Eden's First Christmas!

We had a great Christmas with lots of time spent with family.  Beforehand, I really gave a lot of thought to what traditions I wanted to start with Eden and came up with a lot of good ideas.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to implement many of them.  We were super busy!  I did decide to start some traditions when it came to gifts.  On Christmas Eve, we gave Eden some new Christmas pajamas, two Christmas books, and a blanket.  All of them were incorporated into her bedtime routine.  Unfortunately, she was sick and threw up after a coughing fit all over her new pajamas.  Thankfully, I was able to have them clean and dry before the next morning.  As for her actual gifts, we gave her a stocking and then did the "Something she wants, something she needs, something to wear, something to read."  We got her this Toddler music band for the "something she wants," this bath toy organizer for "something she needs," this and another coat for the "something to wear," and these Sandra Boynton books for the "something to read."

We enjoyed spending time with all (well, most) of our extended family.  On the Sunday prior to Christmas, Jeff's mom, sisters, brother-in-law, and nieces and nephew came over.  We had a big dinner  with the traditional holiday spread (I kept thinking it was Thanksgiving, haha).  I and gotten a free turkey from work and since we didn't use it for Thanksgiving, I wanted to cook it for Christmas! After dinner, we exchanged gifts.  Eden was super adorable opening her very first gift from her Nana.  She actually did a really good job considering she's only 10 months old!  Unfortunately, I didn't get too many good pics from this day.

Cousin Mercy doing some Pilates.

Blurry Virgil and Hazel posing for a pic.

Unfortunately, Eden started with some mild congestion and a little cough on Saturday evening.  Sunday, it turned into what was obviously croup.  We were supposed to leave on Monday to head to my Parents' but I ended up having to take Eden to an urgent care place to get her some steroids.  She was never all that sick but we figured it was better to go ahead and take the steroids to prevent it getting worse while we were out of town.  Needless to say, it was not a very fun experience.  Thankfully, we just had a few rough nights of coughing and throwing up and restless sleep but we were still able to go to my parents' and enjoy time with family.

My pitiful looking sick baby.

Taking a nap on the way to Nanny and Poppy's.

Feeling better and hanging out with Poppy.

 That day, we had breakfast as a family (minus one sister and my brother, sad times) and exchanged gifts.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.  (Having a baby has really made me slack off in the picture-taking department).

Wednesday, Christmas Eve, we had a lazy morning and then went to my grandmother's house to celebrate with extended family (lots and lots and lots of extended family).

Hanging out with Nanny at Brebre's house (Brebre is my grandma).

Playing with my fun new toys!

Blurry picture of the active babies!

My nieces with Eden.  They are enamored with her.

That evening, we came home and opened Eden's Christmas Eve gifts that I mentioned earlier.  We took our time getting her ready for bed and read her new Christmas books to her.

Me & my baby girl on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Day, Eden & I got up around 8am when she woke up for the day.  Nanny & Poppy were at my sister's house having breakfast with them and watching the girls open their gifts.  We waited for them to come home.  Then, we had blueberry waffles and Eden opened her stocking and gifts from Mommy, Daddy, and Santa.

My grandmother, "Gran" or "Hootie," got Eden a stocking to match the one she got for Jeff several years ago. Then, I bought myself one to match theirs.

She loved the little balls she got in her stocking.
One lights up, and the others make noise or have a little picture or something inside.

Seriously, so. much. fun.

Opening another gift!

All smiles.

Enjoying my new instruments with Daddy!

That night, we headed back to Lynchburg and went straight to Robin's house (Jeff's sister).  Jeff's dad was in town and we wanted to hang out with (almost) the whole family.  Unfortunately, they had to eat dinner without us because Eden took an epic nap that day (four hours long).  In hindsight, I probably should've just woken her up and gotten on the road earlier but oh well, it is what it is!

Cousins, Mercy & Eden playing.

FaceTiming with family in New Jersey.

Adorable girls.  Eden wasn't too big on having her picture taken that night.  Haha!

Still not amused.  Silly girl.

After getting Eden to bed that evening, Jeff and I had a nice quiet time exchanging stockings and gifts.  Then, we hung out on the couch listening to my new CD.  It was very relaxing.

Adorable little ornament Jeff got me.

And my new Copeland CD.  So wonderful.  

He also got me a charm for my bracelet and some cute cases for my iPhone.  I got him pretty boring stuff not really worth mentioning.  Heh.

Last, I'll leave you with a few pics from the next day…the aftermath, if you will.

Eden trying on one of her new hats!  We are all set for cold weather!

All our new blessings underneath the tree.

Eden has several new toys and she would rather play with the boxes and old wrapping paper.
  (I'm not surprised but it's still funny).

November News and December Developments

Wow!  I have a lot of pictures and updates to share from the past month or so!  And this doesn't even include Christmas!  Perhaps I need to try and update more often than just once a month!  I may as well get right to the pictures…

Hanging out on Nanny & Poppy's bed.

Playing with toys in my room.

Hi!

I love bath time!

 

Eating some yummy spaghetti.

Hanging out with Mommy on Thanksgiving (observed).

OWL always love my Daddy.  Thanks for the adorable onesie, Paul & Christie!

Hanging out with cousins, Karly & Mallory.

Celebrating Mallory's 4th Birthday.

Dressing up like her new Elsa doll.

"Frozen" cupcakes.

Nanny and Mallory

Singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out her candles.

Being cute in my adorable pajamas.

Reading a bedtime story with Daddy.

The first weekend in December, we had a little tree decorating party at Robin & Shua's house.  This is my nephew, Virgil and niece, Hazel.

Cousins, Mercy and Eden.

Standing up in my crib like a big girl!

Picking out & cutting down a Christmas tree!

Wearing Eden to pick out our tree. It was rainy!

Our tree

Our tree all decorated.

I baked cookies, we had hot apple cider and listened to a Christmas station on Pandora while we decorated the tree.  Eden was sleeping.

Excited about my new hat.  It's so cute with little forest animals on it.

Enjoying some spaghetti (again).

Having a playdate with my friend, Xander.

There you have it!  The months of November and December in pictures.  Hope you enjoyed!  Stay tuned for Christmas & New Year's updates!

Eden Amelia is Ten Months Old!

Eden turned 10 months old two days before Christmas.  And we traveled to my parents' house that day.  And she was sick.  And then I worked for three nights in a row.  So, needless to say, I'm a little late on this post.  I'm going to try my best not to talk about our Christmas festivities even though I am writing this after the fact.  I'll save that for another post.

This past month has been a lot of fun!  Eden is such a joy right now.  She is seriously happy 95% of the time.  She's even sleeping better, for the most part.  She's not sleeping through the night in her crib or any nonsense like that…but she takes two good naps a day on most days and she doesn't wake up to party in the middle of the night nearly as often anymore.  She's been going to bed at a very decent hour and sleeping until a reasonable time most mornings.  It's quite refreshing!  Haha.

Physically, this girl is growing like a weed.  Although we haven’t done an accurate naked weight since the last update, she weighed 21 lbs. 12 oz. when we went to an urgent care place last week.  She had her clothes and a wet diaper on, though, so it’s not all that accurate.  She still loves to eat and is doing better and better with solids.  I’m so glad we decided to do Baby Led Weaning.  It’s nice to trust her instincts instead of having to decide what to feed her when and how much and all that good stuff.  I am getting a little concerned about having to be more responsible for her nutrition.  Breastfeeding her is sooooo much easier than making sure she eats nutritious food three or more times a day!  When we first started her on solids, I had to make a concerted effort to try to eat healthier and, unfortunately, I’ve gotten lazy again.  One of my New Year’s resolutions is to try to eat less processed food as a family.  We’ve already taken steps towards this by making our own taco seasoning and chili seasoning, making our own spaghetti sauce, using coconut oil instead of butter and vegetable oil, and eating more whole fruits and vegetables.  Now, I want to branch out into grains, breads, and snack foods (like homemade cheez-its, for example). 

Anyhow (kind of went off on a tangent there), developmentally, she is really starting to move around a lot more.  She’s not officially crawling yet but she gets around.  She’s also pulled herself up to standing a few times.  She loves to stand at the ottoman or other furniture that’s just the right height.  She’ll be cruising or even walking before we know it!  I'm very much enjoying the fact that she can sit independently and move around without falling and hurting herself.  I'm not looking forward to her becoming more mobile.  I'm thinking I might have some shower-less days in the near future.

She talks up a storm almost all the time and makes all kinds of delightful noises.  Like I said before, she is so happy most of the time.  The only time she really gets fussy is in the car.  We have been trying to find a convertible car seat for some time now.  We bought one off Amazon a while back but it doesn’t fit in my car!!!  I didn’t even think about it when we bought it and I am so annoyed.  Then, as I started to do some research, I found out that this is supposed to be one of the more compact car seats.  Now, I’m very discouraged and not sure we’ll ever find one that fits in our little compact car.  I think I might be doomed to ride in the back seat anytime there is more than one adult in the car at a time (the passenger seat has to be all the way up for the car seat to fit behind it). 

Back to Eden’s development…she is doing much better at solitary play.  She still likes you to be nearby but she will play in one place with one group of toys (or often makeshift “toys”) for longer periods these days.  Here is where I’m tempted to tell you about the toys she got for Christmas, but I will restrain myself!  We're also enjoying having more playdates.  I've become friends with two moms here in the area who each have babies that are six weeks older than Eden, one boy and one girl.  They have a lot of fun together.

Alright, enough talk.  Here are some pictures of my adorable baby girl.

Ten Months Old

Weight:  21 lbs. 12 oz.

I forgot to mention last month that Eden cut her first tooth just before she turned 9 months.  Now, she has 2!  It's difficult to imagine her with teeth but of course, she's cute with or without them!

I think I covered everything else above!  Hoping to post an update with pictures and details about the month of December very soon.