Life of Eden

I write an update for Ila each month, but it's been a while since I've written about just Eden.  And I need to; she's changing and growing and maturing at lightning speed!

She's so wonderfully weird, as three year olds are.  You know, like dancing all by herself at weddings.  And barking as we go up and down the aisles of the grocery store because she's pretending to be a puppy.  Or saying her nightly prayer as "tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet" because now she's a bird.  I love it.  And I encourage it.  It's so sweet and innocent and I want it to stay like this for a really, really long time.

She is the biggest chatterbox!  And it's so hard to believe now that once upon a time she was a late talker.  Because now she doesn't shut up.  Ever it seems.  She talks our ears off.  Even when she watches a TV show or a movie, it's all "Look how cute Little Foot is!  Why is his name Little Foot?  Where is Little Foot going?  AH, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, hide me!  Why is Little Foot sad?  Why is Little Foot sleeping there?  Look Mommy, look at Little Foot's tree star!"  (She loves The Land Before Time - she's still into dinosaurs!)

She loves dinosaurs, princesses, trains, animals, flowers, the beach, going on wagon rides, fishing, golfing, swimming (as long as she doesn't put her head under water... she does NOT like that), riding on the Ranger, reading books, horses, going to gymnastics, playing hopscotch, watching movies, watching Mickey Mouse, Doc McStuffins, and Bubble Guppies, swinging, puzzles, coloring (she just recently got into coloring, and now she's constantly coloring pictures to give to everyone we know) stickers, story time at the library, the list goes on and on...

She loves everything.  Really.  When I give her her vitamin in the mornings... "I love vitamins!  They make me big and strong!"  When it's time for her to take a bath... "I love taking a bath!  I love being clean!"  When I ask her if she wants a squeezy yogurt for snack time... "I love squeezy yogurts!"  When I ask her if she wants to walk down to the mailbox with me... "I love checking the mail!"  I kid you not, one time she told me she loved bathrooms while we were in a public restroom.

My favorite?  "Mommy, I love God.  I'm going to tell God that I love him.  (looks up to the sky)  I LOVE YOU, GOD!"

 outside The Children's Museum a couple of months ago (Susie made her sweater... love it!)

She has never met a stranger and loves everyone that she meets.  I know because she told me, "I LOVE EVERYONE!"

She told me the other day that she wants to be a vet when she grows up.

at Train Fest back in April

So let's talk about that puppy up in that first picture.  That's Green.  So back way before we ever went to Alabama, I named Ila's puppy Blue (keeping with her water theme).  Eden immediately went and picked up a puppy and said, "And this is Green".  And I was like um, sure, whatever.  I kinda just thought that she was being silly and didn't realize that she was seriously picking out a dog for herself.  But after that, anytime I said anything about Blue, she would start talking about Green.  I wasn't really sure how to break it to her that she wasn't keeping a puppy - she was so excited and everything - so I just kept ignoring the situation.  The evening we got home from Alabama, she immediately went to Green and started telling her how much she missed her!  I realized then that I was in trouble.  I could NOT take the puppy away from her at that point!  I should have addressed it in the very beginning, but I didn't, I let her think for weeks that she was getting a puppy.  So I told Dustin that we had to keep Green too.  (FORTUNATELY somebody who was originally supposed to take a puppy backed out.)

So, uh, for those of you keeping count, that brings our total to SEVEN dogs.  We're being featured on the next episode of Hoarders.  So now Eden has two dogs of her very own.

Daisy and Green in Eden's room

Eden gets to fall asleep every night with Green next to her, but I sneak back in after Eden is sleeping and take Green out since she's not completely potty-trained yet.  

Eden goes to bed every night at 7:30.  Which is ridiculous because it's still completely light outside. 

We still spend Tuesday mornings at gymnastics.

And she also started horseback riding lessons a few months ago!

So far, so loving it!

Also (this was super exciting to me!), she has enough hair now to pull all of it back into a ponytail!

We've been golfing.  Putting her Easter present to use!

 I think her golf clubs are so dang cute next to Dustin's!

^^^ The blow pops were my Mother's Day present from Eden!  :) :) :)  Dustin asked Eden the day before what she wanted to give me for Mother's Day, and her answer was "lollipops!"  Dustin took her to the grocery store so she could get them for me.  Notice the H-E-Buddy sticker - Eden LOVES the sticker that she gets at the grocery store check-out every trip, so I thought it especially sweet that she came home that day and gave it to me!

On the Friday before Father's Day, I took Eden to the Dollar Tree, gave her a basket, and told her she could pick out three presents for Daddy for Father's Day.  I told her she could choose anything in the store and to think really hard about what Daddy liked.

The only input I gave was when she came across a fireman's helmet after she already had three things in her basket.  She was so torn about which three things to keep, so I assured her that the helmet would never ever fit on Daddy's head.

"But it fits my head!  Can I have it?"

"No.  We're shopping for Daddy, not you!"

After she had settled on three things, I took her to the gift wrapping aisle, and she chose a bag, a bow and tissue paper.  Then we chose a balloon, went home, put the present together and hid it in her closet.

Of course as soon as Dustin came home from work on Friday afternoon Eden said, "Daddy, don't look in my closet!  There's a present in there for you!"  The rest of Friday and all day Saturday, Dustin kept messing with her and telling her he was gonna go look in her closet.  "NOOOOOO!!!!", she would scream!  On Saturday night, Dustin started walking up the stairs and called out, "Eden, I'm walking up the stairs... I'm going to your closet..."  She FREAKED OUT.  She came running and threw herself at Dustin's legs, wrapped her little arms around one of his legs in an attempt to hold him back and burst into tears.  So sad.  So hilarious.  "Dammit Dustin, STOP messing with her!"

On Sunday morning, Eden ran into our room.  "Mommy, is today the day to give Daddy the present?"  "Yep!", I told her.  She ran and got it and was SO DANG HAPPY AND EXCITED to climb into our bed and give it to Dustin.  Dustin's Father's Day gift:

The bat and baseball were a set.  She was most excited about the plates.  She was very proud that we used them for both breakfast and lunch that day.

I'm happy to report that Kitty-Cat is still going strong!

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the trampoline that Eden got for Christmas.  It died a tragic death during one of the many thunderstorms we've had; it flew over our deck and landed in a crumpled heap in our pasture.  

Annnnddddd, she is officially all signed up to start preschool this fall!  She's going three mornings a week.  That's all this mama could handle for now, but I'm super excited for her!  She's such a little social butterfly, she's gonna have so much fun!  I can't wait to go school supply shopping (woohoo watercolors and glue sticks!), and we already have her first day of school outfit picked out!

My little baby is growing up, y'all!  

 our dewberries that we picked last month

 funny faces

 combining two loves... being a princess and her garden (we've been having a hell of a time staying on top of the grass situation in her garden thanks to all the rain we've been getting!)

 Dustin's parents gave her an inflatable water slide for Easter.  She's been having a blast!

 We went and visited my mom and Mark last week, and Eden attended Vacation Bible School at their church.  Here's Eden before her first day.