a big girl & she said mama

The other night Ashley called Eden her little girl. Eden quickly said, "I'm not a little girl. I'm four. I'm a big girl now. I'm growing up ... but I'm still your daughter." Indeed.

Lydia is also becoming a big girl on her own. She now stands quite a bit ...

... and says "Mama" a lot. Come to find out, it is not necessarily to let Ashley know of her affection. Instead, she apparently says it when she is hungry. :)

firsts

As you might expect, there are a lot of firsts in our house ...

This is the first full sentence Eden read by herself -

The first pull ups Lydia did - (6 total, which is pretty impressive for a 10 month old)

She sure was proud.

Eden made her first double stroller. She walked into the den and announced to Ashley that she had a great idea - all she needed was some tape and a little help.

The first day of sandals for this year -

And, the big one, Eden's first shower!!!

She has been reluctant to have the water run on her like this. But, for some reason, when I suggested a shower the other day she jumped with joy (outside the shower) and ran for the bathroom. She even bathed herself!

I have no idea what these are supposed to represent, so I'll let Ashley comment on them :) I do know that the belt is from Courtney! Thanks!

final practice session

{she was asking Graham if he had eyelashes}

{documenting the color of her eyes, they have gotten so much lighter}

two nights

Well, we had two full nights with Miss Lydia sleeping from 7ish to 7ish.

It was wonderful.

Then yesterday afternoon she started running a fever and last night she was awake every four hours or so once the medicine wore off ... just talking, whining, and wanting to be rocked.

I worked for a good few weeks to slowly reduce her dream feed each night, had one night where Graham rocked her and shooshed her for a few hours to help her fall back asleep, and then we had our two nights of real-deal, through-the-night sleeping.

Guess it was good while it lasted.

Since it isn't her ears, throat, lungs, or the flu, hopefully, she'll be able to fight off this little virus quickly. I'm ready for her little body to feel better.

{ajb}

more practice

*warning -- lots and lots of cute photos in this post :)

SnapShop practice

For the past three weeks, I have been participating in an online photography course called SnapShop {thank you Graham and Nona for the gift!} ... I actually feel like I know so much more about taking the photos I want to take and how to control the camera. I still need a lot of practice to feel comfortable taking photos in maual setting all the time, but at least I know more now. Here are some practice photos I took for one of the assignments the first week ...