treasuring

Eden is now a year old. A whole year. One. When people ask how old she is, I no longer say x-number of months; I say, "She just turned a year." And then it will be, "About a year and a half." And then, "Just about two."

On the same day, Israel hit the two-and-a-half mark. And just before that, I hit everyone's favorite age: 29. (I plan to only spend one year here, though.) It's enough to make a girl feel like the pace of her life isn't in her own control.

Plus, Eden is in the changes-with-each-passing-day stage. I said about a month ago that Eden had made it to "toddler" earlier than I expected. She walks, she talks, she throws fits; she can still fit her size three month onesie. (Okay. The arms are a little short.) The other day, I took out the camera to catch her saying and signing the word, "more." She turned, looked at the camera, and said, unprompted, "Cheese." (More or less...but those of us there knew exactly what she had said!) She says all kinds of things, its seems, and I know it grows exponentially from here as she tries to say everything she hears. For my own records, and to amaze and astound the rest of the world, here are the things she says that I understand:

"Hi!" (especially when pretending to talk on the phone)
"Bye, bye."
"nie, nie" (for night, night!)
"more" verbally and with a sign
"please" verbally and with a sign
"TI, ti!" for "thank you!"
"Mommy"
"Daddy"
"baby"
"Dah!" or "Doggy"
"Ca..." for cat
"Ah nuh!" with a sign that means, "All done!"
"Buh-bwye," which she says for butterfly at the end of the Very Hungry Caterpillar book.
"huh-gy" which she also repeats during a reading of said book
"yeh I duh" which is copied from a book that repeats the line, "Yes, I do!"
"bah" for ball
"buh" for book
"mee-muh" for "banana." She's a creative one. :)
"no..." seems to mean "nose" these days
"No, no!" (Self-explanatory.)

She chuckles when you ask her if she's funny. If she can tell you're asking her a question, she often responds, "No." She's learning to hold up one finger when asked how old she is. She can blow you a kiss, punctuated with a "Mmmm-WAH!" She comes to me with her arms up and gives me hugs while patting my back. She swats at her brother if he's in her way. She laughs if you do it back. She is perfect. And less of a baby each day.

I'm in the wow-is-this-really-the-last-time-I'll-hold-my-baby? stage. So I experiment to find out. Israel is fascinated with babies these days and asks if I have one in my belly (like his babysitter does) and where my baby is. I told him he was my baby and he said, "I'm not a baby." I almost said, "You are, too!" but that would undermine some of our potty-training slogans. So I modified the "big boy" from potty training to "little boy" upon completion of potty training, phase 1 . That makes one little boy and one little girl, whose hair is long enough to require fixing and who thinks she is every bit as old as her brother.

Pat found a bink in the car this week, stared at it, and said, "The days of this thing are numbered." But the days of that thing have been over for some time. They're gone. Eden never really took it anyway and I rushed Israel out of it so I could stop having to put it in his mouth during the night. We won't be needing that anymore. I've given away many things we "won't be needing anymore." Like the exersaucer. And the swing. And the bassinet and the floor mat Israel spent hours and hours on. And the size 4 diapers. (I think Eden will be 6 before she'll need that size!) We didn't even need a carrier for Eden at the Children's Museum! She walked most of the time! The days of so many things are gone.

I often think of the times in the Bible that talk about how Mary "treasured these things" or "pondered them in her heart" or something like that. And I hope I've treasured enough. I try to take snapshots by writing down the words my kids can say. I know the list will seem funny and short in a matter of months. I recently realized that Israel no longer tells me "huh moh-nih" for "good morning" and someday Eden will not play peek-a-boo by putting her hand on the side of her head and saying, "Bee!" And I'll miss it. In some ways I miss it already and I hope writing it down somehow bottles it up and saves it. It's a careful balance to strike between enjoying the moment and saving it for later. Do I run and get my camera when Israel is pretending something really funny or do I get in the floor and pretend with him? How should I treasure these things? Hope you don't mind as I fluctuate between trying to catch it all and trying to just participate in it all.

All that said, here are a couple of captured treasures from life these days.

Eden is the one who initiated this particular action. She is one crazy baby!

This one is a bit longer for those itching for an Eden update. This is a couple of weeks old, but you can get a bit of an idea of what she's doing these days. I wish I could've gotten her to dance for you! It's too cute. Perhaps I'll have to cue the music at a later date.