Eden is changing so much these last few weeks. Along with her first little tooth, five new ones have emerged all at once. Poor little miss. She loves to run around the house holding on to anyone’s hands. We are trying to convince her that she needs our help less by forcing her to go with just one hand. If no one is willing to chase her around the house then she grabs a toy and crawls around with a clunk clunk clunk of whatever she isn’t willing to let go.
She can stand up on her own, but she is still timid and isn’t so sure she likes exploring the new altitude alone. After coming into two story homes we have been practicing our stair safety. She can get up and down pretty well. We have also taught her the “feet-first” technique of getting off the couch. She wants to climb everywhere!
Eden began to notice animals a few weeks ago. We took her to the zoo while my mom and Gramma were in Idaho Falls. It was great too watch her understanding develop as she watch them. Now she is having an up close and personal experience with my parents two dogs. Eden has now climbed all over Sheba and gotten a whole lot of licks. She loves to chase Libby around the kitchen island (though I am not so sure Libby loves it!) and has been caught thoughtfully handing her food under the table to her new friend. The dogs are very gentle with her.
She is more expressive. We like to mock her and make fun of her when she gets all fakey whiny. She is a ton of fun.
We have had a blast getting together with all of Chad’s family. This is the first time we have all been together since we have been married anyway. We are having a great time. We have been having a lot of fun just going and doing little things. We did family pictures and almost got caught in a huge storm. It will be interesting to see whether the pictures come back with us looking like we’ll blow away. July fourth we woke up early and went to raft the Hoback junction. Renee was a saint and stayed home with all five grandkids. The river was completely different than it was the last time we went. The water was pretty chilly but we had a great time. Adrenaline kept us warm during the rapids. We kept Eden up late to see her first firework display down on the river. She looked like she was enjoying the spectacle for the first few minutes, but she was so tired that she snuggled down into the carrier and fell asleep. It was so nice to come home from our adventures abroad and then celebrate our homeland upon arrival. It was a nice way to come home. The fireworks were fantastic and we all had a nice time together.
Eden plays so well with her cousins. It’s cute to see them following each other around and giving each other clumsy hugs. Eden has never been happier–she doesn’t whine when her cousins are around. I guess she gets bored being an only child sometimes.
Ramping up to move has been crazy. We packed up pretty easily and the movers came and went without incident. Then we cleaned our rears off and ran errands. We had a number of people come to our place to help us move out all our possessions. It was sad to see our things get purchased for pennies or be thrown out. Bummer! But after all the Swiss Standard Cleaning and unregistering with immigration and checking off our long list of to-do items we managed to close up the doors, lock them behind us and say goodbye to our home of 2 1/2 years in Switzerland.
We stayed with the Schwendeners and then the Mascaros for awhile before our flights. We went down to the Jacksons’ and enjoyed their company on Saturday. Dani and I sang in Sacrament meeting. I completely fell apart after we finished. Mascaros threw us a great going away party with the Schwendeners, Baumanns and Sannemans after church on Sunday. Chad, Eden and I went to Jenna’s for a last “Thursday.” We crashed on her couch. It was wonderful. Things were pretty busy right up until our flights Wednesday morning.
We had a long day of traveling–almost 24 hours from door to door. Besides me getting motion sick the first leg, the rest of the trip went well. Eden did great. Unfortunately our fabulous BOB stroller was lost in transit. Who knows if we’ll ever see it again!
Going through passport control leaving Switzerland and then customs in the Atlanta airport made me get all emotional. It is sad to leave behind such a wonderful life we have had the last few years, but we are happy to be home.
