Spring-y Photos

I've taught Eden to put away her dirty clothes in her hamper every morning and every night when I change her.  She gets so excited about it too.  I hand her her clothes, she grins, walks to the hamper, throws them in, turns around and claps for herself.  She has to make sure they make it all the way into the hamper too... if a pant leg gets caught hanging over the side, she will fix it until everything is completely into the hamper.  I made Dustin watch her do it the other night.  I told him he could learn a few things from our fourteen month old. ;)

I'm so excited about Easter tomorrow and have been taking spring-y photos of Eden all week in anticipation.

My Godmother made Eden her little sweater.  It was given to her for her Baptism, but she planned it completely perfectly!  It's the perfect size and color for cool spring mornings and evenings.

Happy Easter!

Eden - Fourteen Months

Eden turned fourteen months old two days ago.  In honor of the occasion, I gave her a black eye.

Yep, folks.  That right there is all my fault.  Talk about feeling like a crappy mom.

She was walking around the deck barefoot the other night, and she picked up the dog bowl.  I was afraid that she would drop it on her little foot so I went to take it away from her.  I came up behind her and leaned over her to get it.  I guess she didn't know I was there, and it scared her.  So she lost her balance and fell forward at the same time I was lifting the bowl up... and well... I smacked her in the face with a dog bowl.

Ugh.  I feel so terrible!

So I was thinking about Eden at fourteen months old.  And I asked myself what is one thing that I want to make sure I never forget about her at this moment.  Lots of things, of course, but I love what she does first thing every morning.

I wake up verrryyy slowly in the mornings.  Eden?  Not so much.  She can be snoring one second, and in the very next she is sitting straight up, pointing to Oscar at the foot of the bed and yelling, "CAT!".  It's amazing really.  As soon as her eyes open, she is ready to go, go, go.  I can barely function when I first wake up.  I need time to blink, stretch, allow my brain to wake up.  But Eden is trying to jump off the bed.  So I put her on the floor, and as soon as her feet hit the ground, she walks straight into her room, climbs into the rocking chair, gets a book off the nightstand and proceeds to look through it while I continue trying to force myself awake.  I have a perfect view of her from my spot in the bed, and I lay there for a while just watching her.  Finally I get up, make the bed and straighten the room while she continues to "read", and then I go and get her, and we start our day together.  I just think it's precious how she sits there waiting on me.

I don't know why?  But I love it.

Eden has THE best clothes.  In her fourteen month picture up there, she is wearing another dress that my dad and Susie brought back from Italy for her.  And my mom and Mark went to Ireland last summer and brought her back an outfit.  She wore it on St. Patrick's Day on Sunday.  Seriously?  Getting to wear clothes from Ireland on St. Patrick's Day?  I'm jealous.

The End.

Animals, Animals and More... Animals

Eden had a very good week.  Because Eden loves animals.  And she saw lots of them this week.

First, the local feed store got in their chicks and ducklings.  Oh, so cute.  I've taken Eden up there twice this week for no other reason than to look at the little babies.  Those little ducklings are the cutest thing, and I'm trying to come up with a reason why I need some ducks at my house.

Then on Tuesday, the three of us set off for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  The weather was gorgeous, and it was pure bliss just walking around, taking in the sights, enjoying the sunshine and chowing down on corn dogs and curly fries and fried oatmeal cream pies.  But the highlight was taking Eden into the petting zoo.  There was a minor setback when a little baby goat literally climbed over her to try and get to the food that Dustin was holding, but we dried her tears, pointed out another animal for her to pet, and she was happy, happy, happy once more.  She even fed a goat out of her hand.

 (I'm pretty sure I need some sheep to go with my ducks!)

Finally on Thursday, Eden and I went to the Houston Zoo with a good friend of mine and her kids.  Eden didn't realllyyy understand what we were trying to point out to her most of the time, but boy did she come alive when we made it to the monkeys and they were playing with balls.  She sat straight up in her stroller.  "Ball!", she kept shouting.  She also took her first carousel ride.

And thus concludes a wonderful week. 

I am also very pleased to announce that Eden has been a really, really good sleeper lately!  Which is really, really good because I was really, really fixing to lose my mind.  Really!  There may have even been some tears (mine).  But God heard my pleas, and He told my child to sleep.  And sleep she has.  She has only been waking once in the night, AND she finally gave in and started taking naps every afternoon... at least an hour, sometimes two hours and once a whopping THREE hour nap!  I almost don't know what to do with myself.

We have a fun weekend ahead of us - a wedding tomorrow and plans with friends on Sunday for St. Patrick's Day.  I'm off to make green cookie dough.  Happy Weekend!