My Almost 5 1/2 Yr Old Eden

Eden has a complex personality. If she knows you and deems you safe then you will be gifted with the most incredible and sincere love and friendship you have ever known. I've never understood the "painfully shy" thing but I am learning about it with Eden. In school it seems she lets friends choose her more than she chooses them although I think she does maintain a certain criteria. For instance, there is a group of girls in her class that only play princess (according to Eden's teacher) and Eden will all but not interact with them. We had a meeting with Eden's teacher last week. She emphasized just how much Eden was a tomboy (in a good way) but somewhere along the way I lost track of her being a "tomboy" and just how that would play out for her socially. 

On another note I can't begin to express how incredible it has been to get to know 5 year old Eden. She is alive to the world in a way that she wasn't before. Everything she does, she does so completely.  Whether it's climbing, surfing, playing soccer, hunting for sea glass, reading or doing "homework"; everything is done with her entire heart. She has shown an intensity and competitiveness that will likely serve her well in the future. She is also incredibly helpful at home and always striving to please. Sometimes she will give me attitude. When she does it is painful, but honestly most the time it's a reflection of her complete exhaustion. We are working through it together. And I'm sure if I could slow down (and just let her be) for half a second it would do us all a lot of good. 

Some things she has said that I would like to remember:

Already thinking those girly notions of having kids one day. A while ago she told me out of the blue: 

"I will have two girls - named Marvin and Lavin, and I will dress them in a pineapple suit.

On a similar note she is convinced that she would like to marry Zi since he is her "best friend" and she can not imagine being a part from him. I try to explain that she won't feel that way later but I don't push it too hard because for now it's just nice to witness the depth of her love for him in all of it's innocence. I sit back and wonder how that love will endure and transform throughout the years. 

On our first trip to Catalina (7/1/14) pulling out of the harbor:

"I've been wanting to go to Catalina for so long now!!"

On the ride out:

"Mom, I want to see the dolphins make their rainbow breath."

When asked if Catalina was what she thought it would be:

"Not at all. I thought there would be houses everywhere like in California. Everybody here must just live on boats."

Recently while getting ready to jump in the water at one of Jon's local dive spots, Eden exclaimed out of the blue:

"I'm not scared to jump in the water with any creature....not even a shark."

She is always asking if this food item or that food item is "good for you". And always making a mental note of the healthy food items that she does like. Often saying things like "Ok good. That's three healthy foods that I do like". She has a firm understanding that sugar is one of those food items that is absolutely bad for you. So the other day she proposed that we designate a day of the week to be "sugar free". I promise this was completely out of the blue and 100% her idea. When I explained to her just what that would mean she got cold feet but I was so proud of her for even coming up with such a brilliant suggestion.

Lately she is praying more, and being more cognizant of being thankful. For that I am thankful. Her prayers really are beautiful and sincere. One day I should record one just for memories sake. 

For all her initial love for rock climbing at out local gym, she told me (somewhat apologetically) yesterday that "rock climbing is just too boring". I can totally see where she is coming from with that and I love that she was able to express how she felt about it. 

We started reading the Narnia series over the summer. She seemed to love the first one but was totally freaked out by the second one, only a few chapters in. Finally she had to tell me to stop reading it because it was giving her nightmares. From there we read Charlotte's Web. She loved this book and begged me to read it to her over and over again - too scared to try another book ever again after finding one that she loved. Somehow I convinced her to try Little House in the Big Woods with me (part of the Little House on the Prairie series given to her by Grandma Kathy). The other night we came to the last page - when she realized it was the last page she started sobbing hysterically and begged me to stop only sentences before the end. She was devastated for the book to be over and is convinced that there are only two books in the world worth reading (and that will not make her scared) Charlotte's Web and Little House in the Big Woods. 

In Mammoth this year, every time Eden would ask a question or suggest an activity she would say: "Sense, or no sense?" For instance: "Let's go on a bike ride! Sense or no sense?" Since then this phrase has become a family staple. So much so that we considered naming the boat NoCents. But that's a whole other story. 

I'm sure I could go on and on all night about this little treasure of mine but for me it is time to go to bed. Below is a pic of her with her treasures. A sea glass haul early last month. She found all that in a single day. Pretty amazing right?