Eden - Eight Months

It was so hard to get a picture this month!  Most of them came out looking like this:

Baby Girl just did not have time to squeeze a picture-taking session into her busy schedule of exploring rooms, chewing on stuff and chasing the cat.  Finally, I started singing, and that managed to catch her attention long enough for me to get one!

A few months ago, I was holding her and singing to her, and she stuck out her little hand and put it over my mouth.  I'm not sure if it was an act of love or if even at six months old she knows that Momma does not have a good singing voice, and she wanted to shut me up.

Eden is still army crawling.  She has yet to crawl crawl.  But boy is she quick.  (As you can tell from the first picture.)  She is pulling up now though which is super cute and also scares me to death!  She was hanging out in the freezer the other day (it entertains her and occupies her while I cook), and she pulled something off of one of the shelves.  She decided to hold it with both hands, so she let go of the shelf and of course crashed to the ground.  I realize she doesn't have far to fall, but I always have little mini-heart attacks just the same.

Now that Eden is a big bad eight month old, I've started thinking of all the little things that I never want to forget.  I know parents always remember the big milestones... I think the majority of moms out there recall the first time their baby took a step or their first word.  But I want to remember the little things too.  I don't want to ever forget the way she looks stretttttching and blinking as she wakes up in the mornings or the way she freezes and scrunches up her face when she sees one of the dogs coming in anticipation of the inevitable lick or cold nose on her face - grinning, of course, because she loves her brothers.  I want to always be able to remember the sound of the little shriek she would let out if you put her foot onto the cold counter top when she was just a couple of months old.  (Okay, I admit we used to torture that poor girl and put her foot on something cold just to hear that adorable sound.)  One day, when I'm really old, I want to be able to lay in bed and picture her tiny self laying in her crib, sucking her thumb.  I want to be able to recall the way her face lights up and she gets all excited when I walk into her sight.  I don't want to forget the way her tiny body feels when I pick her up out of her crib in the middle of the night when she's been crying... I can feel her just relax against me, relieved that I'm finally there.  Or the way she clings to me when I turn on the Baby Bullet to make her food, and it's so loud.  She'll cry unless I'm holding her when it happens.  I want to remember the look she has on her face every morning and evening when she takes her first bite of whatever it is I'm feeding her at the time.  She's always so cautious, moving the food around in her mouth slowly, making sure she likes it, and if she decides she does, eagerly opening her mouth again and again like a little baby bird.  But I think my absolute favorite is the sounds she makes when she's content and sleeping - those little sighs are heavenly.

Oh, and the lemons.  I can't forget the lemons.  Right now, lemons cure everything.  She's upset?  Just let her sit on the counter and play with the lemons in the basket!  They make her so happy!  If only it could always be this way.  When she grows up, and some kid is mean to her at school.  "Here Eden, sit on the counter and play with the lemons."  Some stupid jerk broke her heart?  "Here's the lemon basket, Eden."  If only...

I will continue to take 4,000 pictures a day and write it all down.  One day I will be able to look through my pictures and read my words and relive it all.

One more picture... I snapped this today as Dustin was leaving to go dove hunting, and I love the way she's resting her head on him.

My loves.