Four Months

Like all passage of time, it is difficult to believe Eden is already four months old. She is one third the way to a year. She is a delight and a joy all while turning our world upside down. She loves smiling, spitting, babbling, finger eating, drooling, rolling from back to tummy, and is getting better at napping but worse at night sleeping. She had her four month check up yesterday and is 14 pounds 10 oz and almost 25 inches long. She had her second round of immunizations and handled it like a champ. Her doctor said we can start introducing her to real foods now, but I think I'd like to wait until she is closer to 6 months. Plus, I'm not ready to deal with really smelly poops.

baby and her look-a-like :)

It seems lately every spare moment has been taken up something. Usually yard work. As a very wise lady at church said "a garden will run you ragged". Or something like that... in other words, our big garden keeps us very busy. I understand why people don't want the hassle but we do enjoy the labor and the fruits of this labor. We recently harvested our onions, more beets, carrots, and tomatoes. We were gifted 100+ pounds of fresh peaches. Something must be done with all this!

one of nine jars of peaches
(5 gallon freezer bags and 4 cobblers were made too)

12 jars of tomatoes
(tomato seafood soup also made)

We have given a lot away too. Our apple tree is bursting with apples that need to be picked. I suppose this weekend we'll spend time dealing with that abundance. I have dreams of apple butter and homemade applesauce. My grandma had the best homemade applesauce. I also made 6 loaves of zucchini bread the other day only to find more very large zucchinis growing. Have mercy!

Flaming Gorge camping trip

We did take part of the longer weekend for Labor day to make a quick camping trip with our Fort Collins friends. It's our third annual get together in nature. The trip was fast but so wonderful to be with old friends. Here is Libby's blog for a better recap and more pictures! Eden did great camping and she did not freeze at night, as much as I was fearing she would. She is a little heat factory like her father. Napping was tricky camping but overall, huge success. She even tolerated the nearly four hour drive quite well!  There were some other issues that kept us from sleeping well, or I should say kept me from sleeping well. Quick thunderstorm, wind, coyotes, owls, drunk neighbors, drunk neighbors who can't figure out how to turn off car alarm after 10th time it's gone off... Eden slept through most of the hubbub. Good job!

Flaming Gorge is cool...
probably cooler if you have a boat :)

All in all, life is good. We are thankful. In October, we will make a trip to Florida to see my grandmother and Davis's dad. I am nervous flying with a wee babe but crying baby or not, we all know flying is not fun nor comfortable in economy class.

Fall is approaching and our activities are about to increase with visitors, work, and more responsibilities at church. Lately my heart has been very heavy with the sad events around the world. We've have been thinking about what it means to be loving, hospitable Christians in a time like this. I want to be wise with what we can take on but I also don't want this burden to pass without doing something. Maybe more on that later...

All about the fingers

this gal loves some fingers

I try to get Eden to smile for the camera, an already tricky proposition, and her fingers go straight for the mouth. She is getting increasingly more drooly (if that is a word) and is loving gumming and sucking on fingers. Her ability and desire to grab everything is increasing. Whatever she gets a hold of usually goes towards her mouth. She is super fun to watch grow up. Overall, she tends to be pretty content. Long ago she lost her ability to sleep through the night and has been waking up once or twice typically. However, she naps a little longer and falls asleep a little easier too.

She likes to hold a foot while I change her. So helpful :)

 Eden also mastered rolling from her back to her stomach this week as well. It's a whole new game for me. I am excited to see her master these milestones but I can't just set her down and go get something done as easily now.

Last night I moved her out of her little special bed in our room into the crib in her room. She handled it much better than me, I was a mess of emotions and anxiety. She woke up twice and went back to sleep easily once fed. She did seem a little scared this morning because she is used to waking up in our room. I know in the long run we will all sleep better. All these changes are hard though. She also is busting out of her swaddle more and with rolling over, it's probably a good idea to transition out of that too. But I am dealing with one thing at a time!

 In final, working one day a week has been so nice. It's just enough to feel useful and helpful but without feeling like I am missing so much precious time with Eden. Our childcare has been very tricky but hopefully mid-September we will have it mostly sorted out.

Someone is taking a long nap! But I hear her stirring now.

Just being cute.

Love.

And this seems like yesterday...