Byyeeeee Summerrrrrrr!

So it's the first day of fall or something.  Not that you would know that by walking outside.  I actually just came inside from filling up the water trough with fresh water so Eden can go swimming in it when she gets home from school today.  Buttttt, even though we're still enjoying lots of summer activities around here and will be for a while, I am really starting to look forward to all the things we have coming up for fall - I ordered Halloween costumes this morning!  The fair will be here in a couple of weeks!  I bought Eden her "pumpkin pass" for the St. Mary's Pumpkin Festival next weekend!  We have plans to go to Dewberry Farms this year!  (Since we missed last year when Ila was teeny-tiny.)

We had such a fun summer!  Eden learned how to SWIM!  She was supposed to take swim lessons starting in June, but the night before her first lesson, the instructor backed out.  And I never could find an available private instructor again!  Have no fear!  SHE TAUGHT HERSELF!  At the beginning of the summer, she wouldn't even put her head under water.  On 4th of July, after watching a little 5 year old swim, she decided she could put her head under and started jumping off the side of the pool with her floaties on.  By August, she was able to swim a few strokes without floaties from me to Dustin or from Dustin to me.  And now?  She jumps off rocks and diving boards and can swim the length of the pool with no floaties! (As long as I stay right next to her in case she gets tired!)  

And Ila was just along for the ride all summer.  

Some pictures from our summer:

Oh yeah, I was there too!  Will somebody please take MY picture?

Ila - Eleven Months

Really?  Eleven?

ELEVEN?!!!!

I know it's completely cliche, but I cannot believe how fast this year flew by!

But really!  How is she almost one?

Didn't THIS just happen:

That will forever be one of my favorite pictures of her.  I really don't know why I like it so much; there are much sweeter pictures of her from our time in the hospital, but this one has always stood out to me.  It's hard work being born, y'all!

And now she's all, "Look at me, I'm so big drinking out of my sippy cup!"

Actually, the sippy cup is about the same size as her whole chest/tummy.

Her birthday party outfit is sitting folded in her room, ready to be worn.  The party invitations are stuffed and ready to be mailed out in a few days.  

AHHHHHHH!

Milestones:

She took her first steps this month!  At the gym where Eden takes gymnastics.  OF COURSE she took her first steps while we were out and about at one of Eden's activities, because this poor child just gets dragged around to all of them.  Oh, it was so exciting though!  Ila is no longer content to play on the ground on the side of the gym where the parents sit.  She wants to be in on the action!  And Eden's gymnastics instructor is AMAZING, so she has no problem with Ila crawling over and under and around mats on the floor during Eden's class.  On September 1st, Ila was sitting on one of the mats, and I was sitting on the ground facing her.  Suddenly, she stood up and took two steps to me before falling into my lap.  YAY ILA!

She's taken a few more steps here and there since then, but I think it'll a be a while before she's walking over crawling.

When you say "bye-bye" to her, she'll say "bye-bye" back now.  Actually she says "bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye."  And she (sometimes) says "mama" when she's crawling to me.  

The girl loves to eat and will eat anything we give her.  From mangos to spinach to steak to shrimp, she loves it all and has NEVER turned down anything we've offered her.  Not even once.

Oh, and when I took her back to the doctor to get her head checked out out again, there was absolutely no problem.  Girl just has a big head.  :)

She's always so, so happy!  

Except when she and Eden fight.  Which they do now.  Usually over toys.  Because Ila wants anything she sees her big sissy playing with.  And so she steals it.  And Eden steals it back.  And then Ila screams and cries.  And I go in and make everyone happy again.  But secretly I think it's adorable and I love that they sometimes agitate each other because that's what siblings do.  And I'm still just over the moon that there's TWO of them!

Ila has added to our family in ways I didn't know were possible.  Life was sweet, I didn't think it could get much better.  And then she came along and made it even sweeter!  

As far as Ila and her puppy, Blue, go, Blue just LOVES Ila.  When he comes inside or we go outside, he is all over Ila the second he spots her.  He will go to her over any of the rest of us; he's all about the babies I guess.  He's always trying so hard to cuddle with her.  So far Ila still isn't sure what to make of him.

Tiny Dancer

Apparently preschool, gymnastics and horseback riding lessons aren't enough... Eden has been begging to take ballet.

I blame Bubble Guppies.

One day, out of the blue, she told me she wanted to be a ballerina.

"Do you know what a ballerina is?", I asked her.
"Yep!  They go like this!", she said, and she started twirling around the kitchen.
"How do you know that?"
"Bubble Guppies!"

I went and looked on the DVR, and sure enough, there's an episode devoted to the bubble guppies learning how to dance ballet.

That was months ago, and she has not stopped talking about ballet and being a ballerina since.  About a month and a half ago, the local studio opened up fall registration.  I enrolled Eden and let her know that she was all signed up for "ballerina lessons".  Then she had to wait a month a half.  Torture for a little girl desperate to be a ballerina!  She passed the time by putting on her new ballet slippers and twirling and leaping around for us.

But finally, FINALLY, her first ballet class was today!  And behold!  Adorableness:

The leotard, the tights, the tutu, the shoes, the teeny-tiny bun.  I LOVE the teeny-tiny bun.  So much preciousness!

Eden had so much fun during the warm-up.  They whirled and they twirled and they hopped and they walked around on tippy-toes.

Then they got to the actual class part.  All Eden wanted to do was put her arms over her head and spin around.  Because that's what she thinks ballerinas do.  But TODAY, on the very first day, they, of course, started out learning FIRST position.

She kept putting her arms up above her head, and the instructor kept coming and putting her arms out in front of her.  Just watching through the window, I could tell Eden was not pleased.  After class, I asked her, "Did you like it?  Did you like your teacher?"  She replied in a voice dripping with attitude, "Her did NOT teach me how to be a ballerina!"

I laughed so hard.

"Well, do you want to keep going or not?"
"Yep!"

Okay, then!

She's got a long way to go before she gets to do fifth position.  But she'll get there.

*****
I feel like my life is nothing but chauffeuring Eden around to her various activities!  I really didn't plan for her to have so many at only three!  But she loves each and every one of them, and I'm glad that she's trying so many things now - so she can figure out what she really loves.  As she gets older and classes and lessons become longer and more frequent, she'll have to make some choices.  But for now, as long as she's happy and loves doing all of these things, we'll make it work!

Preschool Gal

Eden started preschool last week, August 19th.

So far, she's so loving it!

I thought I would be really sad on her first day... but then... I wasn't.  I definitely felt my heart squeeze as I walked out of the classroom that first morning (which, by the way, she didn't even notice), but mainly I am just so excited for her and this new chapter in her life!

I walked her into the classroom that first day... she found her name on a table, sat down and started working on a puzzle.  She did not care in the slightest when I walked out.

It's definitely weird for me to not know exactly what she's doing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8-12, and on the first day, I was a little shocked when I picked her up and they just opened the door and put Eden in without giving me a play-by-play of the morning.  Okay, I knew they weren't going to give me a play-by-play, but it was still a little jarring for me after personally witnessing pretty much every single thing she's done in her life.

I love picking her up and listening to her describe her day!

me:  So what did you learn in school today?
Eden:  God's rules
me:  Oh!  And what are some of God's rules?
Eden:  not to break his rules and don't run fast!

me:  So who all is in your class?
Eden:  There are two boys and five girls.
me:  What are the girls' names?
Eden:  Harold, Harold, Harold, Harold, Harold
me:  Oh, really?  All five girls are named Harold?
Eden:  yep!

Eden:  Mrs. Machala has a TV that comes out of the ceiling!
me:  huh?
Eden:  She has to stand on her tippy-toes to get it out.
(I figured out she was talking about a projector screen.)

It's going to be a fun year!  I'm so excited about all the theme days and field trips that are on the calendar.  The biggest thing she's done so far is take a "me" bag to school.

Her six things that I helped her pick:
a seashell for her love of the beach
a leotard for gymnastics
a stuffed horse for her love of horses and riding
a picture of her dogs, Daisy and Green
a family picture
a baby bottle because she likes to play with her baby dolls (I actually suggested she take one of her princess figurines or a crown because if we are home, chances are she's wearing a princess gown and insisting that we refer to her as Princess Eden, but she was adamant about the baby bottle.)

Also, I'm super excited about getting to spend some one-on-one time in the mornings with this cutie:

In other Eden news, she got her EARS PIERCED!  She's been increasingly intrigued when watching me put in earrings and kept saying she wished she "could have earrings like that".  I explained to her that she would have to get holes in her ears and that it would hurt, but she was still into it, so my mom, my grandma and I took her to get it done the week before school started.  My mom bought her her first little pair of earrings.

I was so proud of her.  We made sure she understood that it was going to hurt, but she climbed up into the chair and sat there so bravely.

And yes, she cried.

But we whisked her out of the store and rushed next door to a frozen yogurt shop, and then she was alllll better.

By the time she was done with her frozen yogurt, she was 100% back to normal and so dang proud.

Yep.  I'm not sure when it happened, but somehow my baby went and grew up on me.

Eden ready for Meet the Teacher night

I plan to snap an iPhone pic of her every morning before school (though today is only Day 4, and I already forgot this morning!)

I am so proud of her and just love watching the little person she is becoming.  I am so thankful that God chose her for me and me for her! :)

Ila - 10 Months!

My girl turned 10 months old on Monday.  Whaaaa?!!  We've started discussing plans for her 1st birthday party, and that is just craziness!

At Ila's 9 month check-up a few weeks ago, the doctor was very excited that Ila is BACK ON THE CHARTS!  She is currently weighing in at the sixth percentile!

However, her head is measuring in the 87th percentile.  The doc is a little concerned about the giant difference so we have another appointment next week so the doctor can check her head again.  The doctor has never met Dustin.  I'm pretty sure if she did, she would take one look at his humongous head and just be like, "ohhhhh....".  So Ila - teeny-tiny with a giant head apparently.

Ila's army crawling days are long gone, and she crawls for real now.  She wants to stand alllll the time.  Which is a problem sometimes - like when I'm trying to pull her in a wagon or give her a bath.  She doesn't understand why she can't stand up in a wet, slippery bathtub.  She can walk herself along a piece of furniture as long as she doesn't let go.  This past weekend she climbed all the way up our stairs by herself (with Dustin right behind her).

She hates the word "no".  I have to use that word a lot lately - like when she tries to eat dog food or pull a knife out of the dishwasher (she thinks the dishwasher is super interesting, and when I have the dishwasher open to load or unload, it's like a moth to the flame).  She is so good, she ALWAYS listens and stops whatever she is doing.  But she makes sure to let me know her displeasure and yells (baby cuss words I'm pretty sure) and makes mean faces at me!

She is sleeping through the night again!  YAYYYYYYYY!

She is still completely addicted to her paci.  On a recent drive home from Matagorda, it somehow got misplaced.  I thought she could just deal without for the two hour drive, but no!  NO NO NO!  I sped to the nearest Walmart and bought her a new one so that we could have some peace in the car!  Oh dear.

I still consider her a mama's girl, but she's not as desperately attached to me as she once was.  In fact, on Monday, she spent the day with my mom while Eden and I had a Mommy/Eden day, and my mom said she was perfectly happy the whole day!  Yayyyy!  That's the first time I left her in months, and I'm so excited that it went well!

Oh, and she likes the beach now!  The last time we went, she was perfectly happy crawling around, getting all sandy!

She has spent the majority of her time this past month in swimming pools.  The only place to be during a Texas summer.  She just floats around the pool all content while we swim.

She had a couple of firsts this month.  Her first boat ride:

And her first time on a horse:

Still adorable this month:

Ila - Nine Months!

Hey!  Get back here!  I wasn't finished!

There we go!

So this month, Ila decided that she doesn't want to sleep all night anymore.  Girl wakes me up MULTIPLE times a night these days.  I'm tired.

She has six teeth - two on bottom, four on top.

She can repeat "bye-bye".  She tries at least.  It's more "I-I".  Dustin doesn't think it counts.  I think it does.

She army crawls quick as lightning.  And you can tell that she's soooo proud of herself!

She can pull herself up to standing now.  She has a few bumps and bruises as a result of her standing... and falling.

She is starting to eat some solid foods, and she loves scrambled eggs.  LOVES.  If I don't feed them to her fast enough, she YELLS AT ME AND HITS ME.  HITS ME!  She's a little feisty.

She is into everything.  She army crawls around destroying my house.

I don't know why people think newborns are hard.  No.  That's easy!  They just lay there.  This?  This is when it starts getting hard.  She's mobile, she's a little tornado, she's a HUGE mama's baby that wants her mama and only her mama pretty much 24/7.  The girl plain wears me out.

But I wouldn't trade it for anything.  She's my adorable, teensy-tiny, sweet little Ila Bug.  She loves to snuggle and give slobbery kisses.  And as Eden says, "We love her alllll the way to the SUN!"

And even though sometimes when we're at a party or out to eat with friends there's a small part of me that just wants to be able to hand her to somebody else for a while, I really do truly love that she only wants me.  I love it when somebody reaches out to take her, and she turns into me, grabbing my shoulder and laying her head on my chest to stay with me.

Also, she's super cute!  And her little giggle makes my heart burst.

 Ila wasn't really feeling the 4th.

P.S.  Dustin turned 30 last week.  (And I turned 29, but we won't talk about that!)  Here he is with his girls on his birthday.

(Eden has a My Little Pony temporary tattoo on her cheek.)