Eden - Eighteen Months & Schlitterbahn

I had a hard time getting Eden to sit in her chair again this month, so even though you see her diaper more than her little dress, I said, "Good enough!"  She preferred dragging her chair around the yard to sitting in it.

Last week I sat down and started reading through some of my blog posts from last year.  Two things stood out to me: 1. I use the phrase "soak it up" a lot.  I really need to find a new saying.  2. I was really sad about Eden getting older.

And I am sad about Eden getting older.  But it's a beautiful kind of sad.  A happy kind of sad.  So as we hit eighteen months, which to me is another "big one", yes, I am sad.  I feel like this one transitions Eden from baby to toddler.  I will always miss my newborn Eden, my baby Eden and all the milestones we have behind us, but I am beyond beyond beyond happy and excited about this new phase and all the milestones we have in front of us.

Life with Eden right now?  Freaking beautiful.  As I mentioned before, I really struggled with months thirteen through fifteen.  Things gradually got better and easier during months sixteen and seventeen.  And now here we are - eighteen months.  And it rocks.  I know there will be other phases that we hit where I'm once again at a loss, and I won't have all the answers.  But right now - I got this.

Eden is amazing.  She's beautiful, adorable and smart.  She loves books and animals and exploring outside.  She's brave (there is not a slide to be found that's too tall for this child) and independent.  She's tough.  She has been literally run over by one of our dogs, and she stands right up like nothing happened.  She's sweet and girly and hugs her baby doll to her and gives her kisses.  And then she goes outside and plays with bugs.  Her father and I could not be more proud.

In the past, I feel like Eden wanted me around because she NEEDED me.  I was that lady who fed her, changed her diapers and rocked her.  Now I feel like she wants me around because she just plain LOVES me.  She used to kiss me when I would say, "Eden, give Mama a kiss."  Now when I'm holding her, sometimes she will just randomly lean in and kiss my cheek and grin at me.  Sometimes when I'm sitting on the floor, she will come up behind me and wrap her arms around me.  She reaches for my hand and takes me with her wherever she goes.  She is my little pal, and we have the best days together.

She also has a naughty side, and when she is fixing to do something that she KNOWS she's not supposed to do, she will look at me, tell me "bye-bye" and blow me kisses to try and GET RID OF ME so that she can do it.  Sorry kid, I'm not that dumb.

She knows every single one of her flashcards now so we've moved on to learning colors.  She can identify red, yellow and blue for me.

Yep... she's pretty freakin' awesome.

*****

Thursday morning Eden and I went to New Braunfels and met up with my mom, Mark and Jacob at Schlitterbahn.  We stayed there for two days, and for two days, Eden played hard.

I have the BEST memories from my childhood of times spent at Schlitterbahn.  My family and a bunch of other families would go to New Braunfels for days in the summertime - all of us kids running around Schlitterbahn by day and then swimming in the river in the evenings.

On Thursday, I stayed with Eden and took her to all of the little kiddie attractions.  But on Friday, I left her with my mom and Mark, and I ran around Schlitterbahn with Jacob like I was a little kid again.  There I was - twenty-seven years old - whooping and hollering on the rides and in the wave pool with a bunch of twelve and thirteen year olds.  When does it become sad for me to still run around Schlitterbahn like a little kid?  Shit, is it already?  I don't care.  I love Schlitterbahn.  There are moms out there that will give their children advice on life and love and other big topics.  Me?  Well to my offspring I will leave my knowledge of the Schlitterbahn water park.  I know that water park like the back of my hand, and when Eden gets older, I will teach her what rides to ride in what order to make sure that you get the maximum amount of rides ridden in the smallest amount of time.  Eden is a lucky, lucky child to get my Schlitterbahn wisdom.  Take that other moms!

More Sweet Summertime

Some favorite photos from the past few days:

Those boots!  She wears those boots more than anything else she owns, and I feel like when she outgrows them, I need to clean them up the best I can and display them somewhere!  They sit at our backdoor, and she brings them to me to let me know when she wants to go outside.  Which is pretty much all the time.

She couldn't decide if she liked this little guy or not.  Every time he jumped, she would kind of freak out, but then she would crack up.

more water trough afternoons

a day trip to Matagorda last Saturday

She won't drink orange juice (or any juice), but put some freshly squeezed orange juice in the popsicle maker and she's in heaven!

Eden is eighteen months old today!  I'm just waiting for her to wake up, and then she and I are headed to Schlitterbahn for two days.  Yayyyyyyy!

The Livin' Is Truly Easy

I turned twenty-seven eight days ago.  This was the first time that I was actually dreading my birthday.  Toward the end of June, when I would remember that my birthday was coming up, instead of feeling my usual excitement, I would panic.  There's just something about that seven... or the fact that I'm now in the "late twenties" group instead of the "mid-twenties" group... or the fact that I'm now way way closer to thirty than I am to twenty...  How the heck did THAT happen?  The closer the day got, the worse my mood became.  I had to actually apologize to Dustin a few times for being so rude.  Dustin just thought it was funny and tried to make it worse by saying things like, "Did you like how the waiter didn't ID you?" after I ordered a margarita at a Mexican restaurant or pointing out how quickly the last three years have gone by so "thirty will be here before you know it!"  I hate him sometimes.  Two days before my birthday though, I decided to stop pouting.  (Dustin also helped in my decision as he finally told me to GET OVER MYSELF!)  I am going to make sure twenty-seven is my best year ever.  EVER.  "After all", I told Dustin, "my favorite numbers are two and seven, and I won't get this chance again until I'm seventy-two!"  Lame?  Probably.  But it worked, and it got me really excited about turning twenty-seven.

On the morning of my birthday, I woke up really early so that I could take a shower, fix my hair and actually put on make-up before Eden got up.  I put on a dress because I wanted to look pretty on my birthday, and I put Eden in a sweet little dress and bow as well.  Eden had a music class that morning. (I signed her up for a summer baby music class.)  After her class, I chose a cute little cafe for lunch, and we ate outside.  Eden was absolutely delighted by all the birds that kept landing on our table.  She would laugh and scream, "FLY FLY" and strangers would look at us and grin.  Then I treated myself to four new books at Barnes and Noble and some news clothes at Banana Republic.  Before heading home, we swung by Ooh-la-la so I could pick up a strawberry cupcake for myself, a chocolate cupcake for Dustin and a mini strawberry cupcake for Eden.

Now Dustin has the same birthday as me.  Everyone thinks that is just the cutest thing ever when they find out about it, but I HATE IT!  HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE IT!  I actually suggested this year that he go to the courthouse and pay money to get a new birthday.  He said it's my fault since I was born second.  So since it was his birthday, he decided to go play golf with some friends after work.  And unfortunately since it was his birthday, I had to let him instead of pitching a fit and insisting that he spend MY birthday with me.  I've been dealing with having to accommodate him on my birthday for eight years now.  It sucks.  (I'm kinda kidding, kinda not...)  Eden and I still had a good evening playing in the water trough (best thing we've ever bought), and Dustin came home in time for us to all enjoy our cupcakes together.

After Eden went to sleep, Dustin and I sat outside watching the sun go down and drinking white wine.  A lot of white wine.  And I learned the next morning that my body cannot handle as much white wine as it could when it was twenty-six.

It was nothing fancy, but I thought it was a great birthday.  I loved eating and shopping with my girl (she was PERFECT that day - there are definitely days that she does NOT want to go out eating and shopping!), and I loved my evening spent with Dustin.

And for the past eight days, twenty-seven has continued to be pretty dang great.  I've learned by the age of twenty-seven that it's the small, simple things that truly make me the happiest.

Dustin and I have this whole summer thing figured out.  At the end of last week, HEB was having a huge sale on lobster so Dustin went and did his version of shopping and now our freezer is full of lobster tail and our pantry is stocked with wine.  We've had grilled lobster, lobster ravioli, stuffed lobster... and when we're not eating lobster, we're eating something off the grill.  We spend peaceful evenings outside - Dustin grills, I relax and sip my white wine and Eden either runs around in the yard or plays in her water trough.

I sit there relaxing, watching my husband grill and my baby play, and I think there's no way my life could be any sweeter.  Why was I so worried about turning twenty-seven?  I have everything I've ever wanted.  Every night after Eden goes to bed, Dustin and I have continued with our sunset watching/wine drinking.  It's been such a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing, happy summer so far.  A simple, but perfect, summer.

Also, Eden was THE cutest baby (kid? eek!) ever on the 4th of July.

But she's always the cutest baby ever!

bought her a balloon at the grocery store today... pretty sure I'll have to do it every single time from now on...