Eden tops the single digits!

She's 9 years old now, so next year we break into the double digits! She's so fun and interesting. She loves scientific things, girly things, techno things and gymnastics. Give her a science experiment, a new purse or hairdryer, a chance to do handsprings or an iPad to play on and she's equally enthralled. I love this about her. I can think of a million things she'd love to do and the list never seems to end.
Yesterday was her birthday. I relived every detail of her birth with her, which she absorbed with great interest. In my personal experience, children love to hear every detail about the day they were born. It seems to resonant deeply with them that their parents must love them very much to want to reminisce about that special day.
The school costume party fell on her birthday so I asked her if she wanted to go and she didn't. I asked if she wanted pot pie and german chocolate cake, and she did. This is typical of Eden. One birthday we would have gotten her anything for her birthday and she asked me to make spaghetti. So, somehow the day spun out of control between buying groceries, taking treats to Eden's class for her birthday and then doing gymnastics, so I did not get the pot pie done. I asked if frozen one's would work and of course she was fine with that. Eden's as easy to please as anything. I did make the entire german chocolate cake and frosting from scratch start to finish with a couple of bumps along the way... one particular bump being the giant one in my belly.
She had her party today and it was so sweet to see little faces that have been a part of her birthdays year after year. Scout, Lauren and Charlotte have all stayed friends with Eden since Kindergarten and it is cool to see that constant in her life. I hope we've settled.
We got home from the party and Eden landed on the couch with a big sigh. She smiled at me and said "that was such a great party Mom." She got up and hugged me and said "thank you" with great feeling. That's what I live for, those little moments. I love each of my children very deeply and they all have hearts of gold. I often feel like I'm so poor at modeling behavior that I find myself admiring in them, but they get it from Jody or somewhere, thank God!

Mundane musings of an Erie country mouse.

I hadn't thought of how to get around it but Adagio Tea charges me a $2 "Rural Delivery Charge" now that we live in Erie. Today it occurred to me to have it shipped to Jody's office in Boulder to avoid this ridiculous fee and he found it as amusing as I did. His observation was that now we can tell people we live in the country! I grew up "rural", and his grandparents farmed "rural" so we are familiar with the term. It should involve dirt roads, opening and closing gates and packs of noisy dogs, or at the very least a half mile between neighbors on long lonely roads, not a stop on a daily route through a neighborhood on a culdesac 20 miles from Denver. I suppose in Colorado, I might consider a "rural" delivery fee fair if UPS had to traverse Berthoud Pass to deliver my tea... Never the less, I have avoided the charge, and that is what being a stay at home mom is all about. I have my $2, and my tea is soon to be shipped.
In the past week and a half we have had grandparents come to visit, a trip to the mountains, a belly henna tattoo party, an all day outing to the zoo and the complete collapse of the pregnant lady. Yesterday I felt like I'd been hit by a mac truck. I sank into my bathtub mid-morning, toddled to my bed and then melted into Jody's side of the mattress imagining him somehow cuddling my deformed body while Kait and Nick painted in the dining room... dangerous I know. Somehow, this week I will pull it together, make my granola and breakfast burritos, get Kait healthy, have a birthday party for Eden, figure out my iTunes, walk 3 miles every day and visualize birth. Next week, I'll again walk three miles every day, make freezer meals with Gin, stock my house with enough food for the end of the world and then try to relax this baby out so we can finally find out if it is a boy or a girl.

Happy 20th Birthday Michelle!

We think of you all of the time and pray for you every night. We love you and hope wonderful things for your future.