Eva ~9 Months~

It is SO crazy to me that my beautiful little Eva is 9 MONTHS OLD! It’s so hard to say whether time has gone by quickly or slowly because when I think back to the “dark days” they seem so long ago and at the time, never ending. Now, that she is doing 10 million times better and life is fun again, time is just flying by! She is such a joy every single day. I absolutely adore everything about her and it makes me so sad that my Missouri family hasn’t been able so experience the light that she brings. Can’t wait until July!!!!

Some things about Eva at 9 months old…

*She eats all textures of food like a champ but not so much flavors. Our pantry is full of sweet potatoes because that is the only baby food she will eat.

*She can roll from her back to her belly but chooses not to because she hates being on her belly.

*Still not crawling but is AWESOME at sitting up.

*Still seeing her occupational therapist and currently working on strengthening her arms. Today we were working on her being up on her hands and knees and she face planted onto a toy. It was sad.

*My absolute favorite thing to do is getting her out of her crib after a nap because she gives the greatest smile I’ve ever seen.

*She is extremely friendly and doesn’t cry when someone she doesn’t know holds her. She smiles at strangers and is such a social little thing.

I’m so crazy about this little girl!

Kiddo Shoot

My friend, Vania, was on the Ellen Show and Ellen ended up giving her the entire Mother’s Day giveaway. A part of that giveaway was $1,500 giftcard to Shutterfly. Well, she hasn’t been able to use the whole thing and asked if I wanted any prints. Ummmm, YES! So, this called for a photo shoot of the kiddos so we could have new pics to put on our walls! As always, it was stressful but I’m pretty happy with the few “printable” pics I got. There are actually more but I didn’t have the patience to sit and edit all of them so they will have to be in a later post.

Mother’s Day

Spoiled rotten! I spent most of Mother’s Day sleeping and I loved it! While I slept soundly, Rich got up early. He came and woke me up at 9:30 and I came out to find this!

He is so cute and thoughtful! He printed a picture of each kid and underneath he put the picture that they drew for me.

From Maya, a picture of herself holding a flower for me.

From Aidan, a sweet note.

And from Arabella, a drawing of a cat that died and then came back to life…don’t ask me!

Then they each colored flowers for me! Loved it all!

 

Rich made a delicious breakfast which we ate and then we took another nap, haha!

Good morning big girl feeding herself puffs!

Church was great! After we got home we took some pics.

I’m so grateful for my calling to be the mother of 4 of the most incredible little spirits! I love this job!

In Other News…

The way Eva sleeps lately is my FAVORITE!

Also, her hair is super long.

Also, she is super smart. I asked her to point to the red block. (kidding!)

Aidan gave his first talk in Primary last Sunday! I was so proud of him, he read it all by himself and did an incredible job!

I pulled out a bin of toys that the kids haven’t seen in years. They are for Eva but they sure entertained these 3 for a good couple of hours!

Meanwhile, I’m looking for my buried treasure.

Aidan read a book about taking care of the planet and immediately wanted to do something to help the planet. He turned off all of the lights in the house and then went outside to pick up trash. He quickly discovered that the base is pretty clean but I love his heart and desire to do good (usually).

Eva Love

Seeing how much Aidan, Maya and Arabella love Eva makes me want to have another baby…but I won’t  I have to wonder if there ever was or ever will be a more loved baby in this world. The has never been any jealousy for the attention she has gotten, actually it has been the opposite! If she is sleeping, they are asking me to get her up. The second I see she is awake on the monitor, the kids are racing to her room to talk to her. While there is an abundance of love from all of them for her, I have to say that the special bond between Aidan and Eva is undeniable. Ever since she was old enough to express herself she has always reacted the most to Aidan.

He could go on all day about how special Eva is and how she is the most beautiful baby in the world and how much he is going to miss her being a baby when she gets older. I love their relationship!

 

Maya is Eva’s second mommy. She is the best at baby talk and wishes so badly that she was bigger so that it would be easier to carry Eva. Both Maya and Arabella LOVE getting in Eva’s crib and playing with her. Sister’s are THE BEST!

The daily bonding I get to watch via the monitor.

 

Just woke up from a nap and Maya moves into her crib, brings a pillow and takes over her blanket! I love this one because it looks like she’s telling Eva secrets and then giggling about it. So fun to be able to watch these special bonds develop.

Then her natural mommy instincts kick in and she feels the urge to hold her baby…

She’s getting too big for this.

Every day just keeps getting better and better.

Sometimes I’m A Cool Mom!

Yes, it’s true. There are times in my life when I am actually a cool mom. It’s not as often as both my kids and I wish but when it happens I sure as heck am gonna blog about it! It was a Wednesday afternoon an by some miracle the house was clean, the kids were fed and Eva was napping. What is the logical thing to do when this happens? Make playdough so that I have pots to wash and  the girls can make a mess! Not sure what I was thinking but it was fun

 

 

A couple of weekends ago, Rich had a class he had to take for work in Vegas so the kids and I were on our own. This puts a lot of pressure on me because almost every single weekend since Eva came home, Rich has taken the older kids out to a movie, to eat or to the aquatic center. They were bummed that dad was gone and were making comments like, “Are we going to do something fun?” “It’s going to be a boring day because daddy is not here.” Feeling the pressure? Psh, yeah! Lucky for me, it was the first REALLY warm day that we had had in a long time. We all played outside a lot.

 

We had a water balloon fight and played water balloon games…

Then, the kids ran through the sprinkler! That night we had pizza and ice cream and watched a movie. I would call it a successful weekend

 

Something of great significance happened that day too.

This is a HUGE step for her! This is something that even her amazing therapist didn’t think she would do! I was giving her crushed up tiny little granules of graham cracker and I could see that she was getting frustrated so I thought to myself, what the heck! I handed her the whole cracker, fully prepared for her to bite off a chunk and throw up……DIDN’T HAPPEN! She downed that whole cracker, taking bites and working on it until it was dissolved then swallowing. Mike, her therapist, couldn’t believe it when I showed him these pictures. She has eaten whole graham crackers almost every day since!

This was her today.

We were all so happy and proud of her!

Yes, we can survive an entire weekend without daddy and have a good time, even if we are homebound.