New books (and a dog)

On Satuday we got a very special package in the mail. Eden's Aunt Beverly regularly sends a box full of books and other surprises. She is alway excited to get it, and has the best time exploring her new stuff ...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

choo-choo

pretend

Lately Eden has really been developing her imagination. Her long-time favorite (something she has been doing for several months now) is acting like a baby. She'll ask Ashley or me to hold her like a baby. Once we cradle her head in one elbow and dangle her feet over the other, she starts pretending to cry. We can calm her by saying "Shhh. It's okay, baby. Don't cry." Now, she does the same thing with her dolls.

Though baby is still a go-to game, her recent favorite is one she invented called Dog. How do you play? Well, you get a ball and either you or Eden throws it and says, "Fetch!" The other one gets on all fours, sticks his/her tongue out, pants, and runs after the ball. Then, the dog picks up the ball and brings it back to the owner. When the dog does it right, the dog gets praise and petting - sometimes the dog even gets scratched behind the ear (which causes the dog's leg to twitch). When the dog {i.e. Eden's Daddy} is acting extra-playful, the owner will have to chase him/it around the house (which causes the owner to laugh hysterically).

Another new favorite is playing the big bad wolf. This game has two different versions: 1) someone is the Big Bad Wolf {usually Eden} who then blows everyone else down, you can get quite a work out being blown down and getting back up a lot, 2) Eden starts to act scared and says that the Big Bad Wolf is somewhere in the vicinity, then we look for him or talk about how he went back to the pig's house. Last night, Eden and I went on an "adventure" in the backyard looking for the Big Bad Wolf while Ashley cleaned up the house.

When she is not throwing or fetching a ball, she likes to go shopping.  The other morning, she announced she was going to the store after packing her purse, getting her wallet, and putting on the race hat from the Tour de France. Upon her "return" she announced that she had brought back chicken and pasta. Then, she brought an imaginary handful over for Ashley to eat. Yum!

It seems everything is something else these days ... the baby bottle is a candle on top of a lego birthday cake, Eden is a frog hopping across the floor, the small shelf is a baby bed. And, there are always imaginary things to go along ... imaginary food in the bowl to feed the baby, cake for us to eat, and monsters and the big bad wolf just across the room.

Fetch, puppy!

Amid all of the screaming from not getting what she wants {we're working through learning how to deal with one's emotions}, this type of cuteness makes it all worthwhile. Here's Eden's latest and now favorite game of pretend ...

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first tea party & the recession

The other day, Eden was in the kitchen and all of a sudden said that she was having a tea party with her cup and a toy animal. Ashley was also trying to straighten up the back room with Eden right under her feet. The strategy? Pull out a new toy. The toy? A tea set that Eden's Great Aunt Kathy gave her when she was born.

We had a blast drinking tea, eating scones, and (of course) dressing up.

Plus, we had "tea party" talk and discussed topics ranging from Ms. Smith's new boyfriend to the recession. All-in-all, it was a blast, and I'm glad to have been Eden's first tea party guest. (Her second and third were Teddy and Lucy the Lamb. They sat with us and chatted about nothing at all.) And, in case you ever come over, Eden takes her tea with cream and two lumps.

Winters Construction

Look at this! My brother just recently started his own company, Winters Construction based in Oxford, and it looks like it's now really official ...

After many years as the head of construction for a development company in Mississippi, Britton has ventured out on his own. The name of the company is in honor of our granddaddy, Joseph Winters Jones, Sr.

Britton and Granddaddy were always working on something in "Pop's Shop," the workshop at the end of my grandparents' driveway. Here's Britton on the day that he helped my daddy, Uncle Jay, and Granddaddy build the shop ...

Britton has always had an amazing talent for being able to look at something, think about it for a while, figure it out, and then just make it. For example, he built my parents' deck after buying a how-to book and sitting on their back porch for a few hours taking in the space. When he was younger, he drew pictures of our house and my grandparents' houses -- to scale, measuring each brick! And for fun when we were little, we'd watch This Old House on Saturday mornings, draw blueprints of our "dream" houses, and make house blueprints out of pinestraw in the front yard and then walk each other through the home.

I know that, just like everyone else in our family, Granddaddy would be very proud of him now.

- Ashley

playing with Tommy

This summer we have a bit of a relaxed schedule - Eden wakes up around 7, we do breakfast then run to the park or play outside. On some days, Eden has play dates. One of her frequent guests is Tommy.

They play rather well together -

... especially since Eden has such cool toys. Tommy is obsessed with trains and loves Eden's new set. Eden  likes them, plays "crash" alot, and is also learning how to put the tracks together. Works pretty well on our new coffee table inhereted from my sister.

Perhaps the most exciting play date with Tommy was this past Monday when he arrived at 6:45 a.m. and did not leave until the next morning around 8:30. We were able to babysit him while his parents where at the hospital welcoming his little brother, Brian Alexander, into the world.

Happy Father's Day!

Graham and I are both blessed to have wonderful fathers. I know that if Eden's Granddaddy and Big Daddy had been visiting today that she would have shared this song with them as well. Here is Graham's real father's day gift ...

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hmmmm

So, we haven't posted anything in a couple of days because ...

• we babysat one of E's friends for over 24hrs while his new baby brother was born
• we went on adventures outside of the house including Whole Foods and the science museum for a playdate
• we had a family playdate with dinner at the home of some dear friends
• and we finished up more things around the house getting ready for my mom and sister to get here (yay for at least getting short visits)

But, Eden and I did have an interesting exchange while walking downtown the other day. As we were walking, Eden pointed and said statue, noting this large man on the street beside us. Can you guess what her commentary was on the statue?

"Say, cheese!"

I cracked up and had to take a photo. Now where would she get the idea that if you hold your hand out and up in front of you that you're taking a picture of yourself? *wink, wink

- ashley

no leave me

With Eden now in a big bed with a side rail, we've been doing the entire night time routine in the bed that she actually sleeps in. No rocking in the chair and singing songs, just talking in the bed.

On a normal night so far, Graham will be with E to read some books. Then, we're all there to read to her while one of us brushes her teeth {yes, she's spoiled}, and, then, Graham leaves while I finish putting Eden to bed. This now includes rubbing her back, talking about her day and all of the great things she did, saying a prayer, and then having a quick pep-talk and tucking in of E's Teddy and Lucy with all three of them {Eden, Teddy, and Lucy} under the covers. It also includes E selecting a "new" book to read to Teddy and Lucy once I leave.

For the past few days she's been putting up some resistance to me leaving but having her choose a new special book to read to her two favorite people has curbed her need for me to stay.

Today, however, she tried a new tactic. As we were lying in bed before her nap and before bedtime and as soon as she could tell I was about to make the move to leave, she wrapped her arm tightly around my neck and said, "No leave me, Momma. No leave me. Hold me tight."

I mean what are you supposed to say to that?

So, I held her tight and cuddled until she decided it was ok for me to go and for her to read to Teddy and Lucy. I realize everyone seems to say that you shouldn't establish too many "needy" sleeptime routines. But, since the rocking only lasted 2 years and everyone seemed to say you really should be sure not to rock your baby too much {like that's even possible!}, I'm definitely not pushing away from this one too soon.

lazy sunday

the potty diaries

Last Monday (June 7), Eden did not show any interest in wearing a diaper and was perfectly content with some big girl panties {i.e., Gerber training pants}.

Thankfully, Ashley had bought a pack earlier in the week anticipating potty training coming up sometime this month - little did we know ...

That night at dinner, Eden all of a sudden said, "I poo poo." When we asked if she needed to go to the bathroom, "Nooo." Sure looked like yes, so I took her into the bathroom, sat her on the toilet, and started doing flashcards (they have pictures of things, and she tells me what they are). About 5 minutes later we were singing "Good Bye" to her poo-poo.

We realized that the potty training would start earlier than Ashley had planned; it needed to start right away!

So, we made a few changes {no more changing pad on the dresser. Thanks, Lindsay, for the awesome sweater owl!} and set it in our minds that Tuesday was officially day 1 of all-out potty training (we could not lose this momentum).

Here she is wanting to be alone to read on day 1 and then yelling across the room "See, Tommy! Dark. Light. Day. Night. See!"

Day 1 was mostly Eden peeing in her training pants and not even letting us know (we put out some baby water-proof pads as her "mats" to sit on while lounging around). By day 2, Eden was saying she needed to go while going, and by day 3 she was actually letting us know before it was too late. She has even gone outside a few times (which she apparently gets a kick out of). By Friday, Day 4, Ashley and Eden were able to walk to the potty in time (instead of running) without ANY accidents in the morning.

By Day 5, Ashley felt Eden was up for her first out-of-the-house-without-diapers adventure {and Ashley was ready to be out of the house after being home without leaving for almost 5 days}, so we headed over to Keegan's house on Saturday night for fun get-together with the Johnsons. Eden was pretty distracted ... had one accident and a few almost made it completely in time ... but overall did well with still telling us she needed to go despite all of the awesome toys and friends around.

We opted not to take Eden to church on Sunday, so Ashley went to Sunday school alone. While we have had a few I-just-don't-want-to-tell-you accidents {like this morning when Eden stood on her chair with underpants on, squatted, and started to pee saying, "I poo poo"} overall she is doing really, really well.

We've started a potty jar where E gets to put a marble in each time she sits and tries, and we aren't planning any major outings anytime soon. We have lots of fun flash cards and books {thanks, Aunt Beverly} and our own made up stories {like the Magic Dragon that took Eden, Nona, CC, and Granddaddy to the beach and was scared to swim but was helped by the brave Eden} to keep her entertained while sitting. Still doing diapers for naps and bedtime, but she's doing fantastic during the day.

So, any advice for how to continue this? Or how to tackle actually leaving the house?! We'd love to hear it!

In an unrelated event ... can you spot Eden in her latest naptime sleeping position?

What a lot of crazy, Eden-iniated changes happening here lately.

E's new room & a monster in South Carolina

Of course, the first room we did was Eden's. It would have been quite hard to finish this while she was running around or napping.

Ashely got this idea (below) from a friend - hang book covers on the wall. Festive and free! Plus, Eden has already started asking for specific books that are up there - so we can rotate them depending on when we get tired of reading something 47 times. :)

One of the first things Eden asked when she saw her new room was "Where's the monster." Apparently, when her friend Sylvia was over before we moved in, she told Eden about monsters. So, Eden thought she had one living outside her window. I told her a story about how the monster moved with her family to South Carolina. Ashley added "at the beach" since South Carolina is a foriegn term to Eden. So when she asks about the monster now, we simply say, "Remember? The monster moved to the beach in South Carolina." "Oh." she responds.

in between

When we got back from Destin, we relaxed for two days in BR - the calm before the moving storm. We went over to the new house a few times since it has a big backyard and let Eden play in her sandbox (to help her be less sad about leaving the beach) ...

... and we set up her table and chairs for the kitchen (the new house has carpet in the dining room).

Then, on Wednesday, Ashley packed the car and headed to Jackson. One of their stops? A family lunch with Ashley's Grandmama, Whitney, CC, and Granddaddy at Eden's favorite restaurant ... Ichiban!

I think she was a little restless, so Ashley and Aunt FeFe had to do some mild entertaining ...

Then it was off to CC and Granddaddy's for a fishing lesson (she saw her Big Daddy fish while at the beach; I guess she wanted to give it a try).

And Ashley stopped by her Grandmama's house to look at a dresser Eden may have one day. While there, she snapped a few pics of the gardenias (which Ashley says were the inspiration for the gardenias in her wedding bouquet).

Ashely left Eden in Jackson and came back to BR on Friday. We moved on Saturday, and on Sunday we had a date at Target. Ashley thought it was funny that our cart had only white items in it. Seriously, everything we bought was white. Strange.

Then, on Sunday night, Eden's CC and Granddaddy drove her down (and over). They really enjoyed the back deck (and Eden liked it when she woke up and they were still there).

Now, we're almost fully settled in. There are only a few random boxes of stuff still around - for the most part we are in. There are also several things to do (buy a dining room rug, put up curtains in our room and the den, hang pictures), but we've made lots of headway and have already put in lots of work. Go us!

family resemblence

The other day, Eden and Ashley were looking through pictures while unpacking. When Ashley asked, Eden responded like "duh Mom, that's me" regarding the baby in the picture below. But then she looked confused and asked "Who dat?" while pionting at my Big Daddy then pointed to the walls and asked where that was.

I suppose she actually does look like me ...

And whence do my looks come?

That's a picture of my mom (with Aunt Beverly). See a resemblence?

today's sunshine

the rest of the beach

By Thursday of our beach week, Eden was LOVING running in the water and "jumping" the waves. With each wave that came near, she'd hold her arms high and yell with delight.

She would ask to go out into the water (with someone holding her, of course) ...

... and even got in it several times to splash around.

We also took several short walks up and down the water line - she would giggle every time the water hit her feet.

Since we were about to end our time, we had to take some pictures to document the occassion ...

We certainly are a photogenic family (although Aunt Sarah was not there to brighten it up).

Several times during our stay we saw trucks with booms and workers and even a few areas roped off, but that was as much of a disturbance from the oil that we saw. Hopefully this is not the last pretty picture Ashley will take of this area ... pray for the oil to stop ...

All in all, it was a fantastic, relaxing week and a great way to kick off the summer.