Livin' the Dream

Life has been slow lately, and for that, I am thankful.  As my due date approaches, all I really want to do is spend as much quality time with Eden as possible, and lately it seems that we have plenty of days to just stay home and play.

I have no desire to be away from her at all right now.  Now that I've entered my third trimester, I have so many people offering to keep her for an afternoon so I can rest, and I'm so grateful to them, but I've turned down every offer. These are our last days of just me and her, and I'm gonna make the most of them!

Dustin and I are both trying to do everything we can to make sure she feels special before her little world does a 180.

Last weekend we took a day trip to Matagorda.

After Eden ran around the beach for a few hours, we went back to a friend's house (the house we stayed at back in June) so Eden could fish off the dock, and we could all shower before driving home.

All the fish they caught were teeny-tiny, and Eden kept saying, "They're little like ME!"

When it was time to leave, Eden cried and cried and cried because she did NOT want to leave.  She wanted to keep fishing.  Dustin was so proud, and we promised her we'd be back soon.

*****

So I love back-to-school shopping.  That was always right up there with Christmas and Easter for me.  Brand new shoes and backpacks and outfits and fresh pencils and binders, etc...  Everything so pretty and clean and crisp and ready for a brand new year.  I'm not ready for Eden to be school-age yet, but I'm already really looking forward to when I get to take her on back-to-school shopping trips.  After a doctor's appointment last week, I told Dustin we needed to stop at Academy because Eden needed new tennis shoes.  She's never had a pair of nice tennis shoes before.  Up until now, she's never had much need for them, so usually I just get the cheapest pair of no-name tennis shoes that I can find at Wal-Mart.  But I figured it was time she stop wearing sandals or crappy shoes with no support to the park or museum or wherever we go that requires a lot of walking.  The girl needed some good tennis shoes.  I told Dustin this.  And it was all true.  But also, I wanted to feel like I was a part of the back-to-school shopping experience.  :)  So we went to Academy and had her little foot measured, and since her favorite color that day was blue (it changes every day), she picked out these beauties.

I could not stop getting them out of the box and looking at them on the way home.  I told Dustin, "You know, these are her first pair of REAL tennis shoes.  It's kinda a big deal!"  He said, "Let me guess.  You're going to frame them."

I was really emotional about the whole shoe experience, and I know that seems silly, but to me, it really was a big deal.  Back when I thought I may never have kids, I used to dream about all the things I would do if I had them.  Big things like Disney World and little things like taking them to the store and buying them a pair of tennis shoes that they picked out.  It really was as much fun as I imagined, and Eden is so proud of her shoes!

I've started taking a picture of Eden every Sunday before we leave for church.  I wish I would've been doing this all along.  Most people don't get dressed up for church anymore, and whatever - to each his own.  But I LOVE getting Eden dressed on Sunday mornings.  I just don't think there's anything more precious than little girls wearing ruffly socks.

Here's Eden with her friend Lily after this month's Toddler Art Class:

Eden and I play the Goodnight Moon Game almost every single night during her bedtime routine.  Occasionally Dustin will come play it with us, but when he doesn't, Eden insists that her princesses get their own board and play with us.  This causes the game to take approximately one thousand times longer.  She helps each princess draw a card and find where it goes and gives them high fives, and that doesn't sound like much, but it takes FOREVER.

Someone asked me recently after reading my blog how I can always be so upbeat about the whole mom thing.  For starters, Eden really does make it easy.  She's easy.  But of course I have moments when I get frustrated too.  Plenty of them.  Like when playing the Goodnight Moon Game should take ten minutes and instead takes forty minutes because the princesses have to play.

I'm also well aware that if my biggest problem with my child is that a nightly game takes a really long time sometimes... well I have it made.

Two year olds aren't known for making life easy.  Enjoyable, yes.  Easy, no.  But I don't care.  Because THIS is what I wanted.  THIS is what I hoped for, dreamed of, prayed for.  And now that I have it, I'm not going to complain about it.

In an interview once, Julia Roberts talked about her time filming Steel Magnolias in Louisiana.  She said that everyone complained and complained and complained about how hot it was while filming except for Dolly Parton.  Finally someone asked Dolly why she wasn't complaining too.  And while I don't know the exact quote, it was something to the effect of, "I dreamed of getting to do this my whole life, and I told myself that if I ever got to do it, I would never complain."

Now I'm not saying I've NEVER complained.  It's usually to Dustin that I vent about my morning sickness or if Eden is crabby and difficult one day or about the fact that I have gestational diabetes AGAIN, but for the most part, I try REALLY hard not to.   Because this is what I wanted.

I am living my dream.