8 months old!

Somebody pinch me!  Eden is 8 months!  I was a couple days late taking her photos because this was a busy house!  I knew photos would be a challenge because she isn't interested in sitting still for more than 1.5 seconds!

 Her hair is getting so long.  Some of those little hairs she has had since birth and they are REALLY long!  I'm tempted to snip them a little, but John said "no" for now, so I'll just keep pinning them back.

It seems she always has a little scratch by her eye.  She rubs her eye when she is tired and always seems to scratch herself...even when I have just filed her nails.

 Eden has two top and two bottom teeth all the way in (center) and two top and two bottom teeth almost through!  She is following suit of her brothers having the same number of teeth as she is in months.

Mostly this is how she wanted to be!  

Her favorite new skill is standing.  She is so proud when she stands.

I guess its time to put the crib down...

And this is how she felt when I laid her down for a couple photos...so we skipped that part.  

One of our favorite developments in her 7th month was talking.  She has so many sounds and loves to keep up with the chatter in our house.  "Ma" "Ba" "Va" "Fa" "Da" are the sounds we here most and it melts our little hearts.  She is a sweetie!

Yummers!

Looking back at the blog from when the boys were little, I had lots of photos of them eating their first foods.  Well, Eden doesn't have many of those photos because dinner time is a CIRCUS!  Its definitely the craziest time of day.  I had the chance to take a few photos of Eden eating one of her favorite foods: Green Beans.

 She always needs something to hold and play with at the table, otherwise she is reaching for whatever she can get her hands on!

She is just finally getting more interested in foods.  We have done most fruits and vegetables now, but she really was only interested in eating once in a while.  She also likes yogurt sometimes.  Now that she seems a little more into food, we'll take it up to 2 times a day, so that will be nice.  She still doesn't like any Puffs or MumMums, so maybe that will come next!

Super Heroes in the House

 My mom came over today and brought these costumes for the boys!  Of course, they had fun!

 Bennett really loved his Buzz costume.  In fact, he went to bed in it tonight!

Logan's Show and Tell

At Montessori they do show and tell based on their "sound" or "letter" of the week!  Mostly they bring in something special to them (not a toy), something from nature, or something that reminds them of an experience with the right sound or letter in it.  Last week the letter was "E" and Logan wanted to take a picture of Eden.  So very sweet.  He got to share his photo with the class and tell all about his beloved baby sister!

Crawling Olympics

Eden is now officially super fast!  If she is in the kitchen with me, look out: soon she'll make her way all the way to the living room!  The boys have a love/hate relationship with her mobility!  On the one hand, the love to crawl along with her and encourage her....on the other hand they are not fond of how determined she is to be a part of their playtime!

We have a lot of "loops" in our house that the boys love to run in circles around...Eden loves to crawl in circles, too.  Kitchen to dining room to living room to entry to hall and back to the kitchen! 

I can't believe how busy she is!  I don't remember how busy the boys were - I'm sure the same.  If I'm holding her, she reaches for the floor.  She is always wanting to explore!  Its pretty exhausting!  I think this is the busiest phase of having three kids so far.  For me, as a stay at home mom, I can really notice the difference now that Eden is mobile!

Eden's Elegant Nursery

Here another room tour, since I have beautiful photos of it from my photographer.  I have shared some of the nursery before - way back before Eden entered the world!  But, honestly, I didn't get all the finishing touches done until she was 5-6 months. 

  

At first, I tried to work with the awesome crib bedding my mom and Vicki made for the boys.  I still loved the green, brown, and yellow.  But, when I tried to pair it with anything else to add a little "girly" touch, nothing seemed to work.  My mom offered to make some new stuff for the nursery, and I couldn't say no!  John was totally awesome when I wanted to start from scratch with a girly (but not too baby-ish) room for Eden.  He had to work really hard for me...and the result was totally worth it!

John and his Dad painted the room on a whim one weekend.  Its Benjamin Moore Coventry Gray (PBK collection) colored matched in the Sherwin Williams Zero VOC paint.  SW paint is our favorite for walls so we stick with them.  I painted some of the trim (SW Dover White).

I joined Pinterest the day I found out I was having a girl!  :)  Projects and ideas galore!  These pom poms were not a Pinterest find, although I have seen them all over Pinterest now.  My sister actually found the tutorial for these.  I started with paper lanterns and then my friend, Mollie, and I painstakingly cut and glued fabric circle (hundreds? no, thousands!) to make these huge pom poms.  

I actually wish they were smaller - from a design perspective they might make the room unbalanced.  But, they are still pretty cool and Eden loves to look at them.  :)

I knew I wanted these letters from Rose Mille ever since my sister and I saw them there years ago and I said, "If I had a girl, I would love those in the nursery!".  My mom picked them up for me in Stillwater the week Eden was born.  They didn't get hung up until she was 5 months old!

I tried hanging a pennant above her bed with Command Strips, but it kept falling down so I knew I needed a way to hang her name that was more sturdy.  I ordered cute drawer pulls from Anthropologie and John hung them on the wall for me.  Then I added some ribbon.

The chandelier came from Auntie Amy's closet in her Minnesota house!  When she and Andrew moved out to Virginia for his med school years, I inherited a ton of fun stuff from them (mostly for free - thanks guys!), including this light.  I was newly pregnant, but told Amy I would take that chandelier in case this baby was a GIRL!  So, its pretty fun that Eden has her Auntie Amy's light in her room.  :)  John had to totally dismantle the light and rebuild it for me because it hung too low for our room.  I took off all the crystals and re-strung them myself.  Its perfect!

I needed something for the wall above the dresser, so I found this frame at a thrift store and painted it, then added the chicken wire.  I already had the colorful little clips, so its perfect for hanging special notes, cards, and photos.  The other things are just fabric leftover from the pom poms and scrapbook paper cut out and glued on in different shapes.  Semi-inspired by Pinterest projects I saw (then adapted to supplies I already had on hand).

I love that little card from my parents at Eden's birth.

 The dresser and crib are new!  Ikea.  :)   And the dresser holds a ton!  Which is good...girl clothes sure are hard to resist - they are all SO cute!  The little sheepskin adds some texture - the room could use a little more texture, but I am done purchasing for this room now.  :)

My mom made those cool modern valances from my favorite fabric we found on line!  She did an awesome job and then made a pillow to match.

 

I told John I wanted a new, white crib and he happily demolished our old drop-side/partially broken crib. I love the clean modern lines of this new white crib.  

The chair is the one John's parents bought for me before Logan was born.  I love it so much.  The ottomans are snagged from the Calypso St. Barth for Target a couple years ago, but they are perfect for her room.  The shiny dots are circle I cut from "Stainless Steel Contact Paper" from either Home Depot or Lowes (I can't remember).  I just stuck them on the wall with Mollie's help.  They are still stuck, but could be peeled off if we get tired of the look.

We kept the door off her closet because it was in bad shape and we haven't taken the time to refinish it yet.  Plus, I like looking at all the cute clothes in there!  I added some pennants in the closet and on the door frame to make it look like the door is off "on-purpose".  The black shelf I bought for cheap from my sis (again, thanks, A!) and filled it with special things.  Books, toys, keepsakes.  Its really cute.  I contemplated painting it...maybe I will someday, but for now it grounds the room as the one dark piece.

I love these little shelves.  There are special things on them.  Artwork from the boys, photos, her first stuffed animal, and other keepsakes.

And the sweet baby girl that started it all...well loved by her brothers.

All photos by Molly Bailey Photography: mollybaileyphotography.com

Great Saturday!

After four weekends of either being away from home or on a trip, we had a nice weekend catching up at home.  The boys have been crazy about art projects and keeping busy with that.  I moved all our craft and project supplies to a spot in the dining room so they can reach them easily and they have loved creating!

 While they boys were occupied, Eden and I ran around the house like this...

Eden did not want to be put down for a second.  She has a few teeth on the brink and I think she's feeling sad.  Gotta love those extra snuggles.  So, She rode around doing laundry and cleaning with me all day long.

I coaxed a smile out of her...

John enjoyed some kind of a "man day" outside!  He was preparing the outdoors for winter and closing everything up.  This photo says it all: leaf blowing with a bonfire going on.  Total man day.  

It was a good weekend!