7 months old

We took our monthly pictures with Mr. Bear and Eden is flashing her smile all the time! She's such a happy baby girl but still gets her serious face on for many. We've figured out that she thinks sneezing is hilarious and the smile trigger for pictures. So instead of "cheese" it's "Ah choo!"





Things to remember about this month:

- You still love, LOVE, LOVE singing and music. Your newest trick is your constant rocking when you hear music or when you get excited! It's super cute

- You are still giving mommy some sleepless nights and we had a week and a half where you were waking up every few hours again crying like I've never heard before. No teeth yet and probably just a growth/development spurt

- You are so sturdy sitting up and you love to play while you sit like a big girl

- You've started talking a lot more but you are probably just going to be a little more laid back then I'm used to =) More of an observer

- You think your sister is HILARIOUS and have started laughing so much at her!

- You started eating your veggies and fruits. Avocado, green beans, peas, carrots, applesauce, banana, prunes, squash and we're still adding food every 3 days. You have liked every single one of them! This amazes me and makes me SO excited to have you try new things. Your favorite now is banana - your tongue moves a mile a minute when you realize that's what you're eating!

- This month we said good bye to your swaddle but it is still hanging around. You don't sleep with it at night at all (except a couple times when I was desperate for an hour of sleep). You still sleep longer and go to sleep faster as soon as you get wrapped up tight. Guess you know you didn't stay in mommy's womb long enough and making up for that time! You're getting better at it but you still nap with it at least once a day.

- You are driving me crazy not sleeping through the night and I'm still trying to figure it all out. Your cry is SOOOO intense when we have been trying to teach you to self sooth but you know what you prefer - mommy's natural paci since you never took one yourself. You stinker!

- You found your feet and love holding onto them! You also love putting everything in your mouth to learn what it is.

- You started saying the consonant "B"

- You are spending a lot of time on your tummy but you don't seem to be very interested in crawling. You are VERY content just playing on your tummy or laying there with your hand in your mouth.

Some of my favorite pics from this month that haven't been posted:
She's going to be my little musician
Eden: "What am I doing here? How is this happening?" Claire: "YIIPPEEEEEE!"

Sisters
PRUNES! (and a bow)
Grandma LOVES bath time
Eden's favorite part is getting her ears clean - she sits so still

Happy Father's Day

(I'm trying to catch up from my crazy couple of weeks so I also posted about our 6th anniversary below this one!)

OK this isn't on the actual day but I have to say...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

to my

WONDERFUL, AMAZING, LOVING,

husband and father of our sweet girls!

Neil is EVERYTHING a little girl would want for a daddy. Isn't this the cutest? Claire's getting her model pose going. This was taken at Pei Wei Saturday night while we celebrated just the four of us.

Neil, you amaze me with your patience, consistency, endless story telling, imagination, selflessness, persistence, sensitivity... I could go on and on.... I don't know how I would do this without you! You are so understanding of what I do all day with our little ones and when you wake up with Claire so I can sleep in, often times make dinner when you get home from work and take over when I need a much needed break, you make me fall in love with you all over again. I know I have it good and I want you to know that I'm so blessed and thankful that we are going through this ride together! I love you with all I am and to see the girl's look at you with such love and admiration just melts my heart.

OK - enough of my gushing!! We celebrated with Neil's dad with a yummy lasagna lunch on Sunday. This first picture is SO cute! The group ones aren't that great but we don't have many of everyone together.

Happy Father's Day Gene! We Love you!

After nap, we went to celebrate Father's day with my dad. We had Jennifer, Mike and Heather in town so it was nice to celebrate with so many of us! Eden was being especially cute and laughing up a storm.

What a face!
Aunt Jenny and Eden

Laughing at Aunt Heather! She was just doing a popping sound and Eden thought it was hilarious. Wish I could post the video but it's so long - does anyone have any hints on how to upload videos easily? Let me know if so!

Claire sharing Grandpa's sweet tooth - two of a kind

Daddy duty calls while mama was taking care of big sister's fit- yes, this child is mislabeled

Happy Father's day Dad!! I don't know what we'd do without you! Thanks for everything you do for us and for loving us.

6th Wedding Anniversary

Wow! Can't believe Neil and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on the 21st! It amazes us how much our lives have changed these past 6 years and especially the last three. We feel like it's been even longer but in a good way =) We had a wonderful evening planned for Friday night - Dinner at Bravo! which is an Italian restaurant we've been wanting to try and then off to see "Wicked" at the majestic. We saw the show in NYC when we were there 4 years ago and said that we'd see it again if it ever came to SA. It was just as good even though I had a harder time listening to the music since I've now taught a few of the pieces. It's definitely one of my favorite shows ever! We met our sweet friends, Jeremy and Lezlee, at the theater which was nice because they were celebrating their 7th anniversary on the 15th. Happy Anniversary you guys!

Leaving for the show!
We weren't supposed to have cameras in the theater but we thought it'd be ok to take some pics after the show. Guess not!! After we got these great pictures inside, some other people were told not to take pictures at all. We're such trouble makers!

We love these guys!

Claire stayed the night at Neil's parents and Eden slept at Grandma and Grandpa's in my old room. We really wanted a night away but since Eden is still not sleeping through the night AND not taking a bottle (what a stinker), we also spent the night at my parent's house so we wouldn't have to transport her at midnight! I fed her, we went to dinner, came back and fed her again and then left for the show to then feed her when she got up at 12:30 a.m. ..... yes, our lives have definitely changed but we wouldn't have it any other way than being the most blessed parent's with the most wonderful girls! Next year we WILL spend some time alone and away to get refreshed!

I leave this post with a couple of our engagement pictures. I couldn't get to our wedding ones that are on CD but I wanted to post something to remind us of how young and rested we looked back then!

Our Date with Eden

Well, this post is really late but I didn't want to forget to write about this day. The last Friday of May, Claire went to MDO for a makeup day that we had paid for and needed to use. We took the opportunity to do something special with our girl Eden and found ourselves at the Japanese Tea Gardens. I'd never been and what a gem in the midst of San Antonio!! It's across from the zoo and very well hidden so I never thought it'd be so beautiful. The water fall, bridges,koi and heat reminded me of our time in China (I need to post about that someday! We taught english for 3 weeks the summer of 2004). After our hike around and a lot of picture taking, we had lunch at one of Neil's favorites, Mencius. It was the perfect date with our baby girl!

Eden wasn't too sure at first because she had only slept about 20 minutes for her morning nap. I see this face a lot!

Neil is an amazing photographer - He caught this turtle just before he dipped back under the water

Another GREAT shot - isn't he good?

Just the three of us

Neil with a really cool bridge

I don't know what this is but it was beautiful!

Eden's best picture with daddy to date! She was feeling much better when she heard we were going to be in the air conditioned car to get lunch. Oh, a daddy's girl!

More firsts

On Wednesday, Eden had her taste of real food - Avocado! She couldn't get enough of the green goo! I'm so glad she likes it because I love to have it in the house for salads, etc. but don't always use a whole one. Today she moved onto peas and ate that right up too. I had the video going for both so I could get a funny expression but nope! This girl knows that she is growing up, moving on and loving the stuff we're eating!

Along with a lot of first foods comes Eden's first real poopy diapers - oh, I'll miss those breast milk only diapers! She's also had a hard time with her system adjusting so we will introduce prunes this week. Poor thing

Eden went swimming for the first time this week! We went to Crystal's apartment pool on Friday for the momentous occasion. Eden didn't like it too much but Claire has seemed to turn into a fish this year! She still doens't want her head in the water but at least she will get in on her own now. I think the water was a little too cold for Eden but we will be trying it a lot more now that our neighborhood pool is open.

Ready to go and protecting that Lily white head!

Crystal and Claire
Not liking it too much but Daddy was comforting her



As posted earlier this week, our girl is now sleeping without her swaddle. It has been rough for nap time but over night has been ok considering the big change. She cries out a lot more and usually wakes up pretty good at least one more time. I know it will get better and it will be better for her overall! Now we don't have to make sure we carry it with us if we go out - that was getting annoying!

Now that the swaddle is gone, Eden has found her thumb. It's her way to self soothe since she won't take a paci and I'm trying to just lay her down to sleep on her own. Not sure if it will stick but it's helped with the transition so far.

Here are a few cute pics I couldn't resist posting!


A little too small but it was just a quick rinse off!