eden is 3.5

eden is three and a half, and i just cant get enough of her

throughout eden's life i have made an effort to be diligent in documenting.  not exciting and artistic documenting, i have no skill for that.  just day in and day out documenting.  proof that things happened, and i felt things, and it all added together to make up our little agaba life.  after all, everything lasts only as long as it lasts and then our only hope of being able to linger over a memory is to either have a perfect mind, or to have recorded well enough to be able to look back and have the old memories reignited and restored.  i cant count the number of times i have thought to myself 'i will never forget this' after watching her do something or hearing some ridiculous phrase come out of her mouth.  only to kick myself days or even hours later when i can't remember that thing i knew id never forget.  so; its either forget or document.  

all that to say, today marks three and a half years of documenting eden.  longer really, since i documented so much of my pregnancy with her.  and i just want to take a moment to say that im pleased with what i have been able to preserve.  i go back and read posts about her first months or years and i remember things so keenly that i can't believe i ever forgot them.  and i feel them again as if they only just happened.  its magical in a way.  

so, blazing on in the habit of documenting...

eden is just an incredible gift.  i am sure many parents feel the same way about their own kids and its just as true for me.  she is this really unique individual with a mind allll her own and her own way of processing things and experiencing things.  these days when she has a question she goes like this 

eden: can i ask you a question?

me: yes

eden: sooooo my question is...

its the most adorable thing to me that she has come up with a call and response for queries.  she also spends most of her time in imaginative play, which i love.  we have some toys, though not many, and the ones she primarily plays with are anything that lends itself as a dress up prop, and anything that has to do with her little kitchen.  depending on the day, or even the hour of the day, she is lucy pevencie, mary poppins, elsa, a ballerina, tweedle dee, harrold hill, bert the chimney sweep, belle (passionately trying to convince beast (roberts massive foam roller) to let love into his heart again), or whatever else she has been reading about or listening to. she always assigns us bystanders with minor roles in the production but its usually mostly about her.  

she has a really great mind for memorizing, especially music.  we work on a Bible verse every week and she has them all memorized, up through q, because i put them all to song. and she loves to sing her verses in the midst of a related discipline moment.  for example i will be telling her that she must be kind to our guests and she will start singing 'be kind to each other, tenderhearted forgiving one another, just as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32'  and im like, 'yeah...what you said'.   

she loves to watercolor and make cards for people she loves.  

she talks non stop still

she will watch frozen at any hour of any day and would watch it multiple times in a row if i let her

i get little glimpses at her world when she randomly says to me things like 'eden merilee does her chores, i am sure'.  eden is her friend who now lives in texas.  

she puts her hands on my cheeks and does these big doe eyes every time i get close to her in order to instruct or correct her.  its ridiculously hard to resist.  

i could go on and on (and on a little more) about how much this girl has changed me, helped me grow up, taught be about grace and love and patience...eden we are ridiculously blessed to have you on team agaba.