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.

Our Thanksgiving

My heart is happy on this Monday morning.  We had a really, really good Thanksgiving week.  We spent Wednesday evening celebrating with my dad's side of the family.  We spent Thursday with Dustin's family.  On Thursday evening, Dustin left to go hunting with family and friends, so on Friday morning, Eden and I went to go visit my mom for a couple of days.  All of the grandparents got to see Eden during the week. 

I made Eden's Thanksgiving Day outfit.  I was really proud of it.  Not because it was hard or anything - it was actually incredibly easy.  But because I SEWED IT!  Two years ago, I thought sewing was the dumbest thing in the world and couldn't understand why people wanted to sew things when there were stores to buy things at!  Then I got pregnant, and all of a sudden I had an urge to sew and to make Baby Girl stuff.  So my dad and stepmom bought me a sewing machine, my aunt showed me some basics, I practiced a little bit, and I've started making some simple things here and there.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving, however, was not easy as I continue to learn what life with a ten month old is like:

On Tuesday night, I started getting ready for the week ahead.  Dustin had a Thanksgiving lunch at work on Wednesday that he wanted me to bring a broccoli, rice & cheese casserole to, and I had promised my brother that the next time I saw him I would make him pistachio ice cream.  So I put Eden to bed and got to work.  I managed to get the casserole put together and into the fridge for the next day no problem.  Then I went to work on the ice cream.  I needed crushed pistachios, so I figured I would just put them in the blender and pulse them.  Well of course the blender woke up my super light sleeper even though she was upstairs in her room with the door shut and her sleep sheep on.  Okay, so upstairs I go, and I rock her back to sleep.  Thirty minutes later, I'm outside on the deck in the dark pulsing my pistachios.  Back inside, I'm in the process of cooking the milk, eggs, blah, blah when Eden decides to wake up again.  Dustin's in the shower.  Hmmm...  I don't want to overcook my milk... Maybe she'll fall back asleep (I always hold out hope that she'll fall back asleep once she wakes up... I don't know why... It has NEVER happened!)  I've waited too long, now she's hysterical.  I go get her and hold a sleeping baby in one arm while trying to get the ice cream mixed up with the other until Dustin gets out of the shower and takes her.  I get the mixture made up and put into the fridge.  My kitchen is a disaster, and I NEVER go to bed unless my kitchen is clean.  But now Eden is awake and cranky and Dustin convinces me to just leave it until the morning.  FINE!  We all go to bed.

On Wednesday, Eden of course wakes up at the crack of dawn.  Our morning goes something like this:

I put the ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker and start doing dishes while Eden crawls around on the floor.

Eden has crawled over to the pantry which I have stupidly left open and pulls a box of waffle mix off of the bottom shelf and spills white powder everywhere.  In the blink of an eye she crawls around in it and manages to drag it into two other rooms before I have time to do anything about it. 

Eden has now pulled herself up to where she is standing and holding my knees and looking at me and whining, so I give up on cleaning, and we go play for a while.

Ice cream done.  My kitchen is not much cleaner than it was last night, but it's Eden's naptime, and she's getting fussy.  We go upstairs and read a book, and I get Eden to sleep.  After a twenty minute cat nap, she's wide awake and full of energy once again. 

I make her breakfast, and while feeding her oatmeal, I notice that it's already after 10.  Crap. 

I put the casserole into the oven. 

I drag Eden's exersaucer into the bathroom and put her in it while I take a shower.  In my rush, I only shave one leg. 

I take the casserole out and sprinkle cheese on top.  I go to put it back in.  I forget oven mitts.  Cuss word.  Using oven mitts, I put the casserole back into the oven. 

Where did Eden go?  Oh good, she's in the bathroom playing in the trashcan!

I get Eden dressed.  Casserole done.

I try to blowdry my hair.  Eden now wants to be held and cries whenever I put her down.  I give up on my hair and we go into the living room to play.  She seems happy.  I try to sneak out to finish my hair.  She notices after 60 seconds that I'm not there, and crawls frantically to find me. 

I look at the clock.  How in the world is it after 11:30?

I attempt to put on makeup with one hand while holding Eden.  I rush upstairs to get dressed. 

Off we go to lunch.  My hair is still damp.

When we get home, Eden takes a nap in her swing, and I manage to get the kitchen clean, and I finally sweep up waffle mix.

Dustin comes home and starts cooking the prime rib that he's in charge of for dinner at my grandma's.  Eden wakes up.  I have to make potatoes.  The afternoon goes pretty much the same as the morning did.  My kitchen is a disaster once again, and off we go to my grandma's. 

It's comical now.  Trying to accomplish anything these days can be pretty difficult.  But that's okay.  She's so worth it.  Preparing for Thanksgiving may have been hard, but it's all okay when I see my family passing her around and loving on her and playing with her on the floor.  At one point on Wednesday night, I didn't know where Eden was.  I found her outside with my uncle.  He was trying to show her the moon.  That makes my heart hurt so good.  When we're all sitting around the table eating with Eden's highchair squeezed in between me and Dustin, I forget all about the frustration I felt when she was destroying my kitchen while I cooked.  My heart swelled when I watched some of Dustin's family members who were meeting her for the first time ooh and ah over her and her little outfit on Thanksgiving Day.  A weekend spent with my mom and an afternoon spent at the beach watching Eden crawl around in the sand and try to chase baby birds is totally worth that super fun three and a half hour drive I had with a ten month old and two labs.  She is worth EVERYTHING.

I have much to be thankful for. 

Next up... Eden's first CHRISTMAS!  The Christmas songs are playing, and we are going to go get a tree and decorate this weekend.  Just thinking about the month of December makes me so happy that I feel like I could burst.  Eden got her picture taken with Santa this weekend too.

I think she looks SOOOOO CUTE all sad like that.  Does that  make me a bad mom?  I was actually kind of happy that she cried because I think it makes the picture cuter.  How horrible of me!

Eden - Ten Months (and one day)

We had to take Eden's 10 month picture today because I wasn't with her yesterday. (tear)  Dustin and I went with some friends to the Texans game (yay!), but I have to say that when Dustin came home a few weeks ago and told me that the game was on November 18th, the very first thing that popped into my head was that I wouldn't be with Eden on one of her little monthly birthdays.  My mom came and spent the day with her instead.  Dustin and I left yesterday morning at 8 and we didn't get home until 7:30 last night.  That is the longest amount of time I have ever spent away from Eden.  I had a great time at the game, but by the time we were on the way home, I was a complete wreck.  I've still only been away from her a handful of times. 

Eden... 10 months...

Well her days of army crawling are long gone.  She's a crawler crawler now.  And I can't help but be a teensy bit sad that my army crawler is gone.  She was SO cute dragging herself around, and I can't believe I'll never see it again! 

Her hair is growing back in slowly but surely.  (She was born with hair and then poof - it all disappeared!)  It's SO CUTE!  There's not much hair, but when I push her in the swing, that inch of hair flies out in the wind, and when she wakes up in the mornings her little hair is sticking straight up.  It cracks me up.

She still pulls up on EVERYTHING, but at least this month she falls down less.

She still has yet to start sleeping through the night.  She's doing better.  But as we get closer and closer to that year mark, I can't help but be a little glad that she's still not sleeping through the night.  When she was first born, those moments when I was feeding her in the middle of the night were my absolute favorite.  The whole world was sleeping except me and her in a dark room cuddled up together.  There's nothing sweeter.  I'm glad that we still have those moments.  It will be really nice when I don't have to get up a few times a night anymore, but I know when that time finally comes, I'll be sad too.

She loves her animals.  I'm not sure how much they love her though.  The dogs get crawled over and hit in the face, and the cats never get to eat in peace anymore.

One thing I DON'T love about this age... the fact that she has to put EVERY LITTLE THING in her mouth!  I have to sweep my floors CONSTANTLY.  I have to be on alert for choking CONSTANTLY.  We'll be having a lovely little afternoon playing on the quilt outside... I take my eyes off of her for three seconds and all of a sudden she's choking on a leaf.  If I had a dollar for every time I've had to stick my finger down her throat to fish something out, I would be a very rich woman. 

As her birthday gets closer and closer, my heart can't help but ache.  But I had a friend tell me just last week, that from here on out, I'll think that Eden can't get any better, any more fun, but then the next day I'll find out I was wrong.  She assured me that it just keeps getting better. 

Is she not the cutest?

Happy Halloween!

Enjoying October

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." - L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

There is something amazing about October.  It seems almost magical.  It offers so much.  And I've tried to soak up every ounce of it.

We enjoyed cool days...

fall sweaters, fall sweaters!  I LOVE fall sweaters and bought Eden like a billion of them!

 

...and warm days.

We spent almost every single afternoon outside on the quilt this month.  We soaked up the sunshine, Eden had so much fun watching the dogs play, and she ate many, many blades of grass that she managed to stuff into her mouth before I could stop her.

We visited the pumpkin patch.

We decorated pumpkins...

... and carved pumpkins.

We never actually got to light Eden's little jack o' lantern though.  A dog snatched it off the table, and it was never seen again. :(

My favorite part of the month though would, of course, be the fair.  I LOVE the fair.  I look forward to it all year, and I get almost as excited about it as I do for Christmas.  Even though she wasn't capable of much this year, I still couldn't wait to take Eden and let her see all the sights.  Dustin even took off work the Thursday of the fair, and we took Eden to the parade (she stared with her mouth open the entire time) and pushed her around the fairgrounds in her stroller.  We walked around eating curly fries and drinking beer, and I know that doesn't sound like much, but it is.  It was a great day.  Eden was a big fan of the Junior Barnyard.

All that's left for this month is Halloween.  We're taking Eden trick or treating so that she can get us some free candy.  ;)

Eden - Nine Months

I remember the first few months that I took these pictures.  Eden would just lie there perfectly content, and I could leisurely take twenty pictures and go through them later to choose my favorite.  HA!  I actually broke a sweat trying to get a good picture this month.  It was practically a wrestling match.  Most of the pictures were of her back, and after I finally managed one of her front, I said, "Good enough!"  Well, I did get one other one of her face... I had given her a toy to play with so that she would stay on her back, and then I thought I could just snatch it away really fast and snap a picture.  Dumb.  This is what I got:

"Mama, why you take my toy?"

When I was pregnant, nine months was FOREVER!  I thought it would never pass!  Then Eden was born, and I blinked, and she turned nine months.  So unfair!

Eden is finally starting to crawl up on her hands and knees.  I was really wondering if she ever would or if she would just go from army crawling to walking.  She still army crawls most of the time though, and even when she crawls for real, for real, when she decides she wants to go fast, she drops down to her little belly to army crawl again.  It's the cutest little thing.

Naturally at nine months, she is into EVERYTHING and pulling up on EVERYTHING.  She always wants to be standing.  And then she forgets that she can't stand on her own and lets go and falls, and she is covered in bruises.  I know this happens to all babies, but I still can't help being a little embarrassed when we go places and she has bruises all over her forehead... like someone is going to call me out for being a bad mom or something!

She says "mama" and "dada", but she says "mama" more which makes my heart sing. =)  She loves her daddy though and gets really excited when he comes home from work.  I hold her when he comes through the door, and she kicks, kicks, kicks those little legs until he takes her and she can snuggle against him.

She's a mama's baby through and through though, and separation anxiety has kicked in full force.  If I am not in her line of sight, it is not good!  But I love it!  I don't know why there are moms out there that complain about that stage... As far as I'm concerned, there is no greater feeling in the world than your baby wanting you and ONLY you.

And this blog post is going to be cut off abruptly now because Eden is stirring from her nap, and I need to get dressed to go out to dinner later before she is completely awake and ready to go!  Adios!  =)



Fall is Here!

I was a very happy girl when I woke up this morning.  October 1st.  I love this time of year, and October 1st brought with it a cool, crisp morning that felt - well, just like October should feel.  There are so many things to look forward to this time of year, but I think my favorite is just the overall mood.  I LOVE summer... but summers are busy... they always seem to be jam-packed with millions of things to do, and I always seem to be going, going, going during summer.  But then comes fall, and it's for relaxing.  Lazy Sundays watching football.  Relaxing evenings outside now that you won't sweat to death.  Watching movies all cuddled up in blankets and falling asleep at 8:00 because it's already been dark for hours.  I always feel so rested and relaxed and at ease during this time of year. 

Eden wore her fleece pajamas last night, I'm fixing her fall foods (for dinner she had butternut squash and apple oatmeal sprinkled with cinnamon), and I'm all excited to change out the quilt on our bed for the big down comforter.  When we were growing up, my mom always put flannel sheets on our beds this time of year, and I remember always being SO excited that it was time for the flannel sheets.  Almost as excited as I was when spring came back and we got our regular sheets again.  (That's the thing... as excited as I am right now, I know that six months from now, I'll be just as excited for spring and hot weather and all the things it brings.)  But for now... let's focus on fall.  I can't wait to carve pumpkins and eat chili and apple cake and get ready for bed at like 5:00 and snuggle, snuggle, snuggle on the couch and watch all of my many TV shows now that they're back.  I'm so excited to wear sweaters and boots and enjoy crisp mornings, and there would SO be flannel sheets on my bed right now if it weren't for Dustin and the fact that he would have a heat stroke.

Eden got to wear a little jacket today.

We are still struggling with sleep over here.  It is what it is though.  I've stopped fighting it... Eden is a bad sleeper.  It's a fact.  I can't complain too much; she gets this trait from me (I STILL don't sleep), and even though my mom sounds sympathetic when we talk about it, I'm sure she's laughing in her head and thinking it's payback time!  I've read articles and books, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do.  And sometimes we have GREAT nights (last week Eden slept for 11 hours one night... cue Angels singing), sometimes we have okay nights, and sometimes we have BADDDD nights, waking up every couple of hours and flat out refusing to go back to sleep.  I just go with it.  There's nothing else I can do. 

I see friends of mine without babies post articles like "How To Get Your Baby To Sleep Through The Night By Six Weeks Old" and "Seven Nights to A Better Sleeper" to their "Future Babies" pinterest boards, and I just laugh.  I clicked on the "Seven Nights to A Better Sleeper", and one of the steps seriously said to put a fresh diaper on your baby right before bedtime.  Oh REALLLYYYY?!!!  Because I've been putting Eden to bed every night in a dirty diaper.  So all I have to do is put a fresh diaper on her and she'll sleep all night?  After reading the entire article, I came to the conclusion that the writer had never had children.  Just like I'm convinced that the person who coined the phrase, "sleep like a baby" never had a baby.  It amuses me to watch my friends "pin" these articles for later... only because I remember being pregnant and armed with a swaddle blanket, lavender scented bedtime lotion (proven to help your baby sleep better!) and a Sleep Sheep that plays white noise thinking to myself, "Wow, my baby is going to be such a good sleeper because all I have to do is put this lotion on her, wrap her in this blanket and then turn on her Sleep Sheep."  If only!  But it's okay... because it's amazing what I am capable of with so little sleep.  No, I take that back... It's amazing what EDEN is capable of with so little sleep.  I'm always astonished to see how hyper she can be in the mornings after such a bad night. 

Okay, okay, so other than the sleep thing, she really is just so perfect.  And I would deal with horrible nights every night if I had to, because it would be so worth it.  Because our days are magical.  Playing, laughing, smiling, swinging, riding in the wagon... It's everything I ever thought it would be and so much more. 

I love this picture.  She sat in that swing so content and watched Dustin mow the entire yard.  He would wave when he would go by, and she would just grin.

We go outside to swing no less than five times every day.  She LOVES it.  She loves to go high.  Like HIGH.  REALLY HIGH.  RIDICULOUSLY HIGH.  She's going to have my love of rollercoasters, I just know it!

She gets so excited for bathtime, and I'm so relieved because for the first few months of her life, she HATED it and would cry the entire time.  But I think it's partly my fault because I was really bad at it, and never quite knew what I was doing.  Sorry Eden.  The water coming out of the faucet is the best part - way better than all those stupid bath toys that I wasted my money on!

Momsicles!  Heard of 'em?  Genius!  Found on pinterest of course.  Frozen breastmilk for teething babies.  So simple.

Happy Fall y'all!