Last week, our baby turned EIGHT months old! I am still in disbelief, it seems like yesterday she was still baking in my belly!
Oh, she is such a joy! Her laugh is contagious :) She adores any attention from her big sister, loves pulling Bo's (the dog) ears and tail, and wants to move so badly she can hardly stand it! She can feed herself small bites of food and loves blueberries, yogurt and Cheerios. She is becoming a pretty big Elmo fan as well :) She is a doll baby, and we are so blessed to call Edyn Rose ours!
Today is my 27th birthday, and let me start by saying that I LOVE BIRTHDAYS! Love them. Everything about them. I hope one day when I am gone, my family starts some sort of special event birthday planning business in my honor :) I love celebrating my friends and family, this is the ONE day out of the year to just celebrate who you are and where you are. It's my favorite!
So, I am 27- 3 years from 30. Yikes! However, with each year closer to 30 that I get, the less scary it seems. I am loving this year already, my goal is to diminish the grey hairs that are appearing and do away with a few wrinkles from so many sleepless nights- because we don't make babies around here who like to sleep, at least at night!
Today has not been some glorious occasion, it's actually been quite the opposite, but that is my reality now and I choose to embrace and love it. I handed out more spankings than I planned on, but a certain big sister was all about bullying her baby sister today. I cleaned up accidents in the carpet- who, in their right mind, chooses to potty train during their birthday week?! here, here. No one took a nap until 4 pm, then everyone crashed. The dog was even super anxious and a little crazier than normal all day. At one point, I was drowning the madness in cake icing. We had plans to go to dinner, then everyone took that 4 pm nap, and here we are at 6:30 with one still napping. I am going call grace on that one, I had a feeling two kids at a restaurant with only two adults could have gotten ugly :)
Even with all the madness and potty praises of the day, today has been beautiful. I am reminded that in my 27 years I have been SO blessed and loved. My husband saved the day and picked up a great dinner, so I still didn't have to cook, and the late naps gave me a chance to catch up on some projects. It's a crazy, beautiful life over here and I wouldn't have it any other day. Here's to 28 :)
I have started an online bible study through Proverbs 31 ministries and Lysa TerKeurst's book Am I Messing Up My Kids. Something, I think, crosses my mind daily :) Each Wednesday is an opportunity for a little blog post :) This weeks topic is "Being a Mom is Tough". Yes, duh.
Here I am in my mothering journey- I have two baby girls, one is 2 1/2 and the other will be 8 months old next week (and I STILL have not written her 7 month blog- it's coming up next, I swear!). Being a mom is the hardest thing I've ever done. Up until my mom journey, my hardest experience was running the Boston marathon with a quarter size blister on my toe and practically no training- ha, I know. No comparison. Right now, we are trying to convince our 2 1/2 year old she needs to potty train while she hasn't a care in the world about it :) she has the sweetest, yet extremely strong willed, spirit. She marches to her own beat and we know, she will change the world one day! Our 8 month old is so sweet and so rotten. She loves to eat (eh, nurse) all day long. Some mornings, on our runs, we have to stop on the trail for a snack. She's my fifth appendage, and that's ok! Our days are crazy, we have no routine and try to roll with what each day brings. Some days that even means no naps- and those days are rough! Our goal is to love and show Christ's love to our babies. Hopefully not being potty trained at 2 1/2 and not ever having a bottle at 8 months is not messing them up :)
I'm excited for this little study. Every word Lysa speaks or writes is always so perfect and reassuring. Some days I wish I could high five her! If you are interested in the study, you can purchase the Kindle edition of the book from Amazon and start reading today, then hop over to proverbs31ministries.org to sign up. Such encouraging women!!
Almost a month ago we celebrated 7 months with our baby girl! I've been too busy getting all of her loving to update her progress here :) Oh, she is such a joy!! She has one big girl tooth and we are waiting on #2. She is starting to pull up and trying to crawl with all of her being. If she gets knocked over, she acts like a turtle on it's back- she hates it! She is babbling and giggling all of the time. She loves to sit and play with toys with her big sister. She is still not a big fan of solid food besides yogurt and Cheerios but is making some progress :) hopefully our new teeth will open up more options! Emersyn is her favorite person, and if Em could feed her she would have no need for anyone else :) We are loving every second watching our sweet girl grow! It's happening a little too quickly, but we are so thankful for her health and happiness! We love you, Edyn Rose!
My big girl has quite the imagination these days. She is fearless, talking everyone's head off, and a ball full of fun. She loves to have her piggies and fingernails painted, then go put those hot pink nails in the dirt! She is more than I could have ever imagined and am so thankful I was chosen to be her mommy! I love to sit and play with her (imaginary) friends. I love to sit and listen to her little mind wander. Her imaginary friend is actually her best friend in real life, but in her little imaginary world her friend is quite the little terror. I have to catch her when she falls from the ceiling, climbs on things that are not allowed, and give her many, many spankings because she is very disobedient :)
Emersyn wakes up every morning and the first thing on her mind and out of her mouth is her sweet little friend, even if the imaginary one is a terror, I am so thankful for young friendships and sweet little girls! (sister will be another month older in a few days, so her special post is coming! And get ready because she is growing quickly)
Baby E hit a huge milestone this past week- running with mommy! Y'all, I have tried this since she was a few weeks old and she has screamed at the top of her lungs every single time. We could usually make it a solid 5 minutes before the meltdown. I tried everything- bringing her favorite toys, putting her in the stroller asleep, feeding her the second before we walked out the door, singing to her, making silly faces, EVERYTHING. The poor baby hated it... until last week. We have now gone on FOUR, five-plus mile runs without the slightest whimper! She actually is happy now, not just tolerating it :) Talk about a happy mama! Oh, happy day :)
Our little family has been a tad bit busy :) we've been hitting milestones with the little girls and driving many miles on the road together. Right now, we are all together and enjoying some down time in Missouri before we venture out for our next visit to sweet home Alabama.
Our baby girl hit her big 1/2 year milestone a couple of weeks ago. She is so much fun! She is babbling and giggling all day long. The greatest milestone, in my opinion, that she's reached so far is learning to love runs with mommy and sister! Oh, it's nothing shy of an answered prayer. A month ago, Edyn would not tolerate 5 minutes in the jogging stroller. Today, she was still laughing after 5 miles! Now, mama needs to work on endurance while pushing a "little" extra weight...
Big sister is still recovering from our country visit. She had the greatest time, and is still exhausted from all of the playing. She's been our late talker, but boy is she putting sentences together now. It's so fun to listen to her chatter. She's a sassy little fireball, and SO. MUCH. FUN.
Apparently when I get time to actually use my brain (like I did in AL when I was never accountable for more than one baby!) I come up with some pretty radical ideas. I talked my husband into, what I like to call, a fun, temporary lifestyle change :) On regular time increments, I get pretty disgusted with the food industry, then I eventually get sucked back in, then disgusted again- it's a never ending cycle. Right now, I'm landing on disgusted. My best solution is to cut ALL of the junk out. Now, we've done vegan and fell into the "convenience" trap and ended up eating meatless junk. I don't know how I did it, but somehow this time around I've convinced my husband not only eat CLEAN vegan, but also gluten free. I don't call this a diet, but rather a "lifestyle experiment". Our goals aren't to lose weight but to rid our bodies of as much junk that we can and just feel our absolute best! I'm so excited, I'm a need and things like this get me fired up, I don't think it's a stretch to say my husband is a little apprehensive :) so, here goes beans, nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies :) yum!
