I just had one.  And I don't want to forget.  And my life (and brain) seem to be filling up with so much these days that I tend to forget.  And I can't.  I just can't.

I got to rock my sweetie to sleep tonight.  Her sleep has been weird these last 2 nights.  I put her to bed tonight just like I always do and a bit after she started crying.  Occasionally, this will happen and she will sort herself out after a few minutes but not tonight.  That being out of the norm, it makes me wonder if she is feeling ok, etc.  So, I went upstairs and tried to soothe her.  That so didn't work.  So, I got her out and rocked her for a bit.  She calmed down and was looking rather peaceful so I put her back down.  And she started crying again.  I say crying, but it was pretty intense.

So, I let her cry for a bit again to see if she just needed to get it out but after a few minutes, that was not the case.  So, I decided to go up again.  And what a blessing it was to me.  Thank you Lord for giving me that precious 20 minutes with my lovey!

Anyone who knows her knows how active she is.  Always moving.  Always.  So, I grabbed her and got in the glider and just started rocking.  After a few minutes, she put her head on my shoulder and my heart melted.  I had the honor of staring into her big, beautiful brown eyes as they got sleepier and sleepier until she shut them.  We were just staring at one another.  And it was beautiful.  Do I hate that something was bothering her enough to cry so much, yes.  But it turned into such a sweet moment.

I continued to just rock with her until she was long past asleep because she was just so peaceful on me. She was still and cuddly and so cute.  I couldn't bear to put her back in bed.  (Of course, I must have, because she is not on me right now as I type, ha!)  So we just rocked and we prayed.  I am so thankful that I got that time tonight.  I noticed today (and so did Keenan, at a different time!) that all of a sudden, she has grown a ton of hair and it got me thinking how quickly she is going from baby to what will all too soon be a little girl.  Ahhhh, here come the tears again.  So thank you Lord for giving me this time tonight with my baby!  I will cherish it forever.

We made it through our first week of school.  It was a really good week.  I have a super sweet class and I am so excited about this year.  EA had a good week but with a few tough moments.  She was pretty fussy Monday, Tuesday and a bit of Wednesday.  Especially at night.  She is dropping the third nap (which I am pretty excited about really!) but it makes for a long stretch that eventually leads to crankiness.  I am excited for when the transition is over!  Normally, though, if she is cranky or fussy at night we can just distract enough to keep her happy until bath time.  Didn't happen this week though.  We were thinking she was probably a bit constipated and it was our first week back so she is going through that transition as well and she is dropping the nap.

Then, on Wednesday night, we realized why she was probably so cranky.  EA got sick for the first time.  She threw up 3 times.  It was so sad.  It got all over us but we didn't care because we were just glad we were holding her during it.  It is so hard to just sit there and hug your baby knowing there is nothing you can do to help the throwing up.  They just have to get through it.  Once she finished, she was pretty happy again though, so it was kind of weird.  She had like a .5 degree temp but after her third time, we called the doctor.  (Only because the first 2 times she was just throwing up food so we thought I had feed her too many solids.)  After talking with the doctor, they said it was most likely a virus.  She was asleep for the night by this time so we let her be.  She slept the whole night (which I wasn't expecting!) and was just fine the next day!!  She has been herself ever since.

She has started doing this funny breathy laugh and it just cracks me up!  She also is enjoying some musical instruments that I got out of her dresser!  She is also beginning to put some weight on her arms and kind of rock up and down when she is sitting.  She leans way far forward and kind of rocks but she is not yet on all fours.  I am enjoying these last few weeks (hopefully!) of having a baby that will (kind of!) stay in one place!  Its about to get crazy!

Here are some pics of the cutie:

...for a blog post, huh?  School began last week for Keen and me so we have been slowly but surely getting into the routine that will last the next 9 months.  A while back, I mentioned that I was going on part time at WCA where Keen teaches so we are at the same school now.  We have found a fabulous person to watch EA.  What a blessing she is!  Finding someone to watch your precious child is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be!

Ea is so funny these days.  She has just started to "cough" and look at us for attention.  She smiles and laughs easily and is so much fun.  She sits up so well and rolls everywhere if she is laying down.  She still loves her feet and loves to chew on them.  She doesn't really suck on anything anymore (except her paci) but has to chew on EVERYTHING.  I keep waiting for those teeth to pop through but nothing yet!  Her sleeping is going well and after a few bottle strikes she now happily drinks from a sippy cup when I am not nursing her.

She LOVES Boone.  If he is running outside, he cracks her up.  If she is sitting and he walks by her, she does everything she can to touch him.  He likes to sniff her and then she just cracks up!  She still likes to peer sideways to look at things.  She occasionally gets one leg up under her like a crawl but still not too close to that.  When she is sitting she will lean forward as far as she can to reach something so she will probably pop on over sometime soon.

We think she is starting to recognize her name which is so sweet.  She loves to "talk" and experiment with her voice.  She is in the process of dropping the third nap.  Its a little rough sometimes.  Some days she will take it and some days she won't.  For a bit, if her first or second nap was a little short she would take that third nap.  Not anymore.  It just depends on the day and I would say we go without the third nap about 80% of the time.  I don't mind that she doesn't take it, she just is way more pleasant if she took two other good naps!

Ok, here are some pics of the cutie!!!