How do I remove nail polish from carpet?

That is the question for today...more like the theme to my life lately. Does anybody have any ideas? Seriously?
So Eden's walking now. Full up walking. She still falls over quite a bit, but she's pretty stable. This means she has learned how to reach up for stuff, climb in to stuff, and crawl under stuff. This has made for many moments where I simultaneously think "Oh crap!" and "This is the funniest thing ever!" Thus, the many and blurry photos. Let me elaborate with photos.

Scenario #1:

This is the root of the nail polish question. She had grabbed my nail polish bottle, and in the course of about 30 seconds (while my back was turned, of course), she had unscrewed the bottle and gotten the polish everywhere. (Speaking of opening things, the child is a master at opening anything. Seriously, anything at all. This is usually the source of most of my "Oh crap!" moments.)

Scenario #2:

She loves to climb on things. Today she decided to climb up on the printer box, then to stand up and survey her world. Luckily she did not fall down. I'm waiting for the day when that will happen...because it will. One day.

Scenario #3:

I didn't mention climbing through things...but she can. The dog door, in particular. (By the way, I made that shirt she's wearing.)
Then she turns around and looks at me with this mischievous grin, and my heart melts.


Scenario #4:

Everything goes in her mouth. At least this time it was food...albeit an entire Saltine. But whatever.

Scenario #5:

I'm cooking. I look down. My child has disappeared into the cabinet. And has climbed onto the top shelf. Great.

Scenario #6:

This was one of my more major "Oh crap!" moments. Can you tell what's in her hands? That's right. Mini bottles of alcohol. I have them in a cabinet far in the back to cook with, and of course!!! Eden found them. Of course. And I love the look I happened to capture in the photo. That's how I'm sure she would have looked had she been successful at opening the bottles.

Scenario #7:

Another one of my more severe "Oh crap!" moments. I was unloading the dishwasher, turned around to rearrange a stack of plastic bowls, and turned back around and Eden had crawled onto the dishwasher door, pulled out a knife (a butter knife, but still) and a fork and was sucking on the knife. Joy.

Scenario #8:

I was watching my friend's kid, Noah, and Eden got a hold of the Kleenex box and began pulling out all the tissues. Then Noah joined. After taste testing a few, Eden decided it was more fun to rip them to shreds.

Scenario #9:

While I was doing laundry, Eden discovered how to pull out the bowls from Ruby's dog food container and stick her head inside of it while wiggling her fingers in the food. I've found her many times with the dog food in her hands, but I've yet to catch her trying to eat it. I'll let you know the day that happens.

Scenario #10 (10? Is anyone else tired just from reading about Eden's shenanigans?)

Full speed ahead down the hallway ready for church. Of course with something in our hands.

Wait! Come back here!

Scenario #11:

This is a frequent game we play called "How many items can we hold in our hands and/or stick in our mouths?" I love that the items are swimming goggles. I don't even remember the last time we used those things. Where did she even get them out of???

Scenario #12:

We've already investigated the dog food. Now for the water.

Scenario #13:

This is another game we play called "Can I fit in this?"

The answer is no. (She was crying in this photo. I was laughing.)

Oh, Eden. You goober. You drive me crazy.

But I love you more than anything in the world. You little goofus.

Lovefest

Ya ever love something so much you just don't know what to do with yourself?

I feel that way about my little girl. She's just the cutest, sweetest, spunkiest, most precious lovey dovey Muffin Moodle Poodle in the whole wide world.

In my opinion.

She gets cuter every day. Today, she crawled into the tupperware cabinet - all the way into it - I could have closed the door - just to get a plastic lemon holder in the very back.

Yesterday she crawled onto the dishwasher door and hung out there with the clean dishes while I laughed and took photos.

This evening while I was cooking dinner she wanted to be held so I was holding her while I cooked dinner. She helped me hold some potatoes. First, she taste-tested them. They passed.

Then I was still in the middle of cooking so I cleaned out the sink and she took her bath in the sink and had a joyous time with the scrub brush and the 1/4 measuring cup.

I just love her so stinkin' much! And I just had to tell somebody!

We're back!

Happy Summer, everyone!

We had a fantastic time at the beach. The biggest thing that happened over that time is that before the beach, Eden was taking a few steps every few days and by the time we returned she is now walking all over creation. She is a living testimony of the notion that before they walk, all you want them to do is start walking, and after they start walking, all you want them to do is sit down and be still. She doesn't sit still at all anymore. Even to eat. She'd rather be hungry than stop exploring and playing. She's also testing out how effective tantrums and yelling are. I'm trying really hard to make sure she knows they are not effective, but man, sometimes all I want to do is laugh and kiss on her when she's yelling and shaking her little fists because I've taken something away from her. Is that normal? It makes me laugh so hard. I try not to know, because I don't want her to try to make me laugh by screaming. Ah, the joys of parenting.
Here are some photos from our trip:



Funny story: One morning my mom was watching Eden while I was asleep. (Kevin was back in AL working at this point.) All of sudden I hear "Close the drawer, Muffin! Close the drawer!" I got out of bed real quick because something in my mom's voice made me concerned. I went out in the hall and discovered that Eden had closed the door to the bathroom and opened a drawer in the vanity and locked herself in the bathroom and Mom couldn't get her out. Then Eden started crying and Mom thought she had hurt herself or something. Eden had discovered the bottom drawer in the bathroom at the beach house had fun toys like Tylenol bottles and cold medicine. Luckily we got the drawer closed and the door opened pretty quickly, but Eden had discovered how to open the child proof pill bottles. Talk about giving us a heart attack. Good gracious. Luckily everything worked out fine and Eden was okay. But I took this picture only about 10 minutes later (apparently the adults did not learn from their lesson the first time). After that, we kept the hallway blocked so she couldn't go back into the bathroom.


More getting into trouble:


Eden and her Toto (my mom)


And on the way home, we stopped at our favorite store. Can you guess where we are?


So that's our trip. Nothing special happened. We just had a really nice time. It's nice to be back home now, though.

Firsts

What a great week it has been so far! This week was Eden's first birthday and besides turning one, she has done quite a few "firsts" in the past few days. I've gotten videos of them all, except one: her first step. She has taken her first step, but she'll only do it once and then refuses to do it again. She does seem to be motivated to take more steps if there's an interesting toy she wants to get her hands on, but apparently if Mommy is present, it doesn't work. So anyway, here is the past week in photos:

First birthday complete with first cupcake (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting)




First outfit I sewed for her (it's reversible with matching bloomers and reversible hat):


First mylar balloon (man, did she enjoy this):

12 months-enjoying a balloon from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

First time in a pool (watching while Mommy blows bubbles):

11 months-first time in pool from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

First time climbing up her playpen (her monkey genes must have recently kicked in):

12 months-climbing playpen from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

And finally, the first time feeding herself with a spoon (technically it's a fork, but whatever):

12 months-feeding self with spoon from Cameron Lawracy on Vimeo.

There you go! By now you've probably burned up a good 30 minutes staring at the amazing feats of Eden. I wanted to make sure you had your fill of her because for the next 3 weeks starting tomorrow I'll be at the beach with Kevin and her and eventually my mom, so no blog postings till the middle of June. Here's to family vacation! Woo-hoo!

P.S. As always, I feel the need to apologize for the excessive squealing and laughing from me on the videos. Apparently once you become a mom, things like watching your kid eat with a utensil and play with a balloon become the most exciting things you see. So please pardon my excessive noise.

P.P.S. The password for the swimming pool video is the same as always. However, apparently I have created 2 passwords by mistake. Try both. One should work. Hint: it's 13 characters long (letters and numbers).