Eden

sunshine, charm, and fish kisses world's messiest and pickiest eater "stinky tower" building with blocks, vigorous waterplay, happy face drawing web worms, sticks, acorns thirsty, hot, red-cheeked flighty, spacey, in one ear and out the other leads ava without awareness, brave without thinking laughter, in-tune singing, music in the car at all costs former fruit bat, lover and hater of safa, bottom lip out pouter "i wish...", lollipops, and deep sleep ready to laugh, storyteller, hair-twirler "what's your name?", sweetness personified, shy at school lovely and loving

Ava

curiousity, kindness, and everything "right"
dirty hair, muddy fingernails, and sweat
question asker, seeker of knowledge, her sisters' keeper
tattle-tell, crying over spilled milk, reluctant fighter
pronunciator of "pachycephalosaurus" without blinking or pride
belly rubs, skipper of naps, dreading the night,
wishes for more chocolate milk, more chapter books, more siblings
kindergarten fantasizer, baby-lover (doll and human)
brave because she is often fearful, loner, good companion
swings, dinosaurs, running
thinking and thoughtful, suprisingly silly
indian food lover, windows down in the car no matter the weather

FAVORITE MARCH QUOTES

"I guess I have a gooder remembery than you." -Ava (I'm certain this is true)

"I want my shirt off because I'm too crazy" -Eden
"I made a poop that looks like a sculpture." -Eden (she was right)

"uh-oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" -Safa

Now that Safa is getting older she's more fun for Eden...she's also more annoying to her

THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR BABIES...ONE GIANT LEAP FOR BABYKIND.

Eden at the Party

Almost all the pictures of Eden from Ava's birthday party are of Eden on some ride by herself. Amy said the ride attendants just let her on without any tickets...

Safa is 1

Every year on their birthdays, I take a picture of each girl in a dress that used to be mine. Ava's is a dress I turned into a skirt and wore often while I was falling in love with Erik. Eden's is a black camisole that my mom and I both used to wear, and a long purple-blue tafetta skirt that I never wore but always wanted to. For Safa, I chose this red, strapless that I wore this Christmas.

What Five Looks Like on Ava

We ended up taking Ava's birthday dress pictures on Safa's birthday since we didn't get to do it on her birthday. What kept striking me was what a dreamer she is. She has this face in almost all the pictures. She's so far away. She just enjoyed the wind and the birds. Here are some things she has said to me lately...

"You're mine." and gave me a big hug.

"I like to see the world." She's been saying this for a long time.

While looking at the moon, "The moon is golden in my heart."

Ode to a Village

On Saturday, February 10th Ava, my first baby, turned five. And I missed it because I was sick. Really sick. The sickest I have ever been in my life. I missed everything. I missed her birthday breakfast, the dino hunt in the woods, watching her enjoy her party, blow out her candles, singing "Happy Birthday". I missed her birthday entirely. It was heartbreaking. Five has always seemed to me a milestone birthday. It is the closing of a chapter, the beginning of a new one. There is nothing of the toddler left, a big girl is beginning to emerge. I had been so looking forward to celebrating this big day with her. Now, I am generally a person who just powers through and asking for help is hard for me, but if you can't make it from your bed to the couch without almost passing out, then powering through and not asking for help isn't really an option. I realized quickly I was going to have to let go. I would not be able to micro-manage this no matter how I tried. So I did something crazy and drastic---I surrendered control. I asked Erik to call Shannon because I knew she would Marge-in-charge the situation for me. My sweet husband heroically took on the day solo, as I tried to squeak out instructions. When they got home, Erik told me about the party---Ava had a great time with her friends, Eden rode the Ferris wheel alone, Safa let Amy carry her around for awhile. Then he told me how everyone helped. The party became a team effort with everyone pitching in. People kept an eye on my children and made sure they were safe (three small children in a place like Kiddie Acres are hard to keep track of with only one set of eyes), they helped set up the birthday table, distributed tickets, kept track of presents, loaded the car, carried my baby, handed out juice, ate crappy birthday cake--- generally were extensions of myself as I lay in bed at home. They held up Ava's 5th birthday.
"It takes a village" has now become so overused and trite it's almost silly. It's also true. You know the cool thing about a village? They don't think they're doing anything at all. They just see a need and fill it. If you have a small child or children you need a village. So do your children. I foolishly think of my village as pretty small, but that's not true. If you're lucky, you have one whether you have small children or not. If you're even luckier, like me, it's even bigger than you think it is. Shannon, Amy, Amy, Craig, Marnie, and Jeff ---the village that helped Ava celebrate her birthday---from the bottom of my heart (and rattling lungs) I thank you.