You guys, I can’t even. I can’t believe I made this child.

Dear Eden,
Today you are 13 years old. This is weird. I think over the last year you’ve made it pretty clear to us that you are no longer a kid anymore. You keep reminding us, pushing for more freedom, having very strong opinions of your own, dying your hair in rainbow shades. Your brother is still a kid and you are not and that’s a strange transition for us to make. I always say that I trade you guys in for the next model every so often and you are definitely the next, teenaged model.

I’m pretty proud of the way you’re stretching your wings though. I like that you just want to explore the world around you. I was shocked the other day when you wanted to walk to Dairy Queen by yourself after school, but I think it’s really brave. You are really brave. I’m also proud of what a hard worker you are. I’ve been so impressed with the way you’ve learned the guitar basically all by yourself. I never had that kind of motivation and follow-through when I was 13. Josh says all the time how much smarter you are than he was at 13.

Probably my favorite thing about you is how thoughtful you are. I know you always notice if someone is sad and you are the first to defend your brother when he’s getting in trouble. I think it’s pretty amazing that you think about your parent’s happiness and how you effect that. I love that you care so much about social injustice.

You’re pretty cool, Eden. And I’m glad that you’re mine.

Love, Mom

A is for Art
Remember those days of colors?
B is for Bike
Think of the wind on your face.
C is for Cat
Sugar would shed all over the place.
D is for Dawn
when we were awake.
E is for Everything
that was put up to stake.
F is for Fun
days that we had.
G is for Great
just like our dad.
H is for Home
even if it is lost.
I is for Impossible
the amount of our cost.
J is for Jumping
on the old pogo stick.
K is for Kicked
a humorous trick.
L is for Love
that filled our hearts.
M is for More
ice cream from karts.
N is for No
you can’t have my toys.
O is for Opening
cabinets with noise.
P is for Pill
I don’t know how Honor does it.
Q is for Quake
as we slam the door of a closet.
R is for Racing
down the old street.
S is for Special
yes, you. You and me.
T is for Trouble
remember that corner?
U is for Unicorn
you guys made me think it was a goner.
V is for Vacation
think of our summer.
W is for Wonder
of neighborhood new comers.
X is for marking the the spot
with the old house’s treasure.
Y is for Yes
for worse or for better
And Z is for Zipping
up those old winter coats, as we stare at the snow and dream of good days and warm hot cocoa.

And now we are finished.
There’s no more to tell,
so don’t ask me of things
that already fell.
We are broken.
We are sad.
But we can make happiness last
because we’ll remember the story of our overturned past.

It seems really normal to me that Eden is now ten years old. The weird part is that I’ve been a parent for ten years. Um, what?

Eden celebrated her tenth birthday with a dance party in the living room with 8 of her friends. We had science spaghetti – she specifically requested that Jim make it – and neapolitan ice cream cake. For her present I replaced her broken iPod and she spent the day purchasing all kinds of pop songs with her iTunes gift cards. (I tell you, kids these days… every single girl knew the words to “sexy and I know it” which made me feel better about being such a terrible parent.)

At ten years old, Eden reads any and everything she can get her hands on. She picked up a copy of Coraline at the library the other day and finished it before she went to bed that night. She gets along really well with all the girls at school (something that I was never very good at) and is a peacemaker whenever conflict arises. She is also very good a writing. We are always cracking up at the stories she writes… so creative. She will participate in her second year of Girls on the Run and she is ridiculously excited about starting practice next week. Overall she is very responsible and fun to be around. She has her dad’s sense of humor and is always so good to give his sarcasm right back to him.

Happy tenth birthday Eden!

Eden always sings this sandwich song (over and over and over), so last night when she was at Jim’s, he recorded this:

I’ve been having this ongoing battle with Eden over keeping her hair clean. She is not a big fan of showers and getting her to take one was always a big fight. That was until I came up with the brilliant idea to bribe her. At the beginning of the summer I told her that she could get a feather in her hair if she could take responsibility for caring for her hair. She has done a great job showering nearly every day and brushing her hair. I’m a genius!

Today she got to get her feathers and was SO excited. Isn’t she cute?

Um, so, I love having sewing classes at my store.

Last week Eden took the kids sewing class and is now addicted. She completed her pillowcase and my machine made it out alive. (when i dropped her off for class, I tried really hard not to worry about turning my machine over to her, but I still did… a little.)

When it turned out that I needed to have the kids with me all day at Tangle Saturday (Jim always ends up having out of town shows on the weekends I work.), Eden asked if she could sew something. She whipped out these blankets for her and Honor. I cut and pinned and she did the rest, including most of the pressing.

Notice the pillowcase she made too.

These blankets are just super-simple, two layers (one flannel, one quilting cotton) sewn inside out and then turned. I was worried that they would be weird without batting, but ended up being great for this time of year. They both have drug them around everywhere.

Now she wants to sew blankets for everyone she knows. I’ve gotta teach this kid to quilt…

Three Dogs

Three dogs
Three names
Three breed
Three beds
One runs
One climbs
One jumps
Three dogs…
One Dies
One goes
One stays.
One dog
I miss the other two.

For Eden’s 8th birthday, we decided it was time she had her own room. I wanted it to be a surprise, so after much planning, sneaky shopping trips and one very late night, her room was done. And she was really surprised! Can’t believe that kid is 8 years old… doesn’t seem possible.

Before the room was our master bedroom and then converted for a few months into the playroom:
(pardon the cell phone pictures, both camera batteries were dead…of course.)

After:

I am

I swim,
love,
read,
write,
drink,
eat,
smell flowers,
play and
talk.
I am Joy!

– Eden 7yrs old.