Is It Naptime Yet

So I’m now, and have been for over a week, a mom to two school aged children. I think it’s nuts that all my children are now old enough to attend school. Strange.

For Eden’s birthday we went swimming at the Zurflueh’s. This year Lilah had her turn for the big party, so it was Eden’s turn for a small, immediate, as in only our family, family party. Eden did want her Auntie Carolyn there though, and since she wanted to go swimming and we’d be using her boss’ pool, it only seemed natural to have the family party with Carolyn.

The Zurflueh’s were in town this year, so we were pleasantly surprised with a decorated back yard when we got there Saturday. Jenny and her daughter Irelynn had taken it upon themselves to make the birthday party very special for Eden and bought Happy Birthday signs, and princess Pez dispensers. It was so sweet, and I almost felt bad that it wasn’t my whole family coming, and just our little group of 5. Irelynn made a special chocolate sheet cake for Eden. It was her grandmother’s recipe and the cake is only made on birthdays. Irelynn was so excited to do this, so I left the flower cake I had made for Eden inside to be used on Eden’s real birthday with our family at Family Home Evening, since it just happened to fall on the same day this year.

The girls went swimming with Carolyn, Jon, and Kai while I waited for the pizza to show up. Kai is the Zerflueh’s youngest and he’s 8 years old. He was rough housing a lot with Carolyn, and then me once I was in the pool. It was fun playing rough with a boy, we were keeping him out of the spa and playing around, but I sure am happy to be the parent to two calm girls, calm for the most part anyways.
We enjoyed pizza for lunch and some fruit and then lots of swimming. The girls had just finished two weeks of swimming lessons the day before, so they were all over that pool. Lilah is pretty confident and can be on her own, with just a watchful eye to make sure all is well. Eden can swim rather far and was even trying to take breaths and looked under water without goggles. It was wonderful to see how much they learned in two weeks.

Our family gathering for Family Home Evening was on Eden’s real birthday so I brought cake and cupcakes for the family to enjoy. We made a small special flower shaped cake out of a baking kit we won at the family reunion. We all sang Happy Birthday to her that evening after the lesson.

It’s really funny that Eden is now five. I see her getting older and behaving a little more like Lilah, and not such a little, little girl. Lilah and I have the rule, you spank me I spank you, and now Eden uses that rule too. Not only for spanking, but for tickling too. Lets just say I love being the tickler and not the ticklee. She too is testing her independence!

Eden’s learned so much in this last year and is really changing. One thing is reading. Eden began learning to read in September last year and now is an excellent reader. She constantly surprises me with how much she knows, because she doesn’t like to read to me, though she’s getting better about it. Eden is very giving and if you asked her to share, she will often say yes. She loves to cuddle and even though she hasn’t been taking naps for a while, will still come and cuddle with me at times throughout the day. She won’t in the morning though, because she knows I’m just trying to get her to go to sleep longer so I can sleep more too. You can tell if Eden needs cuddles because she stands next to you playing with her hair and tickling you with it. Eden’s very imaginative. She can play with almost anything. Today she started playing with the spoons as she was putting the dishes away.

I’m very happy to be Eden’s mom and love having her as my daughter. I really would like her to stay little. (Really, I’d like both girls to stay little.) So if anyone finds a way to make that happen, please let me know. 😉