Lately...

Father's Day... I think Dustin had a good day.  I hope he did!  I was really feeling the pressure because he made sure that I had one fantastic Mother's Day!  I got to see my dad and grandpa that afternoon, and he got to see his dad that evening, so that was nice!  I got him a few little presents, one of which was a basketball with Eden's handprints on it.  One of my favorite memories from my childhood is playing basketball with my family after supper in the evenings... well we actually never played real basketball, but we would go outside almost every evening when the weather was good and play "Horse" or "Around the World".  So one of my Mother's Day presents from Dustin was a basketball goal so that we can start the same tradition with our little family.  (Although I have yet to actually receive it... Dustin has told me about it but hasn't gone to pick it up yet.)  Anyways, when I was stressing to my friend Stacy that I had no idea what to get Dustin for Father's Day, she suggested Eden's handprints on a basketball to go along with the whole basketball theme.  I think it turned out cute, but my gosh, it was NOT easy!  It took me two days of Eden's naptimes to get her prints on the ball.  I had to use A LOT of alcohol to remove ink off of the ball and start over and A LOT of stain remover to remove ink off of her clothes, blankets, nap nanny and everything else she managed to touch while flailing her ink covered hands around in her sleep!

  We spend almost every afternoon in Eden's little baby pool.

One of my friends posted a picture of her doing this with her son on Facebook, and I thought it was genius, so I tried it with Eden... I let her play with different textures.  I put grape jelly, whipped cream, banana and oatmeal flakes on her tray and let her go to town.  She loved it!

She's always so happy when she's outside.  She's completely happy just sitting in her little bumbo seat watching the dogs wrestle and the cat run around and the cars that go by on the road.  Here she sits completely content just watching the leaves move on the tree.

When the temperature reaches a thousand degrees, we come inside and read books or play the piano.  Eden was a little afraid of the piano at first... she would very softly push a key... but now she bangs so loud on it that sometimes I even jump!  Other than that I pretty much just carry her from room to room with me as I do my house chores... she plays on the bed while I put clothes away in our bedroom, we play peek-a-boo with the towels as I fold them, she plays in the exersaucer in the kitchen while I do dishes, etc.

I hear her stirring from her nap... so just one more picture, and I'm outta here!