was the saddest little thing, her crying every time it happened. We laid on the couch all night one night, watching Tangled over and over again, and I held the trashcan for her every hour when she needed it. For a week, she looked like this:

I laid right with her all week long, and we watched Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Tangled approximately a thousand times each in addition to approximately one million episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I hated, hated, hated seeing her feel so bad, but I did enjoy having her lay and sleep on top of me all week. It took me back to when she was first born, and I spent every afternoon laying on the couch with her asleep on my chest. After a week, she finally got rid of her fever, but it took her another week to start acting like herself again. She was so lethargic and took three naps a day. I was actually more worried about her that week than I was the week she was sick! She was just so unlike herself. I took her to Granny and Pops' one afternoon, and she just kinda laid around their house and then came up to me and told me "night-night". So I took her home, and she went straight to sleep.

She got a little bit stronger each day, and finally after two long weeks, she was back to her feisty, happy little self!

Texas finally has some cooler weather, and we've started going riding around in the pastures in the afternoons and evenings when Dustin gets home from work. I realize that might sound really boring, but it's not - it's wonderful. We roll down the windows, enjoy the beautiful weather, and Eden has her very own zoo. We see horses and cows and birds and rabbits, and she points and tells us first what they are and then the sounds they make. COW!!! MOOOOOOOOO!!!

She is still obsessed with stickers. Not a day goes by that she doesn't ask for some.

One evening I had her sitting on the kitchen counter while I made a cake, and she took all the stickers off of the lemons and put them on her tummy.

A friend of mine's little girl had her 1st birthday party on Sunday. I LOVE this picture that we took:

I grew up with those girls; they were some of my closest friends when I was younger, and I can't believe that we not only all had babies within a year of each other, but that they're all girls. The girl to my right became my best friend on the very first day of kindergarten when we bonded over our same The Little Mermaid lunchboxes. We remained close all throughout school. She was there for it all, including the night we met Dustin. If Eden and Brooklyn become best friends one day, then they'll be the third generation to do so because her dad and my dad were best friends too. The girl to my left went to elementary school with us too, but she and I didn't become really close until we got to jr. high, and we had lockers next to each other and the same homeroom every single year until graduation because we had the same last name. I met the girl on the far right in 6th grade, and she was one of my best friends throughout jr. high and high school, and we still get together frequently for play dates as our daughters are only two weeks apart. I enjoyed so much watching our girls play together at the birthday party.

The other night I went into Eden's room to check on her (as I do numerous times every night since I am still afraid that she's going to just stop breathing), and I found her sleeping with her arms up by her head.

Usually she sleeps on her stomach, and it made me so happy to see her like that because it reminded me of how she used to sleep when she was itsy-bitsy. Unless I had her in a swaddling blanket, she slept with her arms up by her head, and even when we would see her in ultrasounds, her arms were up by her head.