Three and a Half

Eden-

For three and a half years you have been blessing our family with your sweet spirit and easy going personality.  You are such a joy and you smile brightens my day!  Here are some of the things I want to remember about you at this stage in your life:

-You are still tall and thin.  You weigh about 36 pounds and wear size 4T clothes. 

-As a baby, you were a great eater, but lately you have become my most picky eater.  There are meals where you only eat a few bites before telling me you are done.  You used to be the girl who would eat half of the bag of grapes before I could get up to the checkout stand to pay for them, but now I can't get you to touch a piece of fruit with a ten foot pole.  Some of your current favorites are pepperoni, yogurt, cheese nachos, and most types of nuts (especially pistachios).  You also have a huge sweet tooth and never turn down cookies, candy or ice cream. 

-You have the most beautiful curly hair.  You are always telling me, "I have crazy hair!" and without a little bit of product, you are often right!  You wake up in the morning with the worst case of bed head that I have ever seen!  You are always getting compliments on your curls and I hope you will learn to love them as much as I do.

-I love listening to you talk.  You have the sweetest mouse voice that is so different from your siblings.  Your speech has improved so much over the last six months but you still have a long way to go.  If a few things don't clear up in the next few months, we will probably have another speech evaluation to see if more therapy is needed.

-As of a couple of months ago, you are fully potty trained both during the day AND night!  You are very good about waking me up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom instead of having an accident in your bed.  Hooray to no more diapers!!!

-You are not overly affectionate and when you do give kisses, it is usually only on the cheek.  Sometimes you give kisses on the cheek, nose, eyes, and chin... one right after the other. 

-You are painfully shy and do not like to be the center of attention.  I might worry about it if Granna had not reminded me that I was the same way when I was three and that I eventually outgrew it (although I still hate to be the center of attention!). 

-Any time I ask you to do something you don't want to do, you politely say, "nettime" which means, "next time".  For example:

Mommy: Eden, can I have a hug before you go to sleep?

Eden: Nettime.

or

Mommy: Please eat one more bite of your dinner.

Eden: Nettime.

-You LOVE bath time and NEVER want to get out, even after the water has turned cold.  I have to make you get out every. single. time! 

-You know most of the letters of the alphabet and can count and recognize numbers to 10.   Your favorite number is 10 and you love to look for it.  You always ask to use checkout lane #10 at Wal-Mart.

-Up until about a month ago, you hated music and singing.  You would always ask me to stop singing to you as soon as I started.  About a month ago, you spontaneously sang your first song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", in the car one afternoon.  I now catch you singing periodically around the house as you are playing.  You can't carry a tune in a bucket, but it is still one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.

You are so precious and being your mommy is such a privilege.  Your terrible two's and three's have not been that bad at all.  Like all three year olds, you have your tantrums and can whine with the best of them, but they are usually short lived and it doesn't take you long to find your "happy heart" again.  What a wonderful gift you are to our family! 

I love you to the moon and back, Mommy