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.

It's A New Day... And I'm Feeling Good

I'm up bright and early this morning searching the internet for Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas/1st Birthday Party ideas.  I realize I'm a little early, but this time of the year flies by, and well, I hafta make sure Eden's first Holiday Season is spectacular.  As much as I don't want to rush time, I am just so excited about the next few months!

We've had a rough week.  After I was on here bragging about how Baby Girl takes two hour naps now in the afternoons, she decided to just stop with that sleep nonsense altogether.  Naps... nighttime... all of it.  For a little over a week, nobody in the house slept... ever.  But the crazy thing is, Eden was happy.  She wasn't waking up fussy or upset.  She was waking up ready to go, ready to play.  (Well she would cry if left in her crib.)  So she would be in bed with us, crawling all over us at three in the morning, laughing and pulling our hair.  Poor Dustin... there are so many times that I would think, okay, I really need to get up and take her out of here so that Dustin can get some sleep.  But I would be so exhausted that I... just... couldn't... get... up.  So we would both lay there, half-asleep, letting her crawl all over us and sticking a leg out every once in a while when she got too close to the edge.  She would fall back asleep after seriously, HOURS of this, only to wake up every morning by seven ready to go for the day.  Naps were just as bad.  One morning she actually took a TEN MINUTE nap.  After just ten minutes, she was awake, awake, awake and ready to play.  Me?  I was cranky.  Irritable.  Exhausted.  NOT ready to play.  Going slightly crazy.  Two nights ago, I texted a friend to tell her about Eden and how she never sleeps and crawls all over us at three in the morning, and she immediately called me.  She said she had been in that exact situation, and after listening to me freak out and talk about how tired I was and how I was pretty much sucking at being a mom right now because I did NOT have any energy to play with my baby when she wanted to play with me, she assured me that I was not a sucky mom and gave me advice.  We made a few easy adjustments (eating her solids right before bedtime to keep her belly full, moving up her bedtime to keep her from getting overtired, making her room as dark as possible), and she has slept so much better the past two nights.  I am a happy mama today because I actually feel well-rested.  Now if only I could figure out how to get her to take longer naps!

But for today, it's a new day, and I'm feeling good!

Now I have a holiday season to plan!

Happy Friday!

 

Our South Padre Trip

We got back from South Padre last Monday, and then Dustin ended up taking the rest of the week off of work. It was great - we had nine wonderful days together. We (sorta) watched movies in the afternoons while Eden napped (she usually interrupted and the movie had to wait until later), cooked, baked, sat outside enjoying the dogs and cool(er) weather, had friends over, watched football, went and played golf, and one afternoon we left Eden with my grandma and went out to the movies. I was really sad when he went back to work this past Monday.

However, I didn't get much done while he was home. Monday and Tuesday were catch-up days, so here I am on Wednesday, finally looking over our pictures from the trip.

We had such a good time! Eden loved the beach. She ate TONS of sand. And she showed NO fear of the water whatsoever. She actually kept trying to crawl farther out into the ocean, and we had to stop her!

 

One morning, Eden and I went for a walk on the beach while Dustin slept in.  It was beautiful.

 



I carried Eden down the beach until my arms got tired and she started feeling heavy... but then I had to walk all the way back!  I thought I was going to die!  My arms hurt sooooo bad; I was practically running back to the room so that I could put her down!

We took Eden to the pool too.  And out to eat.  And shopping.  And when she napped or went to bed at night, Dustin and I would sit out on our balcony talking and drinking beer.

We found a store where everything was 50% off so we all got new outfits, and that night we wore our new clothes and went out for lobster and ahi and wine.  I wanted to get a picture of the three of us, but all I managed was Eden in her new little outfit.

We went to the beach one more time on the morning that we had to leave.

And then we had to go home.  Boo.

In Eden news: she has FOUR teeth and is pulling up!  Yay, Eden!

Cutie Pictures

I mentioned in a previous post how my daughter only takes five second naps thus making it very difficult for me to get anything done.  Well in the past week she has started taking a glorious two hour nap every afternoon!  It comes at a price though... instead of sleeping until around eight each morning, she is wide awake and ready to play at around five.  She has always woken up at five, but she used to eat and then fall right back asleep for a few more hours.  No such luck anymore.  I lay her next to me in bed and beg her to go back to sleep.  I am NOT a morning person, and five in the morning may as well be the middle of the night to me.  She crawls all over me and puts her hand on face and pulls my hair.  I ignore her and close my eyes hoping she will get the hint and go back to sleep.  She doesn't.  If I continue to ignore her, she just crawls over to Dustin and attacks him.  Then I feel guilty since he's the one who has to get up and work.  So I try to entertain her on my side of the bed until I'm awake enough to actually make it out of bed.

I can't say that I like being woken up at the crack of dawn, but she's just so cute.  So I forgive her. =) 

Some cutie pictures of her lately:

 

For Labor Day this weekend, we are going to South Padre.   I am so excited!   I haven't been there in years, and Dustin has never been, and I can't wait to watch Eden play in the sand and water!

Eden - Seven Months (and one day)

Eden had a busy day yesterday.  She tagged along with me to the grocery store, a baby shower, out to eat Mexican food with some friends and then to my grandparents' house for my brother's birthday dinner.  When we finally got home last night she was NOT in the mood for pictures.  We had to wait until this morning to take her seven month picture instead.  She doesn't look like she's too happy in this picture either... she was; she was watching and laughing at Dustin.  But my timing with the camera was obviously off. 

This is absolutely my favorite age so far with Eden.  She just keeps on getting better!  SHE IS SO MUCH FUN!  She's exhausting... but FUN!  She has yet to get up on her knees to crawl, but she army crawls and pulls herself from place to place with the greatest of ease.  She's lighting quick.  I spend all day following her around because she seems to have zero interest in any of the toys that I've bought her, but she has a fascination with the cat water bowl.  And it's amazing what her teeny-tiny fingers are able to find on the floor and put in her mouth.  As soon as I feed the dogs in the evenings, I blink, and she's suddenly right there in the middle of them trying to get the food from their bowls.  So I think my days of actually accomplishing anything are over for a while.  I'm afraid to take my eyes off of her for even a minute!  She's also become the world's shortest napper.  I'm lucky if her morning nap lasts twenty minutes.  I run around like a madwoman in those twenty minutes... practically brushing my teeth while unloading the dishwasher and sweeping the floors.

It rained last night and today was just a gray, dreary day.  When you looked out the window, it actually felt like it might be cold outside.  (It wasn't... it is still August in Texas.)  But it was just one of THOSE days... Dustin and I decided to make it a lazy day.  It was wonderful.  Together we made a big pot of beef soup.  We laid around watching TV while Eden kept herself entertained with empty water bottles (again... why do I buy toys?).  We baked cookies, and then this evening the three of us all took a nap together.  Eden right there between me and Dustin.  It was bliss. 

We are rested and ready for the week.  =)

Changes

I feel like when Eden was first born, she did pretty much... nothing... for a long time.  I mean, I loved her, I adored her... I was perfectly happy just watching her sleep and yawn and lay there.  But for the first few months, they really don't do much!

Then all of a sudden, it's like BAM!  I guess she has to make up for lost time!  Every day it's something new!  Every day she does something that I've never seen her do before.  She makes a new face, a new sound, a new discovery.  She's growing right before my very eyes. 

So we've had some major changes around here!  The first one is a big one people... Eden now sleeps in her crib in her room at night!  She has now slept there for an entire week! 

That first night was tough. I really wasn't ready to move her, but she was outgrowing her bassinet, and she was waking constantly throughout the night because she had no room to move or roll.  So we made the move.  She did great.  I bawled like a baby.  After I got her to sleep in her crib, I crawled into bed and cried.  I'm not talking a few little tears.  I'm talking I sobbed so hard I was coughing and choking.  Dustin is never quite sure what to do with me when I act like that.  But I couldn't help it!  There were so many nights when we would all go to bed... me and Dustin... Eden in her bassinet right next to me... Drake and Max on their beds next to Dustin... usually a cat curled up at our feet... and I would think to myself how wonderful it was, all of us so cozy going to sleep together.  I felt so bad that Eden was in her room ALL BY HERSELF.  So Drake got kicked out too.  I dragged his bed over to the crib, and he slept all night next to Eden.  It made me feel better.  Now Max and Drake seem to take turns sleeping with her.  I'll go to sleep and one of them is in there with her, and when I wake up the other one is in there sleeping instead.  It makes me happy.  I got zero hours of sleep that first night.  She kept rolling over and sleeping on her tummy which was FREAKING ME OUT!  I think I got out of bed every thirty minutes to make sure she wasn't suffocating herself.  But she did just fine.  Turns out she's a tummy sleeper like her mama.  I've calmed down since that first night.  And it's allllll worth it when I go and find this in the mornings.

After Dustin leaves for work, I still put her in bed with me and we sleep for a couple more hours.  I always think that I should get up while she's still sleeping because I would be able to get so much done around the house while she's STILL... but I just can't seem to make myself.  Snuggling up with her in the mornings is absolutely my favorite part of the day!

Eden also eats food now!  She's been doing that for about two weeks.  So far she has had avocados and oatmeal and bananas and peaches and sweet potatoes.  She loves it all.  She hasn't spit anything out yet, so we're doing good!  Here she is all ready for her first meal:

I bought the Baby Bullet so that I can make her own food.  For some reason, I find great joy in making baby food.  I don't know why... but I get so excited about it!  I love my Baby Bullet.  And it comes with the cutest little jars to put the food in.

I also started using cloth diapers.  Maybe I'm just insane.  Because I seem to find great joy in that too.  I like the fact that she's wearing a comfortable, cotton diaper AND they're just so darn cute.

Okay, so those are some of the major changes we've had around here.  Also, if you have a baby or are going to have a baby, you must buy a door jumper!

Her playmat, exersaucer, all of her other toys... They can occupy her for a little bit here and there... But I think she would bounce and jump around in this thing ALL DAY LONG if I let her!  Seriously... if you have a baby... go buy it! 

Laters!

It's The Little Things...

Today was a very good day!

We slept in (as much as Eden allowed).  Dustin made eggs and bacon.  We relaxed for a bit.  And then we decided to go swimming.  So we loaded up beach towels, fishing poles, snorkel gear, the pit, two dogs and a baby and headed out to some land that my family owns about fifteen minutes from our house. 

We swam and ate guacamole dogs (they're the best!) and watched the dogs run around, and then while Eden napped, Dustin and I snorkeled around the tank and watched the fish.  On the way out, we saw a bunch of deer and fed them some corn.

There was nothing extraordinary about today.  But it was a fantastic day.  Eden obviously will not remember anything about today, but I hope that there are many days just like today in the future that she will remember. 

I have big stuff planned for her... trips to the zoo and waterparks and one day Disney World.   I want to make sure she sees all fifty states before she graduates high school like my parents did with me and my brother, and I hope she gets to go beyond the United States many times as well.  And I hope she has wonderful memories of all those things.

But I hope she has wonderful memories of these small days too.  Today was special in it's unspecialness.  It wasn't planned.  It didn't cost any money.  It was a little on the redneck side.  But it was perfect.  And we were happy.  And it's days like today that I want Eden to look back on and remember when she thinks about her childhood.  I want her to know that things don't have to be big and fancy and expensive to be special.  The big things are great, but it's the little things that count.  Just a lazy Sunday afternoon spent with your family can be amazing.