Six

I finished writing this post around 5:30 yesterday and forgot to post it. I'm a little tired. So today I give you countdown days six AND five.


My girls go to an alternative school that doesn't hold classes on Thursdays and Fridays. So my mother-in-law comes on Thursday mornings for a few hours. And when she came this morning, I headed out the door with my many lists in hand, a woman on fire. Obsessed. Possesed? I went to eight different places in 2 hours and 45 minutes. (Thank you Alice!) Including the grocery store. The birthdays are kicking my ass. But I am happy.

The rest of this post isn't going to have anything to do with preparing to leave. The remainder of this post is stories of my girls that are worthy of inclusion here and I'm afraid I will forget to write them down in the new brother frenzy.

Most of the funniest things said in our family come from the mouth of Eden, 5:

"I love honey more than I have fingers."

"Of all the animals, the scorpian is the one I worst want to take care of." (After a date with Erik to the exotic pet store.)

In this aforementioned alternative school, they have engaging teachers and 5 year-olds write poems so beautiful you could weep. The following are by Eden:

Flowers
Pretty, colorful
Growing, blooming, swaying
They make the world beautiful.
Red, white, purple
Spreading, opening
Silence

A Shell

Pink, peach spirally
Came from the sea
It used to be a home
Now it lives with me.

This came on her own yesterday:

Snails slithering beneath the morning sky
They don't let anyone see them,
In their shells they sleep.


Eden and Safa, 3, do this weird thing in their pretend play where they talk as if they are reading from a book written in the third person. I think it comes from watching Thomas the Tank Engine. So they say things like, " 'I can do that!' she said, flipping through the air." So Safa and Eden were playing baby and Mama and I overheard this:

Safa: "Waaaaaaaaa. Mama!"
Eden: " 'What is it?' I said sternly."

The following is a conversation you could only have with a 3 year-old. We were on a walk and Safa was distressed, looking for something.
"What are you looking for?" I said.
"That thing I lost." she said.
"What was it?"
"It was the same thing I had earlier, but different."
Okaaaaay. I've been around the block with toddlers a few times, so I pull out a trick that almost always gets somewhere.
"What color is it?"
"The same color as the thing I had." This was said in a kind of why-do-keep-annoying-me-with-these-incessant-questions-when-I'm-trying-to-find-the-thing-I-lost, sort of way. I gave up.

Haapy Christmas Faces

The Price of a Tender Heart

On Sunday morning I got up with Safa and Eden while Erik and Ava slept. It was early, maybe 7:00 AM. Eden promptly found the biggest click bug I've ever seen on the kitchen floor. I'm sure you know these insects. I'm sure they have proper name. They are the unfortunate, seemingly ill-conceived creatures that simultaneously "click" with a quick bend of their bodies and then pop up into the air much to the delight of children. I've always found them odd and once remember hunting one particularly "clicky" one in the middle of the night because it was keeping me awake.

The click bug Eden found was not doing so well. And because she loves all things living, all things nature, she watched and held it for awhile. I made coffee, got Safa some milk, checked my email and then about 20 minutes later came to ask her if she wanted some milk. She turned her head away from me and nodded a small "yes" and I could see she was about to break.

"Did it die honey?"
A face was red, her eyes were full of tears, and she nodded.
"Oh, sweetheart, I know." And then she fell apart. I gathered her up in my lap. "Oh, Eden you have such a big heart. I love your big heart. I know how much it hurts because that's how I am too."
I was quiet for awhile and just let her cry. I cried with her for the pain of knowing that she will go through life with her tender heart exposed to the world. I know what it's like.

I said, "I believe that because that click bug was a living thing that it matters that you were with it when it died." I wasn't placating her. I do believe this.

"Eden, I know what it's like to go through the world with such a sensitive heart. And I will tell you it makes life harder, but it makes life so beautiful and I wouldn't want to change the way I am. " This is almost always true.

Once on a visit to see my parents we saw "Gladiator" in the theater. I don't remember very much about the movie, only that it knocked me to my knees. I was so broken by that movie I could barely walk. I wept afterwards as we walked as a family through Sam's amazed at all the ways people could find to hurt each other. It can be embarrassing to be the only sobbing mess at a movie like "Gladiator". It can be embarrassing to be known as the one who swerved the car to miss the butterfly. I have learned to see this as a gift most of the time, but it can prove very difficult when you are, say, waiting to go get your son in Ethiopia.

I brought Eden the dried petals from the orchid that my sister brought to me on the day we were matched with Yonas to hold with the click bug. I'm not sure why. They were pale purple and beautiful and I knew that holding something beautiful would help. So I held my big hearted girl while she held a dead bug and dried flower petals and we waited for the pain to pass enough to get up from the kitchen floor and face the world.

Eden is Five

past birthday dress pics here
And here

And Then One Day, You Can't

"Mama? Did you know I can see the air?" Eden said.
"Uummmm.." I said.
Her eyebrows were high and her eyes wide. She nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, I can. I know I can. I really can."
"Really?" I said.
"I know I can. I can see it all the time. Even inside. Even at night. It's like little circles all across, everywhere."
My first thought was, is she on drugs? My second thought was, does she need another $500 eye exam?
Then I remembered something. Kids are weird. Quirky, beautiful weirdos. And this--I'm pretty sure I can remember seeing the air too. Maybe it's a superpower only given to girls who are ladybug magnets. Maybe you grow out of it. Who am I to say the girl can't see the air?
So I said, "That's cool, babe. Really cool."

Because we all know, someday, she'll realize she can't see it anymore.

The Great Roly-Poly Exodus of 2009

Ava left her shoe outside. Many, many roly-polys (what IS the plural of roly-poly?) decided to make a home there in the night. They chose it because it was so stinky it felt like home. Ava found them in the morning. She shared the good news with Eden, Lover of All Things Living. Eden decided to bring them inside and then let them go. Result: Many, many dead roly-polys in all corners of the house. Roly-polys, they travel far. May they rest in peace.

EDEN STORIES

Here are two Eden stories:

The other day, just to see what they would say, I asked Ava and Eden what their favorite thing about being alive was. Ava answered first: "Roller skating, going to school, swimming and reading."
Me: "Yeah, those are fun things about being alive!"
"How about you Eden, what's your favorite thing about being alive?"
"Uuuumm, 'cause like, when you're a kid, you don't have to die as soon as when you're a grown-up."







I read to them sometimes while they eat dinner. They are usually books of a certain nature-- self-esteem, compassion, diversity, adoption, Ethiopia, working on our Amharic. Stuff like that. So last week while reading a book called, "I Like Myself!", this is what happened:

The book begins--"I like myself! I'm glad I'm me. There's no one else I'd rather be. I like my eyes, my ears, my nose. I like my fingers and my toes. I like me wild. I like me tame. I like me different and the same. I like me fast. I like me slow. I like me everywhere I go. I like me on the inside, too, for all I think and say and do."

And before I could turn to the next page Eden says, "Even if you poop your panties?"
So I said, "Yes, even if you poop your panties."

This is particularly funny to me because through some miracle, none of my children have ever pooped their panties. Ever. So I don't know if she was working on some decision about someone at school, or just wondered if one could actually like themselves if they were to do such a thing. I hope that the message was clear---EVEN if you poop your panties, you can still like yourself.

EDEN IS FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!

She choose all the poses herself. I didn't tell her what to do. She loved it. It was so hot and she just wanted to stay in those fancy, synthetic clothes.

Oh my sweet Eden. What a joy... Such a tender-hearted goofy girl. She forgives easily, doesn't retaliate, can't follow directions to save her life, and is a ladybug magnet. She has a quiet strength that is easy to miss. She could win a medal for pouting. She loves deeply and fiercely.

Here's my most recent funny Eden story: I generally try to not have to go to the grocery store with all three gals. Target or something is fine. I can even do Costco with no trouble. But there is something about the small Sun Harvest around the corner from our house that brings out the crazy in my girls if they are all there together. It is a small store that gets surprisingly crowded. They save up the crazy for this store. I spend the entire time either apologizing to other patrons, or saying things like "Please stop being a train."

So with school out, I found myself in the parking lot of Sun Harvest taking deep breaths. So I say, "Okay, I want to talk a bit about behavior in the store. I want to see calm bodies, that stay close to me, and children who listen to my words. I don't want crazy jumping in the aisles, or silly, loud noises. It is a small store and when you guys go crazy in it, it makes me feel---" Now I didn't pause, or struggle for my next word, but Eden with a smile on her face, before I can speak my next word says, "Bossy?" And I started laughing even though it was annoying and I said, "Nooooooo, I was going to say frustrated, but I can get bossy real fast..."

That trip was smooth sailing. And I didn't even have to get bossy.

Eden and Safa Ride the Plane

I was so certain she was too small to ride, she was quite confident she would be fine. So was the attendant. So I let her get on fully expected her to start to scream and need to get off, or try to stand up and promptly be struck in the head by an oncoming plane. This is what happened instead.

SWEET EDEN

WHAT ARE SISTERS FOR?

Eden fell asleep on the couch on a particularly
tired afternoon. I walked by and saw paper piled
over her face while Safa attacked her toes and eyes.
Ava had been drawing pictures and putting them
on her while Safa poked and prodded her. She slept
through the whole thing.

THE MORNING EDEN TURNED THREE

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

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...

EDEN

I know I'm her mother, but she is the most charming child I have ever known. Here are some of my favorite recent Eden quotes:

"I don't have any clothes on, right? But that's okay, because I'm cute now."

I will preface this one by saying that we haven't had popsicles in the house since the summer and there were no booty issues when she said it: "Popsicles make my booty feel better."

"One time, I used to live in an orange car in the valley, and a T-rex bone crashed out of the earth."

Eden's Halloween lingo interpreted:

"ladypops"= lollipops
"starfood"= starburst
"this house is not working"= no one home to give out candy

I like how you can tell Eden is smiling
without being able to see her mouth

Look What Eden Found!!!

Of course...

Sir Elton Would Be Proud

Isn't this what he wore at the 1973 concert in Budapest?