Christmas card photos

We had about 45 minutes on Monday morning the week before Christmas ... and only two photos of the three of us from the whole year

We did a few shots to get the angle and lighting right ...

...then took a few pictures.

And the winner was ...

birthday party for Jesus

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Happy Birthday, Jesus!

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord."
~ Luke 2:11

In all the hub-bub of the Christmas season, may we keep mindful of the real reason we celebrate.

one last paci

We've successfuly weaned Eden off most of her baby clutches - from breast feeding to bottle, bottle to cup no problems. From crib to day bed to big-girl bed, no problems. We think the paci might be different ...

She is in love with it ... and I say it because there is only one left. We have told her that she is getting to be a big girl and becoming too big for her paci. Her other pacis have broken (either cracked by themselves or by scissors) along the way, but this one is just stubborn. And adding to the argument, this one has a small crack in it ... something Eden says isn't a big deal (something like "Look! It still works!").

Ashley told her a story about other big girls who have been able to turn in their last paci for a new big girl toy. That seemed to be okay, but one day she told me that she wanted her toy to be a big girl paci.

Needless to say, I think we're in trouble ... wish us luck when we finally decide this one is broken.

first thanksgiving feast

After flying back in from San Francisco and driving to Baton Rouge from Jackson, the very next day Eden and I attended her first Thanksgiving feast at PDO. They had tables set up in the gym with placecards for everyone attending. We sat at a table with friends from Eden's class and their parents. Eden loved watching the older children perform their Thanksgiving songs on the stage. I can't wait to see my little pumpkin do the same thing next year.

After the lunch, we grabbed E's things from her classroom and took a picture to commemorate the day. Eden let me wear the turkey pin she made for part of the day but took it back for the photo. Such a cutie!

The following week, Eden showed off her Thanksgiving placemat from school while we were at her CC and Granddaddy's.

girls' trip to the big easy

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I took a trip for two nights to New Orleans with some of my girlfriends from college. Our "Camp Leader" Jennifer planned the whole weekend around great places to eat, and thankfully the nausea medicine I took that weekend kicked in and allowed me to enjoy some good meals.

{L to R: Jennifer, Patty, me, Christy, Lydia, and Mica}

It was a wonderful time of eating, resting for me, and laughing!

red boots

In one of Eden's videos, the Backyardigans go on a pirate camp adventure. They sign up to learn how to be pirates and train with a real one. Along the way they discover a red boot on the ship along with a story of "Captain Red Boots" who, if you touch her boot, will tickle you. In the video, she warns them by saying (in a spooky voice) "My booooots!"

Of course, Eden loves it when Ashley or I do the same thing ... and she has a pair of red boots that help her to really pretend ...

baton rouge beach half marathon

So about 2 months ago Ashley thought it would be a good idea for me to run the Baton Rouge Beach Half Marathon with Keegan's dad Brett - she wanted to socialize with Marie during the race. I agreed since it had been a while since I had done anything competitive (last race was the summer before Eden was born). 

 

Either Ashley has developed a strange new photo passion or someone else had the camera before I ran across the finish line.

 Perhaps the best part of my run was when I was able to catch Brett around mile 12 and push to the finish in front ... I think he'll be irked about that for a long while. He is most upset because he passed me around mile 6. I let him go ahead knowing that as long as I could see him I could eventually catch and pass him. He had no idea I was closing in on him between mile 10 and 12, closing the 90 second gap rather quickly.

The best part of the race was seeing my two girls at the finish and having a big pair of lungs screaming "Daddy! Good job!"

And no race is complete without a post-race stretch ...

andalusia visit

After Jackson (and watching a wonderful Iron Bowl in Mobile), we visited Mama II, or Nona II as Eden decided to call her on the way over, in Andalusia. Eden wanted to make sure she took pictures of everyone there ...

She's getting pretty good, huh!?!

I think one of the best features of Mama II's house is the back porch, complete with a dining table. There is room for all, and when we are done we can migrate to the sitting area and chat and just enjoy each other. Of course, before we sat down, Eden requested a photo of herself ...

After returning to Nona and Big Daddy's, Miss E would only be in a family photo if she could be on her bike ...

When I was younger one of my favorite parts of visiting Andalusia was my Big Daddy's back yard. I'm looking forward to when it is warm enough for Eden to run around and pretend in it, too. This is one of the photos we found on our camera after Eden had been walking around snapping some shots ...

Right now, one of her favorite things is looking at pictures. Mama II has a book all about Eden (and Eden refers to pictures of herself as a baby in the third person - "What she doing? Why she in that?").

And one of our favorite things is when she carries on conversations with the family ...

DON'T SLAM THE DOOR! (Sorry, little inside family joke.)

fall leaves

For Thanksgiving we first drove to Jackson to stay at the 147. The weather was certainly fall-like and so was the ground. While we were outside there were leaves and a rake ... and Eden had never experienced jumping in piles of leaves. She was a natural. 

She was even nice enough to rake me a pile ....

 

today

Where does she get it?

A few nights ago, I had asked Eden to put on her pjs which she did not want to do. We could tell she was really upset, but after standing there for a few seconds, she ran out of the den to her bedroom. Thirty seconds later, she yelled out from her room, "Hey, Daddy, want to put on pajamas " as if it had been her idea all along. She ran back into the den fully owning it as her new brilliant idea and went right along with doing it.

My response? She is so YOUR daughter. Ashley generally likes things much better when they are her idea, too. She even claims some of my good ideas as hers.

But that is not all. There are several others pieces of evidence that Eden is so Ashley's ... when there is a sticker on anything, Ashley has to take it off ... Eden shares that same passion (post to come) but also has to tear pages that have a slit and has to remove anything that just doesn't look like it goes.

Neither Ashley nor Eden likes to be told she did something wrong ... for Eden we have to follow up our reprimands with "I know you can do better next time. Do you think you can do better next time?" To which, she'll sniffle a little, gain her composure, and say that yes she can do it better.

Of course, she loves to wear a purse like Ashley and to do things by herself because mommies do it that way. We also often hear Eden say, "Look at me, I'm talking to you" and "If you need me, just call for me" and "Awe, babe. [drawn out with a true southern accent] I'm sorry you have a bo-bo".

rolll tide

Although I cringed when I saw the title, it seemed appropriate (plus a 28-27 scoreboard eases any discomfort I may still have). Why is it appropriate? Because Nona and Big Daddy came to visit the weekend of the Alabama-LSU game.

Eden was entertained by tickle fests ....

... and made sure that everyone had their kisses upon leaving.

Big Daddy needed those kisses given the outcome of the game.  

today

Don't smile, Eden. Whatever you do ... ... don't smile ... ...

san fran

Just before Thanksgiving, Ashely and I went to San Francisco for a conference. We left Eden in Jackson with her Grandaddy and CC, and headed for a big time in a great city ... or maybe not. Since Ashley was feeling rather bad the whole time she saw alot of the hotel walls. I did get out the first morning for a long jog - down to Fisherman's Worf, over to see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, up several big hills, and through winding streets. Other than that I was running over to the food mart for Ashley who slept alot (which made it interesting as people asked me where she was given that we were not disclosing our good news).

We did, however, get to see several good friends, with whom we shared the news. Although you would expect more pictures, there is only the one, taken as we were walking to the Subway on our way out of town.

 

gotta hold on

 

first representational drawing

At the first of November, Eden drew her first "representational" drawings (thank you to my friend Jennifer for telling me what they are actually called) where she intentionally drew something and it turned out to actually represent that object. First, she copied a smiley sunshine I had just drawn ...

The next day, she told me she was going to draw "a mommy, a daddy, and a Eden," and then she did!

She even provided commentary as she was drawing the people, muttering to herself when she was drawing the arms and hands, etc. Jennifer said that most children's first drawings of people look just like Eden's did, with a large oval representing the head and body and then arms and legs sticking out. Graham thought it was funny that she only drew one oval, but Jennifer said that is how children see our bodies -- no distinction between the head and body. They see the head and body as one thing with really long arms and legs sticking out, makes sense. Jennifer said that 2 and 3/4 years old was sort of early to be doing representational drawings. I wasn't too surprised as Miss E has always loved "drawing."

The final interesting artwork of recent note was Eden's color block project from school. Can you pick out which one below might belong to our precise little E?

Yep, the blue background piece in the very middle. I was looking up at them in the hallway at PDO, and Eden's teacher volunteered, "We really didn't help them any, just put the glue on the piece for them, but they put the pieces where ever they wanted with no help." She pointed out that both of Eden's yellow pieces are stacked on top of eachother because they "match" and the brown pieces are opposite of each other. Crazy girl.

I'm a mommy ...

When we were in Andalusia over Thanksgiving (post to come), Eden was her normal funny self. One of the most humorous things she did was to climb up on a chair, give a deep sigh and say "I'm a mommy...and my tummy is really hurting."

Guess you can tell what Miss Eden has been hearing for the past few months (and why blog posting has been so sporatic).

That' right ...

We almost bought Ashley's parents a cardboard cutout so they'd have someone to tell ... thankfully, Eden's Granddaddy only told one person at his high school reunion (last time he could not wait to tell someone so he told a grocery store clerk). He said he hadn't seen them in 40 years and that when they asked how many grandchildren he had he couldn't help but answer, "One and one on the way."

Since about week 5 Ashely has been rather sick - lots of sleep (staring around 7:30 some nights) and lots of eating breakfast in bed.  Ashley keeps halfway joking that she's worried I will run away for a few days since I've been doing everything around the house for two months. I told her I would have but was worried that I would come home to Eden in front of the TV with 4 boxes of cereal watching the same DVD over-and-over :) Just kidding.

The due date? May 31st. Since she has one, perhaps I will have a birthday baby, too.

We haven't told Eden yet since she has no concept of time, but we are absolutely certain she is going to be a great big sister. She has always noticed when babies are crying, asking what is wrong. And she has even been known to go in search of a baby's pacifier from a diaper bag and walk it over to the baby and momma when the baby was crying, all unprompted. The one preparation we have made so far was to sign Eden up for the toddler class at the hospital for the spring where she will learn how to help with the baby and get a tour of the hospital. We know she is going to love it.

We are so thankful for this little blessing in our lives!

Happy Halloween!

On Halloween night, we took Eden to Keegan's neighborhood for some trick-or-treating. She wanted to be a witch (sometimes a good one, and sometimes a bad one). Cutest witch I've ever seen!

... or maybe the second ...

We strolled them around in a red wagon from house to house.

At the first house we told her to get out, go to the door, knock, and say trick-or-treat. She did not miss a beat! There was no learning curve ... she was born to do this!

Along the way we saw a "makeup monster"(which I have to now be next year) and several witches. At one house the woman thought Eden and Keegan were brother and sister. Overall, it was a fun time - and Eden's first experience trick-or-treating. I think we found a new tradition ...