Christmas, The New Year, & All That Jazz

How has it already been almost two weeks since Christmas?  Time is FLYIN'!

Okay, so I started planning for Christmas this year in like... the summer.  In my head at least.  Last Christmas everyone was like, "Ohhh, this is going to be your best Christmas ever because Eden is at the perfect age and blah, blah, blah".  And don't get me wrong, it was an incredible Christmas, and Eden was, of course, adorable, but I knew THIS year was going to be even better with Eden at THIS age!  So I started planning early.  By September, I knew all the presents that I wanted to get Eden, and by Thanksgiving I had them.  I took the little black, velvet dress that I wore on my second Christmas to be cleaned, and it hung in Eden's room for months before Christmas waiting for Eden to wear it on HER second Christmas.  The beginning of the Christmas season was FANTASTIC - our trip to San Antonio, Eden being an angel in our church's Christmas program, baking Christmas cookies, and little Christmas crafts for Eden to do.

A few weeks before Christmas, I was examining all of Eden's gifts, and I came to the conclusion that they were pretty girlie.  Her big items were a vanity table and a bassinet and high chair for her baby doll.  So I told Dustin that he needed to get Eden a present from him that wasn't all girlie.  He came home from work a few days later and told me that he had decided to get Eden a puppy.  Now at first, I was all, "You must be crazy, there's no way in hell we're getting another dog!"  We already had four dogs.  We had five, but back in April, I lost my Sammy.  He was so old, and I was so sad when he finally died, but a few days later, I had to admit that life around here was much easier with only four dogs, and I told myself I would never have five dogs again.  But when there's a puppy involved, it doesn't take much to twist my arm.  And then once I imagined Eden getting a puppy on Christmas morning, I was sold.  So I ended up telling Dustin to go for it.  The only problem was that he absolutely positively wanted Eden to have a female yellow lab.  We already have two male yellow labs, one that we consider Dustin's and one that we consider mine, so he said Eden needed her own yellow lab too.  He started searching the Internet looking for breeders around here.  He kept coming home from work telling me about these puppies for this much money and those puppies for that much money.  Now I have never bought a dog in my life.  Every single dog I've ever had from the time I was little has been a rescue dog - the dogs either wandered up to our house or we took them in after they had been dumped somewhere else.  And I've always told myself that that's how I would always do it - I would NEVER buy a dog when there are so many dogs out there that need homes.  So I kept begging Dustin to just let us go to the SPCA and adopt a puppy from there.  He didn't want to because he was seriously dead set on a female yellow lab, and the SPCA didn't have any.  We kept going round and round - him insisting on buying a yellow lab and me insisting on just adopting any puppy that needed a home.  We never could come to a solution.  So I prayed about it.  Two nights after my little prayer, Dustin's mom sent us a text message with a picture of a little yellow lab puppy saying that one of her friends had witnessed somebody throw the poor thing out of their truck into the highway.  The friend ran into the road to save the terrified puppy, and Dustin's mom wanted to know if we wanted it.  Now Dustin's mom had NO clue that we were even thinking about getting Eden a puppy for Christmas.  I quickly wrote back asking if it was male or female, and she said female - just what we wanted!  Dustin asked if she appeared to be full-blooded, and both his mom and dad agreed that she did.  "We'll take her!"  Now how absolutely perfect is that?  I looked at Dustin and said, "Well there's your yellow lab", and he said in return, "And there's your rescue dog."  God is so good.

So everything seemed to be coming together.  Dustin's parents agreed to keep the puppy until Christmas Eve for us, and I had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alllllll planned out - I had traditions that I wanted to do from my childhood, traditions that Dustin and I have done since we got married, and some new traditions that I planned to start with Eden.  I could barely sleep on the night of December 23rd because I was so FLIPPING EXCITED about the next two days.

And then.... everything went wrong.  Nothing went the way it was supposed to.  I had typed out every little thing that I had planned and how it went wrong, but I decided to delete it.  Because in the end, it doesn't matter.  Because while I was (at first) extremely upset about how nothing seemed to be going my way, Eden was having the time of her life.  And when I thought back over the previous two days on Christmas night, I realized that that's exactly how it should be.  It's not about me anymore and all the things I want at Christmas.  It's about Eden now!  (Okay, I guess it's really about Jesus, but you know what I mean!)  It's my job now to make sure SHE has the best Christmases ever - not that I do!  And she did!  She really, really did!  I didn't get to do all of the traditions that I wanted to, but it's okay!  Because Eden was happy, and that's all I wanted in the first place!

I will write about the funniest thing that went wrong though... I set up all of Eden's presents after she went to bed on Christmas Eve.  Her vanity table came with a mirror that needed to be attached to the table top.  Dustin had left though to go pick up the puppy, and I'm seriously clueless when it comes to tools, so I decided to just lean the mirror against the wall and figured it could be attached later after we had put it into Eden's room.  See:

On Christmas morning, Eden was ecstatic when she walked into the living room and saw everything.  Dustin had the camcorder going, and she decided to go check out the vanity table.  She sat down on the little stool and pulled out the drawer which caused the mirror to fall over and hit her in the head.  She started crying, and I ran over there to comfort her.  I'm holding her and trying to calm her down, and I'm so upset, and I look up and Dustin is still videotaping.  So I start screaming, "TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF."  And he wouldn't do it at first, so I kept yelling, "TURN IT OFF, TURN IT OFF!" until he finally did.  Once Eden stopped crying, I started crying!  I was all, "I just can't believe this has happened, everything is messed up and nothing is going the way it's supposed to, and now one of Eden's presents has INJURED her!"  When I finally stopped crying, I demanded that Dustin delete the video RIGHT FREAKING NOW.  He completely refused and assured me that one day I would find it absolutely hilarious.  And by now, I know he's right.  I haven't watched it yet, but I know when I do, I'm going to laugh.  And I can just imagine us all sitting down and watching that video in twenty years together and cracking up when Eden gets hit in the head and then cracking up again when I start screaming, "TURN IT OFF!"

Once Eden had calmed down, she happily finished opening her presents, and then we brought in the grand finale.  We put the puppy in a wrapped box as well so that Eden could take the lid off and be surprised.  It was adorable; she was so happy!

Some more pictures from Eden's Christmas Eve and Christmas:

Seriously, so happy.  If you notice, she hasn't even opened the box yet.  She was THAT excited just about taking the paper off!  She's opening her Christmas Eve box from my mom - a tradition for her each year where my mom will send her Christmas jammies, a Christmas movie and movie snacks.  This year she got Charlie Brown's Christmas.

We spent Christmas Eve evening at my dad and Susie's house:

Playing with all her new stuff on Christmas morning:

We didn't get to go to church on Christmas Day like I had planned, so Eden never did wear my dress, but we stopped by my grandma and aunt's house to visit and then spent the afternoon and evening with Dustin's parents:

And we swung by Granny and Pops' before heading home:

So yeah... it turns out that Christmas was pretty dang great after all.

As for the puppy?

Her name is Daisy for Daisy Duck and Eden's love of all things Mickey Mouse.  And she and Eden are best friends forever.

*****

On New Year's Eve, Dustin and I went to a party while Eden stayed at my dad and Susie's house, but we left early and picked Eden up by 10, and we rang in the New Year just the three of us again.  Actually we did it early because I seriously went to bed at 11:30.  Man, I'm getting old.

And on New Year's Day, we had friends over for our annual prime rib, black eyed peas and greens.  Judging by the amount of black eyed peas and greens that Eden ate, she is going to be very lucky and very wealthy this year.

*****

I'm a summer gal.  My body physically hurts when I go outside in really cold weather, and I could never handle living any more north than where I live right now.  But occasionally, it is nice when we get really, really cold weather.  (As long as it doesn't last too long!)  I love being all cozy inside, and whenever it gets below freezing, Dustin sprays the water hoses on everything during the night so that we wake up to beautiful ice covering everything.

This morning was the first time Eden has gotten to experience this, and when we woke up, we put on jackets, hats and boots right over our pajamas and went outside to stomp on frozen grass and eat icicles.

So simple, but it's something that has always made me so happy.

Happy 2014!

Eden - 23 Months

I HATE that I was facing the sun when I took this picture and the coloring is all yucky.  I moved the chair after this and got some pictures with good lighting, but ultimately I HAD to choose this one because I couldn't pass up that grin! 

This is my last time to take a monthly picture of Eden in her little pink chair as I'm going to do something different when she turns two.  Which I cannot believe is only a month away.  I know people ALWAYS say that.  But really - I CANNOT BELIEVE IT.  Like, I think I must be dreaming because I KNOW it has not been almost two years since she was born.  Nope.  Not possible. 

Y'all, she is so big.  Today she told me to put on my seat belt.  Okay, maybe she didn't say the words, "Mom, put on your seat belt", but I was driving home from my dad's house, and since I was on a dirt road, I didn't put it on, and she kept yelling at me, "BELT, BELT, BELT".  I said, "Do you want me to put on my seat belt?", and she said, "Yeah!".  So there you go.  Big.

Since this is my last time to give a little monthly update on Eden, I'm going to be even more obnoxious than usual as I go on and on about how wonderful and perfect my child is.  But really, she is.

Look at that!  A bow!  She has enough hair for a bow now!  Maybe not... but I've started sticking one on her head anyway.  Now if I don't put a bow in her hair, she gets upset with me and starts yelling "BOW, BOW, BOW" at me.  So I put a bow in her hair, and then she rips it out five minutes later.

I study her a lot.  Usually when she's asleep.  I just stare and stare and memorize her features.  And y'all, she really is perfect.  I LOVE her strawberry blond hair.  It is adorable.  She already has nice, thick eyebrows.  And did she ever luck out with her eyes.  She got my blue eyes, but Dustin's lonnnggg, thick eyelashes.  Perfection.  I'm so jealous of their eyelashes.  She has the cutest little upturned nose, chubby little cheeks and rosy-colored lips.  SHE IS BEAUTIFUL.

As her little personality continues to blossom, it's so fun to see traits that are me and traits that are Dustin.  But the best are the traits that don't seem to come from either of us - the ones that are just Eden.  She is headstrong.  She is adventurous.  She is not afraid of much at all.  Dustin is so proud that he can shoot a gun, and she has no reaction to the loud noise.  She's attached to me, but she is fine if I'm gone.  My mom watched her the other day, and she told me later that it doesn't bother Eden when I leave, and she's fine the whole time I'm gone, but boy does she get excited when I come back!  Awww.  She is happy.  Oh, so very happy.  She is sweet and still comes up to me for hugs and kisses throughout the day.  She is girlie.  She is outdoorsy.  She is the perfect combination of princess and warrior. 

She loves Mickey Mouse, bananas, books, stickers, animals, coloring, stacking random objects, rare steak, her baby doll, running in circles, taking baths, bugs, brushing her teeth, balls and covering her face with a blanket and then running until she hits something.  Kids are adorable.  And kinda weird. 

I don't know what Dustin and I did before her!  We surely didn't laugh as often.  She is our entertainment.  So many evenings are spent with us just sitting on the couch watching her... watching her twirl and run and play and dance and laugh. 

She likes to copy whatever I'm doing.  She goes and gets her little broom and sweeps the floor when I sweep.  But really all she does is mess up the piles that I've already swept up.  When I wash my face in the mornings, she stands on her step-stool and splashes water all over her face too.  The other night I was laughing at something so hard that I covered my face with my hands.  I looked up and she was covering her face with her hands too!

Sometimes she does the most random things, and I would love to know what she was thinking!  Just now, she told my camera "night-night" and covered it with a blanket. 

She learned how to get out of her crib at the end of November.  I heard her fussing one evening after I had already put her to bed, so I went upstairs to see what was wrong.  I opened her bedroom door and there she was, right on the other side of the door.  My granny always tells us stories about how my dad used to climb out of his crib with his toes.  I put Eden back in her crib to see how she got out.  Up that little monkey went, using her toes to climb.  My grandma said that she used to put socks on my dad, and then he couldn't do it anymore.  That doesn't work with Eden.... she pulls socks right off, and she has even managed to take off footie pajamas in the night.  We decided it was time to get her a big girl bed before she broke an arm, but the bed I want isn't available until February, so for the time being we just took the side railing off of her crib, and she has a little toddler bed.  It was hell for a few nights trying to get her to STAY IN BED as she did not understand the concept of staying in bed when there was nothing stopping her from getting out.  But she eventually caught on (because I kept yelling at her), and now I love that the railing is gone because when I put her to bed, I curl up in it too and read books and sing songs, and it's so sweet, even though it makes me sad that we haven't used the rocking chair in a month.  By the way, my dad was thrilled to hear that Eden got his crib-crawling-out genes.  Most nights she ends up coming to our room around two or three a.m. and finishes the night in our bed.  I would love that a lot more if she wasn't such a restless sleeper - Dustin and I spend the early morning hours getting kicked and punched.

But then she wakes up and looks like this, and it's the most adorable thing ever so I don't really care that I just got kicked for three hours straight.

I call her mine.  All the time.  But she's not, is she?  She belongs to God.  I feel so blessed that God gave me her to raise and that she gets to be my daughter for this short, little time that we are on Earth.  As she's hitting two and starting to understand more and more and trying to figure out what kind of place this world is, my prayer these days usually includes, "Dear God, please don't let me screw this up!"

SIX DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!  I'm so flippin' excited about Christmas this year, I can hardly stand it.  We have some good stuff planned for our little Princess Warrior!

Kickin' Off the Christmas Season

Last week, my dad sent me the sweetest text message telling me that Rudolph was going to be on TV the next night and asking if Eden could come and watch it with him.  For some silly reason, that actually brought tears to my eyes.  Growing up, the first viewing of Rudolph each year was a big deal in our family, and I thought it was so cute that my dad wanted Eden's very first time watching it to be with him.  So the next night, Dustin, Eden and I headed over to my dad and Susie's house to eat dinner, let Eden take her bath in my dad and Susie's giant tub (she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES taking baths in their bathtub... it's much better than our tiny one) and watch Rudolph.  They even had a little red nose for Eden, but this is the best picture I managed to get of her wearing it.

 

Eden's attention span didn't quite last the full hour, but it was still so special to me to have us all watch Rudolph together.  I told Dustin when we were leaving that it was one of the best nights I'd had in a long time.  Her first Rudolph experience.  IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS, PEOPLE!

So that was our very first Christmas-y thing to do this year.

When we saw my mom on Thanksgiving, she gave Eden a little Christmas package with a reindeer book, a Christmas CD, some Christmas stickers and some window clings.  The window clings have been a HUGE hit.

Then we spent this past weekend in San Antonio.  On Saturday we took Eden to the zoo where she got to see Santa Claus.

She didn't cry this year, but she definitely didn't smile and she was very careful to not make eye contact or look directly at him.

Eden and I dressed Christmas-y.  Dustin never participates.

Every time we would walk away from an animal, Eden would shout, "MORE, MORE!"  "You wanna see more animals?"  "YEAH!"  Then she would run ahead of us, and we had to work hard to teach her to obey "stay with Mama and Daddy".  She was just so dang excited.

We stayed on the Riverwalk, and while Eden napped on Saturday afternoon, Dustin and I sat on our balcony overlooking the river drinking margaritas and listening to a mariachi band play "Feliz Navidad" a thousand times.  I freaking love San Antonio.

On Saturday night, we took a boat ride down the river to see all of the Christmas lights.  I think Eden liked it.

Just a little bit.  Maybe.

On Sunday we took Eden to SeaWorld's Christmas Celebration.

Attempt to take Eden's picture in front of the giant poinsettia tree:

 take 1

 take 2

 

 take 3

 

take 4 (and she stole part of the tree)

 

Okay, so I never got a good shot.  We had soooo much fun though.  Eden got to feed the sea lions.

 

She played at the park.

 

 

We watched all of the shows.

 

I was pretty amazed by the dolphins jumping in time to Christmas songs, but then we went and saw Shamu, and I was BLOWN AWAY!

 

I went to SeaWorld a few times as a child, and I don't remember Shamu being THIS amazing.  Either my memory isn't very good, or Shamu has stepped up his game.  He (she?) did a 360 degree flip!  I was seriously amazed!!!

 Eden really, REALLY liked when Shamu jumped up to hit the ball.

 

Eden LOVED it.  But she was NOT happy when Shamu was NOT jumping.  If he was just swimming or waving his tail or being fed fish, she would start yelling, "AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN" so loudly that people would turn around to look at us.  "You want Shamu to jump again?"  "YEAH!!!"  "Well we have to wait."  "AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN!!!!!!"

 

She was crushed when the show was over, and we told her it was time to go home.

 

So, so far our Christmas season is off to a pretty great start.  We still don't have a Christmas tree in our living room, but we did put a pink one up in Eden's room on Monday night, and she was VERY excited about it.  She hugged it.

According to my Facebook newsfeed, I'm the last person in America who doesn't have a tree up yet, but it's what we're doing tonight! 

Christmas is in 21 days, and for the first time ever, instead of wanting it to be here as quick as possible, I want these next 21 days to go by verrryyy slowllyyyy so we can continue doing all of these fun Christmas things with Eden!

I thought last year was great, but with her at this age, THIS year is going to be amazing.